VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAY WISHES TO MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE KANSAS CITY CHIEF, OTIS TAYLOR
Today is my uncle's birthday, also the fiance of one of my nephews. I wished both of them a very happy birthday. Now I'm going to do the same for my all-time favorite Kansas City Chiefs player, the one & only Otis Taylor. Number 89 was truly a special player. At 6' 3" 215, he was the forerunner of the big, fast, physical wide receiver. He ran away from defensive backs, he could run over linebackers, Taylor made one-handed catches, he could block defenders flat on their ass & Otis Taylor made big plays in big games, he was truly a playmaker.
One more thing Taylor did, he was an intimidator. Opponents clearly were in fear of his physical skills, but it was what he did in a 1970 game at old Municipal Stadium in the 4th quarter of a game with the hated Oakland Raiders. The Chiefs were trying to burn the remaining clock leading 17-14. On thrid & long, Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson executed a perfect naked bootleg completely fooling the Raider defense. He gained 20-some yards & a first down before being tripped up. After the whistle & as Dawson laid flat on the ground, Oakland defensive end Ben Davidson speared Dawson with his helmet. Otis Taylor sprinted across the field & pulled the 6' 8" 275-pound Davidson off his quarterback & began beating the crap out of Davidson, Taylor had snapped. This started the biggest brawl I ever saw in a pro football game, both benches emptied & we had about 80 players throwing punches. It wasn't like most sports fights where most of the participants grab a hold of an opposing player so they won't fight. There were actually 80 guys throwing punches. It took about 15 minutes to restore order. Taylor was assailed by several Oakland players but he kept punching, knocking Raiders on their asses. Time to sort out the penalties, Davidson was nailed with a personal foul for spearing Dawson. Then Taylor should have been penalized for starting the fight after the whistle had blown. Chiefs should have had possession at the spot of the foul, the personal foul penalties should have been off-setting. The referee declared Taylor's foul to be "continuous action," a penalty no one had ever heard of before. This was before the day of the officials being wired for sound, so he just moved the ball back to the original line of scrimmage, declared off-setting penalties & the Chiefs gained two yards & punted. The Raiders moved the ball about 25 yards in the last minute of the game & George Blanda kicked a game-tying 49-yard field goal as time expired. Taylor's actions cost his team a win, but if there were any remaining doubters as to his intensity & grit, smacking Ben Davidson around put them to rest.
I can recall a one-handed touchdown catch against the Washington Redskins in 1971 that won the game. The reason he caught it with one hand? Washington cornerback Pat Fisher had his other arm pinned to his side as he hit Taylor before the ball even got there. Anybody old enough to remember the 94-yard play he made after catching a deep pass & taking it 79-yards, his hamstring gave up, but always looking to make a play, Taylor stopped, refused to go down & waited for running back Robert Holmes who was trailing the play to get close enough to catch a lateral from Taylor. Holmes ran the final 15-yards for the score. Taylor was one of the first players to spike the ball, he also liked to high-step it into the endzone, a novelty at the time.
Otis Taylor made a lot of big plays while playing for the Chiefs, he was always Len Dawson's go-to receiver. A 6-yard hitch pattern in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl IV Taylor turned into a 46-yard touchdown as he broke two tackles streaking down the sideline. One of the tackles he broke, literally broke the collarbone of Vikings cornerback Ersal McBee. The other tackle Taylor avoided was by Hall of Fame safety Paul Krause. The play iced the game for Kansas City.
Otis has been in poor health for a long time. I remember I was on the field(thanks Chuck) for a home game versus the Detroit Lions in 1999. It was also a reunion of the 1969 Chiefs, celebrating their win in Super Bowl IV. At half I moved closer to the Chiefs' bench & spotted Taylor in a wheelchair. It broke my heart to see him confined to that chair. When it came time to introduce the wide receivers from that team, Taylor said to Frank Pitts & Gloster Richardson, "get me up & get me out there, they never carted me off the field then & I'm not going to start now." Pitts & Richardson flanked #89 & walked him out to midfield. Other Chiefs greats were wheeled out there that day, but not Otis Taylor. He was one tough S.O.B. He still is, he's been dying for more than a decade but he's still here at age 68.
Happy Birthday Otis Taylor, I have even more respect for you now than I did as a teenager following your every move at the old stadium. You should have been inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame long ago, players with lesser stats made it but somehow you've been ignored, maybe Ben Davidson had a vote.
