The Chiefs were back at it, just four days after the Raiders loss, for a Thanksgiving Day game against the Denver Broncos. It was the third straight year they had hosted a Thanksgiving Day game; Lamar Hunt had hoped to turn it into a tradition in Kansas City, just as it had become in Detroit and Dallas.
On this day, the game was played in temperatures in the low 40s, with a sharp fifteen-mile-per-hour wind. Thousands of miniature white footballs were handed out as a promotional souvenir, and before the game started, hundreds of those same balls rained down on the stands, thrown by members of the Huddle Club at fans in other sections of the west stands. Eventually, Officer Jackson restored order.
Dawson led two scoring drives to start the game. Then, with a 10–3 lead, he found Arbanas on a forty-four-yard pass play deep into Denver territory. But after releasing the ball, Dawson was hit by two Denver defenders. At the moment of contact, he felt and heard a pop in the very same spot on his left knee that he’d hurt in the Boston game. His first thought was, “This is it . . . . I figured the season was over for sure now, and that I’d need the operation because I couldn’t even step down on my leg.”
When Dawson eventually limped gingerly to the sidelines, a murmur of concern ran through the Chiefs bench and the Municipal Stadium crowd.
On the field, Livingston had come in, but many in the stands were still focused on the sidelines, where Dawson eventually started walking up and down the bench so his leg wouldn’t stiffen. He went to Stram and offered to go back in, but the coach wasn’t taking any further chances; Livingston would play the rest of the game.
Livingston had concluded Dawson’s drive with a handoff to Warren McVea, carrying for his second touchdown. Those were the last points that the Chiefs offense would score on the day. It remained a frustrating day for Denver as well. The Broncos moved the ball, but their kicker Howfield (originally signed by the Chiefs, then cut in the 1968 preseason) made only one of his five field goal attempts.
In the fourth quarter, Emmitt Thomas picked off a Steve Tensi pass and returned it for a touchdown, and a 24–3 Chiefs lead. But then a Livingston interception and a lost fumble allowed Denver back in it, and the Broncos cut the lead to 24–17 with a touchdown in the final minute.
As the Chiefs and the crowd poised for the onside kick from Denver’s Howfield, Stram sent out his “hands” team. Bobby Bell grabbed the skittering grounder at the Chiefs 47, but instead of falling on it, he darted forward and down the sideline, past the stunned Broncos and on to a fifty-three-yard touchdown return to finish the game.
“Someone was in front of me,” Bell said, “but I don’t know who it was. I didn’t check his name as I went by.”
Instead of a tight 24–17 final, the game finished 31–17. Denver coach John Ralston, whom Stram liked to call “Peaches,” was incensed. As the two men met at the center of the field, Ralston upbraided Stram for running up the score.
“You know what else?” Ralston added. “You can take that little goddamn English kicker and shove him up your ass!”
Stram smiled and waved back, and headed to the locker room. The Chiefs stood at 10-2, with everyone on the team getting four days off before returning to practice the following Tuesday.
When Dawson spoke to Stram the next morning, his knee was still stiff. It did not improve significantly in the coming days, but neither did it swell as it had in September. After another round of doctors’ appointments, Dawson was back to alternating whirlpool treatments with ice packs. He hoped that his season wasn’t over just yet.
With the extra rest following the Thanksgiving game, and the prospect of the Raiders showdown a week ahead, the Chiefs had one more piece of business—a home game against the Buffalo Bills, still on the periphery of the playoff race in the AFL East, despite their 4-8 record. Against Buffalo, Dawson’s participation was limited to holding for Stenerud’s kicks. Stram wanted to give him more time to heal his knee, and started Livingston at quarterback.
Before the game, the Chiefs introduced their specialty squad regulars: Jan Stenerud, Ceaser Belser, Bob Stein, Willie Mitchell, Goldie Sellers, Remi Prudhomme, Gene Trosch, George Daney, Jerrel Wilson, Curtis McClinton, and Ed Podolak, who earned a hearty round of applause despite fumbling twice in the loss a fortnight earlier to the Raiders.
Podolak fumbled another punt (“He’s just tryin’ too hard,” explained E.J. Holub), and Robert Holmes lost the ball twice, after which the Chiefs found themselves locked in a struggle, leading by just 16–13 heading to the fourth quarter. Livingston had a fair day (thirteen of twenty-three for 142 yards), but after Robert Holmes’s first-quarter touchdown, he couldn’t get the Chiefs into the end zone. Stram, adamant about resting Dawson’s knee, considered going with Tom Flores (facing his old team) but instead stuck with Livingston.
Bell’s touchdown return from an onside kickoff iced the game, and earned congratulations from Goldie Sellers (20), Mo Moorman (76), and assistant coach Tom Bettis (shaking hands).
Thomas’s forty-five-yard interception return put the Chiefs up 24–3. Dawson’s latest injury once again cast his future in doubt.
