MARTIN HOME FREE, BUT DOLPHINS AREN'T

Tony Martin laundered drug money.

He is guilty of that.

Martin got off because a jury ruled he didn't know he was laundering drug
money. Judged alone, Martin's actions -- cleaning a drug dealer's dirty cash
- -- were felonious. They just weren't intentionally felonious. If you don't
think that's a significant distinction, then you weren't paying attention to
what Martin earned Thursday -- which was roughly $14 million, plus his freedom.

The Dolphins will win the Super Bowl if they can somehow get similar results
by using a Martin-like defense after losses this year:

Well, um, we didn't mean to lose.

Meanwhile, Martin's co-defendant and friend, Ricky Brownlee, was found
guilty of money laundering, conspiracy, drug trafficking and messing up
Miami's practice schedule. Just for fun, the jury also added some of
Martin's charges, plus a couple of future Dolphins crimes to be named later,
to Brownlee's substantive tab. The fact Miami's running game has been
dreadful for two decades? That's Brownlee's fault, too.

A giddy Jimmy Johnson, who stopped just short of throwing his arms up in the
air and singing hallelujah upon hearing the verdict, is happy his team can
regain its "focus" now that it is rid of this "distraction." Incidentally,
don't you love how much coaches can put under the umbrella of "distraction?"
The other day, University of Miami coach Butch Davis blamed a sloppy
practice on the fact that his distracted players had to sign up and begin
classes. Um, Butch, classes are not "a distraction." Classes are the reason
your players are in school.

Education and federal indictments, how dare they get in the way of preseason
football.

Anyway, the jury found Martin, a likeable man who did a dumb thing, guilty
of nothing more than being naive. Stupidity is not a crime (unless, of
course, your stupidity is so spectacularly profound that you mistakenly lace
the American Airlines pilot's coffee with heroin), so Martin rightfully gets
his life back now, and the Miami offense, dreadfully dull last season, gets
a receiver who runs routes with a jail-breaker's elusiveness.

But this verdict raises another reasonable doubt:

The Dolphins will clearly be better this year, but is that good enough?

Outside of blindly zealous South Florida, there aren't a lot of people who
think the Dolphins can wrestle the AFC East from Bill Parcells and the Jets.
We assume a little deep speed and a lot of Cecil Collins will put Miami in
the season's final game, but that is assuming plenty, isn't it? As wonderful
as Miami's young defense was last season -- and several football writers I
respect call it the fastest defense the NFL has seen in a decade -- it can't
just be forgotten that this fast defense gave up about 683 points in its
final regular-season game against Atlanta and its final postseason game
against Denver.

The Dolphins think they're on the brink of the Super Bowl?

Well, at the end of last season, when great teams are supposed to be
peaking, last year's Super Bowl teams beat Miami by a combined score of 76-19.

That gap is inflated, obviously, and Martin's speed will help close it, as
will a healthy Yatil Green's, and there will be offensive improvement at
least partially because, mathematically at least, things can't be much
worse. Miami completed fewer deep passes than any team in the league last
year, amazing considering their quarterback isn't exactly Danny Wuerffel or
Craig Whelihan. Dan Marino can't throw the long ball like he did in Duper's
days, but the blame for Miami's deep-passing woes must rest mostly with
receivers who couldn't get separation and a running game that posed no
complementary danger.

Still, it shouldn't have surprised anyone to see Marino testifying on
Martin's behalf. Was it good for Marino's image? No. But neither is the fact
that he hasn't won a Super Bowl. Marino was there to improve his team, not
his reputation. He is a lot more interested in winning than he is in selling
Isotoner gloves, and that's the way it ought to be with leaders.

Truth be told, Marino shouldn't have been a character witness for Martin. He
should have been a character witness for Martin's foot speed.

Marino and Martin aren't exactly friends. Marino, at 37 just about old
enough to have fathered some of his teammates, doesn't have a ton of
hang-out buddies on the Dolphins. In fact, Martin's first stint with the
Dolphins ended in part because he dropped so many balls that Marino lost
confidence in him. But Marino needs Martin now -- now more than ever -- and
he got a big assist from a jury this week.

And, by the way, if Collins keeps running the way he has, how long would it
take the Florida Legislature to call an emergency session to make it legal
to break and enter?

e-mail: dlebatard@herald.com