Their 17th victory climaxed a perfect season, the first in the 53-year history of the National Football League.
Perfection can be boring.
For Miami coach Don Shula, the victory went a long way toward dimming the memories of Super Bowl losses to the New York Jets when he coached the Baltimore Colts, and to the Dallas Cowboys a year before in the Dolphins' first Super Bowl. This team is the greatest I have ever been associated with. It went undefeated and won at the end and they have to be given credit for their achievement. There will be a lot of hours of agony tonight. I want to emphasize this most of all.