Posted on 08/24/2022 5:59:06 PM PDT by OneVike
Before I get into the reason for my commentary, I want to state for the record that Len Dawson was a decent God fearing man, a good QB, and a great American. Nothing I write is meant to discredit him nor his teammates. They played as professionals in a game that was manipulated by others behind the scenes to get the result they wanted regardless of how the men who played the game did their job.
Whether it be Justice, politics, or sports, it seem there are always those behind the scenes who try their best to get the result they want regardless of what is right or wrong. I often find myself praying that one day before I day I will see true justice, which should bring true results in elections, and fair outcomes in sports competitions. So many times after the last whistle is blown, the last point is scored, or the last second on the clock is struck, we then learn of something that was done to ensure an ending that just wasn't fair, and yet justice is never truly rendered.
Well, one day before I die I would like to see another Super Bowl were one team gets only water, while the other gets Gatorade. A game played outdoors where the humidity is a staggering 80% or higher. Imagine such a contest where one team is using plain water, while the other is downing electrolyte loaded energy drinks brought in by water boys between plays. Drinking down that important proven energy drink that replenishes a dehydrated system that is used to working at peak capacity?
Too bad such a drink didn't exist for the Minnesota Vikings on that fatal day back on January 11, 1970. Key phrase being, "for the Minnesota Vikings", because it did exist. It just that the magic elixir did not exist for the Vikings that day. It did exist for their opponent however, and they drank it like it was water.
in 1965 a team of scientists at the University of Florida College of Medicine, created a drink to specifically help athletes replace their body fluids lost during physical exertion. Their tests on College Athletes were positive, and soon their football team, the Florida Gators were wining games like never before. The football team even credited their new energy drink they dubbed, "Gatorade" as having contributed to their first ever Orange Bowl win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 1967. After the game, even the apposing Georgia Tech coach, Bobby Dodd, when asked why his team lost to what many considered an inferior Florida team, he responded, "We didn't have Gatorade. That made the difference."
Two years later around the time of the AFL playoffs, Lamar Hunt was approached by a close friend who was involved with the promotiomn of the Universicty of Florida's promotion of their energy drink. He convinced Lamar Hunt to use the Gatorade they created to help them promote it, and when his Chiefs faced the Vikings in the Super Bowl, a new drink was on the sideline for the Chiefs, but not on the sideline for the Vikings.
Just a week earlier the Vikings had defeated the Cleveland Browns for the last pure NFL Championship, in typical Minnesota freezing weather fashion. It was a game the Vikings had won by halftime. By doing so, they culminated a nine year struggle where they climbed out of the shadows of Lombardi's Packers to become the undisputed champions of the NFL. A struggle that was even more sweet for defensive tackle Alan Page, who as a young boy was hired as a laborer in his hometown of Canton to help build the future home of the NFL's Hall of Fame. A place where, today, his bust is on display as a member of the best of the best to ever play the game.
They finally won the title, but they could not bask in the glory too long, because in a week they had to take on the champion of the upstart AFL league, the Kansas City Chiefs. The next day they packed their equipment onto the bus and headed to New Orleans where they would play the last game of the long season. A game to decide which league is the best, before they merge as one. Mind you, the Super Dome was not yet built, so the game was played outdoors where there humidity was 87% on that day. Luckily for the √kings it never got above 65 degree's but if you ever lived down South when the humidity is high, it doesn't matter what the temperature is, it can be miserable.
Just so you understand, I personally understand what the Vikings faced when they got to New Orleans. I grew up in Duluth Minnesota, where Winters can come with wind chills that get down to minus 60 degrees. I remember going home for leave after I received a transfer order to Ft Benning GA. I spent Christmas with my family, and the average tempt during my visit was hovering around o degrees. My reporting date was January 13, 1975, which is just about the exact same time of the year the Vikings would have been in New Orleans to play Kansas a few years earlier. When I boarded the plane at 11:00 am to fly to Columbus GA, it was 14 degrees below in Duluth.
After an hour layover in Minneapolis, I was able to fly straight to Atlanta, where I had a two hour wait to fly to Columbus, where Ft Benning GA is located. I arrived in Columbus some time late afternoon, and the temperature wasn't bad, it was like about 70 degrees. However, the one thing I noticed the moment I walked down that ramp was the himidity. It felt like the humidity was 100%, but I would learn it was about 80%. I thought I could handle some humidity, but this stuff was like pea soup. It was so muggy my clothes seemed to be soaked.
