The CRAZY STORY of How Len Dawson JOINED the Kansas City Chiefs
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- Опубліковано 24 сер 2022
- In 1962, after quarterback Len Dawson got released by the Cleveland Browns, he signed with the Dallas Texans of the American Football League, who eventually became the Kansas City Chiefs. However, what you might not know is just how crazy this move was, as it featured two dollars, a bizarre phone call, and a conversation that couldn't possibly happen in today's society. This is the story behind how Dawson joined the Chiefs and the AFL, and subsequently became one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time
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Rest in Peace Len....you were my childhood hero... and as a grown man of 58....you are STILL my hero...
Len Dawson was a great quarterback and announcer. I grew up with him and he was genuinely liked by fans across the country. This was a great video. $2.65 never meant more to anyone at any time. Really well done video and laying out the context of Len Dawson's career. Great reminder of Dawson's legacy. Thanks for taking the time to put this one together
Wasn't the show he was on for so long, "Inside the NFL"?
@@eugenedenbrook322 1978-2001, with Nick Buoniconti and, later, Cris Collinsworth.
RIP from Raider Nation : Len Dawson was a class act and will be missed.
Len Dawson's story is one of a few unique stories that happened in the early years of the American Football League. RIP Lenny.🙏🏾🙏🏾🏈
Dawson was from Alliance, Ohio. It’s close to Canton. So his NFL journey took him close to home, both in his brief time with the Browns, and when he was enshrined in Canton.
A multi-use practice field at Alliance High School is named "Len Dawson Field." Short video here: ua-cam.com/video/sUSxIf6WO9c/v-deo.html
I was born the year after he last played but I grew up watching Len Dawson with Nick Buoniconti on Inside the NFL throughout the 1980s. Was always in tune with what was going on in the modern game. Definitely a legend who deserves all the adulation he is getting today. RIP.
My most vivid memory of Len Dawson was from his time hosting Inside The NFL, but I'm well aware of how great he was in Kansas City.
This is a wonderful tribute, and it's incredible to think what $26 in today's money meant to the landscape of professional football.
Rest in Peace, Len Dawson.
You helped make the AFL and NFL great.
Other fun stuff:
1) A Herman's Hermits reference by JG9 at the 4:05 mark. ("I'm Henry VIII, I Am," 1965)
2) During Len Dawson's senior year at Purdue (1956), George Steinbrenner was a Boilermakers assistant coach.
3) Len Dawson was a two-time inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: 1987 (as a player) and 2012 (as a broadcaster; he received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award).
Not only was it not a smart-phone or flip-phone, nor a touch-tone keypad landline that Dawson used to make the call to Stram, it was a freaking mechanical rotary dial phone; so, he had to take the time to dial each digit in the number all while Brown stared at him, drop-jawed!!
My brother and I got to meet Len in 2009. I had him sign a Browns mini just to be different. He told me playing for Paul Brown changed his life. However he didn't go into any details. Thanks for sharing this story. He was a true legend and will be missed.
Cool beans,
This is the type of story that they're supposed to make a movie about. That meeting with him calling mid firing is the perfect promo.
its strange to think that Dawson and Bobby Layne were teammates. i genuinely think of those two as being from entirely different eras of the sport, but Dawson was Layne's backup for 2 years in Pittsburgh.
Dawson and Jack Kemp. And they traded Earl Morall to get Layne.
My high school gym teacher was Dawsons roommate at Pittsburgh.
This man deserves at least 100k subscribers. The amount of time and insane research he puts in on this channel is amazing. I don't think any other sports You Tuber can touch him.
"The phone call literally changed the course of pro football". Not an exaggeration. The 69 Chiefs were an underrated component to the merger
The ‘68 Jets showed the AFL could compete. The ‘69 Chiefs added several exclamation points to that statement by beating the tar out of Minnesota.
Puffing on a heater at halftime of Super Bowl I. #Legend RIP Mr. Dawson.
In a weird way I think Paul Brown was proud that Len had a backup plan
I find it hilariously ironic that Paul Brown dedicated an entire team meeting to trash-talking the AFL only to wind up co-founding and coaching the Bengals in the league several years later. 😅😅😅
But, I digress. As a Raiders fan, I have a lot of respect for Len Dawson and already miss him much. I wasn't around when he played, but I loved his analysis on Inside The NFL throughout the 90s and aughts.
The perception towards AFL was probably why it took Dawson several years to be inducted into the HOF.
Another one of my childhood Heroes has gone may he rest in peace
Nice memoriam for a TRULY great player.
Excellent tribute, thank you. He was before my time as a player, but he was my favorite host on inside the NFL back in the day. Smart, funny, no nonsense.
