provided to Variety. When his appeal was measured again in July, (before he released his video apology) it dropped to a 24 from a 39, what Henry Schafer, executive vice president of the Q Scores Company, called a “precipitous decline.”

Apple has delayed films before. In 2019, the company pushed back the release of one of its first feature films, “The Banker,” starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson, after a daughter of one of the men whose life served as a basis of the film raised allegations of sexual abuse involving her family. The film was ultimately released in March 2020 after Apple said it reviewed “the information available to us, including the filmmakers’ research.”

Many in Hollywood are drawn to Apple for its willingness to spend handsomely to acquire prominent projects connected with established talent. But the company has also been criticized for its unwillingness to spend much to market those same projects. Two people who have worked with the company, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss dealings with Apple, said it usually created just one trailer for a film — a frustrating approach for those who are accustomed to the traditional Hollywood way of producing multiple trailers aimed at different audiences. Apple prefers to rely on its Apple TV+ app and in-store marketing to attract audiences.

Yet those familiar with Apple’s thinking believe that even if it chooses to release “Emancipation” this year, it will not feature the film in its retail outlets like it did for “CODA,” which in March became the first movie from a streaming service to win best picture. That achievement, of course, was overshadowed by the controversy involving Mr. Smith.

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For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Search Engine

When Ja’Kobi Moore decided to apply this year to a private high school in her hometown of New Orleans, she learned that she needed at least one letter of recommendation from a teacher. She had never asked for one, so she sought help.

“Teacher letter of recommendation,” she typed into TikTok’s search bar.

Ms. Moore, 15, scrolled TikTok’s app until she found two videos: one explaining how to ask teachers for a recommendation letter and the other showing a template for one. Both had been made by teachers and were easier to understand than a Google search result or YouTube video, said Ms. Moore, who is planning to talk to her teachers this month.

dance videos and pop music. But for Generation Z, the video app is increasingly a search engine, too.

TikTok’s powerful algorithm — which personalizes the videos shown to them based on their interactions with content — to find information uncannily catered to their tastes. That tailoring is coupled with a sense that real people on the app are synthesizing and delivering information, rather than faceless websites.

On TikTok, “you see how the person actually felt about where they ate,” said Nailah Roberts, 25, who uses the app to look for restaurants in Los Angeles, where she lives. A long-winded written review of a restaurant can’t capture its ambience, food and drinks like a bite-size clip can, she said.

TikTok’s rise as a discovery tool is part of a broader transformation in digital search. While Google remains the world’s dominant search engine, people are turning to Amazon to search for products, Instagram to stay updated on trends and Snapchat’s Snap Maps to find local businesses. As the digital world continues growing, the universe of ways to find information in it is expanding.

said at a technology conference in July.

Google has incorporated images and videos into its search engine in recent years. Since 2019, some of its search results have featured TikTok videos. In 2020, Google released YouTube Shorts, which shares vertical videos less than a minute long, and started including its content in search results.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, declined to comment on its search function and products that may be in testing. It said it was “always thinking about new ways to add value to the community and enrich the TikTok experience.”

Doing a search on TikTok is often more interactive than typing in a query on Google. Instead of just slogging through walls of text, Gen Z-ers crowdsource recommendations from TikTok videos to pinpoint what they are looking for, watching video after video to cull the content. Then they verify the veracity of a suggestion based on comments posted in response to the videos.

This mode of searching is rooted in how young people are using TikTok not only to look for products and businesses, but also to ask questions about how to do things and find explanations for what things mean. With videos often less than 60 seconds long, TikTok returns what feels like more relevant answers, many said.

Alexandria Kinsey, 24, a communications and social media coordinator in Arlington, Va., uses TikTok for many search queries: recipes to cook, films to watch and nearby happy hours to try. She also turns to it for less typical questions, like looking up interviews with the actor Andrew Garfield and weird conspiracy theories.

elections, the war in Ukraine and abortion.

TikTok’s algorithm tends to keep people on the app, making it harder for them to turn to additional sources to fact-check searches, Ms. Tripodi added.

“You aren’t really clicking to anything that would lead you out of the app,” she said. “That makes it even more challenging to double-check the information you’re getting is correct.”

TikTok has leaned into becoming a venue for finding information. The app is testing a feature that identifies keywords in comments and links to search results for them. In Southeast Asia, it is also testing a feed with local content, so people can find businesses and events near them.

