From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

I moved to Fort Lauderdale in August of 1972. As a football fan, it was a fortuitous move because the Miami Dolphins put together the only perfect season in NFL history.

As a lifelong Eagles fan, it took me a while to become acclimated to rooting for the Dolphins. Initially, as an outsider in my new peer group, I was the detractor. It was easy getting bets on the Dolphins games, but I was losing all of them.

So as the season wore on and the Dolphins kept winning, the team was impossible to ignore. Next thing I knew, the Dolphins were 10-and-0 and I was becoming a fan:

• Dolphins 20 – Chiefs 10 in Kansas City
• Dolphins 34 – Oilers 13
• Dolphins 16 – Vikings 14 in Minnesota
• Dolphins 27 – Jets 17 at Shea Stadium against Joe Namath
• Dolphins 24 – Chargers 10
• Dolphins 24 – Bills 23 with O.J. Simpson
• Dolphins 23 – Colts 0 in Baltimore
• Dolphins 30 – Bills 16 in a rematch with O.J. in Buffalo
• Dolphins 28 – Jets 24

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Next up came a game against the St. Louis Cardinals on a Monday night in the Orange Bowl – and Monday Night Football was huge back then. Frank Gifford, Dandy Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell came to town with an exaggerated hype and hoopla that followed them from the towns lucky enough to host prime-time games on Monday nights.

The original Orange Bowl itself was a classic venue during the 1950s for kids raised up North. Every New Year’s Day – the time of the year when we were throwing the football around outside with our teeth chattering – we’d come inside and watch the Orange Bowl game on TV and see the sunshine and palm trees and dream about living in a place like Miami someday.

So here I was in 1972 living out that dream.

On the night of November 27th, I was able to get two tickets – one for myself and one for my favorite son Ed, who was just five years old at the time. So if that played a part in his getting hooked on sports, he can blame his father – just like I do.

The Orange Bowl was an old stadium in an old part of town. At that time, it was a neighborhood of tidy houses inhabited by Cuban refugees. Not much public parking available. So the locals stood out in the streets and waved you onto their front lawns. For a couple bucks, we parked in someone’s front yard and walked two blocks to the Orange Bowl.

My son and I enjoyed the game. Other than an easy 31-10 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that night, the thing that stood out most was the hoisting of the nets behind the goal posts whenever a PAT or field goal was attempted. Prior to that season, the kicked balls flew into the stands and fans fought over them just like fans at baseball games fought over baseballs that were hit into the stands.

At first, I thought the Dolphins were being cheap. But then someone explained to me that it was a new NFL rule.

So that win made the Dolphins 11-and-0 and I was a fan.

The Dolphins closed out the regular season with three more wins:

• 37-21 over the Patriots on the road.
• 23-13 over the Giants in New York.
• 16-0 over the Colts at home.

That made the Dolphins 14-and-0 and sent them into the Playoffs. Their first round game was set for the following Sunday at the Orange Bowl versus the (10-and-4) Cleveland Browns.

BLACKED-OUT

I was at work Thursday afternoon when the announcement came over the radio: The Orange Bowl wasn’t sold out 72 hours prior to the scheduled kickoff on Sunday. Therefore, the game was being blacked out in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale television market.

What the hell?

Here I was a Dolphins fan and the Dolphins were in the Playoffs – but the game was being blacked out. How in hell was I going to see the game?

I could’ve driven to the next available market and watched the game in a bar or rented a room in a motel. But I didn’t know my way around Florida very well yet and didn’t feel comfortable with that idea.

But my boss was also a fan and he had a private pilot’s license. So four of us got together and rented a four-seater Cessna at Safari Aviation at North Perry Airport in Miramar. We flew across the state to Fort Myers and watched the game while sitting at the bar inside the terminal. The Dolphins beat the Browns 20-14, and then we flew back home.

By the way, the day before, Franco Harris made his classic Immaculate Reception to defeat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 and advance to the next round of the Playoffs to face the Dolphins.

The next week, the Dolphins traveled to Pittsburgh and defeated the Steelers 21-17 to advance to the Super Bowl.

And two weeks later, the Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII at the L.A. Coliseum. That made it 17-and-0 for those 1972 Dolphins – the only NFL team to ever achieve a perfect season.

WORKING OUT WITH DOLPHINS

Players didn’t have entourages in those days and lived in the same neighborhoods as everyone else.

Bob Kuechenberg

I joined a European Spa in West Hollywood, not far from where I lived. In those days, NFL teams didn’t have elaborate training facilities, so the players fended for themselves. Three Dolphins – Jim Langer, Bob Kuechenberg, and Vern Den Herder – worked out at my gym.

So there were days when I was spotting one of them on the bench press – and vice versa.

And after practice on Fridays, many of the players gathered at a bar on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, just east of the I-95 overpass. I don’t remember the name of the bar, but if you wanted to have a beer with the Dolphins, you just walked in, sat at the bar, and had a beer with the Dolphins.

So, for me, that 1972 Dolphins team will always occupy a special place in my heart and, as a result, undefeated NFL teams have been a fascination of mine for the last 25 years or so. That’s because – from afar – I participate in the Dolphins urban legend. Whenever the last remaining undefeated NFL team loses its first game, I crack open a bottle of champagne and celebrate.

WEEK 6

Six NFL teams started Week 6 undefeated . . .

• Bengals 5-0
• Broncos 5-0
• Falcons 5-0
• Packers 5-0
• Panthers 4-0
• Patriots 4-0

. . . but the Atlanta Falcons somehow fell – 31-21 – to the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night. That leaves just five undefeated teams.

From this week forward, I will be reviewing the performances of these teams until, hopefully, all of them fall from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Then – I can celebrate.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow