Hall of Fame G Larry Little
(What does it mean to you? You’re looking forward to the reunion but what’s 50 years mean to you?) – “Well, 50 years means that we have gone 50 years and we’ve been often imitated but never duplicated. It’s definitely a great deal to me because I never thought our record would last this long or actually, because I felt some other teams would come along and at least tie us. Not that no team will ever surpass us. But you know, to tie us but not surpass us.”
(Did you at the time think it was – did it resonate, ‘Oh, we went undefeated. Boy, this was historic’ or did it…?) – “No, it never resonated with me because that was one year, and who would have thought 50 years later or 49 years later it’s still the record still standing.”
(I had a question related to you going to Booker T. You’re one of the few Dolphins who spent time at a high school locally and I wanted to know what did it mean for you being a trailblazer from Booker T. in the Overtown area and making it all the way to the Hall of Fame?) – “Well, it meant a great deal to me. You know, when I was a kid going to the Orange Bowl to see football games, we used to go see the University of Miami play. I could walk from my house to the Orange Bowl and during that time it was segregation and we had to sit in the bleachers and for me to come back to Miami when I’ve actually went out with the Chargers and played in the Orange Bowl, it meant a great deal to me, but then be traded here and finishing my career here in Miami means a great deal to me. To be the first – I wasn’t the first – some other guys went to play pro football, but to reach the level that I reached playing the game of football.”
(I was just curious how much you’re watching the Philadelphia Eagles right now. Their 6-0 start right now and also what odds would you give them and also what do you think’s the most important trait for a team if they want to finish a perfect season?) – “I’m glancing at them right now. I’m not looking very hard at him right now because they still have some games to play, but but they look like they have a very good football team from what I’ve seen so far. And you know, they’re a good football team, but it’s early in the year. I don’t even start thinking about them going undefeated because they have to actually play the Cowboys game in Dallas. So I think that would be a real big game for them.”
(What about the second part there? What do you think is the most important trait for a team if they want to be perfect? What do you think is the most important trait that you guys had?) – “To believe in it to believe in one another, to believe in your coaching staff, and we had a great coaching staff. We only had six coaches, compared to what, 25 now? And just believe in yourself. Believe you can get it done, although we didn’t talk about getting it done in 1972. But we knew we had a good football team from the year before and we wanted to redeem ourselves and we lost by losing a game against Dallas in the Super Bowl, but we didn’t ever even think about going undefeated. We only want to get back to the Super Bowl and win it.”
(I wanted to ask you a little bit about your offensive line and it’s obviously the best offensive line this team has ever head, and yet the way it was put together was rather interesting. I know you arrived via trade. What do you remember about that trade? Were you kicking and screaming about coming to Miami? Were you happy? Did you think that it was going to happen in the first place?) – “Well, actually, I was disappointed when I was traded to Miami because although in San Diego we didn’t win any championships, but we had a good football team. Some great talent on it. And coming to Miami being an expansion team, which they were at the time in 1969. And I didn’t know we would turn around as quickly as we did, and we probably wouldn’t have if Don Shula hadn’t come in to be our coach. And I had a good offensive line coach in San Diego by the name of Joe Madro. But then I got into Miami, I had Ernie Heffley my first year who wasn’t a bad offensive line coach. But then the next year when Monte Clark came, he made all of us into better football players up front.”
(And have you thought about how different would your life be had you lost even one game in 1972?) – “I don’t think – I think it would have been the same because you have other teams now that got close. The Bears were – it was the same with them – and the New England Patriots that lost one game. So I don’t think that much would have changed as long we won the Super Bowl. Just like for next year – it’ll be 50 years also from the 1973 team.”
(Were you one of those guys on the sideline on that Monday night game in 1985?) – “Well actually, I wasn’t because I was coaching at the time at Bethune-Cookman. And although I wasn’t here physically, I was there mentally because my team had a meeting earlier that night to watch the game on TV. Normally I kept them till 10 o’clock. I had them till 9 o’clock that night. They weren’t …. (laughter)”
(I’m curious – 20 years ago, 25 years ago, we’d hear like Nick Buoniconti call it “The Forgotten Team” – you guys, because the idea was you didn’t get your due for going undefeated. Do you think that’s changed in the last 10-20 years as really the years mount on what an achievement it was?) – “I think it does now because 20 years are good, but 50 years are just amazing. For us still be the only undefeated team in history, I like to say they like to say – once a team is getting close to going undefeated, they bring it all back from the day they start talking about us again, because other than that they forget about us. But you know, I’m happy that we are still being recognized because that is a tremendous accomplishment that we had. I’m quite sure the other guys that you’re going to talk to would feel the same way.”
(Going back to the question about referring to one of the best offensive lines we’ve ever seen in the NFL. Obviously, you have a couple of Hall of Fame running backs as well. I was curious how that undefeated team’s play style benefited the weather down here in South Florida as you guys ran the ball in this hot heat? Like how did those two things work together to make you guys the best versions of yourselves?) – “Well, you know, we could always tell when another team was sucking it up. They’re coming from the north. And late in games when we had to hold the football to keep the other team’s offense from coming onto the field. We relished that because we knew they were tired and we knew blocking and we knew (Larry) Csonka was going to running behind us. And Mercury (Morris) was going to be running behind me basically. And we relished that. We knew they were getting tired. See, what happened, too, a lot of people don’t realize this – before Shula came, we were on the other sideline. But when he came to Miami, he realized we could have be benefited by being the team that’s not in the hottest part of the stadium. So he changed sideline. He moved us to the other sidelines, so the other team can suffer like they’re doing now like they did against Buffalo this year.”
(You mentioned Coach Shula there. How tough is it going to be for you and your teammates to be out there celebrating this monumental moment, this 50th anniversary without Coach Shula?) – “Well, not only not having Coach Shula there with having, what, 16 other teammates not being there. It will be a joyous occasion for us and still is going to be a kind of sad occasion for us. Because, you know, we lost our last one this year who was one of my closest teammates, Marlin Briscoe. It will be sad not having Marlin there, just like all other 15 guys that that left us. But it will be a sad occasion by Coach (Shula) not being there because he was there for the last one. And some of the guys were there for the last one. They’re not here for this one and who knows, this is probably our last time being together as a group that went undefeated. I do know that Shula’s, his wife will be there on sat on Sunday, but it’s going to be a sad occasion.”
