MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins defenders have found a fun, new way to celebrate each other’s success on the field after takeaways and big plays.
It’s been customary in recent years, after NFL defenses force a turnover, for teammates to gather around the player who took the football away and run down to the opposite end zone for a celebratory photo opportunity.
The Dolphins are extending that celebration to the sideline once they get back to the bench, with the offense on the field.
Team-released social media video has recently shown an array of instances of Dolphins defenders huddling around the player who forced the turnover chanting their name with a series of claps to follow, like something that would be heard from fans in the stands at sporting events.
The defense had plenty of names to chant in last Sunday’s 34-10 win over the New York Jets that produced three interceptions and six sacks at MetLife Stadium.
“Ty-rel Dod-son!” Clap clap — clap clap clap.
“Ra-sul Doug-las!” Clap clap — clap clap clap.
Linebacker Tyrel Dodson and cornerback Rasul Douglas, the reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week, had two of Miami’s interceptions against the Jets to earn their chants.
Those names have the perfect number of syllables for a smooth delivery. For some, like safety Ifeatu Melifonwu after his sack against the Jets, a truncated “Iffy Meh-el!” will do. Or a nickname, like for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in the locker room after his interception return on a 2-point conversion against the New Orleans Saints: “Juice Man Mi-ink!”
“How cool is that? It kind of takes you back to high school days,” Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said Friday. “The one thing we’ve always strived to do, on defense, is to not lose the joy in this game. … Often, when you get to the NFL level, it becomes very selfish in nature, and we try to do everything we can to combat that.”
“I positively reinforce that, for sure,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “It’s about playing a team game and individuals coming together to have anything that’s unique to themselves. I think it was something cool that kind of developed during the season.”
The origin of the name chants is a bit unclear.
“If you ask (edge defender Bradley) Chubb, he’s going to say he started it,” Dodson said. “If you ask me, I’m going to say I started it. If you ask (linebacker Jordyn Brooks), he’s going to say he started it.
“We all started it about two months ago, a collaborative effort,” Dodson continued, as he explained it began in the defensive team meeting. “The first meeting throughout the day is defense, so we do that in the first meeting, just chant people’s names because you never know what people got on their minds, if they’re feeling bad. So it’s something we give to be uplifting.”
Brooks said it would wake players up who look a little groggy in the morning.
“If you come in the meeting, you feel like you don’t have no juice, we’re calling everybody, the person who’s coming in juiceless, kind of to wake them up,” Brooks said in the visitors’ locker room Sunday. “And so it really started from that. And then it just went on to whoever makes a play, turnover, whatever, just kind of took a life, as well.”
On the field, it’s certainly cherished by players highlighted by their teammates. Ask young cornerback Ethan Bonner, who came down with his first career interception late in the win over New York.
“That’s a really special feeling,” Bonner said. “I think all the guys will tell you, I feel like we have a really special defense. We all got each other’s backs. It’s really fun to turn up with the guys.”
It all comes as Miami’s defense, since Week 10, has led the league in scoring defense and red-zone defense while being No. 3 in third-down defense. A run defense that was once last in the NFL has been seventh-best against the run since Week 8.
Dodson revealed after the game in the Meadowlands that the defense has developed chemistry and camaraderie off the field between going out to dinner together, carpooling to the team hotel, eating lunch together in the cafeteria at team facilities.
“It’s just that camaraderie that makes championship teams,” Dodson said. “If we continue to do what we’re doing, positive stuff will come to us.”
His position coach, Joe Barry, appreciates that the group has made such an effort to unify.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Barry said. “The special defenses that I’ve been a part of, they’re connected. That’s just another thing in the long line of ways that this group is really connected with each other. They have unbelievable morale with each other.”