Dan Marino - Retired As Great Passer, Great Humanitarian

Though Marino never made it to a Super Bowl again after 1984, he continued to stack up the records. In 1999, Marino became the first quarterback to reach 60,000 yards. The year, however, was a tough one for Marino as a pinched neck nerve forced him to sit out five starts. The season ended with a devastating 62-7 playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on January 15, 2000. Following the playoffs, the Dolphins released Marino, and several NFL teams courted him. In the end, Marino decided to retire. Going somewhere else just didn't feel right.

Though Marino's records stand out, there is one hole in his resume: he never got to play on a Super Bowl-winning team, although he retired holding twenty-five NFL regular-season records. Marino, however, says that doesn't matter. As he told the New York Post, "I was extremely happy with my career.… I wouldn't trade 17 years with the Dolphins, my experiences and what I did as far as consistency and taking pride in my job for a Super Bowl and having the opportunity to play in one city and play as long as I did."

Marino will be remembered not only as a great passer but also as a great humanitarian. The Miami Children's Hospital Dan Marino Center was built with help from Marino. Each month, the center serves 2,000 children from Florida and across the world. More than seventy medical professionals, from speech pathologists to neurologists, work there. Marino helped found the center—a one-stop shop for children with medical needs—after his son, Michael, was diagnosed with autism. Marino was frustrated with having to travel all over the place to see specialists to get proper care. Marino has thus left a legacy on paper-the record books-and a legacy of brick and mortar-the center-that is daily changing lives.