SCS:Fun, chaos return to Dolphins’ locker room

[TK]

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/November/23/sport/stories/07sport.htm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

November 23, 2003

Brendon Ayanbadejo

Fun, chaos return to Dolphins’ locker room

Last week’s 9-6 overtime victory over the Baltimore Ravens looked more like the result of a baseball game than a football game. The scores were few and far between and, just as predicted, it was a defense-dominated game that went down to the wire.

It was great to finally win a close home game, and, with the victory, fun is once again restored to the Dolphins locker room.

Sometimes I can’t tell if it is fun or actually chaos. The pranksters and jokers are showing their faces this week. Someone thought it was funny to soak every chair in the linebacker meeting room with water. We had to take a five- minute break to change our shorts and shirts.

Football is a game of emotion with plenty of highs and lows. You have to be able to weather the storm. Fun and games in the locker room help deal with the high stress the game puts on its participants.

Our defensive coordinator Jim Bates jokes that we are his rowdy 7th- and 8th-grade class. He’s a teacher, of course. Much of our time is spent in meeting rooms, which are set up in a classic classroom style with the "teacher" at the head of the class.

At least four times a day, coach Bates says to us: "Children, pay attention."

Then I look to the right of me and there is Junior Seau, Pat Surtain, Brock Marion, and to my left is Zack Thomas, Jason Taylor and Rob Burnette. The coaches love to jack around as much as the players. After all, everyone likes to have a good time. I am pretty fortunate to be around such great coaches and players.

Now that we have a little momentum, it is time to go on a run. With six regular-season games left we need to put a nice string of wins together. The coaches are really excited to play against Steve Spurrier and the Washington Redskins today.

A few coaches on our staff worked under Spurrier at the University of Florida. By the way they coached us this week, it is evident they really want to kick his butt bad.

If I had a chance to go against my former boss I would take the same approach.

From the players’ perspective, we have the Sunday night prime-time game on ESPN. This is a chance for all the guys with upcoming contract talks and free agency to show their skills on a nationwide level.

And with the Spurrier factor to go along with prime time, this should be an interesting evening.

Brendon Ayanbadejo, a linebacker/special teams player who starred at Santa Cruz High and Cabrillo College, is in his first season with the Miami Dolphins. Send comments to sports@santacruzsentinel.com.