• The game defined Joe Namath's career forever after. He made the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite the fact that he never won another playoff game.
• Conventional wisdom decreed that Weeb Ewbanks and his Jets staff had completely outcoached Shula's staff.

The loss also changed Shula's relationship with his owner, Carroll Rosenbloom.

• The 1969 Colts finished 8-5-1, good for 2nd place in the NFL Coastal Division behind the Los Angeles Rams. Since only the winners of the four divisions went to the playoffs, Baltimore's season ended.
• The mercurial Colts owner told reporters he was no longer "big on coaches" and indicated the Super Bowl loss still stuck in his craw.

When you're a three-touchdown favorite and you get beat, you've been out-coached.

• No fool, Shula knew his days in Baltimore were numbered.

Meanwhile, the expansion Miami Dolphins stumbled to a 3-10-1 record in 1969 under George Wilson.

• After four years, the AFL Dolphins had yet to win more than five games in a season. Owner Joe Robbie was frustrated not only by his team's 15-39-2 record but also by the attendance that averaged only 33,150 in the spacious Orange Bowl.
• Seeking a name coach to turn around the team and put more fannies in the seats, he contacted Ara Parseghian of Notre Dame. No dice.
• Next he turned to Bear Bryant of Alabama. Robbie actually had the Mighty One talked into taking the job until the governor of Alabama flew to Miami to talk some sense into him.
• Not knowing what to do next, Joe discussed his dilemma with veteran Miami Herald sports editor Edwin Pope, who told him over drinks, "Hire Don Shula."

What transpired next ignited one of the nastiest fueds in NFL history.

• With Rosenbloom 10,000 miles away visiting the Orient, Robbie called Shula at Don's home in Baltimore. Don told him, "I can't talk now," and hung up. He wasn't being rude. He just had to break up a fistfight on his front lawn between two of his assistant coaches!
• Robbie and Shula met twice, in Washington and Miami. Joe offered a $70,000 annual salary (double Wilson's salary) and a 10% share of ownership. Don also insisted that he be totally in charge of the football side of operations.
• So the deal was done and announced at a press conference.

 
Don Shula and Joe Robbie at the press conference
announcing Shula's hiring by Miami

• The rules of the NFL, totally merged with the AFL after the '69 season, required an owner wanting to talk to a coach under contract to get permission from the coach's current owner.
• So Carroll immediately filed tampering charges against Robbie with Commissioner Rozelle. Pete took the Dolphins' No. 1 draft pick for 1970 and gave it to the affronted Colts.
• When Robbie called Rosenbloom, the Colt owner snapped, "I don't want to talk to you about anything," and hung up.
• At the NFL owners meeting in the spring, Shula approached his former boss with a smile and an extended hand. Carroll did an about-face and presented the back of his $300 suit. "It's like this," Rosenbloom explained. "I will not talk to Robbie or Shula ever again. One stole something from me. The other allowed himself to be stolen."

Shula improved the Dolphins immediately. He began, as new coaches always do, by changing the culture of the team.

• The players loved Wilson but for the wrong reasons. He was easy-going, even deciding to call off practice occasionally when the Florida sun was too hot.
• Shula's business-like, no-nonsense approach instilled badly-needed discipline just as Vince Lombardi did when he took over the lackluster Packers in 1959.
• Miami jumped to a 10-4 record in 1970, with one of the defeats a 35-0 shellacking in Baltimore in the "Rosenbloom-Robbie Bowl." The Colts didn't miss Shula at all, winning the AFC championship. New coach Don McCafferty did what the other Don couldn't do by winning the Super Bowl over the Cowboys.
• The Dolphins made the expanded playoffs but, after beating the Cincinnati Bengals (coached by Shula's mentor, Paul Brown) 17-0, lost to the Oakland Raiders 17-14.

1971 saw Miami overtake the Colts atop the AFC East.

