COLUMN: Maybe the Dolphins have a point

     There has been a lot of fallout from the pregame ceremonies and gestures that took place prior to the Texans-Chiefs NFL game that kicked off the season Sept. 10.

     Maybe the Miami Dolphins have the right idea.

     The Dolphins announced that, as a team, they will stay inside their locker room before games, rather than be on the field for both “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” and the “Star Spangled Banner.”

     Several players on the team created a 2 minute, 17 second video in which they take turns explaining their decision.

     “This attempt to unify only creates more divide. So we’ll skip the song and dance, and as a team we’ll stay inside,” several Dolphins said, with each saying a portion of it.

     As a team, I’ve never liked the Dolphins much. I have long said that I dislike every NFL team that has wronged my Minnesota Vikings at some point in history. Which is to say, I dislike every NFL team, except one.

     With the Dolphins, of course, it started with the Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick crew dominating the Vikings in the 1974 Super Bowl.

     It has also rubbed me the wrong way how, for many years, the 1973 Dolphin players would gather and pop the corks off champagne bottles when the last undefeated NFL team finally lost a game, celebrating the fact they remain the only unbeaten team in the Super Bowl era.

     This, despite the fact any championship team of this century, in a league that is worlds bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic than those ’70 teams, would have crushed those Dolphins, even in their prime, by three touchdowns or more.

     But when it comes to social issues and the way the league presents itself this season, today’s Dolphins might have it right.

     “We need changed hearts, not just a response to pressure,” the players said in the video, which I saw as part of an espn.com article written by Cameron Wolfe. “We need owners with influence and pockets bigger than ours to call up officials and flex political power.”

     Or, as Dolphins safety Bobby McCain said in the video, “We don’t need another publicity parade. If you speak up for change, I’ll shut up and play.”

     Many people plan to boycott the NFL this year, which of course is their right. The times I’ve boycotted the NFL over the years have had nothing to do with “statements” or “gestures,” and everything to do with getting my heart broken more times than I can count.

     I am about one allowed first down away from boycotting this season, for example, as my Vikings flounder and the Packers cruise their way to another 13-win season while their fans grumble because they didn’t win 14.

     But when it comes to the pregame stuff, maybe the best solution is the one the Dolphins are after, to seek larger change rather than putting on a display before a football game.

     Or, as the Dolphin players collectively said, “It’s not a black-white thing, or a left-right thing. Let’s clean the whole bird, and stop arguing about which wing.”