Bows Before the Bruises

The voices coming out of the West were ever so considerate as the champions of pro football's newly merged leagues prepared for their first meeting at next week's Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Quarterback Bart Starr of the N.F.L.'s Green Bay Packers sweetly insisted that "anybody with any football intelligence can see the Chiefs have a real fine team"--and Coach Hank Stram of the A.F.L.'s Kansas City Chiefs saluted the Packers as "the symbol of the best in pro football." My, how polite. But just wait.

Anybody who hangs around Vince Lombardi's Packers for long is bound to get bruised. Basic, bone-bending football is Lombardi's game, and he has made the most of it with four N.F.L. championships in the past six years. Nothing risky, no mistakes. Nothing risky, that is, except where the gamble could mean a payoff of $23,500 per man--like last week against the Dallas Cowboys for the N.F.L. championship and a trip to Los Angeles. Unable to run against a fierce Dallas defense, Quarterback Starr suddenly put wings on the ball. Three times in one touch down drive, confronted with third down and more than 12 yds. to go, he threw for crucial first downs; in all, he hit on 19 out of 28 attempts for 304 yds. and four TDs as the Packers outscored the Cowboys 34-27.

If Vince Lombardi believes his own spies, the Packers may have to step out of character against Kansas City too. "The Chiefs are very much like Dallas," was Scout Wally Cruice's report after watching Kansas City annihilate Buffalo, 31-7, for the A.F.L. title last week. So they are, with one big difference: size. Kansas City's defensive line outweighs Green Bay's by nine lbs. per man; on offense, the gap is 15 lbs. The Chiefs own a Starr of their own in Quarterback Lenny Dawson, who completed 56% of his passes this season, and has played long enough in the N.F.L. (five years) to be able to read the Packers' defense. Thanks to Coach Stram, the Chiefs themselves are about as readable as Sanskrit. On offense, they run out of twelve different formations, all of which start out looking like a standard I. And Quarterback Dawson throws from a "movable pocket," shifting around the backfield behind his blockers.

Talking to the Chiefs last week, Stram reminded them of all the years when everybody hooted that no A.F.L. team belonged on the same field with the titans of the N.F.L.--much less Green Bay. Said Stram: "We are playing this game for every team, every player, every coach and every official in the A.F.L."

The oddsmakers obviously don't have much faith in sermons. They picked Green Bay by 13 points.

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