No Love For Dolphins’ Griese

The Miami Dolphins love them some Bob Griese.  He was only the first NFL QB to take his team to three consecutive Super Bowls and despite missing most of the 1972 regular season with a broken leg, still managed to lead his team to a perfect 17-0.  Over on ProFootballTalk.com they are looking at the numbers from around the league, all time.  We are doing just the Dolphins.  So today they decided to pose good old number 12.

The poll question is an interesting one because a great many players, great players, have worn number 12.  So where does Bob Griese rank on that list?  Well, not very high.  In fact, here is a look at their poll thus far.

In first place with over 5,500 votes is New England’s Tom Brady.  You can chalk this up to the fact that most of the names on this list are older than most fans remember.  In fact, most New England Patriot fans have only been “fans” since the team started winning.  Which means they only remember reading about Steve Grogan and the likes.  Regardless, Tom Brady is the top vote getter right now and it doesn’t look to change soon.

In second and third, a distant 2nd and 3rd with just over 3,000 votes are Roger Staubach and Terry Bradshaw.  Both in reality should be tied for one and two.  Yes, they were that good.

After the top three it gets a little funny.  Seattle’s number 12 doesn’t belong to a player.  It belongs to the fans.  That’s right the number 12 is retired in Seattle for the “12th Man”.  With over 1,700 votes, Seattle is in 4th place.  Still no Bob Griese.  Jim Kelly takes up the 5th spot.  You could make an argument for Kelly given his four Super Bowls but they were all losses.  In addition you can’t discount the fantastic supporting cast he was surrounded with.  Aaron Rodgers makes a case at number 6 with over 1,700 votes as well.  Joe Namath comes in at number seven.  Amazing that he is so highly thought of considering he won only one Super Bowl and really didn’t lead his team anywhere after that.

In the 8th spot comes Ken Stabler.  Again, over Bob Griese.   The ninth spot goes to Randall Cunningham.  Both Stalber and Cunningham have less than 1,00 votes sitting at 760 and 508 respectively.  Finally, at number 10 comes Bob Griese.  He does not possess the passing stats that many of the others hold.  But is shouldn’t be about stats.  Griese played with the Dolphins from 1967 until 1980.  He coached one year in 1981 at the urging of owner Joe Robbie.

So while the number 12 has an historic aura about it, it’s amazing how many fans think so low of a QB who was one of the very few who called all of his own plays most of his entire career.  Shame.