(You mentioned that you spent some time coaching at Bethune-Cookman. You also spent time coaching at North Carolina Central University. I wanted to know did you ever reach out to Coach Shula for some advice during that time or during your coaching tenure?) – “Well, when I first got into coaching, I had never coached before. So I asked Coach (Shula), with me not ever coaching before, what should I do first? He told me ‘no offense, no defense, and let your assistant coaches coach and don’t over-coach.’ That was the advice I got from him, and I also took the Dolphins playbook with me. And you know, and we ended up winning our first championship – we got a championship at Bethune my seventh year coaching and won it four years later in 1988. But taking some of his philosophies with me that I got from him, although I’ve never had a full coaching staff. I had nothing but part-time coaches. So one coach was my coach, he coached basketball, another coach coached women’s basketball, the other coach coached something else. So you know what, I was lucky enough to have those guys and they were good coaches also and we had some success there.”
(I wanted to ask you about the Hall of Fame. I’m sure it was an unbelievable honor for you and the teammates you have who made it to Canton. But as you know, there’s one teammate who has come very close and hasn’t gotten in yet. Bob Kuechenberg. How do you feel about that?) – “’Kuch’ (Bob Kuechenberg) had a great career and he had as good a career as any other offensive lineman in the Hall of Fame and I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. Although, you know, he was my teammate. And you know, it’s hard when you look at our offensive line with Jim Langer the center being in and me being in the Hall of Fame; it’s sort of like the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker corps. You know, Jack Ham is in the Hall of Fame, Jack Lambert is in the Hall of Fame. And Andy Russell, he was a great linebacker for the Steelers. He’s not in the Hall of Fame. So it could be pertaining to something like that. But ‘Kuch’ deserves to be being in there, no doubt. He played 15 years, tough as nails and I wouldn’t say he was as good as me, but he was a great offensive lineman.”
(What are you doing now? Are you retired?) – “I’m retired. My last day of working was January the 14th of this year. But ironically, one of my former players who is a principal now here in Miami, he called me a couple of weeks ago and said, ‘Coach, I know you retire, but how would you like to work two days a week at my school?’ I told the man I’m enjoying laying in my bed. He said, ‘You don’t even have to come until 10-1.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m enjoying laying in my bed every day. Not having to get up in the morning.’ I love being in my shorts all day. I don’t want to be dressed anymore. I love doing what I’m doing right now. He said, ‘We’re going to keep going after you, Coach.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”
(One other thing – off topic of the ’72 Dolphins, but I know you did fundraisers in Virginia Beach and that was important to you. Have you followed up with what’s going on there with they’re now limiting the number of African-American commissioners or something at Virginia Beach?) – “No, I’m no longer involved in that project. My main focus right now is minority scholarships. And last year we gave away $41,000 in scholarships. $1,000 for 41 different students. Also I donated $20,000 to my alma mater, Bethune-Cookman College for scholarships. So this is what I’m focusing on right now.”
(So one of the cool things about the 72 team, the stats are crazy. Zero [losses], 2,000-yard rushers, most rushing yards by team in a season. But what I think has been the most interesting part of looking at all the history had been specific plays – the interceptions in the Super Bowl, the fake punts, things like that. Are there any kind of standout plays either that you feel like were great plays for you? Or plays that really stand out your memory when you think back on that season 50 years ago?) – “Well, we ran a play called Float 38. That was me pulling and Mercury (Morris) running behind me. And that’s where he gained most of his yards, on Float 38 running behind me.”
(And then another question that I think has been interesting is the difference in the game in 2022, versus 72. Particularly the difference in offensive line play?) – “Guys hold every play now. We couldn’t hold back then. We had to keep our hands inside, and they’d be – they could call a holding penalty on every play in every game if they wanted to, and they have a lot of fat guys playing now, too, and there’s a lot of belly bumping out there. I was big then, but I wasn’t fat. I’m kind of fat now.”
(And in some of your previous interviews on the subject, you talked about how important losing 20 pounds before that season was to help you kind of block on the outside. Could you talk a bit more about that?) – “Oh, well, Shula made me lose weight. When he came to Miami, I went to his press conference and after the press conference they introduced him. And I said, ‘Coach, my name is Larry Little. I’m your right guard.’ The first thing he said to me was, ‘How much do you weigh?’ I said 285. And he walked off. Didn’t say another word to me and when I got my letter and to come to training camp, the letter stated that ‘I want your weight to be 265 pounds.’ And at that time, I was still big for an offensive lineman compared to the style of the offensive lineman today. So you know, I worked out to keep my weight down and that helped me a lot. Because, like you said earlier, this sweltering heat down here in Miami, I could play a whole game without really getting really, really tired.”
(You touched on this a little bit talking about offensive line play I wanted to ask you just help us get into the mindset of an offensive lineman. Coming off of Tua’s injuries. He took those two big hits in those two games. He’s coming out of the concussion protocol. He’s going to be back out there on the field. Obviously, the linemen – your goal is to protect the quarterback on each and every play, but what’s going through their head now knowing he’s coming back from such an injury, knowing that they’re going to have to take that extra step to protect him even more after what he’s coming out of this concussion protocol?) – “I was told not to talk about that today.”
(Or maybe your thoughts just as a lineman in general after …?) – “Let me put it this way. It’s very similar to actually in 1972 when we lost about Bob Griese and Earl Morrall came in. And at the time Earl was 38 years old with no escape ability. And we knew we had to block a little harder and longer for Earl than we had to block for Bob. But then that year, Earl had the longest run from scrimmage out of any of our backs. Earl ran a 38-yard touchdown against New York Jets. So what your mindset is always to play hard. You knew you had to block off for your quarterback and we had to block that way for Earl more so than Bob. Not more so than Bob, but a little longer than Bob.”
So you’re conscious of that. In your head you’re thinking maybe a little bit more about who’s that back there under center at the time when you’re figuring out your game plan?) – “Not really. Just want to do the best job you can with what you have and no linemen like to get beat. It’s embarrassing and nowadays, too, and it started late in my career when they call your name out for holding. You don’t want to hear your name, ‘holding on No. 66.’ Oh no, goodness. No, you don’t want that. But playing offensive line, you have to have a lot of pride to be a good offensive lineman. You just can’t go out there and say I can’t – you have to have the mindset that you can’t let this guy in front of you beat you, and that’s what I had. I played some great defensive linemen, too – Mean Joe Green, Curley Culp, Mike Reid, Merlin Olsen. You have to go out there and say, ‘I’m not going to let this guy beat me because that’ll be embarrassing to me.’ It was embarrassing to me to get beat by anyone.”
(Give me your thoughts real quickly on – you mentioned earlier, “Wow, it’s been 50 years.” Are you surprised that no other team has been able to duplicate what you guys did 50 years ago. Tom Brady even just went out on social media and said bluntly football is hard. And not only is football hard, but going undefeated as he learned, he made it through the regular season but going undefeated and winning the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that no other teams have been able to do that over the last five decades?) – “Yes, I am. Like I said earlier, I never thought that we would be on top of the mountain by ourselves. I thought we would’ve been joined by someone else and it hasn’t happened.”
