44th anniversary of 14-0: Shula's undefeated Dolphins and the pitiful legacy of arrogance

[RobertWeathers]

and missed the zeke mowatt/lisa olsen incident

sad, that was one of the few high-lights of the 1990 season

A disastrous season in every way, shape and form.

 

[AtomicDawg]

F.. em all..

Mercury crawled out of his cave for a few pearls of wisdom to ESPN..

I respect my elders....but my nickname for him has always been Metamucil Morris. Because every time he's put in public he walks like he needs fiber in his diet.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

I respect my elders....but my nickname for him has always been Metamucil Morris. Because every time he's put in public he walks like he needs fiber in his diet.

Keep in mind that if you get exposed to too much mercury (Hg), you end up with neurological damage....

 

[fightingirish595]

I think it is a great achievement, and I don't really care that they celebrate it every year. I also disagree with the people trying to take away the specialty. That being said I think it is repulsive that they root for other teams to lose. Usually athletes root for people to break their records. Atleast they say so publicly

 

[1960Pats]

The Undefeated Season is an achievement - any serious football fan has to acknowledge that. They met all challengers, defeated all challengers, and ended up raising the Lombardi.

What - to me - makes it sad is that for the surviving members of that team it's ALL they have. Celebrating it year in and year out takes so much away from the achievement.

It was definitely a great accomplishment and one that I recognized as great when I saw it happen almost a half century ago,
BUT,
what was truly sad was when Shula interjected himself into the Pats season in 2007 and was publicly trying to belittle the Pats achievement. He became the original Asterjerk by claiming that the Pats should get an asterisk if they went undefeated.

Shula's "reasoning" was that the Pats were fined a top pick and cash so their season would be tainted. The stupid old fart forgot that that was exactly the same thing that happened to the Dolphins when they cheated to get him as the HC. That led directly to the undefeated season a year or two later. Luckily for Shula, some of his ex-players remembered so they quieted that talk down.

The damage had been done though.

This is what I believe is the big difference between Belichick and Shula. Nobody coaching during Shula's time would have been petty or disrespectful enough to publicly criticize a great achievement. Belichick wasn't so lucky.

I give the 72 Dolphins exactly the same amount of credit that Don Shula gave to the Pats 35 years later. None.

 

[ausbacker]

It's quite an accomplishment and good on the '72 Dolphins but I doubt many best NFL teams of all time lists have them in the top 5 let alone the top 10.

 

[stcjones]

Ok....let's be totally honest....Pats went 18-0....and were inches away from 19-0.....Pats had perfect regular season of 16-0....then won TWO playoff games....and did ALL OF THIS at a time of incredible parity....with tremendous competition from a multitude of teams......what they accomplished that year was LEGENDARY!!!

Now onto the doofins....in 72 they hit a perfect storm moment where hardly ANY other team in the league could compete and contend.....it was ridiculously bad......and basically a cakewalk year for the doofins!!!!

They come out every year and yap about what they accomplished....but what the Pats achieved against EXTREMELY Better competition.....in a league now where MANY of the teams are good......Pats 18-0 Wins hands down against the season put out by the piece of crap 72 doofin

 

[Dr Pain]

Funny, this thread just made me remember a name I had not heard in a long time, Dan Marino. I know he wasn't part of that team but how long after he retired did we have to hear about he was the greatest QB etc... Then he was on TV for a while spewing his jealousy, now, wow basically nothing, close to totally forgotten.

I think Manning is on a similar trajectory. They hand jobbed him all last season as a going away gift but now not even a year later, I rarely hear anyone mention him when discussing the greatest etc... Five years from now he will be like, oh yea, that guy, he was like Eli, Ben R and Joe Flacco.

Don Shula, a pathetic man