The 1972 Miami Dolphins season was the franchise's seventh season and third in the National Football League (NFL). The team was led by third-year head coach Don Shula and achieved the only perfect season in NFL history (and only the second perfect season in professional football history after the 1948 Cleveland Browns). It also led the league in both points scored and fewest points allowed.
Starting quarterback Bob Griese broke his ankle in week 5, leaving backup Earl Morrall to start the remainder of the regular season, though Griese relieved Morrall in the second half of the AFC Championship Game and started Super Bowl VII. Morrall, a 38-year-old who spent much of his career backing up stars including Johnny Unitas, was named MVP in 1968 under Shula when the pair led the Baltimore Colts to the NFL championship. The Dolphins clinched the AFC East title in week 10 with Morrall at quarterback. None of their regular season opponents advanced to the eight-team postseason; three had made the previous postseason (Kansas City, Minnesota, Baltimore).
Running backs Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris became the first teammates to each rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Paul Warfield led the team in receptions and receiving yards, and Marlin Briscoe led the team in receiving touchdowns. The offensive line included future Hall of Famers Jim Langer and Larry Little.
The Dolphins' early-1970s defensive unit was termed the "No-Name Defense" by Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry, given its lack of high-profile players (the unit's only Hall of Famer, linebacker Nick Buoniconti, achieved much of his success with the Boston Patriots in the 1960s and was not inducted until 2001). The defense was led by Buoniconti, end Bill Stanfill, tackle Manny Fernandez, and safeties Dick Anderson and Jake Scott. In all, nine Dolphins—Csonka, Morris, Warfield, Little, Norm Evans, Buoniconti, Stanfill, Anderson, and Scott—were selected to the Pro Bowl, and Little, Morrall, Stanfill, and Anderson were named first-team All-Pro.
The Dolphins went 14–0 in the regular season, the best record in the league by three games, and won all three postseason games to finish 17–0. Three other teams, the Chicago Bears in 1934 and 1942 and the New England Patriots in 2007, reached the NFL's title game undefeated and untied, but all three lost the championship. Four other teams, the Akron Pros in 1920, the Canton Bulldogs in 1922 and 1923, and the Green Bay Packers in 1929, won the NFL championship with an undefeated record, but all recorded at least one tie. The 1985 Chicago Bears' bid for an undefeated season was snapped by the Dolphins in their game 13 Monday Night Football meeting. Miami led the league in total offense, total defense, scoring offense, and scoring defense, the only team ever to do so. On August 20, 2013, four decades after the perfect season, President Barack Obama hosted the surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins, noting they "never got their White House visit." Fifty years later, on October 23, 2022, the 1972 Dolphins were honored at halftime during a Sunday Night Football game featuring the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers, the same matchup that occurred for the 1972 AFC Championship Game. For the 50th anniversary celebration, the Dolphins wore throwback uniforms as well as patches bearing a classic Dolphins logo, the number 50, and the years 1972 and 2022.
The 1972 Dolphins ranked number 1 on the 100 greatest teams of all time by the NFL on its 100th anniversary.
Contents
Background
The Miami Dolphins franchise was founded in 1966 under head coach George Wilson. Wilson led the Dolphins to just fifteen wins in four seasons before being fired and replaced by Baltimore Colts head coach Don Shula. Despite his poor record, many of Wilson's player acquisitions contributed to the Dolphins' success in the early 1970s. The team drafted quarterback Bob Griese in 1967, fullback Larry Csonka in 1968, and defensive end Bill Stanfill and running back Mercury Morris in 1969. Wilson also signed Manny Fernandez and traded for Nick Buoniconti, Larry Little, and Paul Warfield. Wilson was initially resentful of the Dolphins' success, believing his firing was premature and Shula had inherited a "ready-made team". However, tension between Wilson and Shula lessened after the team won Super Bowl VII, and Wilson congratulated Shula and invited him to play at his golf course.
