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DEL.ICIO.USShula scores with wealth of tales
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
“I coached him into the Hall of Fame,” Don Shula said, and he chuckled. Not that Joe Namath was a subject to chuckle about in Super Bowl III. Shula coached the then-Baltimore Colts, heavily favored against the New York Jets in the match between the champions of the old, established NFL and the upstart AFL, a residue of rags-and-tatters teams groping for recognition.
Safe to say that game was Namath’s ticket to Canton, for over the years he quarterbacked only three winning seasons. The wound has healed by this time, but Shula, like many thousands, can still see Jimmy Orr, a remarkable receiver, standing in the end zone waving frantically to Earl Morrall, Colts quarterback. Shula could explain.
“The bands were lining up to get ready for the halftime show, and they were dressed in white. So were the Colts, and Earl couldn’t find Jimmy in white against that white background. So you couldn’t blame him altogether.”
Now we know. Amazing, that for all the 347 games Shula won as a coach, this one defeat more often surfaces in the minds of Americans. Even above the perfect season he produced in 1972 after he had transferred to the Miami Dolphins. Even that Super Bowl game, played against Washington in Los Angeles, produced another pulse-beater.
“Our record was 17-0, and we were leading the Redskins, 14-0. There was about two minutes left to play, and I decided it would be fitting if we kicked a field goal and won the Super Bowl 17-0,” Shula said. So he sent in his Cypriot placekicker, Garo Yepremian, for the kick, but something went awry, and Yepremian was left standing there with the football in his hands, not on his foot.
“He tried to throw a pass, the weakest-looking thing you ever saw, the Redskins intercepted and ran it back for a touchdown,” Shula said. “So instead of 17-0, it was now 14-7 and we were faced with trying to save the game. You couldn’t blame Garo, I guess. Football was just a game of kicking to a guy who had grown up in Cyprus. I remember we were playing Detroit when he kicked his first field goal, and he came running off the field yelling, ‘I kick a touchdown, I kick a touchdown!’
“I said, ‘No, Garo, you kicked a field goal, not a touchdown.’ “
So you see how nerve-wracking it can be even for the man who won more games in the NFL than any coach. In these 11 years he has been out of the game, what has he missed the most? “I miss game day,” he said, “Nothing you can do to replace those three hours on the sideline. But I don’t miss practices, and I don’t miss cutting the roster.”
Coaching has run in the family, and not always to the pleasure of the sire. Both David and Mike have been head coaches, but it was when Mike was stripped of his job at Alabama that he felt the deepest displeasure. “I’m still upset about the way they handled Mike. He’d had a big season the year before, won the Cotton Bowl, had his contract renewed, then goes 6-and-6 and they fire him, after all those seasons while they were on probation. I guess they’re expecting Nick Saban to do there what he did at LSU. If they want to change where a change is due, they might start with the head of the department.”
Retirement for Shula has been a plunge into the business world — a golf club and resort, a chain of steakhouses, producing his own brand of steak sauce and support of a number of charitable organizations. Plus, what brings him to Atlanta this week. He is the coach in “BP Coach Approach,” spokesman for a pharmaceutical company that produces medicine to control hypertension, or high blood pressure, as you and I know it. And who better to understand hypertension than a football coach, who faced it every time he stood on the sideline.
He appears quite fit in those commercials he does with Dan Marino. “High blood pressure is something I have been aware of for 15 years,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is make other people aware of how to treat it and live with it.”
So you wonder what happens to these headliners of yore when the cheering stops and the lights go down, here’s the winningest pro football coach of all time whose mission is to help you keep your blood pressure in check.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
Comments
By Robert
February 14, 2007 08:49 AM | Link to this
Shula’s comment about Jimmy Orr shows that he has selective retention. He says that “the bands were lining up to get ready for the halftime show, and they were dressed in white. So were the Colts, and Earl couldn’t find Jimmy in white against that white background. So you couldn’t blame him altogether.” However, as anyone who witnessed that game or have seen the numerous replays on ESPN, knows that the Colts were the home team and were dressed in their familiar blue jerseys. So Orr would have stood out like a sore thumb against that whith background Shula talks about. The pure facts of the matter is that Shula was outcoached and his team was outplayed by a very good team and a great quarterback. Shula is one of three coaches who have lost 4 Super Bowls and, if you include the 1964 NFL championship game that the Colts lost to the Browns, 27-0, he is 2-5 in championship games.
