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  • 2005-12-18 (xsd:date)
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  • Do 1972 Miami Dolphins Toast First Losses of Undefeated Teams? (en)
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  • In 1972, the National Football League's Miami Dolphins breezed through fourteen regular-season games undefeated, then won two playoff matches and Super Bowl VII to accomplish what no other NFL team had achieved before: a perfect season. The uniqueness and longevity of the 1972 Dolphins' perfect record has led to the legend of the champagne celebration: That each surviving member of that 1972 squad puts away a bottle of bubbly at the beginning of every NFL season, which they all open in simultaneous toasts the moment the last remaining undefeated team loses its first game of the season. Lesser versions of the legend have only some of the players reuniting with their former head coach, the Don Shula, later in the day to engage in a celebratory toast to the continuation of their record: But, according to the late Don Shula himself, no such organized celebrations ever took place: Jim Riley, a defensive end on the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, also noted that the champagne toast rumor merely referenced a one-time gathering of three of his former teammates: One of the greatest threats to the Dolphins' perfect record came in 2005, when the Indianapolis Colts won their first thirteen games of the season (the NFL having expanded from a 14-game season to a 16-game season in 1978) before dropping their next two contests to finish 14-2. Were all the 1972 Miami Dolphins planning to celebrate the Colts' first loss of 2005 with champagne? Again, not according to Shula: When the Green Bay Packers opened their 2011 season by going 13-0 before losing their fourteenth game, former Dolphins Marv Fleming and Paul Warfield again addressed the legend, reiterating that reports of a yearly champagne toast were false rumors based on a one-time event: The New England Patriots matched the Dolphins' achievement of a perfect regular season by winning all sixteen of their games in 2007. But the Patriots faltered in their pursuit of maintaining an unblemished record all the way through the post-season when they lost Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. Featured image caption: President Barack Obama delivers remarks during a ceremony honoring the 1972 Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins in the East Room of the White House, Aug. 20, 2013. (en)
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