Being a Vikings fan is absolutely maddening. I know, breaking news, right?
The only thing more maddening than watching this team fizzle
out in the clutch every single year is wondering how it happens so
consistently. Sports are a cycle. Sure, some teams remain good for years by
making the correct decisions, but even teams considered bad change something
whether ownership or front office personnel or simply players and become good
for a time.
The Pittsburgh Steelers
began their history as an awful, awful team, but things shifted for them around
the 1970s and Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception” started a wave of success
that continues to the present day, as the Steelers currently possess the most
Super Bowl victories in the league.
A rich team history…the Vikings have that, but without the
hardware to show for it.
It’s not like the team does things any differently from any
other team. The Vikes build through the
draft, having constructed a strong defense that should have been able to propel
the team into the playoffs as division champions again. The Vikings sign key free agents to provide
veteran leadership and depth. They
drafted a franchise quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater in 2014 and got Adrian
Peterson in 2007.
So why does this team continue to fold like a cheap suit
when it gets anywhere near success? The
Vikings’ last trip to the Super Bowl predates every Star Wars movie ever
made. The team has only had four real
chances to go back since (1987, 1998, 2000, 2009), and most of you reading this
know how those turned out.
With the way sports tend to cycle from year to year, one
figures the Vikings have to have their turn at some point. Some of the most historically awful NFL teams
(Buccaneers, Saints) put together good years and won it all. No amount of embarrassment over a number of
years could keep them from their one shining moment.
My fellow Vikings fans must feel tortured at this moment
because they can look around the NFL and see the exact same things their front
office does working for other teams. The
Dallas Cowboys drafted Ezekiel Elliot, who looks like the next-generation
Adrian Peterson and they are 12-2, best record in the NFC; something to which
the Vikings also laid claim at one point in 2016. Meanwhile, the Vikings wasted the prime of
the actual Adrian Peterson.
The most egregious example of “they have everything and we
have nothing” (despite the fact that both teams do things virtually the same
way) arrives this week in the form of a Green Bay Packers team that, in a twist
surely no one saw coming (/sarcasm), righted the ship after some horrible
losses of their own. Just in time for
Christmas. Oh joy. Two teams going in completely different
directions.
The Packers, of course, need no introduction to Vikings
fans. As the haughtier of Packer fans
consistently remind the fans of “little brother,” they have the most combined
old-school NFL Championships and Super Bowls of any team. Titletown USA, they call it.
The Packers have a quarterback who has made a career out of
roasting the Vikings defense like chestnuts on an open fire. They drafted him the same year the Vikings
drafted Troy (bleeping) Williamson, though in the Vikes’ defense, Daunte
Culpepper was coming off of a career year.
Before Rodgers, there was Favre; a man we all loved to hate, but he
would have been our favorite player ever if only he didn't play for that team.
On the other side, the Vikings’ record at drafting QBs is
spotty at best. Fran Tarkenton is a
legend and Tommy Kramer, along with Culpepper, was pretty good. But Tavaris Jackson sucked. Finally, they got Teddy Bridgewater, only for
his leg to practically fall off as he suffered the fluke injury to end all
fluke injuries, putting his future in limbo.
In closing, being a Vikings fan is like watching your friend get the hot
new toy for Christmas. It looks awesome and you beg your parents to buy you one…only for yours to wind up being
a defective pile of fecal matter that breaks in ten seconds. Except in this case, no matter how many times
your parents get it replaced, it just keeps happening and happening. It’s like you aren’t allowed to have this one
specific toy.
Just like the Vikings seemingly aren’t allowed to have the
same kind of success as other teams by copying their model.
Vikings-Packers at Lambeau.
Christmas Eve at noon. Hoping for
the best, prepared for the worst.
(In the improbable event of a Vikings win, potentially taking Green Bay down with them, here is a link that will brag for you!)
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