What We Signed Up For

It's not as bad as '98. It's not as bad as 41-donut. In fact, I can't think of a catchy title for this one off the top of my head. "12 men in the huddle?" "The Favre Pick?"

First, I want to say to anyone blaming Favre, to anyone laughing at the Vikings for the entire Favre experiment: Duh, this is what we signed up for. And it was worth it. It was worth the risk. We could have beaten the Saints and we would have had a good chance to beat the Colts. The pick at the end of regulation just goes with the territory. He does that sometimes. It sucks.

I'm sure as hell not blaming any refs, or any overtime coin-toss rule. Come on, we're not amateurs. I'm not necessarily blaming Favre either.

Running in one direction while throwing in another, yes, that's horrendous. But that's what we signed up for. He could be one and done - that's what we signed up for. An overtime loss in the NFC title game? Is it too miserably depressing to say to that, "That's what we signed up for?" At least the latest generation has been broken in. It's a 7-10 year cycle. Lets do it again in 2020!

Some of the initial reaction I see online is kind of amusing, wondering if the whole Favre thing was worth it. Of course it was!! I can't stress this enough. You think we're getting this far with Tarvaris Jackson? Sage Rosenfels? Ah, NO. It was worth the risk. You're telling me I'm supposed to be happy going 9-7, one and done in the playoffs at best? We're supposed to be happy being the Eagles-lite? You think we're not sick to death of that?!? Isn't the goal to win the Super Bowl?? Did the Vikings not have a much better than usual shot at winning the Super Bowl this year? Why are people forgetting this? They would have lost both Packers games without Favre, and lost to SF and Baltimore at home. And the Packers would be the ones losing to the Saints yesterday.

And yes, as a result, so much of this season was now or never. There's the Leslie Frazier aspect - I feel 10,000 times more confident in our team when they show him on-camera than when they do Brad Childress. And now he's just another Mike Tomlin situation waiting to happen. Ugh.

And yes, as I said before, I'm treating Favre right now as one and done. So now what? They can't possibly go back to Tarvaris. Who the hell knows what they have with Sage, he hasn't played in more than a year. They might as well re-sign John David Booty and throw him out there. And then there's the annual Donovan McNabb trade rumors. Ugh.

Chester Taylor's a free agent. Pat Williams and Antoine Winfield are a year older. The threat of the team moving is looming larger than ever. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

But it goes with the territory. Maybe I've sat through too many miserable winters, maybe we've lost too many close games, maybe I'm sick of just not being good enough. Last night sucked hard, but it was worth the risk.

The worst part is just now settling in. As I'm writing this now, it's starting to hit me - no more games. Season's over. I had a blast, though. It really was a fun team to watch. But like my brother said - "We made a deal with the devil, and it only took us so far."