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LET THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME

(THE HEX)

NFL alumni rate Joe Kapp as the toughest man to quarterback a football team. Nicknamed “Injun Joe,” roughneck Kapp was born in 1938 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kapp, who resembled actor Anthony Quinn, was of Chicano and German lineage. Injun Joe was a winner wherever he played football.

Kapp led his University of California Golden Bears to the Rose Bowl. In the Canadian Football League, his team won the Gray cup. In the NFL, Kapp turned the woeful Minnesota Vikings into a championship team.

Sportswriters and announcers thought Kapp was a linebacker playing quarterback. His passes never looked pretty but they were effective. When Injun Joe threw an interception, instead of avoiding contact, tough guy Kapp would run down field and spear a linebacker.

The Chicano quarterback would intimidate opposing players through his eyes and machismo. Kapp was a fire-breathing athlete who took the Vikings to the 1970 Super Bowl. In the championship game, Kapp’s Vikings lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. Kapp and his teammates promised they would win it all next season.

Unfortunately for everybody involved, the next season did not happen. Kapp ran afoul of the Viking’s General Manager Jim Finks and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Kapp was traded from the Vikings to the Boston Patriots, the worse team in the NFL. Injun Joe played for the Patriots, but refused to sign a standard player’s contract and was thrown out of the NFL.

The next six years Kapp’s attorney fought Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s NFL lawyers, with an anti-trust lawsuit. The press considered the legal battle a restraint of trade issue. Law scholars framed the litigation as a fight by the owners against free agency. By not acquiescing to bully monopoly tactics, Kapp in his prime, was effectively locked out of the NFL.

This unfair chain of events started when the Minnesota Vikings front office conspired to punish Kapp and ruin his career. Why did the Viking’s management not like the Chicano quarterback? Maybe it was because Kapp was his own man and said, “I do not play the Wall Streeters game.”

Never in the annals of NFL history had such a key player been traded before the start of a season. According to the experts, Kapp’s leadership would have guaranteed the Vikings a Super Bowl victory.

Injun Joe never played another down after the 1970 season and the Vikings have yet to win a Super Bowl. Kapp went on to act in Hollywood films and coach the University of California’s football team.

As for the Vikings, they have the dubious distinction of being a perennial loser in the post-season. The Vikings have been in more playoff games than any other non Super Bowl winner. Why can’t the Vikings win the Super Bowl, some say they are cursed.

According to lore, when Kapp was exiled from the Vikings, fans of the quarterback thought ill of the club. Bad waves were sent towards the team. This energy grew in strength and eventually voodooed the Viking’s fortunes.

Worse, a Brujo, which means a man with the power, placed a hex on the Vikings, “The Joe Kapp Curse”.

Humbug! According to the rationalists, curses are figments of wild imaginations.

Think again, Kapp is up in age; the clock is ticking! Viking’s front office, blow the horns, sound the drums, feast with Kapp and correct the wrongs! Or it’s all over.

Hexologists claim the Vikings will not win a Super Bowl until the franchise makes things right with Injun Joe. There is al lot of repair to be done. The Vikings wrecked Kapp’s walk through life.

Get thee to it Vikings, or the Brujo from Kapp’s hometown is gonna get ya! Time will tell if the Kapp curse is equal to the Chicago Cubs’ goat curse.

Fans of the Chicago Cubs blame their lack of post-season successes on, “The Curse of the Goat”. The last time the Cubs were in a World Series was 1945. That is the year Greek immigrant, William “Billy” Sianis invoked the curse!

Tavern owner Billy Sianis’ pet goat Murphy was used as a four-legged blanket billboard. The goat was dressed in colorful marquee quilts that publicized Sianis’ downtown, Lincoln Tavern.

Sianis adopted Murphy, when the goat fell or jumped off the back of a speeding cargo truck and wandered into his bar. Nobody could figure out why tough guy Sianis adapted the cloven animal. Maybe the goat reminded the bar owner of the town he grew up in, Paleopyrgos, Greece.

The highly intelligent horned animal had a strange power over Sianis, who became enamored with the cloven beast. Sianis changed the name of his business from the Lincoln Tavern to the Billy Goat Tavern. Sianis grew a goatee and was now referred to as “Billy Goat”. The horned animal from parts unknown was given the name of “Murphy”.

Sianis and Murphy went to game four of the World Series, on Saturday, October 6, 1945, to root for the Cubs as they played the Detroit Tigers.

Sianis, 1900-1970, was a shrewd businessman and never lost a chance to advertise his tavern. Sianis bought two box seat tickets, for $7.20. Both animal and man were let into Wrigley Field, but not after an argument at the arena’s entrance. Ushers refused to let the cloven beast into the stadium until Sianis successfully argued that his tickets did not have a disclaimer preventing a goat from occupying a box seat.

The duo were finally let into the stadium, Sianis walked Murphy through the outfield and infield of the stadium. The twosome would pose for photographers as the Cub’s faithful cheered the goat’s marquee blanket.

Murphy’s quilt read, “We got Detroit’s Goat”. Sianis and Murphy settled into their box seats but not after another argument with the ushers while the game was delayed by rain. According to legend, once the goat got wet from the passing shower, its fur gave off a bad odor.

Odds-makers favored the Chicago team to with the World Series. The Cubs led the Tigers two games to one and the next three games were to be played in Chicago. The Cubs only had to win two out of the next four games, while the Tigers had to win three of their next four games. Enter the hex!

Either somebody complained about the goat in the grandstands or the Cub’s management ordered the arena’s security to throw the animal from the stadium. Tall tale or fact, Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley was directly involved with cloven animal’s ejection?

It is doubtful Wrigley confronted Sianis and said, “Get your stinking goat and your stinking carcass out of here,” but stranger things have happened. No doubt, coarse words were exchanged between Sianis and the security detail.

Humiliated, Sianis and Murphy were marched out of the World Series during the seventh inning. As Sianis left his box seats, he passed a message onto Cubs owner Wrigley, “The Goat is going to get you.” According to legend, Andy Frain, who was in charge of the ushers at the park, escorted Sianis and Murphy out of the stadium.

Whatever Frain did or did not say, did not cool Sianis’ anger. Outside the stadium, Sianis cursed the Cubs. Was it a coincidence or did the hex get the Cubs? Upon the goat’s ejection, the Tigers stomped the Cubs, 8-4.

Later, the Greek bar owner sent a telegram to Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley. Sianis wrote, “You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to another World Series again. You are never going to win a World Series because you insulted my goat.”

The hex worked, the Cubs lost the 1945 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. After the defeat, Wrigley received a message from Sianis, which stated, “Who stinks now?” Since the curse was cast in 1945, the Cubs have not been to another World Series. Many times since 1945, the Cubs have been on the brink of post-season successes, but the goat gets ‘em!

Before Sianis died on October 22, 1970, he claimed the curse was lifted in 1969. If Sianis did cancel the spell, the bad mojo took no heed from its creator. Apparently the septic energy has a life of its own and relishes inflicting torment and anguish on the Chicago Cubs’ faithful.

Was the goat the devil in disguise or an evil intelligent Svengali animal?

What to do? It’s time for the Cub’s front office to take control of this toxic Billy Goat mantra. The Cubs high sheriffs need to hire a top-notch paranormalist to clean Wrigley Field of the hex. Or call me, with my swamp lamp and help from assorted characters, we will send the baaad mojo packing! (11)