• The Dolphins' 10-3-1 record edged Baltimore by a half game.
• Miami opened the playoffs on Christmas with a 27-24 OT victory over Kansas City in the longest game ever.
• They then shut out the defending champion Colts 21-0 in Miami to reach the Super Bowl.
• But once again Shula failed on the biggest stage. The Cowboys dominated, 24-3, in a cold Tulane Stadium.
• Counting the loss to Cleveland in 1964 in the NFL Championship Game, tt was Don's third loss in three tries in his league's championship game.

Nevertheless, his colleagues wanted to understand the keys to Shula's success.

• Other coaches picked the brains of former Colts and Dolphins and were sometimes surprised by what they learned. Noted taskmaster George Allen of the Washington Redskins couldn't believe practices never ran more than one hour 45 minutes. Neither could Oakland coach John Madden: "You can't have that kind of execution practicing that little."
• But that was one of many ways Shula imitated Paul Brown - by being demanding without being brutal, emphasizing mental preparation without overworking his team physically.

So, despite lots of success, Shula entered the 1972 season with the "Can't Win the Big One" albatross hanging around his neck.

1972 Dolphins' season

Joe Don roared out of Fort Worth like the Texas wind.

• After attending Texas, TCU, and Cameron Junior College, he enrolled at Oklahoma where he exhibited outstanding skills as a RB and punter.
• Unfortunately, he was also a royal pain in the ass for every coach who took a chance on him except one - as we'll explain.
• To say that Looney had problems with authority is putting it mildly. Never once in college or the pros did he play two complete seasons in a row with the same team.

Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson should have known what he was getting in Joe Don, who had exhibited anti-social tendencies at an early age.

• Joe Don was the only child of Don Looney, a star E at TCU who played on the Horned Frogs' national championship team in 1938, catching passes from Heisman Trophy winner Davey O'Brien.
• The elder Looney gave a hint late in his life of a family trait that his son inherited when Don jokingly (?) told an interviewer:

Davey is only famous because I caught his passes.

• In a situation similar to one decades later when Todd Marinovich's father sculpted him into a college QB from childhood, Don started out to make his boy "the greatest gridder ever." Small for his age, Joe Don lifted weights from an early age.
• Still, the son felt he needed to establish an identity of his own. So in junior high, he was elected cheerleader! Not what his father had envisioned.
• However, it soon became clear to Joe Don that he had been blessed with extraordinary athletic ability.

Harnessing that talent was another matter.

• In a Pony League game, he heaved his bat when called out on strikes. The club landed in the grandstand, hitting a woman in the head. The umpire ejected the brat from the game.
• He competed in high school football, catching the eye of college coaches his junior year with his size and speed. But he preferred track where he could just run and not have to conform to team rules.
• He continued his odd ways. For example, as a senior, he earned a spot in the 220 finals at the regional meet, then told his coach he was dropping out of the finals. When the coach asked whether he was injured, Looney replied, "I'm just depressed."
• Years later, he told writer Mike Stropshire, his high school classmate, the real story. After the semifinals, Joe Don and a rival runner enjoyed a heavy lunch with a couple of beers. Then the other boy showed him the .45 automatic he kept in his glove compartment.

I just couldn't really get into running that 220 after that.

Deciding that track held the most promise for him, Looney drove his '59 Impala to California where he attended the meets leading to the 1960 Summer Olympics trials.

• He wanted to study the training habits of the most successful tracksters the country had to offer.
• The one who impressed him the deepest was shot-putter Dave Davis. Joe Don recalled:

I had dinner with Dave Davis ... Davis ordered a pitcher of beer, took the thing in one hand, and downed it in a couple of swallows. That was impressive, and from then on, I wanted to be just like Dave Davis.

Joe Don returned to his home state and enrolled at the University of Texas.

• The venerable track coach at UT, Clyde Littlefield, heard Joe Don was in school and arranged for him to practice with the team as a walk-on. Looney later related what happened after his first practice.

Littlefield told me I was one of the best athletes he'd ever seen step on the track at Memorial Stdium. I don't believe he actually meant that, though. Impressed me as being kind of phony.