In the first Month I was stationed there, I kept ending up in sick bay from passing out. I had no energy, I could not lift my M-16, let alone carry a 50 lb back pack on a 20 mile force March. I kept passing out, and was almost told I may end up with a medical discharge. I was in the best physical shape of my life, and I tried to tell them I wasn't used to such a mixture of heat and high humidity. Yet they were convinced there was something else wrong with me. Well, eventually my body acclimated, but it took a good Month to do so.
I share this so you can understand what the Viking players would have had to deal with. I can only imagine how the Vikings on that January day felt in that game. Now I don't know how many reading this ever played Football, but with all the equipment on, and in the middle of a football field, it seems a lot hotter, and now add in 87% humidity, and that will make you feel muggy, and sluggish.
OH I know the Chiefs also had to deal with it, but remember, then they had an new fairly untested energy drink, which would have been banned in today's NFL, as an enhancing drug. Even at that, they would have demanded both teams have the chance to use it. Hell, the players Union would have complained even. Gatorade which replaces the electrolytes the body desperately needs in physical competition is now understood so well that every sporting event in the World uses it. Something you cannot get from plain water. So here were the Vikings dragging it, trying to keep up, while the Chiefs were flying around like they were on steroids and speed. Yet all the Vikings had was plain old water, which equales no contest.
Like Joe Namath did against the Colts two years earlier, the Chiefs made history by handing the Vikings and their vaunted Purple People Eaters a devastating defeat. To the shock of the World, the Chiefs would make the Vikings look like a semi-pro team. This drink was still unknown in the professional World of sports, while at the college level it was making news. It would not be until after the Super Bowl, that professional athletes would become interested.
Well, the rest is history. Is it any wonder the Chiefs ran circles around the vaunted Purple People Eaters. Not with Gatorade. Everyone knew the Chiefs were using The fix was in. The Chiefs had to win, because the next year the two leagues merged.
OK, OK, I am still a bit upset 52 some years later. Yet I dare any sport league to try getting away with that today. Today they will fine a team millions and take away future draft picks for cheating. All the Vikings got was ridicule, followed by years and years of incorrect reporting about how much more superior the Chiefs were than them.
Rules in sports has always been, whatever one teams has as an advantage the other gets unless it is a drug, then it is outright banned. Well Gatorade may not have been designated a drug, but when you consider the effects it has on professional athletes, it should have been at the time. Or at least until the league fully understood its benefit to the body. After all, there are power drinks that are banned today in sports, but they are not drugs, they are strong energy drinks. No one ever considers the cheating involved in that game that day, yet to this day there is not a sporting event in the World where Gatorade is not on the sidelines. Go ahead and watch the game if you can find it, listen to the comments off the men in the booth of how energetic the Chiefs are and how tired the Vikings look.
History proves I'm right, and my personal beliefs is Lamar and his Chiefs were needed to win because of the big money involved in the merger. Some claim the papers were signed and the merger would have taken place anyway, well Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs was also head of the merge committee, and knowing how deals are always made, someone must be sacrificed for the good of the bottom line. On that day, at that time, it was the Vikings who had to be sacrificed. For Lamar and his Chiefs, the trophy was the icing on the cake for helping all the owners to get richer with the merger, even if all the owners were not privy to the drug used to help his team win.
Like it or not, the fact remains, the game was rigged rom the outset, because there was enough evidence at the time from College games to know what Gatorade offered a team wanting a huge edge in a big game. Today, the Chiefs should have, at minimum, an asterisk next to their title in the record books. Fifty two years later I wish there was at least one honest sports reporter who would step up and write about the facts behind the day of the Big Steal for the last Big Game played out before the merger took place?
As an added note, I used to be a huge fan of the HBO show, “Inside the NFL”, with Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti. I'll readily admit that I disliked both men, when they played football. Once they retired I liked them, but as players they were the enmy of my team. However, it was more difficult for me to like Len, but not Nick. See, Nick's team the Dolphins beat my Vikings in the "72" Super Bowl, but his team did it fair and square. By the time the Vikings played the Dolphins most teams, including the Vikings and the Dolphins had Gatorade on the sidelines. Today every NFL, NBA, NHL, NBA, MSL, WNBA, NASCAR, and even professional golf players have Gatorade available to them.
