Holliday Welcomes Role as Leader & Mentor

Vonnie Holliday was in the most somber of places, in the most solemn of moods, when he became the unwitting butt of a joke.

The Dolphins defensive end had traveled to Atlanta to attend a relative’s burial during the off-season, and he was catching up with family members when talk turned to football. Holliday asked his stepbrother how his middle school football team was doing and the boy shrugged.

“We’re 0-3 right now,” he replied, “but you guys were 1-15.”

Holliday had no retort. He realizes he’s indelibly linked to the worst season in franchise history and one of the worst ever in the NFL - a punch line even at a funeral.

“That’s what it’s come to,” he said, recalling the moment with a sort of dark-humor half smile. “Even your family and friends are joking about the 1-15. I mean, that’s serious to me. He hurt my feelings.”

Holliday used to spend off-seasons talking to buddies about the upcoming season, maybe even talk a little trash. But not after 1-15 …

“You can’t even talk smack anymore,” he said.

Now the 11-year NFL veteran, who nearly gave up hope for a future in Miami last season, finds himself the elder statesman of an aggressive, young defense that’s helped the Dolphins win back-to-back games for the first time since 2006.

Not that Holliday is looking past last season’s debacle and ahead to the playoffs.

“You can’t forget about that,” he said. “You’re kidding yourself. We were 1-15. That’s why we catch all the (flack) we do now. We’ve got to put more wins together before we can say we forgot about last season.”

Holliday is typical of the reemerging Dolphins under the Bill Parcells regime, facing this season as if it were his last. Voted a captain by his teammates, he has taken over the leadership role vacated by Dolphin greats Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor.

“You watch him play, you watch him practice and you understand he’s a man who’s hungry,” said linebacker Akin Ayodele, a veteran newcomer from Dallas.

Holliday is reinvigorated, in part, by confidence in a locker room that last year was swallowed by apathy and confusion. He said the players were rudderless on and off the field.

“Last year, with Cam Cameron, from the beginning it was almost a joke. We never had any direction or plan in place,” Holliday said. “The lack of confidence in your coach, it was tough … That was by far the worst team I’ve ever been on.”

Cameron was fired as head coach at the end of his first season and the Dolphins started looking for their third coach in Holliday’s four years in Miami. Holliday wasn’t optimistic, saying he thought to himself that “I don’t want to be a part of that again. That’s not what I signed up for.”

When Parcells was hired to direct the football operations, Holliday figured there’d be success in the future, but wondered if he’d be a part of it. He heard about how Parcells liked to surround himself with his own guys. He knew Parcells didn’t want to rebuild with old players and didn’t like players who were hurt.

And Holliday, 32, was both last season.

Then, Thomas was released and rumors swirled about Taylor’s eventual trade. Veteran quarterback Trent Green and defensive tackle Keith Traylor were gone.

Holliday knew that given a fair evaluation, he’d prove that there was not a player on the roster more determined to help turn around the franchise.

“I knew that if I got a chance to come back and play that it wouldn’t be that way,” he said.

Holliday said he never in his career worked so hard to prepare in the off-season. He was fueled by the memory of last year’s embarrassment, and linebacker Channing Crowder remembers Holliday closing a team meeting with a message to his teammates:

“Everybody from last year remembers what it’s like to be 1-15. Remember that feeling.”

Crowder was especially inspired.

“I would fly through a wall for him because I know he’s going to work,” Crowder said.

Holliday also became a mentor to the many fresh, young faces brought aboard, especially rookie defensive linemen Phillip Merling and Kendall Langford.

“Even when I do good, he can see where I can improve,” Merling said. “He gives me that extra help. Without him, I don’t know where I’d be.”

Holliday always told himself that if he made it to 10 seasons in pro ball, he’d retire a happy man. Every season after that, he said, would be “gravy.” But he doesn’t want any more lumpy, losing seasons spoiling the remaining years.

“I don’t know how many more of these I have left in me, so every game, every practice, every week, I’m trying to enjoy it to the fullest. Every game is important to me,” he said. “I want these to be the best years.”

Holliday was part of the goal-line stand that sealed Sunday’s 17-10 win over San Diego, and coach Tony Sparano couldn’t help but smile when he saw his defensive end soaking in the post-game celebration.

“When you walk by his locker and you see his face at the end of that, to me that’s what this thing is all about,” Sparano said.

Two straight victories and a chance to keep proving that it’s no fluke.

“We’ll continue to be the underdog,” Holliday said. “We’ll continue to fight for respect and that’s a role that we’ve embraced. Guys have bought in. Guys have chips on their shoulders.

“Being a part of that, and seeing that, it gives you a swell of pride.”