• So Joe Don never attended another track practice, instead joining his fraternity's intramural football team.
• But Looney didn't last the semester at the frat house. The last straw was his supposedly throwing a guy through the plate-glass window at the Toddle House diner. This was actually one escapade that Joe Don wasn't involved in, but you couldn't blame the heads of the fraternity for believing the story after all the other "adventures" their problem child had been at the center of.
• There was also his - shall we say - indifferent attitude toward school. His math professor returned a test paper with a score of 18 and a handwritten note, "Mr. Looney - are you joking?"
• But his stay in Austin did accomplish one thing - it rekindled his desire to play football.

Looney moved back to Fort Worth and enrolled at TCU for the second semester of the 1960-1 school year.

• He planned to try out for the football team until he learned he'd have to sit out a year as a transfer.
• Still, he dedicated himself to getting in shape for the gridiron. He lifted weights day after day in his room in the basement of his parents' house next to the parking lot at the TCU football stadium. He climbed over the stadium fence and ran the steps alone, hour after hour.
• By night, though, he turned into a pub crawler. When alcohol inhabited his blood stream, Joe Don turned into a raging bull at the slightest provocation. Let's just say that he wore out his welcome at TCU just as he had at Texas.

Don Looney contacted Leroy Montgomery, the football coach at Cameron Junior College in Lawton OK, and asked him to let Joe Don try out.

• Perhaps to placate his father, Looney fit in at Cameron and enjoyed the best year of his football career.
• Montgomery impressed Joe Don like no other coach before or after. Joe Don said years later:

  Coaches aren't all bad. I had a coach at Cameron who was a wonderful man. I'd do anything for Leroy Montgomery. He treated us fair, and we never lost a game.

• The season culminated with an appearance in the Junior College Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Joe Don had his usual excellent game, leading the Aggies to the national championship with numerous major college scouts in attendance.
• How many of those scouts noticed something odd about Joe Don during the game, something that should have tipped them off that he marched to a different drummer?
• A few hours before the kickoff, Looney told the equipment manager that he intended to wear his practice pants because they fit better, were more comfortable, and allowed him to run faster.
• The only problem was that the practice pants were white, and the team's game pants, black. So Coach Montgomery had the manager dye Joe Don's pants black. Looney recalled:

They came out kind of half black. I mean, I went ahead and wore the dyed pants in the game, but they looked like hell.

One school that wanted Looney was the University of Oklahoma.

• Coach Bud Wilkinson had enjoyed unprecedented success in Norman, his teams forging 31- and 47-game winning streaks. However, the Sooners, after five straight years of double-digit victories, went 7-3 in '59 and a shocking 3-6 in '60 before breaking even, 5-5, in '61.
• Bud should have known to avoid Joe Don like the plague because one of the players who had gashed Wilkinson's tradition of team over individual was Wahoo MacDaniel, almost as big a flake as Looney.
• But hard times, and four straight losses to archrival Texas, made Wilkinson rethink his standards, including his no JUCO players policy.
• He convinced Joe Don to matriculate at Oklahoma for the '62 season. It would be a decision that would hasten Bud's departure from college coaching and that he would regret to his dying day.

Continued below ...

The 6'1" 230 lb. Looney had a productive season in 1962 for Bud Wilkinson's Big Eight champions. He began his career in Norman with a bang.

• The Sooners trailed Syracuse 3-0 in the opener at Owen Field when Loo­ney finally took the field with 2:10 to play.
• When Joe Don entered the huddle, the QB asked him what play the coach­es wanted run. "Just gimme the ball," answered Looney.
• That's what the signal caller did, and the highly-touted RB burst 65y to win the game 7-3. If Wilkinson had sold his soul to the devil, at least he got some benefit from the pact.
• Looney led the Sooners in rushing in the Texas game and rocketed a 60y punt, but the Longhorns won 9-6.
• OU never lost again in the regular season, taking the Big Eight crown and playing in the Orange Bowl, their first post-season action in four years.
• Joe Don finished the season fifth in the country in rushing, averaging 6.2 yards per carry, and first in punting with a 43.4 average.
• However, he lasted only three games the next season before Wilkinson kicked him off the team for slugging a graduate-assistant coach.
• Oklahoma story #1: Joe Don arrived at 7 pm at the sorority house to pick up his date who was considered the most gorgeous girl on campus. When she didn't come downstairs by 7:02, he left a note: "Joe Don waits for no one."
• Oklahoma story #2: A reporter in the locker room after a game noticed that Looney tossed his dirty shirt into the bin labeled "Socks." When the scribe asked him why he did that, the Looney-bin one replied:

No goddamn sign is going to tell me what to do.

