Perfection gone viral? What Dolphins’ 1972 season might have been like in social media age

Two wins from perfection, the pressure is mounting for the unbeaten 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Pundits incessantly go back and forth on NFL and sports talk shows:

“Are the Dolphins for real? Can they pull off a record that could stand for years or even decades to come? Where does this team rank regardless of sport all time if they do this?”

Several players such as Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris have appeared on national talk shows and are constantly reading and hearing people either sing their praises or doubt they can finish the job.

There are polls on social media asking if the Dolphins should stick with Earl Morrall, the 38-year-old quarterback who had all kinds of rocking chairs and old-guy memes mocking his age earlier this season before he engineered 10 consecutive Dolphins wins, against the Steelers?

Or should Dolphins coach Don Shula go back to a now-healthy Greise?

Shula hasn’t let anything rattle him or his team, not even the alligator-in-the-shower shenanigans that went viral in the preseason after they ended up on Manny Fernandez’s TikTok account and later on his weekly outdoors show from the Florida Everglades.

PERFECT MEMORIES

Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team

Wait a minute? If reading this, you’re wondering, what alternate universe is this?

Twitter, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook weren’t around until decades after 1972.

Same goes for the internet, live streaming, ESPN, or the endless flood of sports talk shows, podcasts, webcasts, etc.

But what if they had been around?

What if Shula and the Dolphins would have had to navigate the path they did to perfection in a world like today’s where so little is kept private?

Would they have still gone 17-0? Or would they have tripped up along the way thanks to some distraction or incident that rattled the team’s focus? Or collapsed under the pressure?

The closest example is the 2007 New England Patriots, who went 18-0 until losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.

Social media was in its relative infancy and nowhere near what it is today when that squad, led by the still-active Tom Brady and Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss, got so close. But they had to deal with a level of hype much closer to what it’s like today which grew more intense with each passing victory.

Former Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich, a member of that team, even admitted in an interview two years ago on ESPN’s morning show, “Get Up,” that the pressure got to them at the finish line.

“That 2007 Patriot team, I feel, if they would have lost maybe one game in the regular season and didn’t have that pressure of being perfect going into the playoffs, I think they would have won the Super Bowl,” Ninkovich said in 2020.

Shula and all of those Dolphins players and coaches grew up in a much different era where sharing things publicly hour to hour or even minute to minute would have been such a bizarre concept.

But what if it wasn’t?

Would Shula, who was regarded as the ultimate disciplinarian, especially in those days, have been able to handle such outside noise the way respected coaches such as Bill Belichick have had to in this day and age?

For entertainment, and maybe even discussion purposes, let’s see what the ‘72 Dolphins season might have looked like set to the backdrop of the modern sports world.

ALLIGATOR IN THE SHOWER, AND TIKTOK?

Not much could rattle Shula on the field.

But right before that unbeaten campaign began, Shula was startled to be sure when he pulled back the curtain to his shower at the team’s training camp facility to find a live baby alligator staring up at him.

Ex-Dolphins defensive lineman Manny Fernandez was responsible for Shula’s visitor after he captured said animal on a fishing trip in Florida the day before with Csonka.

Both have told the tale several times in the years since.

But imagine if there was footage of the moment it happened, say, on TikTok.

A post from Csonka at the beach, said: “You’re not going to believe what my buddy Manny just caught. Just wait till Coach sees this.”

The next day Fernandez posts a video of the players laughing it up when Shula ran out or maybe the gator bouncing around on the tile floor of the bathroom.

According to the well-told story by Csonka, the players held a vote — that passed by only one — as to whether to tape the gator’s mouth shut.

“The great thing about Shula, on a thing like the alligator, he had a good sense of humor and he appreciated that and he had a good laugh about it,” Csonka said in 2020 during an interview remembering Shula.

INTENSE PRACTICES

Shula didn’t need to worry about buy-in from his team following the dismal finish to the prior season when the Dolphins were embarrassed 24-3 by the Dallas Cowboys in their first Super Bowl appearance.

Shula was known for his ultra-intense practices that demanded the most from his team.

“Coming from a team with George Wilson coaching, when it was too hot, we would go swimming instead of practicing — to Don Shula, where we never had a drink of water on the field in six years,” Morris told the Miami Herald.

Imagine HBO’s “Hard Knocks” documenting a preseason under Shula’s direction.

Instead of Liev Schreiber’s voice, the late, great John Facenda would have narrated a show highlighting the banter among Csonka and Kiick or Fernandez, Nick Buoniconti and others on the No-Name Defense.

Perhaps even a behind-the-scenes look at Shula’s interaction with his players and coaches and why they respected him so much.

What effect would candid reactions to those practices or other rigors of the season being made public have had on a team that has always said they didn’t want to settle for anything less than perfection?

BEHIND-THE-SCENES DRAMA

Morris has been candid through the years about the rocky relationship he had with Shula in those days, especially in the wake of not getting a single carry in the Super Bowl loss to the Cowboys.

