Mike Freeman - Undefeated: Inside the 1972 Miami Dolphins Perfect Season

to ella... there is no end to my love for you and lifes possibilities are endless

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

LORD CHESTERFIELD

He can take hisn and beat yourn, or he can take yourn and beat hisn.

FORMER HOUSTON OILERS COACH BUM PHILLIPS ON DON SHULA

Contents

They enthralled presidents, charmed a city, intimidated a league, and challenged racial norms. There has never been a team like them. There may never be again. Many have forgotten just how good they were. Its understandable. What the Miami Dolphins did happened forty years ago...

Introduction
President Nixon on the Line

S even days before the Miami Dolphins played Super Bowl VI against the Dallas Cowboys, President Richard Nixon placed a phone call at an indecent hour. He had a suggestion, and it couldnt wait until morning.

When the phone rang at 1:30 A.M. , Don Shula picked it up only to hear a voice on the other end say, This is the White House calling. Shula initially thought his players were engaging in another annoying prank, like the time they stuck a bullfrog on the podium where Shula was addressing the team and covered the poor creature with a towel. Shula unsuspectingly removed the towel and the bullfrog almost jumped down his throat. And, of course, there was the time when players spliced scenes from a pornographic film into the beginning of game footage that was to be reviewed by the team. When coaches turned the projector on, and the shock registered across their faces as a different sort of contact sport appeared on the screen, everyone laughedincluding Shula.

The players were more than capable of executing a Nixon ruse despite the uniqueness of Nixons persona and mannerisms. Except it didnt take long for Shula to realize the man on the phone was no impostor. It really was Nixon.

It was January 1972. That month, not long before calling the Dolphins coach, Nixon ordered the development of the Space Shuttle program. The first handheld scientific calculator was introduced. Price: $395. Recluse Howard Hughes emerged from his rabbit hole to denounce a biography on him as a fake. But Shula wasnt focused on spaceships or billionaire recluses; he was focused on the Super Bowl. Then came the call from Nixons office. Shula covered the receiver with his hand and whispered to his wife, Dorothy, who was still awake and celebrating the conference title win over the Baltimore Colts. A few minutes later, Nixon came on the line. He first congratulated Shula on making the Super Bowl and then quickly turned to football strategy. There would be no lubricating of the conversation.

It wasnt unusual for presidents to speak with football coaches after a Super Bowl victory, and certainly there were postSuper Bowl visits to the White House for the winners. But a call in the middle of the week before the Super Bowl?

There were some who believed that Nixons obsessive interest in sports was a stunt, a public maneuver to soften his image as one of the most disliked people in the country. Yet his sports infatuation was likely genuine. He had played three sports at Whittier College, including football, and now as president, he thought of himself as the coach in chief. Or, perhaps more accurately, the sports fan in chief. He became the first sitting president to attend an NFL game, hand out college footballs glossy national championship trophy, and attend the Kentucky Derby (with a massive Secret Service contingent). His fanaticism about sports sometimes reached maniacal levels. Nixon once stopped a crucial meeting of his budget advisers so he could watch Michigan play Ohio State (tax dollars at work), and he seriously considered putting the legendary Vince Lombardi on his 1968 presidential ticket.

Politics hadnt dulled his love of the NFL. If anything, the bloody sparring in politics enhanced it. Nixon talked football with NFL coaches and players whenever possible, which was flattering to some and irritating to others. Indeed, despite the initial shock of hearing from Nixon and suspicions it was a prank, Shula probably should not have been so surprised by the call. Nixon was obsessed with Shula. He once tried to phone Shula after a loss, but the phone lines at the stadium were busy. Nixon would also phone in to Shulas Miami-based, call-in television show, surprising the coach after the team beat Kansas City. Shula had a presidential stalker.

Earlier in Shulas career, as coach of the Baltimore Colts, then president-elect Nixon wrote Shula a touching letter, after a crushing loss in the Super Bowl to the New York Jets, saying he was confident Shula would turn his career around the way Nixon did his. Nixon had lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy and the 1962 California gubernatorial race before winning the 1968 presidency.

As president, he later became close friends with Washington Redskins coach George Allen. Nixon invited Allen to the White House on various occasions (Allen declined in some instances, telling the president he needed to focus on the season) and followed the team closely. Hed listen to the games on the radio and scream during them in front of elder daughter, Julie, as if the Redskins players could hear his orders: Hit him! Hit him! Goddammit! Son of a bitch.

That bad, huh? Julie would say.

Nixons telephone call to Shula was simply another link in the evolutionary chain of the presidents football obsession.

The Cowboys are a fine football team and Coach Landry is an exceptional coach, Nixon said.

Youre right, sir, replied Shula.

Coach, I think it would be a great idea for you to use a pass that you throw to Warfield.

What pass, sir?

You know, that slant-in pattern where Warfield starts down and then breaks into the middle of the field.

Such pass routes are common in footballsuggesting a down-and-in route to star wide receiver Paul Warfield was like telling Mick Jagger to sing Satisfaction while the Rolling Stones were on tourstill Shula continued to listen patiently. This was, Shula thought, the president of the United States, after all. Hunter S. Thompson would later remark on Shulas apparent disdain for Nixon. True or not, Shula wasnt about to disrespect the office of the presidency.

Yes, Mr. President, we do plan on using that slant-in pass to Warfield against the Cowboys.

I think it can work for a big gain.

Yes, sir, it can.

Well, again my congratulations on a fine victory.

Thank you for taking the time to call and for your interest in professional football, Mr. President.

The two men hung up the phone.

In a way, at that moment in time, Nixon and Shulaone man a president, the other a coach in a game that would be watched in many corners of the country and worldwere two of the most visible men in the nation, both about to suffer painful losses. One would emerge as a cautionary tale. The other would recover and become a legend.

Part One
Wreckage

Chapter One
I Dont Ever Want to Feel This Way Again

A story about perfection begins with a blunder seen around the world.

On a 38-degree night in January 1972, one week after Nixons late-night phone call, the Miami Dolphins piled into their locker room. Theirs was no different from many other locker rooms of the day, concrete and bland. But it seemed emptier and colder than when theyd departed it several hours before. Uniforms stained with blood and the wear and tear of violence were peeled away slowly by some of the men who wore them. It was a deliberate exercise at first, and then some stripped faster, as if taking off their shoulder pads and jerseys would make the pain of losing a Super Bowl easier. Or at least go away more quickly.