Stadium drumbeat beginning to grate

What price for this?

Maybe it's unhealthy for a product to be as popular as NFL football.

Baseball seemed king for a very long time. The Minnesota Vikings didn't even exist in the 1950s. Today the Vikings have such stature, they absolutely loom at the state capitol and over our lawmakers (many of them anyway, most notably our governor, sad to say).

The drumbeat for a new stadium is starting to grate. This fear of the Vikings leaving is a specter that hovers and irritates.

Teams seem to need new stadiums the way restaurants redecorate. The comparison isn't so far-fetched. Football is pure entertainment and it fears getting stale. It needs new frills now and then to keep fans curious and fired up.

All this is absolutely fine if it could stay in the private sector. But not only is it seizing the attention of our politicians like Governor Dayton, it is causing gambling to be thrust in our face.

No, Rudy Perpich is not turning over in his grave.

You might say "Governor Goofy" gave us this state of affairs. Perpich was a mentor for Dayton once. I hope there's no natural affinity between Democrats and gambling.

Perpich seemed like a quite upright man himself. But the expansion of gambling didn't make him flinch at all. I wonder if he had any real experience doing it. Did anyone ever give him the message it was dangerous and ought to be considered only on the most sober and measured terms?

Gambling was driven out of Minnesota in the late 1940s. It had crept into places like resorts.

The Perpich era seems distant but let's be reminded it lasted ten years. The once-taboo activity of gambling came into the daylight. Whereas we once only put up with low-stakes bingo in church basements, we came to almost embrace a "Pottersville" type of model.

The trend began at about the time I graduated from college. Charitable gambling stretched its legs beginning in 1978. How can you argue with something that's "charitable?" Five years later we saw the die cast for Canterbury Downs. Racetrack betting was there to tempt us now.

I remember picking up a brochure for Canterbury that had your All-American family, pure as the driven snow, on the front, with dad holding up a betting slip as they all rooted. The heading was "you bet it's fun."

Remember how Canterbury was ballyhooed at the start? It was considered a new part of our "big league mix" in Minnesota. I'm sure there was a special section in the Star Tribune at the time of its opening. We read how this was "the sport of kings."

Canterbury went through a decline that was also treated as a big deal by the media. Up through today, when we seem barely aware of Canterbury's existence but somehow it continues.

I went to Canterbury with a friend several times and it felt like spending a whole day in a Perkins restaurant. Not even the quarterhorses with their sprint could really thrill me. We might write this off as innocuous entertainment if it were not gambling.

The purpose of gambling is not for its sponsors to give money away. It's the opposite, you fools. It's going to play a big role in the construction of our Emerald City Vikings Stadium, unless the public registers enough skepticism. We should be holding our breath this week.

No one's liberty or property is safe when the legislature's in session. I think that's how the saying goes.

Our elected leaders find it proper to hold hands with an entertainment business that hardly looks like it needs subsidies. With owners who are clearly part of the "one per cent."

And Democrats are a party to this? Does Dayton, who generally doesn't seem "goofy," think pro football is some sort of opiate and that our withdrawal would be catastrophic?

We read that Governor Dayton, standing at the podium with his revenue commissioner (a la Gotham City officials making some sort of pronouncement), said allowing electronic bingo and pulltabs in the state's bars and restaurants would produce $62.5 million annually to finance the state's total $398 million for stadium construction. I read an analysis that suggests the numbers are far more daunting than they seem.

But let's not get bogged down in the numbers. We know there's a selling job going on now and our officials have been yanked into this, many with feet of clay that might be appropriate for Gotham City, where the Joker's minions sneak about.

I imagine electronic gambling is more efficient than having to support a horse racing industry. It's more efficient than "analog" gambling of the type that gave Las Vegas its famous imagery - a casino worker spinning a "wheel of fortune," for example. (I have read that the "wheel" is a very poor-odds game.)

I suppose we can dispose of the casino workers now that we have electronic tools. Welcome to the rest of the economy. The days might be numbered for grocery store checkout clerks.

Rudy Perpich made gambling palatable. He saw that the doors got swung wide open. He claimed it was just the people's will.

Whatever, then-State Senator Dean Johnson of Willmar said at the end of the 1989 legislative session "the gambling floodgates are open."

A state planning report stated in 1992 that "Minnesota was the largest casino gaming center between Nevada and New Jersey."