(In reading up and just learning more about the history of you know the 70s and the Orange Bowl specifically, I came to learn about Dolfan Denny, the superfan who’s in all orange and getting the crowd hyped up. I was just curious if you knew of him, if you noticed him while you were playing and just what impact he had hyping up the crowd back in the day?) – “I knew Dolfan Denny. I do know, too, that I believe he worked for Southern Bell with my sister, too. But I never paid that much attention to what he had when he was hyping up the crowd and not because my total concentration was on the game. But I knew of him for sure.”
(Could you tell that he really had an impact on getting the crowd hyped up when you guys were playing at home?) – “I think what really got the crowd hyped up that we noticed when they started you bringing out the white hankies. More so than Denny hyping up the crowd. I mean, at the Orange Bowl we’re seeing 80,000 people standing there waving those white handkerchiefs. I mean, that did a lot for us.”
(I wanted to ask you about Don Shula’s legacy. What does he mean to South Florida and the city of Miami?) – “Well, he is South Florida, although he wasn’t born and raised here. Shula is South Florida. What do you have a highway named after him? He had a hotel and country club named after him because of what he accomplished as a head coach and still being one of the head coach in the history of the NFL. And his legacy will always be around Miami, no matter how many years to come. If you want to know who Don Shula was and what he meant to not only Miami, South Florida.”
Hall of Fame QB Bob Griese
(Opening Statement) – “I heard everything, every word that (Larry) Csonka was saying. He was – in the huddle, he was on one side of me, and Mercury Morris was on the other side of me. And you saw how long Csonka talks and you saw how intelligent he is, well, Mercury thought he was just as talkative, and he was, but he wasn’t nearly as smart as Csonka. But occasionally, I would say, ‘Alright, I don’t have any ideas of what I wanted to call.’ It was like second-and-1 or third-and-1. I would say, ‘Anybody got any ideas?’ Well, gee, here we go. Csonka says P 10, Mercury Morris says Flow 38, and then (Bob) Kuechenberg is up there, and he’s playing left guard, or he might be laying center, and he has his suggestions. So that’s what I put up with. I just want you guys to know that Mercury and Csonka and Kuechenberg, and then (Head Coach Don) Shula is on the sidelines, ‘Bob, hurry up! Hurry up, Bob! Hurry up!’ I said – and he knew, he knew, he knew, he knew what the problem was. So I didn’t ask for suggestions of play calls very often, but when we were ahead, it was fun to see those guys jump in there. You just saw with Csonka, a very intelligent guy, very intelligent but also – I always liked that play in the Super Bowl where he came, got swept and he hit that guy on the sideline. Shula thought it was going to be a penalty on the other guy, but no, it was on Csonka. (laughter) I enjoyed seeing that one, I do.”
(I think one of the most interesting things about this season is how you ended up splitting quarterback duties with QB Earl Morrall over the course of the season because of injuries. I was wondering if you could just speak about that, and also because he can’t speak with us today, if you could just reflect on QB Earl Morrall?) – “I played the first five games. We were inside the five-yard line, and I called a – I don’t know what the play was called, it was a pass. I dropped back to pass, I threw the ball, and I followed through with my right leg, and one of the defensive ends – I think it was San Diego or Los Angeles? Anyway, (he) fell on my right front leg, and I knew immediately that this was not going to be a thing that I was going to play the rest of that game. I’m saying I’m wonder how many games I’m going to miss. It was a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle. The dislocated ankle was much more serious than the crack in the fibula. So here comes Earl, Earl Morrall. Earl had been with (Head Coach Don) Shula in Baltimore. Shula’s second year with us, he brought Earl from Baltimore to us, because if anything happened to me, he had a lot of confidence in Earl. A lot of the guys didn’t see that yet, because Earl hadn’t played. Earl was not a good practice player. He was not the good practice player. So all the guys and the offense and the D-guys on the defense and the guys on the rest of the team were saying, ‘Uh oh. Uh oh, Bob’s hurt. Earl is going in. Did you see where he threw that pass on Friday? You see how he threw those passes on Saturday? Oh geez, here goes Earl.’ Earl was like, I don’t know, 38 or 39, which was – nobody played when they were that old in the league. So anyway, Earl comes in and just sets all the questioners, all the guys to the side, he answers all the questions. He leads us the rest of the way. And I’ve always said Earl was a great guy. We lockered next to each other, and he did a great job. There would be no undefeated season without Earl Morrall.”
(That’s great of you to say. I’ve got to say, one other aspect of that season for you that seems like something out of a movie is halftime AFC Championship game, Head Coach Don Shula talks to you about coming into the game. Can you just describe that moment a little bit?) –
“Well, I was ready. I was ready. In fact, I was healthy. I think I missed – what I miss? 10 games? 11 games? Like I said the cracked fibula was not problem, it was the dislocated ankle. I was getting treatment all the way from the time I got injured, well once they took the cast off, all they way up there. I had some friends and they played softball in the in the offseason. And a guy had a dislocated ankle like I did, and he said, ‘it took me two years to get over that dislocated ankle.’ And I said, ‘It took me five months.’ So five months and I was back playing. Everybody saw me in practice, I was running the second team. Earl Morrall was still running, he was doing his thing. Sometimes he was looking good in practice, sometimes (inaudible). (laughter) So anyway, I was throwing the ball well, I had a fresh arm. I mean, I had no bumps and bruises. I had no people stepping on me. Nothing was wrong with my head as far as bad plays. My arm was fresh, but Earl was doing a good job. So when Coach Shula came to me at halftime in Pittsburgh, the AFC Championship game, and he said, ‘You’re in,’ and I said, ‘Alright, I’ve been ready for the last couple of games.’ And he saw that and he knew that, and the rest of the team knew that. So I said, ‘OK.’ So, that was it – I just went in. Earl did a great job getting us there, and like I said, he’s a big part of that 17-0.”
(I wanted to talk a little bit more about how you mentioned the injuries that you suffered and QB Earl Morrall came in. Looking at this year’s Dolphins team, they’ve been dealing with injuries at the quarterback position. It’s derailed the season a little bit. They’ve suffered a few losses. Are you excited to see – It appears QB Tua Tagovailoa is coming back into the lineup. Are you excited to see him reintroduced out there onto the field? Is that the kind of spark that a team can have that will help get them back on the winning ways and really help turn the season back to where it was at the beginning with those three straight wins?) – “You couldn’t get any worse than having not only your two top quarterbacks, but your three top quarterbacks injured before you played six or seven games. But they’ll be back – none of them are out for the season. Tua (Tagovailoa) coming back – Tua will play and play well. The other two guys will heal. The thing we’ve found out is that seventh-round draft pick (Skylar Thompson) is pretty good player.”