Building out search and location features is likely to further entrench TikTok — already the world’s most downloaded app for those ages 18 to 24, according to Sensor Tower — among young users.

TikTok “is becoming a one-stop shop for content in a way that it wasn’t in its earlier days,” said Lee Rainie, who directs internet and technology research at the Pew Research Center.

That’s certainly true for Jayla Johnson, 22. The Newtown, Pa., resident estimated that she watches 10 hours of TikTok videos a day and said she had begun using the app as a search engine because it was more convenient than Google and Instagram.

“They know what I want to see,” she said. “It’s less work for me to actually go out of my way to search.”

Ms. Johnson, a digital marketer, added that she particularly appreciated TikTok when she and her parents were searching for places to visit and things to do. Her parents often wade through pages of Google search results, she said, while she needs to scroll through only a few short videos.

“God bless,” she said she thinks. “You could have gotten that in seconds.”

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U.S. Moved Online, Worked From Home More Often As Pandemic Raged

New data offers the first reliable glimpse of life in the U.S. during the COVID-19 era, as the 1-year estimates from a 2020 survey were unusable.

During the first two years of the pandemic, the number of people working from home in the United States tripled, home values grew and the percentage of people who spent more than a third of their income on rent went up, according to survey results released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Providing the most detailed data to date on how life changed in the U.S. under COVID-19, the bureau’s American Community Survey 1-year estimates for 2021 showed that the share of unmarried couples living together rose, Americans became more wired and the percentage of people who identify as multiracial grew significantly. And in changes that seemed to directly reflect how the pandemic upended people’s choices, fewer people moved, preschool enrollment dropped and commuters using public transportation was cut in half.

The data release offers the first reliable glimpse of life in the U.S. during the COVID-19 era, as the 1-year estimates from the 2020 survey were deemed unusable because of problems getting people to answer during the early months of the pandemic. That left a one-year data gap during a time when the pandemic forced major changes in the way people live their lives.

The survey typically relies on responses from 3.5 million households to provide 11 billion estimates each year about commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service and employment. The estimates help inform how to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending.

Response rates significantly improved from 2020 to 2021, “so we are confident about the data for this year,” said Mark Asiala, the survey’s chief of statistical design.

While the percentage of married-couple households stayed stable over the two years at around 47%, the percent of households with unwed couples cohabiting rose to 7.2% in 2021 from 6.6% in 2019. Contrary to pop culture images of multigenerational family members moving in together during the pandemic, the average household size actually contracted from 2.6 to 2.5 people.

People also stayed put. More than 87% of those surveyed were living in their same house a year ago in 2021, compared to 86% in 2019. America became more wired as people became more reliant on remote learning and working from home. Households with a computer rose, from 92.9% in 2019 to 95% in 2021, and internet subscription services grew from 86% to 90% of households.

The jump in people who identify as multiracial — from 3.4% in 2019 to 12.6% in 2021 — and a decline in people identifying as white alone — from 72% to 61.2% — coincided with Census Bureau changes in coding race and Hispanic origin responses. Those adjustments were intended to capture more detailed write-in answers from participants. The period between surveys also overlapped with social justice protests following the killing of George Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020 as well as attacks against Asian Americans. Experts say this likely lead some multiracial people who previously might have identified as a single race to instead embrace all of their background.

“The pattern is strong evidence of shifting self-identity. This is not new,” said Paul Ong, a professor emeritus of urban planning and Asian American Studies at UCLA. “Other research has shown that racial or ethnic identity can change even over a short time period. For many, it is contextual and situational. This is particularly true for individuals with multiracial background.”

The estimates show the pandemic-related impact of closed theaters, shuttered theme parks and restaurants with limited seating on workers in arts, entertainment and accommodation businesses. Their numbers declined from 9.7% to 8.2% of the workforce, while other industries stayed comparatively stable. Those who were self-employed inched up to 6.1% from 5.8%.

Housing demand grew over the two years, as the percent of vacant homes dropped from 12.1% to 10.3%. The median value of homes rose from $240,500 to $281,400. The percent of people whose gross rent exceeded more than 30% of their income went from 48.5% to 51%. Historically, renters are considered rent-burdened if they pay more than that.

“Lack of housing that folks can afford relative to the wages they are paid is a continually growing crisis,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans.

