The Chiefs Lay Another Burden Aside

[kcchief4lif 910]

You might not be old enough to remember, but old fogeys (like me) still remember it like it was yesterday.

Christmas Day, 1971. Kansas City's Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn.

The Kansas City Chiefs - winners of Super Bowl IV just two years before - had cruised to the AFC West title with a 10-3-1 record. Unlike today - when star players from a Super Bowl winner get lucrative contracts for other teams - on that particular day, the Chiefs still retained most of the stalwarts of that 1969 team. Len Dawson, Otis Taylor, Willie Lanier, Bobby Bell and Buck Buchanan were just some of the 11 Pro Bowl players on the roster. Hank Stram still prowled the sideline, grasping a rolled up game program in one hand, and - in all likelihood - carrying a couple of cocktail napkins in the inside pocket of his custom-tailored suit, with diagrams of plays he'd thought up during a Christmas Eve dinner.in a downtown restaurant.

Len Dawson has always maintained that the 1971 team was the best the Chiefs ever assembled. Lamar Hunt agreed. "I always thought that was the peak of our best team, our '71 squad," he later recalled.

But it would not be the fate of the franchise's finest squad to win the Super Bowl that season, because standing in their way on that Christmas Day were the Miami Dolphins - and their unlikely placekicker Garo Yepremian.

The diminutive Cypriot (just 5' 8" and 175 pounds soaking wet) had emigrated to the United States with his brother Krikor in the mid 1960s. He had played some professional soccer in London, and after watching some American football on TV, thought he might give the NFL a try. Krikor acted as his agent, and in 1966, Yepremian signed with the Detroit Lions, beginning a colorful NFL history. In his first game, the coach informed him that the Lions had "lost the coin toss," so Yepremian immediately ran to midfield, dropping to his knees to locate the missing coin! But in his first season, he also set an NFL record by kicking six field goals in a single game.

After a stint in the Army, Yepremian would end up on the Dolphins in 1970. In the 1971 season, he led the league in scoring with 117 points. While NFL players weren't necessarily crazy about the little guy with the heavy foreign accent - he was often targeted by opposing teams, and was often advised to run straight to the bench after his kickoffs - his success made him a popular personality with the public.

Ultimately, Yepremian would own two Super Bowl rings. But his biggest date with destiny was on December 25, 1971.

You know, of course, what I'm talking about. It was Yepremian who kicked the 37 yard field goal with 7:20 remaining in the second overtime period, giving the Dolphins a 27-24 win over the Chiefs in the longest NFL game ever played. That kick marked the end of an era in Kansas City. As the officials raised their hands to signal the score, the last Chiefs game played in Municipal Stadium came to an end - as did a Chiefs dynasty. It would be 15 years before the franchise appeared in another playoff game. It also signaled the beginning of another era for the Dolphins, who would go on to appear in three consecutive Super Bowls. In the following season, the Dolphins would win the Super Bowl after going undefeated - a feat that has still never been equaled.

But that kick also represented something else to Chiefs fans: a weight that we have had to carry on our shoulders ever since.

It's not the only one we've had to carry. In the last few seasons, we have been blessed to leave some of these heavy burdens by the side of the road we've traveled. We no longer have to be the team that hasn't won a playoff game since 1993. We no longer have to be the team that can't beat Peyton Manning - no matter on which team he plays.

And on Sunday night, as I watched our diminutive Brazilian placekicker (5' 8" and 161 pounds soaking wet) make his 34 yard field goal attempt bounce off the left upright and through the goal, handing the Chiefs a 30-27 overtime victory over the Broncos - perhaps the most thrilling Chiefs game I have ever watched - it suddenly occurred to me that we can lay down one more heavy load: the memory of Garo Yepremian's kick, and all that it represented.

To be sure, other burdens are still ours to carry. Someday we will no longer have to be the franchise that hasn't won a Super Bowl in more than two generations. Someday we will beat Tom Brady at home. Someday we will draft and develop a franchise quarterback of our very own. Someday we will win a game on Sunday Night Football.

Oh... wait. Come to think of it, we don't have to carry that burden any more, either.

It's been a rough few weeks for we Chiefs fans. There's been a lot of talk about whether the team is really any good, and has any chance to contend for a championship this season. Well... I don't know if we're contenders or pretenders. But here's what I do know: on Sunday night, a battered and bruised Chiefs team - in many cases, fielding second and third string players - went toe to toe with the defending Super Bowl champions on their home turf. No one can question that both teams left everything they had on the field. And in the end, the Chiefs emerged victorious.

That, my friends, is what championship teams do.

I can't say if the Chiefs will be able to continue to do this in the remaining games of this season - or even in the next one. It's a hard road in front of us - perhaps the hardest we have faced in recent seasons.

But today, I know something that I didn't know yesterday: it's possible.

Today, I can stand a little straighter - not only because a couple more of the heavy burdens I have carried as a Chiefs fan can finally be left by the side of the road, but also because of the pride I feel for the character of the team that John Dorsey and Andy Reid have assembled.

Yes... it's not yet everything we all want. But it's a lot less weight to carry. Let's enjoy that.

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2016/11/28/13761654/the-chiefs-lay-aside-another-burden

[West 6,714]

Stenerud's Miss began the downfall.

 

I remember it very well.

 

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