Sometimes it happens sooner and sometimes it happens later, but sooner or later it happens. Once again, the last undefeated team in the National Football League has lost their first game, this season after nine straight opening wins. This year it was the Kansas City Chiefs who made the startling run, considering that last year they went 2-14. But with a new coach and quarterback (albeit successful veterans from other teams) Andy Reid and Alex Smith, respectively, they have transformed themselves into a true contender. Unfortunately for them, the Chiefs are situated in a division with the Denver Broncos, who may well be the best team in the league this year. The two divisional rivals played last night on the road in Mile High Stadium and the Chiefs lost 27-17. So no more undefeated teams remain, and that's party time to the 1972 Miami Dolphins players and staff. Time to break out the champagne!
Miami went 14-0 in the regular season in 1972 and won the Super Bowl. No team has won it all since then, although there have been some close calls. The most notable were the runs of the Chicago Bears in 1985 and of the New England Patriots in 2007. The Bears would probably have pulled it off were they not upset by the Dolphins in the next-to-last game of the regular season, and the Patriots came 35 seconds from having a perfect season...that is, until the New York Giants scored and went ahead with that miniscule amount of time left in the fourth quarter of their Super Bowl. This year, though, won't come close to those two and Miami's unrepeated legacy remains intact. So, as the tradition goes, the surviving members of that '72 Dolphins team either will meet or already have met to celebrate Kansas City's first loss of the season. Frankly, I like the Chiefs and dislike the Broncos and was in an uncomfortable position last night rooting for Denver. But now I can go back to pulling for KC (unless they play the Dolphins, of course)...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment