What it's like to be a Vikings fan...

The soap opera that was the Brett Favre saga over the last few months has brought up an interesting discussion I had with another diehard Viking fan. The embarrassing roller coaster that the Vikings were a part of raised a question that some of we wondered aloud: Is this the most disappointing thing to happen to the Beloved Purple? My short answer is absolutely NOT.

As Viking fans, we've been through way more and way worse than this. Somehow though we've managed to persevere for this long. To be honest, I'm not even sure if the whole Brett Favre situation would crack a list of the Top 20 most disappointing things to ever happen to the Minnesota Vikings.

Wait a second.... the twenty most disappointing things to ever happen to the Vikings, eh? Consider that gauntlet picked up, even if I'm the one who threw it down. First off, there needs to be ground rules, to which the I reserve the right to make up off the top of my head.

Randy Moss' mock-mooning at Lambeau Field during the 2004 playoffs does not count. It came in a game where the Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Scratch running back Robert Smith retiring from football in 2001 when he still had a few good seasons left, since that was his personal decision. Mocking former running back Onterrio Smith for getting busted at the airport with something called an Original Whizzinator is also out since that incident was symbolic with his problems with addiction. The rest is in play, and even though I may not have been alive for a few of these I understand and respect the entire history of the franchise to know exactly where each incident stands.

20. Starting quarterback, Spergon Wynn
Spergon Wynn was hardly cut out to be a CFL quarterback, let alone a NFL quarterback. Wynn made two starts for the Vikings late in 2001. He threw one touchdown and six interceptions and never started another game. He is the answer to a great trivia question for you diehards from Barry Dyngle's: Who started at QB in the Vikings' last game under Dennis Green and the first under Mike Tice?

19. Drafting Troy Williamson
He's open deep and ... oh, he can't hang on! There is another NFC North team which is synonymous with spending first-round draft choices on wide receivers whose 40-yard dash times turn out to be fool's gold, but Williamson ranks with any of the approximately 72 receivers Matt Millen drafted when he was doing to the Lions what a bunch of dopes in suits did to the U.S. auto industry. Williamson, the No. 7 pick in 2006, was expected to give the Vikings the deep threat they had lacked since Moss left. Three years later, his name is mostly a punchline to me. Some of his drops were so bad that the director of a cheesy football comedy wouldn't have even included them, for lack of believability.

18. Paul Ferraro's special teams unit (2008)
SEVEN return touchdowns allowed in one season, a NFL record. The crazy part is Ferraro moved up the coaching ladder after that showing, since he was hired by the St. Louis Rams to coach their linebackers. Granted, that means worrying about three players, not all 11 on the field at one time.

17. Tony Dorsett runs 99½ yards
Perhaps it was not disappointing in the classic sense. It's just that the NFL Network seems bound by policy to have to air the clip of Dorsett's dash at least once every 24 hours. No one remembers that the Vikings actually won that 1982 Monday nighter, no mean feat when you allow a running back to go 99 yards on a play when his team lined up with only 10 guys. True story.

16. Vikadontis Rex (1995-2000)
There is only room for one lame dinosaur mascot in the four major sports. The Toronto Raptors totally called this one. Vikadontis was introduced in the wake of the Jurassic Park phenomenon in the early '90s, probably as a way to appeal to the kids. Of course, the Vikings already had a mascot, Ragnar, played by a guy who holds the world record for shaving with an ax, so it just ended up destroying the brand.

15. Antonio Freeman's catch
I'd like to shy away from using the word fluke. However, what happened on the night of Nov. 6, 2000 was nothing but a damn fluke. The Vikings and Packers never should have been in overtime in the first place, but in a driving rainstorm, the Vikings botched the hold on a last-second field goal try. In OT, Freeman slipped on the wet field while running a deep route and Dishman appeared to bat it to the turf. However, it hit Freeman, who managed to complete the catch, get to his feet without being tackled and cut inside a defender to score and give Green Bay a 26-20 win. It also cost the Vikings home-field advantage throughout the playoffs which in turn would set up something that will most definitely come up later in this blog.

