The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s were one of the best teams in NFL history. However, they didn’t produce the best season of that decade. That honor belongs to the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team in NFL history to go undefeated on their way to winning the Super Bowl. The two teams almost matched up in the 1974 playoffs, the year the Steelers won their first Super Bowl. However, the Dolphins fell to the Oakland Raiders the week before. Despite that, former Dolphins offensive lineman Larry Little believes Miami would’ve beaten the Steelers.
“We had the Steelers’ number,” Little said recently on the podcast Chasing Hardware. “We would have beaten the Steelers the next week. [The Raiders] carried John Madden’s big ass off the field like they had won the Super Bowl when they beat us in that game.”
Little isn’t necessarily wrong. He joined the Dolphins in 1969, and between then and 1974, the Steelers lost every time they met. The two teams matched up three times, including one playoff game. It’s not like the Dolphins were dominating the Steelers, though. Each game was decided by only one score. The Steelers almost knocked off the Dolphins in the postseason during their perfect season, only losing 21-17.
That matchup in 1974 might’ve been the Steelers’ best chance at beating the Dolphins up to that point, though. They were finally coming into their own. The Dolphins were a powerhouse, going 11-3 and looking primed for another Super Bowl run. Unfortunately, the Raiders completed one of the most improbable plays in NFL history, kicking the Dolphins out of the playoffs in the first round.
The Steelers would go on to defeat the Raiders and start their dynasty. The next time the Steelers faced the Dolphins was in 1976. This time, Pittsburgh walked away with victory. They would eventually get their playoff game against the Dolphins, too. It wasn’t until 1979, but the Steelers won once again, crushing the Dolphins.
However, it would be unfair to use that game as a way to debunk Little’s theory. At that point, the Dolphins weren’t the same juggernaut they once were. Little and many of their other key pieces were playing in their final seasons in the NFL. Meanwhile, the Steelers were still a force to be reckoned with.
1974 seemed like the best chance the Steelers and Dolphins had at facing each other when they were at their best. It likely would’ve been an excellent game. Those two teams helped define that decade of football. Circumstances didn’t line up to make that a reality, so there’s no way to say if Little is right or wrong. It will only go down as one of the NFL’s biggest what-ifs.