Commutes to work dropped from 27.6 minutes to 25.6 minutes, as the percent of people working from home during a period of return-to-office starts and stops went from 5.7% in 2019 to almost 18% in 2021. Almost half of workers in the District of Columbia worked from home, the highest rate in the nation, while Mississippi had the lowest rate at 6.3% Over the two years, the percent of workers nationwide using public transportation to get to work went from 5% to 2.5%, as fears rose of catching the virus on buses and subways.

“Work and commuting are central to American life, so the widespread adoption of working from home is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Burrows, a Census Bureau statistician. “With the number of people who primarily work from home tripling over just a two-year period, the pandemic has very strongly impacted the commuting landscape in the United States.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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The EPA Is Investigating The Jackson, Mississippi Water Crisis

The EPA will head to Jackson, Mississippi to collect data and conduct interviews as residents remain under a water boil notice.

After 40 days of boil water notices, Jackson, Mississippi’s water system is still a mess. 

People are still drinking out of bottles, the water is still coming out brown and residents are still getting “boil water” notices.

Earl Jackson, an 88-year-old New Orleans transplant, is an avid cook. He moved his family to the capital city after running away from Hurricane Katrina. The water comes out of his tap, but it’s nothing a person would want to cook with. One of Jackson’s weekly chores is to stock up on bottled water so he can put his seasonings to work. 

An independent watchdog in the Environmental Protection Agency is now investigating the water crisis. It will conduct interviews, gather data and analyze compliance with regulations and policies of the water system.

For now, Mississippi’s governor says crews have fixed one of two key pumps that help run the city’s water treatment plant, but some lawmakers are worried the quick fix won’t last.

“Some of our pipes throughout the city are one inch, and we need to two-inch lines,” said Hinds County Rep. Christopher Bell. “Those one-inch lines that we have already in the ground are going to burst.”

It’s estimated it will cost $1 billion to fix Jackson’s water system the right way. 

“There may be more bad days in the future,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. “We have, however, reached a place where people in Jackson can trust that water will come out of the faucet.” 

But “trust” is in short supply, so the bottles keep coming. 

The state’s emergency agency is still handing out cases of water. 

Shunquita Harris, with the Mississippi National Guard, lives in the same community, with the same water issues that many of the people she’s passing water out to face. 

“I think the beauty of it is making sure someone else is okay over myself, because I know at the end of the day I’ll be taken care of,” Harris said. 

That spirit is strong, but it doesn’t get Jackson past the cold hard truth: This city has never had enough money to run a functioning water treatment system, and finding $1 billion to make it work sounds like a pipe dream. 

It will take two rounds of clear samples in order to lift the boil water notice, which has been going on for about 40 days.

 The city is actively filling out paperwork to apply for funding to try and fix all the issues for the long term.  

The Biden administration says the governor needs to make a major disaster declaration in order for the federal government to step in and supply more funds to the city.

: newsy.com

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There’s A New Experimental Treatment For Alcohol, Drug Addiction

Naltrexone is already FDA approved, but not as an implant. Options are being studied and if all goes well, one could be greenlighted in 2024.

You might know Jeremy Miller from the ’80s family sitcom “Growing Pains.” But it’s the pains of addiction that he wants to share now.

“Even on the show, I never had it together,” he said.

Miller has a family medical history of alcohol use disorder on both sides. He began drinking at a very young age.  

“My grandparents were very traditional ’70s functional alcoholics,” he continued. “Four-and-a-half years old, I would go around my grandmother and grandfather’s parties afterwards and finish off all the beers.”

He didn’t touch alcohol again until age 12, binge drinking during the later seasons of the show. 

As Miller grew up on camera, the alcohol habit worsened off camera. 

“My brain chemistry hadn’t changed to that point yet,” he said. “It wasn’t until after I got back from the second reunion, which was filmed in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras — it wasn’t until I got back from that, I woke up one day and realized that I absolutely, unequivocally needed a drink.” 

He was missing important family events. Drinking and blacking out. At one point he nearly drowned while drunk.  

“Had I ever owned a gun, I do not believe I’d be sitting here — those moments of self-loathing and despair,” Miller continued. “There was no future. It didn’t exist. I saw nothing beyond my next drink.” 

The future, now his present, is 11 years sober with a one-day relapse. That relapse propelled him to try a treatment he says saved his life: an experimental naltrexone implant. 

“It’s the size of a couple of aspirin,” said Dr. Joseph DeSanto, who specializes in addiction treatment.

Patients must go through a minimal surgery where a doctor makes a small incision, inserts a pellet in each side of the abdomen and closes it with a couple of stitches. 

