Unprompted and unfiltered, Don Shula descended from his throne on Saturday just long enough to punch the Patriots and remind everyone what a champion sounds like before calmly ascending back to his high ground.
The setting was innocent enough, a smile-and-snapshot news conference kicking off the Dolphins' 50th anniversary season. Shula, at 85, doesn't walk anymore and sat in a chair through the proceedings in a small amphitheater of media and team officials.
But if the body is weakening these days, the mind remains strong about what made him football's winningest coach — and, more pointedly, what didn't.