After accepting the job in Miami, Shula hired Howard Schnellenberger as offensive coordinator, Bill Arnsparger (who had served as defensive line coach under Shula in Baltimore) as defensive coordinator, Carl Taseff as offensive backs coach, Monte Clark as offensive line coach, and Mike Scarry as defensive line coach, and retained defensive backs coach Tom Keane from Wilson's staff; each of these coaches remained with the team through 1972. In the 1970 draft and ensuing free agency period, Shula added cornerback Tim Foley, safety Jake Scott, guard Bob Kuechenberg, and future Hall of Fame center Jim Langer. In Shula's first season, the Dolphins went 10–4 and reached the playoffs for the first time. Miami returned to the playoffs in 1971 and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the longest game in NFL history to secure the franchise's first playoff victory. The Dolphins shut out the Baltimore Colts, Shula's former team, to reach Super Bowl VI, where they lost 24–3 to Dallas.
Off-season
Regular season
Game summaries
The Dolphins opened the season against the Chiefs in the first regular season game at Arrowhead Stadium. In the Divisional Round the year prior, Miami defeated Kansas City at Kansas City Municipal Stadium in double overtime, the longest game in NFL history.
On the Chiefs' first drive, Miami safety Dick Anderson recovered an Ed Podolak fumble, leading to a seven-play, 57-yard drive capped by a 14-yard touchdown from Bob Griese to Marlin Briscoe. Lloyd Mumphord blocked a Jan Stenerud field goal attempt on Kansas City's ensuing drive. Late in the second quarter, the Dolphins scored twice in quick succession – a 47-yard Garo Yepremian field goal and a two-yard Larry Csonka run following an interception by Jake Scott. The Chiefs did not score until a 40-yard field goal by Stenerud late in the third quarter, and a touchdown from Len Dawson to Willie Frazier was the only score of the fourth quarter as Miami won 20–10.
The Orange Bowl's new Poly-Turf field and intermittent rains led to slippery conditions for Miami's week 2 meeting with Houston. Less than two minutes in, Bill Stanfill returned a Hoyle Granger fumble to Houston's one-yard line to set up a Jim Kiick touchdown. Minutes later, Houston quarterback Dan Pastorini muffed the ball in punt formation; the Dolphins recovered again and Mercury Morris scored four plays later. Garo Yepremian's subsequent extra point attempt was blocked, his first miss after seventy-five consecutive successful attempts. Miami engineered another four-play scoring drive on its following possession, using a 30-yard Paul Warfield reception to set up a short Larry Csonka touchdown and give the Dolphins a 20–0 halftime lead. Pastorini completed three of ten passes for minus-ten yards in the first half.
A nine-play, 76-yard drive to open the second half pushed Miami further ahead. A long Charlie Joiner touchdown got Houston on the board and a second score after a Morris fumble cut Miami's lead to 27–13. However, Kiick's second touchdown following a fourteen-play drive in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach, and a Tim Foley interception sealed a 34–13 Dolphins victory.
The first-ever meeting between the Dolphins and Vikings began with a long first-quarter touchdown from Fran Tarkenton to John Gilliam; Minnesota held this 7–0 lead into halftime. Tim Foley intercepted Tarkenton early in the third quarter, setting up a 51-yard Garo Yepremian field goal. A second Yepremian field goal cut Minnesota's lead to one point, but the Vikings responded with thirteen-play drive which ended in a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Postseason
Game summaries
For the first round of the playoffs, the Dolphins remained in Miami to take on the wild card Browns on December 24. The Dolphins scored first, after rookie safety Charlie Babb blocked Browns placekicker Don Cockroft's punt at the Cleveland 17-yard line and returned the ball for a touchdown. Miami added to their lead with a 40-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian near the end of the first quarter, although their offense, ranked the best in the league for the 1972 season, otherwise remained mostly stagnant in the first half. However, Cleveland failed to score in the first half, leaving Miami with a 10–0 at the intermission.
