As good as Miami’s No Name Defense was as a unit, amazingly only one of its member has ever been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti. He had escaped the NFL’s notice coming out of Notre Dame and wound up signing as a lowly 13th -round pick with the American Football League’s Boston Patriots. Eventually the Patriots decided to trade him to Miami, but he objected to playing in Florida’s heat unless the team gave him a guaranteed three-year contract, which the penurious Dolphins reluctantly agreed to. He quickly became the heart and soul of the defense despite being undersized for his position at 5 ft. 11 in. and 220 pounds.
Offensively, the Dolphins had five players make the Hall of Fame – Griese, Csonka, Paul Warfield, and linemen Jim Langer and Larry Little. Shula, of course, is enshrined, too.
