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It's Nearly Time For '72 Dolphins To Share Stage

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

Updated: 01/28/2008 11:56 pm

PHOENIX - Hey, nobody's perfect.

Let's stop beating up the 1972 Dolphins for wanting the 2007 New England Patriots to lose Super Bowl XLII.

The Fish are only human.

And these humans were perfect 35 years ago.

The Patriots go for 19-0 and history Sunday against the Giants.

The 1972 Dolphins, maybe the proudest bunch of men ever to play the game, will pull for the New York Giants, and with it their 17-0.

"I'm going to be at the game," Don Shula said. "I'll be jumping up and down."

This is the same Shula who earlier this season said Patriots perfection has been "diminished" by SpyGate.

Grumpy old man?

Hey, nobody's perfect.

Company Is Coming

For 35 years, pretenders have come and gone.

For 35 years, the '72 Dolphins have stood the test of time.

Time is almost up.

Company Is Coming

Are the '72 Dolphins desperately trying to hold onto their past?

"You mentioned the words 'desperately trying to hold onto,'" said Mercury Morris, a running back on that '72 team. Morris and other old Fish, Shula included, were on a conference call last week.

Mercury rising, Morris said, "Let me set you straight. First of all, there's nothing for us to hold on to because there's nothing for us that belongs to us. It only belongs to the history of the National Football League. It's been 35 years. This record is old enough to be president. These guys are the first guys who have actually come close for real, and I take my hat off to them."

The '72 Fish are portrayed as curmudgeons who can't let go, who lift champagne glasses in celebration each season the last undefeated team falls.

Former Dolphins runner Jim Kiick set you straight:

"No. 1, I prefer Jack Daniel's ..."

Truth is, the Patriots are the best thing to happen to the '72 Dolphins, making them relevant again, earning them the respect they never received when they were perfect.

Did you know the '72 Dolphins, 16-0, were three-point underdogs against the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII?

Bullish fullback Larry Csonka set you straight:

"We were underdogs pretty much the whole season."

Theirs was a different kind of perfection, a blue-collar kind, a no-name kind, a ball-control kind, the pre-ESPN kind. The Patriots live in a fishbowl.

Bob Griese, '72 Dolphins quarterback, set you straight.

Griese missed a lot of the perfect season with an ankle injury, but was back in the postseason after the Dolphins were saved by Earl Morrall. Now, about the footage of that boot on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's foot ...

"I had a boot on my leg and no paparazzi came after me," Griese said.

Still, the old men see the perfect Pats and see themselves.

"Our goal was not to ever make a mental error, and this is the only team in the NFL today that just doesn't make errors," '72 Dolphins safety Dick Anderson said.

"There was never any talk about going undefeated ... and I think that's what we've heard all year from the Patriots," Griese said.

The coach never mentioned 17-0 until they were: 17-0.

Talk About Pressure

"When we had the 17-0 record, we got beat the year before in the Super Bowl," Don Shula said. "Our emphasis was not to get to the Super Bowl, but to win it. If somewhere along the line we would have lost a game or two games and won the Super Bowl, it would have been a great success. But if we would have gone 16-0 and lost the Super Bowl, that season would have been a complete failure ..."

That's pressure.

"So I think that's where New England is right now. They're 18-0, and the thing that's really going to make their season is if they can win that last game."

Shula won't really back off his SpyGate comment. There's still some granite in the man.

"I'm probably not the guy that should have said it. I think a lot of people, when I said it, received it as being, you know, just helping yourself. ... As I mentioned, I didn't fine them, I didn't take away the draft choice, I wasn't the one who coined the term 'SpyGate.' All those things happened and all I did was refer to them."

A bunch of '72 Dolphins are in Phoenix this week. Reebok is filming two commercials - one for a Patriots win, with the old Fish all alone, and one for a Patriots win, with the old Fish welcoming the new guys to the NFL's most exclusive club.

"If somebody goes undefeated, I'm going to be the first guy to call that coach and congratulate him, and I'll do that to Bill Belichick if they go undefeated," Don Shula said. "And our players will do the same for their players. But until somebody does it, we're very, very proud of our accomplishment, and that's all there is to it."

Keep the champagne and Jack handy just in case.

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