It was the Wednesday before the Super Bowl, only this one was 35 years ago.

Len Dawson remembers it like it happened yesterday.

But then, that tends to happen when your world gets turned upside down by a blind-side shot that calls into question your character and standing as one of the starting quarterbacks in the championship game. It’s not easily forgotten when your kids don’t want to go to school because their classmates are asking questions about their father.

“There’s not much about that week I’ve forgotten,” said Dawson.

The shot was not delivered by any defender of the Chiefs opponent that year in Super Bowl IV, vs the Minnesota Vikings. No, it came from the media, proving that things really haven’t changed that much over the years.

On the Tuesday evening before the Super Bowl, NBC-TV’s national newscast – then called the Huntley-Brinkley Report – carried as its lead news item for the day that Dawson was one of several professional football players who were going to be called to testify before a grand jury in Detroit that was involved in a gambling investigation.

Of course, there was no name attached with providing this information, just the proverbial “sources.” Dawson was named along with others like Joe Namath, Karl Sweetan, Pete Lammons and Bill Munson, all then current players in the NFL and AFL. Also named was Nebraska football coach, Bob Devaney. The story reported that subpoenas would be served on these six within 10 days.

Len Dawson is still waiting for that subpoena.

“Never heard from them,” Dawson said of the authorities in Detroit.

No word?

“Not a thing,” he said.

Ever?

“Not a peep at any time.”

What about an apology?

“No.”

What about NBC, any apology from them?

“No, and I even went to work for them after I retired,” he said.

In the world of athletics, the greatest stain against a player, coach or team is the mere hint of gambling. Whether Pete Rose in the world of baseball, Connie Hawkins in the world of pro basketball, a host of players in college basketball dating back to the 1950s and football guys like Alex Karras and Paul Hornung, gambling has ruined lives, careers and reputations.

That’s what Dawson was faced with in January 1970. The germ of this story was a man named Donald Dawson. Although he was not related to Len, the quarterback’s phone number was in Donald Dawson’s phone directory when Detroit police arrested him. Donald Dawson had over $400,000 in checks and cashier’s checks in his possession at the time. Plus, there were the phone numbers of Dawson and other players.

Len Dawson had met Donald Dawson 10 years earlier when he was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. During the 1969 season, Len received a pair of phone calls from Donald Dawson, one after he suffered a knee injury that knocked him out for six games, and again after Len’s father passed away.

“He called to express his sympathy, just like dozens of other people did at the same time,” Len Dawson said. “I didn’t think anything of it.”

On that Tuesday night before Super Bowl IV, he was forced to think about it. The Chiefs were headquartered in the Fountainebleau Hotel in New Orleans, and as news of the story spread, media covering the game began to descend on the hotel. Dawson was sequestered in Hank Stram’s suite, along with club officials including Lamar Hunt, preparing a response.

“Everybody running around wondering what to say,” Dawson recalled. “I remember saying, ‘tell them the truth.’ I knew the guy; I wasn’t going to deny that. A lot of guys knew him. Frank Gifford interviewed me after the game and he told me everybody on the Giants knew the guy.”

Eventually Dawson stood before the media and addressed the issues. His statement, as reported the next day by several media outlets, went like this:

“My name has been mentioned in regard to an investigation conducted by the Justice Department. I have not been contacted by any law enforcement agency or apprised of any reason why my name has been brought up. The only reason I can think of is that I have a casual acquaintance with Mr. Donald Dawson of Detroit, who I understand has been charged in the investigation. Mr. Dawson is not a relative of mine. I have known Mr. Dawson for about 10 years and have talked with him on several occasions. My only conversations with him in recent years concerned my knee injury and the death of my father. On these occasions he called me to offer his sympathy. These calls were among them any I received. Gentlemen, this is all I have to say. I have told you everything I know.”

As quickly as it appeared on network television, the story disappeared. It created major headlines all over the country on Wednesday and became a small item on page 10 on Thursday. By Friday, the story was out of the news. It surfaces only occasionally now for stories like this one.

No subpoenas were ever issued, no charges were ever filed. It all just faded away for everybody but Dawson and his family.

“We talked about suing NBC for a time,” Dawson said. “But my lawyer told me I would have to prove I was injured in some manner. We won the game and I was named MVP, so that was going to be hard.”

The story was not a total surprise. In fact, the Chiefs expected it the week before, in the days leading up to the AFL Championship Game in Oakland. Then, it briefly dropped off the radar screen.

“The night before the AFL Championship Game out in Oakland, I got a call in my room from Pete Rozelle,” Dawson said of the then commissioner of the NFL. “I think he probably wanted to talk to me about it, but all he did, he wished me good luck. I thought that was pretty strange.”

Some three decades later, it leaves the cynical wondering why the network held the story for a week. Were they waiting for the bigger stage of Super Bowl week to make a splash? NBC was broadcasting the AFL Championship Game, so did the network hold the story so as not to take the luster off that game? The Super Bowl was on CBS the next weekend; was the story held to cast a shadow over the game and that broadcast?

“I don’t know about all that, but obviously the bigger stage was Super Bowl week,” Dawson said. “It wasn’t at all like it is today, but it was still pretty big and the focus of all the media.”

And one is left to wonder how things would be this week, in the world of 24 hour news and the all-sports empire of ESPN, if Matt Hasselbeck or Ben Roethlisberger was linked to a gambling story. Could they stand up to the scrutiny that 35 years ago fell on Dawson? If they stood up and read a statement like Dawson’s, it would be broadcast live around the country.

“Oh goodness, today, with those talk shows on radio, oh my,” Dawson said. “Remember the security then wasn’t like it is today. In those days, the writers would just walk up to your hotel room door and knock. I had to move to a different room to get some sleep and that left Johnny Robinson there to answer all the calls and knocks. Boy, he was mad at me for awhile.

“They protect them better today, but there’s so much more media. They would be hounded.”

Could they go out and lead their team to the championship and win MVP honors like “Len the Cool” did on that cold, rainy day at Tulane Stadium?

“My family had it much tougher than I did,” Len said. “I was preparing for the game and I really zeroed in on that and then playing the game. I had an escape. They did not.”

This week, Dawson will attend Super Bowl XL. The NFL has invited all previous Super Bowl MVPs to the game and the group will be honored on Sunday. Of course, the game is in Detroit.

Any chance he might try to look up some former federal prosecutors who may know the source of the leak to NBC News some 35 years ago?

“I doubt any of those folks are still around,” Dawson said. “But, you never know who you might run into.”