• Years later, Joe Don would reflect on his OU days.

I don't think Wilkinson ever liked me very much. I could have gained more than 1,000 yards, I could have done anything, but they would­n't give me the ball. I guess Wilkinson had his reasons, but I was mystified by his attitude.

• Wilkinson on Looney:

He was the greatest athlete and craziest sociopath I ever coached.

Enthralled by his potential, the New York Giants selected Looney in the first round of the 1964 NFL Draft. His stint with the team lasted 28 days.

• Giants story #1: Coach Allie Sherman ordered Looney to tape his ankles. Joe Don refused. "I know more about my ankles than you do."
• Giants story #2: One night Looney was 10 minutes late for bed check. He deemed the $50 fine unfair because he had gone to bed an hour early the night before. He explained: They still owe me 50 minutes.

The Giants traded to the Baltimore Colts just before the season started.

• Joe Don was happy.

I don't like big cities, and I didn't care for Allie Sherman's attitude. The Giants really weren't very friendly. It was as though it was undignified to wear shorts in the dorm. You were expected to wear slacks.

• Baltimore Coach Don Shula: "I wanted him. He had all this fantastic nat­ural ability."
• Joe Don respected Shula because "he knew what he was doing." But he carried the ball just 23 times for the Colts.
• Colts story: When Joe Don arrived 15 minutes late for a meeting, Shula fined him $100. Looney asked:

OK, but how come you didn't give me $100 for being 15 minutes early last night?

After the 1964 season, the Colts traded Looney to the Detroit Lions. He had a fairly good season: 114 carries for 356y and five touchdowns.

• Lions story: During a game, coach Harry Gilmer turned to Joe Don and gave him a play to take in to the QB. His reply earned him a suspension.

If you want a messenger, call Western Union.

On to Washington where coach Otto Graham thought he could handle Looney when no one else could: 55 carries for 178y.

• Redskins story: During a half-speed workout, Looney suddenly lowered his shoulder and belted All-Pro LB Sam Huff. Joe Don stood over Sam and yelled, "How did you like that, big boy?" Huff got his revenge on the next play.

After a stint in the Army in Vietnam, Looney joined the Saints in 1969.

• His contribution: 3 carries for -3 yards.
• He did football coaches everywhere a favor by retiring after that season.
• He also did himself a favor because he had played football only because people told him he was good at it and it attracted women.

After retirement, Looney converted to Hinduism and became an "enforcer" for a Swami.

• Joe Don died in 1988 when his motorcycle missed a curve on a Texas highway. Many would consider his death fitting since he never negotiated life's curves.
• Amazingly, he was wearing a safety helmet when his body was found after the accident – perhaps the only time in his life he conformed to society's regulations.

• The Pack had not had a winning record since 1947, and even then it was only 6-5.
• Since legendary coach Curly Lambeau retired after the 1949 season, GB had gone through four head coaches, including three in one season (1953 when the record was 2-9-1).
• Taylor arrived in Wisconsin with new coach Ray "Scooter" McLean, who replaced Lisle Blackbourn, whose four-year record was 17-41.
• As an example of his ineptitude, Blackbourn asked Bart Starr to leave with him and become his QB coach at Marquette University. Lisle told Bart he would have a "tough time" making it as a pro QB. Fortunately, Starr declined the offer.
• As an example of the ineptitude of the man who took Blackbourn's place, Taylor sat on the bench for the first 10 games of the '58 season. As Taylor explains, "McLean had a reputation as a good assistant coach, but as a head coach he was in over his head."
• One of the problems McLean inherited was Paul Hornung. In the light of the career that Hornung fashioned, that's a strange statement. But the Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame, who joined the team for the '57 season, didn't seem a good fit at any backfield position. A triple threat QB in college, Paul wasn't fast enough to play HB in the NFL and didn't have a strong enough arm for QB. So McLean played him at FB.

