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waiting for Lonnie to explain and he
kept waiting for me.
"Why don't you fellows take off your
dark glasses?" Grant said.
" Oh, that's O.K." I blurted out.
"We prefer not to," Lonnie said.
But after a while we confessed, and
Bud administered a lecture and that was
the end of the matter.
By the time our final game came
around against the Lions, I was itching
to have a great day, to put the clamp
on the starting quarterback job for next
season. Instead, I had one of the worst
games of my career. Alex Karras was
very much on my mind, and I figured
I'd better not go through his tackle any
more than absolutely necessary. So on
the first play I called a sweep to the left
side, away from Alex. Then I called a
bootleg to the left, again away from Kar-
ras. On the fifth play of ·the game I
called a roll-out to the left, but before I
could get started, who do you think
jumps me and whomps me to the ground
and starts roaring in my ear like a wild
animal? He hollers, "Yah! Yah! Yah!
Kapp. Don't ever go my way!" At that
point he could have broken any one of _
. my arms or legs, so I'm lying quietly
and trying not to antagonize him. "Don't
you ever go my way!" he hollers again,
while I'm saying to myself, "Damn, I've
WITH BRITISH COLUMBIA in 1964, Kapp drains Grey Cup after quarterbacking the Lions to a run away from him three times and here
34-24 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Toronto for the Canadian Football League title. he is on top of me telling me not to
go his way. Which way isn't his way?"
But as he got up and walked off, I
"Knock off all that bull, Lonnie," I The next morning Lonnie called and couldn't resist saying, "-- you, Kar-
said, standing up myself. "I'm the one he said, "Jeez, Joe, I don't know what ras!" and after that his teammates
that dropped the ball, not the defense." got into us." were all over me. That was the day
This went on for about five minutes, "I know what got into us," I said. "Te- Lem Barney intercepted three of my
with neither of us giving an inch, and quila. L-S-T-T for tequila, T for truth." passes in one quarter (all by myself I
finally Lonnie informs me that if I will "Yeah," he said, "and T for trouble. made him All-Pro that year), and we
not admit that the defense ble .v the game I don't know about you, but I got to lost the game 14- 3, :finishing the year
we will have to settle it outside in the gar- go to the dentist." with a glorious record of three wins,
den. So now we're walking side by side I said, "Well, I'm on my way to the eight losses and three ties. It came as
out the back door and I'm saying that eye doctor. One of my eyes won't open." no surprise to me that the Vikings trad-
this is crazy and he's saying that iS may "I got a bad eye, too," he said. "Let's ed for Quarterback Gary Cuozzo in•
be crazy but what's going to happen go to the eye doctor together." the off season, and in a way I even wel-
next is we're going to fight, and I say The doctor informed us that we would comed the competition, although it
that's perfectly O.K. with me. The noise both live to play another day, and then never really developed. Off the field,
attracted some of the other guys, but we decided that we'd better tell our sto- Gary and I became roommates and
by the time they were able to stop us ry to Bud Grant before somebody else good friends, and in training he ran into
we'd been :flailing away at each other told him first. Bud is no holy terror, snarl- some injury problems that kept him from
for about five minutes by the light of ing and screaming and leveling fines at taking the starting job away from me.
the moon. When it was over, with him the players, but he is no nasturtium ei-
on top, Jim Marshall and Roy Winston ther, and we knew he would really tee
made us get up and shake hands. "Good off on us when he found out how stu- NEXT WEEK
night, Lonnie," I said, and Lonnie said, pidly we had acted. So we walked into A /though he led the Vikes to the NFL title
"Good night, Joe," just as if we were his office like a couple of scared kids in 1969°, Kapp says he threw only two spi-
both normal in the head. and hemmed and hawed around. I kept rals.: one incomplete, the other intercepted.

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