So much for the reserved nature of Minnesota Lutherans. Howard Mohr, author of "How to Speak Minnesotan," might have had to modify his thinking. The stereotype was threatened.

But I suppose we have learned how to rationalize gambling. We can go on with our Minnesota manners, maybe with a wink.

Meanwhile we see headlines about employee theft. It seems this has happened in Stevens County, and it doesn't always make headlines. It happened where I was once employed. That wasn't prosecuted, although the person in question - rest in peace, dear - reportedly signed some sort of document acknowledging it happened.

It wasn't the worst thing I was around in my career. I'd say adultery was the worst. We are so human an animal.

Gambling is a regressive tax. We all know people who will tell a tall tale about gambling success. I don't doubt these people have had success on isolated occasions. Without this lure, gambling would die. They play us like a piano.

I visited Las Vegas several times in the 1980s so I could tell you a story or two about raking some money in. We don't talk so readily about the "outgo" (of money).

The outgo will help build the palatial Vikings stadium, if the current proposal or something like it gets shepherded through our legislature. The shepherds are the "one per cent." Or as my friend Glen Helberg would say, "money talks and bulls--t walks."

State Senator Johnson was prescient. Of course he'll always be remembered for the terribly awkward flap over his surreptitious conversation with Minnesota Supreme Court members. His political stock dropped thanks to a minister with a tape recorder. Ah, the lot of politicians.

But Johnson was right on principle when he indicated concern about gambling's expansion. Native American tribes got a lucrative monopoly type of arrangement in 1989. They had better preserve their windfall from that. Because we're steadily becoming "Pottersville" with gambling becoming about as ubiquitous as people saying "you betcha" or "heckuva deal."

The camel's head isn't just poking into the tent now. The legalization of electronic pulltabs would build on the dubious legacy given us by "Governor Goofy."

Fortunately there appear to be some reservations about the stadium proposal beyond the gambling aspect. Let's have a push for a moratorium on "new stadium proposals."

It's starting to make us look ridiculous, like the Joker and his minions are taking over.

Click on the link below to read some more of my stadium thoughts which are on my companion website which is called "Morris of course." Here's the permalink:
http://www.morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-vikings-stadium-revives-allure-of.html

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Wilfs promote Spielman but really, so what?

Holy flow chart, Batman, what's going on with the Vikings? In a decision that I suspect was a response to public pressure, the Vikings at least tried to make it clear there is a person in charge.

Previously the authority was dispersed. It was called "management by committee." It was derided as such.

Two points: The Vikings had darn well better respond to public pressure because they're being taken to the altar with the Minnesota legislature. The Wilfs of the Vikings say a new stadium is a must. Their masters in the NFL help orchestrate. It's a well-oiled process that serves to twist arms.

Second point: The Wilfs' decision appears cosmetic. They promoted Rick Spielman to where he seems to have the reins. He crawls out from under the wreckage of a 3-13 season.

The organization is amazingly intact considering how the team's on-field fortunes are so bad, we couldn't do any worse if we had an expansion team.

Many people fear if the Vikings left for Los Angeles, we'd get an expansion team within a few years, and expansion teams tend to be woeful at the start.

"Woeful" describes the Vikings now.

My biggest concern about getting an expansion team would be that we're running out of good team nicknames. Some have been burned up on teams that went belly-up (the Muskies) or left (the Lakers). Why was Los Angeles allowed to wrest "Lakers" away from us (the name, I mean)? That name belongs to us the way "Jazz" belongs to New Orleans, not Utah.

The women took the name "Lynx." The list is really getting whittled down. Someone somewhere has a list of remaining candidates that might seem decent. I'd like to see it.

When the Timberwolves were created, the runner-up name was "Polars," remember? "Timberwolves" was a name begging to be shortened, so why bother? The Tampa Bay Devil Rays became "Rays." We became "Wolves" or "T-Wolves."

Woeful as the Vikings team is, they have the premier Minnesota sports team nickname. It was inspired by a fallacy or fraud: the idea that Vikings came out here.

Even if the Runestone is "real," it wasn't necessarily brought here by the type of explorers represented by Hagar the Horrible. It wasn't the Vikings as depicted at the end of the Mel Brooks movie "History of the World Part I." Remember? There was a "Viking funeral" as part of the faux preview for "History of the World Part II."

(The best part of that clip was "Jews in Space." Was that a takeoff on the Muppet Show's "Pigs in Space?")

