Don Shula rooting for Panthers, son Mike to finish undefeated season
Legendary coach Don Shula knows how difficult it is for an NFL team to win every game in a season, but if any club is going to join his 1972 Dolphins as the only teams in the Super Bowl era to complete a perfect schedule, he would like it to be this year’s Panthers.
Shula is a little biased, of course, since his son Mike is Carolina’s offensive coordinator.
“That would make me so proud if that happened,” Don Shula told the Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler of the Panthers going 19-0. “I’d love to see the Panthers do it. I’m rooting them on, that’s for sure.”
Father and son talk once a week, with Mike often calling Don, now 85, from the car on his way home from Panthers’ games. Don noted that Mike is “calm and cool, not hot-headed like the old man.”
Remarkably, there are three teams that remain undefeated at the midpoint of the season: Carolina, Cincinnati and New England. The Patriots famously made it to the Super Bowl in 2007 at 18-0 but lost to the Giants in that game, ensuring the ’72 Dolphins would be the only members of their exclusive club.
Don Shula wants to see his son’s team join his, but recognizes it won’t be easy.
“I just think that it hadn’t been done before we did it and it hasn’t been done since,” Shula said. “That just tells you how hard, how difficult it is to do. There have been a lot of good teams, and only one team has done it.”
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Shula is also a big fan of Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton.
“That’s a unique guy – 6-5, 250 pounds, and can run faster than anybody and throw better than anybody,” he said of Newton. “He’s just the complete package. They’ve got him working as a field general now, understanding what quarterback position is all about.
“Cam is just such a great athlete and a big, strong guy. If he stays healthy and keeps doing all the good things he’s doing, if he keeps getting better like he is – he will be a lock to be a Hall of Famer.”
