Mercury Morris was unbeaten in many ways

First, a history lesson. It's a lesson about a good man. A unique man. In some ways, a remarkable one. You may not know the life of Mercury Morris. But you should know this.

It was the year before the Miami Dolphins' undefeated season, and the team had just been embarrassed by Dallas in Super Bowl 6. Morris barely played in the game, which the Cowboys won 24-3, and he let reporters know his displeasure afterward. “I only came off the bench for the kickoffs and the national anthem,” Morris said.

Coach Don Shula was angry that Morris had voiced his complaint publicly, but the truth was: Morris was right.

“Our whole game was to stop the running game and stop Paul Warfield,” Dallas defensive lineman Cornell Green said at the time. “If they wanted to beat us, they would have done it with Howard Twilley and Marv Fleming. They couldn't have beaten us with (Paul) Warfield, Jim Kiick or (Larry) Csonka. We set up for Mercury, and Mercury Morris didn't play the whole game, and that was a blessing. (Because) Chuck Howley was able to catch Kiick. If Mercury had come in the game, it would have been tough. I have no idea why Shula didn't let Mercury play more often. I don't know what Mercury did to upset Shula. I wish I knew.”

After that embarrassing post-Super Bowl moment, two things happened.

The following year, the Dolphins remained undefeated at 17-0. No performance in the history of American team sports was more effective or lasting.

But Shula not only forgave Morris, but later admitted that Morris was right. Shula and Morris eventually grew close, and like many of the Dolphins from that team, they remained lifelong friends. And although Morris later ran into legal trouble, he became something almost larger than life, and in recent decades, when teams like the New England Patriots questioned their legacy, Morris was their biggest public defender.

That's because Morris loved the Dolphins and all the Dolphins on that team loved him. They valued him. They respected him. They admired his fighting spirit and his humanity. His decency. His kindness.

When I wrote a book about the undefeated team, Csonka spoke of Morris with such reverence that Csonka’s words actually Me It was very emotional to listen to them. Csonka posted on X on Sunday: “This is a very sad day for me and our Dolphin family.”

You may not know the life of Mercury Morris. But you should.

Morris was a protector of the Dolphins' undefeated legacy. When teams came close to matching the Dolphins' mark, Morris would spring into action. He would be interviewed and use the time not to mock the teams or hope for defeat, but to educate people about those Dolphins players and that era of football.

If there was one thing Morris and the Dolphins hated (and still hate), it's the lack of respect many of them feel for that era. Morris wanted to be a teacher, telling people that the 1970s NFL was just as impressive as any other decade.

Morris often did this with a sense of humor. “And just to clarify, we do NOT toast every time an undefeated team loses,” Morris posted on social media in 2015 when the Carolina Panthers started 14-0. “There's no champagne in my glass, just Canada Dry Ginger Ale! Ha!”

When asked about the Dolphins' 0-8 start to the 2007 season, Morris joked, “The Dolphins don't embarrass me because our record is the best. That's not my team. People say, 'Your team is doing poorly.' I say, 'My team has all the AARP cards.'”

But Morris also had a serious side. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1982 for cocaine trafficking. Morris said he used the drug to ease the pain of permanent injuries from his playing days, but he never sold it. The Florida Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

“Was I bitter? Not really,” Morris wrote in his 1998 book, Against The Grain. “I wouldn't recommend going to jail for three days, let alone three years, to anyone. But I have to be honest: I had to go through what I went through to develop the character I had when I became a free man.”

Morris went on to become an activist, encouraging people to stay away from drugs, turning his life around while becoming an ardent defender of that undefeated team.

And that brings us back to this: You may not know the life of Mercury Morris. But you should know this.

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