You're on the right track with the number, but for the wrong reason. 4/20 is not just a day for Cheech and Chonging it up, it's also the birthday of one Adolph Hitler. Dan Marino is a Nazi. Did he pick up a football out of some natural affinity for the game? Or did a young Dan Marino take up the "pigskin" thinking it was a literal term and that observant Jews would be prohibited from playing the game?
I've heard that final years despite the fact that a more balanced attack would have helped the Dolphins win more games, Marino was adamant about continuing his pass heavy ways. Was this so that he could get into the record books? Or was it so that he could retire with a fitting numerical memorial to The Fuhrer? Or perhaps that handing the ball off to a running back did not afford him the opportunity to salute his beloved leader?
SIEG HEIL!
Were his postseason struggles the result of a man who led so many memorable comeback with a sudden and highly selective choker streak? Or the carefully calculated actions of a man secure in his own legacy who wanted to ensure that Jewish coach Don Schula and the ever growing old Jewish population of Miami would never get a Superbowl win? Were they in fact the sort of maddening unperformances that might make elderly sorts so mad as to risk heart attacks?
Why else would such a promising acting career have faltered so badly after a supporting role in Ace Ventura that generated Oscar buzz? Was it that he wasn't that great of an actor? Or that he just couldn't bring himself to play ball with the Spielbergs of the world? The role of Capt. John Miller in Saving Private Ryan (a tough, battlehardened leader from Pennsylvania with a good heart) was obviously patterned after Marino himself. Hard to imagine that he wasn't the first choice to play the part.
Just a theory...