Route of the Super Chiefs

The half-time show was under way at the Super Bowl, and the high-stepping Southern University band was presenting a thunderous reprise of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. Then, as the announcer intoned "1,300 Englishmen died here," an irate football fan was heard to jeer, "Yeah, and one Greek!"

Jimmy ("the Greek") Snyder is still alive--but not very well--in Las Vegas. In the last two Super Bowls, the king of the odds makers has been wrong by a grand total of 55 points. Last year he rated the American Football League's upstart New York Jets 17-point underdogs against the National Football League's vaunted Baltimore Colts. Score: Jets 16, Colts 7. This year Snyder rated the N.F.L. Minnesota Vikings 13 points better than the A.F.L.'s Kansas City Chiefs. The Greek's calculations included six points for the Vikings' offense, three for their defense, four for their coach and the fact that the game was in New Orleans, an N.F.L. city. Wrong again. Kansas City Coach Hank Stram (see box) had clearly done a better job of preparing his players for the big game than Minnesota's Bud Grant. The Chiefs outran, outpassed, outhustled and outthought the Vikings to gain a richly deserved 23-7 victory.

Baffling Defense. As the players get bigger and the game becomes ever more complex, it should have been no surprise that the biggest and most complex team of all would eventually win the Super Bowl. The Chiefs' defensive front four, led by 270-lb. Aaron Brown, is the heaviest in football; their line backers are a muscular trio of marauders. Along with all that muscle goes Coach Stram's baffling, shifting "triple stack" defense. "With our wide variety of alignments," says Coach Stram, "we create a recognition problem for the offense. Any time we can make a team hesitate, we're on the right track."

Unable to read the Chiefs' revolving defense, Quarterback Joe Kapp repeatedly called automatics, which served only to pull his own line offside. The Vikings, who had averaged 27 points per game in their own league, did not cross the Chiefs' 40 until the third quarter. Their running attack netted only 67 yds.; Kapp's passes were hardly more effective--no long, score-producing bombs and two disastrous interceptions. Although the Chiefs' line backers blitzed only once, Kapp was dumped for losses three times. The final indignity came in the fourth quarter when the rugged quarterback was bounced on his shoulder and out of the game by Aaron Brown.

Broken Tackles. Meanwhile, Kansas City's Quarterback Lenny Dawson called a precise game, making full use of the 75 "sets" and 300-plus plays provided by Coach Stram. The Chiefs' big offensive linemen double-teamed the Vikings' All-Pro Ends Carl Eller and Jim Marshall, which kept them from deflecting Dawson's passes. In the backfield Dawson moved his pocket around to confuse the Viking tackles and began working short passes in front of the cornerbacks. He mingled his throws with quick-hitting thrusts by his running backs, and even caught the Vikings napping with three dusty end-around dashes for 37 yds. by Frank Pitts. Jan Stenerud kicked three field goals in the first half, and Mike Garrett added a 5-yd. touchdown burst.

In the third period Dawson lofted a short pass to Otis Taylor, and the big receiver broke two tackles as he raced 46 yds. into the end zone. The Chiefs' reward: $15,000 per man. Said Stram: "I thought at the start of the season that we had our best team ever. Now we've proved it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.