Miami’s futility stirs memories

As one NFL team inches toward perfection, the history makers from another storied franchise -- two hints: Florida, 1970s -- are praying those winds of fortune will shift.

Let there be a blemish in the win-loss column. Just one.

But it might not happen. The Miami Dolphins could finish 0-16.

“I really sympathize with those guys,” said Louis Carter, a running back for the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-14 in their first year of existence, becoming the only modern-era NFL team to lose every game in a full season. “If they only win one game, I just want them to win. I don’t want them to have to say they tied Tampa Bay’s record. Then the same thing starts up again.”

Meanwhile, as the Dolphins (0-9) slog through their schedule, there’s even more bad news for Miami. At 9-0, the New England Patriots are threatening the pristine record of the 1972 Dolphins, who went 17-0 and are the league’s only team to notch a “perfect” record.

The Dolphins and Patriots will cross paths for a second time Dec. 23 in Foxborough, and have very similar schedules as the season winds down. Both play their other AFC East foes, Buffalo and the New York Jets, but both also have remaining games against Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Miami’s remaining opponents have a combined record of 33-30, and New England’s are 27-36.

Although they haven’t been blown out of every game -- in fact last Sunday they narrowly lost to Buffalo, 13-10 -- the Dolphins have only a couple of reasonably good opportunities to end their slide. Those come in two weeks at home against the Jets (1-8), and in the finale at Cincinnati (3-6).

“With parity being the way it is, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to win at least one or two games,” said Richard Wood, a former Tampa Bay linebacker. “Come on guys.”

Wood, a former three-time All-American at USC who next month will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, remembers well the excruciating feeling as the losses piled up for the Buccaneers. He saw a similar pained expression this week when he glimpsed a clip of Miami Coach Cam Cameron answering questions at a news conference.

“I hate to see anyone go through that,” Wood said. “Coach Cam, he’s been around a long time. It not only affects the players, but the coaches, everybody.”

The decades have softened that anguish. A bit. From time to time, Wood said, he can even laugh about those lean years. He marvels at the way fans used to fill Tampa Stadium and cheer their hearts out, even as the just-formed franchise circled the drain and beyond.

“They were hungry for that win just as much as we were,” he said of fans. “Now one time we got off the plane and there might have been two or three fans, but come Sunday the place was packed. That made me want to win even more.”

There were some close calls. The Buccaneers lost to Buffalo by five, and by three to fellow expansion team Seattle and then Miami. In the end, however, the only thing Tampa Bay won was a dubious spot in league history.

Dallas finished 0-11-1 as an expansion team in 1960. The Baltimore Colts were 0-8-1 in 1982, a season shortened by a players’ strike. And several teams have gone 1-15 over the years, most recently the 2001 Carolina Panthers.

But there’s a special spot on the mantle of shame for the ’76 Bucs.

“Kind of like going through hell wearing gasoline underwear,” Carter said. “And my helmet was soaked in it too.”

Sure, he can chuckle about it. He just doesn’t appreciate the giggles of others, even 31 years later.

“You will never outlive it,” said Carter, who now sells cars in Silver Spring, Md. “There’s always somebody talking about it. I have friends I’ve known since way back in high school. We’re out playing golf and they’re still laughing about it.”

In fact, he had to tell his best friend to stop introducing him as “my buddy Lou Carter -- he was on that team that didn’t win a game, I’m sure you remember that.”

Carter’s response?

“I tell him that I only wear a size 11 shoe,” he said. “But the next time you introduce me that way I’m going to put it” in an unquestionably uncomfortable place.

“He caught on.”

Success at last.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com