By Anthony Holden
CBS SportsLine Historian
John Madden never put a muzzle on his players during his 10-year stint as coach of the Raiders.

His crazy band of renegades said whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and because the Raiders were usually so good, Madden didn't care what they said because he knew his guys would back up their trash talk on the field.

Lamar Hunt stands with a trophy he received at a 1970 roast in his honor following his team's Super Bowl victory. (AP)

But in the week leading up to the 1969 AFL Championship Game, Madden had been the Raiders coach for only one year and he wasn't yet comfortable with pre-game hyperbole.

"I am disturbed with the growing reports that we expect an easy game against the Chiefs," Madden said.

Those reports had emanated from a number of Raiders, most notably quarterback Daryle Lamonica, the league MVP who had thrown 34 touchdown passes in the regular season and six more in the Raiders' 56-7 decimation of Houston in the first round of the AFL's new playoff format.

"I know I can beat them, I know I can score on them, on the ground and in the air," said Lamonica, who had just recently been named one of the 10 most conceited athletes by Sports Illustrated. "Just watch us Sunday. We are ready, we're loose, we're confident. All we have to do is go out and execute."

Instead of executing, Lamonica and the Raiders got executed.

The Chiefs, who had lost seven of their previous eight games to Oakland, including both regular-season games in 1969 plus the 1968 Western Division playoff game, overcame their fierce rival and nemesis with a masterful defensive performance before a crowd of 54,544 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Kansas City's 17-7 victory featured four interceptions of Raider quarterbacks Lamonica and George Blanda. Oakland, which had averaged league-highs of 359 yards and 27 points per game, was stymied by Hank Stram's No. 1 ranked defense, which allowed just 225 yards and 12.6 points per game.

In a classic matchup of superior offense vs. superior defense, defense, as usual, won out, and the Chiefs advanced to play NFL champion Minnesota in Super Bowl IV in New Orleans.

The Chiefs, knowing Lamonica was a quarterback who liked to stand in the pocket and fire away, decided to pressure him from the middle, thus disrupting his passing lanes and forcing him to throw on the move. The strategy caught the Raiders off guard and Lamonica, who had been sacked just 11 times all season, was dumped four times for 37 yards in losses.

"We thought that outside pressure didn't affect Daryle very much," Chiefs defensive end Jerry Mays said. "So we concentrated on getting a little bit more of an inside rush and tried to disturb his timing. We noticed a lot of their pass patterns depended on timing, and we figured if we could destroy the timing of their passes, we could destroy their passing game."

The Chiefs very nearly destroyed Lamonica in the process. End Aaron Brown registered three sacks and in the third quarter and Lamonica smashed his hand on Brown's helmet, which caused him to leave the game for about eight minutes with jammed and swollen fingers on his throwing hand.

"The knuckles on two of my fingers were swollen, and I jammed my thumb," explained Lamonica. "I threw some good balls after I got hurt, but to follow through you have to have zing on the ball and I couldn't do it all the time. I had no feel for the ball."

Lamonica completed only 3 of his final 18 passes and finished the day 15 of 39 for 167 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. Blanda threw the other interception.

The day had begun with so much promise for the Raiders, who were still smarting from having lost Super Bowl II to Green Bay, and the 1968 AFL Championship Game to the New York Jets.

Oakland gained 101 yards in the first quarter, including 66 on a 10-play drive that resulted in Charlie Smith's four-yard touchdown run 11:29 into the game. But that would be the extent of the Raiders scoring.

Late in the second quarter Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson, who got off to a horrible start and misfired on seven passes in a row at one point, hit Otis Taylor for 14 yards to convert a third down. Moments later, Frank Pitts got behind Oakland cornerback Nemiah Wilson and hauled in a 41-yard pass, which he carried to the 1. Running back Wendell Hayes then ran it in on the next play, tying the score at 7, 1:53 before halftime.

In the third quarter, the 41-year-old Blanda missed a pair of field goals from 39 and 40 yards, and then while he was playing quarterback in place of Lamonica, he missed another scoring opportunity when he tried to hit receiver Warren Wells in the end zone from the Kansas City 24, only to be intercepted by Emmitt Thomas.

Thomas made a major blunder by trying to return the pick and he was tackled at the 6. And when Robert Holmes lost four yards back to the 2, the Chiefs were facing a desperate third-down situation. Here, Dawson hooked up with Taylor for the biggest play of the game.

