Smith, making a guest appearance on The Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, the ex-Dolphin and fellow Gator, said when he was a restricted free agent in 1993, he offered to “help Dan get a championship” but was rebuffed by coach Don Shula.

Smith said his offer was extended early in the ’93 season when he could not come to terms with the Dallas Cowboys. Smith had just finished a championship season in Dallas and led the league with 1,713 yards and 18 touchdowns but was ready to move on. He said he had a month to negotiate with other teams but never received an outside offer.

“I picked up the phone and called Don Shula myself and told him I wanted to come to Miami and play for Miami,” Smith said. “Because I knew Dan Marino didn’t have a running game.”

Smith said he told Shula, “I want to help you and help Dan get a championship. I said, ‘Bring me back to the state of Florida.’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t know if I could make that offer.’ He said, ‘If I do make this offer and you don’t come, all my other players will see what I put on the table for you and it’s going to mess up my chemistry.’ ”

Smith’s response was he wanted Shula to “just put something on the table” that would make Cowboys owner Jerry Jones say, “I cannot match it.”

Still, Smith said, Shula wouldn’t budge: “I can’t do that.”

A lot of guys on that 92 Dallas Cowboys team wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. They saw Jimmy as a tyrant who worked them too hard. Matter of fact, there was a starting CB and special teams ace named Isaac Holt who after that 92 season, went to Jimmy and asked which workouts he could skip and which were mandatory. Jimmy cut him two days later after shopping him but finding no trade partners.

Back to Shula, who knows if they would've won one of the last five games they lost in December after beating Dallas on Thanksgiving Day? What I do know is this: The Dolphins had home field advantage throughout the playoffs when they beat Dallas, and ended up missing the playoffs altogether. That right there should've gotten Shula fired.

Well…the ‘93 Phins did indeed drop 5 straight and missed the playoffs, but Marino was not playing after week 5 or so and Scott Mitchell was the starter at the end of the season with Deberg also starting a bunch of games. It was a miracle they were an OT loss away from the playoffs. The next year they won the wildcard game and lost by one point in the divisional round…and Shula did have a hefty resume of success….so there is that.

Mitchell came in and actually played very well. The Dolphins didn't miss a beat. What happened was they got all arrogant after they beat Dallas in Dallas. That's 100% on Shula.

They only beat Dallas because of Leon Lett. I don’t see how that made for a cocky team.

Imo we should leave the Don alone especially when it comes to calling for his firing.