The man who is perhaps the leading proponent of the Runestone's authenticity says the Runestone was created post-Pagan. These explorers weren't like Hagar.

We still have fun with the Vikings imagery. The real Vikings pillaged. That's sort of what the football Vikings do as part of the NFL and its 400-pound gorilla stature in the entertainment business.

Right now we're on the threshold of "wild card weekend." The NFL product will be on the tube all weekend. The Vikings aren't making news by being in the playoffs. They're making news in the standard "hot stove" fashion. The Wednesday, Jan. 4, edition of the Star Tribune trumpeted the move. I grabbed the house paper at McDonald's to digest what was going on.

A companion made quick note of the size of Spielman's photo on page 1C. This was just a photo of a guy talking and it was huge, not even cropped at the sides. Has a photo of Mark Dayton ever run this large? I suppose one reason is that the Star Tribune can't sell as many ads as before, so they have to "stretch" content.

I would estimate that I buy the Star Tribune twice a month, Saturday only, and I'm trying to phase that much out. The skids have been greased for newspapers. The best place to follow the Vikings, by far, is the 1500 ESPN website, which I have linked on my site. Tom Pelissero is the fellow to read there. But I still stumble onto the Star Tribune now and then.

On January 4 the Strib was feeding our insatiable - their perception - appetite for Vikings news, even with the team reeling. There was that huge photo of Mr. Spielman. Not a hair was out of place - just like Mitt Romney. This news was over-hyped.

Officially Spielman was "promoted" to general manager. He had been vice president of player personnel. But titles make my head spin. Or make me want to reach for the aspirin bottle.

There was a hint of cynicism in Dan Wiederer's article because it said the move was "rubber-stamped." A mere formality, I would translate. A sop to the critics who maintained the Vikings system was a maze of confusion.

Is Spielman truly in charge now? Well, he has no discretion on hiring and firing of the head coach. Coach Leslie Frazier, who ought to be totally on the hot seat, will answer to the Wilfs (Zygi at the top). The Wilfs aren't football people, they're business people.
(Doesn't Zygi look a little like a straight man in a Three Stooges short?)

There's something to be said for a football boss with total autonomy. The Vikings still don't have that. It still seems to me to be a collaborative mess.

And the Wilfs are quite distracted by the stadium matter. It must seem like pulling teeth for them to get that through. We all know they'll succeed. Lemmings, we are.

We have bridges that fall into the river but we can't risk losing a football team. My generation, the boomers, ought to be revulsed by such a state of affairs. But we got old and got money. Worse yet, a lot of us became Republicans. Neither the Republicans nor Democrats are going to risk having the feared Vikings departure laid at their doorstep.

So at least we can feel confident keeping the "Vikings" name. Can you imagine cheering for an NFL team with any other name? Try to think of some. It's hard.

Maybe that's the best argument the stadium supporters could put forth: "We've run out of nicknames." And, "Fighting Sioux" won't do (LOL).

Actually, after digesting the coverage of this move in the 1/4 Strib, I wondered if the media had been taken for a ride. The announcement almost seemed like a nominal move.

"The decision-makers are the same," Mark Craig noted in his column.

Spielman has to conform to what Frazier wants. Coaches come and go. Coaches are always desperate to "win now" otherwise the ax could fall.

Coaches sometime prefer veterans too much whereas the better long-term thinking would have the raw younger players out there more. With Frazier not having to worry about Spielman, the coach could fall into the trap just cited. Coaches like veterans because they are known commodities and basically "know the ropes." I would suggest there's also a "good old boy" angle.

Did Frazier seek Donovan McNabb because the seasoned McNabb fit into sort of a "comfort zone?" How can you say no to Donovan McNabb? Problem is, players enter physical decline. McNabb certainly helped sink the Vikings' ship. But Frazier still has the reins. Spielman will have to adjust to him.

If there are arguments, everyone will go running to the owners. The owners' expertise is in real estate, not football. The owners are fixated on a new stadium, to better enrich themselves. And every day we take another bite.

The NFL doesn't care which teams win or lose. Some win, some lose and in the end, everyone is happy. The losers can lick their chops over the draft. The Vikings will pick third. The NFL is a big gravy train in which teams scrap for the playoff spots but everyone makes money. Congratulations.

In recessionary times we shouldn't defer so much to them. We should shake our heads over an absolutely huge photo of Spielman's face on page C1 of the Strib. This is a man who brought the legendary A.J. Feeley to Miami.

