Official Website of the Miami Beach Senior High Student Newspaper
By Alex Kane
Staff Writer
Although there has not been firm studies that states that marijuana is effecting the brain or nervous system disorders, many symptoms are proven to benefit patients with MS (Multiple Sclerosis). Many patients are using this drug for treatment and not enough of them are prescribed, which is changing due to medical marijuana becoming more accepted. The ingredient that happens to be curing symptoms in MS is called Cannabidiol (CBD). Tetrahydracannabinol (THC) is the ingredient in marijuana that will get you high, but this still can be used medically depending on the symptoms but definitely not as common.
MS can cause extreme symptoms like numbness of the body, loss of hearing or even loss of vision. You might experience extreme muscle spasms, an overactive bladder and difficulty moving many parts of your body. The chemical CBD has been proven to activate the endocannabinoid system of the body to help your body cope with uncontrollable muscle movements. If you cannot control your bladder this chemical will help slow your bladder muscles and if you experience severe nerve pain then the anti-inflammatory properties of marijuana will help sooth these burning sensations. The Cannabidiol has been shown to not be addictive and researchers are still in progress for the perfect dosages. This is very fortunate that many lives can be changed everyday by using these drugs as medicine
Marijuana and Its Mysteries
“Marijuana”- A substance looked at as a gateway and or life-threatening drug
A Mountain View, California history teacher Frank Narvarro was asked to leave in the middle of the day after a parent emailed the school’s administration claiming he compared president elect Donald trump with Adolf Hitler.
The areas superintendent Jeff Harding has confirmed that this incident did happen but refuses to disclose any further details on the subject. Frank Narvarro has taught at Mountain View for over four decades and is a proclaimed expert on the holocaust.
Mr. Narvarro stated that the administration refused to say what the actual complaint was and refused to even look at his lesson plan. Mr. Narvarro was quoted saying,” This feels like we’re trying to squash free speech” and that “Everything I talked about is factually based. They can go check it out. It’s not propaganda or bias if it’s based on facts.” This isn’t the first-time Mr. Narvarro has been the subject of controversy at Mountain View, receiving past complaints about his lessons being one-sided, but Mr. Narvarro says everything is based on facts, not opinions. Mr. Narvarro has been told that he could return Wednesday by school officials but superintendent Harding says he can return on Monday.
History Teacher Suspended After Comparing Trump to Hitler
By Raffio Giacobbe
Current Events/Entertainment
In Real Life
Beauty and the Beast
By: Deborah Lima
Journalist/Disney Fanatic
It has already been released and its trailer is the latest top hit in 2017! Yes, the fairy tale is coming to life, on March 16, 2015, Disney announced the film Beauty and the Beast would be released in 3D on March 17, 2017.[For those who are unaware of the story of this Disney-Princess movie, it is a story about a young woman named Belle who is taken as prisoner by a Beast in his castle in exchange for the freedom of her father Maurice. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle's enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast's demeanor and castle to discover his true heart and soul; that of a human prince, while a hunter named Gaston is on the loose to take Belle for himself and hunt down the Beast at any cost.
Also, for those Harry Potter or Emma Watson fans, Emma has been cast as Belle in this film and Dan Stevens as the Beast. The film, directed by Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), takes clear advantage of the original fairy tale's film setting in order to deliver a romantic real life production design worthy of one of Disney’s most beloved princesses.
Donald Trump’s Controversial Tweets
By Gabriella Capobianco
“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag- if they do, there must be consequences- perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
“I thought that @CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton. However, since election, they are worse!”
“The democrats, when they incorrectly thought they were going to win, asked that the election night tabulation be accepted. Not so anymore!”
“I cancelled today’s meeting with the failing @NYtimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at last moment. Not nice.”
