Fifty years after undefeated season, current Dolphins hold 1972 team in reverence

Mike McDaniel was born a decade — 10 years, one month and 20 days, to be exact — after the 1972 Dolphins hoisted the Lombardi Trophy and became the first team in NFL history to achieve a perfect season.

But the first-year Dolphins coach remembers growing up and the way the unscathed squad was recognized every season, when the last ambitious team would seek to replicate perfection, only to come up short.

“You’re talking every single year of my life, like clockwork,” McDaniel said. “Chris Berman, ESPN graphics — they evolved over time, but the champagne bottles pop — it’s kind of in the narrative and that’s what’s unique about that team, is that it carries annual credence when everyone fails to duplicate what they did. One thing that I think is something that each and every player in the league and every team — but most importantly this team — understands is what one year and one team can do, the ramifications that can have for the rest of your life.”

As the Dolphins embark on the 50th season since the undefeated year, no current player — and just a handful of coaches — were alive when the late Don Shula led his squad to the feat. However, there’s still a feeling of respect for the accomplishment and the players who starred on that team.

On McDaniel’s coaching staff of coordinators and position coaches, only four people — assistant head coach/tight ends coach Jon Embree, quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell, running backs coach Eric Studesville and special teams coordinator Danny Crossman — were alive when the 1972 Dolphins won all 17 games on their slate. And those few were toddlers.

However, today’s team is always reminded of that 1972 squad when they walk through the lavish practice facility in Miami Gardens. Many walls throughout the building are adorned with jerseys and pictures of some of those greats — Bob Griese, Larry Csonka and Larry Little, among others.

Early in training camp, both Csonka and Little attended practice, and Csonka spoke to the team.

“I was always a real big NFL fan, not much of a college guy,” left tackle Terron Armstead said. “The Larry Csonkas, all those greats from back then, I brushed up on my history a little bit. ... It’s always great when the guys that did it for a long time at a high level, at the highest level, it’s always great to get any second or minute of conversation from those guys, get any knowledge. How did they approach the game, how did they see the game? Even with the evolution of the sport, the fundamentals will always remain the same and the approach.”

Csonka and Little joked about the contrasts between when they played and today’s game. They recalled four training camp practices — with full pads — mushed into one day and laughed at how this year’s team’s practices often never crossed 90 minutes in shorts.

They watched the sidelines filled with dozens of coordinators, position coaches and quality control staff and remembered their staff of about a half dozen people.

“Can you imagine how good we would have been with 25 coaches?” Little quipped.

But Csonka saw similarities between both eras’ teams, particularly the arrival of the 39-year-old McDaniel, mirroring that of Shula, who arrived in Miami at the age of 40, and both coaches’ attempts to guide the organization through dysfunctional periods.

Past the excellence and the execution that no team has been able to match, when McDaniel thinks of the 1972 team, he thinks of the unbreakable bonds forged through that season of greatness.

“I was talking to Larry [Csonka] about some of his nonverbal communication with some of the people he played with on that team, how that’s still present today,” McDaniel said. “It’s like the wife look. You can talk without talking. And how powerful and cool is that to ever be present in the moment in your life knowing that it’s going to have residuals for the rest of it. I think that’s something that we should be proud of as a team, that we understand and are proud to be coaching this team when we’re celebrating it and to be able to be connected with them in one way, shape or form is a privilege to us that we do not take lightly.”