Mind you, a similar theft of the Super Bowl took place again in 2009. During the playoffs the fix was in for the Saints to go all the way to make the fans of New Orleans feel batter about the devastation Hurricane Katrina visited on New Orleans. Instead of locking up the mayor who was to blame for most the misery, the NFL, and the sports media conspired to help the Saints go all the way. In their run to their Super Bowl the Saints pretty much ended the careers of Kurt Warner and Bret Favre, while Payton Manning had to go overseas to get a new procedure done on his neck before he could play again.
We know what the Saints did was allowed, because in the 2009 playoffs the referees were ignoring the illegal hits on the QBs. The next year an investigation proved what every fan at home, other than Saint fans, complained about. The defensive coordinator had contracts on the QBs. He was paying defensive players extra money for QB sacks and or knock downs. If they were able to take out one of the three future Hall of Fame QB's the player was promised an even bigger check. The mock trial ended with the Saints head coach and the defensive coordinator both being suspend for a year and fined for the contract scandal. Yet the NFL let them keep the trophy and their still is no asterisk next to the Saints, nor the Chiefs for the Super Bowls they won by cheating.
On that thought, could someone tell me why Armstrong had to surrender his seven trophies for winning the Tour de France Bicycle races? After all, if professional leagues learn a team cheated, but then do not take the tile away, why did Armstrong have to relinquish his when he was finally busted for cheating?
Inquiring minds want to know.
OK find somebody that will take me up on my challenge find a team that will play another team and one team does not get anything but water when does Gatorade easy to prove them wrong try to find somebody willing to take the bet but you know what in 40 years I have yet to find anyone that wants to take me up on about to prove them wrong they just want to say I’m wrong what prove I’m crazy find someone to take me up on my bed
This guy is whacked. Each pro sports league today has specific rules regarding equity so no team can get an advantage over the other team. Home teams have more luxurious locker rooms than the visitors but once they hit the field, its up to the team to choose what amenities to provide. From heated/cooled benches to sports drinks. They want the game decided by the players (except the game officials always haveca way to screw that up).
All of the on field communication ststems are the same. If one teams comms go down, the other team has to shut their system down until they are restored.
I am walking my dogs in the park and talking to my phone to reply
This is why my spelling an words are messed up
I apologize
This whole piece is ludicrous.
Gatorade is highly overrated. And any team by that time that wasn’t concerned about electrolytes for competitive athletes needed to hire new doctors and trainers.
Again, Gatorade’s level of electrolytes just isn’t that all fired great. Overrated and overpriced.
When I was a kid on military bases, before the time in discussion here, there was a water fountain and salt tablet dispenser at every hole on the base golf course. The need for electrolyte replacement was not some closely guarded secret.
Golf? Is that considered a sport? Asking for a friend.
The fabric of space time was wrent when one team so viciously cheated by drinking salt water.
My Great God. In this hour of crisis this is what conservatives dwell on? We are lost.
Who denied the Vikings the Gatorade?
Another question is back in the day players were not allowed to drink water on the sideline. It would give them cramps or some crap like that.
RIP Len Dawson.
One of the all time greats.
Hard time believe you’re using this moment to whine like a butt hurt teenager about….Gatorade???
My comment was about the hope that before writer died, he would see true justice.
As for justice in that era, I’m still pissed the immaculate reception, but was more to my point that the game officials have their own way of screwing games up.
Even if that happened today with instant replay, the league would have backed the call with same camera angles.
You Viqueen fans are a miserable lot. Always something to whine about. It’s funny but I feel sad for you. After seeing decades of excuse after excuse.we finally have it nailed down and the blame is on Gatorade. Got it.
1. The Vikes could have managed their electrolytes too, but Bud Grant was more concerned with making sure his players didn’t tire themselves out by having sex the night before the game (or maybe that was only in later SB losses).
2. The 69 Vikes, like the 68 Colts, were victims of the illusion that the NFL was still light-years ahead of the AFL. At least at the top, the AFL had caught up. Once Lombardi left and the Packers dynasty ended, the NFL was not that great. By contrast, the top teams in the AFL - Chiefs, Raiders and for that one year, Jets, had sharpened each other.
LOL, even us poor Lions fans aren't that miserable.
Yeah. Less than two years after the stolen election, too many people seem to have let it go. But this....
OK, here is the genesis of my theory ands why it has hounded me so long. I’ll set things up to give you some background, then get to the gist of how I came across this idea.
I have been a die hard Viking fan since a friend got me into it back when his Packers were kicking butt. His dad was a former player, and he grew up watching football, and got me interested in it.