These are just a few of the many tweets that concerned the public. Trump has numerously used Twitter to publicly address people and the media. For example, his main targets recently have been CNN, NY Times, Hillary Clinton, and the democrats in general. These are not the qualities and actions that citizens expect from the leader of our country. Trump mentioned his reason for being so vocal on social media which was to be more “connected” with the people. However, it’s doing quite the opposite due to his alarming and offensive tweets. Read his tweets yourself and develop your own conclusion. Is trump wrong for expressing his opinions this way on social media?
Sources: www.twitter.com/Donaldtrump
Women’s March 2017
By Gabriella Capobianco
On January 21st, protests for women’s rights broke out all across the nation. This has been the biggest Women’s March since 1918. In Washington D.C. it is estimated that about 3-4 million people participated in the protest. More people attended the march than the inauguration held the day before. The March was initially supposed to be held only in Washington, D.C., but people all across the country, even Alaska and Paris, joined. The rights that these women were advocating for were mostly addressing abortion rights, equality, respect, and disapproval of Trump’s perceived sexist comments towards women. Many celebrities participated and gave speeches such as Scarlet Johansson, Cher, Madonna, Zendaya, Ariana Grande, etc. Actress and director, Amber Tamblyn stated, “This is a nonviolent protest. This is people just showing up and making sure that their voices are heard going forward in this administration, because the administration has made it pretty clear that women’s rights and women’s voices don’t count. So I think it’s really important for them to see the message that we’re sending today, which is that we’re watching.”
The French Elections Face A Suprising Candidate
By Alex Touzard
Analyst
He wants to ban the Hijab veil and the Burkini as well as provide “de-radicalization centers” for suspected terrorists. This, and the scandal involving him receiving money from former Libyan minister Muammar Gaddafi, have given him unfavorable ratings, which later caused him to leave the campaign. While the candidates have been marred with controversy, Juppé or Sarkozy were predicted to win, but they failed to address economic plans as much as Fillon had, giving him the working-class vote.
Like Sarkozy, Fillon’s opinions on immigration and Islam, or “Muslim totalitarianism” as he calls it, puts him in the shoes of his next opponent: Marine Le Pen. She is part of the Front National, a populist right-wing party founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen. The massacre in Paris, Brexit, Donald Trump’s victory and the recent Berlin attack made her look favorable. She is even leading the opinion polls for the first time. To make her realistically win the election she has to clean up her party’s image, turning it into an anti-European (EU) party, instead of the perceived racism and xenophobia made by her father. She also dubbed herself “Madame Frexit”, revealing her plan to get France out of the European Union. Fillon might be her biggest rival in this bid for power.
While the focus was on the right, the left is getting a lot of attention. The pro-EU renegade Emmanuel Macron, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise cemented their place as candidates this year. The Socialists held the first round of the primary on January 22nd, and two candidates remain in the run-off: Benoit Hamon and Manuel Valls. Whether they will be a match against Fillon or not, will be up to the hands of time.
Like Brexit and the American election, nothing can be certain about France’s turnout. Fillon’s surprise win in the first primary shows how discontent the people are with Hollande’s inefficiency and want something totally different. No matter what happens, the winner will try to bring France to its potential.
Sources:
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http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/22/europe/france-socialist-party-candidates-runoff/
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http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/06/nicolas-sarkozys-waterloo-is-his-war-on-islam/
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/25/politics/alain-juppe-french-presidential-election/index.html
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http://vouxmagazine.com/2016/12/01/french-elections-francois-fillon-wins-conservative-primary/
Like Brexit in the United Kingdom, and a devastating Trump victory in the United States, France is on its way to have a populist voice after the 2017 election. Incumbent president François Hollande’s ratings are so unfavorable, that right wing candidates are getting a spotlight to counter his failures. One candidate named François Fillon of Les Républicains, a right wing party formerly known as Union pour un Mouvement Populaire stated that he will cut the labor code from 3,000 pages to 150. And end the 35-hour week, restrain unions and shrink the public sector. He was perceived to be a random Catholic who lived in a 12th century chateau that enjoys racing. Now, it’s mainstream information that he fraternizes with Russia, and is against homosexual marriages and adoption. His unexpected victory proved that 2016 was a shocking year for politics.
