By Sam McDowell
Kansas Metropolis Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs are scheduled to land in New Orleans on Sunday, seven days shy of Tremendous Bowl LIX, and that sentence alone provokes some symmetry — they landed in the identical metropolis 55 years in the past forward of their first Tremendous Bowl title.
It was historical past then.
It’s historical past at stake now.
However the symmetry between the 2? This 12 months’s Chiefs didn’t want a visit to New Orleans to search out that. They offered it per week earlier.
Within the second quarter of their win in final weekend’s AFC championship recreation in opposition to the Buffalo Payments, quarterback Patrick Mahomes belted out a selected play-call for the primary time in his life: 65 Toss Energy Lure.
A primary for this Chiefs group.
However essentially the most particular of requires a previous one.
It’s essentially the most well-known play in franchise historical past, at the least till “Jet Chip Wasp” got here alongside in Tremendous Bowl LIV in February 2020, and even that is still up for debate. The unique boss — 65 Toss Energy Lure — helped the Chiefs stun the Minnesota Vikings to win Tremendous Bowl IV, all the way in which again on Jan. 11, 1970.
“A tribute to the previous guys,” coach Andy Reid mentioned.
Reid revealed Thursday that the Chiefs had run the play after Kansas Metropolis Star colleague Vahe Gregorian requested about Reid’s expertise in watching Tremendous Bowl IV. Reporter Matt Derrick adopted up by asking if Reid had ever known as the Chiefs group’s most famous play.
Final week, truly, Reid replied.
Wait, what?
Missed it? All of us did, apparently.
So made a name was positioned to see if a type of, uh, previous guys, as Reid lovingly known as them, occurred to catch it.
Why not strive the person who scored? That might be Mike Garrett, 80, a former Chiefs working again who nonetheless makes his dwelling in Kansas Metropolis.
He nonetheless watches nearly each Chiefs recreation. His children typically attend them.
“Nicely, I’ve heard of that play,” Garrett quipped, “however I didn’t know [Reid] ran it final week.”
Intrigued, Garrett then requested, “How did it go?”
The reincarnated model differed from the unique a bit, so there’s an excuse for not recognizing it at first look — even when Reid was insistent the play-call within the huddle could be similar to at least one barked out by head coach Hank Stram to receiver Gloster Richardson way back.
Working again Isiah Pacheco took a direct snap Sunday, skipping the handoff from Len Dawson in Stram’s play, however its basis remained the identical: A guard from the precise facet pulled left … and on this case, fairly fittingly, it was Trey Smith.
No. 65.
One downside, although. The Payments didn’t chew with over-aggression, as Stram precisely predicted the Vikings would again in Tremendous Bowl IV. So whereas Pacheco did combat for a few yards, he nonetheless fell a yard shy of the objective line.
“Ah, nicely,” Garrett mentioned after listening to the recap, “I feel they’re so good that they might not want it.”
Fun adopted.
However then got here one other emotion, and it encapsulates the that means of 1 play — as a result of that one play signified far more.
“It simply brings some tears to my eyes,” Garrett mentioned, “as a result of each time I hear that play, I consider all the fellows I performed with. And we ran a play that simply crystallized our complete group. It was great.”
In Tremendous Bowl IV, Stram pulled apart Richardson and, forward of a third-and-goal play from the 5, instructed him, “Gloster, inform ‘em 65 Toss Energy Lure. It would pop extensive open.”
It did.
However the gamers on the sphere? They didn’t imagine it might.
The Chiefs, practically two-touchdown underdogs that day, led 9-0, however Garrett mentioned the Chiefs hadn’t practiced 65 Toss Energy Lure in practically a month. So when Richardson relayed it, Garrett’s first thought wasn’t to foretell a landing.
“I simply don’t need the linebacker to step up and crush me,” Garrett recalled.
Chiefs proper guard Mo Moorman pulled left and prevented successful, trapping an All-Professional defensive deal with. It labored as deliberate, in different phrases, preying on the aggression of the Vikings’ line of defense.
That’s the idea.
The rebirth idea was a tribute. They’d’ve preferred it to be efficient, after all.
“Wasn’t nearly as good because the one they ran,” Reid mentioned of the Chiefs’ encore Sunday.
Reid will pull a play from nearly anyplace, even a 1948 Rose Bowl. Right here, for all of the size he traveled in time, he didn’t want to depart the constructing for inspiration.
It simply took him 11 years to strive it.
However there are reminders littered in every single place across the Chiefs franchise, together with an inner media-production group named after that play. There’s even a room bearing the play’s title contained in the Chiefs’ observe facility.
It’s a part of the panorama of the Chiefs as a result of proprietor Clark Hunt ensures it will likely be — and since the historical past of the sport itself is so essential to Reid that he shares tales of it together with his quarterback.
“I feel what’s cool about this group is that we at all times return and take a look at the historical past of it,” Mahomes mentioned. “You take a look at Hank Stram and Len Dawson and all of the Corridor of Famers …
“I feel that’s the cool factor in regards to the NFL. You possibly can look again at these particular moments in organizations and actually what defines organizations. That was an enormous second for this group.”
It’s a reminder of the previous. And it’s revealing in regards to the alternative forward.
For practically a half-century, 65 Toss Energy Lure was not solely the very best reminiscence the group had, however one with out a lot in the way in which of friends.
Akin to, say, what the Chiefs are attempting to perform subsequent week.