Taylor found the training and practices less demanding than Paul Dietzel's college regimen. Taylor recalls:

• Poor physical-conditioning training and lackluster practices were the norm. One day while at practice, McLean called for wind sprints. After running a few laps, our veteran receiver Billy Howton yelled out, 'Come on, Scooter, we need to save our legs for Sunday!' With that, Scooter smiled, blew his whistle and ended practice.
• Instead of utilizing film reviews as a teaching tool, the coaching staff basically just ran the film. The film sessions were useless.

The result was predictable. The 1-10-1 record was the worst in franchise his­tory. And one game epitomized everything that was wrong.

• On November 2, 1958, the Packers visited their Western Division rival, the Baltimore Colts. (No, you haven't forgotten your geography. De­spite being an East coast city, Baltimore played in the Western Division because the Dallas Texans franchise transferred to Baltimore after one disastrous year in Texas.)
• The Colts verged on greatness with a backfield of Johnny Unitas, Len­ny Moore, and Alan Ameche, Raymond Berry at WR, and a D-line led by Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan.
• The Packers fumbled the ball on the opening kickoff, and the Colts quickly scored. The same thing happened on the second kickoff. The next possession, the Packers at least waited a few plays before turn­ing it over. 21-0 Colts.
• Unitas had the Colts deep in Packer territory again when he ran out of the pocket up the middle. CB John Symank (who would later coach at LSU) knocked John down and kneed him in the ribs. Backup QB George Shaw took over and made it 28-0 at the half.
• Infuriated by their leader's injury, Baltimore poured it on to the tune of 56-0.
• The next day, Art Daley published his report on the game for the Green Bay Press-Gazette: The second half of the game was an almost complete lack of effort and their performance was the biggest quit in Packer history.

The next week, Taylor finally got a chance to play some offense against the Bears in Chicago after participating only on special teams.

• Green Bay lost 24-10, but Taylor scored the only touchdown, the team's first in eight quarters.
• After two more losses, Jimmy finally got a chance to start against the 49ers in San Francisco. He gained over 100y in the 48-21 loss.
• In the finale against the Rams in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Taylor ran for 106y on 22 carries. LA won 34-20. That gave him 247y for the sea­son, almost all in the last two contests.

McLean resigned before the Board of Directors could fire him.

• Team administrator Jack Vainisi consulted NFL commissioner Bert Bell and Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown concerning a replacement.
• Both recommended the same man, the offensive coach for the New York Giants.
• When the Packers announced their choice, one of the members of the Green Bay committee asked, "Who the hell is Vince Lombardi?"

It wouldn't take long for Green Bay rooters and football fans everywhere to learn who Lombardi was - a winner.

To be continued ...

• The former New York Giants assistant also took charge of trades and contract negotiations.
• A stickler for details, he even had the team uniform revamped to what is still worn today.
• Prior to the start of training camp, All-Pro C Jim Ringo asked to be traded because he couldn't face another year of losing. He would be thankful that Lombardi didn't accede to his request.
• On the other hand, Cleveland DE Bill Quinlan threatened to quit when he learned he had been traded, along with DT Henry Jordan, to the Packers. But Lombardi stroked Quinlan's ego by explaining that he needed a player of his caliber to help turn around his new team.

Second-year FB Jimmy Taylor learned that Lombardi knew what he was doing even before the season began.

• Vince sent assistant Red Cochran to spend a month with Jimmy in Baton Rouge to teach him Lombardi's offense that had propelled the Giants to the championship game twice in the previous three years.
• Taylor also found out that the new coach was a tough negotiator. Jimmy's contract called for a $1,000 bonus on top of the base salary of $9,500. But he would have to earn every penny of the bonus by his performance on the field.
• Jimmy had carried only 52 times in 1958 but would more than double that number under the new regime.

