A Tradition of Winning-1973 Kansas City Chiefs

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me have your attention [Music] let me have your attention all right this is our playbook it must be studied understood and then executed properly on the field hey leonard red wright x double wing 201 half back and split in hook read that middle linebacker oh give it to him give it to him give it good timing dead timing oh and he dropped the ball jesus he dropped the ball looks like he tried to catch that ball with his elbows summer camp is a time of trial and error a time for the coaches to experiment and prepare for the season ahead for once the season arrives there is little time for experimentation the challenge becomes not so much what can we do to improve ourselves but how can we continue to win for the kansas city chiefs this becomes a more meaningful question than for almost any other team in pro football because the chiefs have established a tradition of winning [Music] the 1973 season opened at arrowhead against the revamped los angeles rams now led by the chief's old friend kansas john hadel haidle surprised the chiefs with two early touchdown passes one of them to a then unknown rookie named lawrence mccutchen the rams built a 20-point half-time lead as everything seemed to go wrong for the chiefs and right for the rams len dawson was sidelined with a jammed right thumb and the chief's offense could not produce until pete beathard brought about the only bright spots of a grim opening day with two late touchdowns including the first in the pro career rookie tight end gary butler [Music] week two found the chiefs in new england to face chuck fairbanks and the patriots len dawson returned to started quarterback and hit on 11 of 14 passes including five to otis taylor proving that when they are healthy dawson and taylor are as dangerous as ever number 63 willie lanier made one of the game's key plays when he caused a fumble near the kansas city goal line the chiefs held on for a ten to seven victory and despite a disappointing opener their record was even at one and one the following week at arrowhead brought one of the greatest challenges of any season to the chief's defense but again they came up with the big plays the opponent this time was the archrival oakland raiders and the chiefs took dead aim on quarterback daryl lamonica [Music] john stennerud kicked three field goals and those three field goals had the chiefs in front by nine to three until they were just two minutes to play [Music] willie linear's interception became the only touchdown of a typical kansas city oakland trench war the chiefs won 16-3 as they held the raiders to their lowest point total in seven years and took over undisputed possession of first place in the afc west next into arrowhead were the rapidly improving denver broncos led by number 12 charlie johnson and number 44 floyd little long plays twice put denver into the lead but both times the chiefs came back first on a pass from len dawson to otis taylor [Music] finally john's dennero's third long field goal of the day pulled the chiefs past the broncos for the 25th time in 27 tries 16 to 14. after four games the chiefs were three and one and comfortably on top in the afc west a four-game road trip began for the chiefs in milwaukee against the green bay packers again the chief's defense delivered the key plays as number 99 six foot six inch will be young blocked two chester marco field goals the offense continued to struggle the only kansas city touchdown came on a pass to six foot ten inch tight end morris stroud and the chiefs had to settle for a disappointing tie from wisconsin the trip continued into cincinnati home of the increasingly ferocious bengals of paul brown against the champions to be of the afc central the kansas city offense found its way inside the cincinnati five-yard line three times but had to settle for only one field goal another score appeared to be in the hands of mike sensabaugh number 20 but he was ruled out of bounds even an old high school special worked for the bengals who won by a narrow 14-6 and knocked the chiefs out of first [Music] place next on the itinerary was a rainy monday night in buffalo where a national television audience watched the builds take advantage of early turnovers to set up their running game in scoring position and that of course means o.j simpson number 32 [Music] on the way to a to 14 victory oj carried a record 39 times and became the first runner ever to gain 1 000 yards in just half a season three weeks on the road and no wins but then came san diego not once did the defense allow the charges to cross the kansas city 40-yard line on offense mike livingston took over for re-injured len dawson and led the chiefs to their most impressive performance to date morris drought hauled in one long touchdown while the offensive line opened good holes for wendell hayes who flowed through for 90 yards in a totally impressive team victory the chief shut out the charges 19 to nothing the following monday night the chiefs had a chance to redeem themselves on national television and they made the chicago bears pay for their earlier embarrassment in buffalo six times they tracked down bears quarterback bobby douglas for 64 yards in losses [Music] the offensive line was again blowing open good holes and this time ed podolak was the principal beneficiary as he rolled up 134 yards rushing [Music] john stenerood booted four field goals in the first half and mike livingston finished the monday night celebration with a touchdown pass to otis taylor as the chiefs romp past the bears 19-7 next sid gilman returned to kansas city this time not with the san diego chargers but the houston oilers a team whose style of play did not make their new coach particularly happy [Music] mike livingston continued to lead a productive offense with a variety of effective receivers like number 17 elmo wright [Music] livingston threw for two more touchdowns one of them to the steadily improving rookie tight end gary butler number 82 the other touchdown pass came on the kind of play kansas city fans have come to expect from otis taylor [Music] with just four weeks to go the chiefs were again alone in first place this time with an