Dolphins’ ’72 legends relish celebrating undefeated season — and are watching 6-0 Eagles
Larry Csonka still remembers that angst he felt in 2008 as he watched former Syracuse teammate Tom Coughlin coaching the New York Giants, attempting to put together a game-winning drive against the then 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42.
Then he watched Eli Manning break free from the grasps of several Patriots defenders and throw up a pass to David Tyree, who pulled off the famed “Helmet Catch” with Rodney Harrison draped over him.
“What a moment,” Csonka, the Hall of Fame Dolphins fullback, said on a virtual news conference Tuesday. “I jumped up out of my chair and almost stuck my head into an overhead fan, I was so excited.”
Moments later, Manning connected with Plaxico Burress on a game-winning touchdown pass that kept Csonka and his 1972 squad as the NFL’s sole undefeated team.
On Sunday night, members of the 1972 team will be honored during pregame and halftime ceremonies of the Dolphins’ prime-time game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Hard Rock Stadium.
“50 years means that we have gone 50 years and we’ve been often imitated but never duplicated,” Larry Little said.
Throughout the season, the franchise has recognized various position groups as alumni captains at every home game. However, players relish the opportunity to commune together and be celebrated on a national stage.
“It’s super. I look forward to it,” Csonka said. “They all do. I’m sure we all do. And we appreciate it. But just being week-to-week, or year-to-year, where we would all get together — the Dolphins have been gracious enough over most of the 50-year period to bring us back at least once a year or maybe even more. Or provide us an opportunity where all the veterans and the old pros could all get together.”
As years, and now decades, have passed without any team finishing a season undefeated, players from the 1972 team said they think the football world has gotten a greater appreciation of their feat.
“I think back then, so what?” Bob Griese said of the previous reaction to going 17-0. “So you go undefeated, win the Super Bowl — somebody is going to do it in five years. Nobody did it. In 10 years — they’ll do it soon. 15 years, nobody has done it. 20 years? No, nobody. 30 [years], 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. We didn’t realize it was something special. We didn’t try to go undefeated. We just went out there and tried to win each game. Win each game and that’s what we did.”
With the 6-0 Philadelphia Eagles sitting as the remaining undefeated team in the 2022 season, Csonka acknowledged he is “glancing” at the Eagles. He also said he appreciates the team’s running game and ball control, which reminds him of the 1972 team.
But Csonka’s competitive spirit is still strong, and he enjoys the yearly comparisons when a team starts to string early-season wins together — only to come up short again.
“There’s a unity that goes on with the ’72 team that goes on every year that 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 ... It’s been obviously 50 years since we went undefeated,” Csonka said. “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.”