His first opponents were ex-mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppé and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who are also part of Les Republicains. Unlike the more prominent members of his party, Juppé is critical of Russia, in favor of longer working hours and against the ban on the Burkini, a form of swimwear worn by Muslim women in France. In a world of right-wing populism, his seemingly left-leaning ideals and corruption scandals were used against him. On the other hand, Sarkozy was basically a French Trump, saying that “[there] can be no happy identity as long as we do not reaffirm that the French identity is not more important than particular identities.”
Journalist Shot at North Dakota Pipeline Protest
By: Gabriella Capobianco
NORTH DAKOTA- On November 4th, at the North Dakota pipeline protest at Standing Rock, a news reporter captured the moment where she was shot by a rubber bullet while covering the news on this protest. The video displays a loud bang occurring and journalist Erin Schrode falls to the ground.
This protest against the Dakota access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota has been going on for months. The people of North Dakota fear it could contaminate the drinking water and the construction could destroy sacred sites. There have been many similar incidents that were captured on tape as well and surfaced among the media (via Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook. etc.)
The videos show many violent riots breaking out with people fighting the police and starting fires. It shows police controlling the crowd with violence which only created more damage.
Xbox Game Pass, a Redbox Replacement?
By Ian Pacheco
Staff Writer
Microsoft has recently unveiled their next big project. Alongside numerous price drops and bundles for the Xbox One in recent history, Microsoft’s new service, Xbox Game Pass, is their new system seller. For $9.99 a month you will get access to 100 plus games, available for download and offline play. What this means is you will not have to use Microsoft’s reportedly lackluster streaming service to play, you can simply download them right to your console. An Xbox Live Gold membership surprisingly will not be required to use Game Pass, only needed if you want to use those game multiplayer features. Is it worth it? Well let’s take a look at the 10 games announced so far.
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Fable III
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Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
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Halo 5: Guardians
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Lego Batman
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Mad Max
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Mega Man Legacy Collection
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NBA 2K16
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Payday 2
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Saints Row IV Re-Elected
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SoulCalibur II
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Tekken Tag Tournament II
Fable III was an infamously terribly received game, in fact it was already given for free with Xbox Live Golds free game per month feature. Gears of War and Halo 5 have solid single player experiences with a substantial multiplayer aspect. Lego Batman and Mad Max are both relatively well received games along with NBA 2K16 and Saints Row IV. Soul Caliber and Tekken Tag Tournament II were released in 2002 and 2011, so they’re a little dated at this point. Payday 2 is really focused on its multiplayer so if you don’t have Xbox Gold you won’t get much value from that and the Mega Man Legacy Collection will be a treat for those interested in retro gaming.
Overall seven of these games are both recent and have fleshed out single player gameplay to justify the price. Soul Caliber and Tekken are just too dated and Fable III is a joke simply put. This is only ten of the supposed 100 plus we will be receiving but if the ratio of decent games persists, I imagine this will be a great way to experience all those games that piqued your curiosity but couldn’t fit the budget. Since some games rotate in and out I expect to see other AAA Xbox exclusives shuffle in and out, like Sunset Overdrive, Halo 4 and the Forza series just to name a few. In my honest opinion just these 10 games seem like a good deal for just 10 a month and unless future month rotations drastically decrease game quality I fail to see a way Xbox Game pass isn’t a great source of bang for your buck.
The world is suffering from a disease unseen by many, and forced upon the masses. This disease is political correctness. As predicted in 1984, it is the force editing the film, music and literature of the mainstream media to fit its agenda, the Ministry of Truth under Society’s collective nose. How close to left-wing fascism are we steering to? How close until true progress capsizes into a sea of regression? This is why we need an opposition to the Big Brother in Hollywood and in the news. This is why political correctness must be opposed.
