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Webster’s defines the term Historical Present as “the present tense used in relating past events”. Best Ever- it was 35 years ago, and it’s right this minute. That is part of the awakening that occurred on February 3rd, 2008. When the “shuttle” landed and the Giants won: nothing changed. The 1972 Miami Dolphins are still the one and only undefeated, unbeaten, untied professional football team to simply “win every game”. I know that a great deal of attention was paid to the “what ifs” of professional sports but it turned out to be fiction. To the fans of the ’72 team and the fans of the New York Giants, I say “congrats” to you for supporting your teams despite the fact that both the ’72 Dolphins and the ’07 Giants were both underdogs in the Super Bowl. So, what’s next? The answer, “here we go again”. My teammates and I have decided that we are going to give the fans something to be proud of. No one has anything that honors the history and the story of this accomplishment until now. My partner, Jim Kiick, and I went to the Dolphins last season. I think the Fins were 0-11 or 0-12. I’m not sure. We told their marketing guy that we wanted to make some merchandise for our fans. I designed a logo from the 1972 team and we were given the green light to produce some products we call “Game Day Gear”. The name is a play on words, meaning when you wear our Perfect Season Game Day Gear, it means that no matter what is happening on “game day” what you’re wearing signifies that the fans, along with the 1972 Miami Dolphins, remain at the top of the sports world. I know it’s hard for some of the “Perfect Player Haters” to admit that the #1 spot has been occupied since January 14, 1973. This record is old enough to be President. The beauty of our position, as my teammate Larry Csonka says, “It doesn’t piss me off when somebody in sports argues that some other team (with a loss) was better than the undefeated team. I laugh because it means they feel the need to argue”. You can’t argue the facts. The 1972 Dolphins are the first and only team to start and end the season with a winning percentage of 1000%. Here’s a little splash of history that I had to call ESPN and straighten them on the “History and the facts”. When the Patriots went 16-0, ESPN interviewed Tom Brady after the last regular season game. Tom said that it “felt great being the only team in history to win 16 games in a regular season". This implied that the ’07 Pats were the first team to go unbeaten in a regular season, which is fiction. So I called ESPN to ask a couple of questions about that Tom Brady piece claiming to be the first. I asked, “What is the significance of the 16 games, you know like “sweet 16” or “16 and you get your drivers license”? What does the 16 mean in terms of history? I then said, “Are you saying that the ’07 Pats are the first team in history to complete a regular season unbeaten? For the record, the first team to go unbeaten in a regular season was the 1934 Bears (12-0); the second team was the 1942 Bears (10-0) in a WWII shortened season. The third team to go unbeaten in a regular season was the 1972 Miami Dolphins. We tied the record for the highest winning percentage in a regular season, 1000% with those two teams. That makes the ’07 Pats the 4th Team in history to finish the regular season with the highest winning percentage possible of 1000%. Te irony here is that the 1934 Bears, the 1942 Bears and the ’07 Pats all lost in the Championship game. Well, I guess you can “just do the math, everybody got beat each time they stepped in our path” (sorry, that’s a line from my CD, “Do You Wonder!) The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team in the history of professional sports to start and finish with a winning percentage of 1000%. It is with that “assertion” that I begin the conversation on the destiny of the 32 teams for the 2008 season. I’m again using the Law of Quantum Physics to explain why someone could, in fact, go undefeated in 2008. Each year, every team has just as much of a “chance” to go undefeated as they do to lose every game. You saw an example of that last season when the ’07 Dolphins were 0-14 while the ‘07 Pats were 14-0. Both, in the end, succumbed to the laws of numbers and chance (the actual odds were 1291 to 1). We, however, remain in the same place we have been for the last 35 years—at the top of the sports world in team accomplishments: we were not perfect, even though we were # 1 in every relevant team statistic. We were dedicated to coming back and redeeming ourselves for the loss, no—the ass-kicking we got in Super Bowl VI by the Dallas Cowboys. That was our motivation, to go back to the Super Bowl and win. That is the only way by which redemption can come in professional football. By the way, we, the ’72 team, never thought about going undefeated. We wanted the Championship. We just happened to go unbeaten on our way to get the opportunity to play in the Championship. The 16 straight in ’72… was just to play in one! What would our season look like if we went unbeaten in the regular season, unbeaten in the playoffs, and lose in the one game we had to win? We would look like the ’07 Patriots. I saw Emmitt Smith in Arizona when Don Shula and I did the last pre-game show before Super Bowl XLII with Chris Berman and Mike Ditka. Emmitt said, “Merc, they are in ya’ house, they are using ya’ microwave, they got their feet up on ya’ furniture!” I saw Emmitt again in April at a card show in New Jersey. I said, “Emmitt, I think it could happen this year”. His response this time was, “That’s not gonna happen again for at least another 20 years”. I said, “Are you familiar with the Law of Quantum Physics?” I guess I’ve got to wait another 20 years to see if he’s right! About Our Products: The ’72 team’s Perfect Season caps and shirts are here. I have listed the various types of apparel that includes the Perfectville Edition Line. Outfit yourself with our Game Day Gear (1972 on the sleeves, aka In Your Face); it’s cool stuff for the fans to wear. We want to make it known that the fans have just as much to be proud of as we do. We make this stuff to honor the loyal fans. “Get the Champaign ready, Nick” and we will see you at the next Champaign toast, because you know there will be another toast! Yeah! |
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