The Miami Dolphins haven't been consistently relevant since Don Shula patrolled the sidelines. His 347 career wins stand alone at the top of the NFL. He remains 14 wins ahead of Bill Belichick's 333, and his 328 regular-season wins are 27 more than the former Patriots coach.
Here is the thing that most die-hard Dolphins fans don't know about. Shula should have had two additional victories added to his combined winning total.
Dave Hyde was one of the longest-tenured sports writers in South Florida until a month ago, when budget cuts sent him out the Sun-Sentinel door. It makes sense, then, that one legend would work to fix a wrong bestowed on another. Hyde has made it his personal mission to get those two games on Shula's books.
The NFL continues to deny Miami Dolphins legendary HC the two extra wins he deserves
Hyde has moved over to Substack, where he recently published an article that simply calls for Shula to get his two extra games back. Two games that most fans didn't know were out there.
From 1960 to 1969, the NFL concluded its season with the NFL Championship game, later to be changed to the Super Bowl, but before the big conclusion to the season, the NFL determined the third and fourth-place teams by having a "playoff bowl." While with the Baltimore Colts, Shula won two of those games, in 1965 and 1966.
Hyde points out that the NFL once included those wins in coaching and team totals, but at some point, they took those game totals out of the record books. Shula wasn't happy.
With Shula's passing, there isn't anyone left to champion him, well, there wasn't, but Hyde is continuing his NFL assault, a mission, if you will, to recover the two lost Shula wins that would give him extra padding to his NFL record win totals.
The NFL isn't going to change its mind, but if Stephen Ross wanted to drive home the point to the league by adding 349 to areas around the stadium and changing anything with 347 to show the additional two games.
It was recently reported that Sean Payton tried to pull off a heist of Shula's record by handing over the HC job to his friend Belichick. It didn't come to fruition. If Belichick never returns to the NFL sidelines as a head coach, Shula's record of 347 will stand a bit longer.
Chiefs' head coach Andy Reid is the only other active HC who could put Shula's record in danger. He is 40 games behind Shula in combined win totals and 49 wins behind in regular-season wins. The next closest currently employed coach is Payton. He has 194 combined victories.
Hyde takes fans down a rabbit hole they may have never been down, and it's an amazing asterisk in NFL history that, to this day, doesn't make a lot of sense. With the addition of a new Green Bay presence in Miami, it only makes sense to adjust the Packers' fans' mantra to "Go-Hyde-Go."
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