14. Dennis Green tries to sue the team
To be fair, you might call a lawyer too if you had coached a perennial playoff team and found out the highers-up tried to replace you with a rah-rah college coach like Lou Holtz who was a failure in his one shot in the NFL. To me the Vikings are still trying to find a suitable replacement.

13. Randy Moss' long goodbye (about 2002 to '04)
There are reasons Randy Moss is great and wonderful beyond him being in the picture when people talk about the greatest pass receivers in NFL history (after Jerry Rice and somewhere in there with Marvin Harrison and Lance Alworth). Moss showed an outcast could make it in an American team sport. That point was generally lost amid the "I play when I want to play," the meter-maid bumping and leaving the field before the game was over.

12. Daunte Culpepper's knee injury
When pro football historians (how do you get that job?) talk about the great passing combos whose first names need not be mentioned, they'll talk about Montana-to-Rice, Manning-to-Harrison, Unitas-to-Berry, and Brady-to-Moss. It will ignore Culpepper, who threw to Moss during his prime years, from the time he was 23 until he was 27. It went so well for so long, then one day it did not anymore. Since '05, Culpepper has played for the Dolphins, Raiders and the Detroit Lions, so you could say the injury was career-ending.

11. Pass not intended for Darrin Nelson
Plenty of teams have seen their Super Bowl dreams dashed in the final minute of the conference championship game, just yards from a tying or winning touchdown. My dad (of course being a Redskins fan) refers to this game as the "Game with a hundred punts." The killer is that the final play of the 1987 NFC championship vs. Washington, the underdog Vikings ended up with Anthony Carter and running back Darrin Nelson in the same area of the field. That made it easier for Hall of Famer Darrell Green, who was covering Carter, to break up the pass. It was intended for Nelson, but considering that Carter had set a playoff receiving record the week before, it's hard to ignore the thought that Wade Wilson was throwing for him. That was also the season when the NFL used scrub players for three games during a players' strike. The fake Vikings went 0-3, but they still made the playoffs and were six yards from victory.

10. Super Bowl IV
The first of the Vikings' four Super Bowl losses might not be well-remembered. The fact remains is they were 12-point favorites going in against the Kansas City Chiefs and lost by 16. No team ever favored by such a large spread ever lost again until 1998, when a certain bunch of Cheeseheads, thanks to a couple key turnovers by a quarterback wearing No. 4, lost to Denver after being favored by 13.

9. Love boat scandal
Easy enough to laugh this off now, but the general mood was less tolerant in 2005. Between Moss leaving and Culpepper suffering a devastating knee injury, it was a rough few months.

8. Jim Marshall's wrong-way run
Marshall's record of playing in 282 consecutive games across 20 seasons basically makes him the NFL's answer to Cal Ripken Jr., except Ripken did not have to get cut-blocked or leg-whipped on a semi-regular basis. However, there's a belief the member of the Purple People Eaters is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame all because of one boner he pulled in 1964 when he picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way all the way to the end zone for a safety against the 49ers. Much like the embarrassment that was the 99 yard TD, the Vikings also won this game so it didn't really matter.

7. Nooooo! Nooooooo!
Six years later, the question how remains unanswered. An 11-point fourth-quarter lead against the worst team in the NFL should have been safe. Somehow, the Arizona Cardinals, led by depth-chart fillers such as Josh McCown and Nathan Poole, scored two touchdowns and recovered an onside kick all after the two-minute warning, helping Favre and the Green Bay Packers get into the playoffs, keeping the Vikings out after they had started the season 6-0. Of course, since the best a Vikings fan can usually hope for is justice delayed, several years later the NFL changed the so-called force-out rule, so Nathan Poole's end-zone catch would not count if they were playing the game today.

6. Metrodome opens
Let's get this straight: You gave up the best home-field advantage in the NFL? How did that work out? Baseball's Twins, the NBA's Timberwolves and the University of Minnesota football team have each scored sweeter digs, but only the Vikings remain unable to score a modern stadium.

5. Korey Stringer's death
As a fan, there is a lot you don't wanna know when it comes to the sacrifices pro athletes have to make. Springer's death due to complications from heat stroke uncovered the dark side of the sport. Pushing someone that far was so needless, so unnecessary that it hardly seemed like a game.

