The Packers may have won Super Bowl I…

Will say it till I die… Superbowl I was ‘not’ a rout. The younger Chiefs had the horses to beat the veteran Packers, alas not the experience/moreso perhaps ‘presence’ upon the national stage; the GB mystique much as anything prevailed; execution too, of my Chiefs in the process.

A 21-10 lead till but :51 seconds remained end the 3rd quarter does not suggest domination; only those who look at the 35-10 final score 35-10 sans any context would claim otherwise (well, them and NFL types like Maule et al, and newspaper scribes of the day.)

Game was essentially a 14-10 tossup at halftime, and KC having out-gained GB in yardage; the Chiefs had also missed a field goal and in the process a 10-7 lead over the Packers at one time in the game. Mike Mercer was the KC kicker, and he was the best in the AFL in 1966, a better field goal % and more field goal’s to boot than Gino Cappalletti, latter who (due name recognition, one supposes) won the popularity vote & All Star game nomination instead of Mercer, who wasn’t in that game.

Yes, this is the “woulda, coulda, shoulda, if’s, but’s & mighta beens” can be trotted out by any team, player or fan… a loser’s lament if you will. Still, Chiefs fan that I was and having attended this game, wasn’t convinced that GB had anything on the Chiefs from a talent standpoint, though the scoreboard is as always the final arbiter. I remain convinced however that the Packers were and remain pro football’s greatest ‘team(s)’ ever.

Convoluted logic or just my KC pride kicking in, if they played each other X number of times, Chiefs would have won their fair share, my guess… I’m not alone in that sentiment.

Recall the late Buck Buchanan saying he was ready to play the Packers again – “tomorrow”. Reportedly too, Len Dawson wasn’t convinced of Packer superiority either and in Hank Stram’s book “They’re Playing My Game”, Fred Arbanas among others was quoted (at halftime: “we can beat these guys! They’re nothing like we thought they’d be.”)

Some players like Mike Garrett (“I was in awe of the Packers”) wondered why the Chiefs hadn’t played better after it was done & looked forward to “playing them again” – which of course never happened.

Years later some like Otis Taylor in his book “The Need To Win” felt the Chiefs “quit” after their only turnover of the game, Len Dawson’s interception. Taylor felt Lenny went into denial about how much better GB was, according the book.

On the other hand, Chris Burford (who posts often here on TFTAFL) was quoted as saying “we’d seen the films and we had as much team speed or more than they had in my mind – size wise and everything else. They just had the big reputation.” Chris has also stated on TFTAFL the Chiefs had other plays offensively they did not use (but had practiced) in the game for whatever reason, only the late Hank Stram perhaps knowing the reason.

Of course, Fred Williamson (‘The Hammer’) had something to say, as always, and he has been made out as a scapegoat of sorts by many, including myself; I have never been a fan of mouthy-types on my team or any. Suffice to say, Williamson left no doubt as to how he felt, beforehand (from Taylor’s “The Need To Win” – “I haven’t seen anything in the films that offers much of a threat to me”, and “h*ll, we shouldn’t be happy just to be playing in the same game with them, we should be concerned with beating their sorry a**es”.

Too, before the 1967 Superbowl, Chiefs Coach Hank Stram had said (according to one newspaper report) “we’ll tear the Packers/NFL apart!” This was denied, but, whether it was uttered or not, I can imagine that, in the thrill of the locker room after KC had beaten BUFF 31-7 for the AFL Title, such a statement might’ve been stated, by anyone in fact associated with the Chiefs.

Will say this – never since has a Superbowl had the build-up that the first one did. From players, fans, networks, scribes – even those folks not familiar with the game who were queried for a prediction – it was as one magazine then called it – “the time of the hard sell!” I still have my copies of the KC Star & Times newspapers from that day & the days immediately before & after the game and the reference to deserted streets in KC was a scenario I’m certain was copied in GB and elsewhere across the land that January 15th day in 1967.