Some people spend too much time reminiscing. “That was just a part of it, an early piece to the puzzle, and you keep on moving. ![]() “I just have gotten on with my life,” he said. Besides last week’s Miami bash, he saw them at the 20th anniversary of the ’72 season and at a retirement function for Shula. Seldom goes to pro games and sees former teammates only occasionally. If not, you weren’t going to be around long. If you were going to help him do that, you were going to stay around. The most important thing to him was winning. “He was great for us and he certainly gave everything he had. “It was a tremendous experience being around somebody like Shula,” Foley said. There are five Hall of Famers from the offense but none from the unheralded defense – despite great players such as Foley, Dick Anderson, Jake Scott and Nick Buoniconti. The Dolphins of the early ’70s, though, will always be remembered for their great offensive players: quarterback Bob Griese, running backs Jim Kiick, Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris and receiver Paul Warfield. Miami won the Super Bowl again in ’73, beating Minnesota 24-7 and going 15-2 with a team Foley said was better than the ’72 team. The Redskins’ only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on the 49-yard return of a kicker Garo Yepremian fumble by Mike Bass. The Dolphins made two first-half touchdowns hold up as Foley and the No-Name Defense shut down the Billy Kilmer-led Redskins with just 104 yards passing. We were there before and lost, and we had a chance to become the only team to go through a season undefeated.” “When we got to the Super Bowl, I honestly felt we had a lot more to lose than the (Washington) Redskins did. “It was just a matter of keeping it going from there,” Foley said. “After each victory, I know he talked about some good things, but mostly he talked about the things we could have done better.”īy the time the Dolphins were 10-0, they had clinched a playoff spot. He had a unique ability that kept us from getting satisfied. He had lost the Super Bowl in ’69 (16-7 to the Jets) and in ’71. As the ’72 season went on, we just went game by game. “But from that point on (after the Super Bowl loss), that is all anybody thought about. We got to the Super Bowl and we were thinking, ‘Hey, this is pretty easy.’ “Not only did we get beat by the Cowboys, but we were humiliated. “We actually started off 1972 with a loss in the Super Bowl,” Foley said. The Cowboys outgained the Dolphins 352 yards to 185. The Dolphins went 10-3-1 in 1971, won the division and made it to Super Bowl VI, but lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 24-3, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. They were 10-4 in 1970, finishing second in the AFC East to the Baltimore Colts (11-2-1). Immediately, the Dolphins reversed course. We all happened to arrive at the same time and we all seemed to fit in.” “It was the right time to arrive,” Foley said. The Dolphins also had hired a tough, young disciplinarian by the name of Don Shula as their head coach. The team began its turnaround the next year, but not necessarily because it drafted Foley. ![]() In 1969, the year before Foley arrived, the Dolphins finished with a 3-10-1 record. He finished with 22 career interceptions. He spent seven years at corner and the last four at safety, making it to the Pro Bowl in 1980, his final season in the NFL. Tim Foley, who was listed at 6 feet, 194 pounds during his playing days, was drafted out of Purdue by the Dolphins with their third pick in the third round in 1970.
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