JJ likes his Fish
fried
 This is the seventh in a series of postcards Sports
Illustrated's Peter King will e-mail from his annual NFL
training-camp
tour.
Posted: Thu July 30,
1998
July 29: Davie,
Fla.
TEAM: Miami
Dolphins
SITE: Nova University, at the Dolphins' year-round training
complex. Nothing picturesque here, 20 miles north of Miami.
Just oppressively hot. But the Davie Ale House is a mile
away, and that place—a regular stop on the Peter King
NFL circuit—makes the heat
seem not so
bad.
FOOD: Grilled chicken breast marsala on a kaiser roll, spanish
rice, romaine salad. Tried that funny new green soda,
Surge. Nice filling meal. Not the best on this trip, but it
beat
yesterday's cookie lunch in
Indiana.
Dear
NFL Junkie:
Glad I'm still here. Flew here late Tuesday night, just to
the west of a band of bright and crackling thunderstorms.
Just beautiful. And think how much I would have appreciated
the grandeur of it if my fingernails hadn't been stuck into
the fabric of
the seatback in front of
me.
The rental-car's outdoor temperature gauge read 90 at 10:55
last night. When I got in it at 9:55 this morning, it read
92. And the air is so humid I think I saw fish swimming by
the windshield. But these are the Dolphins, after all, and
they're used to
this horrible
stuff.
Two of the players I came to see, both rookies, aren't
practicing. If you have never observed a
Jimmy
Johnson camp, it basically is warfare. No team in the NFL—not
even the
Parcells Jets—hits with more consistency or intensity. That
intensity has left top pick
John
Avery, the
Warrick
Dunn-esque running back, with a strained right hamstring, and
second-round cornerback
Patrick
Surtain with a deep thigh
bruise.
Johnson aired out the team after Tuesday's practice. He
told the sittees that malingerers "don't just cheat
themselves, they cheat the rest of the team." Neither
Avery nor Surtain, though, seem the malingerer type, though
they both are scared witless
that another couple of days in Johnson's doghouse could affect
their playing time come Labor Day weekend. If healthy,
Avery will at least be the kick returner and third-down
back, and Surtain will challenge Terrell Buckley for a
starting cornerback job.
I asked Surtain, a good-work-ethic kid with great coverage
ability, if he had felt the wrath of Johnson yet in camp.
"No," he said, "but I've seen it. And I
don't want to feel it. You don't want to give Coach Johnson
much of a reason to be on you." It's
NFL Year Eight for Johnson, but his bounce on the practice
field and around the complex makes him seem like one of
these two kids. A
rookie.
One final note:
Dan
Marino is throwing the ball great. He does, however, look like
the ancient mariner.
—P.K.
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