The implants slowly release naltrexone and dissolve away. 

“Nausea and headache are typically the two most common side effects that our patients come across,” DeSanto continued. “And typically those side effects dissipate over time.”

This is how naltrexone works: Inside our brains, we have nerves. Their endings have different receptors that receive chemical messages from neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are linked to feelings like happiness, focus, reward and motivation.  

In an addicted patient’s brain, substances overload the receptors. It’s too much of those reward feelings. On repeat, the brain starts to crave it. Naltrexone fills the slot of the receptor for both opiates and alcohol but it does not activate it: No big reward feelings. The craving isn’t there.  

Another way to think of it: Take baseball, specifically, a baseball glove. You catch the baseball and now it just sits there. No other baseballs can come into the glove. With that ball in the glove, you can’t do much with it. The naltrexone reaction in the brain is essentially the same.  

“I kept waiting for that craving to return, for that want and need. And it never did,” Miller said. 

Mental health experts say overcoming cravings are crucial for the more than 20 million Americans with substance use disorder. They can last for months.  

The latest data from 2019 shows 9% of those in recovery say they used medication as part of their treatment. 

Naltrexone itself is already FDA approved, but not as an implant. Patients currently have two options: a shot that works for 30 days or a daily oral pill.  

Research has found naltrexone implants — like the one Miller got — last months longer and are more effective at preventing a relapse. So, the race is on to make a long-lasting implant and get it FDA approved. 

Three-, six- and 12-month implants are being studied. If all goes well, one could be greenlighted in 2024. 

“Since it’s a new delivery route, we have to show the FDA the safety of that local site since it is a minor procedure,” BioCorRx CEO Brady Granier said.  

Right now, if someone in the U.S. wants to get an implant, they need a doctor to have a compounding pharmacy to make a pellet specific to them.  

The FDA doesn’t approve that custom med, meaning its effectiveness, quality and safety aren’t a sure thing. It’s also not covered by insurance. It’s very expensive. Patients pay thousands of dollars out of pocket.  

Miller says connections and generosity helped him get his implant.  

“There were a lot of roadblocks, you know? Price was a very big thing,” he said.

Mental health experts say these medical implants are not a magic fix. A patient should also undergo treatments like meetings, therapy and peer support. 

Miller says for him, it meant working through his unresolved hurt. 

“I had an abusive stepfather … a lot of trauma that I did not deal with, was not equipped to deal with and was running from. And it created a lot of anxiety as well. And I found that alcohol soothed that anxiety at a very young age,” Miller continued.

His healing includes his family and paying it forward. He’s worked peer support and volunteers, and he shares his story with others.

“It’s just a message that, yes, there is help. And if you want it bad enough, it can happen.”

The Jeremy Miller story includes pain and hope and chapters that haven’t wrapped yet.

: newsy.com

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White House Sends Monkeypox Vaccines To Labor Day Weekend Pride Events

Louisiana got 1,500 additional vaccine vials for the Southern Decadence festival.

It’s a celebration.  

“This is a must-do in New Orleans. It’s like Mardi Gras but this is Mardi Gras for this community, said Jennifer Jones, New Orleans’ dancing queen.

Southern Decadence, an LGBTQ+ festival expected to attract up to 300,000 people to the city of New Orleans, is back for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

But new to the party: A vaccination clinic.  

The White House is focusing on events like this one across the nation in hopes of getting the monkeypox outbreak under control.

“Our goal, as with many of our public health interventions, is to bring the service to the people who need it,” said John Brooks, the chief medical officer at the CDC’s multinational monkeypox outbreak response.

Anyone can get monkeypox but has been most common among men who have sex with men.

“What we know about monkeypox is that the number one mode of transmission is skin-to-skin intimate contact,” said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, director at the New Orleans Health Department.

The CDC is working with the Louisiana Department of Health and the New Orleans Health Department to boost immunizations in the LGBTQ+ population.  

The federal government sent thousands of extra monkeypox vaccines to the city of New Orleans ahead of Southern Decadence this Labor Day weekend.

The city has a vaccination clinic within walking distance of the French Quarter, where people who are most at risk can go, get the monkeypox vaccine and get tested if they need to.  

The state got 1,500 additional vaccine vials for the event; officials say it’s possible that can provide up to 6,000 vaccine shots if administered correctly by a medical professional. It’s way less than what the state originally asked for, but the New Orleans Health Department says it’s better than nothing.          

