Hall of Fame QB Dan Marino spent his historic career with the Miami Dolphins, where he and HC Don Shula combined to form one of the greatest QB-HC duos in NFL history. Marino and Shula may not have won a Super Bowl together, but Marino still has very high praise for his former HC.
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Don Shula overtook George Halas as the all-time leader in career wins for a head coach in 1993. Shula broke Halas’ record of 324 wins and went on to set the record with 347. Shula has held the record ever since.
Don Shula turns 87 today
328 career wins (most all-time)
2 Super Bowl titles
Coached unbeaten 1972 Dolphins pic.twitter.com/SajpZx5wwx— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 4, 2017
Patriots coach Bill Belichick who has 280 regular-season victories, is only 49 short of breaking Shula’s record of 328. Shula has 347 career victories including the postseason, while Belichick has 311. And while it won’t be a surprise to see Belichick break the record, Dan Marino is rooting against him.
Dan Marino doesn’t want Bill Belichick to break Don Shula’s record.
“I hope he don’t get it,” Marino said, via Cameron Wolfe of ESPN. “I’m a Dolphin for life. Coach Shula for life. I don’t want him to get it.”
Marino, who now works for the Dolphins as a team advisor, fondly remembers his former coach, who died May 4, 2020, at the age of 90.
Miami Dolphins will wear this jersey patch during the 2020 season to commemorate legendary football coach Don Shula. The patch features Shula’s name and “347” to signify his all-time career wins, the most in NFL history. pic.twitter.com/tmmNYIBDT7
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 13, 2020
“He was the best,” Marino told Wolfe. “He took care of me all the time. He was an incredible man and head coach. He taught me how to be in the community, be a leader, work hard. But from Day 1 — which I thought was genius — he said I want you to be the starting QB so you have to learn this quickly and now you’re going to call all your plays in practice and exhibition games. It takes more work instead of a coach telling you what to run. You have to think about it beforehand; you have to prepare for it beforehand.
“I always thought that was special and probably different than what a lot of people do now I’d imagine. It would be a lot harder to do it now than it was then, but it did put a lot of pressure on me to learn quickly.”
Marino once held the record for most career passing yards by a QB himself, but then saw 5 other QB’s break it. But regardless of losing the record, Dan Marino’s career will still be one of the greatest of all time.
