Len Dawson, American football player and sportscaster
Leonard Ray Dawson (born June 20, 1935) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Kansas City Chiefs franchise. Dawson began his professional career in 1957 with the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL and also played for the Cleveland Browns. He left the NFL in 1962 to sign with the AFL's Chiefs (then known as the Dallas Texans), where he spent the last 14 seasons of his career, and rejoined the NFL after the AFL–NFL merger.
Dawson led the Texans/Chiefs to three American Football League Championships (1962, 1966, 1969), and the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl IV, for which he won the game's MVP award. Dawson retired from professional football after the 1975 season and later served as the sports director at KMBC-TV in Kansas City and color analyst for the Chiefs Radio Network.
Dawson owned the Chiefs' single-season passing touchdown record, which he set in 1964 with 30 touchdowns in only 14 games, a record that stood until 2018, when Patrick Mahomes broke it in 10 games. He still owns the Chiefs career passing yards, touchdowns, and wins records despite last playing in 1975, the NFL expanding to 16 game seasons, and the evolution into the NFL being a pass-dominated league. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.