(Another question just related to that a little bit. I know you were listening to Larry Csonka when he was talking with us. And he said listen, back in his day, these players could knock each other off their feet. Not the case anymore – the NFL really trying to protect the players and making rule changes. As a quarterback, what are your thoughts on the way the game is played now? I know there are some pluses and minuses. You see the questionable roughing the passer call with Tom Brady that social media erupted over. As a guy who played quarterback for so many years, what are your thoughts on the rule changes now to help protect players?) – “Well, when I played and all the other quarterbacks have played, they needed to protect the quarterback a little bit more. They may have gone overboard a little bit, but I would say I’d rather see them (stay) on the side of too much protection of the quarterback rather than too little, like they did back when we played.”
(We talked to Larry Csonka a little bit obviously before. He gets pretty excitable about the prospect of the undefeated teams losing each time that they have a chance. Can you talk about – is that a shared sentiment? Or would you say there’s somebody that gets the most excited about a team nowadays that loses the chance to match you guys? Or how does that go about with you guys?) – “Well, we’re kind of used to having one or two or three teams go undefeated, maybe halfway through the season, but this year was different. After, I don’t know, almost three games, there were only one or two teams still undefeated. I haven’t seen Philadelphia play that much, but I’ve seen some highlights. And like I guess like ‘Csonk’ (Larry Csonka) said, they could – but it gets tougher as you go along. It’s tougher, even the weaker teams have the chance to beat you. But yeah, they play one more game (or) two more games than we did. So I don’t know – if we went 17-0, they go 19-0. So they have one more game, but we still have the zero on the loss column.”
(Is there a certain trait you can point to that you guys had that you would say was the most significant trait for that team for not losing a game?) – “Oh, we had a hell of a defense. We had a hell of a defense, and we had a hell of an offensive line. We had the hell of a running game, which controlled, I think Csonka talked about it a little bit, we were out there not trying to score points so much but to stay on the field, keep our defense on the sideline and the opponent’s very good offense on the sideline. As long as we stayed out there making first downs and running that clock, we were doing our defense and our team a service and a disservice to the other team’s offense by not letting them on the field. So things change a lot. Back in that day, the thing was the running game and the offensive line and the running game. Today, it’s not that – it’s the passing game. So it’s kind of hard to control the field and the offense and the clock with a passing offense, but some people can do it.”
(I’m just curious, 50 is a big number – 50 years is a big number. But I remember at 25 years, Nick Buoniconti saying you guys were the forgotten team and Head Coach Don Shula saying you didn’t get your respect. Do you think by now that the undefeated and the achievement of it is on a bigger stage than it was back then and maybe what you guys deserve?) – “Yes, that’s a good point. That’s a good question. I think back then, so what? So you go undefeated, win the Super Bowl – somebody is going to do it in five years. Nobody did it. In 10 years – they’ll do it soon. 15 years, nobody has done it. 20 years? No, nobody. 30 (years), then the good teams come by, the Brady year, the New York Giants with Eli Manning beating the Patriots in that Super Bowl game. And everybody says, ‘Geez, that must be pretty hard to do, go undefeated.’ So yes, I think as time has gone by, I think more people realize that that was something special. We didn’t realize it was something special. We just thought – we didn’t try to go undefeated. We just went out there and tried to win each game. Win each game and that’s what we did. But it’s tougher to do now because there are more games. I think we get more respect now than we did back then because we went undefeated.”
(Just generally, how do you think like the game has evolved with the rules for concussions? Especially with what we know about CTE? How do you think head trauma injuries are like viewed now as supposed to back then?) – “I’m glad to see them protecting the quarterback a little bit more. A few years ago, they said, ‘OK, you can’t hit the quarterback below the waist, and you can’t hit him above the shoulders when you’re coming in there.’ Now, when the guy grabs him legally and twirls him around and throws him down and his head and his helmet pop back on the ground, now they’re starting to call that. I’m all for the quarterbacks – you can’t protect enough (is) what I’m saying. What would a game be without Aaron Rodgers? What would a game be without (Tom) Brady and some of these quarterbacks? You want to see them in there. As long as the rules are the same for both sides, both defenses and both offenses, I like it.”
(It just seems like there’s more of an awareness now for head trauma injuries as opposed to back in the day for all positions. What are your thoughts on that and how concussions and CTE are viewed now as opposed to back then?) – “Back in the old days – I’m looking across here at armoire and I see two or three of my helmets sitting up there. Inside those helmets are the way that helmets used to be made, and that was just straps. There were just straps in there holding your head away from the helmet and protecting it – not very good. Today, they’ve got these air-filled helmets on the inside that you can pump up and pump up, so the technology has come a long way. I see these guys hitting their heads and I say, ‘Oh, if that would have been me back int eh day, I probably would have had a concussion.’ But they’re much better – the helmets are much better, and they’re protecting the quarterbacks a little better. I like what I’m seeing.”
(I spoke to QB Tua Tagovailoa probably in the beginning of this season, he said he never had the chance to speak with you before. If there’s one thing that you could tell QB Tua Tagovailoa, what would that be?) – “Keep doing what you’re doing. He’s a bright kid. I would tell every quarterback this; when you drop back in the pocket, and you look to the right, and you look over the middle, and you look to the left, if nobody is covered and there’s no way to takeoff running, scrambling up the middle or scrambling to the right or the left, get rid of the ball. You have to think that. You have to say, ‘OK, I’ve got three receivers going out on the right and two on the left and they’re coming across the middle of field. I’m looking here first, then I’m looking here.’ And if not, I said, ‘I’m looking over here. I’m going to get rid of the ball over the middle. And if not, that baby is going somewhere. It’s going at the feet of somebody that’s covered. I’m getting rid of the football.’ And that that is a trait that the really good quarterbacks in this league have.”
(You spent some time as part of the greatest college broadcast team with you and Keith Jackson. What was that experience like working with him over the years?) – “Oh nelly! Oh nelly, I’ve got to tell you. Keith (Jackson) was – Keith was a great guy. My first game, he says, ‘I’ll take care of you.’ I never will forget, my son, Brian, was playing for Michigan and they were in the Rose Bowl. Michigan was ranked No. 1, and everybody was asking me, ‘How are you going to call this game without being favored to your son and to Michigan?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve been – we did five or six Michigan games, and I just call it the way I see it.’ I called – the Michigan quarterback was my son, I called him Griese. I didn’t call him – so anyway, we’re doing the Rose Bowl game, the National Championship, (and) Michigan wins. They win the National Championship. So they win, and Keith – it’s kind of near the end of the broadcast, kind of signing off and he says, ‘Woah, nelly. Do you want to know who the MVP is? I’m standing right next to his proud daddy.’ And I said, ‘Keith, you better take it from here, because I can’t talk.’ (laughter) He was a great guy – one of the best.”