Are the Vikings guaranteed to fail? No team in the NFL is guaranteed to fail. With some luck the Vikings could pick up some new players who could mesh and win. Ditto all NFL teams. But it's uphill with the Vikings, to be sure.

Are we ready for Timberwolves-level mediocrity? Minnesota's boomers would be thrown into catharsis. We aren't ready for a "Viking funeral" like in the faux Mel Brooks preview clip, in which a Viking takes off his hat and we find the horns are actually growing on his head and aren't part of the hat!

What of the Metrodome? James Lileks had a good point when he said maybe the Vikings should sign smaller players to "make the Metrodome seem bigger." That's levity of course.

God will punish us for prioritizing opulent new sports venues, one for each team, at the same time we can't totally trust bridges. The new Vikings stadium might be a "bridge to nowhere."

Enjoy all the NFL football this weekend. The Vikings play only in our fantasies now, here in the midst of this "brown winter."

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Thoughts & ruminations on Minnesota football

Would it be possible to get Brad Childress and Glen Mason coaching again?

Football coaches can have a shelf life. It's the entertainment business and the customers get weary of the status quo, when the status quo is something short of a title.

The boomers of Minnesota may be entering uncharted territory with the Vikings. We have always assumed that our purple crew was upper-crust in the league. We grew up with the team inspiring outright awe with its defense.

Even when those standards slipped a little, we always seemed on the threshold - close to the elite. Chronic losing happened in "other places."

We always knew we could roll over the Philadelphia Eagles and their quarterback Pete Liske. We could sack the Chicago Bears' Bobby Douglass. We always knew we could beat Detroit even though the scores were seldom blow-outs.

Del Sarlette once remarked that games against the Lions seemed very boring. It's as if Bud Grant held some sort of spell over them. We'd get a key punt block or interception and come away with a 23-16 win (or something like that).

We fans wrote off the 1984 season as a short-lived departure from the norm. Sarlette says even though he read about bumper stickers reading "Less Steckel," a takeoff on the name "Les Steckel," he never saw any such thing. Come to think of it, I never did either.

We did have a noteworthy bumper sticker out here in western Minnesota: "Where the heck is Cyrus?"

Bumper stickers and T-shirts with local references were rare back then. We have forgotten that. The methods for such things were too limited, just like with "camera film" (Kodak Instamatic?) that you'd take to the drugstore and then maybe wait a week or two to get the pictures. If you did wear a T-shirt with some sort of local reference, it might be a conversation-starter.

Today every summer sports camp in existence gives out a souvenir T-shirt. Likewise with most 5K footraces.

The Cyrus bumper sticker was mirrored at about the same time by Bird Island which came up with more "edgy" wording (LOL): "Where the hell is Bird Island?" There was a little graphic of the state with a star in the appropriate place.

Bud Grant came back to stabilize the Vikings after the Steckel shipwreck. I have always felt the blame couldn't be placed on just one person. The Vikings were perhaps just in a state of flux in '84, and it's not like Grant came back to lead us to the Super Bowl again. His guiding hand seemed comforting to us. It was like the Captain Kirk character in the first of the Star Trek movies, easing aside the younger man for an imposing challenge.

Grant is one of those rare people in the public limelight about whom nothing negative has apparently been said. The boomers gravitated to the Vikings back then and retreated from the Twins and Gophers.

The Twins reached a low point in the late 1970s and early '80s, when boomers were known to make snide remarks - sad when you realize that just ten years earlier, the Twins were a quite prime attraction at the old "Met."

The 1969 season with Billy Martin as manager might have been the last time the Twins seemed grand and glorious, until Billy Gardner led them to a surprising uptick in the mid-1980s. In between we called them the "Twinkies." My friend Art Cruze joked that if you had tickets to a Twins game then, back when Met Stadium was getting rusty and we had outfielders like Rick Sofield, you'd tell your co-workers "well, I won them in a drawing so I figured we better go."

By 1987 the grand and glorious stature was restored. In the meantime, the Vikings never really lost much ground. They never sank to being the butt of jokes.

There's a first time for everything. This year's Vikings won three games, same as in '84, and we nervously wonder if this is an aberration or the start of a long, futile slog.

The owners demand a new stadium. They have the power to scare the heck out of us with such talk. It's working again. Neither political party in Minnesota is going to allow the Vikings to leave on their watch. This kind of leverage seems immoral. I appreciate the Vikings and want them to stay, but I'm willing to risk the flip side.

