It was May of 2000 when I heard the Dolphins were going to retire Dan Marino’s number.

I always taught my children to reach for the stars and never be afraid to go after any and every opportunity in life no matter how big it might be! The worst result you might receive is someone saying no, but if you don’t make the effort and take a chance you’ll never have the thrill of maybe hearing yes.

ProCase had been in business for about 5 years at the time, and I was constantly trying to find more professional athletes to approach and offer my framing services to. I knew that having pictures of star athletes standing next to my work would catch people’s attention! While hitting some golf balls at my local driving range, I thought about how cool it would be to have a picture of Dan Marino, one of the greatest QBs in the NFL, standing next to my work! I was going to take my best shot at making that happen!

I decided to do a little research on the Dolphins, and found out who the public relations director was. I wrote a letter and enclosed a few 4×6 photos of other players standing next to cases I built for them. I also sent one 8×10 of Walter Payton standing next to a case I built for him. I remember taking that envelope to the post office and sitting in my car praying over that envelope that I might get a reply.

A couple weeks went by, and I actually received a call from that director of public relations! After trading greetings back and forth, I’ll never forget what he said. “If your work is good enough for Walter Payton, it’s good enough for Dan Marino!” I couldn’t believe it, the Dolphins might give me a shot! We continued to talk about details and I suggested what I thought should be put in the case. The gentleman also brought up how the Broncos retired John Elway’s number, and that the owner of the Dolphins, wanted to make sure that the halftime ceremony and framed jersey would be nicer then what the Broncos did for Elway! I told him I’ll do my job and build a gift for Dan that Mr. Huizenga (Miami Dolphins owner) would be proud of! He asked me to come up with a price and send him a contract describing my work. I was excited!

I put together a contract, sent it to the Dolphins, but after a week or two I still hadn’t heard back from them. I decided to call up the public relations coordinator and ask him if I got the job. He told me they hadn’t made a final decision on who was going to get the opportunity; they had also gotten a quote from a local company from Miami that they were considering. That company’s quote was a couple of hundred dollars less than mine. Was I going to lose this opportunity over a couple of hundred dollars? While driving home I thought about how much a picture of Dan Marino standing next to my case, hanging in my office would be worth. I’m decided that I was going to do that case for no charge! When I got home, my wife said she wanted to talk to me about something. She said that she thought I should do the case for free, exactly the thought I had! That was confirmation from God that I should send the Dolphins a contract asking for no money for what I would do for them.

I wrote up another contract that asked for 2 hotel rooms, 3 tickets for the game that the ceremony would be held during, and no charge for the case. I faxed the revised contract to the Dolphins, and made a call to the Dolphins to tell them my offer. They couldn’t believe I’d do it for free, they said the job was mine and they’d sign the contract and send it back. I got the job!

Time went by and I hadn’t heard back from the Dolphins again, but the retirement ceremony was still a couple of months away. I don’t like to bother people so I didn’t reach out to the Dolphins, I just waited. While photographing a golf outing I ran into Jim Covert who was Dan Marino’s roommate in college. I told him about the Marino case and how I was getting concerned about not hearing back from them. Jim told me that he had heard they gave the job to the company from Miami because they worked with them before. What a disappointment! I had been creating the case in my mind for weeks! I became very mad and bitter towards the Dolphins. They could have at least told me that they went with the other company! I spent the next 2 weeks upset at not just the Dolphins, but at God also! God could have arranged for them to use me instead of the other company!