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MAN OF MACHISMO: Part 2
by JOE KAPP with JACK OLSEN

l:e 1968 Vikings finally put it all together. Bud tail off, hurting, stretching his body to the limit be-
Grant taught us such things as how to retain our cause he needed a job and we needed a tight end.
zest and enthusiasm but to use them with a little So I decided to call in my old pharmaceutical ally,
more common sense and not take stupid penalties. tequila, to solve the problem. That night I took this
The results of his teaching hit a high point in the big kid and his roomie to a pub. "You ever had te-
last game of 1968, against the Philadelphia Eagles. quila?" I asked.
We won 24-17 and didn't draw a single penalty. "Oh, yes, sir," they both answered.
Not even an offside. We won the Central Division "O.K.," I said. I ordered a dozen.
for the first time with a record of 8 and 6- but then Well, the drinks were served and I started sipping
we blew the playoff game against Baltimore. The on one and the roommate started sipping on an-
Colts scored three touchdowns, one of them on a other and the big tight end started tossing them
·safety blitz when the ball was knocked into the air down like lemonade.
before I could get off a pass. Mike Curtis grabbed it "Man," I said, "don't you want to make this
and went 60 yards for a score. That was the game I team?"
cooked on during the winter. By the time we went "Yes, sir," he said.
to camp before the 1969 season I had played and re- "Well, to make the team you've got to go out
played that Baltimore game in my nightmares and there and hit people. Be aggressive! Do anything in
daydreams. your power to overcome the other guy."
In camp last summer we began to look good, but "Yes, sir," he said. "Yes, sir."
we had a major problem: John Beasley, our star " Don't 'Yes, sir' me!" I said. "Get mad! Get out
tight end, was in the Army, and we were looking there on that field and do something."
for help. We had high hopes for a green rookie "Yes, sir," he said. " But to who?"
about half a foot over six feet and around 250 pounds "To anybody that gets in your way," I said. "To
with the moves of a Gene Washington and the pow- Bud Grant, if he's in your way. Right now you'd bet-
er of a John Mackey and the disposition of Fer- ter think about the strong safety, Karl Kassulke.
dinand el toro. Potentially, this rook was the best He's always on you, and you don't hit him. Now to-
tight end in football, except that he was so over- morrow I want you to hate Kassulke, I want you to
awed about being in an NFL training camp that he kill Kassulke. Tear him to pieces!"
couldn't bring himself to hit anybody. He would By this time the tight end is halfway through his
bump somebody and say, "Excuse me, sir." Sir! To 10 tequilas and he's standing up and making fists
a guy who's trying to beat him out! One day I took and saying, "Yah, yah," just like Alex Karras. "I'll
him aside and I asked him how he was enjoying train- get that Kassulke!"
ing camp. "Oh, just fine, Mr. Kapp," he said. "Yes, His roommate and I managed to haul him back
sir, just fine." to the dormitory by curfew time, and then I went to
This really got me. He wasn't supposed to be feel- my room to talk to some of the guys. At training
ing just fine. He was supposed to be working his camp the coaches have the first floor, vet- continued

A MISFIT WHO LIVES TO WIN

That is Joe Kap p's assessment of himself. Quarterbacking, he says, is the natural refuge for
the eager player too small to block, too slow to run. Yet no quarterback is better than his
line, and here Kapp tells how the Vikings made him look great in the 1969 regular season

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