Jason Taylor visited the hospital a few days before Christmas with his wife and three kids. They brought a lot of toys for kids with cancer, burn victims, children with deformities. Taylor’s children didn’t want to leave, they were having so much fun playing, connecting, giving — unwrapping, in other words, Dad’s real and lasting gifts. Later that night, over prayer, his kids thanked each of the children they met by name, and damn if that didn’t just about make the tough, old football player cry. It can make you emotional, getting old. Appreciative, too.

Looking back — something he has done a lot over the last few weeks, ever since he decided this new year would mark the beginning of the end of football — Taylor realized this: All those blessings that surrounded him in that hospital, he didn’t have any of them upon arriving in Miami as a scared, skinny kid. The wife? She is the sister of Zach Thomas, his brother in more way than one. The children? All born and raised here. Everything Taylor believes in now — family, faith and football, all of it intertwined in something not unlike a huddle — has been nourished and grown here. His gratitude, his platform, everything that makes him who he is. Miami isn’t just the home of his Foundation. It is the home of his foundation.

Giving back

He attempts to give back, raising almost $3 million for poor kids, sending 35 single-parent kids to college with all expenses paid, but he knows his is a debt that’ll never really get repaid. It is something his mentor Marino taught him, one of so many things, and Marino has an entire hospital for children in his name. The most amazing part of what we are celebrating today? In what is otherwise a meaningless football game? It isn’t that, in an era of unprecedented player movement, at a time when the Dolphins have changed coaches, owners and even stadium names multiple times during Taylor’s career, South Florida got to watch Taylor grow from kid to man like parents at a graduation. No, it is the ital:kind:ital of man we have watched him grow into, someone for whom you want to cheer, after coming from a childhood background so broken and painful that he doesn’t like discussing its details and it can bring him to tears if the questions get too close.

The thing that makes Taylor feel proudest? There’s a library to go through after a decade and a half in the sport. He’s the best defender the Dolphins have ever had. He’s scored more touchdowns than anyone to ever play his position. He was the NFL’s Defensive Player Of The Year once and finished second another year. He’d be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and in the best-ever discussion, if he’d had exactly the same career in New England. But proudest?

Being Named NFL Man Of The Year for his charitable works helping giving kids opportunities, education and a path.

“It overshadows everything,” he says. “I know how much it helped me when I was a kid — that someone helped, that someone cared. This game provides you power. Impact lives. Make days. It takes five seconds. Shake a hand. Give a football. I don’t take that for granted. I can’t.”

‘i’ll be emotional’

Today should feel really good. Gratitude always does. In sports, very few get to choose their own ending, as even legends like Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno learned. For players, the uniform usually gets taken from you before you get a chance to give it back, confidence the last thing to go, the mirror the last thing to know. You know the most fun former safety John Lynch ever had playing football? It wasn’t winning a championship in Tampa, believe it or not, and it wasn’t any of the nine years he went to the Pro Bowl. It was in a preseason game, as a Patriot. You don’t remember him as a Patriot? That’s because he never played a regular-season game for New England. Bill Belichick told Lynch that he had made the team, but Lynch knew he had nothing left. So all he asked for at the end was to play the entire final exhibition game. And there he was, in the fourth quarter, playing against nobodies, blitzing on every down, ignoring the play calls and a lifetime of regimen as Belichick laughed from the sideline.

“I will be playing football as a kid again,” Taylor says of today. “It’ll be emotional. I’m going to try to hold it together the best I can.”

He has been on a snap count all year because of his age and has been allowed to sit out practices, too. But he has asked coaches to let him play every down today, and they have agreed.

“I don’t want to come out,” he says. “I want every last drop. I want to soak in every detail. I want to come out only if I’m tired.”

Jason, you aren’t going to get too tired to come out.

“Damn right I’m not,” he says.

There are things he won’t miss about football, of course. Training camps. The dirty business side of the game. And all the losing. But days like today, there is nothing to replace them in the silence of retirement.

“I’m at peace,” Taylor says. “It is an honor to go out like this in Miami.”

The honor, watching a lost and scared kid grow into a pillar of a man, has been ours.

DAVIE – Never have two identical records been so different.

The Dolphins and Eagles are both 4-8. Both are in the midst of disappointing seasons.

That’s where the similarities end.