Love Len Dawson. Never saw him play, as I was too young, but he was a genuinely nice guy. Strange thing as it is, I don't remember any of this, but I apparently met him in 1985 during the Cardinals vs. Royals World Series in St. Louis. My mom's boyfriend at the time said it was him, but I don't know if that's true or not. I did see him at Arrowhead many years later and he was an amazing person to me.
R.I.P. Len.
The greatest team sports athlete in Kansas City history.
George Brett enters the chat.
Len Dawson said that during the whole call Brown just looked mildly annoyed with a wry grin added on to it. And after the call, Brown just said "I think you have made a fairly good decision".
R.I.P. Len Dawson, great qb, great NFL analyst, great braoadcaster, and yes probably the best Quarterback in AFL history. The best QB in Chiefs history. The reason Montana wore 19. The reason Mahomes isn't KC's best QB. (He's working on it.) Great great great story. The best $2.65 Steam ever spent for sure. Lastly I always wore 16 from little league in in every sport because when I was little because my Dad the Eagle fan was a Dawson guy.
19 was Montana's first choice for jersey # (b/c it was his favorite QB Johnny Unitas' jersey #), but someone else was wearing that jersey # when he first came to SF; so, he went with his second choice, which was 16 (in honor of Len Dawson)
@@shruggzdastr8-facedclown neat. Never heard that. Johnny U was another great one. Either guy is pretty awesome idol.
@@christopherengel7436: I forgot to add that it all came full circle when he got traded to, or picked up as a free agent by (I can't remember which), the Chiefs -- for whom he wore #19. His second backup (after Steve Young -- during the SB XXIII and XXIV run), Steve Bono, also played for the Chiefs later in his career. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the previous starting QB for the '49ers that Montana replaced, Steve DeBerg, also had a stint in KC during his journeyman career.
@@shruggzdastr8-facedclown DeBerg definitely was displaced by Montana in SF, by Young in TB, & Steve did end up in KC. Bumped out of starting by Dave Kreig this time. Who lost his job to Joe.
@@christopherengel7436: DeBerg paved the way for other future SB-winning QBs not named by you: Doug Williams (won SB XXII as a member of the Joe Gibbs-coached Washington Redskins) being but one. He did get to appear in a swan song Super Bowl as a member of the Atlanta Falcons, but unfortunately didn't get to enjoy the ultimate glory of hoisting the Lombardi trophy as that honor went to the John Elway-led Denver Broncos -- whom, incidentally, I believe DeBerg preceded as their starting QB before they acquired Elway.
Growing up in Kansas City my first memory was Len Dawson announcing the acquisition of Joe Montana. Watching him as a sportscaster with KMBC-9 news was how I knew him but always knew he had a genuine love of the sport.
Autocorrect issue?
A coach that was a man ahead of the time great player and a class act
Kansas City's Super Bowl IV win in January, 1970 proved that the AFL was a true equal to the NFL ahead of interlocking schedules of games between AFC (formerly AFL) and NFC (formerly the old NFL) games in the fall of 1970.
From Full Color Football, Volume 5, The Final Frontier: "The AFL finally earns the respect it has so long desired. And the irony, of course, is it earns that respect at the moment it ceases to exist." (Michael MacCambridge, author, "America's Game")
Now THIS is great sports content.
Thank you for the tribute to a great football player and class man.
Rip Len Dawson. You will be missed. Thank you for your contribution to the Kansas City chiefs and the great game of football. I send prayers to your family and friends.
Today, you could just call up any of your league contacts on your cell phone in that situation. I never heard about how he joined the club now called the Chiefs. That sure is a crazy story!
So many great games against the Raiders, the Jets, the Dolphins back in the AFL before the merger. The Chiefs were always in the thick of it; playoffs, championship games, Super Bowls, led by their QB - Lenny Dawson (16). R.I.P. Lenny.
December 25 1971 against Miami still can't get over that one,
@@leonmarkham675 A classic. Yes, Jan Stenerud, despite his great career, said he will never get over that game.
While I've known about Dawson for many years, videos like these ones you've made about him these last couple days make me wish that I'd been alive (or, at least old enough to be consciously aware of things going on around me) when he was playing so that I could have seen his games live, because before these videos, I think that the totality of gameplay footage that I'd seen of him amounted to maybe thirty seconds of NFL Films highlights. I think I might've seen one or both of the Super Bowl recap videos, but I think they focused more on Stram and the other players than Dawson.
65 Toss Power Trap!
@@MatthewChristianMurray: That line was like 80% of the audio for those SB recap films!!
Great video about the history of Len Dawson. He was a great QB that will be truly missed.
