You hate them.
They won every game up to this point in their season, and just to stick it to certain members of the team and coaching staff, you pray for them to be beaten eventually.
No, we are not talking about the New England Patriots, but the team whose record they are going to obliterate in about two months – the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
It looks like the corkscrews are only going to be used strictly for holiday bubbly this year for this ‘family,’ unless they toast their own franchise for a winless 2007 season.
Put away the cigar, Don Shula. Your '72 Dolphins won't be the only unbeaten team after this season.
Every year, they get together to thumb their nose at the rest of the National Football League by saluting themselves and toasting their humility at their undefeated season whenever the last undefeated team in the current NFL season goes down. And God forbid, anyone try to match them, they will be branded as second fiddle.
Don Shula, the coach of the only undefeated team in NFL history, started it around Week 4, when anyone who has ever watched football was smart enough to realize that this New England team will beat you even if they allowed the other team to videotape every shit Bill Belichick has ever stepped in.
Shula made no bones about claiming that the Patriots should have an asterisk by their record this year because of Spygate, sabotaging the legitimacy of their potential undefeated run. When did asterisks in sports become so clique anyway?
Even Larry Csonka threw his two cents in at midseason, also claiming that the Patriots run is tainted because they videotaped other teams’ defensive signals and cheated, oblivious to the fact that by then, New England was scoring 50 points almost every week without the help of the camera.
But no moment stuck to the brain more than two Monday nights ago, when the Patriots were gift-wrapped another victory by the Baltimore Ravens. Around the third quarter, Shula made his way to the broadcasters’ booth in his best cheerleader outfit, blatantly rooted the Ravens on to victory and proceeded to call Kyle Boller a solid quarterback.
No wonder Lord Don bowed out of the game a long time ago.
It was quite the spectacle. What is it about going undefeated that makes the ’72 Dolphins so uptight about their record being matched or beaten? Should they not know what it takes to achieve such a place in history and admire the fact that another team is doing it?
Not these guys. They are so pompous and self-absorbed about their precious record, it is sickening. It almost makes me want the Patriots to go out and say that the ’72 Dolphins could not carry their jockstrap after another 45-point win.
Pittsburgh could not beat the Pats on Sunday even though one of their players ‘guaranteed’ it. The Jets and Dolphins will not even come close. The New York Giants will probably be stuck as the five seed in the NFC, so they will probably not chance anyone important getting hurt in Week 17 to prepare for the playoffs.
The Road to Perfection has never been clearer for any team that has started 13-0. This team is not going to lose this year. There will be no ESPNEWS segment of the ’72 Dolphins clanking their glasses this year.
Despise New England all you want. Root for them to lose at some point before February. But remember, they are chasing a record that arrogant people hold who will blow cigar smoke right in your face if you dare say that their team was not the best in NFL history.
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