Dan Marino & The Golden Bun

By: Michael H. Gora

Over the last fifteen years I have represented some of the best known professional athletes in the United States with their matrimonial situations from prenuptial agreement to divorce.

Many times I have been asked to defend the athletes from paternity suits, or pursue child support on behalf of women who have been impregnated by wealthy and well known athletes.

Of course, after first blood tests, and now DNA tests those cases are usually simple cases of applying the child support guidelines of Florida as modified by appellate law, which limits child support to reasonable and necessary amounts of money.

After reading about the Dan Marino/Donna, Savattere tryst, and its offspring I recalled that there was a term often used by my wealthy client dads and very un-wealthy moms, “the Golden Bun”, as in “the bun in the oven.”  (For those of you under thirty years old “bun in the oven” refers to a pregnancy.)

I have heard a one night stand mom defend her morals by claiming that she loved my client, “but I wasn’t after a  Golden Bun.”

The Dan and Donna case makes me wonder why two smart people had forgotten about birth control at just the right moment.  Did Donna tell Dan that she was on “the pill” and not to worry?  Was Donna going for the “Golden Bun?”

The long happily married Dan did or didn’t travel with a extra pack or two of condoms, but a New York sports caster  lady in her mid thirties probably had a box of them in her night table drawer and didn’t suggest  one, and if not, why not.

Was her biological clock running out?  Did she want to hit the double jackpot, a child of her own and enough money to retire?  Did Dan just decide to ride bareback for the hell of it; damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead? Did passion trump reason and logic or was Donna really hanging out just for that “Golden Bun?”

Without pleading justification for Dan or using too many football metaphors it appears to me that while both teams were playing the game, one had a great “hail Mary” in mind which she executed perfectly.  I had seen Dan throw an interception late in fourth quarters before.

I don’t blame either player for being a human being.  I hope that the golden bun grows up to have a happy life knowing that she is loved by both her parents.

Michael H. Gora has been certified by the Board of Education and Specialization of The Florida Bar as a specialist in family and matrimonial law

and is a partner in the law firm of Shapiro Blasi Wasserman & Gora PA in Boca Raton. He may be reached at 561-477-7800 or mhgora@sbwlawfirm.com.