The future Hall of Fame quarterback dropped into his end zone intending to throw a short pass to Holmes, but saw that he was covered. Dawson quickly and coolly looked to Taylor and fired in his direction because he had to get rid of the ball. Taylor beat Wilson by a step and made a dazzling catch at the 37.

"I let the ball go and just prayed," said Dawson. "I couldn't hold onto the ball because I was in the end zone. I threw it so that it would go out of bounds if he couldn't get it. It was one of the greatest clutch catches of his career."

Dawson followed with a 23-yard pass to Holmes, and then Taylor drew a 33-yard pass interference penalty on Wilson at the Oakland 7 to set up first-and-goal. On the next snap, Holmes swept into the end zone behind a crushing block by guard Ed Budde and the Chiefs were ahead 14-7.

What followed was slapstick football. Lamonica returned to the game and proceeded to throw three straight interceptions to Jim Kearney at the 18, Jim Marsalis at the 10 and Thomas at the 20. Of course, Lamonica had so many opportunities to throw picks because the Chiefs fumbled three times inside their 30-yard line in the fourth quarter, prompting veteran safety Johnny Robinson -- who left the game in the third quarter with bruised ribs – to scream, "What the hell is going on out there, can't anybody hold onto that ball?"

"I thought I could throw the ball well enough to get us into the end zone, but I just couldn't," said Lamonica.

Lamonica's third interception was returned 62 yards by Thomas to the Raiders 18, which set up Jan Stenerud's clinching 22-yard field goal with 4:48 left to play. The Raiders were given one more chance to rally when Dawson fumbled at his own 13, but Lamonica threw three consecutive incomplete passes into the Chiefs end zone.

"This team has character," said Stram. And his team showed how much character one week later when it went down to New Orleans and beat the Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.

So as the curtain came down on the AFL, it was dead even with the established NFL in Super Bowl victories at two apiece. It was time for the AFL to leave, but it had certainly arrived.

Game Player Profiles

Bobby Bell, Chiefs

Hank Stram, who coached Bobby Bell for his entire 12-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs, maintains today that Bell could have played any position on a football field, and done a very credible job.

"There isn't a job Bell can't do, and do well," said Stram.

But there was one position that Bell played better than any other: Outside linebacker. So after two years of lining up at defensive end for the Chiefs, Bell was switched to outside linebacker and he went on to become one of the greatest ever to play, a fact that is evidenced by his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first pure outside linebacker ever inducted.

Bell was a high school quarterback, and when he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, he played one year of quarterback on the freshman team, and then was switched to defensive end, linebacker and offensive tackle.

Bell finally found a home at defensive end, where he made the varsity and in 1962, he won the Outland Trophy, symbolic of the nation's best lineman.

He was selected by the NFL's Vikings and the AFL's Chiefs in the '62 draft, but Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt chose him in the seventh round because he really didn't think he had a chance of luring Bell to the AFL after the Vikings had picked him. However, Bell surprised everyone by choosing to go to the AFL and play for Hunt's team, which was transferring to Kansas City for the 1963 season.

Bell began his pro career as a defensive end, but Stram moved him to linebacker at the start of the 1965 season and it proved to be a fortuitous decision. Bell -- who played 168 consecutive regular-season games, never missing a game -- became one of the rocks of Stram's powerful defense that also included future Hall of Famers Willie Lanier and Buck Buchanan.

"If I had one position to play of all those I've tried, I'd still pick linebacker," Bell said. "You have to worry about the pass, the run, man-to-man coverage, screens, draws. I love to play defense and to tackle people."

Bell's teammate, defensive tackle Jerry Mays, remembers when Bell joined the team and all the murmuring that was going on over why Bell was on defense.

"There was common talk in camp about what a guy like that was doing playing defense," said Mays. "He could have played tight end, running back or even wide receiver as fast as he was. Plus, he could throw the ball a mile."

But Stram understood the concept of using your best athletes on defense. Bell went on to intercept 26 passes in his career, returning six for touchdowns. He also returned two fumbles and one onside kick for touchdowns. But what Bell did best was tackle, according to Stram.

"He is the best open-field tackler I've ever seen," said Stram.

Raiders quarterback Daryle Lamonica, who often felt the wrath of Bell's brilliance, called Bell "one of the best linebackers to ever put on a uniform."

Lamonica had plenty of time to evaluate Bell as they played at least twice annually in the AFL, but Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr played only once against Bell, that in Super Bowl I. Starr's Packers won that game easily, but the Hall of Fame quarterback was awed by Bell's ability.

