© Caylee Betts

L to R: Dan Marino and former backup quarterback, Damon Huard, are now making wine together

There are no fake spikes involved in Dan Marino's latest project – a wine with an impressive pedigree.

Dan Marino grew up in Pittsburgh around home winemakers. "Uncle Chucky would send me a six-pack of his wine every year. No labels," he said.

Now the former Miami Dolphins quarterback is going to have a little wine of his own. Marino is partnering with his former backup quarterback, Damon Huard, to produce a 500-case Washington Cabernet called "Passing Time." It is currently maturing in barrel and will be released in 2015, priced $75.

This wine has impressive vineyard sources: Discovery, Champoux and Klipsun vineyards in eastern Washington and the winemaker is Chris Peterson, former winemaker of DeLille Cellars and currently at Avennia.

The pair aren't the first sportsmen to dabble in Washington wines: quarterback Drew Bledsoe's Doubleback wine is made by Leonetti Cellars winemaker Chris Figgins.

But Marino and Huard have been sniffing around the area for several years.

Huard's father was a farmer in the Horse Heaven Hills but wine wasn't his drink of choice. "When he was a rookie, he was strictly a beer drinker," Marino told Wine Searcher. "I said, there's some great wines made right in your backyard. First, I let him taste some Col Solare. Then Andrew Will."

His own introduction to wine more expensive than his Uncle Chucky's homemade concoction came when he started playing with receiver Jimmy Cefalo, whose family had been in the wine business in Italy. But it was several years into his career before Marino had his epiphany wine, the 1990 Caymus Special Select Cabernet Sauvignon.

"I bought a case and I promised to save some of it, but I ended up drinking the whole case," Marino added.

Despite having a longer history with fermented grape juice, Marino admits that Huard has had more input into the initial Passing Time wine than he did – but he has tasted from the barrels.

© Caylee Betts

Huard grew up in Washington State's Horse Heaven Hills but was originally a beer guy

Marino's schedule has eased because he is no longer on "The NFL Today" on CBS. He says: "I haven't decided if I want to do TV anymore. I think I'm going to see where life takes me right now."

Having once owned a chain of eponymous restaurants, he is now a partner in the Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza chain. And though he's only 52, Marino is now a "men's lifestyle ambassador" for AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People.)

"They're working with people to make 50 look younger," Marino said. "I said, hey, maybe I can make 50 look younger. Their whole scene the last couple years has been life re-imagined. I'm not doing TV so I gotta re-imagine my life too."

My friend Michael, who lives in New Jersey, asked me to ask Marino about the famous "fake spike game." In 1994, the Dolphins trailed the Jets 24-21 with about 30 seconds left and the clock running. Marino pretended he was going to stop the clock by throwing the ball into the ground, but instead threw the game-winning touchdown pass against an unprepared Jets defense.

"It was (backup quarterback) Bernie Kosar's idea," Marino said. "They practiced it in Cleveland when he played there but it never came up in a game. It was the perfect situation, and it tore the Jets' fans' hearts out."

Marino said he made a hand signal to the receiver. "If it doesn't work, you just throw it out of bounds."

I asked if this was the play Marino was best known for. He laughed.

"I wouldn't say I'm best known for it. I broke some records in my time," he said. (Marino currently holds 12 NFL records, according to Wikipedia.) "But it was the Jets, in New York, we came from behind, we had four touchdowns in the second half. Jets fans need to just get over it."





