The Miami Dolphins were expected to be newsmakers this season, adding talent to a promising roster and riding quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s growth to play-off contention.
They have made news, all right. The wrong kind.
After a 1-3 start, including embarrassing losses to AFC East rivals the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, coach Joe Philbin was dismissed.
Defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle was also removed. His unit ranked last in run defence, and were 30th of 32 teams in total defence.
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Those are startling stats, partly because they ranked 12th in total defence last season, and partly because they signed goliath nose tackle Ndamakong Suh, the biggest free agent prize, to a six-year, US$114 million (Dh418.7m) contract.
Next, a report surfaced that Tannehill had been mocking the defensive scout team during practice when they made good plays against him, telling one to enjoy a scout team “trophy” and another to enjoy his scout team “paycheck”.
Tannehill vehemently denied the paycheck comment, but admitted to the general abuse.
Hmmm, listless defence. Prima donna quarterback. Invoking the periodic table, you would have to say team chemistry smells like sulfur.
The first thing interim coach Dan Campbell did when he took over last week was wake up his team with an “Oklahoma drill” – a risky, heavy contact exercise requiring full blocking and tackling in a confined space.
It is a rarity at the NFL level.
Campbell’s tough-guy personality may or may not work better than Philbin’s quiet, detached demeanour, but the underachieving Dolphins cannot blame anyone but themselves for the change.
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
