December 30th, 2000.
That's the date of the last Miami Dolphins playoff win. That day they knocked off Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in an overtime contest.
The head coach at the time was Dave Wannstedt, Jay Fielder was the Dolphins quarterback, and running back Lamar Smith ran for 209 yards and two touchdowns to advance in the playoffs.
In the years since, the franchise has had 10 different head coaches (or interim head coaches and started 27 different guys at quarterback and zero playoff wins in five tries.
Head coach Mike McDaniel has heard all the chatter about early playoff exits the past two seasons, and to help his team get the monkey off their back he's rolling out a unique way to remind his staff of their daunting task.
When asked how he coaches and attacks the issue of late season struggles for his team, McDaniel shared an interesting story of how he intentionally set his staff meetings for 24 minutes past the hour.
"It's important to understand, we're talking about narratives, to a degree and to understand that narratives aren't a bad thing. Narratives are based upon the past and hedging opinions moving forward."
"We take the little things, whether it's the game, or we need to finish the season better, so you get what you emphasize, and why not find ways to emphasize finishing in everything you do. Obsess about it."
"For half the off season, we're trying to have staff meetings at different times throughout the day, and I had every staff meeting start at like 7:24, or 3:24, or 5:24. Like, the number 24. To you guys that may mean nothing, but that's how many years since the organization has won a playoff game."
"Now, we are going to hear about that come playoff time. So, to me, we do that to empower guys to know what's coming and to understand it and not run from it because if you're going to achieve success when people are predicting failure, you're going to have to go above and beyond."