It was a painful Christmas weekend for the Chiefs and their fans. Hope was high when the day began and even later, the best outcome seemed highly possible: everything was falling into place—if only Kansas City could pull out a win at home. But a failed field-goal attempt at the end of regulation meant overtime and ultimately, one big play and a relatively short field goal—and the Chiefs were officially out of the playoffs.

Hard to believe it was 40 years ago.

Wait. What? Which game were you watching?

Yes, one day after the Raiders defeated the Chiefs in overtime, for their fifth straight win at Arrowhead*, I found myself masochistically sitting through another heartbreaking Chiefs loss in overtime. Double overtime.

*The last time that had happened at Arrowhead? It hadn’t.

I’ve written before about my joy in reliving past Chiefs glory that I was not living to enjoy in the first place. On Sunday, I almost too eagerly took the chance to experience some of the pain I wasn’t yet born* to appreciate, either: The NFL Network had cobbled together some never-before-rebroadcast archival footage for an hour-long special commemorating “The Longest Game Ever,” Kansas City’s 1971 division playoff against the Miami Dolphins, which was—spoiler alert!—the longest game ever, lasting well into its second overtime before—double spoiler alert—Kansas City succumbed 27-24 on a Garo Yepremian field goal.

*Though, as I indirectly explained to my daughter, the game plays a role in my being born:

[There is] a story I like to repeat, though I most definitely was not there: On December 25, 1971, [your grandmother] was watching the historic Chiefs-Dolphins divisional playoff, which I’m sure you know is still the longest game in NFL history (that’s why it’s historic!). When the game went into a second overtime, she had to choose whether or not to leave to go on a scheduled date with your grandfather. She went. This started a process—one that, I hope, your own mother will be the one to explain to you in several years—that eventually resulted in me.

In fact, when my father came to pick up my mom, it was the first time he had ever met his future in-laws, who were visiting—and at that moment glued to the TV. They would claim, jokingly—though we were never sure how much so—that they couldn’t remember meeting him that day.

Though it is part of my own family’s lore, I had never known all the little details and dramas of that day—an unseasonably 63-degree Christmas Day, which was seen as an ominous sign against a team from south Florida. The players were somewhat bummed to be playing on Christmas, an NFL first, though Len Dawson reminds viewers that many were just happy to be playing for an extra paycheck in an era when football salaries didn’t always make ends meet (Bobby Bell was working full time for General Motors—being an all-Pro linebacker for the Chiefs was merely his second job).

In the end, it would come down to the kickers. Miami’s Garo Yepremian, who looks not unlike Wallace Shawn as Vizzini in The Princess Bride, was “the smallest man in professional football,” and had spent the previous two years selling his own line of neckties. Jan Stenerud, meanwhile, was “not just a kicker, but also an athlete”—no offense, kickers—who revolutionized the position as the first dominant soccer-style kicker,* and is still the only “pure kicker” voted into the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. In fact, this game featured 15 future Hall-of-Famers (12 on the field, both head coaches, and one beloved owner). Statistically, though, the game belonged to the unlikely Ed Podolak, whose 350 all-purpose yards set an NFL playoff record that still stands.

*Have you seen the straight-ahead style kickers used to use? It’s amazing they ever made a field goal from more than 10 yards away.

However, the game would be most remembered for how the foremost kicker in the league turned into the Lin Elliot of his day, if only for one day. Stenerud missed two field goals, including a potential game-winner near the end of regulation, and had another attempt blocked in overtime. Yepremian also missed, but not twice. Eighty-two minutes and 40 seconds after the game began (according to the game clock), the short, bald former tie-maker unmade this tie with a 37-yard field goal, and the favored Chiefs were out. Inconceivable!

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