Dec. 08--The Carolina Panthers are four wins away from an undefeated regular season and seven away from a Super Bowl championship and the first 19-0 season in NFL history.
Sounds like it's about time to check in with Mercury Morris, the unofficial spokesperson for the 1972 Dolphins team that finished the season with a perfect record and Super Bowl victory.
"I have to take my hat off to them," Morris told TMZ of the Panthers. "It's not easy to get 12 wins."
Aw, what a nice thing to say.
But wait. Morris added that a "ton of teams" have won 12 games. If the Panthers really want to impress him, they should win at least two more.
"Let [the Panthers] get past that jinx of the 13th game and then come ask me again if I think they will have a perfect season."
The Panthers' 12-0 start has them tied with the 1985 Chicago Bears for the eighth best start in the Super Bowl era. A win this week will only move Carolina up to a tie for seventh, but another win after that will move the Panthers all the way up to a third-place tie with the 2009 Indianapolis Colts. That would put Carolina at 14-0, which just happens to have been the Dolphins' record when they completed their undefeated regular season. Back then the seasons were shorter, so Morris and company finished up with a 17-0 record after their Super Bowl win. The New England Patriots are the only other team to finish a regular season undefeated, going 16-0 in 2007. But they finished the overall season at 18-1 after losing to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. "Go ask the Patriots how difficult it is to do it and how they feel about some little kid in Guatemala wearing those perfect 19-0 Super Bowl tees," Morris said.
But even if the Panthers end up with a perfect record, Morris still won't be impressed. "Do you know the second biggest canyon in the U.S.? No, because everyone only knows about the Grand Canyon," he said. "No one cares about the second to do anything." Now that sounds like the Mercury Morris we know and love.