Sid Hartman coined the famous "cold Omaha" line to create this spectre, presumably horrifying, of what Minnesota would become without big league sports. I suspect we'd be cold with or without the Vikings.
We certainly aren't cold in the Metrodome. We have been spoiled with the dome, assured of quite acceptable conditions regardless of the elements outside. Why can't we all just be happy with that?

Like the redecorating of a restaurant, which business insiders will tell you is necessary periodically, the "new stadium" seems a must every couple decades or so. The Wilfs are holding that symbolic gun to our head now. This is in the wake of a disastrous Vikings season that makes us wonder if we're heading into Detroit Lions territory.

The Lions went into a prolonged funk. Matt Millen was a snakebit general manager. High draft picks were no antidote.

The Lions showed signs of finally gaining vitality this past fall, sort of like Rip Van Winkle waking up. Are schoolkids still required to learn about Rip Van Winkle? I hope so.

The Lions' futility reached such depths, they once had a coach who chose defense when they won the coin flip for overtime. Right now we Vikings fans have to wonder if we're headed into similar territory. In our final game, at our beloved Metrodome, we hosted a Bears team going nowhere, quarterbacked by a backup who earlier this fall was coaching high school football, and lost.

We were supposed to feel excited about Jared Allen's statistical milestone with sacks. Congratulations Jared Allen, but the team's fortunes supersede yours.

Announcers talked excitedly about Joe Webb, but he couldn't rally us to victory. Christian Ponder may be injury-prone. He also may be in over his head. The bottom line is we've reached futility.

Maybe Mike Tice wasn't such a bad coach. Or "Chilly."

One thing is for sure, our Vikings may take on a "chilly" look under Leslie Frazier and their "management by committee," making our neck of the woods seem not so much different from Omaha. Come to think of it, what's wrong with Omaha?

What would it take to get Brad Childress back? Or Glen Mason with the Gophers?
Mason was criticized for only making minor bowl games. We pooh-poohed the likes of El Paso for bowl season. How's the bowling going now, Gophs' fans?
Jerry Kill still seems to be benefiting from a honeymoon. Can't figure that at all.

January is now devoid of football excitement for us folks. At least there are no snowdrifts.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"Hut. . .hut. . .hut (and shop at Menards)"

Sleepless in Seattle? It seemed a little harder staying awake here for week #2 of the Minnesota Vikings' pre-season.

The Vikings played on the west coast, specifically in the Pacific Northwest. This meant a late starting time for those of us in the CDT zone.
The starting time was 9 p.m. for another one of these "Night of the Living Dead" pre-season games. (There, two movie references already.)

We put up with these games because we love NFL football. The NFL takes advantage of that love.

The games are getting longer and the commercial intrusions a little more grating. There are lots of interests that want to seize these eyeballs.

We all understand that but we want the game to stay in a relatively pure sanctuary. I don't want to see "Menards" superimposed on the field. I cussed under my breath when seeing that Saturday.

A lot can be done with these tech tricks. Like, making the field red inside the 20 and having a "sponsor" for the red zone.

At some point the NFL will cross the line with this kind of stuff. And assuredly they will come right up to that line, not holding back one bit. It will take blowback from fans to get moderation.

The many video replays are starting to grate. Coach Leslie Frazier challenged an obvious catch Saturday, prompting a groan from yours truly.

The media report that all scoring plays will now get a review. What are we supposed to do in all those breaks? I guess the NFL assumes we're captive.

I couldn't stick with the Vikings game after halftime Saturday. Part of that was feeling sleepy. Another part was the "Night of the Living Dead" factor.

The pre-season games are so ho-hum. But Menards must feel fans are sufficiently dedicated.

I'll leave it to the younger fans to stay up until the end of a west coast game.

The Minnesota media were in a glass-half-full mood after Saturday. They'll point to the outcome: a 20-7 win.

They reported that QB Donovan McNabb was at the helm for one good drive, but even this drive didn't end in a touchdown. It ended meekly with a field goal.

The media are eager to talk up any pluses. And in the background are all those sponsors who want that positive spin.

We'll see how much spin the media can produce when the shaky Vikings are dismantled by the likes of Green Bay.

I refuse to be convinced that McNabb is a totally new man after his disastrous season in Washington, D.C.

The media overreacted to that one good drive that McNabb commanded Saturday. It started at the one yard line. It ended up including 13 plays.

