Edwin Pope didn’t write a farewell column. Pope’s final column appeared on June 5, 2016, and in it he remembered his interactions with Muhammad Ali, who had died two days earlier. It was one great telling us about another great.

That was Pope’s final work before he passed away on January, 19, 2017.

So if the greatest columnist in the Herald’s long and storied history didn’t write a proper farewell column, I assumed I wouldn’t either. Because, like everyone who followed in Pope’s footsteps, I could never hold a flickering candle to his supernova light.

But my boss at the Herald told me he got calls asking about an Armando farewell column and asked for one before I left for my new adventure at Outkick.com. So here we are.

Allow me to share ....

Things I’ll never forget:

▪ The look on Gary Clark’s face when he threatened to punch me if I didn’t move from his locker stall after I asked some hard questions. I didn’t move. Much to his apparent surprise.

▪ The look on Cecil Collins’ face when he came out to meet his first visitor while he was in the Broward County jail and it was me, not someone he much rather would have preferred to see.

▪ Watching Dan Marino practice. You think he was good on game days because he didn’t work at it in training camp and during the week? My Lord, watching him practice was like watching a great piano player mesmerize on the keyboard.

And watching those practices is the reason I recognize to this day the huge difference between what it should look like when the Dolphins have a special quarterback on the roster and what it has too often looked like the past two decades.

▪ Having Bryan Cox open up his family’s home to me in East St. Louis, Illinois, for a visit and interviews. And having the linebacker offer me a pistol to carry when I was leaving, so I would be safe on my drive out of the neighborhood and back across the Eads Bridge to St. Louis, where I was staying.

▪ Watching Cortez Kennedy eat. Unfortunately, he didn’t play for the Dolphins, but I covered the University of Miami my first year at the Herald. And I took Tez to lunch one day. And he went through a handful of entrees (with french fries) and then did dessert.

I miss my friend Cortez, gone too soon at age 48 in 2017, every day.

▪ The great interviews, guys who always had something interesting to say: Cox, Randy McMichael, Keith Byars, Keith Jackson, Irving Fryar, Mike Westhoff, Randy Mueller, Adam Gase, Tony Sparano, Ndamukong Suh, Brandon Marshall, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Mike Dee, Eddie Jones, Tom Garfinkel, Reshad Jones, Sam Madison, Vonnie Holliday, Trace Armstrong, Bill Parcells, Joey Porter, Yeremiah Bell, Andre Goodman, Kevin Carter and many more.

Nope, not going to tell you who the terrible interviews were. Because those unreadable quotes weren’t the fault of the people I was talking with. Those were my fault for not asking the right questions or taking the right interview approach.

Speaking of me (not really)..

My greatest personal moment covering the Dolphins: Helping Jason Taylor get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Look, J.T. authored a Hall of Fame career with HOF numbers. But he got in as a first-ballot guy — something multiple people within the Dolphins organization doubted would happen.

And something Taylor himself told me he doubted would happen.

But he (we) shocked the world.

My greatest personal failing covering the Dolphins: In 2001, Dave Wannstedt fired Westhoff, the longtime special teams coach. It was one Pittsburgh guy firing another but the truth is these two didn’t like each other.

Westhoff had been a finalist to get the Dolphins head coaching job, along with Wannstedt, when Jimmy Johnson quit. Marino, another Pittsburgh guy, had endorsed Westhoff. And when Wannstedt got the job, he helped run off Marino.

So, in 2000, Wannstedt and Westhoff were not, shall we say, like-minded.

After that season, Wannstedt fired Westhoff, who was arguably the best coach on the staff, and when he did it, two club sources made sure to explain to me how Westhoff sometimes interrupted Wannstedt during meetings and was borderline insubordinate.

And I ran with the information without checking with Westhoff and allowing him to respond.

That was a mistake. And not fair to Westhoff.

Westhoff went to the New York Jets and his career, great in Miami for 15 years, reached new heights in New York the next 12 years.

I saw Westhoff recently at a Dolphins picnic and apologized for not giving him his say those 20 years ago.

“Yeah, you should’ve called me,” Westhoff told me, “Look, Dave and I didn’t get along. He had his guy [Keith Armstrong] already hired before he fired me. I probably did speak up during some meetings. But I spoke up when Don Shula was the coach and Jimmy Johnson was the coach, too.

“But it’s all right, it all worked out really well for me in New York.”

Yes it did.

