Dolphins camp instantly made me feel better

After moving on to mostly baseball coverage at the Sun Sentinel in 1998, I didn't see Ferguson again until moving onto the new Miami Dolphins jerseys beat in June 2009. He probably didn't remember me, but when I told him I'd covered him at Georgia, he greeted me like an old friend and gave me an elaborate handshake and one of those half-hugs guys do.

I really didn't know what I was doing yet — probably still don't — but seeing Big Ferg out there at Dolphins camp instantly made me feel better.

Some guys just have that effect on people — calming, reassuring — and Jason Ferguson (who retired Thursday) no doubt was one of those.

I loved Tony Sparano's description of Big Ferg last September, shortly Davone Bess after his teammates voted the aging nose tackle one of four co-captains in advance of the season opener. It was Ferguson's second captain election in as many Dolphins seasons.

"He's a guy that when you're pulling up to the stadium and you have him on your bus, you're pretty happy that he's on your bus," Sparano said. "He's got the right look and he's prepared well."

Barring a change of mind and a midseason comeback, the Dolphins have experienced that reassuring feeling for the last time in the wake of Ferguson's surprising decision to retire on Thursday after 13 NFL seasons.

The ripple effect goes beyond the fact Randy Starks now probably has to stay Chad Pennington at the nose all season for the first time in his career, not to mention the fact backup nose man Paul Soliai must step up and show the sort of consistency he has yet to provide in his first three pro seasons.

The mere loss of an old head like Big Ferg in a Dolphins locker room already suffering a dearth of veteran leadership (no Jason Taylor, no Joey Porter, no Justin Smiley, no Akin Ayodele) should not be overlooked.

"Having Ferguson around is invaluable," Dolphins defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers told me this summer. "Not only is the guy still playing on a high level before he got injured. Some of the blocks you see at nose, he can eat and sleep and wake up and understand what goes on at the nose position. He's been doing it so long and so long at a high level. It's good to have an extra set of eyes. If I miss a step or a hand placement, Ferg will get it. Also he offers a player's insight. I see it from a coach's perspective, he sees it from a player's insight."

 Both Dee and Rosenhaus used ``the rising tide lifts all ships'' saying. But Dee had an addendum: ``if those ships are committed to a level of excellence.''

During the Heat's first three seasons with Shaquille O'Neal, a sold-out AmericanAirlines Arena nightly bounced to a buoyant party thump. The Heat made three playoff appearances, two long playoff runs and won an NBA title. Meanwhile, the Dolphins suffered two gravely disappointing seasons and changed coaches. Still, the longtime local favorites suffered in comparison of record, not in media coverage or corporate sponsorship.

``I'm driving past Shea Stadium now,'' Dee said from New York. ``It reminds me that our competition Jake Long isn't the Heat, but the Jets and Patriots.''

A way of saying fan retention hinges on victory. Indeed, during the Heat's O'Neal era, Dolphins ticket sales turned on how well the team fared against the rest of the NFL.

A year after the Heat's July 2004 trade for O'Neal, Dolphins season-ticket sales dropped 8.7 percent, from 58,544 to 53,422. The Heat got to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals the previous spring. More pointedly, the Dolphins were coming off a calamitous 4-12 2004 season.

Did the Heat's 2006 NBA championship help boost the Dolphins' 2006 season-ticket count to 61,121, the highest since 1987, the first season in then-Joe Robbie Stadium? Common sense says not as directly as the Dolphins trading for former Pro Bowl quarterback Daunte Culpepper after a surprising 9-7 2005 season.

Two disappointing campaigns, 6-10 and 1-15, caused two seasons of falling season-ticket sales. The 2008 plunge to 46,131 clearly was a reaction to the Dolphins' nadir, the 1-15 2007 season that also was their sixth consecutive out of the playoffs.