Since 2002, the Miami Dolphins have advanced to the playoffs exactly once, and they haven’t won a playoff game since 2000. They have been to five Super Bowls, but none since moving to what was then called Joe Robbie Stadium in 1987.

Could the Curse of the Tequesta be to blame?

As Ryan Yousefi details in a Miami New Times story, ancient remains likely belonging to the extinct Tequesta Indian tribe were found in 1985 on the site where the Dolphins planned to build what is now called Sun Life Stadium. The Tequesta lived in the area until the 1700s, when they disappeared after years of disease brought over by European settlers, wars with other tribes and forced resettlement in Cuba.

The Dolphins agreed to allow archeologists to remove the remains and artifacts, and then proceeded with the stadium’s construction. But some still weren’t happy. As noted in a 1989 South Florida Sun-Sentinel story cited by Yousefi, a number of calls were made to a sports-talk radio show claiming that supernatural forces were afoot.

Consider this call that WIOD Sportstalk radio show host Rick Weaver remembers from November. “I live across the street from Joe Robbie Stadium,” snarled a Spanish-accented man’s voice. “And I have put a curse on the stadium and the football games.” “Oh yeah? So what are you doing? Sacrificing chickens out there or something?” said Weaver, laughing. The caller said yes, he was. “Boy, that was a really bizarre call,” Weaver said. Then he got his next call: “This lady called and said Joe Robbie Stadium needed an exorcism because it was built on Indian burial grounds.”

Cursed by poor football — and perhaps something else — the notoriously disinterested fans in South Florida have stayed away: Last year, only 85.5 percent of the seats at Sun Life Stadium were filled, which was the third-worst mark in the NFL, ahead of only the Redskins (84.2 percent) and the Raiders (80 percent). In 2012, the Dolphins only filled 76.2 percent of their available seats, by far the league’s worst mark.