Things the Dolphins did well:

▪ They hired George Hill to be their linebacker coach back in the day. Hill was once the coach-in-waiting at Ohio State under Woody Hayes and would have been his successor were it not for that night Hayes punched a Clemson player along the sideline. Hayes and most of his assistants, including Hill, were fired. Years later and for a decade from 1989-99, Hill was a coach Dolphins defenders swore by.

▪ Many of you are too young to remember, but the Dolphins put Miami on the map. It wasn’t the Hurricanes. It wasn’t the beaches. It wasn’t the mob or the girls in bikinis on South Beach. It wasn’t the Marlins or the Heat or the humidity.

It was the Dolphins.

They made people understand that Miamuh, a Southern town way down there on the map, was more than just a sunny place to retire.

Miami grew up and the Dolphins helped because they made South Florida the epicenter of professional sports perfection in 1972-73.

The Dolphins had a better winning percentage than any other professional team in the entire nation for decades -- and I’m not talking other NFL teams, but all professional teams, including baseball, basketball and hockey.

The Dolphins put Miami on prime time more than any other team and forged the NFL’s most successful record on “Monday Night Football.”

And when people saw the iconic shot beyond the Orange Bowl’s open end — those palm trees, the downtown skyline, and the bay beyond it — during national TV games, it was a glance at paradise where people should visit or move.

The Dolphins did that for Miami.

▪ Oh yeah, the Dolphins pulled the trigger on the quarterback from Pitt with the 27th selection of the 1983 draft. It sounds ridiculous to think that wasn’t the move everyone would’ve made, but on that day, 26 other players were selected ahead of Dan Marino.

Five quarterbacks were selected ahead of Marino.

The hometown Pittsburgh Steelers selected Texas Tech defensive tackle Gabriel Rivera ahead of Marino.

I think I’m safe saying it’s the best pick the Dolphins have ever made.

Or will ever make.

▪ Yes, the hiring of Don Shula is obviously right there as well. Coach was a gentleman and never ever lied to me. Never.

Owner Joe Robbie, often remembered for watching the bottom line more than raising the Dolphins from the bottom to the pinnacle, hired Shula no matter the cost. He remains to this day the greatest owner in Dolphins history.

Things the Dolphins have messed up:

▪ When the Jets fired their head coach in 1995, Shula was the first to interview him about becoming Miami’s defensive coordinator. But Shula ultimately decided not to hire the young coach. His name is Pete Carroll.

▪ The very next year the Cleveland Browns fired their head coach and Jimmy Johnson called to see about bringing him to Miami. For whatever reason it didn’t work out. That coach’s name is Bill Belichick.

▪ In 2002 the NFL realigned to four divisions per conference after expanding to 32 teams. The realignment was supposed to include four teams in the AFC South: The Houston Texans as an expansion addition, the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars from the AFC Central ...

... And the Miami Dolphins from the AFC East.

Except that after much internal discussion, owner Wayne Huizenga implored the NFL not to move the Dolphins out of the AFC East where they had established rivalries with the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and even New England Patriots.

The NFL, valuing Huizenga as the owner of one of its premier teams at the time, plucked the Indianapolis Colts out of the AFC East instead.

So why was this a terrible mistake? Because instead of moving to a division with Jacksonville and Tennessee and expansion Houston, the Dolphins stayed in a division with Tom Brady.

▪ The Dolphins have 26 individuals on their Honor Roll that circles Hard Rock Stadium, but the man who brought 12 of the players on that Honor Roll to Miami is not on the Honor Roll: Joe Thomas.

Thomas was the Dolphins general manager until he left early in 1972 before the Dolphins won their first Super Bowl. But his legacy included trading for Paul Warfield, Larry Little, Nick Buoniconti, Bob Matheson, and drafting Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Mercury Morris, Jake Scott, Dick Anderson and Jim Kiick.

Yeah, Shula molded the 1970s Dolphins into a powerhouse. But Thomas gave Shula the players to do it.

Final word:

It has been my greatest professional privilege to serve the Herald’s readers for a combined three decades. Sometimes it read well. Sometimes I missed the mark. But it was never for me or about me.

It was for you. To inform you. To entertain you. It was sometimes to move you in one direction or another. But always for you. God bless you.

Armando Salguero

305-376-2387

Armando Salguero has covered the Miami Dolphins and the NFL since 1990, so longer than many players on the current roster have been alive and since many coaches on the team were in middle school. He was a 2016 APSE Top 3 columnist nationwide. He is one of 48 Pro Football Hall of Fame voters. He is an Associated Press All-Pro and awards voter. He’s covered Dolphins games in London, Berlin, Mexico City and Tokyo. He has covered 25 Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, and the Olympics.