thependulumswings

With only three quarters of the NFL season in the books, one team record is safe yet again.   Know what it is?  Mercury Morris knows.   It’s a record that has been achieved only once since the league started in 1920.   Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka know.  It’s a perfect season.  And, it’s been next to impossible to achieve.

Head Coach Don Shula guided his 1972 Miami Dolphins to an unblemished 17-0-0 regular and post season won/ loss record.  This feat included an immaculate regular season of 14 wins as well as three playoff wins.  The final victory was a Super Bowl VII win over the Washington Redskins, 14-7.  Through 2018 they remain the only undefeated and untied NFL team since a playoff system began in 1932.

There have only been three undefeated regular season teams in addition to the ’72 Dolphins.   The Chicago Bears did it twice (1934, 1942).  And, the New England Patriots did so in 2007.  The Patriots are the only team to run the regular season table since the league switched to 16 games in 1978.

Each of these three seasons ended shy of the Dolphins mark with a playoff or championship game(yesterday’s version of today’s Super Bowl) loss.  The Patriots were heavy favorites over the New York Football Giants in Super Bowl XLII, but they fell prey to Eli Manning’s fourth quarter heroics.

Perfection, including the playoffs, is indeed hard to achieve.  But even losing just one game in the regular season is rare.  Since 1961, when the NFL expanded to a 14 game season, only 11 teams finished with one loss.  Four won it all in the post season while seven fell shy.

For many years Don Shula and several players from that ’72 team gathered in Miami to pop a few bottles of champagne in the days after the last undefeated team fell to an opponent.   Their longest wait was when 2007 turned into February of 2008 and Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck had their sights set on this ultimate prize.   No doubt the bubbly never tasted better.

A lot of teams have played a lot of years.  It’s amazing that only one, and only one time,  has been perfect from start to finish.