MIAMI — When Ed Newman wears his Super Bowl ring in South Florida, he knows what kind of reaction he will get.
Fans will come up to Newman, now a Miami-Dade County judge, and ask about being on the legendary undefeated Dolphins of 1972. The problem is Newman wasn’t on that team.
“I’ll say that this ring is for Super Bowl VIII, the one after the perfect season,’’ said Newman, a rookie guard on the champion 1973 Dolphins who went on to play in four Pro Bowls during his 12-year career. “Certainly, it’s more memorable to be perfect, but the players off that 1972 team will tell you they thought the ‘73 team was better.’’
Yes, they will. As the Dolphins prepare to recognize the 40th anniversary of their perfect season at Sunday’s game against Jacksonville at Sun Life Stadium, Hall of Famers Paul Warfield and Larry Little and stalwarts Bob Kuechenberg, Jim Kiick and Bill Stanfill are among 1972 members who believe the 1973 team actually was superior.
The 1973 team went 12-2 during the regular season and 15-2 overall compared to 14-0 and 17-0 the year before. But those Dolphins didn’t have the soft schedule the 1972 team had and were much more dominant during the playoffs in bringing Miami a second consecutive title.
“We had a better team in 1973,’’ said Kiick, a gritty running back who scored touchdowns in both Miami Super Bowl wins. “The schedule was tougher, and we also were more experienced. The record wasn’t perfect, but we dominated the Super Bowl.’’
The Dolphins beat Minnesota 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII after having defeated Washington 14-7 in Super Bowl VII. It must be said, though, the earlier game would not have been as close had the Redskins not scored in the waning minutes on a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown after an infamous bizarre pass attempt by kicker Garo Yepremian.
“A lot of the guys on the teams were the same, but we were a more polished team and more mature team,’’ Warfield, a wide receiver, said of 1973. “We had understood the concept of winning when everybody was gunning to try to beat us. We were a better team in 1973.’’
But while the 1972 team gets all the accolades for being the only undefeated team in NFL history, the 1973 outfit never has had a reunion. The team has gotten lost in the shuffle for nearly four decades.
That will change somewhat this weekend. While the event has been dubbed as a 40th reunion for the 1972 guys, alumni director Nat Moore, a former Miami receiver, said members of the 1973 Dolphins who weren’t on the previous year’s team have been invited, and the entire 1973 team will be recognized.
“I have been to reunions,’’ Newman said of having attended 1972 events over the years. “But this will the first time I will have ever been introduced on the field (as a member of the 1973 team). I don’t know why they didn’t do it sooner.’’
Moore declined comment when asked why the Dolphins, who have had reunions for the 1972 team every five years since 1982, haven’t honored the 1973 team before as such. Perhaps it’s because the regular starters on the 1972 and 1973 teams were the same.
The nine guys who played in games for the Dolphins in 1973 but not 1972 weren’t major contributors. In addition to Newman, who did start one game, they were Bruce Bannon, Irv Goode, Don Nottingham, Bo Rather, Ron Sellers, Thomas Smith, Larry Woods and Willie Young. Longtime Miami quarterback Don Strock was a rookie in 1973, but was on the taxi squad and didn’t get into any games.
“Maybe they’ve gotten shortchanged,’’ Dick Anderson, a safety on both teams, said of the players who were only around in 1973. “But it’s great the Dolphins are finally having something also for the 1973 team.’’
Anderson agreed the Dolphins were “more dominant’’ in 1973 than 1972 but stops short of calling them better since they lost two games. Considering coaches have a record listed by their names while players don’t, it’s no surprise head man Don Shula also won’t claim the 1973 team as being better.
Neither will running back Mercury Morris. But Morris doesn’t understand why the Dolphins never have had a separate reunion for the 1973 team.
“Three years ago, they had a reunion for the 1982 and 1984 teams (for winning AFC titles), and they got their butts kicked in the Super Bowl,’’ said Morris, who said the Dolphins this weekend also acknowledging the 1973 team isn’t good enough. “The 1973 team should have its own reunion. This is the last Super Bowl-winning team the Dolphins have had and they’ve never been honored.’’
It’s a team that played a much tougher schedule than the 1972 Dolphins and boasted one of the top defenses in NFL history. The No-Name Defense gave up a meager 10.7 points in 1973.
“We were better on defense,’’ said Stanfill, then a Pro Bowl defensive end. “We strapped it on and just shut down teams.’’
In the 1972 regular season, the Dolphins faced no foes that made the playoffs or finished with a record better than 8-6. The combined winning percentage of their opponents was less than .400.
