MIAMI _ Dick Anderson saw his friend's email early Tuesday morning, about seven hours after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the previously unbeaten San Francisco 49ers, informing him that no team _ for a 47th consecutive season _ will match the Dolphins' achievement of completing an entire regular season and postseason without a loss.
That elicited a smile from Anderson, a linchpin on that 1972 Dolphins team, before he left his house for a doctor's appointment.
But there was something missing Tuesday _ adding a melancholy element to a day that sadness normally skips.
This day, for as long as Anderson can remember, meant catching up with 1972 teammate and close friend Nick Buoniconti _ either by phone, or in person, with champagne _ to celebrate the Dolphins' historic feat and the inability of any other team to match it.
But Buoniconti's death on July 30, at age 78, ended their special ritual.
"It's terribly sad he's not here to celebrate with us," Anderson said Tuesday. "I always think of Nick; he was such a terrific leader for our defense."
Anderson said he and Buoniconti have talked on the phone on this day at least 20 consecutive years _ though the conversations were shorter in recent years because of Nick's declining health _ and met up more than a dozen times to pop champagne, with Bob Griese, Larry Little, Mercury Morris and a few other teammates sometimes joining them.
"The first time I got the bottle and walked up to Nick's house," Anderson recalled.
The '72 alums had a celebration at Don Shula's house earlier this decade, though Anderson couldn't remember which year or which team had fallen from the undefeated ranks the previous Sunday.
The Anderson/Buoniconti celebratory toasts were easier when they lived four doors apart in Coral Gables from 1985 to 2000.
"We were very close and from Day One as teammates were in this same apartment complex," Anderson said. "We practiced at Miami Stadium. We lived two blocks away from each other for years down in Pinecrest. When (Nick's son) Mark (Buoniconti became paralyzed) in 1985, we showed him a house that was right across the street from Griese and four doors away from me in Coral Gables.
"With his business and living in New York (in recent years), it made it more difficult to see each other. I honestly don't remember the last time we got together for champagne. Nick stayed on Long Island the last year and a half of his life."
Anderson called Buoniconti last season after the last undefeated team, the 8-0 Rams, lost to the Saints. But it wasn't quite the same, because Buoniconti was diminished physically and mentally.
"Last year's conversation was difficult because of Nick's deterioration," Anderson said. "But he still remembered we were undefeated."
Anderson, 73, wasn't going to go the entire day without speaking with any '72 teammate Tuesday. He chatted with former standout defensive lineman Manny Fernandez, now living in a rural area of Georgia, celebrating their achievement but then "talking more about hunting and traveling than football."
Anderson, who watched the Monday night game through the end of the third quarter, said the 49ers' overtime loss was particularly meaningful in this regard:
"I said we made the 100 years. That's really a big deal. We're the only undefeated team in 100 years of NFL football. Manny said, 'I've been waiting for 100 years for 10 years.' "
Anderson, a three-time Pro Bowl safety and 1973 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and Buoniconti _ a two-time Pro Bowler and six-time All AFL player _ last spoke a month or two before Buoniconti's death.
"The conversations would get shorter because of his diminished health," Anderson said. "But he knew who I was all the time."
Buoniconti was in his thoughts on Tuesday. And many days.
Fourteen players on that '72 team are deceased now. But on days like Tuesday, many of the other 30-plus players on that team will take a moment to appreciate what they achieved.
In fact, Anderson will arrange a champagne celebration in the coming days for the handful of '72 alums still living in Miami, a group including Little, Morris and Tom Smith.
But it won't be quite the same without Buoniconti.
"Nick," Anderson said, "was the leader."
