A tearful Csonka and ’72 Dolphins say pursuit of perfection was Shula’s legacy

Larry Csonka is 73 years old and still one of the toughest men in the world.

He was the bruising Hall of Fame fullback who personified the busted and bloodied nose of the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins.

Monday, though, the news of coach Don Shula’s passing got to Csonka in ways he didn’t quite expect. It even choked him up to the point he couldn’t hold back tears in front of Dolphins reporters during a Zoom video conference.

Csonka crying? Yes, it happened.

“… I thought I could handle someone telling me coach had passed,” Csonka said before he got emotional. “I was out cutting brush in a field and my wife, Audrey, called me and said Coach had passed.

“I never really knew till that moment how close that rascal had really got to me — until he was gone. Unfortunately, through the course of my life, losing parents and different loved ones, you realize after they’re gone how much more they meant to you than what you realized when they were here. I hope I can be better at that in the future because I felt a terrible loss. I felt like someone very close to me in my family had passed.”

Dolphins fans everywhere and individuals throughout the sports world felt the same way, Larry.

Shula, the iconic coach who built Miami’s first two championship teams in professional sports, died Monday at age 90.

He won Super Bowls with the Dolphins in 1972 and 1973, coached them to the big game five times overall and won more games (347) than any other coach in league history. But it’s his ‘72 undefeated team — the only unbeaten team in NFL history — that is his signature moment.

“I think his great marks in the world of football come with the integrity that he showed for the game,” Csonka said. “Not just the fact that he was a driven coach and concentrated on winning and was willing to make the sacrifices and pay the price to win and take you along with him.

“But he also had a sense of humor about things,” said Csonka, who along with defensive tackle Manny Fernandez once put a baby alligator in Shula’s shower during training camp as a prank. “So it was a balance.

“He was driven, and his legacy comes down to the fact that he proved that by being the winningest coach in the history of the league. Now, during that time, the pinnacle of his career if you asked me about the one moment that perhaps most personifies that great career that he had, I would say it was the undefeated season. I would say that the perfect season was the diamond, if you will, in the rough that he honed out as an exemplary moment, where everything that he had learned how to sacrifice and work and put together and orchestrate came together and worked; and we went undefeated.”

Hard to believe he’s gone. He was such a dominant force. I fully expected he'd live to see 100. Winning was critical to him but winning WITHIN THE RULES was more important. There was only 1 perfect team in the first 100 yrs of the NFL and Coach Shula is the reason! pic.twitter.com/yimRSpkZDO

— Larry Csonka (@Larry_Csonka39) May 4, 2020

The path to perfection

Shula put the ’72 Dolphins on their perfect path as soon as they were done getting beat by the Dallas Cowboys 24-3 in Super Bowl 6.

“After that game, we were all in the locker room and he threw everyone else out but the coaches and the players,” Csonka recalled. “He said, ‘This moment, is the moment we’re going to learn from. You got to remember how you feel right now after just getting your ass kicked in the Super Bowl. You got to remember that. Because next year, we’re going to open up in five or six months, we’re going to get together back in camp and we are going to rededicate ourselves every week to the task at hand. Not look forward to the playoffs or look forward to a winning season, look forward to any of that. We’re going to concentrate one week at a time, one game at a time and we’re going to go every game with the intent of winning every game. He said that in the closing moments after losing the Super Bowl.

“He dictated what was going to happen the next year with an undefeated season, and I think that was the pinnacle of his career. If there were one high point he would pull out to judge his entire career by — that would be the high point. That undefeated season. Because what happened was the very essence of what he had alluded to. We went one game at a time.

“Any one play could have changed things. I don’t argue the point that it’s just a hair separates perfection from losing one game. Different people at different times stepped forward and made the difference. But that’s what a team is all about. The essence of that ‘72 team is what the entire world of sports is about that incorporates teamwork and an effort. It was all the people pulling together and playing better than what any individual could play on their own. That’s what it’s about, and it takes a great coach to bring that out of players, and I think that was the pinnacle of his success.”

Sacrifice at the heart of success

Sacrifice was at the center of the ‘72 team’s success. There isn’t a player who will argue that point.

Larry Little, a Hall of Famer and five-time All-Pro right guard, played for the Dolphins for 12 seasons.

Shula made Little drop 20 pounds when he first became the Dolphins coach in 1970 – Little’s second season in Miami. Little followed instructions and became the driving force paving the way for the Dolphins’ prolific rushing attack led by Csonka, Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris on those early-1970s teams.

Shula made Little a team captain in his second season with the Dolphins, a distinction he’d retain for the rest of his career. Little asked Shula to introduce him at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1993.

“Coach Shula was a man of character, honesty and integrity, and as I quickly found out, he let everyone know exactly how he felt,” Little said Monday. “He was right — my career took off after that happened. I always appreciated everything he did for me and I’m sorry to learn of his passing.”

Iconic Dolphins coach Don Shula, who died at age 90 on Monday morning, left behind a legacy of greatness that was highlighted by the 1972 Perfect Season. (Associated Press / File)

More fond memories

Mercury Morris spent seven seasons running the ball for the Dolphins and amassed 4,368 yards and 30 touchdowns combined in rushing and receiving.

He probably could have earned more individual accolades playing elsewhere. But Shula made him share the football with Csonka and Jim Kiick, and it was the secret to the ’72 team’s success.

Morris and Shula had their differences at times during his playing career but developed what Morris calls a unique relationship based on mutual respect.

Morris knew immediately in 1970 — his second season with the Dolphins — that things were about to change dramatically for the young, four-year franchise.

