"Records are made to be broken, and eventually it is going to happen," said Dick Anderson, a safety in 1972. "It hasn't happened yet. They have a very good chance to do so. We can't do anything about it. All we can do is, if they're undefeated through the season, congratulate them and say they're the second team to do it."
The perfect-season Dolphins are perceived by some as being jealously protective of their unique achievement, in part because of stories that each year they hold a champagne celebration when the NFL's last unbeaten team loses.
But it's not an annual ritual, '72 running back Jim Kiick said.
"Number one, I prefer Jack Daniel's. I don't like champagne," Kiick said to laughter from his teammates. "We don't sit around waiting with a bottle of champagne, waiting for that last team to lose a game. What we are celebrating is our accomplishment, something we're proud of."