After the baby was born, the doctor emerged from the delivery room to tell the father, because that’s how things were done then.
“You didn’t get a fullback you wanted,” the doctor said.
“Aww,” replied Don Shula, who wanted a second son because he and his wife, Dorothy, had three consecutive girls.
The doctor smiled. “But you got a helluva quarterback.”
Fatherhood is a lifetime of surprises, and the latest for the Dolphins’ Hall of Fame coach regarding his second son, who indeed became a quarterback, involves the surprise story of the NFL.
Mike is 50 now, and offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. The undefeated Panthers.
Along with Cincinnati and New England, they’re one of three teams that are 8-0, the most ever in one NFL season. And they’re alive to make a run at Shula’s 1972 undefeated Dolphins.
“Fun to watch, aren’t they?” Shula said.
Shula is 85, and says he’s calmer watching Mike on television than when both were younger. If possible, dad sat in a parked car to watch — and shout — in private as Mike played at Columbus High in Miami.
Most games he found an empty row of bleachers and paced back and forth. Was he loud? You could say that.
“One game,” Dorothy once said before her death in 1991, “Don was alone in the back and he shouted, ‚ÄòTimeout.’ You could hear him all over the stadium.”
When Mike played quarterback for Alabama, the family story has everyone gathering in the living room to watch an Auburn-Alabama game on TV. Dad was yelling so loudly that mom and the three daughters left the room.
Shula laughs now, saying, “Mike’s nothing like me [emotionally]. We’re one extreme to another. Mine was always on the outside. He doesn’t show it. He doesn’t wear it. He’s always analyzing everything very coolly and calmly. That’s a strength for him.”
Dad remembers bringing Mike and his older brother, Dave, to his team’s loose Saturday morning practices. As a teen, Mike charted plays on the Dolphins sidelines during games just like the sons of other coaches or team executives.
“After games, we’d all talk — why did we do this? What was the thinking behind that? How could that have been done differently? All the normal things fathers and sons talk about,” Don Shula said.
He laughs, knowing it is only normal in a coaching family.
“Then we’d talk after his games, the same questions. And when he started coaching, we’d talk some again, but he didn’t need any of my help by then.”
Mike has known the ups and downs of coaching. Hired at his alma mater, Alabama. Fired by Alabama. Now he’s a hot commodity again. There have been whispers over the past week that he was approached about the University of Miami job but wasn’t interested.
Would he be a fit at Miami? That remains to be seen. He has the name, and the coaching portfolio, if not the local high school connections necessary for recruiting.
The more Carolina wins, the more his name will be linked to openings. The Panthers’ offense looked in trouble when top receiver Kelvin Benjamin was lost for the season during a summer scrimmage with the Dolphins.
The results are telling, though: Mike Shula’s offense ranks fourth in scoring at 28.5 points per game.
“That quarterback is pretty good,” Don Shula said of Cam Newton. “He’s big — 6-5, 250 — and he can do it all. He’s something with the way he is so versatile and so talented.”
Dad says it’s too early to truly consider Carolina’s chances of finishing unbeaten. Massey-Peabody Analytics puts the odds at 2.1 percent. New England is rated as having the best chance at 13.5 percent.
“I’m just so proud of Mike, and the way he’s put everything into it,” dad said.
Carolina plays at Tennessee this Sunday. The leader of the ‘72 Dolphins hopes the Panthers draw a step closer to perfection. He’ll be watching Carolina’s offense, especially. And maybe thinking of that doctor’s greeting five decades ago.
“Pretty good scouting report for a doctor,” dad says.
