CURTain Call - Minnesota Mediocrity

[The Gopher]

Being a Viking fan is tough work. This edition of CURTain call written by staff-writer Curt Wallgren examines just how hard it has been to support a team that will kick you when you're up, and kick you when you're down.

[Rockbo]

:cry3: Wow. :eek:

That was quite a painful read. Curt, you're right, that was definitely your most depressing article. But strangely enough, it was also probably your best. At least I think so anyway. Very well written and very acurate.

I have to admit that I wasn't really in the mood to take that dark stroll down memory lane. It's friday night and I am now ultra-depressed. I think I'm gonna pass on drinking cold Molsons tonight and offer my services as a D.D instead. If anybody else but a knighted Viking fan had written this article, I would probably be angry and looking to write up a rebuttal. But I'm glad that it came from you and I like the idea of fans of other teams learning how much of a test it can be to remain loyal to the Minnesota Vikings. This edition of Curtain Call was quite effective in getting the point across. You pretty much covered all the bases without mentioning the inconsequential little things.

The only thing that I think may be missing is the time Red McCombs got his grubby paws on our drafting process and insisted that we give away precious draft positions to get Kevin Williams with a smaller contract. From a business standpoint it saved Red McCombs hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in the process it disgraced the franchise and brought unwarranted criticism to head coach Mike Tice at a time when his plate was already over-flowing. :nono:

But anyway, it was an excellent article overall and a very important one. I wouldn't hesitite to give it an 'A' grade. :cooldude:

[Vikes4life]

It was a good read but rather depressing. And by the way this quote is wrong.
"The Vikings do have one NFL championship under their belt, which was won in 1969, before the Superbowl began. In recent history, the Vikings' playoff performances have been a series of one and dones, and two heartbreaking championship games."

The first Super Bowl was Jan 15, 1967. That NFL Championship is what got the Vikings into Super Bowl IV, With the words from Hank Stram (RIP) still ringing in my head. " It's like taking candy from a baby"

[The Gopher]

:cry3: Wow. :eek:

That was quite a painful read. Curt, you're right, that was definitely your most depressing article. But strangely enough, it was also probably your best. At least I think so anyway. Very well written and very acurate.

I have to admit that I wasn't really in the mood to take that dark stroll down memory lane. It's friday night and I am now ultra-depressed. I think I'm gonna pass on drinking cold Molsons tonight and offer my services as a D.D instead. If anybody else but a knighted Viking fan had written this article, I would probably be angry and looking to write up a rebuttal. But I'm glad that it came from you and I like the idea of fans of other teams learning how much of a test it can be to remain loyal to the Minnesota Vikings. This edition of Curtain Call was quite effective in getting the point across. You pretty much covered all the bases without mentioning the inconsequential little things.

The only thing that I think may be missing is the time Red McCombs got his grubby paws on our drafting process and insisted that we give away precious draft positions to get Kevin Williams with a smaller contract. From a business standpoint it saved Red McCombs hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in the process it disgraced the franchise and brought unwarranted criticism to head coach Mike Tice at a time when his plate was already over-flowing. :nono:

But anyway, it was an excellent article overall and a very important one. I wouldn't hesitite to give it an 'A' grade. :cooldude:


I don't think passing on Kevin Williams was for money... The Vikings had a deal in place, but the Ravens balked, and didn't get their deal on time... what happened next everyone knows... teams rushed to the podium with names... and the Vikings still got an impact player...

Vikes4life, thanks for clearing that up for me... I got some bad info from Wikipedia... sadly i'm not much of a VIkings history buff... maybe that's something I should look into researching more...

[vikemike92]

Very, Very depressing but very very good. I hope there won't be any more memories like these.

[cosmo]

Fantastic article Curt, but I just wanted to point some things out.


After that heartbreak, the Vikings made it back to the championship game the next year. The Vikings failed to show up for the game, and were routed in 41-0 fashion.

Actually they made it back two years later. There was the 15-1 Cunningham year (98), the 10-6 Jeff George year (99), and then the beginning of the Culpepper era (00-05) which started out with a 11-5 record and the NFC Championship.


The Vikings became the only 15-1 team to fail to reach the Superbowl.


Not totally true. Look at the Pittburgh Steelers of 2004. Just the '84 Niners and the '85 Bears made it.

[The Gopher]

Fantastic article Curt, but I just wanted to point some things out.



Actually they made it back two years later. There was the 15-1 Cunningham year (98), the 10-6 Jeff George year (99), and then the beginning of the Culpepper era (00-05) which started out with a 11-5 record and the NFC Championship.



Not totally true. Look at the Pittburgh Steelers of 2004. Just the '84 Niners and the '85 Bears made it.


Thanks for pointing that stuff out. I forgot about the Jeff George era, In my defense, I was only 11 when Jeff George was the QB :)

As far as the second one, I know about the steelers, but the Vikings were the first team to do so, I think I should probably clear that up too...

[jc09pats]

good article. BTW what song were you listening to?

[Rockbo]

I don't think passing on Kevin Williams was for money... The Vikings had a deal in place, but the Ravens balked, and didn't get their deal on time... what happened next everyone knows... teams rushed to the podium with names... and the Vikings still got an impact player... Well, no. That's the official explanation from Red McCombs and the one that was happily adopted by the local media whom had already set their sights on ripping Mike Tice for anything and everything.

Robert Smith was quick to point out in detail on KFAN what really took place. It can't be proven of course but makes perfect sense and fits Red McCombs business style like a glove.

