Don Shula, who won the most games of any NFL coach and led the Miami Dolphins to the only perfect season in league history, died on Monday at the age of 90.
A legendary coach and a fierce competitor, Shula won two of his five Super Bowl appearances and totaled 12 AFC East titles. His footprint can be felt all over the game of football, including the Jets organization. He died peacefully in his home surrounded by loved ones, according to the Dolphins.
“Don Shula was the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years,” the team said in a statement. “He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and the city of Miami in the national sports scene. Our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Mary Anne along with his children Dave, Donna, Sharon, Anne and Mike.”
Although Shula won 347 games and had only two losing seasons in 33 years of coaching, there was always one loss in particular that stung more than the others. Before he cemented himself among NFL royalty in Miami, Shula coached the Baltimore Colts. He was the man in charge when the Colts lost Super Bowl III at the hands of Joe Namath and the Jets. The Jets became the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl after achieving one of the greatest upsets in sports history with a 16-7 route of Baltimore.
“Did it motivate me later on? I think I was always a pretty motivated guy as a student, as a player, as a coach, as a father,” Shula once said of the defeat, according to the New York Post. “But sure, it was something I had to learn to live with. It happens, and you can’t change that it happened, so you learn to live with it and you try to learn from it. Did it make me a better coach? Every game I lost helped make me a better coach.”
Shula’s Baltimore and Miami teams met with the Jets 56 times, including two of the most important games in Gang Green history of the franchise. In addition, to beating the Colts coach for Super Bowl III, Shula was also with the Dolphins for the Mud Bowl.
The Jets were forced to play Shula’s Dolphins twice a year. In Shula’s 26 years of coaching the Dolphins, his squad swept the Jets 11 times, including a three for three in 1982 that included the Mud Bowl. The Dolphins beat the Jets, 14-0, in that infamous game for that year’s AFC Championship game. Miami would go on to lose to the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII.
Shula played the Jets more than any opposing head coach. His 32 wins over Gang Green are second-most by any coach, with all 32 coming at helm of the Dolphins. The Jets’ 18 road losses at the hands of Shula-coached teams are the most against any coach in franchise history.
While Shula’s dominance over the Jets hasn’t carried forth to this day, his teachings and his legacy can be seen in the current team. More specifically, they can be seen in Adam Gase, who had a relationship with Shula when he coached the Dolphins from 2016-18.
“I want to extend my deepest condolences to Coach Shula’s family and the Miami Dolphins community,” Gase said in a statement. “Any time I got to spend with him was always the best part of my day. I truly enjoyed getting to know him and treasured each and every interaction we had. He was a fountain of information who was readily available to assist when asked. Coach Shula was rightly revered as a great coach and a better person. He will be missed tremendously.”