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MISFIT continued

erans the second and rookies the third, body in the NFL, and I have the scars it turned out he had a howl like a coy-
and after curfew the rookies are sternly to prove it. What a group! They call ote, and every now and then he lets out
forbidden to leave their floor. Around themselves "three dots and a dash" - this "Owwwwwwww!" and tries to crush
11 :30 we were jawing away and Kas- that's because Eller and Marshan and my ribs. Paul Dickson, our fifth line-
sulke came into my room and I told Alan Page are black and Gary Larsen man, is a philosopher and poet off ,the
him what had happened. "Thanks a lot!" is white. Larsen is the only genuine Vi- field, but when the scrimmage , begins
he said. "Thanks for turning that big king on the team-he's of Scandinavian he starts growling, and he drives the of-
animal on me." Suddenly we heard a origin, and I call him "Odin." Remem- fensive linemen crazy because he plays
roar from the hall. ber in the movie The Vikings when Er- dummy practice scrimmages just like a
"Yah, yah, yahhh," this big voice was nest Borgnine jumped into a pit full of game, growling all the ·while. And Jerry
saying. "Yah, yah, Y AHHH!" It was wolves and pulled out his sword and hol- Burns, our offensive coach, is a scream-
like Fat Albert in the Bill Cosby rou- lered "Odin!" Odin was the god of war er; when we do something wrong, he'll
tine. I looked out my door and saw the or something, and nothing made Borg- stand there and holler ''Clowns! Clowns!
tight end in his undershorts. He was nine happier than to die with a sword CLOWNS!" Can you imagine our scrim-
strutting up and down the hall and open- in his hand screaming "Odin!" Gary's mages? I come up to the line and there's
ing doors. In between "Yah, yahs," he not quite the same; he'd settle for a the howler howling and the growler
was hollering, "Where's that Kassulke? hunk of Roman Gabriel's anatomy. So growling and Jerry Burns hollering
Lemme at that sumbitch! I'm gonna kill would Carl Eller and Jim Marshall. At "Clowns! Clowns! CLOWNS!" Some-
that mother!" first we thought Alan Page might be a times I welcome the league games just
I slammed the door and Karl jumped little more on the gentle, studious side, for the peace and quiet.
into my closet. A few of the guys went corning out of Notre Dame and all. But In my early days with the Vikings
out and at great personal risk tried to
calm the tight end down. They finally
WAITING TO GO IN AGAINST THE BEARS, KAPP CONFERS WITH COACH BUD GRANT.
got him back to his bed, where he drift-
ed off into a tequila coma for the night.
"O.K., Karl," I said. "You can come
out now, and I think we've got our-
selves a tight end."
"Yeah," Kassulke said, "and lost
yourself a strong safety!"
The next morning we all waited ea-
gerly for the rookie to arrive, but he
didn't attend the morning session. It
takes a while to sleep off 10 tequilas. ln
the afternoon he showed up, more dead
than alive, and when he banged into Kas-
sulke on a down-and-out pass he stopped
dead and said, "Oh, excuse me, Mr. Kas-
sulke." He was cut soon after. Maybe
he'll be able to pull all his great talents
together and play for another team. But
he may never be mean enough.
I know it must sound ridiculous for
grown men to brag about how vicious
they are, but that's exactly what is at
the heart of our team's success. As a
group, the Minnesota Vikings are a very
enthusiastic bunch of guys; they like to
play the game, and they like to hit. We
have good, clean-cut violent types, guys
like Lonnie Warwick and Dale Hack-
bart, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, Wally
Hilgenberg, 34 others. They're all fine
gentlemen, but they're also hitters. And
they're happy in their work.
You should see our scrimmages. I'm
always picking up newspapers and mag-
azines and reading about our "Purple
People Eaters," our front four, but no-
body has to tell me anything about them.
I work out against them more than any-

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