Formo, I see you became a Cub fan this week.
Ya know, the Cubs, Packers and Vikings have some historical overlap: George Washington âZipâ Zabel.
Zip pitched for Cubs from 1913-15; he had a losing record and was fined $100 by 2 different managers, once for being out of shape and once for showing up at the start of the season late. After 1915, he settled in Beloit and took a job with Fairbanks Morse & Company, who fielded a football team that took the company's name: the Beloit Fairies.
In 1919 the Packers had cruised to a 10-0 record, outscoring their opponents 565-6 [Peppers was a rookie that year] and faced the Beloit Faries in the last game. GB lost 6-0 having 3 TDs called back by a cheating homer ref: George âZipâ Zabel. Knowing theyâd been cheated GB offered $5,000 for a replay with a neutral ref and the Faries, as executed wussied out.
Zabel, a lifetime loser, bad teammate and a cheat reminds me the 2 greatest Vikings in history. Leif Erikson, was trying to sail to his home in Greenland and oops, he missed it by like 1000 miles. The portly and out of shape Liefâs navigational incompetence was the by-product of the first annual Viking party cruise. Lief focused on debauchery, drugs and degrading enslaved women. Zabel could find his way to camp on time, Erikson couldnât find his arse with a compass.
And Ragnar LodBrok, who literally stabbed his father in the back to become âking;â lost every critical gamâŚahh...battle he fought. Not surprising he cheated on his wife and was incompetent in his defense of insemination, had a son that was born spineless: Ivar the Boneless. He promised to use a tiny whizzinator; but duplicitously slipped in his little pecker. Ragnar unceremoniously died from cholera, a disease he contracted while cross-dressing; heâd wear the gowns of infected women he had slain for their wardrobe.