Here's the Juice on Don Shula

Here's the Juice on Shula ...

Old Uncle Don's Still Whining About the Dolphins of '72
Because the Pats Pulled a Snowjob on Him in '82...

Shula Just Can't Get Over the Pats Original Sin
Mark Henderson Still Haunts Delusional Don

ProJo: Shula Not One to Forget a Call

That’s when Shula showed how long the memory of a coach can be. He spat out four words – “The Snow Plow Game.”

“You know, I petitioned the commissioner to change the score of that game. It was a totally unfair act,” he said, talking with his hands which sported a big honking Super Bowl ring.

The Snow Plow Game is infamous. It was on Dec. 12, 1982, in the middle of a blizzard that was dropping plenty of snow on the field. The Dolphins and Patriots were in a scoreless tie in the third quarter in a mess of a game. As the Patriots drew near enough to attempt a field goal, coach Ron Meyer signaled for a sideline snow plow to cross the field to clear a path for kicker John Smith. The kick was good.

“When I saw Ron Meyer signal that convict to the field I should have thrown myself in front of that plow,” he said.

The plow driver was a worker in a prison release program. By clearing the snow, he all but guaranteed the three points. Without him, no one knows for sure, but you couldn’t even see the ball in the snow, never mind get it down for a kick.

So even though the Patriots finished that strike-shortened season 5-4 and the Dolphins and Shula won their third championship, Super Bowl XVII, the coach doesn’t forget.

“This should be Grill 348 not 347,” Shula said with a laugh. -- 3.7.07, The Providence Journal