1972 Dolphins have lost 14 players too soon. They don’t need coronavirus to take more.

The wife of the NFL’s all-time winningest coach wakes up every day with a mission: keeping her husband, a South Florida treasure, healthy and safe in the midst of a global pandemic.

Mary Anne Shula has taken steps to protect Don Shula, who turned 90 in January, from the threat of the coronavirus, the world’s biggest health crisis since the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. They have essentially gone into lockdown inside their Indian Creek home the past couple of weeks, said Don’s oldest son, Dave.

“She’s done a terrific job taking care of her and dad’s health and taking precautions and making sure healthcare providers who come into their home take precautions,” said Dave Shula, the former Cincinnati Bengals head coach and former president of Shula’s Steak Houses LLLP.

Dave Shula, who returned to coaching in 2018 as wide receiver’s coach at Dartmouth, said he’s “absolutely worried” about his father, who won two Super Bowls during his 26 seasons patrolling the Dolphins sidelines and an NFL-record 347 games overall.

“When you talk about the most vulnerable, he’s at the top of the list,” Dave Shula added. “Fortunately, he’s in good health.”

Only essential guests — such as household staff and medical personnel — are now permitted inside the Shula home on Indian Creek, and they must enter through the back door and use masks and other safety measures. Dave and his four siblings aren’t visiting out of extreme precaution.

“It’s tough not to see them,” Dave Shula said. “You hope for the best.”

Shula’s 1972 Dolphins, the NFL’s only undefeated team, have lost 14 players through the years — to cancer, natural causes and cognitive conditions.

Some of the ‘72 alums — Dick Anderson, Mercury Morris and Manny Fernandez — spoke this week of the seriousness of a pandemic unlike anything they have seen in their lifetime, expressing hope that the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, doesn’t take any of their former teammates, including the 36 living members of that ‘72 team.

The players who remain from those undefeated Dolphins are all in their late 60s or 70s — a group that medical experts say is particularly vulnerable to this pandemic.

“You can’t help but think about it,” Anderson said. “It’s changed everybody’s life. You wish the kids on Miami Beach two weeks ago understood that. That has an effect on a number of people in this country that have tested positive.”

Through the years, Anderson has taken the lead in keeping tabs on 1972 teammates, in his role running 1972 Perfect Season Team 17-0 Enterprises, which handles marketing, memorabilia and other business ventures for that iconic team. He mails all of them checks from marketing residuals and has contacted several in recent days and found no cause for alarm, at least in regard to coronavirus.

“Talked to Marv Fleming yesterday, and he seems to be doing good,” Anderson said Tuesday. “Talked to a few others to see how we’re doing. People need to understand they need to stay away from other people. There’s still a possibility you can get it again; nobody knows for sure.”

Anderson still takes the daily drive from his Coral Gables home to his South Miami office because he can work alone there, handling work for both his insurance and real estate firm and 1972 Dolphins business. He’s hopeful he will be fine, because he’s in good shape and has no pre-existing health conditions.

But he worries about former teammates who aren’t as healthy. He badly misses Nick Buoniconti, who died last July at 78 after a bout with pneumonia.

“He was my closest friend on the team,” Anderson said. “He would have powered through this.”

Fernandez, 73, has his routine down to a science, making sure his bare hands touch nothing outside his 80-acre home in the rolling hills of southwest Georgia.

He lives in Ellaville, a one-spotlight town, and takes the four-minute drive twice a day — once to work out in a gym and another to stock up on supplies in the local market.

“I put on rubber gloves at the gym, which I use only once,” he said. “I have several hundred rubber gloves and face masks. I use my elbow to hit the elevator button and push the door with my shoulders.”

His freezer is filled with meats, including venison and wild hog sausage — both from successful hunting expeditions near his home.

“I’m a prepper,” he said. “I have two years worth of freeze-dried food.”

He just had back surgery 5 1/2 weeks ago — his ninth back operation and 20th surgery since the start of his NFL career — but has no physical limitations in caring for himself.

Fernandez lost his wife to lung and colon cancer five years ago and lives alone with his 7-month-old Labrador retriever. Her death — and the loss of former teammate Bill Stanfill to complications from a fall in 2016 — have left an obvious void. But he feels neither lonely nor particularly restless during these unprecedented times of social distancing.

“I’m usually off doing something with somebody [before coronavirus],” he said. “But my TV works. My computer works. I text with [1972 Dolphins teammate] Doug Crusan, who’s living in Indianapolis. I’m doing better than most being by myself.”

He worries about his son, who works for the Fort Lauderdale fire department and is serving as a first responder during this crisis.

“I’m worried but not as worried as you should be,” he told me, aware that while South Florida’s positive tests keep growing, his small county hadn’t had a single confirmed case as of Tuesday. “But the county directly south of me has 16 cases and two deaths. All we can do is pray and keep ourselves safe and not infect anybody else.”

For Morris, 73, the concern is not so much for himself but for those restricted to assisted living facilities such as teammate and former backfield mate Jim Kiick, who has cognitive issues.

“I would see Jim, and now we talk over the phone,” Morris said, noting the Broward facility doesn’t want visitors during a pandemic. “I don’t know if Jim is aware of coronavirus. He will call me four, five times in a row and he goes through the same conversation we just had five minutes ago. I’ll say, ‘Bill, is this you?’ Because it’s like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day.’ ”

As for himself, “I’m not worried,” Morris said. “I’m paying attention to what I’m doing, minding my business, washing my hands coming home from Publix.”

He spends time working with his son Elliott on a website, Mercurymorrismedia, that will include documentary-style interviews and more.

Anderson hopes his family’s genes will work in his favor. His father Herman was 100 when he died five years ago. His mother Mariette is 102 and lives in a retirement home in Boulder, Colorado.

“Very few people have had two parents live until over 100. If I don’t screw it up.”

He chuckled.

“You just keep your fingers crossed,” Anderson said. “This is a major thing that we’ll never forget.”

Here’s my Wednesday piece with a look at where the Dolphins’ defense stands.

Here’s my Wednesday UM 6-pack.