Censorship is a very prominent component in an authoritarian society. Back in the day when Europe was ruled by kings, there was no freedom of speech. Anyone who spoke out against the king or his policies got punished. The only exceptions were court jesters in France, who were told to mock him. After they were banned, writers like Molière, Voltaire and Jean de la Fontaine secretly catapulted insults against the ruling class in their works. Because they were mocking the ruling class, some of their works were banned. These events and many more were fuel for the French Revolution.
In the United States, a major component of American culture: the 1st Amendment, protects freedom of speech and expression from government censorship. Sadly, university campuses and media giants are promoting a PC image of America. The Oscars fiasco of giving the award to Moonlight instead of La La Land can be interpreted as selling out to PC. Moonlight is a deep movie about a gay black man’s coming of age (accused of being Oscar bait,) while La La Land is a musical about two lovers who are trying to maintain their fragile relationship (Ryan Gosling has been accused of insensitivity, possibly harming his Oscar chances). Imagine if it was Hidden Figures VS Arrival.
If this mishap was not enough, look at the universities who have fallen victim to people known as SJWs (social justice warriors) and “special snowflakes”. During a speech at the University of Missouri called “Truth is a Microaggression”, conservative analyst and public speaker Ben Shapiro said “I don't care about your feelings. I don't wanna hear about your feelings," while proving his point that feelings are overshadowing truth on campus. In this speech, he called out “leftist fascism” and reduced “white privilege” to a liberal buzzword used to avoid responsibility. His boldness has generated a lot of “thug life” compilations on YouTube. In truth, conservatives on campus are an endangered species and get targeted a lot, simply for having ideas that don’t match the rest of students. It’s a bit odd to see how the haven for higher learning is now a miniature dictatorship.
It doesn’t matter if you are Native, Asian, White or Black. Political correctness is a threat to the integrity of political thought. We are living in a monarchy run by a tyrannical agenda and endorsed (read: enforced) by celebrities and higher education.
Big Brother is watching us all, but who is willing to stand up to it?
Uncontrolled Opposition Against Political Correctness
By Alex Touzard
Poltical Analyst
Lately, there has been a speculation on how real the chicken is at Subway. A Canadian investigative consumer program ordered DNA analysis of several fast-food chicken sandwiches and concluded that Subway chicken was only half meat — with the other half soy. The sandwich chain strongly rebuts the allegations, with a spokesman calling them "absolutely false" and calling for a retraction. Last week, Subway told the CBC that Subway Canada "cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted." Chicken strips and roasted chicken at Subway "contain 1% or less of soy protein ... to help stabilize the texture and moisture," the company told the CBC, and it promised to "look into this" with Subway's supplier.
"The accusations made by CBC Marketplace about the content of our chicken are absolutely false and misleading. Our chicken is 100% white meat with seasonings, marinated and delivered to our stores as a finished, cooked product," the spokesman said in a statement sent to NPR. "We have advised them of our strong objections. We do not know how they produced such unreliable and factually incorrect data, but we are insisting on a full retraction." A Subway spokesman says that the company has sent samples of its chicken products to "two independent laboratories" for testing, and that the labs found less than 1 percent soy protein in the tested samples. Subway did not respond to NPR's inquiries about the number of samples, or how they were selected. "The allegation that our chicken is only 50% chicken is 100% wrong," Subway president and CEO Suzanne Greco affirms in her continued statement.
Subway Chicken: Real or Fake?
By Eileen Karakurt
Staff Writer
By Clark Judovich
Staff Writer
Chef Survives Underwater For 3 Days
A Nigerian man lived under the ocean for three days inside a sunken ship with limited light and food supply. During the month of March, 12 crew members on a tugboat roamed over the waters off the coast of Nigeria. The boat was towing an oil tanker but a vicious ocean wave striked through the vessel, ripping the tow rope and spitting the vessels into pieces.
The boat was turned over and began to sink,the crew being dragged down with it. Harrison Okene was in the bathroom, while the members in the ship were in their cabins with the doors locked, a safety precaution due to sea thieves or pirates who regularly rob boats in the area. This safety measure trapped the crew members in their rooms cementing their fates. Okene was juggled in the bathroom during the tragic sinking, clad only in his boxers. Okene says “I was dazed, and everywhere was dark as I was thrown from one end of the small cubicle to another”. He was lucky to have survived, as the rest of the crew did not share his good fortune.