“We do think that we have enough doses to at least serve a large number of folks who might be interested. We’ve been doing a lot of work before Decadence, lots, and lots and lots of vaccine events before to try to get our community protected. We’ve been doing a lot of messaging nationwide,” said Dr. Avegno.

Residents like Jonathan Reazin are happy to get the vaccine if it means keeping the party going.       

“A lot of people that have already gotten shots, we’re comparing bumps. Mine’s on the backside. Theirs’ are on the front,” said Reazin. “For me, if it happens in this community, I want to do my part to prevent it from spreading so that’s why I got the vaccine.”

If the city runs out of the vaccine supply provided for the event, officials informed Newsy, the city is able to dip into state supply in stores, as long as they promise to replenish anything that was used.

: newsy.com

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White House Sends Extra Monkeypox Vaccines Ahead Of Pride Events

The White House is sending tens of thousands of monkeypox vaccine doses to areas hosting Labor Day pride events.

Federal and state health officials are sharing their plans to prevent Labor Day pride events from becoming monkeypox super spreaders.

The White House monkeypox response team says they’re sending an extra 6,000 vaccine doses to the Southern Decadence event in New Orleans, 2,400 extra to Pridefest in Oakland, California and 5,500 doses to Atlanta Black Pride in Georgia.

“It was a great opportunity to get folks ready for the event in terms of getting vaccines on the ground early, but also a great opportunity to reach people who don’t feel comfortable in a clinic but do feel comfortable in less stigmatizing spaces that can occur in the events,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, White House national monkeypox response deputy coordinator.

It comes as Texas health officials confirm the first U.S. monkeypox death. They say an adult patient in the Houston area also was severely immunocompromised. An autopsy is expected in the next few weeks.

“Death is possible due to monkeypox but remains rare,” said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, the CDC’s monkeypox response incident manager.

Anyone can get monkeypox. The World Health Organization and the CDC say gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men make up the majority of the cases.

In the U.S., cases are slowly trending down compared to July.

The WHO say the Americas accounted for 60% of global monkeypox cases in the past month. 

“There are encouraging early signs, as evidenced in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries that the outbreak may be slowing,” said Hans Kluge, WHO Europe regional director.

Federal officials are cautiously optimistic, but challenges remain, like getting vaccines equally distributed. About 10% of monkeypox vaccine doses have been given to Black people. They account for one-third of U.S. cases, according to the CDC.

The FDA also recently green lit a different method for giving the JYNNEOS shot: underneath the skin, but not as deep in the muscle. Federal officials say that should help get two doses of the vaccine to the 1.6 million people in the U.S. who are most at risk of contracting the virus.

: newsy.com

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Chiefs Hall Of Fame Quarterback Len Dawson Dies At 87

Dawson’s family announced his death in a statement through KMBC, the Kansas City-based TV station where he worked as a broadcaster.

Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson, whose unmistakable swagger in helping the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl title earned him the nickname “Lenny the Cool,” died Wednesday. He was 87.

Dawson’s family announced his death in a statement through KMBC, the Kansas City-based television station where he starred in his second career as a broadcaster. No cause was given, though Dawson had been in declining health for years.

AP / File

“With wife Linda at his side, it is with much sadness that we inform you of the passing of our beloved Len Dawson,” the family’s statement read. “He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and friend. Len was always grateful and many times overwhelmed by the countless bonds he made during his football and broadcast careers.”

The MVP of the Chiefs’ victory over the Vikings in January 1970, Dawson had entered hospice care on Aug. 12.

“He loved Kansas City,” his family said, “and no matter where his travels took him he could not wait to return home.”

Dawson personified the Chiefs almost from the start, when the suave standout from Purdue lost out on starting jobs in Pittsburgh and Cleveland and landed with the nascent franchise, then located in Dallas. There, Dawson reunited with Hank Stram, who had been an assistant with the Boilermakers, and together they forever changed the franchise.

The coach and quarterback won the AFL championship together in 1962, their first year together, and became bona fide stars the following year, when club founder Lamar Hunt moved the team to Kansas City and rechristened it the Chiefs.

AP

They proceeded to win two more AFL titles, one in 1966 when they lost to the Packers in the first Super Bowl, and the other in ’69, when Dawson came back from an injury to help beat the Vikings at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.

