State of the Vikings Address

With the Minnesota gubernatorial race still undecided, I am writing a State of the Vikings Address.  Minneapolis is a Vikings town.  Even though we have the best overall sports stadium in the country in Target Field, baseball has and always will take a backseat to your Minnesota Vikings.  Baseball seems to function as something we do during the NFL offseason.  This is a sad fact, but until the Twinks can prove their mettle in the postseason, our allegiances will always be with the purple.

The obsession with football is nation-wide.  When the San Francisco Giants were off winning the World Series, Randy Moss was busy yelling at a caterer and getting kicked out of Minny.  These two events received about the same amount of coverage on Sportscenter, PTI, Around the Horn, and ESPN.com.

So to review, The Giants brought home a world championship to San Francisco.  For the first time.  Ever.  The Giants won titles in New York, but never in San Fran.  Barry Bonds, with as big a head as he has and as small as his testicles have become, couldn't do it.  It took The Freak (Tim Lincecum), The Freaky (Brian Wilson), and the wanna-be rodeo clown (Cody Ross) to bring one home.  (Aside, apparently the Twins don't have enough personality to win championships, that's you Sideburns.)  Not to mention, the World Series MVP played the thing with a torn tendon in his arm.   This was a Fall Classic with some guts.  Unfortunately, no one noticed.

This compulsion for football is also unfortunate for one Brad Childress.  He has a team in shambles, floundering in one of the weakest divisions in all of sports.  Rubes and analysts alike are wondering who actually has control of the Purple.  And unfortunately for every Minnesota fan, He Who Mustached Not Be Named wants to be a tyrannical dictator, but Zygi and the Silver Fox have other ideas.

This power struggle leads to no internal leadership, and an abundance of mistrust in the organization.  Fans don't trust the coach.  Chilly barely trusts Brett, and is just itching for T-Jack to get in there.  And now Zygi Wilf cannot trust Childress after he alone made the call to cut Moss after 3 games.  3 GAMES!  It's ok, the Vikes didn't need that 3rd Rounder anyway.  In all likelihood the Vikes would have traded it away to pick up a mediocre white running back from Stanford, a school that without John Elway, would not have a stake in the NFL.

It would be great to call the Randy Moss situation water under the bridge, but they gave up that pick, and
this situation has become a catalyst for an already tumultuous Vikings season.  You need drama in the NFL?  Look no further than Winter Park.

And we thought that losing Sidney Rice for the first half of the year would be our biggest problem.  He's finally off the Physically Unable to Perform list.  This is the first positive news bite that has happened to this team all year.

Amazing how far down a ship can crash a year removed from being one play shy of the Super Bowl.