Not bad, but this drive good for three points hardly assured us that graybeard McNabb is all set to go for an upbeat new season. That spin won't fly.

Ryan Longwell won't be able to keep up with the points put on the board by Aaron Rodgers.

Our NFC North has quarterbacks who are in their prime. Coach Lovie Smith in Chicago will be trying to get Jay Cutler to not throw the ball around with such abandon.

Can Chicago fans forget Cutler's behavior at the end of last season? He got hurt in the NFC championship game and acted disinterested after that. There will be one cure for this perception problem: winning.

Matt Stafford has an injury problem in Detroit. Rodgers in Green Bay looks like Superman.

McNabb in Minnesota still looks to me like one big question mark.
When Tristan Davis carried the ball 35 yards for a score late in the game, it was the Vikings' first offensive TD of the pre-season. It's still our only offensive TD.

So the encouraging spin from the media should be tempered.

Actually I think the NFL is getting better all the time at steering the media toward positive spin. The marketing and promotional minds are powerful.

We need to keep those eyeballs to see that "Menards" imprint, created through tech magic.

The red zone sponsorship makes me want to look away.

With all scoring plays under review, it will mean more breaks for us to reach into that bowl of Doritos. Or to crack open another liter of Pepsi.

Unless a lot of us just start drifting away from this entertainment. Don't rule it out.

The NFL knows there's a limit but will test that limit. They will let commercial interests pile on 'til hell won't have it.

We live in a time when people really don't complain about "commercialization" anymore. We know everything is for sale.

But the tech revolution does give us choices. The NFL knows this and I'm sure is proceeding a little nervously. Can it kill the goose that laid the golden egg? There's little sign of that now.

But proceed cautiously, NFL.

Saturday night was disappointing for our old QB Tarvaris Jackson. I was rooting for him. He got the quick hook when he was in Minnesota.

Seattle coach Pete Carroll pledges that Jackson will start Seattle's opener. But fans might have a different idea. Charlie Whitehurst connected on his first seven passes and finished 14 of 19 for a hundred yards. Fans began chanting his name.

I frowned as Jackson kept having to bend down to take snaps from center from in the shotgun. It disrupted his rhythm.

Maybe Jackson is just destined to be snakebit. I'll be crossing my fingers that he can impress once the "real" season starts.

Jackson had a mediocre offensive line in front of him Saturday. The interception he threw came on a tipped ball and was returned for a touchdown.

I hear there is a new statistical formula for evaluating quarterbacks this season. ESPN seems to be talking it up. The NFL would love to see their game become more like baseball this way. Statistics are part of the lifeblood of baseball.

The problem in football is that football is just not a statistical game.

Marcus Sherels, a reserve cornerback, was the lucky Viking in the right place to make the interception. He returned it 64 yards for a TD. The Vikings led 13-0 at halftime.

We couldn't be sure Seattle fans were sleepless at that point. I sure wasn't. I consumed the game's details the next day.

McNabb completed six of eight passes for 81 yards and was sacked once.

Off the top of my head I can't tell you who the Vikings' season opener opponent will be. But I'll predict a loss right here and now.

Mike Shanahan had a sinking ship with McNabb last year. And now this esteemed mentor is apparently happier going with Rex Grossman at quarterback. Or some guy last name of Beck.

McNabb put the D.C. fans to sleep last year and I see no magical turnaround for what lies ahead. Now he's playing under a former defensive coordinator, Frazier.

Thank goodness our Metrodome is refurbished, even though we're all supposed to want a new stadium.

We'll be relieved seeing our good ol' Metrodome in good shape again.

The Vikings likely won't provide such satisfaction.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Vikings begin pre-season (yawn) in Nashville

Our Minnesota Vikings played in Nashville, TN, Saturday. It's a testament to the popularity of the NFL that there's enough interest to justify the televising.

The games don't count. We watch many players scurry around whose names we aren't familiar with. The execution is rough.

Nashville was a minor league city when I was a kid. We'd get familiar with the names of these cities thanks to baseball cards. A player might have had a hitch in Des Moines on the way up.

Or Charlotte. Or Winston-Salem. (No, I don't think their team was called the "Filters.")

Educators might have decried baseball cards and comic books but this fare supplied building blocks. I remember a college teacher who decried Hardy Boys books for kids. I suppose she'd rather have us reading "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville.

I read years ago that Nashville's minor league baseball team was the "Sounds." What an absolutely perfect name for a Nashville sports team. Tennessee's NFL team is the "Titans."

