“We will have achieved a record of 23 straight regular-season wins, which never has been done before, and which was very important to us. As it approached, it became an issue that was very important to us because you do write your name in the history books and it will take a heck of a good team to beat that. Finally, we achieved the most wins in a decade. That’s an enviable record by any standard. We’ve written our name in the history books. Some may see that as inconsequential. We don’t.”
Polian called 16-0 “inconsequential.”
“It’s something that no professional football person ever believes is a realistic goal, A,” Polian said, “and B, it already has been done before – once by the Miami Dolphins in winning the Super Bowl (in 1972) and once by the New England Patriots and they lost the Super Bowl (following the 2007 season). As a result, it has been forgotten. So, we never focused on that.
“We said when the issue arose when the question was asked by others around Thanksgiving – when it was totally inappropriate to be asked, but it was asked nevertheless and people have a right to ask it – ‘Would we play everybody if everything was clinched in order to go 16-0?’ Coach Caldwell and myself repeated over and over and over again, that, no, 16-0 was not our goal. It was not something we felt was important.”
Polian also specified that 16-0 was “not something that we felt we owed anyone, our fans included.
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