Projo Sports Blog

By BEN VOLIN
Cox News Service

DAVIE, Fla. - Dolphins linebacker Donnie Spragan has enough to worry about.

He's playing through a neck injury that has been bothering him for weeks. Like most of his teammates, he doesn't know if he'll survive Bill Parcells' housecleaning. And at 31 Spragan doesn't know how many offers he would get on the free-agent market.

Not to mention that he still has to suit up Sunday to play Cincinnati, a game the Dolphins must win to improve their league-worst record to 2-14.

So while most of the football world will tune in tonight to watch the New England Patriots play the New York Giants with history at stake, Spragan, like many of his teammates, won't be near a television.

"Personally, I really couldn't care less," Spragan said. "We have so much to worry about over here, it's the last thing on our lists."

Outside the confines of the Dolphins training facility, much of the country is fascinated by the game, which could end with the Patriots completing the NFL's first 16-0 regular season.

Tickets are going for as much as $2,500 on eBay. The NFL Network, which reaches just 40 percent of television households in the country, was supposed to broadcast the game exclusively. But demand was so high that the NFL agreed to allow NBC and CBS to show it, too. It will be the first simulcast of an NFL game since Super Bowl I in 1967.

"It'll be like the State of the Union, on every channel," Patriots coach Bill Belichick quipped.
The 1972 Dolphins are, for now, the only NFL team to finish undefeated. Members of that club, which played a 14-game regular season, undoubtedly are more interested in tonight's game than their Miami contemporaries.

Former Dolphins guard Larry Little said that even if the Patriots have a perfect season, "We'll be 1A and they'll be 1B, because we did it first."

Former safety Charlie Babb played his first season with the Dolphins in '72.

"We had that record a long time, and records are meant to be broken," said Babb, 57. "But the older I get, the more it means to us. That's all we have left."

The quarterback of the 1972 Dolphins, Bob Griese, won't mind if the Pats go 19-0.
"Part of me is really rooting for them," he said. "The thing I don't want them to do is go undefeated during the regular season and then lose in the playoffs. They're the best team, and I would like to see them win the championship."

Some of the current Dolphins are a little less gracious when it comes to New England.
"I have to admit I am a bit envious, and I want them to lose just so they can look more human," running back Samkon Gado said.

This season, various Patriots games have attracted the largest audience in cable-television history, the most viewers for a Sunday night NFL game and the biggest audience for a Sunday afternoon game in more than 20 years.

Tonight's game could rank among the most-watched programs in television history.

Just not for many Dolphins.

"I'll watch the playoffs," Spragan said, "but I don't care about this one."

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