When do the aging Dolphins start getting their hate on for the Titans?

[sniffa]

Have they purchased their champagne yet? When do they start making the media rounds to proclaim their greatness?

[joeybee12]

1. I'm sure Don Shula will come up with some excuse should the Titans

go undefeated...that said, i don't think they will...and nobody else seems to think so either, because you don't hear about Don and his co-horts starting to worry, and yet the titans surprise us every week.

[dakota_democrat]

5. They "could" make it to 14-0

I just don't see 16-0 though.

If they're 14-0 they'll have nothing to play for, going up against 2 teams to finish out the year (Pittsburgh/Indy) that could have their seasons or a home game in the 1st round to work towards.

If Indy's in a situation where that final game is do or die for them, I just can't see the Titans beating them at Indy.

[joeybee12]

17. You're right...that game probably will mean a lot to Indy and nothing

to Tennessee...then again, Indy can play horribly at times, and they just might do it that game, needing to win or not.

[foxeyes2]

19. Titans Fan Here

while I think it is a long shot that we will go 16-0 I can guarantee you that when we play the Steelers and especially when we play the Colts it will not be meaningless. the Colts are one of our main rivals and the Titans will be playing to win. In fact Coach Fisher has been reported as saying that he will play all his starters the entire season. So don't believe for a moment that any of our games are not important to the team or their fans.

[joeybee12]

24. Ok, I shouldn't have said meaningless, but if they've clinched the

home field advantage, they gotta be thinking about keeping guys safe and injury-free. Than again, if the Titans have any decency, they hate Indy like all us decent people do, so maybe they'll whomp 'em.

[trumad]

2. Ummm you do know it's a myth about the Phins and the champagne?

They simply don't do it... it's a myth brought on by ignorant fans of opposing teams who simply are a bunch of jealous knuckleheads whose teams will never accomplish the feat.

[sniffa]

3. I know.

It's actually Diet Cokes.

Urban legend

There is an urban legend that every season, whenever the last remaining undefeated NFL team loses its first game, all the surviving members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins open bottles of champagne in celebration. Coach Don Shula tried to play down the myth by saying that two players, Dick Anderson and Nick Buoniconti, who live near each other sometimes have a toast together<1><2>. However, in a college football broadcast on ABC, following the loss of an undefeated team, Bob Griese commented that he called up former Dolphins, and they had Diet Cokes together, after being asked by his colleague. That celebration comes with the connotation that they no longer drink alcoholic beverages, but that a toast was customary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Miami_Dolphins_season#Urban_legend

[Goblinmonger]

4. OK, so when will they begin to be

unsufferable douchebags in interviews with the media? When will Mercury Morris start pitifully holding on to the only year in his life when he barely fucking mattered in the national scene? When will Shula start talking out of his ass as to why the current undefeated team shouldn't be counted? Cause all of those things aren't urban legends.

[Awsi Dooger]

7. Baloney

I celebrate every year and so do the old Dolphins. Keuchenberg was crying after the Super Bowl last year, saying it was the greatest day since the Super Bowl win over Washington.

The city of Miami and almost every Dolphin fan is gripped by the annual game of rooting for the last unbeaten to fail. Downplaying that is dishonest to the max. There were horns blaring in Miami last February after the Giants pulled it out, just like the Dolphins had won. My dad and I hugged each other.

I guarantee there's champagne and otherwise. In many recent seasons with unbeaten teams late into the regular season there have been shots of Shula and Griese and Buoniconti and other members of the '72 team staring at monitors of the other game, while in luxury boxes at Dolphin Stadium when Miami was playing. They pay much more attention to that game than pulling for the current Dolphins. And rightfully so. That 17-0 has potential to withstands centuries as uniquely perfect if we can get rid of the annual pests, like the current Titans.

I went to school with Jeff Fisher. Just donate one, old Trojan cornerback.

[trumad]

10. Oh no doubt we celebrate---

I said that it's bull that each member of the 72 Phins has champagne cooling for the moment the last team is defeated.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. I love it when the haters start to think there's a chance

You can sense the delicious rooting interest every week.

And many of the predictable sources have already shown up in this thread, and elsewhere.

I've been annoyed at the Titans for more than a month. The damn Ravens blew it again, just like last year hosting New England. Baltimore led Tennessee 10-6 with only the final drive to stop, and couldn't do it. At home. Versus a division rival. Pathetic.

This Titans team can maul you. I'm hardly certain they will fail. I've been a pest on Dolphin message boards for 6 weeks emphasizing this team had an opportunity to run the table. Their foundational stats are terrific and in many ways they are gaining momentum right now, while the '07 Patriots were beginning to decline at about this point. At least I've been taking advantage at the betting windows. The last two weeks have been a joke, -3 at Chicago and -2.5 today at Jacksonville. You're basically asking the Titans to play one competent half to cover numbers like that. Next week they will be in a severe "up" scenario against the Jets, coming home off two big road wins. That game could be another lopsided win unless Favre is out of his mind. This is the point the home crowd starts to believe and it's hellish to even compete as a visitor.

Regardless, it's hilarious how the haters try to downplay the early '70s Dolphins. Last year we had the typical nonsense that several other '70s teams were superior. I had to rattle off the basic facts, like the 27-10 drubbing of the Stabler Raiders in the '73 AFC Championship Game, a year after the victory at Pittsburgh in the '72 AFC Title Game. Let's see, when Griese was in the game the Dolphins went on a 6-quarter 66-10 run against the Steelers over a 3-game span from '71 to '73. The haters love to deny any of that ever existed. A year later it's still valid, along with the best 2-year record in NFL history, 32-2 with two championships. Did some really say Mercury Morris was only relevant for one year? LOL. He had a greater role in '73.

Anyway, best of luck. 9 more to go.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. You Can Bring It Up Again

You'll still be wrong.

The Professor

[trumad]

12. Uh dude---if you really think the Titans can run the table,

then you must be off your meds.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Hopefully, The Media Will Finally Ignore Them

It has gotten quite old.
The Professor

[trumad]

11. How can that happen when they are still perfect.

If it's so old, why do opposing fans keep bringing it up?

[ProfessorGAC]

13. I Didn't Bring It Up

And it was 36 years ago. So, that's pretty far back, considering about 30% of the population wasn't even born yet.

Look, i think it's pathetic around here that so many 85 Bears players are still such celebrities.

So, you're not going to get me to change my mind about this.
GAC

[trumad]

14. I don't want to change your mind

look--- people love sports memories. I see nothing wrong with people clinging to memories of their past, especially good memories.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. OK

But, you disputed my right to see them as gloating, pompous asses. That's my sports memory.

Why so one sided?
GAC

[trumad]

16. No I disputed your misinterpretation of someone else being proud of their accomplishment.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. That Was Hardly My Question

Why so one sided? I see it as pompous and gloating. But, apparently i'm not entitled to see it that way, despite the fact that my sports memories involve seeing many of those guys that way.

You're entitled to your opinion, but i'm not?
GAC

[trumad]

20. ,

Where did you get that from? Sure you're entitled to your own opinion no matter how stupid it is.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Apparently I'm Not

You just proved it.
GAC

[hughee99]

22. Yes, but once the Titans loose

all the 72' Dolphins fuckmookery will end shortly after. That's the upside, that I don't have to listen to "neighborhood" and "block" metaphors every time I watch anything NFL related, there's no "well, it's not really the same because..." or "they don't really deserve it because..." horse shit to listen to. Think of it this way, when the last team loses it's first game 7 games into the season, you don't even hear a mention of it.

Frankly, as much as I wanted the Pats to do it last year, in the back of my mind I was dreading how 20-30 years later, they'd be digging up long retired Patriots who would then make douchebags out of themselves saying the same sort of things.

[Scurrilous]

23. Morris says Titans remind him of 1972 Dolphins

<snip>

"Mercury Morris was a vocal critic of the New England Patriots when they were on their quest for perfection last year. But the unofficial spokesman for the 1972 Dolphins -- the NFL's last unbeaten team -- said he's a fan of the Tennessee Titans, the last undefeated team of 2008.

"If the Titans show up (in the Super Bowl with a perfect record), they would be exactly like we were. Nobody believed after the 10th game, the 12th game, the 16th game," Morris said on ESPN's First Take on Monday."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3708599