Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

▪ American football team
 American professional gridiron football (football, gridiron) team based in Miami that plays in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). With a rich history that has included two Super Bowl championships (1973–74) and five conference titles, the Dolphins are the only team in NFL history to finish an entire season undefeated; their 1972 season ended without a loss and culminated in a victory in Super Bowl VII.

  The Dolphins joined the American Football League (AFL) in 1966, four years before the league merged with the NFL. Failures during the team's infancy brought about the hiring of head coach Don Shula (Shula, Don) from the Baltimore Colts (Indianapolis Colts) in 1970. Shula immediately turned the Dolphins around and led them to play-off appearances in each of his first five seasons with the team, including the Dolphins' first trip to the Super Bowl in January 1972, which they lost to the Dallas Cowboys. Featuring the “no-name” defense and a potent offense led by four players destined for the Hall of Fame—quarterback Bob Griese (who was injured mid-season and replaced by Earl Morrall), wide receiver Paul Warfield, running back Larry Csonka, and lineman Larry Little—the 1972 Dolphins team dominated the NFL en route to posting the only undefeated season in league history. Returning to the Super Bowl the following season—thus becoming the first franchise to make three consecutive Super Bowl appearances—Miami beat the Minnesota Vikings 24–7. The Dolphins often fielded competitive teams throughout the remainder of the 1970s, but they did not appear in another Super Bowl during the decade.

      In 1983 the Dolphins drafted quarterback Dan Marino, who would go on to set every major career NFL passing record and be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Teamed with the “Marks Brothers”—wide receivers Mark Clayton and Mark Duper—Marino ran an offense that often ranked at the top of the league, but his teams advanced to the Super Bowl only once in his 17-year career, in a 38–16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in 1985. Subsequent history was not kind to the Dolphins. Defensive-minded squads led by defensive end Jason Taylor, linebacker Zach Thomas, and cornerback Sam Madison experienced moderate success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but in 2002 the team entered into the longest postseason drought in franchise history. A disastrous one-win season in 2007 prompted the hiring of Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells as head of football operations, bringing hope for a return to form. Miami posted 11 wins and 5 losses in 2008 (which tied the NFL record for the greatest win improvement from the previous season) and qualified for the postseason as the AFC Eastern Division champions. Despite their recent uneven play, the Dolphins maintained the best cumulative winning percentage in NFL history (.582) as of 2008.

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Universalium. 2010.

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