Friday, December 08, 2006

National Friday League, week fourteen

Vikings-Lions
How do we get excited for this game? The Vikings are 5-7, are starting Brad Johnson, and feature a completely inept passing offense. They are going to play the 2-10 Lions at Detroit. The Vikes need to win out in order to have a winning season and a chance at the playoffs (at Lions, home for the Jets, at Green Bay, home for the Rams--it's possible). They're horrible to watch. The most exciting possibilities are that Tarvaris Jackson plays and/or the Viking defense scores some more touchdowns.

Still, it's a Viking game. I'm emotionally involved so I'll be watching it with anxiety and energy. But I don't have a lot to say about the game.

Why Viking fans should love blogs
Viking fans are cursed with local sports columnists and media personalities who seem to hate the Vikings and love nothing more than to make fun of the Vikings and/or their fans. These luminaries include Patrick Reusse of the Strib, Tom Powers of the Ppress, and Dan Barreiro and Dan Coleman of Kfan. If we want to follow our team through the local media, it can be a brutal experience.

But Viking bloggers don't hate the team, and we only hate Viking fans to the extent that we are self-hating souls that think God hates us.

So here's a roll call of blogs I like that focus almost exclusively on the Vikings:
The Ragnorak
Skol Vikes
Minnesota Vikings Blog--The Fanhouse
Daily Norseman
Vikes Geek
Viking War Cry

So if you don't want to read about how lousy you are, but want to get further opinions on the Purple, check these folks out. And I've written this before: if you're a distant fan that wants to follow the various local coverage of the team, Kansas Viking has already sought out the articles you'll want to read for you. And of course I'm always looking for other Viking blogs, so if you've got any recommendations, I'll take them.

There's also a relatively new (and non-Viking) blog I'd also like to recommend. Leave the Man Alone features some unique takes and good writing--it's operating on some wonderful levels.

One of the appeals of blogs is that you can get unique, even eccentric, opinions on sports. So even though some of you may not like my forays into defending Michael Irvin or the cruelty-free NBA ball, you're at least getting a take that's different from the quasi-objective mainstream chatter you get. To me, the more eccentric the blog, the better, lest we all end up with the same "blogger sensibilities" and end up writing a lot of the same business.

So what do we have for fun this weekend?
What does week 14 offer us?

Baltimore at Kansas City should be fun. What a silly thing to write, when you think about it. "Baltimore at Kansas City." Like the entire city of Baltimore is going to rise up and somehow move itself to Kansas City. I can't see how that would be fun. Would Baltimore just land "at" Kansas City, like, right on top? Buildings and all?

Indianapolis at Jacksonville is a game I would watch if I weren't watching the Vikes and Lions. And according to gribblenation, I could. Flip on commercials, I guess--of course, then I will miss out on Lance Armstrong taunting cancer, a truck racing against some real and mythical beasts, "This is our Country" and all that. Ce la vie, I guess.

Giants and Panthers has some potential to be good. It also has potential to be completely lousy and I'm glad it's not on TV here.

Denver at San Diego could be interesting, but I'm entirely sick of watching the Broncos (did you know that in their first 12 games, they played 6--SIX!--at night on primetime? Granted, two of those games were on ESPN and NFL Network and I didn't see them. But the four Sunday night games (and several day games) have been enough--this team is boring and shouldn't be watched.

Finally, New Orleans goes to see the Tony Romo Show at Dallas. I've seen too much of teams winning with lousy QB play this season (hello, Chicago and Denver). Now I want to watch teams that are winning with good QB play (hello, New Orleans and Cincinnati).

As usual, I hope everybody enjoys the weekend except Packer and Bear fans. Lion fans, you are always pretty miserable (though when your baseball, basketball, and hockey teams are as good as yours are, you have to expect some lousiness from somewhere in town), and I hope your misery continues this weekend. Next week, I'll write a lengthy post calling for Josh McCown to be the Lions' starting QB; for this week, I'll take Jon Kitna, thank you very much.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:54 PM

    As to Detroit having good teams, remember that until this year, the Tigers were a Lion level laughingstock. And I still remember the "Dead Things" era when they had to give away cars between periods to get anybody to attend hockey games. Actually, I remember the Lions being champions. Granted, I was a toddler at the time and the term "Superbowl" hadn't been coined. My point is that we are well used to decade long slumps here. Were it not so, WCF and his gang of serial failures would have been run out of town long ago. In Motown too, there is no such thing as a homer reporter. "Write" and "rip" are football synonyms here. But our press corps has plenty of justification for taking that stance.
    Incidentally, you are not the only veg pacifist football fan around. I have been vegan for twenty odd years and am a lifelong pacifist and football fan. A friend with similar sentiments has been vegetarian for 35 years. As to the football violence issue, there is a vast difference between paid professionals getting hurt in a sporting accident and children being maimed and killed for something they can't understand.

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  2. What post did discussion on football violence occur?

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  3. I was missing a few of those links--thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Hopefully, the Vikings internet community can start to rival the Twins' community when it comes to depth and quality of writing.

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  4. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Each year, my hope for the Lions is that they win just enough for Matt Millen to keep his job. As long as Millen is with Detroit, they will be total non-factors.

    This week, I hope that if Johnson tanks, he'll at least do it early in the game...T-Jack would get plenty of playing time, if that were the case.

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  5. Anonymous8:40 PM

    It's surprising how many pundits on ESPN and CBS are predicting the Lions to take this game.

    I just don't see it.

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