Not to be outdone by the Oscars, it's still awards season in the NFL The NFL 101 Awards Banquet is the nation's oldest awards event dedicated exclusively to professional football. It's also the least known. The Kansas City Chiefs have long had some of the most passionate fans in all of the NFL. Leave it to them to come up with something like this. The Kansas City Committee of 101 was founded by Jack Wheeler. Membership was limited to 101 and it cost $1,000 to join. The group began presenting it's annual awards in 1969. Chiefs fans were a jolly bunch that year as that was the year that their team won Super Bowl IV. For that one year they awarded NFL and AFL players. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, they have awarded the top players and coaches of the NFC and AFC. All proceeds from the annual event benefits the Kansas City Chiefs Charities. The "Committee of 101" is now a national media committee of 101 sportswriters and sportscasters, who cover the NFL, and are asked to vote on the top offensive player, defensive player, and coach of the NFC and AFC. The committee reads like a "Who's Who" of those people that cover the NFL. It's a fine group. I should be a part of it.
Reading the early recipients of the NFL/NFC defensive player of the award brought me some happy tears. They brought back memories of some of the best days of Minnesota Vikings football. Vikings defensive end Carl Eller won the "101's" first NFL defensive player of the award in 1969. Defensive tackle Alan Page won the award three of the next five years. Great players. Great times. In 2007, the NFL 101 Awards created the Lamar Hunt Award for Professional Football. Named for the Kansas City Chiefs original owner and the founder of the AFL, the award is now presented annually to an individual or group that has played a role in helping the NFL become the preeminent pro sports league in the nation. The first recipient of the Lamar Hunt Award for Professional Football in 2008 was "The Foolish Club." This was appropriate since Hunt was the man behind the club. "The Foolish Club" was the name placed on the very rich guys that started the American Football League. They were considered foolish in 1959 but soon became some of the most significant men in the history of the National Football League. Tony Dungy (2009), "Monday Night Football" (2010), NFL Films (2011), Roger Staubach (2012), and Don Shula (2013) have won the Lamar Hunt Award since Hunt's group won the first one.
The 2014 recipient is another Kansas City legend. Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson will be given the Lamar Hunt Award for Professional Football at the 44th Annual NFL 101 Awards dinner this Saturday night in Kansas City. Dawson was the quarterback of the Chiefs team that defeated the Vikings in Super Bowl IV. He's one of several great, Hall of Fame quarterbacks from the 1950s and 1960s that had a stuttering start to their NFL careers. Despite being the 5th pick of the 1957 draft, Dawson floundered with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns before finding a home with the Chiefs. Bobby Layne, Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas, and Bart Starr all had surprisingly slow starts in professional football before finding their groove. After his playing career, Dawson became a nationally known sportscaster. He was host of the groundbreaking HBO program "Inside the NFL" from 1978-2001. He was a game analyst for NBC for several years. He served as sports director at KMBC-TV, starting in his playing days in 1966 and continuing on until 2011. He's been an analyst for Chiefs radio broadcasts since 1985. Len Dawson was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2012, he was awarded the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Award for Radio-Television, joining Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford as the only individuals in the Hall of Fame as both players and broadcasters. Dawson has spent nearly his entire life in, around, and promoting professional football. Congratulations Len Dawson!
Here are the rest of the 101 Awards honorees:
AFC Offensive Player of the Year-Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
NFC Offensive Player of the Year-LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles
AFC Defensive Player of the Year-Robert Mathis, Indianapolis Colts
NFC Defensive Player of the Year-Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers
AFC Coach of the Year-Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
NFC Coach of the Year-Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers
I'll go out on a limb and predict that Andy Reid will be nicely received.
Congratulation to all of the 101 Award winners and to the great fans of the Kansas City Chiefs.
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