CL Take · Opinion · Original
Super Bowl IV: The Chiefs' First Title and the AFL's Last Stand
Before Patrick Mahomes, before Andy Reid, before the three titles of the last decade, the Chiefs won a Super Bowl that meant something bigger than one season. Super Bowl IV was the AFL's last stand, and Kansas City treated it that way.
Here's the story of that game, the coach who was wired for sound, and the players who made it happen.
The road there wasn't smooth
The 1969 Chiefs went 11-3 and finished second in the AFL West behind Oakland. Len Dawson hurt his knee in Week 2 and missed about two months. Backup Jacky Lee broke his ankle the next week, which left the job to second-year quarterback Mike Livingston, who had taken five snaps as a rookie. Livingston went on a five-game winning streak, with a lot of help from the defense.
In the playoffs, Kansas City beat the defending Super Bowl champion Jets 13-6 in New York, helped by a big goal-line stand. Then the Chiefs beat Oakland 17-7 in the final AFL Championship Game and became the league's only three-time champion.
The week before
The Vikings were heavy favorites. Dawson had to deal with unsubstantiated media reports linking him to a known gambler. It was later shown he had been mistaken for another man with the same last name.
Then came one of the great moments in football film history. Ed Sabol of NFL Films asked Vikings coach Bud Grant if he'd wear a microphone during the game. Grant said no. Hank Stram said yes, becoming the first coach ever wired for NFL Films. That's how fans got to hear Stram calling for "65 toss power trap" and telling his team to "keep matriculating the ball down the field."
A crusade for the AFL
The Chiefs wore "AFL-10" patches honoring the league's ten seasons. They played like a team with something to prove.
Jan Stenerud kicked three field goals and Mike Garrett ran for a touchdown for a 16-0 halftime lead. In the third quarter Dawson hit Otis Taylor for a 46-yard touchdown that put it away. Dawson was named MVP. The final at Tulane Stadium was 23-7.
The toughest performance might have come from safety Johnny Robinson, who had two interceptions and a fumble recovery while playing with three broken ribs.
The people behind it
That team was loaded with players who are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including Dawson, Buck Buchanan, Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier and Stenerud. Bell became the first Chiefs player inducted, in 1983. Owner Lamar Hunt was the first AFL figure inducted, in 1972.
The defense was the backbone. The year before, the 1968 Chiefs allowed a franchise-low 170 points, 12.1 per game, and produced six AFL All-Stars, including all three starting linebackers. That unit was still in its prime in 1969, which is how a team missing its starting quarterback for two months still won 11 games.
The long wait
What happened next is the part that makes this game so important. Super Bowl IV was the last championship the Chiefs won until Super Bowl LIV after the 2019 season, with Mahomes named MVP. That's a 50-year gap. A generation of Chiefs fans grew up hearing about Stram on a microphone and Dawson to Taylor without seeing it happen again.
Our Take
Super Bowl IV gets remembered for the sound bites, and they're great. But the real lesson is how the team got there. It lost its starting quarterback for two months and its backup a week later, and it kept winning because the defense and the coaching were strong enough to carry a second-year passer.
That's worth remembering whenever the current team hits a rough stretch. Championship teams aren't built around one player. Even the ones with a legend at quarterback win because of everyone else.
Chiefs Kingdom.