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Paul Warfield – October 18, 2022 Download PDF version

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Hall of Fame WR Paul Warfield

(I had a question to you related to ‘The Magician,’ WR Marlin Briscoe. What was your relationship like with him, as well as the entire receiving corps?) – “We had a great group of receivers when I was with the Miami Dolphins, and certainly, Marlin Briscoe epitomized that. He came to our ball club from the Buffalo Bills and certainly was an important member of our receiving corps during that 1972 season. Marlin, of course, got his start in the National Football League as a quarterback, I believe, with the Denver Broncos and played a couple of seasons there before being traded to the Buffalo Bills. Then at that point, he transitioned into a receiving corps. But very knowledgeable, very good pattern runner, outstanding team player. We also hooked up together on a few special plays because of his ability to throw the football. We had a couple of plays designed where he would receive a quick pass from our quarterback Bob Griese, but I would go out in the pattern and from behind the line of scrimmage, he would throw the ball downfield to me. But I really enjoyed the relationship with Marlin. Marlin fit into our scheme, certainly. He ironically, although a smaller man, was an outstanding blocker also.”

(I know the team will be playing in the throwback uniforms on Sunday night, and that’s a fan favorite uniform. I wanted to know your take. Do you think those uniforms should be made permanent? Or should they just be worn on special occasions like this?) – “Well, I think that’s up to the organization. Certainly, we’re very proud – I say we, my former teammates and I – of the aqua and orange that we wore. If the organization wants to bring those uniforms out in tribute (inaudible), then that’s a decision I think that should be made by the organization. Nevertheless, certainly my teammates and I – I may be speaking for our teammates in this situation, certainly enjoyed wearing dark colored shirts for our home ballgames.”

(So winning a football game – it’s hard. You guys won 17 of them. How were you able to do that? How were you able to remain undefeated? And why, over the last five decades, 50 years, has no other team been able to do that to win each and every game, including the Super Bowl?) – “That’s a very interesting question that you pose, and my answer would be simplistic as far as I feel. Now, if you talk to other members of the Miami Dolphins undefeated season, perhaps they may feel a little bit differently, but I did not think that that was an objective or that was what we were attempting to do for the most part. I think that we were attempting to show the, if I could use this term, football world that we were a better team than the team that was defeated previously the year before by an outstanding Dallas Cowboys football team in Super Bowl VI. What we are attempting to prove that year was to get back to the point where we could show the football world that we truly were not just the team that gotten there by accident, that we were very good football team and that we were capable of winning that prestigious Super Bowl Lombardi Trophy.”

(Why has no other team been able to do that? Obviously, you go out each and every week, and your plan is to win. Why is it so hard? And why has it been impossible to replicate over the last 50 years? Are you surprised by that, that no one’s been able to do it?) – “From my perspective, going 17-0, this just may be me individually, I did not feel like that was what we were trying to do. But nevertheless, what happened during the course of that season – we won one game, we won five games, we won 10 games, we won all 14 of the regular season games which enabled us to get back to where we want it to go, which was the playoffs to prove that we were a better team than we had shown in Super Bowl VI. So once we made it to the playoffs, it’s a win or go home. So we got to where we wanted to be, and then at that point, the real business was to win in Super Bowl VII. … From my perspective, again, we wanted to get back to the playoffs. And it was not an easy chore to do so, but going back to that 1972 season – yes, our fan base in Florida and in the Miami area were following us and our reporters, our local reporters were coming by, as they do on a weekly basis to cover our football team, but the national media was not necessarily paying that much attention until, as I recollect, we got to New York to play the Giants, next to our final ball game of the year. Then all of a sudden, it was like the New York media…”

(Before you were traded to the Dolphins, you were a member of the Cleveland Browns. Growing up in the state of Ohio, you went to Ohio State. Initially when the trade happened, how did you feel? And did you ever think that you will be a part of the undefeated season at that point and winning the Super Bowl? What were your emotions when you heard that trade?) – “Well, that trade was not something I really relished at that point. Yes, you’re right on all the points that you cited. I am a native Ohioan, played my high school football at a fine, fine school that had a great football tradition. I later, of course, was at The Ohio State University and played for the legendary Woody Hayes, and then while I was drafted by my favorite…”

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