Hall of Fame FB Larry Csonka
(Can you kind of paint the picture of what it’s like every time this team gets together and you guys are reunited? Also, can you speak to how much Don Shula will be missed for this reunion?) – “Well, getting together as a group is very nice and it’s nice for the Dolphins to do that to where we’re actually looking at each other, pressing flesh and able to talk, lean on each other, smile, smoke cigars and all of that. But there’s a unity that goes on with the ’72 team that goes on every year that it’s the most alive team that I’ve ever been affiliated with – I think anyone has ever been affiliated with – because it’s still competing. You guys know what I’m about to say. As soon as we get five games in, just like right now, I’m starting to get calls from Manny Fernandez and different guys going, ‘What do you think of Philadelphia? What do you think their odds are of (going undefeated)?’ Right away. See what that does is we’re dusty old guys. We’ve been retired 50 years. It’s been obviously 50 years since we went undefeated. But each year, we come back to life. It’s like the dust blows off and we’re up and we’re talking, ‘it’s us against them,’ kind of thing. But it’s not really us against them. It’s our reputation against them. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say it gives you the feeling, as you reach antiquity, that you’re still in there. There’s still a competition going on. The great thing about it is we don’t have to listen to (Don) Shula and we’re not having two-a-days. (laughter) But we’re still competing in a very minor capacity. It’s still there and it goes on. And it reaches a peak. The year that New England went so far, clear to the Super Bowl, Tom Coughlin, my old teammate from Syracuse, bailed us out. That was a sweat and right down to the wire. I don’t like that. (laughter) That year wasn’t a very pleasant one, although we were together and talked a lot during the course of that. I like when it all ends about midseason or two-thirds of the way through because whatever team is going undefeated or shows signs of going undefeated drops a game by that time.”
(I have to follow up. What are those internal conversations about Philadelphia this year? You’ve got a lot of teams that suffered their first loss early but then the Eagles kind of stood pat for a few weeks now. So what are you guys saying about this year’s Eagles?) – “Well, we’re all starting to growl in our beards about it. You’re glad that there’s one or two teams that are still undefeated when you reach about the sixth or seventh game mark. But then around the 10-game mark, you start to want to see them disappearing faster because you’re very guarded about it. It’s a jealousy thing. In one capacity, it’s fun. In another capacity, it’s still a competition thing and it’s a little frustrating, particularly when you get to the Super Bowl, and you know it’s coming right down to the wire. Nobody can better us but they can certainly tie us. So you’re pulling very heavily against them to do that. It makes you feel alive. It makes you feel like you’re part of it again, and that’s a very good thing.”
(You mentioned Tom Coughlin and in your book, you spoke on your time with him at Syracuse. I wanted to know, going back to that 2007 season, do you still thank him for preserving your undefeated record when he was a coach with the Giants?) – “Absolutely. I’ve thanked him many times. We talked through the years – Tom and I go way back to August of 1964 when we both met in an elevator at Booth Hall at Syracuse University. Remarkably, you look at coaches in the capacity that Tom was there, he’s a very detail-oriented guy and he and Coach (Don) Shula are very similar personalities. Great attention to detail. Very dedicated people, I guess, are the words that I want to say. They are dedicated to what they do. A lot of us, me included, tend to take things half-hearted and sign on to do things. They’re a little more detail-oriented and Tom is a very sincere competitor. If he’s going up against you – Shula used to call it the winning edge. What that means, and it’s applicable to Tom Coughlin as well – it’s something they have in common – it’s the attention to detail. Shula flew out and went to a Super Bowl game, before we went to the stadium that we were going to play in in a couple of weeks, on a Sunday and documented where the sun was every hour in the afternoon. Those kind of details give you an insight into how serious they are about all of the details adding up to a win. It’s not a thing where we’re just going to practice and they do this, we’ll do that. It’s much more intense than that, I guess is what I’m looking for. I think that’s the common denominator between Shula and Coughlin. To answer your question about him being the coach in the Super Bowl, I felt confident because they both – Shula and Coughlin – were very similar in their attention to detail. I thought if anybody can beat the Patriots, it would be the Giants because Tom Coughlin will not miss a detail. And he did not. And it came down to a thread. But that’s the great thing is you’re either on top of that mountain and undefeated or you’re not. There’s no – almost doesn’t count for much. You’re either there or you’re not. In those closing moments, who was the guy that caught the ball on the side of his head – David Tyree – at the end of the game and won it for the Giants. What a moment. I jumped up out of my chair and almost stuck my head into an overhead fan, I was so excited. But that – knowing people like that, you talk about Tom Coughlin and what he means in my life or how close we were, we were close when we played together, we were close when we were in professional football at the same time, and then he coached the team that defended our perfect season. So how much closer can you get in football than that?”
(You said you jumped out of your seat. Can you take us through a little bit how it’s gone over the years? Do you remember any other stories from watching the teams? How do you watch the Eagles right now? Is it a pretty rollercoaster ride for you right now? What’s that experience like?) – “What’s funny about that is when you start out and there’s a new team like Philly that’s showing signs of doing things and you turn your attention to them, it pleased me to see how well-balanced Philly is. Everyone is acting surprised but when you look at what they’re doing and how they control the ball, they’re reminiscent of – football has obviously changed a great deal in 50 years. A lot of folks sitting in the stands – back in the day, when I played, I think most of the fans had played football and had some understanding of it. More of the base of the fans today, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. There’s many people sitting in those seats that have never played, never been on the field and just like the whole scenario – the competition and the excitement. And when they look out there and see a ball thrown, they see a man throw a football, they see another man run and catch it, and they understand that. When they see the power running game operate and four yards is gained, they probably don’t know what they just saw. But the ingredients that go into a ball-control offense are so finite that if you have an understanding of what’s happening out there, it enables that team to do that repeatedly and have that, and you have a greater appreciation of what you’re looking at. I’m not going to say one is good and one is bad. It’s just the difference over the decades. And when you talk about the intensity that we get excited about, when one of the other players calls me – Larry Little, Manny Fernandez or one of them calls me – they start talking about like Philly. And I say it looks like they’ve got ball control, which is something you don’t see very often anymore, where they can actually say it’s third-and-2 and we’re going to run right here and you can’t stop us, and they do it. Not 100 percent but certainly play in and play out, a high percentage of the time, they go ahead and do it. That affects the defense. You can’t imagine how unbalanced the defense starts to feel when you can start controlling that and burning that clock down. Now when you throw the pass, you score fast, the other team takes the ball and scores fast, you get high-scoring games that are very exciting. I’m not saying it’s not a great thing for the fans. But when I watch a game and I see what Philly is demonstrating right there, they have things that are reminiscent of our old power running game when we went undefeated. It’s gratifying but it’s a little scary. (laughter) So there’s two sides to that coin.”
