Are You Kidding Me? Headless Vikings Don’t Win Championships

By MikeBullock  |   Friday, August 07, 2009  |  Comments( 4 )

Minnesota Vikings
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Imagine you’re the head coach of a storied franchise. In three short years, you’ve taken the team from ‘rebuilding’ to Division Champion. You have one of the best defenses in the game, arguably the best Running Back to come along since Barry Sanders, solid lines on both sides of the ball and a passing attack that’s only missing one thing: a solid field general.

So, you bow out of the playoffs early because your QB can’t handle a frenzied blitz package and head home licking your wounds. Once you’ve reviewed the season, rested up and returned to work the only logical conclusion you can draw is to upgrade the all-important position of signal caller.

But wait, first you might want to let go of the perennial all-pro Center who protects him and commands that great offensive line. Nothing gets better play out of a QB than a new center.

Once you’ve taken care of that, it’s time to focus in on the task at hand: trading for a career back up to compete for the Quarterback position with the guy you already have who should be a career back up. Forget the proven vets like Cutler and Warner, don’t bother with the young guys who haven’t had a chance yet like Andrew Walter. Let’s go grab a guy who has had far too many chances to take the lead and ended up following every time.

Now, since you’ve taken care of that, it’s off to OTAs and mini-camps. Hold on! What about that future Hall of Fame guy who loves attention more than throwing touchdown passes? Sure he’s retired, but he says that every year. It couldn’t be too hard to talk him into coming out and tossing some balls to the speedy receiver you already have as well as the laser beam of a first round draft pick.

Before you go ahead and hand the keys over to the two back up guys, let’s see how much hoopla we can create by talking the old man out of retirement. Maybe those back ups can really begin to overachieve by knowing you believe in them enough to call in a forty-year-old man to take their place. Nothing motivates athletes more than showing them they can’t outperform a senior citizen.

Stop the presses! What do you mean the old man doesn’t want to play? But, he’s been down at that High School tossing balls to the kids for weeks. He had arm surgery, bought a condo in your town and everything. Surely he’s simply confused and needs more time to think.

So, you give him more time, but he still decides advertising jeans with random teenage actors is more appealing than playing ball.

That’s okay you still have that defense. That running back is racing toward a Hall of Fame career. Maybe the new Center will outperform the one that got away and maybe, just maybe one of these back up Quarterbacks will light up the world and take his place as the next Fran Tarkenton. Or maybe he’ll trip over a guy lying on the ground and sprain his MCL…

Now, the only thing you can do is lie awake at night and hope that defense really does win championships, because anything less at this stage will be a step backwards, something NFL owners have no interest in. Or, maybe you can call up Terry Bradshaw, he still looks good in those mock drills on the pre game shows…
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