This is the last of a four-part series on the first four pre-merger Super Bowls and their historic significance in shaping America’s Game-
It had eaten at them for three long years. The Kansas City Chiefs’ humiliating 35-10 loss at the hands of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I had not been forgotten by anyone connected with the franchise, the smug partisans of the NFL, nor the embarrassed members of the AFL.
During that same three year period, commissioner Pete Rozelle, leaders, and owners of both leagues were struggling to come up with a final merger agreement. There were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams that had to become two conferences of 13 teams each. Meetings would go all night until past dawn and often come to near blows.
Arrogant NFL owners such as Art Modell of the Cleveland Browns hated the AFL and wanted nothing to do with them. Modell went on to sneer that the Denver Broncos would never be allowed to play in Cleveland Stadium. The Broncos were considered a ragtag team from a frontier town that was beneath NFL standards.
Money talks, however, and Modell gladly took $3 million along with the Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers to join the AFL teams in forming the new American Football Conference. Fans of the tradition laden Browns and Colts were outraged, and flooded their teams with calls and mail. The merger was set for a final draft and signatures in February of 1970. Meanwhile, Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders and Sonny Werblin of the New York Jets were enraged about having to pay exorbitant territorial indemnification fees and were holding out. The merger was no sure thing.
Pro football’s merger needed a savior. It needed proof that the AFL had reached parity so that it was valuable enough to merge into.
The Kansas City Chiefs needed redemption. Often touted as the most talented team in the game, they always came up just short. In 1968, they went 12-2, only to be destroyed 41-6 by the hated Oakland Raiders in a special, one-game playoff.
1969 would prove to be their most challenging season, but it ended in triumph and the greatest moment in franchise history. It also ended as the final piece of the merger puzzle.
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Hank Stram’s Wild West Variety Show
The Chiefs had the most exotic and yet dynamic offense in pro football. Stram conceived the moving pocket in which quarterback Len Dawson would float to either side with brilliantly conceived blocking patterns to protect him. The Chiefs would operate from a wide variety of formations and do a lot of shifting and moving before the snap to freeze and confuse opponents.
Dominant wide receiver Otis Taylor was a man among boys and should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 1965 Heisman Trophy winner, Mike Garret, was an elusive and versatile back. Left guard Ed Budde and Left Tackle Jim Tyrer were perennial All Stars and also have good arguments to be in Canton.
The Chiefs were regulars as one of the highest scoring teams in pro football. They were 11-3 and were beneficiaries of a new playoff format in the AFL in which the second-place team in a division would play the first-place team in the opposite division in the first round of the playoffs. The Chiefs allowed the fewest points in the high-flying AFL at 177.
Lenny the Cool
Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson was a record-setting quarterback. But because of his failure in Super Bowl I, and the fact that he played in the AFL, he was labeled as a discarded NFL player that thrived against weaker competition.
Dawson led pro football with 182 touchdown passes during that time and was among the most accurate passers in the game. He had cool and poise with laser eyes at the most critical junctures of games. But unless he beat the NFL in the Super Bowl, he would forever lack credibility. 1969 was the most difficult season of Dawson’s career. He began the season with a badly injured throwing hand and missed large chunks of time with a nagging knee issue. Most doctors told him to give up the season for surgery. To add to the physical pain, an even deeper grief struck when his father passed away that November.
Yet, Dawson endured.
40 for 60
The Minnesota Vikings came of age in 1969. Head coach Bud Grant led them to their second consecutive playoff berth based on the traditional NFL formula of a strong defense and running game. The Vikings coasted to a 12-2 season and dominant home playoff wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns in the playoffs. The Vikings team oriented rallying cry was “40 (players) for 60 (minutes).” The Vikings were the highest scoring team in the NFL with 379 and allowed the fewest points at 133.
Injun Joe Kapp
The Vikings were led by a swashbuckling former Canadian Football League quarterback named Joe Kapp. Kapp was as tough as they come, as proven in the NFL Championship Game when he knocked out a Cleveland Browns linebacker cold on a play in which he deliberately crashed into the player instead of sliding to the ground like most players today. Kapp was hardly orthodox, had a terrible throwing motion, and had an unpolished but charismatic playing style. He was a natural leader that commanded the respect of the entire team.
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Purple People Eaters
Minnesota’s defense was tough and physical. The Vikings were highly aggressive and among the most intimidating defenses in the game. The defensive line of Gary Larsen, Alan Page, Carl Eller and Jim Marshall was devastating while the defensive backfield of Bobby Bryant, Earsell Mackbee, and Hall of Famer Paul Krause was among the best in the game. The Vikings weakness was at linebacker where there were no stars in the lineup.
