The Vikings have played 47 seasons. Brett Favre started for the Packers for 16 seasons. ONE THIRD of the Vikings' history has been spent competing against Favre, in games twice a year, for the division title frequently. The last 16 seasons of NFC Central and NFC North football have been dominated by the presence of Brett Favre.
But now an era has passed. Something that oozed with dark full energy is now gone.
It's a new day.
The division takes a new shape. Rivalries take a new form. The world is now full with possibilities. Anything can happen.
Perhaps the old forms will no longer oppress us. Some of us have lived with the football world as it is for as long as we've followed football. But now something is changing. Of course we knew one day it must change, as all things must change. Still, it feels surprising and vital. Something to celebrate. Something to fill us with hope.
Many will speak of this as a time to mourn, to reflect, to remember. Others see it as something to celebrate. We are liberated. We are free. The haunting specter, the grim shadow, is no more. We have been crouched in self-dug holes, prisoners of our own anger, our own hatred, our own bitterness. Today we crawl out; today we rise and stretch.
Indeed, the wicked witch is dead.
thats more what I was expecting.
ReplyDeleteJon
Today, we start a new era where the best QB in the NFC North is...Kitna? Yikes. It's going to be a long, ugly year for the North. TJack might come around, but I'm not going to buy BB as the savior on Sundays in the HHH Dome.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the market so dry for QBs? Even when looking at starting QBs throughout the league, there are only a few elite QBs... has it been like this for awhile and I haven't noticed? Is this what the world looks like without my green and gold colored glasses?
QBs worth spit in the league (in order):
1. P. Manning
2. Brady
3. Palmer
4. Big Ben
5. Brees
6. Hasselback
7. Eli (is this fair? too fair?)
8. Romo (nerves?)
9. Garrard (fluke?)
10. McNabb (injuries)
Accurate? Do I need to add Garcia? Is Vince Young even close? I'm leaving D. Anderson off because I think he is a flash in the pan.
I suppose you feel like little potted plants after the big tree that took up all the sun is gone. Spending 16 years of your life struggling in the shadow of greatness was probably warping. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteRK
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteYou are neglecting Jake Delhomme! When he comes back this season he's going to be FIERCE! A force to be reckoned with!
Favre was, I think, 17-16 against the Vikings. He was more like another potted plant that had pretty flowers so it just got all the attention.
ReplyDeleteThe current QB situation always looks worse than the QB situation of any given year you look back upon.
ReplyDeleteFor laughs, let's look at 1978. A QB Golden Age, if you count the Hall of Famers: Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubauch, Fran Tarkenton, Bob Griese, and Dan Fouts.
But then you look closer. Bradshaw and Staubauch were both excellent. Griese and Tarkenton were at the end of their careers, and while they led winning teams, Griese threw 11 TDs and 11 INTs and Tarkenton threw 25 TDs and 32 INTs. Fouts was just emerging.
So look at the non-HOF QBs that are still respected. Ken Stabler and Joe Theisman are big names--they each threw more INTs than TDs. Ron Jaworski was OK.
So we could look back and say, "Wow! That year Bradshaw, Staubauch, Tarkenton, Griese, Fouts, Theisman, Stabler, and Jaworski were all playing QB. The QB position was strong then." But if we were following football in 1978, we probably would have noticed how few elite QBs there were.
There are usually only 1-3 elite QBs at a time, and then a handful below them that are playing really great, too. Then there are good or great QBs at the ends of their careers, and good or great QBs at the beginnings of their careers. And if you have more than 1-3 elite QBs, what does "elite" even mean anymore?
I'm not worried about the quality of the QB position at all. Brady and Manning are elite, some other guys are really good much of the time (McNabb, Brees, Hasselbeck), then there are a bunch of young guns with varying degrees of past success (Palmer, Roethlisberger, E. Manning, Romo, etc.).
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/1978/
Karissa-I somehow knew Jake "the Real Snake" Delhomme would be mentioned. Is he going to be calling the shots for your FF team this year? :)
ReplyDeleteJoe-You're right. I thought about my post afterwards and realized the same thing could be said for any position. I have had my head in the clouds for the last 16 years.
"so it [Favre] just got all the attention"
ReplyDeleteThat's really what this is about. It's not Favre as a player or a person that makes him the "wicked witch" (really, I expected a better metaphor from this usually thoughtful sports site).
It's the attention Favre got that galls Vikings fans so much. It's simple, childish jealousy: "Waaaah, John Madden always liked Favre best!"
Timbo