Frank Gifford was a bigger star than Namath and over a decade prior but most people forget football existed before 1966 and don't talk about anything from that era. Good video as usual though.
Nope
@@donarmstrong2182 yup
Thank you for making this video. Len Dawson was great man and had a wonderful career in Kansas City, whether a Chief or sportscaster.
We'll miss you Lenny the Cool.
Awesome story. I’m a long time Raiders fan, but I also like those ‘60s-early ‘70s Chiefs.
$2.65 phone call from paul brown's office could not even get you a ride on a subway or bus in new york city today ($ 2.75 )!!!!!!!!!!!! dawson's leadership, arm strength and immense accuracy are one of the best in afl and nfl history !!!!!!!!!!!!! R.I.P. LENNY DAWSON !!!!!!!!!!! he also was a fine commentator after his career too !!!!!!!!!!!!
Will be the Man in KC even with MaHomes career. He will be like Bart Starr in GB the man who all are measured against.
Bro, this is one of your best videos barr none and you have a lot. Good job and keep them coming.
At 7:27 of this video you reported that Len Dawson was called into Paul Brown's office and informed he was being let go by the Browns. According to Len himself, he has stated that he went to Paul Brown for a meeting and in that meeting he asked for his release. He told Brown: "I'd just as soon get out of here." Brown consented, Dawson signed with the Dallas Texans who won an AFL Champiaonship vs Houston at the end of the 1962 season, the Texans then moved to Kansas City and the rest is history. Long Live the AFL!!!
Funny that how you mentioned about Paul Brown dissing the AFL, yet after Art Modell fired Brown, it was the AFL (in the midst of the AFL-NFL Merger) that got Paul Brown back onto the sidelines as HC and part owner of the newly-enfranchised Cincinnati Bengals.
As for Dawson's No. 16 being retired, when then-future Pro Football HoFer Joe Montana was traded from San Francisco to Kansas City, Dawson gave Joe Montana permission to wear his No. 16; Montana, out of respect for Dawson, turned down the offer, and instead wore No. 19 (his number from his youth football days in SW Pennsylvania); Montana's No. 16 being retired by the 49ers after his retirement from the game (his last being the 1994 AFC Championship game that KC lost).
Yet besides being the team that gave the most well-known "NFL Reject" his legendary HoF playing career (as well as Hank Stram his legendary HoF head coaching career), Kansas City will also be the team that cemented the Andy Reid branch of the Joe Walsh/Mike Holmgren Coaching Tree when the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV, exactly 50 years after Coach Stram and Len Dawson cemented the AFL's legitimacy as a pro football league on par with the "Old NFL" with their winning of Super Bowl IV (after the NY Jets under Coach Weeb Ewbank and QB "Broadway Joe" Namath did the same at Super Bowl III the year before).
Even though it was the AFL that got Brown back into pro football, he dissed the AFL by saying he only took a franchise there to get back into the NFL.
Montana couldn't have taken his number at Notre Dame either, 3 is retired by the Chiefs for Jan Stenerud.
I think you mean Bill Walsh. Joe Walsh is a great lead guitar player for the Eagles, but is not known for his football coaching.
Len Dawson was the ONLY player to ever wear #16 for the Texans/Chiefs. The only other number to have been worn by only one player in team history was Aber Haynes #28. Even with Dawson's blessing I'm not sure if the Chiefs would have allowed Montana to wear it.
They should make a Len Dawson biopic I always thought Dawson only played for the Texans/Chiefs
Len Dawson was nothing but cool class on the field and off. RIP
As of this video publication $2.65 is equivalent to $26.25 accounting for inflation. Chiefs Kingdom will miss you , Lenny.
Still a bargain. You could make the argument that the only person more important to the history of the Chiefs is Lamar Hunt.
He died yesterday and it was my 1st Freshman game no wonder why we took the L.
Paul Brown knocking the AFL is rich considering he later joined them with the Bengals, even if he did so mostly just to stick it to Art Modell
Modell then *moved conferences* during the merger just to put himself in the same division. Hence the Battle of Ohio which survives today.
2:09 to find out more about getting some context, click the card in the upper right corner
Len, you will be sorely missed.
Great tribute!
steelers had both unitas and dawson at one time.
And Jack Kemp
@@bobscott2429 old bobby layne too.
@@stevenbauer4799 also Earl Morrall.
@@bobscott2429 yep.
So, the pre-Super Bowl era Steelers passed on both Unitas AND Dawson?!?!
I mean, yeah, hindsight is always 20-20, but c'mon!!!
What do you expect from the 70+ year soap opera that is Days of Our Steelers?
Before the Yuckaneers...before the Aints...the clown show that was the pre-Noll Steelers.
