While every sport has its calendar, the theme remains the same: A new year represents a reason to take a fresh look at things. For Miami sports fans, it also represents a suitable opportunity to step back and assess what we can do better as a fan base to make 2025 that much more enjoyable, even if the product on the fields, courts, and ice isn't what we hoped for.
Behold our suggestions for your 2025 Miami sports resolutions.
“I want to bring a championship to Miami” - Tyler Herro
— 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙉𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 (@HeatvsHaters) January 7, 2025
(via @theOGsShow) pic.twitter.com/1CmYHWm9iv
Give Tyler Herro His Damn Flowers
In his sixth season in the NBA, Tyler Herro is having a career year. Through the games of Thursday, January 9, he has averaged 23.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.0 assists and is making a strong case for his first-ever NBA All-Star appearance. After years of dealing with early-career ebbs and flows — incredible performances in the NBA Finals giving rise to elevated expectations; dealing with more trade rumors than any player in Heat franchise history — Herro is coming into his own as a bonafide NBA star in his own right, only to see that overshadowed by a teammate's drama.Herro, who signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension last season that will keep him in Heat colors through 2026-27, is a core component of the Heat's best chance at winning its next championship. Yet somehow his bright light continues to be eclipsed by visions of what the Heat could get in return for him or what his teammates are (or aren't) doing.
Make it a point in 2025 to appreciate that Tyler Herro is one of the game's brightest stars and the Heat are incredibly lucky to have landed him with the 13th pick of the 2019 draft.
And keep him out of your ESPN NBA Trade Machine proposals moving forward.
The @Marlins lack of spending has the attention of FT Senior Insider @Ken_Rosenthal pic.twitter.com/sWu9HB9tzK
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 7, 2025
Stop Asking Why the Marlins Are Cheap
The Miami Marlins will never spend money on baseball players. The answers are abundant and clear. So practice self-care this year and stop asking why.While the Los Angeles Dodgers have been busy deferring over $1 billion in players' salaries over the past year, fully knowing they're good for it, the Marlins have spent zero on free agents this offseason. Not a penny. Zero. The same as you!
There's a reason for that. Unlike the Dodgers, the Marlins cannot count on having funds on a day-to-day basis. If you expect the franchise to compete for a title, accept that it will come via the Bad News Bears route. Expect them to continue rolling the dice on young, cheap rosters for the foreseeable future, and maybe try to enjoy baseball for its own sake. There are far worse places than LoanDepot Park to watch a Major League game (but not many cheaper ones).
To put it another way: As coach Morris Buttermaker (played by the great Walter Matthau) said in the aforementioned cinematic classic, "Get back to the stands before I shave off half your mustache and shove it up your left nostril."
Perfect way to end the night! pic.twitter.com/uqZHilhihs
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 9, 2025
Go to a Florida Panthers Game
South Florida sports is currently a game of one of these things is unlike the others. And that thing is the Florida Panthers, a squad that continues to hum right along as they defend their first Stanley Cup title. It's time those who've only passingly glanced at highlights and tweets about the successful professional sports franchise up the road go check them out in person.Forty-plus games into the 2024-25 campaign, the Panthers sit in second place in the Eastern Conference, very likely on their way to a top seed in the playoffs. In other words, as it now stands, they have a legitimate chance to hoist the cup for a second straight season. Amerant Area in Sunrise is about a 45-minute drive for many Miami-Dade residents, and once you get there it's a lot less hassle than, say, the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami.
Make it a point to get out to a Panthers game before the season is over to cheer on a team that brought home a bonafide championship home last year and might just repeat the feat come summer.
The number of coaches hired by each #NFL team since 2000. pic.twitter.com/Stq33VV2Dd
— Tyler Webb (@tylermwebb) January 9, 2025
Don't Give Up on the Dolphins
You knew the Miami Dolphins were bad your entire life, but did you realize they're 11 head coaches since 2000 bad? I certainly didn't. That fact is even more depressing, knowing they're no closer to a long-term Don Shula-type solution now than when TRL was all the rage, because current coach Mike McDaniel has one foot out the door. That said, being 11 coaches deep since 2000 — and remembering the names on that list (see: Cam Cameron) — Dolphins fans should step back and realize the current guy has made the playoffs in two of his three seasons in Miami. Has McDaniel been perfect? Far from it. But before we move on to an even dozen, it makes sense to see this current guy out before starting the circle of life again.
It could be worse. It has been so much worse. In 2025, give McDaniel a more chance to prove he is (or isn't) the guy.
A day of caring, learning, painting, and surprises! ⁰⁰We went #BeyondTheField with @D1__JW & @Truist to connect with the Boys & Girls Club in our community. pic.twitter.com/5Qvj18DUlT
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) October 18, 2024
Put Youth Sports on Your Radar
If you're reading this, you're probably a sports fan. This means at some point in your life, you've either played youth sports yourself or had a child that has. Regardless of who you root for, everyone can agree that the true spirit of sports begins — and, if we're being honest ends — in youth leagues and camps, where the love of the game towers above all else.If watching Tyreek Hill and Jimmy Butler quit on your favorite team pisses you off, may we recommend balancing those emotions out in the new year by donating time or money to local youth sports leagues and causes, such as the Miami Boys and Girls Club — places where they might learn to act better in the future in the unlikely event someone is paying them hundreds of millions of dollars to play the sport they once played for free.
If you do, you'll be able to dwell for at least a short time on the feeling of watching sports purely for the love of sports, as opposed to the inevitable feelings of disappointment and despair.
