Running back Jim Kiick cautions against overconfidence after ’72 Dolphins’ 8-0 start | Opinion
This column was originally published on Nov. 9, 1972, after the Dolphins’ 30-16 victory against the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 5.
Jim Kiick remembers New England. Does he ever remember.
The Dolphins strutted into Foxboro, Mass., last Dec. 5 with eight straight in their poke. All they had to do to win the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference was roll over the Patriots.
Why not? Earlier, in Miami, the Dolphins had beaten the Patriots like a borrowed mule, 41-3. Easy pickings.
“Easy, huh,” Kiick remembers wryly. “They killed us, 34-13. No fluke. They just outplayed us all the way. And that was the day I fumbled.”
“The day” is right. It was Kiick’s only fumble in 162 carries all season. His muff at the New England 21 in the second quarter may have cut off a Miami touchdown that would have tied the score at 17-17.
“That was typical of our whole game,” Kiick says.
Now the Dolphins have pieced up eight more in a row. But Kiick is dead sure they will not be strutting into the Orange Bowl against the Patriots this Sunday. Other Dolphins’ memories are just as good as Kiick’s.
Kiick remembers other things. He remembers that after eight games a year ago he had run for 502 yards and caught passes for 209 more. He was headed for his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season running and receiving.
After these first eight games he has rushed for only 384 yards and caught passes for 96.
The corollary to these statistics is found under the heading of Eugene (Mercury) Morris. At this time in 1971, Morris had only 242 yards rushing and 11 receiving. Now it’s 1972 and Morris has darted for 442 yards and caught passes for 60.
Kiick had been the running back beside fullback Larry Csonka. This year, as every South Floridian from eight to 80 surely must know, it’s Kiick awhile, then Morris awhile, then Kiick awhile, and so on.
Kiick at season’s start was openly bitter. He isn’t bitter anymore. He is ecstatic over the club’s success and profuse in praise of Morris - “He’s tremendous, just tremendous.” But Kiick is “unhappy over my personal contributions.”
He says, “I’m not breaking as many tackles. I haven’t had as many passes to catch. My personal contributions, my statistics, are way down. I just feel like I ought to be doing more.”
There’s another side. Kiick knows his less-demanding role could add years to his career. Alternating with Morris, he doesn’t come out of every game feeling like he just fought Joe Frazier. He has a lame knee. But that’s nothing compared with his battered condition at similar points in other seasons.
“Realistically, this could help me in the long run,” he says. “But it’s impossible for me to look at it that way. I guess it’s pride.
“I tell myself, ‘Look, if you were Johnny Unitas, 39 years old, had been playing 16 years and were making over $100,000 a year, you wouldn’t mind so much, sitting on the bench even part-time.’
“But I can’t convince myself. It’s the same with me as it is with Unitas. Pride.
“Besides, I’m only 26. It’s difficult for me to adjust to running in and out of the game, I’m so used to being in there all the time. Maybe that’s why I seem to do better in the second half, in both games against Buffalo and the one in Baltimore.”
Kiick takes into account that Morris must feel the same way, having to split time.
“Merc wouldn’t be the player he is if he didn’t feel that way. No, we don’t discuss this particular situation. We just try to help each other. But I know that inside he must feel about like I do.
“The thing we have to keep in our minds is that we have to keep winning. Personal considerations are secondary. We don’t take up much time thinking about going undefeated. Sure, that’d be a great honor, but the idea is to make the playoffs because if you don’t make the playoffs you don’t make the Super Bowl.
“That’s a great quality of the Dolphins. We’re always together. It was that way even when we were losing. Never any big troubles like dissension.”
And New England this Sunday?
“I’ll tell you, I’d rather play a Dallas any day than a team with a poor record like New England. You lose to a Dallas, at least people figure maybe you were supposed to lose. But you look like a fool when you get beat by a team that hasn’t been doing well.”
It happened last December. Kiick and all the rest remember.