No time to lose

Dolphins' two-game turnaround has 67 1/2-hour limit

DAVIE, Fla. -- It's just past noon on Wednesday, and you can almost see the clock ticking in Tony Egues' head. It has been a scant 36 1/2 hours since the Miami Dolphins left the field in Tampa on Monday night, and there's only another 31 to go before they kick it off in their Thursday night preseason home opener against New Orleans.

That's two games in four days, if you're scoring at home. Or think of it as a momentary pause in the action. A 67 1/2-hour bathroom break, as it were. Roughly speaking, it's the tightest NFL turnaround since the Canton Bulldogs played Sunday doubleheaders against the Decatur Staleys.

Welcome to the Dolphins' hell week. Welcome to Egues' nightmare.

"If you want to know the truth, I did the math, too," said Egues, the Dolphins' harried but helpful equipment manager. "I just try not to think about it."

Just stopping long enough to tell me about his crazy work schedule this week probably cost Egues a half-dozen tasks crossed off his to-do list. When an NFL team plays two games in two different locations, with only two days in between, hectic isn't a strong enough word to convey the buzz of activity surrounding it. Especially when that team's ranks are still swelled to 83 for training camp.

C'mon, Tony. Tell us who the Dolphins ticked off in the league office to draw such a plum assignment. Nobody up there reads the Internet.

"I've wondered that myself," said Egues, taking the briefest of breaks in his office at the Dolphins' team complex. "Whoever we pissed off, they're not on my Christmas card list either. The feeling is mutual. I'm not necessarily sure how it worked out this way, but being the low people on the totem pole, we adjust."

Adjust? The Dolphins have made so many adjustments this week they could have their degree in chiropractic medicine by now. Any thought of developing even the most vanilla game plan for the Saints game went out the window a while back. After giving the players the day off on Tuesday, the Dolphins were back at it Wednesday, reviewing their 14-10 loss to the Bucs even while they were preparing for the Saints.

"We did nothing for New Orleans," Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt said Wednesday, munching on a quick (isn't everything this week?) lunch of Caesar salad. "And the thing that was really weird about playing the Bucs was we practiced against them twice on Saturday in Orlando, and again Sunday morning, and then played the game Monday night in Tampa. So everything was different.

"This morning we had a meeting going over and correcting the stuff from the Tampa game, and now in two hours we're going to go into meetings on New Orleans. And we're going to practice for New Orleans this afternoon. We've never had to practice the day before a game, but we do this week, just to be halfway organized."

If you're wondering, it was TV of course that put the Dolphins into quasi-doubleheader mode. When the great god of prime time talks, the NFL listens. And then acts. The Dolphins-Bucs game was originally scheduled for last Thursday night, on ESPN. The Jets-Steelers was supposed to fill that network's Monday-night time slot. But then the Steelers got nervous about a traffic and congestion problem around Heinz Field, given that the Pirates were set to play at home Monday night at nearby PNC Park.

So the two football games were flopped. The Steelers got to play without any competition from the Pirates, and the Dolphins got. ... Well, we all know what the Dolphins got.

"Two games in four days is brutal," said veteran Dolphins receiver Oronde Gadsden. "You have to be just short of Sigmund Freud to figure out this one."

Egues, 32, certainly could use a couch about now. He grabbed a little shut-eye early Tuesday morning, starting about 5 a.m., but that was after he and his assistants flew back home to Miami on the team charter, and then reported to the team complex for about four hours of turnaround work in the equipment room.

"Sleep? What sleep?" Egues said. "I can't tell you that I've remotely experienced anything close to what we've experienced in the past couple of days. It's been a trying two days, to say the least.

"Since I knew everyone was working on short sleep [Tuesday], I got everybody out of here at 6 p.m., because as you know when you're sleep deprived, you tend to overlook a lot of important details that can make a difference. I didn't want that to happen."

In other words, if the Dolphins offense hits the field wearing their white jerseys Thursday night against the Saints, while the defense is decked out in aqua, you'll know that Egues is ready for those one of those Courtyard by Marriott commercials about never underestimating the importance of a good night's sleep.

"The only thing you can do is read the schedule, and cringe at the thought of it," said Egues, entering his eighth season as the Dolphins equipment manager. "You can't really prepare for it, any more than you can get ready for a good, swift kick in the teeth. Because that's what it winds up being. You get here, roll up your sleeves and you make the best of a bad situation."

Which is exactly the tact that Wannstedt is taking. He doesn't want his players making excuses or bemoaning the schedule, no matter how handy it might be. Instead, he plans to use this grueling stretch to reinforce a certain road warrior mentality with his playoff-caliber team. The Dolphins earlier this preseason traveled to Tennessee to scrimmage the Titans. Counting the Bucs game, they worked for eight consecutive days before getting a break from the camp grind.

"I think there are different scenarios that if you have to deal with them as a team, they help force your mindset to cope with circumstances," Wannstedt said. "We're going places and the plane might be late, or it may be snowing or raining, all these things.

"I told our guys when we went to Tampa, I said, 'This is going to help us down the road from the standpoint of the traveling and possible distractions.' You have to discipline your mind and be mature enough to deal with all of that during the season. And those things are going to come up during the season. Hopefully we've already crossed that bridge."

Bridges, rivers, streams, whatever. The Dolphins all admit they've crossed some sort of new threshhold this week. Nobody can remember ever having to prepare for two games in four days at any level: high school, college or the pros. In the 37-season history of the Miami franchise, no Dolphins team has ever had to deal with a quicker turnaround.

Will Egues and Co. be ready in time?

"So long as I want to continue getting a Miami Dolphins paycheck, I better be," Egues said. "I'm not the only one in this building facing this. We've all got to deal with it. We've got no choice. The last thing I'm going to do is sit here and play the martyr."

Right. Besides, who has the time?

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

Related information

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video