“We were up at 7:30 in the morning for a walkthrough and after two hard practices, we went back out on the field just before it got dark,” Morris said Monday. “And then he said he would have liked to have done more but didn’t want to take too much out of us. He ran us ragged and we certainly weren’t happy about it. But he ran all the gassers and calisthenics along with us, and before long, we saw that everything he was doing made us all better players. I started out being mad at him, but it wasn’t long before I became proud to be on his team.”

Morris, like Csonka, credited Shula for setting the course for the Perfect Season immediately after the Super Bowl loss to the Cowboys.

“The very first day we reported to training camp the next year, he brought us all together to watch the game and grilled us on our mistakes,” Morris said. “He said, ‘See how sick you feel now? Just think how sorry you’ll be if you don’t redeem yourself this year.’ And we did, winning every game we played. He turned us into who the record reflects we are — champions that put together the only undefeated season in NFL history.”

Safety Dick Anderson, who played for the Dolphins for 10 seasons, ranks second all-time in franchise history with 34 interceptions.

Anderson recalled Shula’s relentlessness when it came to preparation and the immediate effect that had on the Dolphins in the years that followed his arrival.

“He planned for every minute, demanded flawless preparation and execution, and never accepted anything else except winning, even after the Perfect Season,” Anderson said Monday. “It seemed like he was always on my case. Once, Nick Buoniconti went up to him and told him to quit yelling at me and Shula told him to shut up and get back on the field. Shula never let up and that’s what made us so great. He pushed you until you played better than you thought you could. That’s what made us champions.”

Anderson was one of many former Dolphins that developed long-time friendships with Shula after their playing days were over.

“As a player and then as a friend, I always enjoyed being around him and it will be hard for me to believe he’s no longer with us,” Anderson said.

Shula’s final days

Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese was often among the few who would meet with Shula for lunch at Gulfstream Park. The last time Griese said he saw Shula was at the track about a month and a half ago.

“(Former local radio host) Hank Goldberg, before he moved out to Las Vegas, was our handicapper,” Griese said. “I always tell the story that Shula would be sitting at the end of the table like he didn’t know horses from the hole in the ground. So, he’d say, ‘Hank who do you like in the second race?’ And Hank would say, ‘Oh, I studied the form last night and I got up again this morning and I looked at it for another 25 minutes and I looked at it here, and I liked the numbers 7-1-3.’ Shula would look down to the bottom of his program and it was 7-3-1. He would look at Hank and say, ‘Hell, Hank. That’s the chalk. I don’t want any chalk, chalk, chalk.’ But we’d have a great time at Gulfstream Park.”

Griese said part of what made Shula special as a coach was his ability to adapt his game plan to his team’s strengths. When he had Little and Csonka and a power running game, he ran the football and won with defense. When he had Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino and Pro Bowl receivers Mark Clayton and Mark Duper, he threw it like crazy.

Shula, a former defensive back with the Browns, Colts and Redskins, recorded 21 interceptions in 73 games as a professional. He liked to remind Griese of that whenever they talked football and Griese questioned him.

“I’d tell him the reason he had to play cornerback is because he was not smart enough to play offense,” Griese said. “And the reason he got all those interceptions is because he was calling the defensive signals, and he’s always called a defense to roll his way. So he was free out there to kind of pick off the passes. He’d just look at me and smile. He might even raise his three fingers and say occasionally read between the lines, Griese.”

In January, several former Dolphins threw Shula a surprise party for his 90th birthday. It caught him off guard, Griese said.

“He’s normally the one that likes to be in control. But I think he was truly surprised at that one,” Griese said. “The last time I was on the phone with him was a few weeks ago and then we were at Gulfstream maybe a month and a half ago for one of our lunches. That’s probably the last time I saw him. He looked good then.

“He was amazing. I mean, we’d be sitting right out in the public and people would go by and some lady with their granddaughter would stop by and say, ‘Oh, you’re coach Shula. He would smile, sign an autograph.’ Then she said, ‘Can you take a picture with my granddaughter?’ So, Shoes would take a picture. And then he’d say, ‘Now take one with me by myself.’ Other people would come by. He was at the end of the table, and that’s where he wanted to be where he could meet and greet and say hello. He was a social person. Back then (as a coach), he wasn’t maybe. But now he was.”

Coaching in heaven

Ultimately, Shula built the 1972 Dolphins in his own image. Steely and strong like his signature jawline.

“Astroturf and Don Shula’s jaw,” are the only things that would survive a nuclear war, Hall of Fame defensive end Bubba Smith once said of his former coach with the Baltimore Colts.

Now, though, all that is left are the memories of what Shula built.

His ’72 team is the perfect, lasting gift.

“Coach Shula was such a rock,” Csonka said. “He was so exact in his feelings, so totally 100 percent this is the way it is that you drew off that strength when you were around him without even realizing it. Sometimes I resented him for it. More often than not I resented him for it. I muttered with the rest of the players. This is too much, too long, too hot, too everything. But the result was perfection.

“In 100 years, one team made every play it had to make during the course of the season to attain perfection — one time. And we were lucky enough to be with that. Now that doesn’t reflect the entirety of his career, obviously, but it is a little microcosm of what he was about. That kind of dedication. And once we learned that in ‘72, then I never questioned him again. And to answer your question, I miss him terribly already.

“Now, let me tell you, I don’t know where old NFL players go. I don’t know (if) Lombardi coaches them. The great players, all the great ones, where are they? Where do they go after they die? Well, we’d like to believe that they go to heaven. But I tell you if they shoot the football players off and the coaches off to a certain place, wherever that place is, tonight, there’s going to be one hell of a lightning bolt hit it. Because Shula is going to arrive, and things are going to change.”

(Top photo, from left, of Larry Csonka, Nick Buoniconti, Larry Little and Don Shula: Andrew Innerarity / South Florida Sun Sentinel / TNS via Getty Images)