‘72 Dolphins

I am going to take some heat from my Indy readers (and my Mom) when I say this, but I really want the Pats to go undefeated for the whole boat.  19-0 with a Superbowl championship.  Obviously, I want this because I’m a fan of the team, but there is an ulterior motive as well.

I want the ’72 Dolphins to shut the hell up.  Admittedly, Don Shula and Bob Griese have been pretty classy about this whole thing, but the rest of the team has left a lot to be desired.

The whole popping champagne when the last unbeaten team of the year drops ritual was old and lame the first season I knew what they doing; to me it always seemed like a display of poor sportsmanship.  And of course, plenty of members of the ’72 Dolphins are being cry-babies about the Pats unbeaten season right now.

“I do not believe they’ll go 19-0,” said 1972 guard Bob Kuechenberg, noting they still have three postseason games to win. Among the teams they may have to beat are the reigning Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and the NFC champion in the Super Bowl.

“If the Patriots can do all that, my hat is off to them,” Kuechenberg said. “They will have earned the right to join us in the ranks of the immortals.”

“The immortals”?  You won 17 games before the Free-Agency era.  Whoopee do.  Of course, there’s always Mercury Morris’ comments, which are usually the best of the lot:

Morris said: “It doesn’t matter to me whether or not they win them all because it doesn’t affect anything we’ve done. When all the dust clears, the best they can do is to stand beside us, and in the end, that’s not a bad thing. I will welcome them to the neighborhood with my Mr. Rogers sweater on, but first they have to get to the neighborhood.”

I understand that the Fins are proud of their accomplishment.  That’s fine, pride is a perfectly good thing to have, especially when you did something that not a lot of other people have done.  But be classy about it; and when your accomplishment is bested (which it has been) then you should be gracious and acknowledge that fact.  Don’t be a petulant child, because that’s what it look like.  Props to Bob Griese (displaying his Boilermaker class) and Don Shula for being gracious about this.

Ultimately, the rest of the ’72 Dolphins needs to come to terms with the fact that winning 16 straight regular season games in today’s NFL is a significantly greater accomplishment than doing it in ’72.  The players are better, the games are tougher, and the league is more competitive now.  We live in an NFL where even a bad team can put it together and challenge a great team.  Free agency and the condition of athletes now has done much to level the playing field.

Congratulations to Tom Brady and the entire Patriots organization.  In 10-20 years when someone is getting ready to run the table, don’t make me regret typing this.  Be classy about it – don’t be like the Fins.

3 Comments

  1. I’ll agree with you, with the possible (likely?) exception of the Patriots playing the Cowboys in the Super Bowl. Then they’ll have to settle for an 18-1 season if I have any say in the matter.

    Which I don’t, of course.

  2. There’s only one score that matters to me tonight. 27-6 Washington.

    Good luck to the Pats, sorta, damnyankees that they are. I’d rather see the ‘Skins go, but I doubt they will. Then again, I doubted we’d beat Dallas tonight, and the entire Wildcard hunt, so who knows, there might yet be a miracle.

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