Hall of Fame quarterback and long-time ABC college football announcer Bob Griese is a living football legend. Now, on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ incredible championship season, Griese tells the behind-the-scenes story of the team both on and off the field as it achieved a feat no other team has ever succeeded in matching: perfection.
You’ll see Griese shocked in his first meeting with Joe Robbie as the Dolphins owner balanced big contract figures and a staggering number of drinks. You’ll hear Griese meeting Don Shula for the first time and being ordered to start staying in the pass pocket rather than scrambling. ‘Build me a pocket and I’ll stay in it, ” Griese told Shula. You’ll understand the friendship and on-field relationship developed between Griese and Paul Warfield after they became the Dolphins’ first inter-racial roommates.
You’ll follow Griese through a storied season that began with him wondering just how good the Dolphins actually were and ended with him awarding the game ball in the winning Super Bowl locker room. Along the way you’ll hear:
- How Shula implemented and Griese embraced the first use of situation substitution in the NFL and the controversy it caused in a backfield of Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris
- The lengths to which NFL players of that era kept themselves on the field, including regular trips from the hospital bed to the playing field
- Insight and anecdotes from Hall of Fame players Warfield, Csonka, Nick Buoniconti, Jim Langer, and Larry Little as well as Griese
Packed with behind-the-scenes drama and on-the-field excitement, Perfection is a book every football fan will want to read.
Table of Content
Prologue 1
1 Are We Really That Good? 7
2 Three Men and the Backfield 15
3 The Education of a Quarterback 27
4 The Color of Miami 45
5 My Sunday Nightmare 63
6 Pain and Other Inconveniences 79
7 The Architect 97
8 The Names behind the No-Name Defense 115
9 The Man Who Fired Flipper—and Built a Dynasty 127
10 Too Small, Too Short, Too Much 145
11 Howard and Us 157
12 Shula: A Study in Character 163
13 A Partnership of Opposites 173
14 The Mushrooms 189
15 The Next Season 209
16 Sweet Returns 215
17 Perfection 223
Index 253
About the author
BOB GRIESE was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and was a national college analyst for ABC from 1987 until retiring in 2011. In his fourteen-year career with the Miami Dolphins, Griese was part of two Super Bowl champions and was named to the Pro Bowl six times. He was the first Dolphins player to have his number retired.DAVE HYDE of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has been repeatedly named one of the nation’s top sports columnists and feature writers by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Over the years, he has worked with and interviewed most of the members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
517 Ebooks in this category
