The only answer

There are a lot of reasons why I didn't want Brett Favre to sign with the Vikings. I don't really need to go over them again, as much as I would like to. But, I do understand that there are a couple of reasons why the Vikings did make this move.

The fact of the matter is that this was a decision that came from years of ineptitude in the front office, in the coaching staff, and on the field. The Vikings have become a team that a lot of people either don't like or don't care much about. And that is true in Minnesota. Everybody knows about the loyalty and conviction of Kansas City Chiefs fans, Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and Denver Broncos fans. It takes a lot to get them down. This is not, and never really has been the case in Minnesota. Many people in Minnesota feel one or a couple of the following things about the Vikings: that they are unwilling to spend money or spend it wisely; that they are chokers; that they, until recently, were a team full of thugs; and, most importantly, that they will never win a Super Bowl.

Because this viewpoint has been born of years of arrests, playoff losses, and interceptions, something big had to happen to regain the support of Viking nation. Adding to the urgency, the Vikings play in arguably the worst stadium in professional football. The Metrodome, now nearing 30 years old, is finished. The lease is up in 2011, and at one point there was hope that a new stadium would be available by then. But it is too late for that now. The Minnesota Twins will move into a brand-new downtown stadium next spring, and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team will begin playing at their new field on campus this September. The Vikings couldn't manage to work out a deal to continue to share a space with the University (the Gophers played their home games at the Metrodome until this year), so now they are left trying to find funding for a stadium in a community where a lot of money was just spent to build two new fields.

Attendance has been down the last two season, with blackouts being avoided only when local television stations have ponied up to buy remaining tickets--they have no choice, since a blackout would result in their losing a lot of cash from advertisers. Since Zigi Wilf took over as owner of the team, a slow and steady change has occurred. Wilf brought in Brad Childress as head coach, and the two helped clean up the locker room, getting rid of players with 'histories', and replacing them with guys like Chester Taylor and Steve Hutchinson. The team hit the jackpot with Adrian Peterson, and has managed to make some pretty big moves through free agency and trades, bringing in big name and big production guys like Hutchinson, Bernard Berrian, and Jared Allen.

All of this has been nice, and I'm sure it's appreciated by Vikings fans. But support is still waning. Why? Because the team does not win. Last year they made their first playoff appearance of the Wilf/Childress era, but it has become clear that until the team addresses the quarterback position, the rest is for naught.

Enter Brett Favre.

Today I become a card-carrying conspiracy theorist. Well, what I'm about to propose isn't exactly a conspiracy; it's more of a marketing/publicity plan. Here goes: The signing of Brett Favre by the Minnesota Vikings is not, in fact, a desperate move to try to squeeze a Super Bowl victory out of a talented team in 2009; rather, it is a measured attempt to bring back some credibility and excitement to a team that hasn't had either of those things in years, and a shot at making the Vikings "the team" during first few seasons of the next decade.

What am I talking about? At first glance, signing Favre this year didn't seem to me like enough to help with future ticket sales or a bid for a stadium. But after mulling it over, it starts to make sense. A lot of people are up in arms about the timing of the deal, and the effect it will have in the locker room. Surely, allowing Favre to skip training camp and then come in and be named the starting quarterback on his first day--at a cool $12 million--is going to rile up some distrust and some jealousy. But that is OK for the final purpose this move is trying to serve.

This is more about winning over the fans, the media, the NFL, and future free agents than it is about the 2009 team. I mean to suggest that the Vikings are not trying to win a Super Bowl this year. In fact, it would be better if they didn't win the Super Bowl. What the Vikings have done is put people in the seats, put themselves in the position to sell a bunch of purple #4 jerseys, and prepared themselves to make some big moves in the 2010 offseason.

With Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels, the Vikings could very realistically have expected to win the division, maybe win a home playoff game, and have a decent season. Unfortunately, everybody 'knew' that there was no chance for them to actually win the Super Bowl with those quarterbacks. Signing Favre is a debatable football move; many think he makes them the best team in the NFC, and most of the critics of the move admit that he at least makes them better off than they were without him. If all goes to plan, they will win 10 or 11 or maybe even 12 games, and make a little playoff run. Either way, with Favre in the mix, the perception is that there is at least a chance they can go all the way. But if all goes to plan, they will not reach the Super Bowl.

How could that be? Because in 2010, neither Brett Favre or Brad Childress will be in town. Essentially, they are being used as pawns. Childress is the out front in the Favre recruitment because he is the head coach; he even picked him up from the airport. But in the best case scenario, Childress is not the Vikings head coach in 2010. There are too many qualified and proven guys available, and if the Vikings land one of those guys, coming off of two straight playoff appearances, they will have gained more than anybody expected they could have from signing Favre.

Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan, Tony Dungy, Mike Holmgren, Brian Billick, and Jon Gruden are all without jobs this season. Surely Shanahan and Billick will be ready to take a job soon, and Cowher seems to be waiting for the perfect situation. Dungy and Holmgren will insist that they are done for good, but if the right offer came along, do we really believe they would pass? Let's consider two 'positive' outcomes to the Favre signing:

One possibility is that Favre proves to be exactly what the Vikings needed; they have a successful regular season, make it through the NFC playoffs, and make their first Super Bowl appearance in over 30 thirty years. Yes, many people would be very excited about this. Here's the problem: this option leaves the Vikings with no future. Brett Favre cannot play again in 2010, unless the level of desperation (from both parties) reaches absurdity unimaginable. And, frankly, if the team makes it that far, they have to re-up with Childress, and that is nothing but bad news.

On the other hand, say the Vikings go 10-6, win a playoff game, then bow out. Favre retires, and the Vikings land Cowher or Shanahan or Dungy. Suddenly, in February of 2010, they still have this incredibly talented roster, Sage Rosenfels has learned the offense and watched a future Hall of Famer run it, and if they really want to, they have a few months to look for a better quarterback, if there is one available. Let's face it, risky or not, if this roster was caoched by one of those guys mentioned above, making a big trade for a quarterback like Donovan McNabb or even Carson Palmer or Marc Bulger would be worth whatever they had to give up. Or stick with Rosenfels, and use that first round pick to add even more talent to this stacked roster. Oh, and all the distrust and animosity towards the head coach? He'll be gone, and in his place somebody who demands respect, and deserves it.

Can anybody honestly say that the Vikings would not be scary with a proven, elite head coach? Given their roster, a serviceable quarterback, and free reign over the team, would it not be reasonable to expect one or two Super Bowl appearances from a coach like Cowher? I think it very reasonable. Conspiracy theory or not, as a Vikings fan I almost have to hope that this is the outcome. How else will I make it through this year?

NFC North Champions

Ready for the Worst

I arrived in New York much like one starting over would arrive anywhere new; I had a suitcase and an address in my hands, and was having trouble deciding which streets went north and south. I was as excited as I was apprehensive, as sure as I was unsure. Manhattan is somewhere around 1,100 miles away from the Twin Cities, and the difference goes beyond geographical.

If you can believe it, the Vikings play at 1 p.m. here—maybe obvious to those with a basic understanding of time zones and Minnesota’s geographical relation to New York. Sadly, the time difference (however indistinguishable from the team’s vantage) appears to have little bearing on their play. Every fall Sunday in New York the streets are spotted haphazardly with the colors of jerseys from teams across the country. The Bengals, the Eagles, the Cardinals—you name it. In the West Village there is a bar owned by a Packer fan, a place where those beer-swilling, foamed-headed fans gather each week (although, certainly a person whose blood runs as purple as this writers’ would have no reason to further investigate said establishment.)

And what of us Vikings followers? Those downtrodden, cynical, forever-on-the-verge-of-giving-up fans that hardly make it out of their tree stands most Sunday afternoons? It is no overstatement: purple and gold jerseys are few and far between east of the St. Croix. After finding a suitably empty bar in North Brooklyn, I bunkered down each week on a stool in the corner, ready to watch the Minnesota Vikings alone in the largest city in this country.

To my surprise, that scene was broken by the arrival of some other dislocated Midwesterners. First, it was, most unfortunately, a Packer fan. A Milwaukee native and University of Minnesota grad, this Packer fan at least had the courtesy to ignore me. But each week the Viking fans showed their faces at that odd 1 p.m. start time. In flannel jackets no less, one even sporting camouflage hunting pants. One day I turned to find Craig Finn, that Twins-loving, rock band-fronting singer from the Hold Steady. Here, I thought, is a slice of home, Minneapolis on a bar stool beside me.

He had more to say about Minnesota’s professional baseball team—and, in fairness, they had just completed a whirlwind week, sweeping the rival White Sox before squandering a spot at the playoffs—than the purple ones. And the Twins are a decidedly more pleasant topic placed beside a Vikings-Lions game in October. Our Twins are the underdogs that never quit, a collection of no-names that can’t stop winning. Facing very realistic bad expectations, they came out of the first season post-Torii Hunter just one game out of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the 0-4 Lions were beating our other state representatives.

That difference is a little hard to come to terms with. On one hand, the Twins are everything that is right with the sport of baseball; they are a small-market team that always overachieves; they draft well, they use their farm system well, and they have one of the most traditional and fundamental-leaning coaches in the majors in Ron Gardenhire. We love their players. We love Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, and we loved Torii Hunter and Kirby Puckett.

Meanwhile, the Vikings have recently been cast as a group of delinquents. Drugs, boats, fights—though it is hard to imagine them landing a punch, if their quarterbacks are any indicator of their collective accuracy. Ownership ponies-up huge contracts to players who may or may not actually return that investment. And they lose. They lose in the most painful ways possible. They fumble, they give up ridiculous touchdowns to punt returners, twice in one game (OK—so they won that game. But still!). Their head coach so closely resembles a former sitcom character (think military father figure), that one sometimes is ready to forgive his bad challenges and dubious play-calling; if only he really were Major Dad. At least we would know that it was a failed experiment, a PR-ploy, anything but reality.

The now Vikings find themselves poised on the brink of the playoffs, one victory away from a home wildcard game. To make it worse, they don’t even have to win to get in; if Chicago loses its last game the Vikings can back in to the 2008 NFL playoffs. The Vikings have lost some unfathomable number of potential playoff-clinching games in the last five or six years, including last week at home against Atlanta, and could buttress their reputation as perennial choke-artists this week with a loss. Let’s just say that an entire fan base is more than prepared for that unbearable result.

As for the fans, rest assured, the old saying is true: You can take the Viking fan out of Minnesota, but you can’t take Minnesota out of the Viking fan. I’ll be right there with the rest of them, every Sunday, that rag-tag bunch that call themselves Vikings fans (not publicly, if we can avoid it). We’ll be the ones shaking our heads for three hours, asking “What was that?” every other play.