December 16, 1972 – The Miami Dolphins are perfect, becoming the first undefeated NFL team with a record of 14-0. Any debate about the greatest NFL teams generally begins with the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Considering today's athlete's are considerably bigger and faster, it's hard to argue that the team could hold up so admirably in today's game, but the fact is no other team in the Super Bowl age has ever posted an undefeated season. A 17-0 record and a Super Bowl championship put the Dolphins on a pedestal that has yet to be scaled by any other NFL team.
The 2007 New England Patriots were the first team to gain a regular season record of 16-0. They continued their success into the postseason before being beaten in Super Bowl XLII by the New York Giants, losing the perfect season. Facing the prospect of a perfect 19–0 season with a victory over the underdog New York Giants, analysts saw the 2007 Patriots as being the greatest team in NFL history.
Despite being the overwhelming favorites in the game, the Patriots had to protect a four point lead on a Giants drive late in the fourth quarter. A dramatic pass from Eli Manning to David Tyree put the Giants deep in Patriots territory, and a Manning touchdown pass to Plaxico Buress gave the Giants a lead with seconds left. The Patriots could not score again and came out on the losing end of what is considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history.[6][7] The loss left the 1972 Dolphins as the only undefeated champions in NFL history. The Patriots ended the season at 18-1, becoming one of only three teams to go 18-1 along with the 1984 San Francisco 49ers and the 1985 Chicago Bears, both of whom won their respective Super Bowls. The following season the Patriots became the first team to miss the playoffs with an 11-5 record since the 1985 Denver Broncos.
CFL -- A perfect season has been accomplished in professional Canadian football only once. In 1948, under the guidance of their legendary head coach Les Lear, the Grey Cup headed to Western Canada for only the fourth time with the Calgary Stampeders. After running the table with a perfect 12 wins, Calgary faced the Regina Roughriders in a two-game home-and-home playoff series. The first game, in Regina, saw each side with 4 points, leaving the second game as the decider. At home the following week, Calgary outscored their opponents 21–10. Since it was a total points series, the final total and not the initial tie is the important factor for the perfect season. The newly crowned Western Interprovincial Football Union champion Stampeders next journeyed East to Toronto's Varsity Stadium for the 36th Grey Cup against the Eastern Champion Ottawa Rough Riders. On November 27, Calgary completed the perfect season with a six-point victory over Ottawa (12–7), earning the title of Dominion Champions.
While Calgary had only 15 games in their perfect season, the current CFL schedule would require a team to win 20 games (18 regular season, 1 playoff after bye week, and the Grey Cup championship) to post a perfect record, making it a difficult task to accomplish.
NBA -- The National Basketball Association’s regular season schedule is 82 games long. In the 1995–96 regular season, the Chicago Bulls played to a 72–10 record. Their 72 wins, along with their .878 winning percentage, is the closest that any NBA team has ever come to perfection. They swept two playoff series, and lost only 3 games in the entire postseason.
It is worth noting that the 1985–86 Boston Celtics played a nearly perfect home season. That year they were 40–1 (.976) in front of their home crowd. Their only regular-season home loss occurred on December 6, 1985, to the Portland Trail Blazers, by the score of 121–103. The Celtics would also win all 10 of their home games in the postseason.
NHL -- The National Hockey League’s regular season schedule is also 82 games long. The 1995–96 Detroit Red Wings hold the record for most wins in a regular season, having won 62 games. Despite the strong regular season the Red Wings lost in the Western Conference Final to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Colorado Avalanche. This was Avalanche's first season in the NHL after moving from Quebec and they finished 2nd behind the Red Wings in the Western standings. In 1997 the standing were reversed, with Colorado finishing 1st in the Regular Season and Detroit 2nd. Like the year previous, the 2nd place team upset the Presidents' Trophy winners and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
MLB -- Since the early 1960s, the Major League Baseball schedule has been 162 games long; prior to that, it was 154 games long.
The most games won by a Major League Baseball team in the regular season is 116, by both the Chicago Cubs in 1906 and the Seattle Mariners in 2001[5]—though because the regular season was shorter in 1906, the Cubs' winning percentage of .763 was higher than the Mariners' .716.
The 1998 New York Yankees have the best record of any World Series champion, finishing the regular season 114-48. Including the playoffs, the 1998 Yankees won a total of 125 games against 50 losses, an MLB record.
Sources used in this edition of the Hammer are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Avalanche#1995.E2.80.932002
http://football.about.com/cs/teamsdolphins/a/bl_1972dolphins.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_England_Patriots_season
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_season
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