4. 41-doughnut
Have you ever sat there as a sports fan after your team lost by a slim margin and wondered if it would have been easier to take if they had never been in the game? Losing 41-0 in the NFC championship game to the New York Giants, getting shut out by a defence which had Jason Sehorn on it, well, there's your answer. Again, if the Freeman catch doesn't happen, the Vikings may well have hosted this game at home, but would it have made a difference? True story, I watched the 1st quarter of this game at my brother's house (Giants fan..yes this makes me 0-2 against my family in conference championship games) and I left with my girlfriend after the Vikes fell behind 14-0 because "I could tell where this game was headed." I told her "Look, the Vikes will come back, make it a game, only to break my heart at the end and I don't want to put myself through that misery. It's not like they're gonna lose 42-0 or anything." As it turns out...I was one point off...

3. Drew Pearson pushes off
Pass interference is like disorderly conduct. There is no clear definition of it, but everyone knows it when they see it. Pearson's look of restrained jubilation and guilty body language as he looks around for a penalty flag after catching the Hail Mary pass from Roger Staubach to beat the Vikings in the '75 playoffs is all the proof one needs to know he pushed off on Hall of Fame defensive back Paul Krause, even if the replays are actually inconclusive.

2. Herschel Walker trade
This trade was so bad the temptation is to believe it was a conspiracy to restore the Dallas Cowboys to NFL prominence as "America's Team" and help the league's TV ratings recover in the wake of the 1987 strike. It's easier to accept that trust me. The truth of the matter is two of the draft picks the Cowboys received for this ridiculous trade were used to draft Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. Enough said.

1. Almost perfect
All together now: Damn! It's a burn, not a serious one mind you since this is just football (yeah right), to never know how Randall Cunningham and Cris Carter might have done in a Super Bowl. This team was just way too good to not even have the opportunity to play in a Super Bowl. They lost two games that season, to the Bucs 27-24 in Week 8 and 30-27 to the Falcons in the NFC Championship game. I still don't blame Gary Anderson for missing his first kick in TWO years. Instead I share the blame with the touchdown that Moss dropped in the 2nd quarter (Vikes settled for a FG), the prevent defense they played after the Anderson miss while still leading 27-20, the TWO dropped interceptions by Robert Griffith on the Falcons ensuing TD drive, and the "kneel down" on 3rd down with 30 seconds on the clock and the Vikes with the ball on their own 35 yard line with the most explosive offense in the entire league. I still watch this game every year before the new season starts. It helps me to get over a loss much quicker because nothing will ever compare to the 1998 NFC Championship game.

Feel free to come mow my lawn now...

Well, it's finally "official", Brett Favre has decided to stay retired and not come and play for the Minnesota Vikings in 2009. Yes, this should be considered pretty big news. After all, this has been THE story of the Minnesota Vikings' off-season, and it has finally come to a conclusion that absolutely nobody expected.

Am I surprised? Certainly.

Am I angry or disappointed? Nope. Not even a little bit.

Why am I not angry or disappointed? Because the wonderful thing about this resolution to the Favre situation is this:

The Minnesota Vikings are still, with or without Brett Favre, the best and most talented team in the NFC North.

Lots of people won't agree with my assessment on that front, and quite frankly that doesn't matter to me. The facts are the facts. Last year, the Vikings won the NFC North with the combination of bad Tarvaris Jackson, Gus Frerotte, and good Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback. And there's no reason to think that the combination of Sage Rosenfels and good/bad Tarvaris Jackson won't do the same thing.

After all the Vikings still have the best running game in the NFC North, possibly the best in the NFC, and maybe the best in the NFL. They also still have a defense that's one of the best in the NFL and light years ahead of any other defense in the NFC North.

Yeah, they have a perceived "hole" at the quarterback position. Ask last year's Packers how far an allegedly wonderful young quarterback and a vastly overrated defense will get you in the NFL. About 6-10, that's what it will get you. If the Bears and Packers want to try their luck with that formula again in 2009, more power to them. . . they'll finish in the same place they finished 2008. . . looking up at the best team in the North.

Reportedly the Vikings have officially closed the door on Favre. Thank you, Brad Childress.
So, our long, unnecessarily drawn out nightmare is over. Bring on the regular season.