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Vikings are like a bad girlfriend
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Monday, September 20, 2004
After a 35-17 lopsided offensive explosion against the Dallas Cowboys last week, and a Monday night battle against the highly touted Philadelphia Eagles tonight, Minn-esota has its purple juices flowing.
Two of the NFL's premier passers in Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb will go snap for snap with each other. Then of course the soap opera will get even sweeter when two of the games best receivers and biggest egos in Randy Moss and Terrell Owens will exchange touchdowns, and ridiculous celebrations.
But, beyond the individual melodrama, tonight's game in Philadelphia is being made out to be a yardstick in which the Vikings will be able to use to see if all the early season hype in the Twin Cities area is actually for real this time.
Wake up Vikings fans, its time to find a new means of measurement.
Lets be honest, the Vikings are like the worst kind of girlfriend.
In the beginning, life couldn't get any better. The birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and Neil Diamond shows up on your front porch to clear up any doubt you ever had in life. When you think it's time to take the next step, you find out she's been cheating on you since day one. Last year's 6-0 start and failure to reach the playoffs is only the latest example of heartbreak.
Now imagine that this girl turns out to be a clepto. She steals all your belongings and moves to a different state.
This could slowly be becoming Minnesota's harsh reality after the Vikings recently abandoned stadium lobbying efforts for the 2005 legislature.
After five years of planning and lobbying, the Vikings backed out because they were sick of waiting for public funding, and to save $500,000 annually according to Vikings' President Gary Woods.
Last winter, the Vikings and Governor Tim Pawlenty collaborated to create a Stadium Screening Committee which sparked involvement from the state legislature for the first time. However, the legislature collapsed on the issue last spring leaving the issue up in the air.
Anoka County seemed to have the most profitable plan to host the Vikings with a new stadium in Blaine. Now that the Vikings dropped out, it's back to where we were in 1999: surrounded by high price talent, expectations, and a billionaire owner from Texas who expects Minnesota tax payers to fund his circus. If there's one thing Minnesotans can be certain about it's this: no matter how often McCombs says he wants Purple Pride to remain in Minnesota, he won't turn his back on a profit somewhere else if this state continues to fumble ideas for a new stadium.
I hate to be the storm cloud that rains on the parade of Minnesota's optimism. I want to see the Vikings in the Super Bowl more than anyone. I've just had my heart broken too many times to make a commitment to this terrible girlfriend once again.
