Dick Anderson didn't party like it was 1972.

But the former Boulder High and University of Colorado standout does plan to get together with some of his old Miami Dolphins teammates soon to celebrate the fact that they are still the only team in NFL history to complete a perfect season.

Anderson spent most of last week in Phoenix reminiscing and playing golf before flying home on Sunday and watching the New York Giants' improbable 17-14 upset of New England in Super Bowl XLII on television.

A local TV news crew pulled up in front of his Coral Gables, Fla., home in the final minutes of the game to get a live comment about the 2007 Patriots joining the Dolphins in the history books. But Eli Manning and Co. pulled off the Giant upset in the final minute to change the story angle.

"It was a little bit of a surprise to me," Anderson, who played safety on the Dolphins' 1972 team that finished 17-0, said in a telephone interview with the Camera on Monday. "It shows what a difference great defense and pressure on the quarterback can make."

Anderson believes the Patriots, who had won three previous Super Bowl titles with the combination of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, were focusedon finishing 19-0 and their place in history more than simply beating the Giants.

"They had more pressure on them to win the game because of the undefeated season," Anderson said. "Our pressure was just to win the Super Bowl."

The '72 Dolphins were on a mission to win Super Bowl VII after getting humbled by the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL title game the previous season.

"Back in our days there was no cable television, no ESPN, no sports talk-radio stations," Anderson said. "We had three or four reporters following us around and we never talked about going undefeated. No one really thought about it until the '85 Bears came to Miami. We didn't realize it hadn't been done before."

Chicago made it to 12-0 before losing to Dan Marino's Dolphins in 1985. Twenty-two seasons later, the Patriots became the first team in league history to finish a 16-game regular-season schedule undefeated before coming up short of perfection on the game's grandest stage and finishing 18-1.

"They call us grumpy old men," Anderson said of those who are critical of the '72 Dolphins celebrating their achievement each year when the final undefeated team falls, whether it's in October or December or on Super Bowl Sunday this time. "We might be old men but we're not grumpy, we're very happy. They can never take away what we did. Records are meant to be broken, but if another team does go undefeated they will just be the second to do it."

Anderson, like most of the 90 million viewers, hadn't heard of David Tyree until his catch in the fourth quarter when the backup wide receiver made one of the greatest pressure catches in league history to put the Giants in position for the winning score, a play that allowed Manning to be named the Super Bowl's most valuable player.

"You talk about a catch ... one of the finest catches I've ever seen," Anderson said. "It made the touchdown anticlimactic."

Anderson was at work on Monday but he plans to get together this week with some '72 Dolphins, including Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti, to toast perfection.