Columnist Dean Juipe: Vikes’ loss allows party to continue

Dean Juipe

Monday, Oct. 30, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Getting together to laugh and celebrate others' failures is really a poor excuse for a party.

But, for members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, it has become an annual event. And maybe they shouldn't be judged too harshly.

Those '72 Dolphins were the last team in the National Football League to go through a season undefeated. They won all 14 of their regular season games, plus three in the playoffs including Super Bowl VII.

That 17-0 season has yet to be duplicated and it's something those old Dolphins don't ever want to forget. So every year, after the last unbeaten team in the NFL is tagged with a loss, the former 'Fins get together to hoist a few and toast their continued good fortune.

After what happened Sunday in Tampa, the '72 Dolphins can proceed to make their party arrangements. Their standing as the last of the unbeatens is secure for at least another year.

A thank-you card to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is in order, not only from the old Dolphins but from Sports Illustrated magazine. The Bucs throttled the Minnesota Vikings, who came into the game 7-0, 41-13, thereby giving every NFL team at least one loss and thereby keeping S.I. from being completely embarrassed by its preseason forecast that Tampa Bay would win Super Bowl XXXV when it is played in January.

The previous four weeks the Bucs looked anything but Super, losing consecutive games to the Jets, Redskins, Vikings and Lions. Meanwhile, Minnesota -- tabbed by S.I. back in August as only the 22nd best, or ninth worst, team in the league -- had won everything and was making a mockery of the revered magazine's picks and supposed expertise. But the key to Sunday's outcome was incentive; the Bucs had it and the Vikings did not.

Tampa's season was on the line and its players boldly said as much, choosing to acknowledge the obvious. As a result, the Bucs -- who were favored by three points in Las Vegas for this very reason -- played with a passion and ferocity the Vikings -- who were in the cozy position of leading their division by two games -- couldn't match.

Long term, this one result may be meaningless. After all, Tampa Bay has become a passing team with a suspect passer, Shaun King, at the controls. And Minnesota, when suitably motivated, has an offensive weaponry few teams in the league can match.

It also has a quarterback for the new age of football, one who can run as well as pass. The pocket passer may never be a dying breed, yet guys like the Vikings' Duante Culpepper are redefining the position with their strength, athleticism and versatility.

Culpepper's success, as well as that of similar young quarterbacks like Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb and Chicago's Cade McNown, is an additional reason UNLV's Jason Thomas has piqued the pros' interest. Big men who can run and throw have spent the 2000 season driving defenses crazy, and, in time, Thomas will be welcomed to the NFL accordingly.

In time, too, the '72 Dolphins will lose their reason for an annual party.

Another perfect team will come along, although it's a sign of the NFL's parity that this year's last remaining hope for perfection was not only an underdog but was handled decisively by an opponent that hadn't won since September. Drink up men, your legacy remains intact.