Vikings Win Again, and They Didn't Even Have to Play

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Well, the Vikings won this week without ever stepping on the field. Both the Bears and Packers fell this week. And they didn’t just fall, they collapsed and sucked it up against the Cardinals (a so-so team), and the Buccaneers (a terrible team).

The Bears let Kurt Warner come back from a five-interception game (jokingly referred as that week’s best Jake Delhomme impression), to have a five-touchdown game. Meanwhile poor Matt Leinart showed again, that despite two-and-half-years to mature behind Warner, he’s still no better for it. At this rate Warner doesn’t have to worry about losing his job in the near future.

Of course say all you want about Favre, but no quarterback in history has the ability to go out on the field and look like the most awesome guy to ever throw a football and then on other days completely implode. Favre has had one or two incidents of utter implosion, but Warner has him beat. In fact ,Warner has the ability to look awesome and terrible at the same time! Last year, in the Cardinals game where Favre threw six touchdowns, Warner had something like five turnovers yet still directed four second-half touchdowns and had nearly 400 or over 400 yards passing.

I don’t think I even have to say anything about the Packers’ loss—that speaks for itself. So, by and by the Vikings had a huge win this week without even playing; heck, they don’t need to these days. So here is the fallout as I see it:

Seems that this is the straw that broke the camel's back for most Packers’ fans. At least it would appear that way from the online reaction to this latest loss to a winless team.

I am seeing on a large scale, fans that formerly were still standing by Ted Thompson, now ready to lose it and get a fresh start with new management. Possibly with Mike Holmgren, who expressed interest in managing a football franchise in the future when he retired from coaching.

Of course it's also Mark Murphy, the guy that insulted Brett Favre by attempting to bribe him to stay retired after Thompson pressured him out in 2007. All this drama goes back years though. Packers’ fans should be upset at the run they could have had without Thompson's strange and inept leadership style.

His first act was to get rid of Pro-Bowl guards Wahle and Rivera, which led Favre to get the crap sacked out of him the next few seasons (Thompson's subtle way of trying to end the legend's career?). Looking back, I am still shocked Favre survived those years, might be why we won't see the 49-year-old Favre flicking touchdown passes.

Then he blew a first-round draft pick on Rodgers, a great quarterback but a move made way too prematurely. Thompson jumped the gun on moving to a post-Favre era.

Then, of course, there is the way they completely ignored the various attempts Favre made to get them to use free agency to put together a ready-made veteran team to make a run for his last few seasons. That's the ultimate disrespect in my mind. It was selfish, yes, but Favre deserved it. He deserved his chance to lead a good team to some Super Bowls. Heck he shared an agent with Randy Moss, it doesn't take a genius to know he had some inside dealings and knew Moss would have liked to go to Green Bay.

And what does Thompson do? Effectively gives Brett Favre a big F.U. and skips getting the one-and-only Randy Moss, so he could draft another one of his hopeless second-string talents with a fourth-round draft pick.

I just want Packers fans to imagine it: A fantastic two-to-three year run with maybe a pair of Super Bowls.

Teams collapse. That's pro football. But in the NFL you make your run at what you can get now, and if you can get that kind of team you go for it. You don't say, "Oh, I think I'll skip those two Super Bowl runs so I can build up for five seasons from now." Rebuilding is a great medicine, but it’s a bitter medicine and only taken in desperation. Thompson started rebuilding from scratch instead of working to put the finishing touches on a veteran Super Bowl team for the then and the now.

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