Celebrating 50-Year Anniversary, Perfect Season Miami Dolphins Get Better With Time

Fifty years after they accomplished the most impressive feat ever by an NFL team, the 1972 Miami Dolphins have buried 17 former players as well as the entire coaching staff. So, yes, the passing of time has taken a toll.

But time, so cruel on the one hand, has been an ally in another respect.

Because the group former captain Nick Buoniconti once called "the forgotten team" has seen its undefeated feat age gloriously.

"We’ve been often imitated but never duplicated," Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Larry Little said of the '72 Dolphins Tuesday. "I never thought that we would be on top of the mountain by ourselves. I thought we would’ve been joined by someone else and it hasn’t happened."

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - DECEMBER 16: A sign commemorating the 1972 Miami Dolphins perfect season is unveiled at a ceremony during halftime of the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 16, 2012 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Dolphins defeated the Jaguars 24-3. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

Accomplishment Seems Better With Time

It's been 50 years since the Dolphins authored their Perfect Season -- a 17-0 campaign culminating in a Super Bowl championship. They're celebrating their golden anniversary this weekend with a gala Saturday night and a celebration at the Dolphins home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night.

And the most impressive thing to celebrate about that team -- aside from actually never losing during that season -- is that no one had ever done it before in the Super Bowl era, which was great. And no one has done it since, which makes the feat seem so much more impressive.

"Back then, so what? So you go undefeated, win the Super Bowl – somebody is going to do it in five years," former quarterback Bob Griese said. "Nobody did it. In 10 years – they’ll do it soon. 15 years, nobody has done it. 20 years? No, nobody. 30 , no. Then the good teams come by, the Brady year, the New York Giants with Eli Manning beating the Patriots in that Super Bowl game.

"And everybody says, 'Geez, that must be pretty hard to do, go undefeated.' So yes, I think as time has gone by, I think more people realize that that was something special."

Team members of the Miami Dolphins' perfect season during a halftime ceremony celebrating the undefeated 1972 team as the Miami Dolphins host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Perfect Dolphins Still Competing

So this team hasn't played a game since January of 1973 but it has seemingly gotten better in the minds of many because no one has been able to match them over half a century by comparison.

Time, in that singular regard, has been a friend to this group.

And time has not been able to age their competitive spirit. It has actually done the opposite because every year these old men who played so long ago feel invigorated by the idea of keeping their accomplishment all to themselves.

"It’s the most alive team that I’ve ever been affiliated with – I think anyone has ever been affiliated with – because it’s still competing," former Miami Dolphins fullback Larry Csonka said. "As soon as we get five games in , just like right now, I’m starting to get calls from Manny Fernandez and different guys going, ‘What do you think of Philadelphia? What do you think their odds are of ?’

Csonka's Number 39 Is Retired By The Miami Dolphins

"See what that does is we’re dusty old guys. We’ve been retired 50 years. It’s been obviously 50 years since we went undefeated. But each year, we come back to life. It’s like the dust blows off and we’re up and we’re talking, 'It’s us against them,' kind of thing.

"But it’s not really us against them. It’s our reputation against them. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say it gives you the feeling, as you reach antiquity, that you’re still in there. There’s still a competition going on." 

A photograph on display of former Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick, full back Larry Csonka, center, and running back Mercury Morris, right, at Independence Hall assisted living facility in Wilton Manors, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. All were on the 1972 Miami Dolphins team, the only NFL team to win the Super Bowl with a perfect season. (John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

'72 Dolphins Eyeing Philadelphia Eagles

Saturday night will be a time for reflection and stories and, yes, some conversation about the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles are the NFL's only unbeaten team after six games. And that makes them the next team the '72 Dolphins feel they're competing against.

"I’m not looking very hard at them right now because they still have some games to play, but they look like they have a very good football team from what I’ve seen so far," Little said.

“Well, we’re all starting to growl in our beards about it," Csonka said. "You’re glad that there’s one or two teams that are still undefeated when you reach about the sixth or seventh game mark. But then around the 10-game mark, you start to want to see them disappearing faster because you’re very guarded about it. It’s a jealousy thing.

"In one capacity, it’s fun. In another capacity, it’s still a competition thing."

And not even time has not been able to change that.

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