Well, the Steelers DID have Bobby Layne when they cut Dawson, and he was a Hall of Famer, too.
AND Jack Kemp!
They liked to spike their quarterbacks into the ground.
You don't hear nearly enough about his career and he's a Hall of Famer.
And following the merger, both Pittsburgh and Cleveland -- along with Baltimore (Colts) -- went from the NFC to the AFC to make both conferences have 13 teams.
R.I.P to the great Hall of Famer Leonard Dawson!
The Chiefs got Len Dawson for a Krusty Krab paycheck.
What a great tribute.
Can you look into Otis Taylor? Apparently the Eagles had him stashed away in a hotel room, and the Chiefs found out what kind of convertible he wanted and bought it for him. According to legend, the Chiefs had someone drive the car to the hotel, throw pebbles at the window, and he wound up waking up and coming downstairs. He signed literally on the spot.
The whole "babysitting" scheme the NFL had is worthy of a video of its own. The NFL basically kidnapped the players they wanted to keep away from the AFL.
@@tygrkhat4087 right exactly, would be a coll summary to learn about the five or six most prolific players that happened to.
Otis belongs in the HOF, place his bust right beside Lenny's as a passer-receiver duo belonging in the same conversation as Mahomes-Kelce, Manning-Harrison, and Brady-Gronk.
@@SamnissArandeen Kelly-Reed, Aikman-Irvin; just sayin'.
@@SamnissArandeen Unitas-Berry, Namath-Maynard.
Dawson threw more Touchdown passes than anybody else from 1962-1969
I grew up in the 60s as a young kid. I hated the Chiefs and Lenny Dawson as we were Oakland Raider fans before Seattle got a team. I really came to understand football in 1968 at age 9. Those Raider-Chiefs games were all-out wars. I still remember the Ben Davidson spearing of Lenny Dawson game from November 1. 1970! Big brawl after that hit, Oakland came back to tie the game on a field goal by George Blanda. After the season, the NFL changed its rules regarding personal fouls, separating those called during a play from those called after it. Interesting it was not until 1976 they instituted the "Davidson Rule" the NFL further modified its rules, explicitly calling out a late hit such as Davidson's as illegal
The Raiders invented a lot of penalties.
Okay... 75% of the penalties in the rule book
That’s $26 in 2022, still not a huge sum
Not to take ANYTHING away from Dawson, but let's be honest. He was a stud, in part, because of the team as a whole. The Chiefs were no joke during this era.
Thank you #16
You know Len Dawson was great when Joe Montana changed his number in Kansas City.
Curious where you got some of this information. It's considerably different than anything Lenny himself told me in more than 35 years by his side.
🤣🤣🤣 greatest comment ever
R.I.P Len Dawson
This story gives credence to Len Dawson's nickname "Lenny the Cool".
I had no idea Lenny Dawson passed away 😢
Do a story about Bart Starr please.
It could only happen to the Browns uh maybe the Lions.
Amen.
@0:30 speak for yourself, Rockefeller
I mean, it's a boss move. But I don't think things would be different if Dawson waited to get home before making the call. Then again, I don't know how phones worked back then, he would still probably had to pay something for placing a long distance phone call.
These sound like dare I say GOAT numbers he compiled.
A few years later KC's Len Dawson beat Paul Brown's Bengals. Honestly KC was so much better all Lenny had to do was literally spike the ball every single down.
Loved it whenever he beat the Raiders.
Man I'm sure I'm glad I've never had a coach like that imagine freaking out on somebody and cussing at somebody because of the number 13 wow what a psychopath.
Typical Paul Brown move to charge for a phone call.
There are no cards in the upper right hand corner. Nor any other hands or corners
He One My Dad Favorite Players
That moment paul brown knew he messed up
Wait back up the boat sinks in the movie Titanic 😱 Thanks for the spoiler alert😩
Len Dawson was the seventh son of a seventh son. True story.
As a Raiders fan I didn't like the Chiefs but liked Lenny.
Until Paul Brown started a team out of spite, in Cincinnati
I think Hank Schram talked to Len Dawson long beforehand about joining the Chiefs. Len, on TV, seemed to be cool as a cucumber. So I don’t think it would be out of character for him to pick up the phone and call Hank Stramm or is it Schramm? Paul Brown may not have cared that much. He seemed like a reserved guy to me. I am sure Dawson called collect too. Lol
as bad as this is ; it pales in comparison to the steelers letting unitas go
RIP LENNY.
Dawson completed 60% of his passes when the league completed 50% of their passes.
@ 11:10.....I'd take Len Dawson over Joe Namath any day and twice on Sunday (no pun intended).
WHAT??? The titanic sinks?????