On the eve of the start of training camp in July, Lombardi gave his first talk to the entire team. Almost every player present that day can quote parts of it.

• Gentlemen, I have never been associated with a losing team, and I don't intend to start now. We are going to win some games. Do you know why? Because you are going to have confidence in me and my system. By being alert, you are going to make fewer mistakes than your opponents. By working harder, you are going to outexecute, outblock, and out-tackle every team that comes your way. ...
• There is nobody big enough to think that he has got the team made or can do what he wants. Trains and planes are going in and coming out of Green Bay every day, and he'll be on one of them. I won't. I'm going to find 36 men who have the pride to make any sacrifice to win. There are such men. If they're not here, I'll get them. If you are not one, if you don't want to play, then you might as well leave right now. ...
• In a small town, you need definite rules and regulations, and anybody who breaks these will be taken care of in my own way. You may not be a tackle, you may not be a guard, you may not be a back, but you will be a professional!
• Lombardi admitted later on that he was nervous as hell before giving that speech and worried that many players would leave before the first practice the next day. But not one of them did.

Taylor soon found out that Lombardi meant what he said about enforcing definite rules.

One night Vince came into my room. I was sitting on the edge of my bed with my socks and shorts on. The time was 11:00 PM.
"Jimmy, what time do you have?" asked Vince.
"I've got 11:00, sir," I answered.
"Jimmy, you're supposed to be in bed at 11:00, aren't you?"
"Yes, sir," I replied.
"Jimmy, that is going to cost you $25!"
I never made that mistake again!

Vince also made personnel changes that improved the team.

• Paul Hornung had won the Heisman Trophy as a QB at Notre Dame. But he spent his first two years with Green Bay as a FB. Lombardi installed him at LH next to Taylor.
• He drafted Colorado QB Boyd Dowler and moved him to flanker.
• Not satisfied with the QBs he inherited, Babe Parilli and Bart Starr, Lombardi used the #1 pick in the draft to take Randy Duncan, who had led Iowa to the Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl victory. But, not wanting to play for a team that had won only one game in '58, Randy signed a contract with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.
• So Lombardi acquired Lamar McHan from the Chicago Cardinals on a conditional basis. If McHan made the team, the Packers would give the Cardinals their third round pick in the next draft. Vince had been impressed with McHan's strong arm and toughness when the Giants played the Cards twice a year. What he didn't know or overlooked was that Lamar was temperamental and sulked when criticized.

Lombardi's practices were shorter than those of the previous season but much more intense and focused, with little wasted effort.

• He had the players run laps the first day. When he noticed two guys running lackadaisically, he yelled, If you fellows don't want to give me 100 percent, get on up to the clubhouse and turn in your equipment.
• Lombardi pounced on every miscue. Drop a catchable pass and run a lap.

To eliminate mistakes, Vince simplified the offense to ten runs and eight passes. His most famous play became known as the "Green Bay Sweep."

• The QB handed off to either Hornung or Taylor with the back without the ball leading the runner around E behind pulling Gs Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston.
• As Taylor says, Like many of Lombardi's plays, the sweep relied on a minimum of deception but a maximum effort.
• It was the first play he installed, telling the offense, Gentlemen, if we can make this play work, we can run the football.
• He began and ended every practice with the power sweep until the players could run it in their sleep.

The new system paid dividends right away.

• After gaining confidence by winning four of six exhibition games, the Packers began the regular season by upsetting the Bears, whose longtime coach, George Halas, was Lombardi's idol. Their improved conditioning helped Green Bay score 9 points in Q4 to overcome a 6-0 deficit.
• Taylor scored the winning touchdown. Sloshing through the mud, I followed pulling guards Thurston and Kramer on a sweep left from five yards out to give us a 7-6 lead.
• When the final gun sounded, the Packers jubilantly carried Lombardi off the field on their shoulders. Arriving at the locker room, Vince proclaimed, We're on our way now!
• The momentum continued with upsets of the Lions and 49ers the next two weeks.