The BS Show, 5.9.23: Joe Kapp Remembered

I made a rare Tuesday appearance on The BS Show to talk with Bob about my good friend and client, legendary Vikings quarterback Joe Kapp, who passed away on Monday evening.

You can listen to our discussion here.

As I have said before, I was ten years old when my parents bought me a VHS tape for my birthday called “Minnesota Vikings: The Purple Power Years”, which consisted of the season highlight films for the Vikings’ four Super Bowl teams (1969, 1973, 1974 and 1976).

My introduction to Joe Kapp was courtesy of the 1969 team highlight film. Entitled “40 for 60”, it started with Kapp turning down the “Most Valuable Viking” award at a team awards ceremony and proclaiming that “there is no most valuable Viking; there are only forty most valuable Vikings; 40 for 60, put it that way; I just can’t accept this; thank you.”

I was a Joe Kapp fan for life after watching that.

I would get to meet Joe in 2012 at the kickoff event to a friend’s charity golf tournament, and we quickly became friends. Joe ultimately became a client and we worked closely (along with Joe’s oldest son, J.J.) on a book project that ultimately became Joe’s autobiography, “The Toughest Chicano.” I am so glad that this story was committed to paper before Joe’s decline due to Alzheimer’s.

There are just so many Joe Kapp stories that are the stuff of legend. Many of them were told in the “Missing Rings” documentary, and others came from teammates and Joe himself. Some may have not been entirely true, such as his claim that he got into a fight with Wilt Chamberlain during the Kansas-Cal national championship basketball game (yes, Joe also played basketball for Cal) that led to Chamberlain’s ejection from the game. We can find no record of that one….

I’ll close with one funny Joe story of my own. I was once at a signing with my other Vikings quarterback client, Tommy Kramer, where TK was asked to sign a cane – obviously a reference to Joe’s infamous brawl with CFL rival Angelo Mosca. Tommy’s response was classic: “you got the wrong quarterback.”

RIP Joe, and condolences to the Kapp family.