This chef ,though in a panic, managed to make his way to the engineer's office, where he found a small pocket of air about half the size of an average car. During his time in the dwindling pocket of air, the boat had come to a rest upside down on the seafloor, at the depth of roughly 100 feet. Okene had only a miniscule supply of oxygen, a couple cans of coke and a cold, dark room to accompany him during his 60 hour wait for rescue. Understandably, Okene has vowed to never return to sea after his grueling ordeal.
With Emma Watson starring Beauty and the Beast, its opening weekend has made over $350 million around the world.
Just in the US box offices the film broke a ton of records taking $170 million in the opening weekend. This is the biggest ever opening for a PG rated film. It’s the seventh biggest overall opening in all movies. The movie marks Disney’s best opening for live action remake passing The Jungle Book, Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland. Beauty and the Beast outsold the rest of the top 10 movies out now, in second place was Kong: Skull Island only taking $28.9 million on its first and second weekend. In the UK the film made $19.8 million which was the fifth biggest opening weekend ever.
Beauty and the Beast was the biggest debut ever for a film with predominately female ticket buyers.
Beauty and the Beast has satisfied its fans during its opening weekend
Alex Kane
Staff Writer
At the conclusion of the last film we saw the Furious finally get out of the crime life and start to live their normal lives after being exempted for all their previous crimes. But when a mysterious woman shows up and seduces Dom back into the life of crime the Furious will face a challenge they’ve never faced before. Betrayal. Starring Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, and Michelle Rodriguez.
Movie Previews 2017
By Raffio Giacobbe
Current Events/Entertainment
The Fate of the Furious (April 14th)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5th)
This action packed sequel follows the Guardians on a new adventure as Starlord and the other Guardians attempt to find out who Peter Quill’s (Starlord) father really is. This time the team expands adding a reformed blue alien cyborg, a blue alien space pirate and a strange alien/praying mantis hybrid. They’ll join our previous heroes, a treasure hunter, a living tree, a genetically enhanced racoon, an assassin and a bloodthirsty berserker with a kind heart. With an all-star team like this, what could go wrong? Starring Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, and Dave Bautista.
Set as the sequel to the modern hit movie “Prometheus” and a prequel to the 1979 classic “Alien” Alien: Covenant tells the tale of the crew aboard the colony ship Covenant, as they discover what they think is a paradise planet. However, it turns out to be a dark nightmarish landscape whose only inhabitant is David-8 the android and of course, aliens. (played by Michael Fassbender) Starring Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride, Katherine Waterston, and Noomi Rapace.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (May 26th)
Captain Jack Sparrow is back in this whole new adventure where Jack’s old nemesis, Captain Salazar, escapes from the Devil’s Triangle set on killing every pirate sailing the seas, unfortunately including Jack. So, in order to stop him, Jack must seek out the legendary trident of Poseidon which gives whoever wields it complete control over the High Seas. Pirates, ghost pirates and magic tridents make this 5th film sure to please long time fans. Starring Johnny Depp, Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites, and Javier Bardem.
Alien: Covenant (May 19th)
In many movies there are scenes that will leave you wondering, “how did they even do this?” You will sometimes question how real these scenes appear or what aspects are real and which are just tricks of the trade. You are aware that movie camera tricks and special effects are being used, just not how they work. Since the early days of cinema, films have used visual magic,such as smoke and mirrors, to produce illusions and tricky effects.
The first person to use special movie effects was Oscar Rejlander. One of the first trick images he made was in 1856 called “The Two Ways of Life” in which he put 30 different negatives in one single photo. In 1895 the 2nd person, Alfred Clark, created the first motion picture special effect which was known as the “stop trick”. In 1896 “cinemagician” Georges Melies discovered the same stop trick effect when his camera jammed as he was filming a scene on the streets of Paris. Later on he invented and developed techniques like multiple exposures, dissolves, and hand painted color.