offense that had finally regained some of its old-time flair [Music] week 11 brought the chiefs to denver for their rematch with the broncos and with charlie johnson and with a miracle-working receiver named haven moses [Music] trailing 14-3 late in the game mike livingston turned to otis taylor for some miracle working of his own [Music] otis taylor's touchdown made the score 14 to 10 and the chiefs were ready to win it [Music] in the dying seconds there came about one of those rare plays that can turn an entire season for both teams [Music] the broncos instead of the chiefs were suddenly in first place and heading for their first winning season while back at arrowhead the chiefs had to press on against the cleveland browns number 24 willie ellison ran for more than 100 yards against cleveland while mike livingston led the chiefs to an early lead elmo wright caught five passes one of them for a touchdown and it seemed that happy days had returned to kansas city [Music] seven times cleveland quarterback mike phipps was inundated by the chief's defense and with only six minutes left the chiefs led by a seemingly comfortable 14 points [Music] and then lightning struck [Music] so despite being tied by cleveland the chiefs were still just one half game behind oakland and then there they were in oakland to face the raiders the team the chiefs now had to defeat for the second time in the season or it was all over it was all over for coach hank stram and the kansas city chiefs the 1973 season officially ended at arrowhead where inspired by the running of jeff kinney the chiefs rolled over the san diego chargers 33-6 and with a seven five and two record insured their ninth consecutive winning season but even though the tradition of winning had been continued it still had been a strange season for the chiefs particularly on offense [Music] len dawson the nfl's all-time passing leader missed eight games with a variety of nagging injuries and dawson was forced to leave the quarterbacking to pete beathard who returned to the chiefs and saw action in four games mike livingston brought his record as a starter to an impressive 13-4-1 but no matter who was at quarterback the idea seemed to be to get the ball to ed [Music] podolack ed podolak finished second in the conference in receiving with 55 catches and was also in the top 10 in rushing it all added up to another season of well over a thousand yards in total offense for ed podolan [Music] the offensive line could not start as a unit until the season's ninth week but then the firm of tyra hill buddy mormon and all conference center jack rodney proved that they could still make the offense go with the added running threat of top draft choice woody green and with a healthy season from len dawson and otis taylor the chief's offense had every reason for great expectations the always important kicking game was as usual the league's best yarns dinner route has the best lifetime percentage of any kicker in history and gerald wilson equaled an all-time nfl record when he led the league in putting for the fourth time and for the second consecutive season with a phenomenal 45 and a half yards per punt the backbone of the 1973 chiefs was their defensive unit always well respected the chief's defense of 73 deserve special commendation because they had to do even more than usual to compensate for the injury weakened offense but week after week despite overtime duty the defense kept the chiefs in the game and in the running for the title to the casual fan playing the secondary means making the interception and to an extent this is true any good defensive back should come up with an occasional deep pass and a deflection over the middle can turn a game around in a hurry but perhaps even more important a defensive back must be able to tackle as jim marsalis demonstrates here the ability to tackle a man in the open field is not something that can be easily taught it is more often simply a result of desire as with jim kearney number 46. or emma thomas number 18 [Music] or nate allen number 48. [Music] and number 20 free safety mike sensabaugh is always ready to clean up after one of the toughest secondaries in pro football the chief's superlative linebacking corps is itself backed up by number 54 clyde werner also a spirited special teams man always underrated in the all-pro balloting but one of the best right linebackers around is jim lynch number 51. at left linebacker bobby bell is everything an outside linebacker ever wanted to be and number 63 willie lanier is finally being recognized as the best middle linebacker in pro [Music] football the defensive unit was the backbone of the 73 chiefs and the front four was the front line of the defense under immense pressure for most of the season the front four still forced 21 interceptions and sacked opposing quarterbacks 38 times number 67 george seals was a valuable man at either defensive tackle position while it left defensive end number 81 marvin upshaw enjoyed his finest season in his third nfl season number 99 285 pound wright and wilbur young showed signs of becoming a great one [Music] at bright tackle with a decade of experience in the trenches big buck buchanan was still dealing out bruises with the best of them number 61 left tackle curly culp has long been known as one of the quickest linemen in the game but now he's also becoming known as one of the best linemen in the game and the key part of one of pro football's finest defensive teams following the season coach hank straham said we came awfully close in 73 but close doesn't count we were in the race for 13 weeks but it's ridiculous to dwell on the past you must profit from your mistakes and think and plan for the future which we'll do we've had our best draft in years and our goal now is to work as hard as possible for a championship in 74. we don't have any problems we can't solve we have a tradition a tradition to build on and we're going to build on it a tradition of winning [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 2,070

Rating: 4.652174 out of 5

Keywords: NFL Films, Steve Sabol, Ed Sabol, Kansas City Chiefs, Hank Stram, Len Dawson, Lamar Hunt, John Facenda

Id: 6W6Ju5xmNq8

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2020