https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/h...that-followed-the-perfect-fins-054716304.html "Newman was on the team that won the first Super Bowl played in Houston. That team mauled its opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, 24-7, allowing them only a single touchdown in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl VIII. The team returned home from Texas to a packed airport of fans. It was an unforgettable moment for Newman. But it was decidedly more forgettable for many other people. That’s because Newman was a rookie on the 1973 Dolphins – the team that followed the perfect ’72 team. As the years went by, everyone talked about the ’72 team, but fewer people – even in Miami – mentioned the team that followed. Although that ’73 team has been commemorated alongside the ’72 club, it has never been officially feted on its own by the Dolphins organization."
Well.. that '73 team is not easy to forget for me because it was the LAST time this heartbreaking franchise won a SB!!! '72 team was special though. I mean it's still the only perfect season in NFL history, and most commentators say the best team ever was either the Dolphins '72 team or the Bears '85 team (which btw only the Dolphins under Marino beat that year to preserve the '72 legacy). Something to really be proud of.
I'll never forget that game. I had a friend whose dad was from Chicago and thus he was a Bears fan. All I heard from that big mouth all week long was how the Bears were going to "squish the fish". Marino took that vaunted defense and made it his b!*c#! And all that to be ruined by another collapse by a Dolphins defense against the Pats in the AFCCG. They gave up nearly 300 yards rushing. And believe it or not, Grogan had only 71 yards passing...but he had 3 TD's.
As someone who wasn't yet around back then, I basically lump the early 70s teams all together. I'm not sure that the 73 team gets ignored. It was just the third year in a row that the Fins made the Super Bowl, and since they went undefeated in 72, thats what people are going to talk about more. When people talk about the early 90s Cowboys, they don't really focus on the 92 team, or the 93 or 95 team. They just talk about them lumped together. The same is mostly true about the 2001, 03, 04 Patriots, or the 88/89 49ers.
