Post by TheShadow on Jul 14, 2009 18:26:06 GMT -5
www.usatoday.com
By Skip Wood and Nate Davis, USA TODAY
Second in a series exploring the histories of all 10 AFL franchises as the NFL celebrates the league's 50th anniversary.
Don Shula and the American Football League. When the link between them is mentioned, there is something of a love-hate relationship between the NFL's winningest coach and the league that spawned the franchise for which he earned most of those wins, the Miami Dolphins.
Before Shula led Miami to its unprecedented 17-0 season in 1972 — a feat that further blurred any perceived disparity between teams with roots in the upstart AFL and those from the buttoned-down, established NFL — he was on the losing end of another football milestone.
That would be Super Bowl III.
Joe Namath, the cocksure quarterback of the AFL's New York Jets, was the game's MVP. He guaranteed a victory before the game, even though the AFL had been drummed the previous two seasons in the new world championship forum.
And Namath made his bold declaration against none other than the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, a team coming off a 13-1 season. Led by quarterback Earl Morrall, the 1968 NFL MVP, the Colts were being mentioned as possibly the greatest team of all time before the game.
But the Jets won 16-7.
Shula was the Colts' coach, the first of his NFL brethren to lose a Super Bowl at the hands of the rival league, which had been dismissed as inferior to that point in time.
Shula isn't real crazy about talking about it. "Well, I mean, we were the first team to lose it," he says. "Green Bay took care of business in the first two, but we didn't.
"But you've got to give the Jets credit," Shula says. "That was a great, great win for them and a great win for the other league."
Yet Shula's arrival in Miami served as a final chance for the AFL to tweak its older rival. Dolphins owner Joe Robbie signed Shula away from the Colts after the 1969 season … just before the leagues officially merged in 1970. The NFL charged the Dolphins with tampering, and Miami had to surrender a first-round draft pick to Baltimore as compensation.
But the Dolphins, who went 15-39-2 in their fours years as an AFL franchise, got their man.
Miami had a talented roster — featuring future Hall of Famers in linebacker Nick Buoniconti, fullback Larry Csonka, quarterback Bob Griese and guard Larry Little — but it took Shula to mold it into a winner.
"Yeah, they were 3-10-1 and they took their knocks," Shula says of the 1969 club, which struggled in the AFL's final season. "And then we were able to turn things around."
Indeed they did, going 10-4 and reaching the playoffs in 1970. During the next two seasons, the Dolphins notched playoff wins vs. the three NFL teams that had been folded into the AFC — Baltimore, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers — before topping the favored Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII, completing a perfect 1972 season. Shula and Co. won another Super Bowl after the 1973 campaign.
Shula's new team whitewashed his old one, the Colts, 21-0 in the 1971 AFC Championship Game to reach its first Super Bowl (a 24-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys).
This time, he was the relative renegade competing against supposed old-school might.
Vindication for 1968?
"No, no, no, and I'll always have a soft spot for the horseshoe on the helmet," Shula says of the Colts. "Vindication certainly wasn't on my mind. All I wanted to do was give the Dolphins the best shot I could for anybody we lined up against."
And his Dolphins went on to become one of the NFL's most successful franchises. During his 26 years in Miami, Shula amassed 274 of his record 347 NFL coaching victories.
And he stopped obsessing about Super Bowl III … for the most part.
"You never forget," Shula says. "We were representing the NFL and, you know, we lost."
By Skip Wood and Nate Davis, USA TODAY
Second in a series exploring the histories of all 10 AFL franchises as the NFL celebrates the league's 50th anniversary.
Don Shula and the American Football League. When the link between them is mentioned, there is something of a love-hate relationship between the NFL's winningest coach and the league that spawned the franchise for which he earned most of those wins, the Miami Dolphins.
Before Shula led Miami to its unprecedented 17-0 season in 1972 — a feat that further blurred any perceived disparity between teams with roots in the upstart AFL and those from the buttoned-down, established NFL — he was on the losing end of another football milestone.
That would be Super Bowl III.
Joe Namath, the cocksure quarterback of the AFL's New York Jets, was the game's MVP. He guaranteed a victory before the game, even though the AFL had been drummed the previous two seasons in the new world championship forum.
And Namath made his bold declaration against none other than the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, a team coming off a 13-1 season. Led by quarterback Earl Morrall, the 1968 NFL MVP, the Colts were being mentioned as possibly the greatest team of all time before the game.
But the Jets won 16-7.
Shula was the Colts' coach, the first of his NFL brethren to lose a Super Bowl at the hands of the rival league, which had been dismissed as inferior to that point in time.
Shula isn't real crazy about talking about it. "Well, I mean, we were the first team to lose it," he says. "Green Bay took care of business in the first two, but we didn't.
"But you've got to give the Jets credit," Shula says. "That was a great, great win for them and a great win for the other league."
Yet Shula's arrival in Miami served as a final chance for the AFL to tweak its older rival. Dolphins owner Joe Robbie signed Shula away from the Colts after the 1969 season … just before the leagues officially merged in 1970. The NFL charged the Dolphins with tampering, and Miami had to surrender a first-round draft pick to Baltimore as compensation.
But the Dolphins, who went 15-39-2 in their fours years as an AFL franchise, got their man.
Miami had a talented roster — featuring future Hall of Famers in linebacker Nick Buoniconti, fullback Larry Csonka, quarterback Bob Griese and guard Larry Little — but it took Shula to mold it into a winner.
"Yeah, they were 3-10-1 and they took their knocks," Shula says of the 1969 club, which struggled in the AFL's final season. "And then we were able to turn things around."
Indeed they did, going 10-4 and reaching the playoffs in 1970. During the next two seasons, the Dolphins notched playoff wins vs. the three NFL teams that had been folded into the AFC — Baltimore, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers — before topping the favored Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII, completing a perfect 1972 season. Shula and Co. won another Super Bowl after the 1973 campaign.
Shula's new team whitewashed his old one, the Colts, 21-0 in the 1971 AFC Championship Game to reach its first Super Bowl (a 24-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys).
This time, he was the relative renegade competing against supposed old-school might.
Vindication for 1968?
"No, no, no, and I'll always have a soft spot for the horseshoe on the helmet," Shula says of the Colts. "Vindication certainly wasn't on my mind. All I wanted to do was give the Dolphins the best shot I could for anybody we lined up against."
And his Dolphins went on to become one of the NFL's most successful franchises. During his 26 years in Miami, Shula amassed 274 of his record 347 NFL coaching victories.
And he stopped obsessing about Super Bowl III … for the most part.
"You never forget," Shula says. "We were representing the NFL and, you know, we lost."