What if that had boiled over onto social media?

The topic of how the Dolphins split carries among the three was a hot topic among the media back then. But not to the intense level it would have been today.

Morris and Shula worked things out behind the scenes, and Morris told the Herald they mended their relationship in the years that followed even after he left the Dolphins.

But would there have been more distractions that disrupted the trio of Kiick, Csonka and Morris from meshing into the cohesive unit that amassed over 2,600 yards that season?

HANDLING THE HYPE

Imagine superstars of the era in this social media world.

Joe Namath likely would have been a social media darling as popular as he was already at the time and continued to be for years after.

Would he or other opponents have talked smack about the Dolphins on social media?

Would the Dolphins themselves have complained about lack of respect on social media as they reached 10-0, 11-0 and so on?

“Underdogs to Washington even though we’re 16-0? Okay,” maybe with a tweet featuring a gif like that frequently-used one of Kermit the Frog sipping tea.

And what about more amplified celebrity stardom?

Would Fernandez have gone live on Instagram or other app from his airboat on one of his adventures in the Everglades? Reception might have been an issue. But maybe not if he hosted some kind of show. Csonka would, in reality, go on to become famous for his outdoor shows, living in Alaska.

He and Kiick rode horses once as “Butch and Sundance.” Maybe they would have been invited to appear on sitcoms or hit dramas? Late-night talk shows? Host “Saturday Night Live?”

MOMENTS AMPLIFIED BY SOCIAL MEDIA

Maybe some moments that season would have gone like this:

▪ Dolphins tackle Larry Little posts on Instagram: “Built Different,” after the Dolphins didn’t cave in the sweltering heat like the Kansas City Chiefs said they would following Miami’s 20-10 win against the Chiefs to open that season at Arrowhead Stadium’s grand opening.

▪ In Week 3, before the Dolphins rallied to beat the Vikings 16-14 in what they later said was their toughest win that season, Roy Winston famously clocked Csonka on the back jarring the ball loose on a pass from Griese.

How many people would have retweeted that play? Maybe even one with legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross saying his lines from that Undertaker-Mick Foley cage match, “As God as my witness, he’s broken in half!”

▪ Griese’s ankle injury in Week 5 against the Chargers prompts panic from the fan base.

“We’re so screwed,” tweets one fan. “Our quarterback is now this guy?” tweets another of Morrall with a pic of the old man from the Pixar movie “Up.”

The fan base does a major about face after Morrall fires two touchdown passes and leads the Dolphins to a 24-10 win. Tweets of Morrall sitting on the Iron Throne from “Game of Thrones?”

Polls appear in the ensuing weeks: “Are the Dolphins better off with Morrall or Griese at quarterback?” Quarterback controversy?

▪ Fernandez steals a handoff from Bills quarterback Dennis Shaw — a turning point in Miami’s 24-23 win in Week 6.

The play achieves Mark Sanchez “butt fumble” level notoriety as it’s dissected from all angles during and after the game.

“This is why the Bills just can’t beat the Dolphins,” says one announcer.

Remember, back then, long before Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith and even longer before Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, the Bills went 0 for the 1970s against the Dolphins. And they had O.J. Simpson, one of the best running backs in NFL history long before what came later off the field.

▪ Dolphins in prime time on “Monday Night Football” against the 2-7-1 St. Louis Cardinals? Decades away from flex scheduling back then. And what would the heyday of the MNF crew of Howard Cosell, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Frank Gifford have looked like with social media around?

▪ How many GIFs would have emerged instantly mocking kicker Garo Yepremian’s infamous pass attempt on the blocked field goal in the Dolphins’ Super Bowl win over Washington? Maybe a meme with the diminutive Yepremian with dinosaur arms flailing at the football and knocking it into the hands of Washington’s Mike Bass?

A DIFFERENT ERA AND A DIFFERENT FOCUS

Many have tried to match the Dolphins perfection and failed.

The 1998 Denver Broncos were 13-0 before they lost. The Dolphins stopped the Bears at 12-0 in 1985.

And of course, the Patriots in 2007 were just minutes away before Giants receiver David Tyree’s “helmet catch” and Plaxico Burress’ game-winning grab.

Even the Dolphins, when Dan Marino set all sorts of passing records in 1984, went 11-0 before they lost.

This year, the Philadelphia Eagles were 8-0 before an upset loss to Washington.

The reason the Dolphins were as good as they were in those days was their ability to limit distractions under Shula’s strict watch.

But it was also a different era without the challenges teams face today.

The increased hype could be a big reason it’s been so difficult for anyone to repeat what the Dolphins did 50 years ago.

And even then, everything had to go right.

“I don’t believe it will ever happen again,” Larry Seiple, the Dolphins’ punter in 1972 told the Miami Herald. “The ball bounced our way. Everything we did came up smelling like roses.”