N.F.L.|For N.F.L. Perfection, a Steep Price
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Nick Buoniconti, Jim Kiick and Jake Scott, of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, were each found to have C.T.E., the brain disease linked to head hits, bringing to six the number of players diagnosed from that team.
Allie and Austin Kiick holding an urn with ashes of their father, Jim, a member of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins team who died in 2020.Credit...Maggie Steber for The New York Times
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — On a sunny January day nearly 50 years ago, Nick Buoniconti, Jim Kiick and Jake Scott ran off the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum not just as Super Bowl champions, but as part of the only team in N.F.L. history to complete a perfect season.
They all played pivotal roles in the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ final victory. Scott, the gifted free safety, was named most valuable player of that game. Buoniconti, the pugnacious leader of the team’s No-Name Defense, made a key interception. Kiick, the versatile running back, scored the winning touchdown.
Within a few years, they all left the N.F.L. and went their separate ways. Save for the occasional team reunion or charity event, they rarely met.
Decades later, the three cornerstones of that team have been united in a way they never expected: They all had the most severe form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head hits. Buoniconti, Kiick and Scott died within 16 months of each other in 2019 and 2020, and for the first time, their families discussed caring for the exceptionally different N.F.L. veterans as they faced the consequences of their drive for football glory.
It is difficult to determine what accounts for this unusual cluster of brain trauma on a roster of about 45 players. Their coach, Don Shula, drove his players hard, even holding four practices a day during training camp. Players from that era lowered their heads when running with the ball or tackling, which could explain the extensive damage that Buoniconti, Kiick and Scott had to their frontal lobes and brain stems. They all played football from a young age and absorbed tens of thousands of head hits.
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