Redwood Forest
The Chiefs boasted a dominant and punishing defense as well. Led by Hall of Fame linemen Buck Buchanan and Curley Culp, along with All Stars Jerry Mays and Aaron Brown the Chiefs had the biggest front four in the game. The Chiefs linebacking corps was the best in history with Hall of Famers Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell, along with solid and reliable Jim Lynch. The defensive backfield boasted Hall of Famer Emmitt Thomas and an elite safety in Johnny Robinson. With their red jerseys and great size they became known as the “Redwood Forest defense” and rank among the best in history.
The Other Dawson
NBC’s Huntley Brinkley Report aired on the Tuesday before Super Bowl IV and broke a bombshell story in which a big time gambler named Donald Dawson was linked to Len Dawson, with the implication that games may have been fixed or at least shaved. With the pressure of having to win the Super Bowl, Dawson now had to deal with this false story that ended up being empty hot air. He issued a denial that evening. Dawson and the Chiefs showed remarkable poise in focusing on the game afterwards.
An Omen
During warm ups the Vikings looked over at the Chiefs and saw placekicker Jan Stenerud and punter Jerrel Wilson launching rockets in warm ups. They had never seen anything like it. It was a portent of things to come.
A Lombardi Sneer
Former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, who was then coming off his only season as head coach of the Washington Redskins, had the same cutting remarks about the Chiefs that he did after the first Super Bowl game. Lombardi derided the Chiefs for running the same “fancy offense” that they did against his Packers. He also had a cutting remark about Dawson stating that “they still have the same quarterback.”
Perceived NFL Superiority reflected in Betting Line
The Jets upset win in Super Bowl III was considered a fluke. Most fans and observers believed that the Baltimore Colts threw the game away and were not prepared well. The NFL was still considered to be the better league. Minnesota was a 12.5 point favorite against the Chiefs as a result.
Injun Joe and Vikings Knocked Out
Stenerud staked the Chiefs to a 9-0 lead with three field goals, the first from 48 yards. After the Vikings fumbled the kickoff after the third field goal, Kansas City took advantage of the Vikings aggressive defense with the most famous call in Stram’s career. Sixty-Five Toss Power Trap was the call on third and goal at the Viking five yard line and Garrett went into the end zone untouched to make it 16-0.
In the third quarter, with the Vikings blitzing, Dawson hit Taylor on a short hitch in which the Chiefs star receiver broke a tackle, made a great juke move, and powered into the end zone for a back-breaking 46-yard touchdown to make the final score 23-7.
Throughout the game the Chiefs offense frustrated the Vikings with their multiple formations, shifting, and motion. A Viking linebacker threw up his hands in frustration during a huddle, completely confused as to what to do. Stram was wired for NFL Films during the game and said it best when stating that the Vikings looked like they were in a “Chinese Fire Drill.”
The Redwood Forest dominated the Vikings as the better defense, and brutalized Kapp, the toughest quarterback of them all. Kapp left the field battered and injured. It was a knockout win.
The Chiefs held Minnesota to three out of nine on third down conversions and sacked Kapp three times while applying pressure and hits on the Viking quarterback throughout the day. Minnesota was forced into five turnovers.
Unlike when the Jets upset the Colts, nobody thought that the Chiefs win was a fluke. Baltimore Colts running back Tom Matte said that his team would beat the Jets nine out of ten times, but that he would never say that about the Chiefs. The Chiefs were vindicated. The AFL reached parity with the NFL. The leagues ended in a pre-merger 2-2 split in Super Bowl matchups.
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A President becomes a Fan
President Richard Nixon called Stram from the White House before the game to express his belief in Dawson and the Chiefs. After the game Nixon called again to speak to Dawson and Stram. It was quite an end to an unforgettable season.
Most Underrated Champs Ever took the Hardest Road
The Chiefs remain the most underappreciated Super Bowl champion of all time. Their dominating defense had a performance for the ages in which it allowed just seven points or less in each of the three postseason games against the three highest scoring teams in football.
Kansas City had to defeat the defending Super Bowl Champion Jets, 13-6, at New York in the first round. They then had to beat the team considered to be the best in football, the Oakland Raiders, 17-7, at Oakland in the AFL Championship Game. And then, of course, their dominant 23-7 Super Bowl win capped off as impressive of a postseason run as has ever been seen.
Merger Solidified
The convincing Chiefs win made the merger a far easier sell. The Browns, Steelers, and Colts were now looking smart for taking the $3 million to join the AFL teams.
Although Modell vowed that the Denver Broncos would never be allowed to play in Cleveland, the Broncos paid the Browns a visit in 1971. Denver left the game as 27-0 winners.
