On December 29, 2007, the New England Patriots did something no other team in professional football history has ever accomplished – completed a 16-0 regular season. In part because the history of the 16-game regular season is relatively short – 30 years. However, there have been 4 teams that have completed a regular season undefeated. The term “professional football” is used here because one of those teams was the 1948 Cleveland Browns, a member of the AAFC – the All America Football Conference, a rival to the National Football League. While the NFL admitted the Browns and the 49ers, the AAFC records are not recognized by the NFL.
In 1934 and again in 1942, the Chicago Bears blew through their competition and went undefeated. Neither team won the league championship. It is for this reason, the Patriots’ “perfect” regular season means nothing to history without a Super Bowl championship come February 3.
The 1934 Bears, winners of 13-games, led the league in offense – in points, yards, touchdowns, and rushing yards. They scored 286 points and allowed 86, a +200 differential in a 13-game season. They held the Pittsburgh Pirates (later, the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Chicago Cardinals (later the St. Louis, Phoenix, and Arizona Cardinals) to shut outs in consecutive weeks, and added a third shut out a month later against the Boston Redskins (later the Washington Redskins), scoring an average of 23-points. The week after shutting out the Cardinals, they crushed the Cincinnati Reds – a now defunct NFL entrant – 41-7. For sure, there was a close game – a 10-9 victory against the New York Giants.
Those same New York Football Giants – sitting at 8-5-0 – won the 1934 NFL Championship by handing the Bears their first loss of the season, in the second NFL Championship game. The Bears had won the first NFL Championship game the previous year 23-21 against the Giants.
The 1942 version of the Bears were even more dominant in war shortened 11-game season. They scored 376 points and allowed 84, for a differential of 292 points. Where in 1934, they went undefeated/untied by scoring a little more than 15-points a game, they did so in 1942 by scoring an average of over 34-points. They shut out the Detroit Lions and Brooklyn Dodgers in consecutive weeks, scoring 16- then 35-points; beat the Green Bay Packers 38-7; then shut out in consecutive weeks the Lions (for a second time) and Cleveland Rams (later the Los Angeles and St. Louis Rams) by a combined score of 89-0.
In the League Championship Game on December 13, the 10-1 Washington Redskins upset the high scoring Bears 14-6.
1948 Cleveland Browns footnote. While the AAFC records aren’t honored by the NFL, The 1948 Cleveland Browns finished the ’48 season 14-0 and won the AAFC Championship game to go 15-0. Particularly as current members of the NFL, it is worth at least a passing note about the team.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins were the first, and thusfar, only team to complete a full season and post season to win an NFL Championship. The Dolphins went 14-0 in a regular season, and won 3 playoff games – including the recently minted NFL Championship, the “Super Bowl.” In just their seventh years of existence, the Dolphins ran the table of their schedule, and despite having the best record in all of football, they played the AFC Championship game on the road, in Pittsburgh. They scored 385 points – 27.5 points a game – and allowed 171, or 12 points a game for a differential of 214 points. They had three shutouts: two shut outs over the Baltimore Colts – the team against which the Dolphins had tampered to land the services of head coach Don Shula – and a 52-0 over the New England Patriots.
We talk about the 1972 Dolphins today because they were the only team in NFL history to complete a perfect season. Despite the strength of schedule arguments – the Dolphins opponents had a relatively weak .386 winning percentage – doesn’t change the fact the Dolphins, in order to complete a perfect season, had to win 17 games. 14-regular season games and 3-playoff games. To complete their perfect seasons, the Bears would have had to win 14 and 12 games – and they fell 1-game short. A perfect regular season? For sure. A perfect season? No.
Without winning the NFL Championship a “perfect regular season” is relegated to being interesting historical trivia. No one remembers the 1934 or the 1942 Chicago Bears. We remember the 1972 Miami Dolphins because they completed the work.
REFERENCE:
1934 Chicago Bears, URL: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/chi/1934.htm
1942 Chicago Bears, URL: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/chi/1942.htm