Near the beginning of the third quarter, Browns safety Thom Darden had a significant punt return of 38 yards, which ultimately set up the drive in which Browns quarterback Mike Phipps scored a rushing touchdown. Yepremian then kicked a 46-yard field goal in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. The Browns orchestrated another touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, ending with a 27-yard pass from Phipps to Fair Hooker. Consequently, the Browns took a 14–13 lead over the Dolphins. However, in the final minutes of the game, Miami executed a six play, 80-yard drive capped by an eight-yard rush by running back Jim Kiick. Throughout the contest, Browns quarterback Phipps was intercepted five times by the Dolphins defense. Miami won by a score of 20–14.
Because home teams in the playoffs were decided based on a yearly rotation prior to the 1975 postseason, the Dolphins traveled to Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship Game on December 31 despite being undefeated. The Steelers, who defeated the Raiders in the previous round via the Immaculate Reception, jumped to an early 7–0 lead when Steelers guard Gerry Mullins recovered Terry Bradshaw's fumble in the end zone. In the second quarter, the Steelers defense put the Dolphins in a 4th-and-5 situation at the Pittsburgh 49-yard line. However, Miami instead executed a fake punt in which Larry Seiple ran for 37 yards. Miami then tied the game after Morrall threw a nine-yard pass to Csonka.
The Steelers retook the lead, 10–7, early in the third quarter when Roy Gerela kicked a 14-yard field goal. Shortly thereafter, Don Shula replaced Morrall with Griese at quarterback. Miami then went on an 80-yard touchdown drive, which featured a 52-yard pass to Paul Warfield and ended with a two-yard rush by Kiick. After Maulty Moore blocked another Gerela field goal attempt, the Dolphins increased their lead to 21–10 following a 49-yard drive capped by another rush by Kiick, this time by 3 yards. The Steelers responded with a touchdown drive of their own, ending with a 12-yard pass from Bradshaw to Al Young. Although this narrowed the Dolphins lead to 21–17, the Steelers did not score again as the Dolphins intercepted Bradshaw twice in the final minutes of the game. Consequently, Miami remained undefeated and advanced to Super Bowl VII.
Awards and honors
Coach of the Year – Don Shula
Comeback Player of the Year – Earl Morrall
Super Bowl Most Valuable Player – Jake Scott
Urban legend
There is an urban legend that every season, whenever the last remaining undefeated NFL team loses its first game, all the surviving members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins open bottles of champagne in celebration. Coach Don Shula tried to play down the myth by saying that two players, Dick Anderson and Nick Buoniconti, who live near each other, sometimes have a toast together. However, they occasionally had Diet Cokes together, such as in 2005 when Bob Griese and Shula watched the Chargers win over the Colts, the last undefeated team that season.
The NFL capitalized on the legend during a commercial that aired during Super Bowl LIII commemorating the 100th year of the NFL. The commercial featured "44 of the greatest NFL athletes" at a formal dinner event with the attendees dressed in black tie. Cacophony breaks out, and three members of the 1972 Dolphins, Larry Little, Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, are shown casually sitting at a table together uniquely dressed in aqua-colored formal coats, and all three are drinking champagne, laughing at the chaos happening around them.
The perfect season
The 1972 Miami Dolphins were the first team to execute a perfect regular season in the post-merger NFL. They are the only team in NFL history to go undefeated and untied in the regular season and postseason.
After their loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI (Miami's only loss during calendar year 1972), Don Shula had vowed to not only reach the Super Bowl again but to win it. He forced the team to watch film of the loss twice while at training camp. Shula would later go on to say:
I think that's when we all came together for what was going happen for the next two years. What I stressed in the locker room was that we wanted to make sure this wouldn't happen again. Our goal was not to go to the Super Bowl but to win it.
