‘Perfect’ legacy still unmatched
DON SHULA was already a legendary head coach, the perfect coach of the perfect 1972 Super Bowl VII Dolphins, when I started covering the Walt Michaels 1977 Jets.
And here’s what I remember about Shula: Every time I asked to interview him, he would always call. It was intimidating for a young reporter, especially when he would bark over the phone following a question he didn’t particularly care for or was just plain dumb, but he would always call. And he didn’t know me from Adam.
Many years later, during a Super Bowl week — when he had become a kinder, gentler Don, but forever The Don of football coaches and the Don of Miami — I asked him what his reaction was when the Jets passed on Dan Marino in the 1983 draft and selected Ken O’Brien instead.
Shula’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, and with the unbridled joy of a young boy, he smiled a smile for the ages and roared: “Yay!”
Shula, 90, died Monday morning at his South Florida home.
It wasn’t long before Marino, just 21 when he entered the league, was himself shouting
“Yay,” having Shula as his Hall of Fame coach, demanding but flexible, and lifelong mentor.
“You evolve to the talent that you have, and their abilities and what they can do best,” Marino said on a Zoom call. “I remember telling people how he told me to come in and learn the playbook in a way that of he wanted me to call my own plays in practice, in camp, in minicamp and all that. And I thought that was genius because it put a lot more pressure on me as a quarterback to learn quicker. I feel like I was able to start and play a lot quicker because of that reason, because of that pressure he put on me.”
Former Giants GM Ernie Accorsi worked for the Baltimore Colts for most of the 1970s and was their GM in 1982 and ’83. He arrived in Baltimore as public relations director in 1970, when Shula was lured away from the Colts by Dolphins owner Joe Robbie.
Accorsi was a longtime eyewitness to Shula’s greatness, to why he would win 347 games and become the NFL’s winningest coach.
“His teams were so beautifully orchestrated,” Accorsi told The Post. “Everything was precision. ... They didn’t make any mistakes. They were not gonna beat themselves, they were not gonna give you the game, they never fumbled, they never jumped offside. He took the talent he had and used it perfectly.
“It seemed like it was always second-and-5. He would give the ball to [Larry] Csonka and he’s get 5 yards on that. Now you got [Paul] Warfield and Mercury Morris and [Bob] Griese can do anything they want to you.
“But playing against him was like a slow death. I mean, they would just methodically move down the field, and they just would never make a mistake. They were just beautifully coached.”
Shula, his famous jaw forever jutting from here to John Carroll University, where he played, coached John Unitas in Baltimore, and Bob Griese and Dan Marino in Miami. Shula won his two Super Bowls with Griese, lost to the Super Bowl III Jets with Earl Morrall and a wounded Unitas in relief, lost Super Bowl VII with Griese to the Cowboys, and lost to the Bill Walsh-Joe Montana 49ers with Marino in Super Bowl XIX.
“You never saw Shula with a headset,” Accorsi said. “They would call a play on a timeout or something, but for the most part, he had smart quarterbacks, he prepared them perfectly and they called the plays.”
Shula regretted failing to win a championship with Marino.
“It wasn’t a slow death with Marino. It was a quick-striking death,” Accorsi said with a laugh, referring to Shula’s shift in offensive strategy with Marino. “He adapted, that’s the amazing thing about him. “
When Griese was sidelined with a fractured fibula and dislocated ankle in Week 5, Morrall led the Dolphins to 11 consecutive wins during the perfect season.
“He played with his backup quarterback most of that season,” Accorsi said. “As he did in ’68 in Baltimore. So the one thing about Don is he would adapt to whatever his personnel was.”
Shula was 2-4 in the Super Bowl. But it didn’t stop the NFL from remembering Don Shula as its perfect coach.
“We lost a great man today,” Marino said. “God bless him and his family. We’re all gonna miss him.”