During the month of June, the Last Word On Sports NFL department has been compiling a list of four all-time greats for all 32 franchises. For this series, only players are eligible for selection. Today, we explore the Miami Dolphins.
The Dolphins were founded in 1966 and are famously known as the last team to go undefeated in both the regular season and playoffs en route to a league championship in 1972. A little more than a decade later, the franchise would enter another successful era with a quarterback who would go down as one of the most prolific passers in NFL history when all was set and done. Both periods figure prominently in this forthcoming list.
Miami Dolphins Mount Rushmore
Bob Griese
Griese became accustomed to achieving firsts for the teams he played for. During his collegiate career, he led Purdue to its first ever Rose Bowl appearance on January 2, 1967. The seventh-ranked Boilermakers defeated USC 14-13 and though Griese didn’t throw a touchdown pass, the highly versatile player kicked both extra points in the game. He was a multi-sport athlete who also played basketball and baseball while at Purdue.
The Dolphins would select him with the fourth overall pick in the NFL draft a few months later. His first three seasons in the league were a struggle as he would only win 12 games including a disastrous 3-10-1 campaign in 1969. Head coach George Wilson would be fired at season’s end.
Shortly thereafter, Don Shula was hired as the team’s second-ever head coach. They then gave Griese an additional weapon in the receiving corps by acquiring wide receiver Paul Warfield from the Cleveland Browns in an offseason trade. Combined with a certain bruising running back who we’ll discuss later, the pieces were in place for an historic championship run.
Between 1970 and 1975, the Dolphins would go on to compile a 67-16-1 record in the regular season along with an 8-3 mark in their five playoff appearances during that span. Griese was named league MVP in 1971 as Miami would appear in the first of three consecutive Super Bowls, a 24-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI.
The following year, Griese would suffer a broken leg in the team’s fifth game of the season. Nevertheless, backup quarterback Earl Morrall, who had previously been waived by the Baltimore Colts, picked up the slack. After leading the Dolphins to a 14-0 regular season record and two playoff wins, Morrall made way for Griese in Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins. Miami would win 14-7 to cap off their 17-0 season.
Griese would win another Super Bowl one year later, a 24-7 triumph over the Minnesota Vikings. He made six Pro Bowls in his 14-year career and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990. He’s also one of only three players in Miami Dolphins history to have their jersey retired. Read further to learn more about the other two.
Larry Csonka
Hard-nosed, smash mouth north-south running epitomized Csonka’s style of play in ways very difficult to fathom for the modern NFL fan. It doesn’t help that the position he played throughout his career, fullback, is a dying breed in today’s game. The native of Stow, OH who played college ball for Syracuse and was drafted eighth overall by the Dolphins in 1968 would eventually come to be known as among the most toughest and fearsome running backs to ever play the game.
Csonka and fellow Miami running back Mercury Morris would form a potent two-headed monster backfield that played a major role in the consecutive Super Bowl titles the Dolphins would capture in the early 1970s. The dynamic tandem spearheaded the undefeated season of 1972 by combining for 2,117 yards and becoming the first running back duo to rush for 1,000 yards each in NFL history.
His two-touchdown, 145 yard performance in the Dolphins 24-7 domination of the Vikings in Super Bowl VIII earned him MVP honors for the game. He remained an effective runner even in his final season as a pro, rushing for 837 yards and 12 touchdowns in 1979. Csonka became a Hall of Fame inductee in 1989 and also had his number 39 retired by the franchise.
To further appreciate Csonka’s exploits as a runner, watch this clip and marvel how many times it takes more than one defensive player to bring him down.
Mark Clayton
Those Dolphins teams of the 1980s and 90s were defined in most respects by prolific passing and Clayton was the go-to target. An eighth round pick out of Lousiville in 1983 (the same year they drafted that quarterback to be discussed below), the Indianapolis native would spend ten seasons in Miami and finish among the franchise’s best in a variety of pass catching categories.
Clayton remains the Dolphins all-time leader in touchdowns (81) and total receptions (550) to this day. His partner in crime in the receiving corps at the time Mark Duper is the only player to have more receiving yards than him, besting his 8,643 yards in a Miami uniform by 226. The two would be known as the “Marks Brothers” during their tenure in South Florida.
The primary reason I give the nod to Clayton is the fact that he played two less games for the Dolphins than Duper yet his previously mentioned 81 touchdowns is 22 more than Duper caught for the team.
Dan Marino
If we are to compare across sports, Marino is the Charles Barkley of the NFL – a supremely talented all-time great of the game who unfortunately came up short when it came to winning a championship ring. His lack of a Super Bowl title shouldn’t detract from a career that will ultimately go down as one of the greatest in NFL history for a player at his position.
Much like fellow AFC East quarterback great Jim Kelly (with whom a great rivalry developed during this period), Marino was born in Pittsburgh, PA. He went to the University of Pittsburgh and led the Panthers to three straight 11-1 seasons (1979-81). During his four-year college career Pitt never finished the season ranked outside the top ten in the AP poll.
The Dolphins drafted him 27th overall in 1983. He would get his first start in Week Six and would lead the Dolphins to a 12-4 regular season record and an AFC East title. The following year he would set NFL records in passing yards (5,084) and touchdown passes (48) and be awarded the NFL MVP. The Dolphins would finish 14-2 in the regular season and make an appearance in Super Bowl XIX where they fell to Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers 38-16. It would end up being Marino’s only Super Bowl appearance.
In his 17 NFL seasons, Marino would pass for 61,361 yards and 420 touchdowns, both good enough for third all-time. He participated in the playoffs during ten of those seasons and finished fifth and sixth in league history respectively in touchdown passes (32) and passing yards (4,510). Perhaps a lesser known fact about Marino was that until Peyton Manning passed him, his 36 fourth quarter comebacks were the most ever, even one more than John Elway who tends to be more associated with game-winning drives.
A first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, Marino is one of three players in Dolphins history to have their jersey retired along with Griese and Csonka.
Go to the 3:45 mark of this clip to watch a great Hall of Fame induction speech moment as Dan Marino makes one more pass to Mark Clayton.
Honorable Mention
Garo Yepremian: kicker during the Dolphins Super Bowl championship years; led the league in points in 1971; his 37-yard field goal against Kansas City in the 1971 playoffs ended the longest game in NFL history with 7:20 left in double overtime. Yepremian recently passed away at the age of 70.
Mark Duper: formed a potent combination with Mark Clayton during the Marino years; remains the franchise’s all-time leader in receiving yards (8,869).
Main Photo:
