Mercury Morris, Elusive Rusher on a Perfect Dolphins Team, Dies at 77 [View all]

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Mercury Morris, Elusive Rusher on a Perfect Dolphins Team, Dies at 77

Part of a talented backfield triumvirate that also included Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, he helped lead Miami to two Super Bowls and an undefeated season.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/obituaries/mercury-morris-dead.html

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Mercury Morris in 1972 scoring against the New England Patriots. Morris, who was born Eugene, gained his nickname from his quick unpredictability on the field.Credit...Jim Bourdier/Associated Press


By Alex Traub
Sept. 22, 2024Updated 5:10 p.m. ET

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At the height of his career, Morris was part of an unusual three-man rushing rotation alongside the fullback Larry Csonka and another running back, Jim Kiick. Csonka and Kiick were powerful bruisers; Morris, who was born Eugene, gained his nickname from his quicksilver unpredictability on the field.

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Initially, he had been used mainly as a kick returner. He did not get a single handoff during the Dolphins’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the 1972 Super Bowl. Csonka and Kiick, conversely, gained such fame for their partnership on the field and their friendship off it that they were nicknamed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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To cope with severe headaches, Morris began using drugs. In 1982 he returned to the national news, not for football but instead for being sentenced to 20 years in prison after convictions on several charges related to cocaine trafficking. The convictions were later overturned, and Morris spent years making the case that he had been innocent of crimes other than drug use.

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In 2022, Morris described Kiick’s struggles with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as C.T.E., to The New York Times. He said that he had to coax Kiick out of his car and direct him to an airport terminal to bring him to the filming of “The Perfect Backfield.” But even when Kiick’s dementia became severe, Morris continued seeing him about every week.



Morris served three years before having his conviction reversed. The courts had found he'd been entrapped.