The Vikings, do I care?
By Tom Grout
October 10, 2008
I didn’t get to see the first half of the Vikings game last Monday night but I did get to see most of the second half. As I watched the game I found myself switching back and forth between the game and something else. Then I started thinking about what was the matter with me. This seemed to be an exciting game, it was the Vikings, it was Monday Night Football and we won, but I didn’t seem to care much.
I have said here before that it will take a lot to get me emotionally involved with the Vikings again after some pretty disappointing losses and seasons in the last 10-12 years, but my feelings this night were really apathetic.
My wife, who had seen the first half, said that the Vikings should be ahead by a lot, the Saints were lucky to be in the game. I guess after hearing that I just thought, here we go again. Then I saw the two punt returns for touchdowns and I went to the kitchen to get something to eat and contemplated going to bed. My wife then told me that the announcers had said the rumor was that if the Vikings lose this game Brad Childress may be fired. So that piqued my interest to watch the rest of the game.
So I found myself actually rooting against the Vikes, not out loud as to not upset my wife, but inwardly. I don’t think Childress is a good coach and there is a lot of talent on this team going to waste so I wanted to see if the rumors of his demise were going to transpire.
Then the Cavalry came in as Gus Frerotte and Bernard Berrian brought back Childress from the depths of beyond and pulled him out of the obis. I wasn’t sure I was happy about the outcome or not. I was glad the Vikings won, but I so despise Childress and his game plans that I just found myself sitting there for a second and then went to bed. No emotions.
This week the Vikings play the Detroit Pussycats, I mean Lions. The Lions are just not a very good football team so the Vikings should win this game despite Childress. Big Bad Brad will live to fight yet another week.
-The Lions are kinda like the Chicago Cubs. Some years their teams are dismal and other years they are pretty good but never good enough to advance into the playoffs. I will never forget years ago when Viking safety Karl Kussulke came in on a blitz on seen by Lion quarterback Greg Landry. Karl came in full speed and buried his helmet and shoulders into Landry’s chest and slammed him to the ground. Landry has said that was the hardest hit he had ever taken in a football game.
It may have been the same game maybe not but I remember another game with the Lions where the refs called a penalty on the Vikings Alan Page that Page wasn’t to happy with. One thing you didn’t want to do to the future judge was make him mad. Page made a couple of sacks and tackled the running back deep in the backfield on successive plays. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen.
-The Twins as they face the off season need to be looking for a third baseman with a little power and he should be a right handed bat. There are a few available, like Beltre from Seattle, Kouzamoff from San Diego, Atkins from Colorado, and Joe Crede from the White Sox if he can stay healthy.
The Twins claim they are looking for a shortstop and have mentioned Orlando Cabrera from the White Sox. Cabrera is good defensively and isn’t a bad hitter. But, if the Twins could land one of the above third baseman, a shortstop of Cabrera’s character may not me needed. I guess I am thinking of the money. I would rather have them spend money on a good third baseman than a shortstop. If money does become an issue, then spend it on a third bag guy and let Tolbert, Harris, Cassilla, or some minor league guy fight it out. We all know Punto is going to end up there anyway.
If the Twins get one of the above third baseman and Cabrera, then that would be fine too, I just don’t see the Twins spending the money.
-I know not many people care, but, THE WILD START THEIR SEASON ON SATURDAY!!!!
Tom, I felt the exact same emotions as you did during that Vikings game on Monday night. The competetive (and die-hard) half of me wanted the Vikes to win. The other half of me wanted the Vikes to lose it so at least the possibility of Chilli being gone would present itself. Let's all face it. The Vikings will lose a lot more games this year, and all that beating bad teams is doing is prolonging getting rid of Chilli and his staff. On Monday night I just had the feeling of "lose now and get it overwith so we can at least try to salvage the season". All a person has to do to see how pathetic the Vikings offense is, is to watch some other games. During the Vikes game I was switching back and forth to the baseball game, and watched that poor sucker from the Angels botch a suicide squeeze attempt. Up until the botch, I had no desire to switch back to that football game.
Twins-you're right on the money again. Everyone in the world knows we need a 3B and next spring there will be a "new" starting shortstop and by the end of the season Punto will be there.
Wild-I should be more excited about the Wild season, but I can't be. They let go the heart and soul of this team (Rolston) and if you read the roster in the paper it seems like over half their team is new. Then, to top it off, there is the Gaborik distraction. I'd be willing to trade him for 2 or 3 solid, healthy players and look to be a contender in 2 years. With all the new blood, I think they're a borderline playoff team at best. The pitiful part about that is they won the division last year. Hopefully, they prove me wrong.
The Vikes. Wow. This last game raises the level of your question, Tom, "Do I care?" And it also raises the question "Do they care?" The team seems an equal balance between major talent and major holes. If the front office narative of this team is accurate, the Lions game should have been a coming out party. Instead, it looked like a JV game.
I'd be very interested in two conversations today. The first involves tactics -- the talks between Childress and his staff reviewing the game and considering adjustments, options, alternatives, for how to get the team where they say they want to be. I'd like to hear the talk about whether they think they still have a chance, somehow, of plugging the EJ Henderson hole, of how they plan to develop some consistent down-field offense, of whether they even have guys on the roster to man the QB and WR slots, and if they know how to go about game-planning for the O and the D.
The second conversation and more interesting conversation, is strategic in nature. Its the conversation between Ziggy and the Ziggy in the mirror about the direction of his team -- whether his hirelings have a clue about what they're doing, whether he needs to give them more time, more talent, or pink slips. Is the Lion's game a bump in the road, or is it actually the road? If I were the Wilf, that's the question I'd be asking the mirror.
But I'm not the Wilf, sitting in a luxury box, martooni in hand, contemplating the universe of all things purple and what to do with my toy. I'm just some schmuck in front of a TV in west central Minnesota, watching a pathetic team that just had their GM canned for years of botched decisions come within a last second field goal of beating a pre-season superbowl pic. What are they thinking? And why do I care?
Post a comment