MIAMI _ The Miami Dolphins closed out the home slate from their tank-filled 2019 season by honoring the best team to ever play the game.
Greats from the Dolphins' perfect 1972 team _ still the only team in NFL history to finish a season undefeated in the Super Bowl era _ made their way to the field at Hard Rock Stadium at halftime of the three-win Dolphins' game against the one-win Cincinnati Bengals.
Each received a gold football and a champagne glass for an honorary toast while wearing teal suit jackets as they recognized the historical group. They sang to coach Don Shula ahead of his 90th birthday.
NFL films and an 80-person panel via the Associated Press and NFL media recently named this '72 Dolphins team as the best through the league's first 100 years.
Larry Csonka doesn't want to hear that part, though.
"The NFL did not name us the greatest team," Csonka said at a pre-game reception on Sunday. "We took the damn thing."
"Clearly, I don't have an emotional response to that," Csonka said through a smile afterward.
Fast forward 47 years, and the Dolphins are a shell of their former selves.
They're in the midst of a full-blown rebuild as they close out another decade of mediocrity. The Dolphins had double-digit wins once in the past 10 seasons, made the playoffs once in the past 10 season and have zero postseason wins in the past 10 seasons.
So they took dynamite to the team. Almost every good player of note on the roster is gone. Minkah Fitzpatrick. Laremy Tunsil. Kenny Stills. Ryan Tannehill. Kenyan Drake.
The return: A treasure trove of draft picks, a lot of money to spend in the offseason, and the hope for a quick turnaround a year or two down the line.
"I hope those dice work," running back Mercury Morris said.
Morris called it like it is: A gamble.
Could everything work out in the future and the Dolphins become contenders again? Yes.
But could the draft class become a group of busts and Miami finds itself right back where it is now? Yes.
It's hard for Morris, 72, to fathom the fact that there are Dolphins fans who have openly cheered for Miami to lose as the season unfolded.
"Dreams are illusions that you have when you are asleep. Illusions are dreams you have when you are awake," Morris said. "Even though they're awake, they're dreaming to think that you can lose a game and then next year, that's going to help you win and make you more competitive. It can't happen that way. You should be able to take who you have and cultivate what you've got and make that into your team.
"What they've done is they've flipped the coin again, the law of chance. Now, they're betting 50-50 that they're going to have a good team based on the fact that they got rid of all their good players in order to get a chance at some more good players. I don't get it."
It's for this reason that Morris respects what the New England Patriots have been able to do for the majority of recent NFL history. They have won the AFC East 17 times in the past 19 years, reached the Super Bowl nine times and won it six times.
They remain the closest team to matching the '72 Dolphins' perfect record, going undefeated in the 2007 regular season and storming through the playoffs before losing Super Bowl 42 to the New York Giants.
"They're closer to us (the 1972 team) in the longevity of it," Morris said. "They're the closest to us in their respect for the game. Everybody else is chasing that. Unfortunately, there's not enough spaces there for the people at the top to actually get there."
The Dolphins hope to get back to relevance at some point.
Until then, they have the 1972 team to look back to for the glory days.
"It's a team sport," Csonka said. "When you achieve perfection, there is no single entity that leads in that perspective. You don't have the leading rusher. You might not have the leading wide receiver. You might not have the leading tackler. The thing that matters is you focus more on winning than performance. If you all work together and don't let your egos get in the way, which was easy when Shula has his foot up your butt. Then, and only then, you may attain a perfect season."
