If you’ve read my blog in the past you are probably aware of some things about me. I’m politically progressive, a Buddhist, a former Jehovah’s Witness… but what you may not know is that I am a diehard football fan. A Minnesota Vikings fan, to be specific. Sometimes people are surprised to hear that somebody as geeky as me is into such a crass and violent thing as NFL football, but, well, I am. I grew up with a jock for a dad and have a jock streak of my own. When I was really little I got a Chuck Foreman jersey and that was the beginning of my love for the color purple and the Vikings, even though I didn’t know anything about football.
As I got older, I learned the game. I played a lot with friends from school in yards and local parks. I have memories of watching Tommy Kramer and the Vikings back in the ‘80’s, as well as the 1985 Superbowl in which the Bears demolished the Patriots, the 1987 NFC Championship game (in which the Vikings were one dropped pass in the endzone shy of the Superbowl) and many many other games over the years. I’ve obsessed over Vikings players, Anthony Carter, Robert Smith, John Randle, Chris Carter, Randy Moss, and I’ve suffered with my purple-blooded brethren through the closing years of Bud Grant’s career, then Les Steckle’s 3-13 catastrophe, then more Bud, then Jerry Burns, Denny Green, Mike Tice and now Brad Childress. And my guys have come up short time and time again. Going 15-1 in 1998, and then blowing it minutes shy of the Superbowl. The 41-0 loss to the Giants the last time they were in the NFC Championship, and (of course) many other seasons of missing the playoffs or losing in the first round. It’s been tough. I know what a world championship feels like, thanks to the 1987 and 1991 Twins, and I’ve waited patiently for decades to see my Vikings get there.
In 1998 I was sure it was finally going to happen. The team seemed to be, as Bill Walsh said, “a team of destiny.” After that loss I dialed back my excitement, learned to expect a fun rollercoaster ride each season followed by some other team hoisting the Lombardi trophy. Over the last three years I’ve been less and less enthusiastic about the team. Despite my absolute love of watching Adrian Peterson play, I’ve barely been able to stomach watching the team. The reasons, in a nutshell, have been named Brad Childress and Tarvaris Jackson, both of whom seem to have demonstrated that they are as well suited to do their jobs as I am to practice brain surgery. The incredible ineptitude of the Vikings offense under their combined leadership has taken all the entertainment value out of watching the team and squashed any hopes I’ve entertained of success on the field. Even when they won it was painful. Adrian Peterson ran for 295 yards against the Bears and the Vikings still had to settle for winning the game on a last second field goal. I previously had season tickets but I decided enough was enough. Until there was at least a glimmer of hope, I wasn’t going to pay money to see them play. It was just self-torment.
Today, a glimmer of hope showed up in the person of Brett Favre.
I am a realist. I don’t think we’re getting the Brett Favre that won three MVP awards and went to back-to-back Superbowls, but at the same time, there is a glimmer of hope for a number of reasons. This is because anybody who has watched Favre play the last two seasons should realize a couple of things. First, he played all of last season with a biceps injury that required surgery this past summer on a Jets team that was mediocre (no real running game, limited passing game) in a system that he was unfamiliar with, in one of the toughest divisions in football and yet he lead the league in passing through the first 11 weeks of the season. He beat the 10-0 Titans with that Jets team, injured. He had his team 8-3 in that span. He was playing very well. Then, the injury caught up with him and they missed the playoffs. Still, he was injured when they went 8-3 and he lead the league at his position and this was just last year. This shows he still had quite a bit in the tank and who knows what he could have done had he not been injured? The year before that, his last year as a Packer, he lead the team to a 13-3 record and came within a play or two of the Superbowl before losing to the eventual Superbowl champion Giants. Favre haters blame him for losing that game, but I see no shame in losing to a team that went on to beat the 18-0 Patriots in the Superbowl. Especially considering the talent level of the team he was on. That same Packer team, without him, dropped to 6-10 the following year. That year he also lead the league in all sorts of categories.
The point is that although he was no longer in his prime, he was one of the best quarterbacks in the league in each of his last two seasons despite being injured for most of that time. The injury has been repaired and, although there is still much to be proven, his ability to play has yet to be shown to have disappeared. The last two seasons showed that. Will a healthier Favre with a team that is much better than either the Jets or Packers teams he was on be a threat? I certainly don’t think it’s impossible. It is even, dare I say, likely. Favre, with his arm patched up, with Peterson and Taylor in the backfield drawing most of the defense’s attention to the running game, will find plenty of favorable match-ups in the secondary. Peterson, as well, with a legitimate QB taking the snaps will find that defenses will no longer be able to load the box against him on every play. If they dare the Vikings to throw, they’ll throw, and Favre still has the ability to make them pay in ways that Jackson and Rosenfels can’t. The other day, before the Favre signing, Jackson was being interviewed and said something to the effect of “The question is, can we throw the football?” Considering that this is a man who is being paid sick sums of money to throw a frakking football, this is not something a fan wants to hear.
So, what does Favre give us? First, he gives us his brains and experience. He can read defenses, pick up blitzes (something Tarvaris Jackson only seems to do by watching the jumbotron after the play is over and he’s been sacked), and make adjustments like a coach. Second, by providing a threat at QB, he can force defenses to respect the pass and open up the running game. When Favre fakes a handoff to Peterson, the defense will cave in on him and there will be receivers in single coverage or (gasp!) wide open, for him to throw to and (double gasp!) he just might get the ball to them, unlike certain quarterbacks I could name who seem puzzled by the concept of “throwing the football”.
Elway wasn’t the Elway of old when he won two Superbowls at the end of his career. Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer weren’t dominant when they won Superbowls. They were simply experienced. Favre, the Favre of the last two seasons, is a better QB than either of them were when they won it all. So, what does that mean? It means that a cagey, experienced, quarterback on a young, deep, team, playing without pain for the first time in a year or two who owns nearly every passing record in the books, has won NFL MVP three times, won a Superbowl and taken his team to two, is enough of a step up to give me what I’ve been missing for years… hope. Skol Vikings. Welcome aboard Brett.
More From Ryan Sutter
- God As I Knew Him – Part 4
- God As I Knew Him – Part 1
- The Pattern
- Hope
- The Internet vs. The Watchtower