The Dolphins are the feel-good story of the second half of the season. They’ve won four of five. They’re trying to convince management to keep coach Tony Sparano around for another season. It’s a silver-lining type of mood surrounding the team.

There are only clouds hovering the Eagles.

The so-called “Dream Team” never imagined to be fighting for its playoffs berth entering Week 13. The Eagles have lost four of five. Long-time coach Andy Reid is under the same scrutiny Sparano faced during the 0-7 start.

Two teams, two different directions.

“I honestly just concern myself with where my team is right now and where my team is going,” Sparano said. “I’ve played the Philadelphia Eagles a lot of times, being in that division with the Cowboys. I know how good these players are. I know how good of a coach they have. I have that much respect for coach Reid, a tremendous, tremendous coach in this league.”

As Sparano puts it, the team that wins Sunday will have the upper leg on the loser because it reached five wins. That’s all that matters to the Dolphins.

Still, Reid sounded like a coach trying to put a positive spin on his team’s struggles during his conference call with the South Florida media. Despite the struggles, the skies were clear in his eyes.

On Vince Young creating the “Dream Team” label: “He’s a good kid.”

On DeSean Jackson supposedly giving less effort because of contract issues: “He’s a good kid.”

“Within the building and the team, we’re good, we’re all in,” Reid said. “We try not to listen to anything going outside of it.”

MIAMI GARDENS, FL (WSVN/CNN) – It’s the season of giving and the Miami Dolphins are doing their part. The team has partnered with others to score big in the fight against hunger.

For the seventh consecutive year, past and present Dolphins in front of Sun Life Stadium teamed up with Lift up America and Tyson Food to tackle hunger.

“I’ve actually done this every single year I’ve been here,” said Dolphins punter, Brandon Fields. “This is my fifth year doing it in a row, it’s a good cause.”

Along with mascot TD and numerous volunteers, players helped unload and distribute more than 30,000 pounds of protein, donated by Tyson.

“Come out and do some good for the community,” said former Dolphins tight end, Jed Weaver. “Help out some people that are hungry and need some food.”

In South Florida alone almost, a million people are struggling to put food on the table, while 36 percent of those affected are children.

The goodwill provided by those involved in the Dolphins’ effort will help more than 50 charities affiliated with Feeding South Florida.

Last year, Feeding South Florida distributed 29 million pounds of food to more than 700 non-profit community organizations.

Copyright 2011 WSVN via CNN. All rights reserved.

Vernon Carey’s seven-year tenure with the Miami Dolphins will probably end this season, but at least it won’t end prematurely.

In Thursday’s 20-19 loss to the Dallas Cowboys the Dolphins’ started right guard had his left ankle rolled up on during a goal line run that took place in the fourth quarter.

Carey left Dallas on crutches. There was initial concern about Carey, who has started 103 of the 117 games he’s placed for the Dolphins, missing the final five games of the season. But an MRI of the ankle showed there wasn’t a fracture, and the swelling subsided in less than 48 hours.

Carey’s improvement has been so rapid he’s walking without a boot, and the former University of Miami standout should be able to start Sunday’s home game against Oakland if he can make it through this week’s practices.

“I thought it was much worse, but it looked and felt worse than it was,” said Carey, the 19th overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft.

Having Carey finish the season gives Miami’s offensive line a chance to continue developing. Despite allowing a disappointing 34 sacks in 11 games, the unit has shown improvements over the past month from a pass protection standout.

Their continued growth will be critical because Oakland has produced 32 sacks this season.

But the Raiders are fairly soft against the run. Counting the 172 rushing yards the Chicago Bears gained in Sunday’s 25-20 loss to Oakland, the Raiders defense is allowing 5.29 yards per carry this season.

The Cowboys held the Dolphins to 3.6 yards per rush. Those struggles has Miami’s rushing average at 3.9, and this is the first time the average has been under 4.0 yards per attempt all season.

Carey has started all but two games he’s played for the Dolphins the past seven seasons. He’s started at tackle every year but this one because Tony Sparano opted to convert him to guard when Marc Colombo was signed and given the right tackle spot.

Because the team opted to restructure his deal during training camp Carey’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and it’s possible that this 30-year-old could, who has lived in South Florida his entire life, could be playing his final games for the Dolphins.

But at least he won’t be ending the season on injured reserves.