Pope: ’72 Dolphins Super Bowl victory was almost perfect — except for that field-goal try
Miami’s football “baby” became the biggest man in National Football League history Sunday.
Exactly seven years and four months and 26 days since managing partner Joe Robbie was granted a franchise in the old American Football League, the Dolphins became the only NFL club ever to compile a perfect 17-0 record in regular season and playoffs.
The capper was Sunday’s unexpectedly simple 14-7 victory over Washington before a Super Bowl record crowd of 90,182. Except for penalties and a freakish field-goal attempt sequence involving Garo Yepremian, the Super Bowl VII margin would have been larger.
Yet the Dolphin dressing quarters were almost as devoid of wild-eyed emotions as they have been throughout this amazing season that had all South Florida gasping.
“This is the ultimate,”
Coach Don Shula said quietly. “I’ve had some great moments, but I guess I’ve always felt that this was something I wanted and needed to accomplish.”
Shula referred almost parenthetically to an earlier contest in which his old Baltimore Colts boss, Carroll Rosenbloom, had said he had seen Shula “freeze up in the big ones too many times.”
Sunday, Shula said it was especially nice to win in Los Angeles “where a certain man lives.” Rosenbloom has acquired the Rams and moved here since Shula departed the Colts to join Miami and Robbie in 1970.
Shula was reluctant to get into that sensitive area and soon switched the conversation back to his own organization. “So many people were important,” he said. “Robbie has given me everything possible in the way of ownership-coach relations. And the players have been just great in every respect.”
Robbie, that most exuberant person in the dressing room, said: “It looked like we were going for both 17-0 for the season and for this game.”
The score was 14-0 when Yepremian attempted a field goal that would have made the score 17-0 and clinched a 17-0 record for the season.
Yepremian’s kick was blocked. He picked up the ball, tried to pass but Washington’s Mike Bass grabbed the loose “ball and ran 49 yards for the only Redskins touchdown.
“Looks like I’m going to have some tips from Bob Griese,” Yepremian grinned.
Miami’s touchdowns came in the first quarter on:
▪ Griese’s 28-yard pass to Howard Twilley.
▪ A one-yard run by Jim Kiick just before halftime after Nick Buoniconti’s interception and a Griese pass to Jim Mandich for 19 yards.
Penalties obliterated another touchdown — a 47-yard pass from Griese to Paul Warfield — and another chance for at least a field goal.
Then came the Yepremian play, which looked like something out of a “Football Funnies” film.
Third-year safetyman Jake Scott got the Sport magazine award — a new car — as the game’s most valuable player. He intercepted two passes but brushed aside praise with, “I didn’t do anything great myself. The defense just did a good job of carrying out assignments.”
This was Shula’s third shot at a Super Bowl and his first bull’s-eye. Shula’s Baltimore Colts lost Super Bowl III, 16-7, to the New York Jets in 1969. Last year’s Dolphins lost Super Bowl VI, 24-3, to Dallas.
For Washington coach George Allen, this was the first Super Bowl try. He took it hard.
“It doesn’t do any good to play in the Super Bowl if you don’t win,” Allen said. “The most important thing that I said to the team was, “We’ll be back.”
Allen said he “can’t get out of here fast enough. We’ll leave tomorrow morning. but, before that, there will be a lot of hours tonight.”
The Dolphins planned a party at a downtown Los Angeles hotel where, presumably, they would give freer rein to their emotions.
They are due to arrive back at Miami International Airport at 8:25 tonight.