The Vikings wanted Kevin Williams. They also had a strong idea who the next 3 or 4 teams were gonna take. Red's thoughts were focused solely on the disparatity of the rookie contracts between those few draft positions. His justification was to get the same player for a lesser price even if it's at the expense of the team's image, reputation, and heritage. One of those bunk purchase offers was materializing and Red figured he'd be selling within months anyway. He was wrong of course because that sale fell through just as a few others did. He was also very wrong to pull that greedy stunt in the NFL's esteemed draft. Robert Smith said that Brian Billick's statement about trade talks was just a former Viking employee sticking up for the team that got him his head coaching job. Billick's theory that he might need to trade up to get his over-rated QB made little sense.

The main reason I brought this up was that I think you were too kind to Red McCombs in your article. To just depict him as a greedy no good car-salesman is being way to nice. I hate McCombs with every drop of my purple blood. After witnessing what went down with my North Stars....I unfortunately became exposed to the dark side of sports ownership. Luckily, these scumbags are few in numbers and most cities may never see one. But I could see right through McCombs from day one. He was a greedy fiend who did a poor job of pretending to care about football or the fans that support it. Our Vikings were nothing more than a large and long business transaction. A transaction that shifted our purple machine into reverse.

Oh, on the Vikings championship thing.....
I also believe that we won a title before the merger. I don't know what year but I'm pretty sure we were champs before the 1st SB. I'll look into it.

Curt, don't sweat these 1 or 2 tiny discrepancies. I still support the accuracy of the article because of the multitudes of facts you presented. Who cares when we returned to the title game? Us Vikes fans knew what you meant and besides....I don't even wanna think about the 41 doughnut.....sometimes I wish I hadn't even watched it. :(

The article still gets an 'A'. :cooldude:

[The Gopher]

Well, no. That's the official explanation from Red McCombs and the one that was happily adopted by the local media whom had already set their sights on ripping Mike Tice for anything and everything.

Robert Smith was quick to point out in detail on KFAN what really took place. It can't be proven of course but makes perfect sense and fits Red McCombs business style like a glove.

The Vikings wanted Kevin Williams. They also had a strong idea who the next 3 or 4 teams were gonna take. Red's thoughts were focused solely on the disparatity of the rookie contracts between those few draft positions. His justification was to get the same player for a lesser price even if it's at the expense of the team's image, reputation, and heritage. One of those bunk purchase offers was materializing and Red figured he'd be selling within months anyway. He was wrong of course because that sale fell through just as a few others did. He was also very wrong to pull that greedy stunt in the NFL's esteemed draft. Robert Smith said that Brian Billick's statement about trade talks was just a former Viking employee sticking up for the team that got him his head coaching job. Billick's theory that he might need to trade up to get his over-rated QB made little sense.

The main reason I brought this up was that I think you were too kind to Red McCombs in your article. To just depict him as a greedy no good car-salesman is being way to nice. I hate McCombs with every drop of my purple blood. After witnessing what went down with my North Stars....I unfortunately became exposed to the dark side of sports ownership. Luckily, these scumbags are few in numbers and most cities may never see one. But I could see right through McCombs from day one. He was a greedy fiend who did a poor job of pretending to care about football or the fans that support it. Our Vikings were nothing more than a large and long business transaction. A transaction that shifted our purple machine into reverse.

Oh, on the Vikings championship thing.....
I also believe that we won a title before the merger. I don't know what year but I'm pretty sure we were champs before the 1st SB. I'll look into it.

Curt, don't sweat these 1 or 2 tiny discrepancies. I still support the accuracy of the article because of the multitudes of facts you presented. Who cares when we returned to the title game? Us Vikes fans knew what you meant and besides....I don't even wanna think about the 41 doughnut.....sometimes I wish I hadn't even watched it. :(

The article still gets an 'A'. :cooldude:

I buy a lot of what Robert Smith says... he is one of the guys I really respect off the field, and not just on the field. I actually just picked up his book a couple days ago, but haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. "The Rest of the Iceberg"

I wouldn't be surprised if it was all about the money, but I juts tend to focus on the fact that the Vikings got one of the top 3 talents that came out of that draft, and nothing else... McCombs is trash... everybody knows that... :beatdeadh (McCombs)

JCO... I was kidding about the emo thing... I don't even really know what an EMO song is... let alone listen to em :)

[Vikes4life]

Oh, on the Vikings championship thing.....
I also believe that we won a title before the merger. I don't know what year but I'm pretty sure we were champs before the 1st SB. I'll look into it.

Curt, don't sweat these 1 or 2 tiny discrepancies. I still support the accuracy of the article because of the multitudes of facts you presented. Who cares when we returned to the title game? Us Vikes fans knew what you meant and besides....I don't even wanna think about the 41 doughnut.....sometimes I wish I hadn't even watched it. :(

The article still gets an 'A'. :cooldude:

It's not like we're ripping Curt. Just nice to have all the facts straight. For the record the Vikings never made the playoff before 1968. Here is a site of NFL history dating back to 1920.

http://www.nfl.com/history/standings/1920

[nyGiants4life]

This is probably the most depressing article I've ever written, I played EMO music most of the time that it took to write this . When I sit back, I can hold my head on only one thing... At least I'm not a Browns Fan (JK RD)

LOL!!! It's a good thing I live in New York, other wise I would be depressed as well. 41-0...haha, good times...good times.

Seriously though, that was a really good article.....must have taken you a long time to do all that research. Props.

[Eric2407]

Very good article Curt. Yeah it's been tough being a fan of Minnesota sports. One thing I see that you didn't go into great detail about has been our miserable drafts. You forgot to mention the selection of Demetrius Underwood in the first round. He ended up never playing a single down for the Vikings. Also the selection of Derrick Alexander over players like Warren Sapp. And lastly awhile back when the Timberwolves had the worst record in the league by like twenty games went into the lottery and got the number three selection. The number one pick that year, Shaquille O'Neal, went onto be one of the most dominant centers in NBA history while we got stuck with Christian Lattnier (sp?). Depressing.