Vikings vs. Chiefs

I had tickets to the Vikings game against the Chiefs this past Friday. It was Favre's debut, and I was pumped to watch the one or two series he was going to play. I bought the tickets before we acquired Favre, so naturally I was all the more exited about going to the game once that whole situation came about.
Being an inexperienced fan, I managed to screw things up a bit. I forgot to KISS, (keep it simple, stupid) sound advice I was given one Thursday a year or two back by Michael Scott. I invited my wife to come along, who is not much of a football fan. If she was given the instruction, “Write down ten things you know about football,” she would struggle.
I figured I needed to compensate for dragging her to the game by tying something else fun into the night. We planned to go eat at a bar downtown a few exits past the Metrodome. We picked this place because it's a favorite of hers, however, we did not allow ourselves adequate time for this. Game time was at 7:00 and we cruised by the Dome at around 5:25 on our way to eat. As soon as we passed it, I became stressed because really all I wanted to do was be inside the building, in my seat, and taking in the atmosphere of Favre's debut.
We got to Matt's Bar at 5:35, waited for a few minutes to get a table, decided it would be better to get it to go, asked if we could order to go, were told that we could but it would still be a 20-30 minute wait, then I made the decision for us to leave. All the excitement my wife had shown for eating there and for the evening instantly turned into heavy disappointment and zero enthusiasm for the remainder of the night. I, on the other hand, after wasting around 20 minutes at this place, wanted to eat wherever was closest and wherever was fastest so we could get on our way to the game. Mentally, we were in very different places. We ate at a Subway just down the street, with what could be considered a light amount of table conversation.
We arrived at the station to ride the light rail to the Metrodome at 6:25, plenty of time I thought. My goal was to be there by 6:30. Trains were supposed to come every seven minutes and it was about a two minute ride to the dome. By the time we bought our tickets, the next train to come was at 6:38. It was completely full. Maybe 30% of the people there were able to get on. We were not in that group. Next train comes by at 6:45, same story, it was crowded. We made an attempt to step into a door and were met with nothing but cold stares and a total resistance to make any kind of movement whatsoever that might help us be able to squeeze in.
The train pulled away and left. I was pissed. In my head I replayed the scene, but with me throwing bodies out of that train and shoulder charging my way in without hesitation. I really don't even know what kind of point there is to be made here, but there was a group of five people waiting next to us, two of them mentally handicapped. That group made it on. Again, I don't know what point there is to be made, but I remember taking stock of that in my brain, and it was irritating.
The minutes passed. I spent most of the time scowling, looking at my watch, and repeatedly beating my fist against a metal pillar. The next train did not show up until 7:01! SIXTEEN minutes after the previous train. I was mentally defeated at that point. My only hope was that the Vikings had started on defense.
We arrived at our seats with 10:24 left in the first quarter and the Chiefs had the ball. “WE DIDN'T MISS FAVRE,” I thought to myself. My mood instantly lifted and I was able to enjoy the rest of the game, even though Favre did nothing remotely good in the three plays I saw him play.
I didn't ask anyone if we had been on offense yet earlier in the game, partly because I didn't want to know and partly because I didn't think there was anyway that was possible given the time on the clock when the Chiefs had the ball. I learned after the game though that we had already been on offense and that I missed the first three Favre plays. That was pretty discouraging to hear, but I have moved on and plan to learn from this mistake for future games that I attend.

A few quick thoughts on the actual game.
-Favre did not play well. It sucked that he didn't really do anything good, but I am convinced there is nothing to worry about given he only had three days of practice in him.
-T-Jack did play well. This was encouraging to see, but a mute point given he is obviously not going to start this year and that he has played well before and then come back and given stink bomb after stink bomb performances. If he plays well again against Houston though it could be a little more interesting of a story.
-Percy Harvin was so-so. It was fun to see him return a couple kicks, and he did a fine job, but nothing to get too worked up over.
-There were an impressive amount of Favre jerseys being worn despite only having a few days to purchase them. There were also a large amount of Hovan jerseys. Please, as a Vikings fan, if you have a Chris Hovan jersey from a few years back, PLEASE THROW IT AWAY, or donate it to your nearest thrift store.
-In the 2nd half, when people started to lose interest in the efforts of the bench players, they took interest in getting the wave going. There was a solid wave going throughout the whole Dome for about ten times around. It was sweet.
-We won. Undefeated so far, even though the games don't matter, it is still fun as a fan for the Vikings to win.

