Last night as K Dog and I were discussing the Vikings-Bears game in a way which basically constituted me teasing him that Adrian Peterson had such a good game because Rex Grossman was playing free safety. I also admitted that if the Vikings had actually blown their 14 point lead with 3:30 to go, this weekend would've been the prime example of why I don't really care for football.
The day after the Golden Gophers were unable to even beat the team made up of smart kids, the Vikings would've stomach punched me. Why would I care for a sport where these are the two teams which represent me? Fortunately the Vikings won and I got to bust K Dog's balls about how the game would've been different if Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher had been in the game.
Because honestly this would've been a truly heart-breaking year to be a Minnesota sports fan if the Vikings really sucked instead of just sucking with a few glimmers or two of hope. That would be on top of the KG trade which we're all waiting to see on and the Twins kind of losing their way with the symbolic if nothing else departures of Terry Ryan and, soon to be, Torii Hunter. K Dogg said it would be like 1998 Boston all over again.
He's kind of right though we'd be better to expand it out to a timeframe covering the end of 1996 to the beginning of 1998. All that happened in Boston sports between those two markers is the Patriots advanced to and then lost the Super Bowl, the Celtics won fewer than 20 games in a season and then didn't win Tim Duncan's draft rights either and the Red Sox finished 6 games under .500 while Roger Clemens won the Cy Young in Toronto. I'm sure there were plenty of Boston sports fans who spent most of 1997 dying with their teams and hating when and where they were born.
The fantastic thing is Boston is enjoying a sports renaissance right now with the Patriots dominating the NFL, the Red Sox looking like the team to beat in baseball and the Celtics sporting three all-time greats. It would also be remiss of me to not point out they are doing it with three players who were the hope for the future in Minnesota sports in 1998, Randy Moss, Kevin Garnett and David Ortiz. As nice as it must be to have those guys now, we Minnesota fans feel like they were ours first.
It lead me to thinking about what midmarket municipality's current players I would want in about 9 years. The answer which pops in to my mind is Cleveland. Wouldn't you like your chances if I told you in 9 years you'd be cheering for the primes of Grady Sizemore, Brady Quinn and LeBron James? The people of Cleveland are looking forward to that possibility right now. Except it's not going to happen.
As the case of Minnesota in 1998 shows there's plenty which can go wrong along the way. I don't think any of the three Cleveland players are headcases on the level of Moss nor do I think the Cavs will be signing any illegal contracts with mid-level talents. Still if we're talking about Grady Sizemore carrying the Yankees to the World Series, Brady Quinn leading the Jets to the Super Bowl and LeBron James restoring the luster to the Knicks in 2016, remember we had this conversation all the way back when.
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