An enduring controversy is based on the argument that the 1972 Dolphins played a soft schedule not possible under the current scheduling formula. Prior to the implementation of position scheduling in 1978, opponents were set by the NFL on a rotating basis. The Dolphins' 1972 regular-season opponents posted an aggregate winning percentage of .397, and only two had winning records for that season (both the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants finished 8–6). However, this does not constitute any record; the 1975 Minnesota Vikings, who began 10–0 and finished 12–2, played 14 opponents with an average winning percentage of .332, and nine of their games were against teams 4–10 or worse. Also in finishing 14-0, the Dolphins outscored opponents an aggregate 385-171, but this was not as one-sided as the 1968 Baltimore Colts, whom Shula had coached and Morrall had played for, and who scored more points (402) and gave up fewer (144). The 1969 Vikings also had a greater point differential of 246 points. Both the Colts and Vikings went to the Super Bowl, but lost.
The Dolphins were beneficiaries of a weak AFC East that saw the Colts lapse from a perennial contender into a three-year stretch in which they would win only 11 games; a Bills team yet to find its legs with O. J. Simpson and the return of coach Lou Saban; a dysfunctional Patriots organization that had little to no talent to surround former No. 1 overall draft choice Jim Plunkett; and a Jets squad with a porous defense, offsetting the benefits of Joe Namath remaining healthy throughout the season and an emerging John Riggins in the running game. Miami also caught a scheduling break by facing an Oilers team that was in the midst of back-to-back 1–13 seasons, a Chargers team beginning a run of four consecutive seasons in the AFC West cellar, and a Cardinals team that appeared to lack direction by rotating its starting quarterbacks instead of giving the job full-time to Jim Hart. The Dolphins also caught the Vikings in the midst of a massive transformation following the return of Fran Tarkenton, missing the playoffs for the only time between 1968 and 1978, finishing 7–7.
Television coverage
Fans in the Miami area could not view the team's home games on television, as 1972 was the final year in which all NFL home games were blacked out on local television even if the stadium had sold out. To view the team's home games, Dolphins fans in the Miami-Dade area (as well as Broward and Palm Beach counties) would have to attend home games in person or travel to outside markets such as Orlando, Tampa, Gainesville and Jacksonville to watch the games on television.
CBS did not televise a Dolphins game in 1972. Miami's only home game vs. an NFC opponent (vs. the Cardinals) was selected for ABC's Monday Night Football.
Super Bowl VII was the first game to be televised in the market of origin under new rules that would come into effect the following season requiring games to be sold out within 72 hours of kickoff time to be aired in the market of origin (these blackout rules were lifted in 2015). As all Super Bowls (except Super Bowl I) have sold out, none have been blacked out since.
President Richard Nixon, many of his White House staff, and members of Congress were angered by the blackout rules, as they could not watch the home games of the Dolphins' eventual Super Bowl opponent, the Redskins, even though all games at RFK Stadium had been sold out since 1966.
2013 White House visit
Four decades later, on August 20, 2013, the team was invited by President Barack Obama to visit the White House. Obama noted that the team "never got their White House visit." Asked why the team had not been invited by President Richard Nixon in 1973, Larry Csonka stated that he did not feel neglected as it had not been a regular occurrence at the time. However, MSNBC reported that this was a deliberate snub by Nixon, who was a Redskins fan, even though Nixon owned a vacation home in nearby Key Biscayne, Florida and telephoned Shula only hours after the Dolphins defeated the Colts in the 1971 AFC Championship game to suggest a play for Miami to use in Super Bowl VI (a down-and-out pass to Warfield that was broken up by Cowboys safety Cornell Green). Obama had previously invited the 1985 Bears to the White House, as their original visit had been canceled because of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Obama, a Chicago resident and Bears fan, had called the 1985 Bears the greatest team ever, but during the Dolphins' visit, he called his own words into question, also noting that the 1985 Bears' only defeat came at the hands of the 1985 Dolphins. Bob Kuechenberg, Jim Langer, and Manny Fernandez all refused to attend because of their political differences with the Obama administration.