You Brett your life these Vikings are for real

Posted by Paul Anderson | Sunday, September 27, 2009 @ 11:07 PM

I posted this vlog because Mona and I didn’t YouTube the first one we did, but it still covers the same subject matter — Brett Favre — so I thought I’d post this. If you’re on Facebook you can see our first vlog on Favre here.

Anyway, my point is Mona could not understand this summer why I erupted with joy at the first rumors of Favre’s signing with the Vikings, but she was certainly more than amused by it. Enough so, to launch our series of vlogs. I tried to explain then to her why he would be the difference-maker. How such a proud, storied franchise has devolved into choke city when the ultimate clutch moment is called for. Remember how Buffalo could never get it done in the ’90s? Remember how annoyed we started to get every time we’d look up and see them representing the AFC’s sacrificial lamb year in and out? Well, that was the Vikings in the ’70s. And then came the Broncos in the ’80s. Only, John Elway finally shrugged off that monkey with a couple of Super Bowl wins. My favorite QB1, Fran Tarkenton, never achieved football nirvana.

So when this Hall-of-Famer prima donna started playing footsie with Zygi Wilf and co. last year my reaction was, man, I hope it gets done. But of course the Packers sabotaged it and ensured that Favre’s only option was to accept a trade to the Jets. I don’t blame them. But this year our hated rivals had no such leverage and it looked like a cinch Favre would sign with the Purple and Gold. Then he said he was done. Then we heard rumblings he might reconsider. Then, no. Arrrrggghhh. He makes Hamlet look decisive.

Then, when I had given up all hope, he signed. What did it? Well, he just waited for training camp to end. What a guy! Gold-brickin’ it. Then again, Brett Favre doesn’t need training camp anymore than Allen Iverson needs practice (which is true, by the way. I’m on his side on that, though I think he didn’t have to be so obnoxiously cavalier and arrogant about the way he said it).

I griped like the cynical Cubs/Vikings fan I am throughout the game (let’s face it, it’s virtually the same thing), especially when Ryan Longwell’s field goal got blocked and returned for a touchdown to end the first half and instead of the Vikes being up 16-7, they were down 14-13. What a momentum killer. Then the rookie phenom (will he make us forget Randy Moss?) inspired the team with a 101-yard kick return for a score. We’re back in it, I thought. Then — oh the miserable poetry of it all — our former third-stringer Shaun Hill torched us and reclaimed the lead. And there’s intense Mike Singletary, now coaching the 49ers, stomping up and down the sidelines like he roamed the middle as a Bears linebacker — eyes and nostrils flaring. A real coach, I told Mona. A guy you want to run into battle with. A guy who gives Crispen’s Day speeches that would put the fear of God into Braveheart on the other side of the battlefield. Meanwhile, we’ve got Brad “I look like a tax accountant having a mid-life crisis growing out my beard” Childress shuffling on the sidelines with that clueless, dispassionate glaze in his eyes.

“Just look at his posture,” I said to Mona. “How can he inspire anyone? He looks like a car salesman.”

Little did I know, he was playing possum. And that he finally learned how to manage the clock at game’s end. He hoarded those three time outs and it came in handy when we needed to stop the clock three times to get the ball back with a minute-and-a-half left in the game so Favre could work his magic. Wasn’t it the most delicious coincidence that nfl.com’s lead story this afternoon was about Favre’s heroics with the headline, “Magic Man.” I mean, he got his start replacing Don Majkowski, the original Green Bay “magic man.”

Even Favre didn’t think he could do it today. But he throws a few of his usual 10-yard darts to receivers, hurries them to the line of scrimmage so he can spike the ball and stop the clock and then draws up a schoolyard play because, well, he’s still getting to know our playbook having skipped training camp and all. He doesn’t even know it’s Greg Lewis floating to the right corner. All he sees is a purple jersey and he hurls a bullet in his direction and the humble, bench-warming Lewis makes a perfect catch. I could not believe it. All week I figured this was a game they’d lose.

But for once they didn’t choke.

Before they won and I figured they’d lose (but I stuck around because, well, Favre is Favre and you never know…) I thought, “They’re a very good team, but not a great one.”

Maybe I need to reconsider that. All I know is this team is in first place and they look about ready to gel. Can they be as great as the 1998 squad? Actually, I hope they’re not anything like that team — they choked too. Just one shanked field goal away from the Super Bowl. Just like Wade Wilson’s dropped pass against the Redskins in 1988. Always with the Vikings it’s “If only…” But maybe this year is the year. We’ll just have to see.

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1 Comment »

  1. Comment by Bobbo — September 28, 2009 @ 3:30 PM

    I didn’t even know that Minnesota still had a football team.

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