(Have you looked down that schedule a little bit? Who is going to beat the Eagles?) – “Probably the team that is the least likely looking at the schedule is the one that will do the trick. That’s how competitive today’s game is with how much the passing game has been enhanced. Back in the day, until the ball was in the air, you could knock a guy clear off his feet anywhere on the field in a pass pattern. But today, it’s not the case. It’s a very different game. It’s just probably more exciting for more people in the stands than it was then. I’m not downplaying that. And I’m not really trying to compete with it. It’s just a fact. It’s just the way it is. But if you see a team all of a sudden that doesn’t depend on that, that actually shows signs of ball control, it gets us old grandpas sitting in our antiquity chairs to sit up and say, ‘Damn! They look a little reminiscent of something we might have done back then.’ So it gets a little exciting and you’re happy about that, and you like to watch them. But then as they keep going undefeated, you’re starting to think, ‘wait a minute here. Why am I applauding? These guys are going to dance on our dance floor here shortly.”
(You mentioned how the game has changed and how you can’t just knock players clear off their feet anymore. The league has obviously made a lot of rule changes to try and protect players overall. And then you see instances like the QB Tom Brady roughing the passer call that erupted social media and people were complaining on the other side of that. What do you think about the rule changes and does the league have it right when it comes to protecting players? Or is it still a work in progress?) – “I can’t comment on protecting players. That’s more than the league. I’m sure the league has combined with medical. There’s a lot that goes into that, the whole science of that. But as far as making it competitive on the field, I think it’s more competitive than it’s ever been. I’m a power runner, a fullback. I’m not a breakaway runner. I have to have linemen that can cooperate and work with each other. It becomes very intricate, very tricky. I’m appreciative of that. I like that. But I understand that probably 50 percent of the people or more sitting in the stands don’t really know about that. It’s not that exciting to them. To see a 3-yard gain on first down, it’s like what just happened? Well, if you know the inner workings of it, you’re much more appreciative of it. And you know the ability of an offense that controls the clock to make the other team to not have time to get that last touchdown, no matter how good their passer is. That’s the difference. Now, it’s a business. The NFL is a business. To make it more attractable to the fans, the product more attractive to the customer, the purchaser, certainly you enhance the passing game. Coach (Don) Shula was one of the guys. He was on the rules committee when they started changing a lot of those passing rules. If you look back in the 70s and 80s, he was one of the guys that was into that. He liked the passing game and thought it was better to help that side of it more than the power running game. Obviously that’s come to fruition. But when you’re sitting in the stands and you don’t really know a lot about football, again you can recognize that throw and that catch, and that’s exciting. And it comes right down to the wire. They fire a lot of them right down to the wire. But suddenly you see all of that ball control that we had seems to have disappeared in antiquity. And then all of a sudden you see there’s Philly sitting there and they’re starting to do some of the things that we did. You sit up and clear your throat and think, ‘Damn, they’re starting to control that ball.’ Well, the only way that you can keep the other quarterback from not slinging the ball 40 yards is to burn that clock up. And you see Philly starting to do that. That’s reminiscent to what we had back 50 years ago. Even though I’m in my rocking chair in antiquity, every once in awhile, I sit up, clear my throat and call (Manny) Fernandez and say, ‘did you just see that?’ (laughter) And for 30 seconds or a minute and a half, we’re right into it, bridging the 50-year gap and each paragraph is being spouted. And it’s fun. It makes you feel current.”
(On that note, you mentioned that you get the messages from Manny Fernandez and some of your other former teammates. When you’re going to be on the field together in-person on Sunday, how is that going to be different to not be exchanging text messages and actually be there as a group once again, celebrating this monumental occasion, this 50 years since you guys did what many thought couldn’t be done?) – “Well, to answer your question, it’s super. I look forward to it. They all do. I’m sure we all do. And we appreciate it. But just being week-to-week, or year-to-year, where we would all get together – the Dolphins have been gracious enough over most of the 50-year period to bring us back at least once a year or maybe even more. Or provide us an opportunity where all the veterans and the old pros could all get together. You don’t realize how fast you’re getting old until your teammates, your friends, acquaintances, family, start to disappear. I don’t think anything brought it more drastically to mind than when Coach Shula passed. None of us – he was just such a strong and prominent figure in so many of our lives, that you just assume he’s always going to be there. And then suddenly to be talking about him in the past tense was a really bitter pill. It made us realize we’re all getting older. We’re passing that quarter-mile post. It’s coming around the bend. That’s what promoted the fact with me about writing the memoir was that I realized 75 is a lot different than 55. Let’s put it that way. I was still making memoirs at 55. Now at 75, I’m looking back at them.”
(What sort of reaction are you getting from your teammates about your book?) – “(laughter) Well, that’s the great thing about a memoir. You don’t say it’s history, you say it’s a memoir because everybody remembers things a little differently. (laughter) Coach (Don) Shula and I never had the same expression or the same comment about anything from a ham sandwich to a cup of coffee. We’d find something to (inaudible) about. But it’s a memoir. That means that’s the way I remember it. Now what I did with Manny (Fernandez) and several of them – Larry Little, Paul Warfield, Bob Griese – and even back before Jim Kiick passed away, I started re-hashing stories with him because sometimes the way you remember, you only remember from your perspective. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the details on things, just how it concerned me and how it affected me. So when you start writing about it 50 years later, you kind of want to get your teammates – I didn’t want them to get involved with it in writing it; but at the same time, after I wrote it, I wanted to have them proof it and say, ‘Do you remember this this way?’ Like when Shula first got there and we had the confrontation, when we put the alligator in his room. Because some of the details got shifted over the years, so I wanted to make sure my teammates were still remembering it the same way I was. So when you talk about a memoir, that kind of gets you off the hook. That’s the way that I remember it. And Manny Fernandez and Larry Little were kind enough to really proofread it. Paul Warfield (too). Different fellows took the time to sit down and read it. A lot of my offensive linemen read it, read the proofs, and got back to me and told me about the differences. And then I decided whether I had to change it a little bit. Because as they were telling me, I started to remember that’s probably more the way that it happened than the way I just wrote it down here. So I incorporated them to kind of proofread a little bit and I think you have to do that because all of us tend to remember things the way we want to remember them instead of the way they actually happen.”
