After the baby was born, the doctor emerged from the delivery room to tell the father, because that\u2019s how things were done then.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t get a fullback you wanted,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAww,\u201d replied Don Shula, who wanted a second son because he and his wife, Dorothy, had three consecutive girls.<\/p>\n
The doctor smiled. \u201cBut you got a helluva quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fatherhood is a lifetime of surprises, and the latest for the Dolphins\u2019 Hall of Fame coach regarding his second son, who indeed became a quarterback, involves the surprise story of the NFL.<\/p>\n
Mike is 50 now, and offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. The undefeated Panthers.<\/p>\n
Along with Cincinnati and New England, they\u2019re one of three teams that are 8-0, the most ever in one NFL season. And they\u2019re alive to make a run at Shula\u2019s 1972 undefeated Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cFun to watch, aren\u2019t they?\u201d Shula said.<\/p>\n
Shula is 85, and says he\u2019s calmer watching Mike on television than when both were younger. If possible, dad sat in a parked car to watch \u2014 and shout \u2014 in private as Mike played at Columbus High in Miami.<\/p>\n
Most games he found an empty row of bleachers and paced back and forth. Was he loud? You could say that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne game,\u201d Dorothy once said before her death in 1991, \u201cDon was alone in the back and he shouted, \u201a\u00c4\u00f2Timeout.\u2019 You could hear him all over the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Shula laughs now, saying, \u201cMike\u2019s nothing like me [emotionally]. We\u2019re one extreme to another. Mine was always on the outside. He doesn\u2019t show it. He doesn\u2019t wear it. He\u2019s always analyzing everything very coolly and calmly. That\u2019s a strength for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad remembers bringing Mike and his older brother, Dave, to his team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter games, we\u2019d all talk \u2014 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,\u201d Don Shula said.<\/p>\n
He laughs, knowing it is only normal in a coaching family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we\u2019d talk after his games, the same questions. And when he started coaching, we\u2019d talk some again, but he didn\u2019t need any of my help by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike has known the ups and downs of coaching. Hired at his alma mater, Alabama. Fired by Alabama. Now he\u2019s a hot commodity again. There have been whispers over the past week that he was approached about the University of Miami job but wasn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The more Carolina wins, the more his name will be linked to openings. The Panthers\u2019 offense looked in trouble when top receiver Kelvin Benjamin was lost for the season during a summer scrimmage with the Dolphins.<\/p>\n
The results are telling, though: Mike Shula\u2019s offense ranks fourth in scoring at 28.5 points per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat quarterback is pretty good,\u201d Don Shula said of Cam Newton. \u201cHe\u2019s big \u2014 6-5, 250 \u2014 and he can do it all. He\u2019s something with the way he is so versatile and so talented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad says it\u2019s too early to truly consider Carolina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of Mike, and the way he\u2019s put everything into it,\u201d dad said.<\/p>\n
Carolina plays at Tennessee this Sunday. The leader of the \u201872 Dolphins hopes the Panthers draw a step closer to perfection. He\u2019ll be watching Carolina\u2019s offense, especially. And maybe thinking of that doctor\u2019s greeting five decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty good scouting report for a doctor,\u201d dad says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the baby was born, the doctor emerged from the delivery room to tell the father, because that\u2019s how things were done then. \u201cYou didn\u2019t get a fullback you wanted,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cAww,\u201d replied Don Shula, who wanted a second son because he and his wife, Dorothy, had three consecutive girls. The doctor smiled. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25850"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}