Sometimes when a new big league sports team is created, the best nickname can't be considered. It's already taken by a lower-echelon team or might have been used in the past.

For example, we here in Minnesota once had an American Basketball Association (ABA) franchise called the "Muskies." Actually the ABA had more than one incarnation in Minnesota. I remember the "Pipers" too.

The ABA was a fascinating league that used the multi-colored ball, remember? Many black athletes liked the "afro" hair style at that time, and basketball uniforms were tight-fitting.

Loose-fitting clothes might have made you a "sissy" in those days. And in a later era, a "nerd."

If someone had told me low-riding baggy shorts would become fashionable, I would've said "you're nuts."

I would rather see the afro come back than to continue seeing all those tattoos. The tattoos are reason enough to switch off the NBA.

I'm assuming that because "Muskies" had already been used in Minnesota sports history, it couldn't be offered again as a nickname candidate. "Muskies" conjures up our north country nicely and it rolls off the tongue better than "Timberwolves."

I remember when our NBA team was forming and local government bodies were asked for opinions on team nickname. I think there were three candidates, one of them "Polars."

"Polars" wouldn't have been good PR because it suggests we live in igloos here.

I remember the late public servant Steven "Skip" Sherstad saying of this name polling: "I think this is ridiculous."

I'm not sure to what extent the polling influenced the choice but we ended up with "Timberwolves."

Right away we all knew it would be shortened. It's common to hear "Wolves" or "T-Wolves."

Even "Vikings" isn't snappy enough for some people, who opt for "Vikes."

"Muskies" wouldn't have been subject to this sort of thing. Although, I suppose some people would do like with the Miami Dolphins and say "Fish."

"Titans" (for Tennessee) bothers me a wee bit because you cannot, as a practical matter, pronounce the second "t."

"Twins" is a nice crisp one syllable but oddly, some people lengthen it to "Twinkies."

I wonder what the new University of North Dakota sports nickname will be. I'm sure that will be a mess there as people keep showing up for games wearing "Fighting Sioux" sweatshirts and with like fan paraphernalia, either as a habit or to make a protest statement.
UND presidents have turned gray dealing with this, surely.

I have had the pleasure of visiting Nashville three times. There's a main street called Broadway that has a small-city feel.
Nashville has expanded way out I'm sure, but there still is good ol' Broadway with its Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. I posed for a photo next to Webb Pierce's 1962 Cadillac.

I'm sure Nashville's economy has diversified quite a bit. Country music will be a legacy image.

The Tennessee Titans handed our Minnesota Vikings a 14-3 defeat Saturday (8/13). Some of the sheen is already gone from the Leslie Frazier coaching regime. The offense needs to get juiced up a little.

QB Donovan McNabb didn't give us any proof that he has found new life after his disastrous year in Washington, D.C.

I continue to feel that McNabb coming here is the equivalent of Dave Winfield coming to the Twins. It's maybe not quite as bad as Steve Carlton coming to the Twins.

Bill Madlock said after facing Carlton in Carlton's twilight: "I faced Lefty back when Lefty was Lefty, and Lefty isn't Lefty anymore."

Time will tell but we can't rule out McNabb falling into that category. A grisled veteran signs a one-year contract loaded with incentives. It's a long shot.
The athlete still looks good in a uniform. But nobody wins because of the uniform.

McNabb was benched last year because as his coach put it, he "wasn't in good enough shape" to run the two-minute offense.

No coach's comment could be more embarrassing. And this is the quarterback we brought in because our rookie might be too raw? It could be a bumpy ride.

And we'll have to start scoring more than three points.

Charlie Johnson hasn't looked real sharp as Bryant McKinnie's replacement.

One thing about having Joe Webb at quarterback: he can always improvise (run) to gain yards. Didn't he beat Michael Vick last season?

Maybe in the contest between the graybeard and rookie, we'll see neither prevail. It might be Webb.

The Vikings will play at Seattle Saturday. Bill Musgrave had better find a way to prod the offense.

(Sorry, you people who found this post because you Googled "Bartleby the Scrivener.")