The 1973 Dolphins did lose 12-7 at playoff-bound Oakland in Week 2 and 16-3 at lowly Baltimore while resting many starters in Week 13. But they defeated two teams that would make the playoffs in Dallas and Pittsburgh, doing so after the Dolphins already had wrapped up the AFC East title.
In the 1972 playoffs, the Dolphins needed a late touchdown to beat Cleveland 20-14 at home before winning 21-17 at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game and beating the Redskins by seven points in Los Angeles. That’s a postseason average margin of victory of 5.7 points.
In the 1973 playoffs, Miami won at home 34-16 over Cincinnati and 27-10 over Oakland in the AFC Championship Game before the 17-point manhandling of Minnesota in Houston. That’s an average victory margin of 17.3.
“I would agree that the 1973 team was better… We were fortunate to beat Minnesota in 1972,’’ said Kuechenberg, a guard, said about the Dolphins having to score 10 points late in the fourth quarter for a 16-14 win over a Minnesota team that had gone 7-7 in 1972 compared to 12-2 in 1973. “We just took apart the Vikings (in Super Bowl VIII).’’
In the 1972 regular season, the Dolphins outscored foes by an average of 27.5 to 12.2 points for a 15.3 differential. In 1973, it was 24.5 to 10.7 for a differential of 13.8.
But, if you include the playoffs, the 1973 Dolphins outscored teams by a wider margin. It was 25.9 to 12.3 in 1972 (a difference of 13.6) to 25.2 to 10.8 in 1973 (a difference of 14.4).
“We had Bob Griese for the entire season,’’ Kiick said of another reason he believes the 1973 Dolphins were superior. “I’m not taking anything away from Earl (Morrall). He did a tremendous job. But anybody would want Bob Griese.’’
Griese, the Hall of Fame quarterback, went down in Week 5 in 1972 with a broken ankle and was lost for the remainder of the regular season. Morrall came off the bench and was impressive as the Dolphins completed their 14-0 campaign. But after Morrall struggled in the ugly victory over Cleveland and in the first half against Pittsburgh, Shula replaced him with the finally healthy Griese, who led the Dolphins the rest of the way.
Griese started all but one game in 1973, with Morrall’s only start coming when Griese sat out the loss at Baltimore. But the magic was gone for Morrall, then 39. He completed 11-of-23 passes in that game with two interceptions.
At first glance, the running attack looks to have been better in 1972, when the Dolphins gained a staggering 2,960 regular-season yards, including 1,117 by Larry Csonka and 1,000 by Morris. The 1973 outfit rushed for 2,521 yards, with Csonka getting 1,003 and Morris 954.
But the 1973 team actually averaged 5.0 yards per carry to 4.8 for the 1972 gang. One difference is the 1972 team ran 872 total plays to 763 the next year.
Thanks to an impressive turnover margin during the 1972 season of plus-18, the Dolphins had the ball on offense a lot more. Miami had a plus-one margin in 1973, suggesting the 1972 Dolphins got their share of breaks.
“We dominated more in 1973 than in 1972,’’ said Little, a guard who opened plenty of holes for the running game. “We played a lot more close games in 1972, beating Buffalo by one point and Minnesota by two (as well as the New York Jets by four). We were manhandling teams in 1973 (beating nine teams in the regular season and playoffs by 17 or more points to just four times for the 1972 team). Yes, we lost two games. The Oakland game was tough but we had a lot of guys banged up in the game against Baltimore and we rested guys to get ready for the playoffs.’’
Warfield believes evidence of the 1973 team being better was winning consecutive games in late November and December 14-7 at Dallas and 30-26 at home to Pittsburgh when the Dolphins already had clinched the AFC East. The Dolphins were 9-1 prior to facing the playoff-bound outfits that would go down as the two best teams of the 1970s.
“We had virtually nothing to play for but pride, and we beat two teams of that magnitude,’’ Warfield said.
When the 1973 playoffs arrived, the Dolphins were virtually unstoppable. That was in contrast to the previous year’s playoffs, when all three Miami foes had the ball late with a chance to take the lead or tie.
But the Dolphins held on each time to complete their undefeated season. That’s why Shula doesn’t consider his 1973 unit or any other team in NFL history better than his 1972 Dolphins.
“They keep score to see who wins the game,’’ Shula said. “So when you win all your games, that’s as good as it gets.’’
Nevertheless, count Shula happy that “all our players’’ from the 1972 and 1973 teams will be recognized this weekend. And Newman can continue to remind fans which Super Bowl his ring is from.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
