Perfection: The Inside Story of the 1972 Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season
1972 was the year of the Dolphin. The Miami team did what no other has done, before or since: they won every regular-season game and followed that feat with a perfect playoff run and a Super Bowl championship.In Perfection, Bob Griese tells the story of that magical season as only he can. Rather than providing a play-by-play analysis of every game in that incredible streak, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the team creates vivid portraits of the teammates who made outstanding contributions in each game. Some are insightful character studies, others rise to the level of mini- biographies. Taken together, these compelling, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious stories reveal the many factors that turn a first-rate team into an unbeatable one, the most important being a constant and unrelenting obsession with winning.This tale of triumph actually begins with a crushing defeat: the Dolphins' 24–3 loss to Roger Staubach and the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI. No team had ever scored so few points in the big game. Whether out of anger, embarrassment, or frustration, every Dolphin, from Coach Don Shula on down, found plenty of motivational fuel in that loss.That motivation fostered an obsession with winning that showed itself in the season opener. At the end of the third quarter on a sweltering Kansas City afternoon, tackle Larry Little led the entire lumbering offensive line on a sixty-yard sprint to the spot where the fourth quarter would begin. His purpose was to intimidate the Chiefs, who were wilting in the heat and humidity. It worked.Among the many memorable scenes in this unforgettable memoir are Larry Csonka letting blood from his oft-broken nose drip onto teammates' feet during huddles; Paul Warfield demonstrating, literally step by step, the pass-reception patterns he ran for each play so that Griese would know where to find him; and tag-team halfbacks Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris constantly lobbying Shula for more playing time. Griese writes with admiration about backup quarterback Earl Morrall, who maintained the winning streak after Griese's leg was broken in game five. He clearly means it when he describes Morrall as the most underrated quarterback in NFL history. Griese also discusses some of the less attractive aspects of the game, including racial tensions in the 1970s NFL. He recalls the massive doses of painkillers needed to keep players on the field and describes the lingering effects of trauma that many of his teammates suffer from today.Complete with a raucous account of why Dolphins owner Joe Robbie was assigned a chaperone midway through the season, Perfection is catnip for Dolphins fans, ambrosia for football fans, and pure joy for anyone who loves a behind-the-scenes peek at the NFL.