Two Dolphins legends end feud, talk again after decades apart

There was no plan. No script. Nothing but the sight of Don Shula across the room that made Jake Scott walk over, smile at his old coach and say, "I've missed you so much."

He hugged Shula.

And Shula hugged him back.

And in the moment of that embrace, as friends watched in silence, a wall that stood for decades tumbled down. Hearts opened. Eyes misted.

"You're taller than I remember,'' Shula said, smiling at Scott.

They laughed. It was nearly three decades since they'd last talked in an Orange Bowl elevator, if you can call what happened then talking. It was closer to four decades ago they shouted at each other in the Dolphins' locker room in a way that still echoed inside the organization.

But here, at a Virginia memorabilia show in March, as they waited to sign pictures of how they once looked, they finally stood together again. Scott asked about Shula's sons, Mike and Dave. Shula asked about Scott's life in Hawaii.

It was a brief conversation. Five minutes. Maybe 10. But that small talk represented a big step to the onlooking Boys of '72, those Perfect Season Dolphins who wondered if this day would ever come.

"I've got to see this,'' Manny Fernandez said, walking closer.

"Get a picture,'' someone else said.