Brett Favre

Brett Favre is a Viking. This is awesome.

Obviously there are some interesting story lines to this whole Favre saga, but, it is an irrefutable fact that the Vikings have upgraded at the quarterback position. Sure it sends a message showing shaky at best, to absolutely zero confidence in our other quarterbacks, but I'm not all that concerned with their psyche. I just want to see us win as many games as possible. Perhaps if I felt we owed either of them loyalty, but they haven't earned that.

A picture in the Minneapolis Star Tribune printed today that summed up the whole situation perfectly. It is a picture of Brett Favre shaking Tarvaris Jackson's hand. Jackson has a half forced smile on his face which mainly just looks like a straight up grimace. It is exactly what you picture of two people meeting when one of the parties is being replaced by another who is far superior and obviously outclasses the other.

For example, let's say there is a guy named Damien who really has the hots for this girl Bianca. He is out with her dancing and he is not in any way a good dancer, but he is not horrible either and he is really trying hard. Damien thinks things are going well and he's going to have a chance with this girl. Then, out of nowhere, Jake saunters across the dance floor, who is much better looking than Damien, and a far superior dancer, and steals Blanca away in a second. But, not before making sure to politely shake Damien's hand as he does so. T-Jack's face in the picture is the exact face Damien would have had shaking Jake's hand.

Then you have Sage Rosenfels off to the right standing and staring with his thumbs in his practice shorts; may as well have had them in his butt. He will be perfecting that stance as the 2009 season moves on.

The best part of the picture is seeing Jim Kleinsasser in the background with a huge giddy grin on his face. I can only imagine he is either that excited to have Favre there, or that he's that excited to be able to witness the awkward encounter that is currently occurring between Favre and T-Jack. I hope it's the latter. That's the one I would be thinking about.

Thoughts on Vikings Debut

A few thoughts on yesterday's game against the Colts.

PROS

-This has to be the biggest pro of what I watched and in the opinion of anyone who knows what they're talking about, an omen of success for the Vikings in 2009. Brad Childress got rid of his mustache!!! No longer do we as a fan base have to be embarrassed when our coach is shown on TV. No longer do we need to say to ourselves, “Hey what's that child molester that I saw on Dateline doing on our sideline with a clipboard... oh wait that's our coach.” What a relief.

-We won the game 13-3.

-Sage Rosenfels played well, leading our offense to a touchdown and a field goal on our first two drives. Rosenfels completed 10 of 13 passes for 91 yards and took a step in the right direction for convincing me he is a competent quarterback. The only previous video footage that I've seen of Rosenfels playing in the NFL was from this play last year, which pretty much made him look like an idiot.

-Defense. First team defense sacked Peyton Manning three times in their only series of play.

CONS

-Bernard Berrian being carted off the field after sustaining an injury. The word so far is that it's some kind of a hamstring injury. It is scary, being that he is the biggest receiving threat for an already weak passing game.

-Tarvaris Jackson. More of what we've grown accustomed to seeing out of Jackson. He completed 7 of 15 passes for a meager 39 yards. It would be easy to have zero hope in Jackson, if it wasn't for the two game stretch that we watched him play out of his mind at the end of last season, proving to us what he is capable of when he is confident and using his brain. He definitely lost some ground in the battle for the starting quarterback spot with this performance.

-Adrian Peterson didn't have a 50 plus yard run where he burst out of a pile of would be tacklers, made a linebacker look foolish on a juke, and a safety look like a high school kicker with a lowered shoulder. I'll forgive him for now though. It will come.

Intro

This blog is to document my experiences as I become a Minnesota Vikings fanatic. I have lived in Minnesota all my life, and would consider myself to be a "Vikings fan," however, I've never been more than a fair weathered fan. This season I am committing to much more than that. I am committing to watch every game and cheer with boyish naivety even though it appears all hope has been lost. I am committed to talking up one to possibly two or three quarterbacks as being right on the cusp of fully grasping how to be a success in the NFL, all the while knowing that based on my definition of "right on the cusp," I would also fall into that category.
I am 23 and am a big sports fan. I have never dedicated myself to a team though. I pick and choose teams that I like currently, based on if they have an interesting story or fun players to watch. My allegiances hop and skip around and it is great because I can take pride in the success of my recent favorite team and never have to feel the pain of the teams I once supported but dropped when things went awry. I want to test the waters of this hard core fan business though. I am ready. I want to feel the pain of the Viking's failures and inexplicably burst into tears at their successes.
This blog will keep track of my journey.