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Miami's Dolphin Stadium A Bustling Place This Month

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The Associated Press

Published: January 2, 2009

MIAMI GARDENS - The landscapers at Dolphin Stadium will be working plenty of overtime for the next week.

In the span of seven days, the Miami Dolphins' stadium will host three big-time football games. And that means nearly around-the-clock painting and landscaping of the field surface will be required.

Plans have long been in place for how to handle the demands of Thursday's Orange Bowl and next week's Bowl Championship Series title game between the universities of Florida and Oklahoma next Thursday.

But then the Dolphins - the worst team in the NFL last season - threw an unexpected wrench in the mix, not only qualifying for the playoffs but also winning the AFC East title and securing a home postseason game.

Miami will play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday afternoon.

So that means work crews were summoned to start turning the field from a college facility to a pro one again, a task that was set to begin almost immediately after the Orange Bowl trophy ceremony ended in the wee hours this morning.

And when the Dolphins finish up on Sunday, it'll be back to work for those same crews, who then will get out gallons and gallons of field paint and start getting ready for the arrival of the Gators and Sooners.

After that, though, they're assured a break, possibly a long one.

Even if the Dolphins win Sunday, there's no way they could host a playoff game on the weekend of Jan. 10-11, and only a series of upsets (Tennessee and Pittsburgh would both have to lose in the second round) would bring Miami home for the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18.

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