Blood Feud? : Hardly, but as Shulas Prepare for Meeting of Coaches Don, Dave, Family Comes Second

This landmark meeting between a father and a son will be celebrated, fittingly, with a reunion.

On Saturday at the son’s house in suburban Cincinnati, three generations of Shulas will gather to hug and laugh about football and life.

They will talk about a first game, the son’s, when he was 5 and watched his father’s team lose an NFL championship game.

The son said it was then he realized the power of his father’s sport, because it was the first time he had seen grown men cry.

They will talk about a 484th game, the father’s, the one in which he became the winningest coach in NFL history.

Watching the highlights on television, the son saw a grown man cry on that day too.

It will be a night rich in emotion. But before the memories have slowed to a trickle, somebody will undoubtedly note that someone is missing.

That someone will be the father.

Laying the ground rules for the first professional sports meeting between father and son head coaches, Don Shula said that he would skip the niceties and concentrate on the game Sunday night between his Miami Dolphins and son Dave’s Cincinnati Bengals.

“He’s got his team, I’ve got my team,” Don said Monday. “I’ve got things I’ve always done with my team on Saturday, and that’s not going to change.”

So Barry Switzer of the Dallas Cowboys leaves the state on the night before a game to visit his son . . . and Shula won’t even drive down the street?

This is different, Shula said. This is competition.

“It will be a proud and special day, but once the game starts, that is all I’ll be thinking about,” Don said.

And doesn’t Dave know it.

Amid a losing streak that might well cost him his job, probably the worst person Dave Shula could face Sunday is his father.

No coach will prepare for it more. And no coach will want it as badly.

Renowned for his devotion to his five children--he openly lobbied for a contract extension for Dave on Monday--Don Shula is equally renowned for his devotion to winning.

This is a 64-year-old man who only plays doubles tennis against Dave, 35, if he can have Dave’s wife, Leslie, as his partner.

“You see, she is pretty good,” Dave said.

This is a man who has coached against teams employing his two sons five times in the NFL--and never lost.

Four of those victories were against teams that had Dave as either a player or coach. The other was against son Mike, currently an assistant with the Chicago Bears.

He has outscored them, 129-69.

“I really enjoyed those games where I was on the other side of the field from him,” Dave said wistfully. “Now, I’d like to find out what it’s like to win one of them.”

He needs that to happen Sunday, with his team winless in four games and his head coaching record at 8-28.

Bruce Coslet, the Bengals’ new offensive coordinator, is waiting to take his job. Dwindling numbers of Bengal fans are waiting to embarrass him in front of a national TV audience.

And whom must he outsmart? A man who has won 322 more NFL games than he.

A man who has taught him everything.

The irony is not lost on the rest of the family, most of which is cheering for Dave.

“It’s a case of rooting for the one who needs it more--and in this case, that’s obvious,” said Jim Shula, Don’s brother. “This could be the game that puts Dave over the hump. This game will tell a lot about what his team thinks of him. If they think a lot of him, they will play hard.”

Said Dave with a laugh: “There are no maybes about it. My three sisters are rooting for me and so is Mike. If he says he’s not, well, he’s not telling the truth.”

Mike was a little more diplomatic.

“I’m cheering for both of them--I want that on the record,” he said. “But, well, everybody knows my dad while Dave is a young guy. And everybody wants a young guy to do well.”

Jim Shula laughed. “Actually, I don’t think Don would fault us for cheering for Dave,” he said.

Don doesn’t.

“All three of my daughters have dropped subtle hints,” Don said. “They say, ‘Dad, I hope you understand, but we’re pulling for Dave.’ I told them I understand.”

The only way both men will win, said Dave, is through the family values that the game will represent, and in the charitable donations that will be collected through the selling of commemorative footballs.

Not that this symbolism means Don’s powerful Dolphins, who lost for the first time in four games Sunday, despite a 28-point comeback in Minnesota, are going to let up. “People have told me they thought that would happen, and I said, ‘Knowing Don, no way,’ ” Jim said. “Competition is what got him to this position. He can’t change now.”

That has become increasingly clear with each weekly phone call between father and son.

They usually talk on Tuesday mornings, and they usually talk about everything from football to the grandchildren. “But lately, the talk has sort of drifted away from football,” Dave said.

And what will be discussed on that phone call this week? Is there even going to be a phone call this week?

Said Dave: “We’ll probably talk this week just to touch base.”

Said Don: “We may or may not touch base.”