(One other thing I wanted to ask you – G Larry Little was on a few minutes ago and he said something that sounded kind of sad but I understood where he was coming from. He said this is probably our last time together as a group. Do you think that might be true? Or will you guys always have a way of getting back together, do you think?) – “Well, your definition of together. I get a real kick out of just them calling me on the phone. During the Giants game with Tom Coughlin, I was switching lines and talking to different guys and sitting out in the rec room with the TV set. That’s the closest to being actually in a football game in 35 years that I’ve ever been. The involvement is different levels at different times, I guess is what I’d have to say.”
(Is that your ’72 Super Bowl ring on your left hand?) – “Yeah. The perfect season. That was a good one. (laughter) Because we had done so well on the way to it and what a hard-fought game it was, it should have ended at 17-0 just the way the season did. But in the waning moments, it turned into a melee and then Jake Scott and Manny Fernandez and others stepped forward. That’s a really great thing – I stressed that in the book. I’ll just touch on one thing – when you have a perfect season, it’s not all Paul Warfield on offense or Larry Csonka or Bob Griese. And on defense it’s not all Nick Buoniconti or Jake Scott. It’s everybody. Two of the crucial games, Charlie Babb turned the Cleveland game around for us. We were about to lose when we played Cleveland. And he wasn’t even a starting defensive back. He was a rookie backup defensive back but he saw something in the film, went to the coaches – it’s a long story and I won’t tell you the whole story but you can look at it in the book. He made the difference in that game. Here he is and he’s not even a starter. Larry Seiple at Pittsburgh in the playoffs sees something. The Pittsburgh Steelers are busy getting a punt return set up and they’re not paying attention to the fact that the punt is being punted. Seiple, who is really cagey and went on to be a coach, he could play tight end for us and he punted. He could play quarterback. He could play wide out. He was one of those very versatile guys that you could plug in anywhere. He’s a very valuable guy on the team. Most writers don’t remember his name other than the run that he made in Pittsburgh. But he was an integral part. That was the essence of what I wanted to convey when we talk about the ’72 team. It wasn’t the stars. It wasn’t the coaches. It wasn’t the trainers. It was all of us. Charlie Babb stepped forward. Larry Seiple stepped forward. Jake Scott stepped forward. They made the difference on the matter of one, two or three plays that made the difference in the season. That’s how finite that gets. That’s how competitive that is to be able to say that they’re the No. 1 team in the history of the league. The only one that went from game one to the championship and won them all. Because you have to have people, more than your superstars on offense or defense or even on special teams. You have to have coaches that are more than just a general coaching staff. They have to be dedicated. They have to really think about it. Far into the night after they’ve left the practice field, driving home, they’re still thinking about it. What is the winning edge? And that’s how finite that gets. And to be a member of that, and having had that work and seeing that operate, that’s the ring I wear and that’s the way it will always be because it’s a thing you’re more proud of because it reflects teamwork, not just a few stars.”
(A lot of the younger readers are familiar with this aspect of you and I’m wondering if you’ve ever encountered this description of yourself as the only ball-carrier to get a call for unnecessary roughness. Do you remember that play? That’s a very cool thing to be able to say about yourself.) – “(laughter) You have to understand that that was then and this is now. But there was a great difference on the football field back then in regards to hitting each other late and all of the things that happened. A lot of defensive backs, when you’re a power running back – and I’ll try to cut this down so it’s not so long. When you’re a fullback and you run up through the middle, you’re not breaking any 90-yard runs around the end or anything. The defensive backs can come in late because at tackle, if a guy like Joe Greene gets you around the shoulder or gets a hold of you, he’s not turning loose. It’s just a matter of how far you can drag him and how your momentum of the pile can change. And when those defensive backs come in and give you a shot, because you’re trying to drag just to get another yard and a half or so, and here they come in late and stick you in the ribs or come in and hit you up around the head or whatever it is that happened – it happened a lot – well, you remember that. Then in the book, I said something about the coming of age, the winning edge mind, when I was in the huddle and Paul Warfield – a great wide receiver that I saw when I was high school because he was playing for the Browns in Cleveland, and I snuck into a game and got to see him perform – he’s in the huddle with me and he goes down. After I hit a guy, and kind of knocked him sideways, a defensive back, Paul Warfield leans over in the huddle and says, ‘Hey, good job. Watch this.’ Then he gets him one-on-one, and Paul Warfield gets that guy I just hit, who is a little bit dazed, who is 40 or 50 pounds lighter than I am, I just turned into him at the last second and just crunched him because I’m tired of him beating on me. So I turned into him, instead of turning away from him, and hit him and dazed him a little bit. Paul Warfield sees that, goes to (Bob) Griese, he knows he can get one-on-one with that guy, and twists him in the ground and scores. That’s when I realized I should do more of that for Paul Warfield because we’ll win more. (laughter) But in the particular instance that you alluded to, that was something that I was getting even with. I tried to do that legally with a forearm but sometimes in the heat of the battle when you’re getting hit, that forearm turns into a fist because your elbow gets knocked down and that’s the way it happened. I whacked a guy pretty good that had whacked me pretty good, and I considered it a late hit on his part. Although there was no flag. He wasn’t penalized for it. What I did, I got penalized for and should have, because you shouldn’t be allowed to hit a guy with your fist. There’s no room for that in football. But sometimes that happened. It wasn’t by design. I tried to deliver a forearm but that’s what I was doing was getting eager. I got caught and I paid the penalty. (Don) Shula was not real happy with it. When he saw the blow he was excited and thought great hit. Then about that time, I was coming off the field and the flag hit me in the shoulder and he looked at the flag, grabbed me by the shirt and started shaking me. (laughter) He would get so emotional in a game you’d have to send him over there. He went from being very happy to being very angry. There are some words in Hungarian that convey that. I didn’t know that character assassination was part of it but it got in there. (laughter) Anyways, Shula was moment to moment in a game. There was no bigger cheerleader than him. But he was like that. He was like Woody Hayes at Ohio State. You know how excited he’d get in a game and actually hit someone. Shula was like that but at the same time, there was another part of him that he would be seeing everything that happened on the field and he would be thinking there would be a strategy cooking up in his gizzard. And by the fourth quarter, he would come to us and say, ‘they’d be doing this, this and this. If we create this situation,’ he’d say at halftime. He’d have a whole scenario of what he had seen that the team we were facing was doing differently against us than they had against all of the other teams they had played before us that we watched films on and documented. He would notice that new thing and he would have something cooked up and have it ready for us at halftime to ingest and hopefully put it on the field. But he loved it when we were excited and in the game and hitting players back and forth. He was like that but any time that flag came out, that was like the gladiators or the guy in bullfights waving the red flag in front of the bull. If that flag hit us and we were guilty of something that wasn’t absolutely necessary, Shula would go off on a tangent. He went from being very happy to being very unhappy with me in about three seconds. I guess you had to be there.”