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Can't help but see McNabb as mere retread

Labor peace means we can look forward to the new NFL season. It's the time of year when we can imagine everything coming together for our favorite team.
The Minnesota Vikings had a very precious opportunity to make the Super Bowl two years ago and had it slip away. Those opportunities don't come along very often.
The swings upward and downward can happen suddenly in the NFL. That's good for the league. It keeps fans everywhere thinking "this might be our year."
Does the acquisition of Donovan McNabb (in photo) have Vikings fans breaking into a chorus of that? There doesn't seem to be much grounds for excitement.
McNabb comes here in a restructured contract which means he's making concessions. Athletes who are truly eyeing a championship don't make concessions.
He had a five-year, $78 million contract in Washington, D.C. where he flamed out miserably. And now he's a year older. Doesn't look like any special sort of formula to me.
McNabb was the face of the Philadelphia Eagles in his prime. He played in five conference championship games and a Super Bowl.
He comes to Minnesota with a "name" and a resume. So did Dave Winfield when he came to the Minnesota Twins.
McNabb has been through the rigors of many NFL seasons.
At least he won't have to endure the rigors of playing in front of the Philadelphia fans anymore - the most rude and judgmental around. Now he's in the land of Minnesota Nice. But we can still boo if he plays the way he did in Washington last season.
Not even the genius of coach Mike Shanahan could keep McNabb's career going in a winning way.
Shanahan proved he could work and adjust with an aging quarterback when he coached John Elway in Denver.
Last fall in the nation's capital, the "facelift" represented by the McNabb acquisition was a failure. Shanahan benched him twice. The franchise gave up on him with three games left.
The low point was in a loss to Detroit - yes, those perennially sputtering Lions - in which McNabb was removed late in the game and the post-game explanation was humiliating. Explaining the move, Shanahan said McNabb "wasn't in good enough shape" to run the two-minute offense.
No, he wasn't hurt, he "wasn't in good enough shape."
Was the $78 million contract not good enough incentive?
Maybe Shanahan was just hinting that McNabb was getting too old. Well he's a year older now. He won't have Sidney Rice to throw to. Rice is off to Seattle to rejoin our old "quarterback of the future" Tarvaris Jackson and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.
Usually when a quarterback is drafted high - Jackson was taken in the second round which is reasonably high - the team gives him every chance to make it. Jackson ended up a contradiction. He seemed to be yanked much too readily. I ended up feeling sorry for him and wish him the best in Seattle.
The Vikings brought in an "old hand" name of Gus Frerotte. Then we had the Brett Favre chapter in Vikings (and texting) history. We could taste the Super Bowl. It might be the closest we'll get in a while.
Now we have a quarterback who spent the last three games last season standing on the sidelines (probably wearing a baseball cap) because he wasn't producing. This for a non-playoff team.
"Relationships broke down," a Washington linebacker was quoted saying.
That's what happens when you lose. McNabb's agent took public potshots at the team's leadership.
Now, McNabb coming here with a "restructured contract" reminds me of when Steve Carlton came to pitch for the Minnesota Twins. We'd love to close our eyes and imagine these guys playing like when they were in their prime.
Pro sports is in fact brutal and isn't very forgiving for aging athletes (sans performance-enhancing substances).
McNabb has been in the NFL for over a decade. Last year his numbers brought yawns: 14 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in 13 games, a 58 percent completion rate, a 77.1 passer rating.
The Vikings now have two quarterbacks on opposite ends of the spectrum. First we drafted an anointed new quarterback in the first round, Christian Ponder out of Florida State.
Wow! New coach Leslie Frazier proclaimed he wanted to groom a young quarterback rather than go with questionable veterans.
Now the Vikings are in a common quandary. They'd like to go with the fascinating young guy but there are too many perils associated with inexperience. There are no guarantees with Ponder. The Vikings could lose and Ponder could be blemished by the experience.
But go with McNabb and it could be a repeat of what happened last year in Washington. Either way, losing means there would be boos cascading down from the stands.
Losing is a definite possibility with either quarterback.
There is no reason to believe Ponder would leapfrog past the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler or (if he's healthy) Matt Stafford in our division.
Unless Donovan McNabb can find some pill to take in order to revive some of his old physical resilience, we're looking at losing with that too.
A cynic might say McNabb was a "big name" acquisition that helps keep interest high, that it's not a serious move toward making the Super Bowl.
The Vikes need attention because the organization needs a new stadium. Maybe the new stadium is really the highest priority now. The NFL is nothing if not a money gathering monster.
Fans everywhere can envision their favorite team doing well when fall comes. This is what being a fan is all about.
I can't be absolutely certain what way the Vikings will go. But don't bet a lot of money on them.
This could be the start of a slide that could last years.
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com