The Steelers is the old guard of AFC, as they are the oldest and undisputedly number one team in the conference. The Cowboys, on the other hand, is the model team for all expansion teams, as they are undisputedly the most successful expansion National Football League team, in terms of Super Bowl wins, conference championships, division titles and playoff berths. Both teams are the golden symbols of success in the NFL.
However, in terms of winning percentage since the AFL-NFL merger, one team stands between the Cowboys (3rd) and the Steelers (1st) currently. The team is Miami Dolphins.
Groundbreakers
Miami Dolphins are a groundbreaking team, just like the Cowboys.
First of all, the Miami Dolphins are the oldest professional sports franchise to play in the state of Florida. No other team in other professional leagues can beat that.
The expansion of AFL to Miami is itself significant, because it signals the arrival of Florida as a large state on its own, to challenge the established states of the North and the East. As late as the 1920 United States population census, Florida has less than 1 million people and is the least populated state in the South. But there had been a railroad boom after that census, in the 1920’s, and cities such as Miami began to sprout. By the 1960 census, Florida has 5 million people and it became the 2nd largest state in Southern United States terms of population, after Texas.
Perhaps the reason that explains Miami Dolphins’ birth is changing economics of sports, particularly football. Just 6 years ago before the AFL was formed, no team could ever financially survive south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Although Texas is the 6th-ranked state in population in 1960, while Florida is 10th and Georgia 16th, these three states have no professional sports team on the year before. The smallest state to have sports franchises was then Missouri, which happens to be the crossroads between the Midwest, West and the South, and yet there is no NFL team then locating there. AFL, sensing opportunities to expand in new markets, added new professional football franchises in New England (New England Patriots), and in two unknown territories: the Rockies (Denver Broncos) and Texas (Houston Oilers and the relative failures Dallas Texans). Later, the Texans moved to Kansas City, Missouri and gained success as the Chiefs, while the Los Angeles-based Chargers moved to San Diego. The four teams mentioned above opened new markets for the eight-team league. Hence it served as an impetus for the AFL to continue exploring expanding in new territories. AFL made a choice – they chose Miami as the next location for their next expansion team, in March 1965, for reasons including good weather, growing populations and the lack of a football team.
Don Shula
The reason why the Dolphins became successful in the 1970’s, following the AFL-NFL merger, was simply summed up in a name, in two words: Don Shula.
Shula was a long-time head coach of Miami Dolphins from 1970 to 1995. He crossed over from the Baltimore Coach, where he was as head coach since 1963. He coached the most games in NFL as head coach of both the old Baltimore Colts and the Dolphins, at 526 games. He won the most games, with 347 victories. He coached consecutively in 33 football seasons. He won 2 Super Bowls and 5 conference championships. He posted winning records against all the coaches he played against as head coach, except former Chiefs and Bills head coach Marv Levy. He is the only head coach to post a perfect season, without a loss, which is not repeated, even till today. His 1985 12-4 Dolphins team was the only team that won the 1985 Chicago Bears team, which went 15-1 in the season, ranked by ESPN as the greatest NFL team ever.
Can anyone break new grounds better than Shula?
Shula has won his Super Bowls in a distinct golden period in his long football career, from 1971 to 1974. Since 1974, the Dolphins have been able to keep posting winning records, as he only had 2 losing seasons in the 20 seasons, after 1974. However, the Dolphins somehow did not win a Super Bowl afterwards. The AFC powerhouses Steelers and Raiders in the late 1970’s, then the NFC teams, such as 49ers, Bears, Giants, Redskins and Cowboys in the 1980’s and 1990’s, began to dominate, and deprive the Dolphins from clinching the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Shula was unable to untangle these teams’ stranglehold on the Super Bowl in his last 2 decades.
However, despite a lack of achievements, Shula is still regarded as the undisputedly best head coach of the Dolphins; as of 2011, Shula coached and won 65% of all Dolphins games, 85% of all Dolphins playoff games and all of the Dolphins’ conference championships and Super Bowl rings. Shula’s Dolphins teams alone can also rank in the top quartile in total division titles and playoff games won. Shula has never coached any team that won only 5 games, in his seasons with the Dolphins, which explains the high 5 or less losses: 5 or more wins ratio, which is 2nd to the Steelers.
Why would he not continue to coach in the Dolphins, if he consistently can field winning teams?
End of Dolphins’ success?
No matter how many games Shula had won, he cannot battle the change of ownership that the Dolphins faced, in the 1990’s.
Wayne Huizenga, the head of Blockbuster Video, had earlier bought the Dolphins from Joe Robbie, the original owner, in 1990. He also eventually bought 50% of the Dolphins’ home stadium. He bought all shares of the team in 1993. He eventually sold a 45% of Dolphins’ Stadium and 95% of the Dolphins’ shares to Stephen Ross.
With a strong owner, the coach’s position is undermined. Hence Shula did ‘agree to step aside’ in 1996 and retire, after 33 seasons at the helm of his teams. This move was interpreted as Huizenga firing him in a slimy manner. Jimmy Johnson replaced Shula as head coach, who won 2 Super Bowl rings with the Cowboys, replaced him.
Never did Huizenga expect that Johnson did not achieve the sky-high expectations of winning the Super Bowl, as Johnson did not win a division title, and only managed to reach the conference divisional games stage. In the process, long-time quarterback Dan Marino also began to show relationship strains with Johnson, resulting in both Marino and Johnson retiring from football in 1999. It is noted that Johnson did not attend Marino’s retirement ceremony.
The Dolphins later fared rather well with a core team, inherited from Shula and Johnson’s eras, under the lead of head coach Dave Wannstedt. But he only managed to win one playoff game in his tenure. He later left to head the University of Pittsburgh Panthers college football team.
Since the departure of Wannstedt, however, the team had been in ruins, rudderless without a sense of winning order. The Dolphins only managed to reach the playoffs once under Nick Saban, who later left to head the Alabama Crimson Tide. Later, two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells did tried to revive the team, as Executive Vice President of Football Operations, and this resulted in a 10-game improvement to a 11-5 season in his first season in charge, in 2008, resulting in the only division championship since the departure of Wannstedt. But then, he only yielded 2 consecutive 7-9 3rd placing in the AFC East division, in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
It is my hope that the Dolphins will somehow find their winning touch again, through consistency. Wish them all the best.
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