BOCA RATON — Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame center Dwight Stephenson has a home-course advantage of sorts for this week’s pro-am for the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational at Broken Sound. While it’s true that until Wednesday, he’d never played the course, Stephenson knows it well because his daily 6-mile walks from his Delray Beach home encircle Broken Sound.

Spending that much time walking around a golf course gives a man plenty of time to reflect. And Dwight Stephenson, 67, has done plenty of it.

“Certain things are going to go well,” he said Wednesday, “and that’s good.”

But even though he’s a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and even though he joins quarterbacks Dan Marino and Bob Griese as the only Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with the Dolphins , Stephenson knows what can happen when things don’t go your way.

“When things go bad, you can’t just throw your hands up in the air,” Stephenson said. “You have to hang in there and you have to figure out a way to win. Winning ain’t necessarily always on the scoreboard. It’s kind of how you handle situations.”

Miami Dolphins NFL draft pick Vontae Davis died at 35. A year later, we have no answers.

Never was that more true than on Dec. 7, 1987, in a twist of fate that could rival any in the NFL. The Dolphins were on their way to a 37-28 victory over the visiting New York Jets when two fumbles on a play — one by each team — led to a scramble for the ball.

Which led to a hush over the stadium.

Stephenson suffered what was clearly a serious knee injury when hit by Jets defensive lineman Marty Lyons — his teammate at Alabama.

And in that instant, the career of one of the most-decorated players in Dolphins history was over, victim of nerve damage to the knee that still affects him.

Lyons felt so bad he entered the Dolphins’ locker room after the game to console Stephenson. Lyons was angrily confronted by coach Don Shula, who told him he would be “haunted” by the hit for the rest of his life.

Shula was right. Speaking recently on the “Out to Pasture” podcast with former Dolphins Kim Bokamper and Joe Rose, Lyons admitted the play haunts him.

“I wish I could take that one play back,” he said.

To say that time helped Stephenson forgive his college buddy wouldn’t be quite right.

“I never really held it against him,” Stephenson said.

In fact, Stephenson went on to say, “Marty Lyons is a great guy. He’s doing a lot of good things out here in the community and will continue to do a lot of good things out here in the community. I know on that night Marty did not necessarily mean to be involved with anything that caused me to not play football again.

“ … He might have done me a favor. You know what? I could have played one more play or one more year and could have got a more serious injury or whatever. I just thank God for the time He gave me, and then move on to the next thing. Football was a big part of my life. Don’t think I don’t miss it and didn’t want to play again. I gave it everything I could and it’s just that God had another plan for me.”

Dwight Stephenson, Dolphins kept Chicago Bears from perfect season

If anyone had any doubt about Stephenson’s ability to persevere, it should have been settled on a night in the old Orange Bowl almost exactly two years prior. That’s when the Dolphins upset the Chicago Bears 38-24 in a historic Monday night game to assure the Dolphins would remain the only franchise to enjoy a Perfect Season in NFL history. Those Bears won every other game, including the Super Bowl, but they walked out empty-handed on a dramatic night in which members of the 1972 Dolphins lined Miami’s sideline.

Stephenson suffered an injury to his right arm early in the game. Between plays, he held his aching arm as if it were in a sling. Despite going against the star-studded defensive front of Dan Hampton, Steve McMichael, William “The Refrigerator” Perry and Richard Dent, Stephenson would not leave the game.

“I don’t think I played that well,” Stephenson said with typical humility that never seemed to do quote-seeking Dolphins reporters any favors back in the day. “At that point, the team is depending on you. I tried to do my part. And believe me, I got some assistance. I let the guy to my right — which my right shoulder was bothering me — he might have covered for me.”

In a case of exquisite timing, just as Stephenson said that, Hampton, also competing in the pro-am, walked by.

“He had a good night,” Hampton said. “You guys jumped up on us and never gave up. The only blemish in that whole damn year. I saw Marino at the Super Bowl. Every time I walk in and I see him he goes (shrug). That night, he was on.”

And Stephenson was, well, Stephenson.

“I remember that game because we beat the dog crap out of them,” said Nat Moore, a receiver on the Dolphins at the time and a current senior vice president. “But if Dwight was playing with one arm, that just shows you who he is because he didn’t cry about it. I didn’t even know it.”

Stephenson, who remains active in the construction business, said he was up all night after the Bears game and needed a couple of weeks to heal.

When Stephenson’s playing days ended just shy of eight seasons, there was a concern that the shortness of his career might hurt his Hall of Fame candidacy. The quality of his play was never the question.

Eleven years after he was forced to retire and in his sixth year of eligibility and fifth time as a finalist, Stephenson was set for induction.

“Being in the football Hall of Fame is something I never dreamed of and never thought about when I was coming up,” he said. “But to be in it is unbelievable.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.