Back from a Long Vacation

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but it was one of those situations where things just kept leading into one another. My break for Christmas turned into a break for my trip to Portland, OR, which became a break for New Year's, which morphed into a break to recover from New Year's. Of course, that gets us up to a week ago, and the rest of that is just me procrastinating. I do, however, have several things I want to get up in the next few days, and hopefully I can dig deep to find the fortitude to somehow endure, and pull through. Hmmm. That last line reads with a good deal less sarcasm than it had in my head. Oh well.

So much has happened in the last couple weeks, and of course the massive tragedy in Asia has to top the list. Obviously, this has been the focus of international attention since it happened, so there's nothing I can really add to the discussion, except to exhort everyone to, if at all possible, give to Unicef, the International Red Cross, or some other legitimate relief organization. I know that most of you are in no position, financially, to do so. But if you are, please do.

That said, there is another earth-shattering event that has taken place recently about which I feel compelled to say a few words. It is the triumph of good over evil, against all odds. It is the vindication of an entire people, whose hopes and dreams have finally been fulfilled. There has been no event like it since Fall 1998, and it can be argued that it even eclipses that memorable event. For at last, I can stand tall and proud as I declare that the Green Bay Packers Suck! Last Sunday, the Vikings went into Lambeau, where no one gave them a chance to win. Except me. Sure, they had lost seven of their last ten games. Sure, they had lost to a sub-500 Washington team and backed into the playoffs. Sure, nothing resembling a defense had taken the field for the last five weeks. But I figured the bottom had to show up sooner or later, and now was as good a time as any.

I'm not posturing about this, I'm serious-I thought the Vikes had a good chance to win going into the game. After losing two games to the Packers by identical last-second field goals, I realized it wouldn't take much to put them over the top. I discounted the cold/outdoor part of the equation, because I think that sort of thing gets overhyped. All these players played years of football outdoors and in the cold. How many high school and college football programs do you know that play inside? (Two: the Gophers and Eden Prarie High School, and very Vikings players played for either of those programs.) But even if you wanted to leave in the Lambeau factor, the Packers were only .500 at home this year, and two years ago they lost their first home playoff game ever to the Falcons. No, I figured the two biggest factors would be Randy Moss and Antione Winfield. Moss, of course, had caught all sorts of hell for walking off the field with 2 seconds left on the clock in Washington, as the Vikes were attempting an almost hopeless onside kick (I will say that that was an entirely improper and insulting move on his part, and leave it at that). As most people who have paid attention to the Vikes and Moss since '98 will tell you, he generally responds to that level of criticism by having a massive game. Moss also has the tendency to really show up for the big games. Given that he was not full speed for the Christmas eve game and sat out the first Vikes/Packers contest, there was every reason to suspect that he would put up very serious effort on the field. And when Moss makes a serious effort, he becomes the most dangerous player in the game. I would be willing to put good money on the idea that if he hadn't injured his ankle during the game, he would have had much more than 70 yards and 2 touchdowns on his stat sheet.

Second, and perhaps more important, was Winfield, who is the Vikes' best defensive player not named Kevin Williams. Winfield had been hobbled for about a month, and was just getting back up to full speed. This was a major shot in the arm for the defense, who suddenly had their best tackler back. Winfield had 11 tackles and the first of what would be four interceptions against Farve. Farve is the type of player who can be fantastically good or indescribably bad, and Winfield's presence was key in making sure Farve didn't pick himself up and make a charge to win the game.

So I'm enjoying basking in the rays of the Vikes victory this week, and I'm once again confident that we have an excellent chance to beat Philly. But even if we lose, I can rest easy during the offseason knowing that this one victory more than made up for losing the two regular season games, because the Vikes won the one that counted.

*As a postscript, I'll say a few quick words about the whole Moss faux-mooning situation. The attention it's gotten in the national media is totally ridiculous and overblown. Don't get me wrong, there has been some intelligent treatment of the situation, but saying the team and the fans are fed up with Moss and he's going to be traded over this is insane. To me, this is a non-issue. The act itself wasn't that distasteful, especially when you consider that the Packer fans traditionally moon a losing team's bus as it leaves the field. In that light, it's actually pretty funny. If you're worried about kids seeing this, they see worse every day at school and on TV. Hell, they saw worse watching the commericals during the game. If you're an adult and are overly offended by this, then you're a crackpot who probably gets offended by a extraordinarily large proportion of things you see in everyday life and writes letters to the editor that get passed around as jokes at lunchtime. It was juvinile humor and nothing more, not worth a tenth of the ink it's getting around the country. If you want to read a much better and more humorous take on this, check this out: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=fleming/050112