By bearinfortworth
February 14, 2007 09:01 AM | Link to this
The Colts did wear blue, I don’t know about the band. But most Falcon fans knew where Orr was—the Colts had earlier run the flea-flicker to perfection against the Birds. FWIW, the NFL Network’s “America’s Game” segment on the ‘71 Colt Super Bowl champs has great remininsces from Bubba, Curry & Mike Curtis. Curry’s over it, but it still gets Curtis’ goad. Good story
By Kent Savage
February 14, 2007 09:04 AM | Link to this
Couldn’t agree more with Don’s take on Mike’s treatment at Alabama. I’ve been a Bama fan all my life and when they crapped on Bill Curry my father (an alum and football player there) quit the alumni assoc. When they fired Mike (the only Bama qb who ever beat Notre Dame of course aided by his great team mates)and the guy who brought class back to their tarnished and darkest period they reward him by lying to him. I don’t care what Saban does at Alabama. Until they get rid of Mal Moore they will languish under the shadow of the Bear, and if Coach Bryant were alive, I think he would be apalled at what has happened at this once proud (justifiably) school
By Kevin
February 14, 2007 09:48 AM | Link to this
Wow…Don Shula still trying to boost Mike’s career. He needs to let it go. Doesn’t he have other things to be concerned with than his son’s mediocre performance at Alabama? Does not think that an 0-22 record when trailing in the 2nd half does not make Mike a great coach? Does Don not realize that going 2-16 against your biggest rivals in 4 years isn’t very impressive? And, how many years did Don have left on his contract in Baltimore before he bolted to Miami? Golly, I am sure he stayed out the duration of his Baltimore contract…surely he didn’t jump ship….not Don Shula…the baston of integrity. Give me a break.
By Steve
February 14, 2007 09:58 AM | Link to this
Here is what one Baltimore writer said about infamous play in SB III when Earl Morrall somehow missed Jimmy Orr standing alone in the end zone…
“No explanation was ever given for what happened. Except Morrall couldn’t find Orr. It wasn’t as if Jimmy had headed for the men’s room or stepped out to the nearest bar for a scotch and water. It’s the belief of this observer that Orr’s blue jersey blended in with a marching band of musicians that was headed for the end zone to perform at the intermission. The backdrop was blue, the same color the Colts were wearing, and Morrall just couldn’t pick up the primary receiver. It was almost as if he was camouflaged.”
Don may have forgotten what uniform they were wearing, but the idea that Morrall lost Orr in the background of the band is not new. No matter, Don probably got out coached in that game. But that does not take away from his accomplishments. To coach as long as he did with the success that he had is truly remarkable. Even if he had a losing record in championship games, you have to win a lot of big games to even be in a championship game. In my opinion, Don Shula is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history and as classy a guy as you can find.
By Got12?
February 14, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this
By statistics alone, Don Shula is one of the greastest coaches in NFL history. I’m not so sure about the classy part. Let the Bama/Mike issue die, Don. Bama made a mistake in extending his contract and bungled his firing, but his dismissal was justified. Let it go, Don.
By Elmo
February 14, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
Don needs to make peace with himself. Mike cannot Coach. The Cotton Bowl Season was a Fluke and nothing more.If you can’t beat Auburn - there is going to be an firing- no matter what school you’re at. Am I not right Bulldog Fans ?
By Irish
February 14, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this
I’m looking at a photograph of the Super Bowl III game showing the end zone. The scoreboard and the City of Miami Orange Bowl Stadium sign is in the background. I see a red-clad band sitting behind the end zone and a blue-clad band in the other section of the end zone. So, it could be that Shula mixed up his colors.
By Bill Keith
February 14, 2007 02:52 PM | Link to this
Shula certainly does spin tales… particulary the one about the Colts wearing white in Super Bowl III. Check any clip from that game; the Jets are in white and the Colts are in blue! Maybe he meant the band was wearing blue? Or was he just trying to cover for Earl Morrall….again?