“Looking back on my career, I’ve been blessed for what I had the opportunity to do,” Dawson told The Associated Press in 2017, shortly after he announced his retirement from his second career as a Hall of Fame broadcaster.

“I could not have accomplished so much without my teammates and colleagues, and I’m grateful for each of them.”

Dawson always remained a beloved figure in Kansas City, even though he cut back on public appearances several years ago when his health began to fail him. But he always had time for fans, whether it be a photograph or signature, the latter often on an iconic black-and-white photo from halftime of that first Super Bowl: the exhausted quarterback, white uniform caked with mud, sitting on a folding chair with a cigarette in his mouth and a bottle of Fresca at his feet.

It perfectly captured a time and place. And it perfectly captured a man who embodied poise and self-assurance.

“Next to my father, few people have had a more lasting impact on the Kansas City Chiefs than Len Dawson,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said a few years ago. “Over the course of a legendary career, first as a player and later as a broadcaster, Len has been a part of every major moment in franchise history.”

Dawson was born June 20, 1935, the ninth of 11 children who filled the house of James and Annie Dawson in the blue-collar manufacturing town of Alliance, Ohio. He was a three-sport athlete at Alliance High School, setting records in both football and basketball, and turned his success on the gridiron into a scholarship offer from Purdue.

There, Dawson led the NCAA in passing efficiency as a sophomore while also playing defense and kicking, and he helped lead a memorable upset of Notre Dame during that 1954 season. By the end of his college career, Dawson had thrown for more than 3,000 yards, despite playing in an era that favored ground-and-pound football.

Dawson was chosen by the Steelers in the first round of the 1957 draft, but he wound up riding the bench behind Earl Morrall as a rookie and then failed to beat out Bobby Layne for the starting job the following season. The Steelers ultimately traded him to the Browns, where Dawson was unable to beat out Milt Plum for the job and was released.

One of the great disappointments of Dawson’s career wound up being one of the best things to ever happen to him.

Robert Scott / AP

With newfound freedom to sign anywhere, Dawson jumped to the upstart AFL and the Texans, lured in part by the chance to play for one of his old coaches at Purdue. Stram was able to finally tap into his talent, helping Dawson to quickly become one of the league’s prolific passers as the Texans went 11-3 and won the first of three championships.

The second came in 1966, when Dawson led the Chiefs to an 11-2-1 record and a 31-7 blowout of the Bills in the AFL title game. That earned the Chiefs the chance to face the powerhouse Green Bay Packers — and coach Vince Lombardi — in the inaugural Super Bowl, where Dawson threw for 210 yards and a touchdown in a 35-10 defeat.

It was the 1969 season that proved to be the most memorable of Dawson’s career, though. He sustained a serious knee injury against the Patriots in Week 2, forcing him to miss the next five games, but went on a tear once he returned to the field. Dawson led the Chiefs to victories over the defending champion Jets and bitter rival Raiders to reach what would be the final Super Bowl before the AFL-NFL merger, where he threw for 142 yards and a score in a 23-7 triumph.

“It was overwhelming,” Dawson said afterward. “It’s just, you know how that relief comes with you know it’s over with, and we’ve been successful? That’s the feeling that I had when I came off the field.”

Dawson continued to play for six more seasons in Kansas City, setting many franchise records that stood until a youngster named Patrick Mahomes came along, before hanging up his helmet after the 1975 season.

Along the way, Dawson parlayed what began as a publicity stunt into a second career in broadcasting.

In 1966, then-Chiefs general manager Jack Steadman wanted to drum up support for the franchise in Kansas City and convinced Dawson to anchor a sports segment on the nightly news. His natural charisma and folksy style made Dawson a natural, he turned his attention to TV and radio on a full-time basis after his playing career had finished.

Dawson continued to work in local TV for several decades, adding game analysis for NBC from 1977-82 and hosting HBO’s iconic “Inside the NFL” from 1977-2001. He also served more than three decades on the Chiefs’ radio broadcast team.

After going into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1987, Dawson was inducted as a broadcaster in 2012.

“It’s been a true privilege and honor to have Len at the center of our broadcast team for the last 33 years,” said Dan Israel, the executive producer of the Chiefs’ radio network, upon his retirement a few years ago. “His contributions to not only this sport, but our industry, are incredibly profound.”

Dawson was married to his high school sweetheart, Jackie, from 1954 until her death in 1978, and together they had two children. His second wife, Linda, remained by his side even when Dawson was forced to enter hospice care.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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