Motion Picture Special Effects
By Clark Judovich
Movie Media Writer
Years after, during the 1900s new techniques and tricks were discovered and with today’s technology, special effects can be used to make even more extraordinary scenes. Scenes that will make you question if the are real or an effect.
One commonly used trick defies the laws of physics and have people walk over the ceiling and up the walls. A set has to be built in a metal gimbal, so a metal square set can rotate around. The character has to dance their way around to get where ever they have to be during the filming of the movie. The actors have to learn a bit of choreography in advance so as to make the scene look effective and learn the timings as it is a critical part insuring the actors safety during filming. Many movies use this effect,such as “1951 Royal wedding by Stanley Donen”, “1986 The Fly and 2010 Inception by Christopher Nolan”.
Another popular trick used in movies are trailers, used to make driving scenes more realistic. The vehicle is loaded on the trailer with all the lights, actors, and technicians. The trailer is then driven slowly so the actors don’t have to bother with navigation and while they’re performing.
Living in The Middle: The Dolphin’s Story
By Robert J Frankel
Sports Columnist
Growing up a Dolphin’s fan has been rough. Every year is the year we are going to take down the Patriots, winners of 5 Super Bowls in the last 17 years. Even with a quarterback nearing his forties, Tom Brady, the dynasty built by Coach Belichek shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Unlike the Dolphins, they have realized you do not always need the most talented players, but the ones that fit your schemes the best.
The consistent thing about the Dolphins over the past 5 years is that they are one of the biggest spenders in free agency. An article on ESPN.com, shows all 32 NFL teams’ spending in free agency and their win percentage over that time span. It does not seem to make sense when you look at it, because the teams that spend the most money tend to have the worst record. Why are the teams spending the most money, and getting the best players, not winning the most games? The teams that win tend to develop their talent internally. This has not only proven to be true in the NFL, but other league like MLB, NBA, and the great soccer leagues around the world like the EPL and La Liga. The most successful teams in American sports leagues, draft their players, shape them to fit their system, and help them adapt to their culture of their franchises. The most important part is that they wait for them to develop because they know that they will. The Golden State Warriors top three players, Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson, were all drafted and developed by the team. Same thing with the Chicago Cubs and their core of Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber. The worst teams tend to lack this homegrown core, and often try to rush the process of internal growth by relying on signing others team’s players in free agency, which proves to be counterproductive. Instead of letting their players grow, they are replaced in the rotation by older players with lower potentials. Teams like this that are shortsighted tend overpay for these older players in free agency and prioritize short term success more than being patient and building something that will be there for years. Patience is a virtue and it is not surprising that teams that realize this are more successful than others.
Not only do the most successful teams know how to develop their own players, but they know how to make the most of players who are considered outcasts. The team most infamous for this, without a doubt, is the Patriots. Just this past year, they traded away their best two defensive players, and replaced them with players who were considered underachievers, at a fraction of the cost. Yet, they still won the Super Bowl. This is how they take advantage of the marketplace and do what most organizations don’t do, cultivate their players to fit their system. Teams that pay for talent think that the team with the best players wins, but that is not how it works. There have been many teams with great talent that have not “won it all”. The best teams are the ones that play the best together, and utilize their players in the best way possible. They understand that a player’s great individual statistics, might be at the team’s expense and that is not someone they would want to have in their organization.
As of now it seems as if my Dolphins are starting to understand this, spending their money on resigning their own players and developing a culture that breeds success, not egos. As we have seen in in past years, signing talented players to huge contracts in free agency who are not emotionally invested in the team have failed us. Many people have a problem with overpaying to retain our players, but I would rather overpay players who have had success here, understand their roles within the team, and are proud to be a part of the culture. They have also signed players to short term deals below market value, just as the Patriots have been doing for years. Maybe once Brady is gone, the Patriots will have a divisional foe that can end their reign, which has lasted for the better part of the last two decades.