(I believe you were one of the several ’72 players who were on the sideline during that ’85 game where the Dolphins knocked off the Bears and broke their undefeated start. I was curious as to what memories you have of that game and whose idea was it to kind of come and support the team in ’85 during that big game?) – “I don’t remember whose idea it was but I think just the fact that we were there hexing them helped. I felt like it did. I don’t know. I think the Dolphins players, I think they responded to that. Just the way I went to see them recently when Coach (McDaniel) was just about to start the season, I went down and paid a visit to them and talked. It’s been 50 years. What could I say to a guy on the field today? Not much as far as how to play the game or something. But about the intensity, and about the winning edge, there’s a whole raft of things that you can communicate to the players today because winning is still the supreme benefit. I know pay scales are all different. They’re making millions. That’s great. But move that all over on the desk because money comes and money goes, but winning and becoming a team that has a mantle that nobody else has – if you can achieve something, at least aspire to achieve something that no one else has done. That makes for great memories. Those guys that are on that field, that’s pretty much what I said to them when I spoke to them before the season. They had a new coach coming in and it was very reminiscent of 1970. I sat in there and talked with them and I said ‘Look good, look hard here. This gray hair and this wrinkled old face. Fifty years is going to go by. Some of year are going to experience it going by very fast. Some of you are going to experience it going by very slow. All kinds of things are going to change drastically in your life. But right now, you’re in a crossroads where you have an opportunity. If you care about it enough, you have an opportunity to do something perhaps no one else has done or will again. The season is two games longer than it used to be, so if you go undefeated, technically you’ve done a little more than what we did.’ So we’re still on top of the mountain but you have to give credence where credence is there. If it’s two more games, you have to adhere to that. So there’s a chance. So when I spoke to them, I talked about that. I talked to them about the money is going to be spent. The notoriety is going to fade. But what you did will remain with you. And if you’re the best ever – if you’re the best in 100 years, the first in 100 years, the best team ever. Think about that. It’s something that keeps us competitive. It keeps us still in the game. I love it.”
Hall of Fame WR Paul Warfield
(I had a question to you related to ‘The Magician,’ WR Marlin Briscoe. What was your relationship like with him, as well as the entire receiving corps?) – “We had a great group of receivers when I was with the Miami Dolphins, and certainly, Marlin Briscoe epitomized that. He came to our ball club from the Buffalo Bills and certainly was an important member of our receiving corps during that 1972 season. Marlin, of course, got his start in the National Football League as a quarterback, I believe, with the Denver Broncos and played a couple of seasons there before being traded to the Buffalo Bills. Then at that point, he transitioned into a receiving corps. But very knowledgeable, very good pattern runner, outstanding team player. We also hooked up together on a few special plays because of his ability to throw the football. We had a couple of plays designed where he would receive a quick pass from our quarterback Bob Griese, but I would go out in the pattern and from behind the line of scrimmage, he would throw the ball downfield to me. But I really enjoyed the relationship with Marlin. Marlin fit into our scheme, certainly. He ironically, although a smaller man, was an outstanding blocker also.”
(I know the team will be playing in the throwback uniforms on Sunday night, and that’s a fan favorite uniform. I wanted to know your take. Do you think those uniforms should be made permanent? Or should they just be worn on special occasions like this?) – “Well, I think that’s up to the organization. Certainly, we’re very proud – I say we, my former teammates and I – of the aqua and orange that we wore. If the organization wants to bring those uniforms out in tribute (inaudible), then that’s a decision I think that should be made by the organization. Nevertheless, certainly my teammates and I – I may be speaking for our teammates in this situation, certainly enjoyed wearing dark colored shirts for our home ballgames.”
(So winning a football game – it’s hard. You guys won 17 of them. How were you able to do that? How were you able to remain undefeated? And why, over the last five decades, 50 years, has no other team been able to do that to win each and every game, including the Super Bowl?) – “That’s a very interesting question that you pose, and my answer would be simplistic as far as I feel. Now, if you talk to other members of the Miami Dolphins undefeated season, perhaps they may feel a little bit differently, but I did not think that that was an objective or that was what we were attempting to do for the most part. I think that we were attempting to show the, if I could use this term, football world that we were a better team than the team that was defeated previously the year before by an outstanding Dallas Cowboys football team in Super Bowl VI. What we are attempting to prove that year was to get back to the point where we could show the football world that we truly were not just the team that gotten there by accident, that we were very good football team and that we were capable of winning that prestigious Super Bowl Lombardi Trophy.”
(Why has no other team been able to do that? Obviously, you go out each and every week, and your plan is to win. Why is it so hard? And why has it been impossible to replicate over the last 50 years? Are you surprised by that, that no one’s been able to do it?) – “From my perspective, going 17-0, this just may be me individually, I did not feel like that was what we were trying to do. But nevertheless, what happened during the course of that season – we won one game, we won five games, we won 10 games, we won all 14 of the regular season games which enabled us to get back to where we want it to go, which was the playoffs to prove that we were a better team than we had shown in Super Bowl VI. So once we made it to the playoffs, it’s a win or go home. So we got to where we wanted to be, and then at that point, the real business was to win in Super Bowl VII. … From my perspective, again, we wanted to get back to the playoffs. And it was not an easy chore to do so, but going back to that 1972 season – yes, our fan base in Florida and in the Miami area were following us and our reporters, our local reporters were coming by, as they do on a weekly basis to cover our football team, but the national media was not necessarily paying that much attention until, as I recollect, we got to New York to play the Giants, next to our final ball game of the year. Then all of a sudden, it was like the New York media…”
(Before you were traded to the Dolphins, you were a member of the Cleveland Browns. Growing up in the state of Ohio, you went to Ohio State. Initially when the trade happened, how did you feel? And did you ever think that you will be a part of the undefeated season at that point and winning the Super Bowl? What were your emotions when you heard that trade?) – “Well, that trade was not something I really relished at that point. Yes, you’re right on all the points that you cited. I am a native Ohioan, played my high school football at a fine, fine school that had a great football tradition. I later, of course, was at The Ohio State University and played for the legendary Woody Hayes, and then while I was drafted by my favorite…”