As for the competition, I do not completely deny what you said, because if you look at the Vikings season they were blowing away teams all year, Earlier in the year they destroyed Cleveland by a score of 51 to 3. In the last game of the season the Vikings lost to Atlanta 10-3 because Grant rested most his players. Even with a loss the Vikings were guaranteed home filed advantage throughout the playoffs. Which almost cost them the game against the Rams, because the Rams were ready for them, and there Vikings eaked out a 3 point win in the final rally from behind.
I was young, only 13, but I remember thinking we should win, but was convinced by most people I knew who paid attention to expect a close game against the Chiefs. I knew they were good, and like most of the AFL, they were a pass happy team compared to the more traditional Vikings who usually played smash mouth football. After all, Kapp was not known for his arm, in reality he was more like Tim Tebow than Tarkenton. Yet the defense was superb, and most pass happy teams they played were humbled by the Vikings great secondary, and strong Defensive line who was known for getting to the QB for a lot of pressure.
My stepfather wasn’t much into football, so I was invited to watch the game at Arne’s house. (the friend I mentioned above) They had a cool color TV. As I said his father was a big Packer fan since the days he used to butt heads with them. As you know most players keep in touch. He was from Wisconsin and retired in Fondulac, just over the border in Wisconsin from Duluth.
Arne’s father was a former player for the Cardinals. He was with them at Chicago, but not sure if he was when they to St Louis. He retired in like 60 or shortly late I think. Anyway, His take was that the Vikings should win, but like everyone else, he also told me not to expect an easy game. He knew what kind of problems fast quick passing teams could do to a defense, and he was impressed with the Chiefs, but believed the Vikings Defensive secondary was too much for their receivers, and that Kapp could handle anything their defense tossed at him.
As the game went on he was shocked how bad the Vikings looked. He is the one who told me he thought it was a mistake for Bud to give most of his players off the last week of the season, he hated the idea, but understood Coaches liked it since injuries were extremely devastating to a team in the playoffs after a brutal Season. Remember, back the football was brutal. Players didn’t take a game off for many reasons. Some even played with broken limbs.
Anyway, he was shocked at how lethargic the Vikings looked. He even made a remark, “Come on, you guys look like your throwing the game”. I looked at him and he smiled and said I’m just joking kid. I was pretty devastated after the game.
A few years later I was watching the Super Bowl in the stockade while in Germany. Long story short, I went AWOL for a Month. Anyway, I lost my Months ration card for cigarettes to a Pittsburgh Steeler fan over a bet on the Super Bowl between the Vikings and the Steelers.
He was an older guy in his 40s, who got 8 Months for beaten up a guy pretty bad over a bet. He almost killed him, but for the fact the guy lived he was looking at life. Anyway, I had my ration card with me and gave it to him the second the game was over. He told me he lost money on that Viking Kansas game. He is the first one to ever mention the link between the loss and Gatorade.
He said it was a rumor going around that KC players were juiced one some new fangled concoction called Gatorade. He didn’t know much more, but did mention that it had made a bit of a splash, (his words) in the college scene. It was first time I heard of the conspiracy, as he referred to it. I guess a lot of gamblers lost big money on the Vikings. He said he never bet on a game the Chiefs were in after that.
Anyway, that is my story, and how it has bugged me all these years, and why I always find tidbits I add to what I know. Like the Georgia coach who in on record of admitting he believed gatorade is why his team lost to Florida in the “67” Orange Bowl. I read in Sports Illustrated back in the early “90”s about the connection between a Florida Official and Lamar Hunt. Sports Illustrated story readily admitted the Chiefs used Gatorade before any other NFL team knew of or heard of it. Yet afterwards everyone did.
I used to have like 25 years of Sports illustrated magazines in boxes. But when we moved to Idaho my wife persuaded me to leave them behind. I wish I still had them.
Anyway, Gatorade will not make a poor team beat a good team, but it can make the difference between two evenly matched teams, as the Chiefs and the Vikings were. Give water to a team on a Humid day after the team drove from the fridged fields of Minneapolis to New Orleans and expect them to play against a team drinking Gatorade, and yes, it can make a difference.
Plenty of players are on record for chalking up the benefits of Gatorade in a game. As I said, I have yet to meet an athlete who is willing to forgo the benefit of gatorade, or any other modern drink that does the same thing, just to drink water during competition.
I played Tennis in college, and I can tell you for certain there is a difference between water and gatorade.
Well, that is my story, and I am sticking to it.
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