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AFM Magazine


Words of Wisdom: Don Shula

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Thirty-three years as an NFL head coach. Thirty seasons as head coach or vice-chairman of the Miami Dolphins. These numbers embody unparalleled longevity.

All-time NFL-coaching bests of 347 total wins and 328 regular-season wins. A career winning percentage of .676. Six Super Bowl head coaching appearances, with two championships. Only two losing seasons in 33 seasons as a head coach. And, still untouched by history, an immortal 17-0 season in 1972. These figures exemplify unrivaled success.

Shula, the man with the distinctive jutting jaw, turned 70 this year, but his records and legacy are ageless.

And beyond the wins and records, consider the coaches and players who learned at the knee of Shula. Hall-of-Fame performers like Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Johnny Unitas, Paul Warfield, Dwight Stephenson, Larry Csonka, Raymond Berry, Ted Hendricks, John Mackey, Gino Marchetti, Lenny Moore and Jim Parker. And the roll of Shula-tutored coaches such as Chuck Noll, Howard Schnellenberger, Bill Arnsparger, Don McCafferty, John Sandusky and Dan Henning, not to mention sons David and Mike.

And so, as the NFL looks back on its first 80 years and takes inventory of its utmost achievers and contributors, no one deserves greater recognition than Don Shula.

"Winning is the ethic of football. You start with having to win and you work back."

"The important thing is not what Don Shula knows or what any of my assistant coaches know. The important thing is that we can transmit to the people we're responsible for. That's what coaching is - the ability to transmit information."

"You kick some in the butt, praise others, continue to harass a third group. They're all different and you've got to realize this."

"I've tried to learn from all and copy none."

"Sell me. Don't quit because I'm not interested the first time you present something."

"By admiring and respecting an opponent, I think you get a tremendous desire to whip them."

"Uncorrected errors will multiply. Someone once asked me if there wasn't benefit in overlooking a small flaw. I asked him, 'What's a small flaw'?"

"Why do you think I go to Mass everyday?" - explaining his luck in obtaining Dan Marino at pick No. 27 in the NFL draft.

"You play blind chess the second time around. You know what the other team has done and what you have done and you have to try to put yourself in the position of the other coach. You know he won't make the same mistakes, he knows you won't. You have to try to imagine what mistakes he will make compensating and what mistakes he thinks you will make."

"I've never tried to take a system and jam it down a team's throat. I build my offensive and defensive game plans around the type of people we have to execute them."

"Yeah, you've lost one of your earrings." - reply to a player wearing one earring who asked, "Notice anything, Coach?"






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