One more thing Taylor did, he was an intimidator. Opponents clearly were in fear of his physical skills, but it was what he did in a 1970 game at old Municipal Stadium in the 4th quarter of a game with the hated Oakland Raiders. The Chiefs were trying to burn the remaining clock leading 17-14. On thrid & long, Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson executed a perfect naked bootleg completely fooling the Raider defense. He gained 20-some yards & a first down before being tripped up. After the whistle & as Dawson laid flat on the ground, Oakland defensive end Ben Davidson speared Dawson with his helmet. Otis Taylor sprinted across the field & pulled the 6' 8" 275-pound Davidson off his quarterback & began beating the crap out of Davidson, Taylor had snapped. This started the biggest brawl I ever saw in a pro football game, both benches emptied & we had about 80 players throwing punches. It wasn't like most sports fights where most of the participants grab a hold of an opposing player so they won't fight. There were actually 80 guys throwing punches. It took about 15 minutes to restore order. Taylor was assailed by several Oakland players but he kept punching, knocking Raiders on their asses. Time to sort out the penalties, Davidson was nailed with a personal foul for spearing Dawson. Then Taylor should have been penalized for starting the fight after the whistle had blown. Chiefs should have had possession at the spot of the foul, the personal foul penalties should have been off-setting. The referee declared Taylor's foul to be "continuous action," a penalty no one had ever heard of before. This was before the day of the officials being wired for sound, so he just moved the ball back to the original line of scrimmage, declared off-setting penalties & the Chiefs gained two yards & punted. The Raiders moved the ball about 25 yards in the last minute of the game & George Blanda kicked a game-tying 49-yard field goal as time expired. Taylor's actions cost his team a win, but if there were any remaining doubters as to his intensity & grit, smacking Ben Davidson around put them to rest.
I can recall a one-handed touchdown catch against the Washington Redskins in 1971 that won the game. The reason he caught it with one hand? Washington cornerback Pat Fisher had his other arm pinned to his side as he hit Taylor before the ball even got there. Anybody old enough to remember the 94-yard play he made after catching a deep pass & taking it 79-yards, his hamstring gave up, but always looking to make a play, Taylor stopped, refused to go down & waited for running back Robert Holmes who was trailing the play to get close enough to catch a lateral from Taylor. Holmes ran the final 15-yards for the score. Taylor was one of the first players to spike the ball, he also liked to high-step it into the endzone, a novelty at the time.
Otis Taylor made a lot of big plays while playing for the Chiefs, he was always Len Dawson's go-to receiver. A 6-yard hitch pattern in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl IV Taylor turned into a 46-yard touchdown as he broke two tackles streaking down the sideline. One of the tackles he broke, literally broke the collarbone of Vikings cornerback Ersal McBee. The other tackle Taylor avoided was by Hall of Fame safety Paul Krause. The play iced the game for Kansas City.
Otis has been in poor health for a long time. I remember I was on the field(thanks Chuck) for a home game versus the Detroit Lions in 1999. It was also a reunion of the 1969 Chiefs, celebrating their win in Super Bowl IV. At half I moved closer to the Chiefs' bench & spotted Taylor in a wheelchair. It broke my heart to see him confined to that chair. When it came time to introduce the wide receivers from that team, Taylor said to Frank Pitts & Gloster Richardson, "get me up & get me out there, they never carted me off the field then & I'm not going to start now." Pitts & Richardson flanked #89 & walked him out to midfield. Other Chiefs greats were wheeled out there that day, but not Otis Taylor. He was one tough S.O.B. He still is, he's been dying for more than a decade but he's still here at age 68.
Happy Birthday Otis Taylor, I have even more respect for you now than I did as a teenager following your every move at the old stadium. You should have been inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame long ago, players with lesser stats made it but somehow you've been ignored, maybe Ben Davidson had a vote.
ABSOLUTELY..HALL OF FAME WAY, WAY OVERDUE!! HE "WAS" OUR PLAY MAKER AND YOU ALWAYS JUST KNEW HE WAS GOING TO DO SOMETHING SPECTACULAR. HE WAS THE REASON BACK THEN YOU NEVER, NEVER, TURNED OFF A CHIEFS GAME UNTIL THE NETWORK WENT "BLACK"! MAYBE TIME FOR A "HOF" PETITION FOR THIS OUTSTANDING NFL WIDE RECEIVER!!
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