Marino, Dan

Related Category: Sports: Biographies

(Daniel Constantine Marino, Jr.)(mərē´nō), 1961–, American football player, b. Pittsburgh. After starring as an All-American quarterback at the Univ. of Pittsburgh, he joined (1983) the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League and was the NFL Rookie of the Year. In the 1984–85 season, when he passed for a record 5,084 yards, he was the league's most valuable player. One of the game's most proficient passers, the durable Marino, who played his entire career with the Dolphins, broke (1995) the lifetime records held by Fran Tarkenton for total passing yardage, completions, and touchdown passes. (The last two have since been surpassed by Brett Favre.) Despite his excellence as a quarterback, Marino never led Miami to a Super Bowl championship. He retired in 2000 and began a career as a sportscaster.