"Our experiences against him have been limited," Starr said years after that Super Bowl. "But in those we'd have and from what I've seen in movies and on television, he is just one of the truly fine players at his position. He might be the fastest, quickest backer of them all."

Buchanan said of his teammate: "He was kind of funny looking. He had this strange build with this cinched-up waist, and hell, he couldn't have weighed more than 210 pounds. But Bobby Lee Bell is the greatest athlete who ever was."

Willie Lanier, Chiefs

Sometimes, the numbers just don't tell the story.

In the spring of 1967, prior to the first combined draft between AFL and NFL teams, the Houston Oilers' scouting department took one look at Willie Lanier's measurements and concluded that the Morgan State linebacker had no future in pro football.

Lanier stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 245 pounds -- too small in the Oilers' opinion to play middle linebacker. He was also slow, having run the 40-yard dash in 5.2 seconds. On the bottom line of the Oilers scouting report was the comment -- which was underlined -- "Size-speed reject."

Oops.

The Oilers passed on Lanier, but Kansas City chose him in the second round (No. 50 overall) and four games into his rookie season, Lanier became the Chiefs starting middle linebacker. He remained there until he retired in 1977. His greatness was confirmed nine years later when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I think my time was slower than 5.2," Lanier recalled. "It might have been 5.3 or 5.4 which is really slow. But the situation was not one in which I was trying to show someone I could play."

Meaning you can measure a man's height, weight and speed, but not his heart. Once he stepped onto the football field, Lanier could play the game like few ever have. He made up for his supposed lack of size with toughness and desire, and what he lacked in speed he overcame through intelligence. By reading plays and using superior technique, Lanier was able to get to the ball or fill a hole just as well and usually better than bigger, faster linebackers.

"I react instinctively to initial stimuli," Lanier once said. "I have made plays when I didn't even know who was supposed to block me."

Lanier said one of his keys to success was to vary the way he attacked plays or took on blockers. "I try to never do the same thing the same way," he said. "I might hit the guard one time and another time I might fake him. A third time I might go around him."

Although he had a standout college career at Morgan State -- he was a two-time Small College All-American -- he was not recruited and had to personally call the coach for a chance to play. Nevertheless, he figured he didn't have much of a chance to play pro ball.

"I had no illusions," Lanier said. "The percentages are against you. You look at the number of players on the collegiate level, you look at the number who are drafted and the number who actually make the team, then you look at the number who are successful. It's very small. I wasn't looking at it as my future occupation. That's what spurred me to finish college on time. I graduated in four years."

In Lanier's third pro season, the Chiefs finished second in the AFL's Western Division and played the Eastern Division champion New York Jets in a wild-card playoff game at Shea Stadium. Lanier said, "That game could be called the turning point in my career and a turning point in the history of the Chiefs."

Early in the fourth quarter Kansas City was protecting a 6-3 lead, the Jets had the ball first-and-goal at the Chiefs 1. Joe Namath sent Matt Snell plunging into the line on first down and then Bill Mathis on second down, but both times, Lanier stuffed the running backs with vicious hits.

"He was crying and screaming," cornerback Emmitt Thomas said in describing Lanier's crazed state. "He was hysterical. He went right down the line begging for us to stop them."

Said Buchanan: "We were aroused. We knew they weren't going to make it. Well all looked around at each other and said that this could be our whole season right on the 1-yard-line."

On third down Namath thought better of trying to run at Lanier again, so he went to the air and threw an incomplete pass. The Jets opted against gambling on fourth down and settled for a Jim Turner tying field goal. The Chiefs ultimately won the game with a touchdown later in the fourth quarter, and that sent them to Oakland the following week for the AFL Championship Game.

With Lanier leading the way, the Kansas City defense stymied the Raiders and the Chiefs won, 17-7. One week later they were Super Bowl champions thanks to a 23-7 victory over Minnesota. In 12 quarters of playoff football, the Kansas City defense had allowed just two touchdowns and 20 points, and Lanier was in the middle of all the mayhem.

Lanier was All-AFL or All-AFC every year between 1968-75, except 1969. He played in two AFL all-star games and six Pro Bowls. He made 27 interceptions and recovered 15 fumbles.

Miami fullback Larry Csonka, like Lanier a Hall of Famer, once said of linebacker: "It's bad enough playing against a grizzly, but when he's a smart grizzly, you've got a problem."