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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
Dear 1972 Dolphins: Please get over yourselves and show some respect to the Patriots. Plus: Hockey Ice Bowl.
By King Kaufman
Read more: Sports, NHL, Football, NFL, Ice Hockey, King Kaufman, Sports Daily
Jan. 2, 2008 | A New Year's resolution for the 1972 Miami Dolphins: They should act like even bigger jerks.
The '72 Dolphins are the only NFL team ever to go undefeated and win the championship. For years, they've famously popped champagne bottles to toast themselves when the last undefeated team loses for the first time. There was always an air of "nyah-nyah, you can't catch us" about that, but why not. There's nothing wrong with celebrating your own very real place in history.
But as the New England Patriots approached the perfect regular-season record they achieved with their come-from-behind win over the New York Giants Saturday night, the Dolphins have sounded increasingly like a bunch of cranky old boobs shouting, "Get off my lawn!" Or like a bunch of 2-year-old only children who've just found out they have a baby sibling.
"If it happens, we will be 1A. They will be 1B," Hall of Fame guard Larry Little told the Miami Herald in mid-December at a 35-year reunion of the undefeated team. Guard Bob Kuechenberg quoted the 1,000-yard rusher who has been the most ungracious of the '72 bunch: "As Mercury Morris said, if they go 19-0, they're going to have to park behind us. Our vehicle is already there."
After the Patriots racked up their 16th win Saturday, the Dolphins mostly said nice, congratulatory things, though most were careful to point out that the Patriots hadn't won the championship yet, and that even if they do, they will only have matched, not surpassed, those unforgettable '72 Fins.
Morris' comment was typical: "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 Mister Rogers sweater on, but first they have to get to the neighborhood."
Jeez, fellas. Here's the thing to say if you don't want to sound like a bunch of pricks: "We're popping those champagne corks like we do every year, but this year we're toasting the Patriots on their undefeated regular season. Welcome to the club and good luck in the playoffs!"
Would that have been so hard?
There are exceptions, like tight end Jim Mandich, who called the Patriots a "class act" and "remarkable" and pointed out that they play in "this salary-cap era, free-agency era." Quarterback Bob Griese has long said nice things about Tom Brady, a college teammate of Griese's son Brian. But as a group, these '72 Dolphins seriously need to get over themselves.
