The NFL Should Absolutely Not Get Involved in Minnesota Vikings' Stadium Fight

Doug Belden of the Pioneer Press has reported that in the wake of the stalling of the Minnesota Vikings' stadium bill, the NFL itself has stepped in and made some not-very-veiled threats.

This can only end badly.

I say this with the utmost sympathy for Vikings fans, and I feel their frustration about being caught between forces they have almost have no control of.

The NFL getting involved in this can only end in disaster.

How can this end any other way?

Possibility one: Minnesota caves, the stadium gets funded and the Vikings stay. Win-win, right?

Well, unless you count the politicians and Minnesota taxpayers who didn't want this proposal to win—that aren't happy with the attempt to circumnavigate a required Minneapolis vote on the bill by the public.

Hard feelings may be hidden for a while, but it would damage the relationship with the state. While hardcore fans of the team may not care, many taxpayers clearly do.

Cheesing off the people who buy your stuff and may have to OK other requests for funding is rarely a good idea.

Possibility two: The state tells the NFL and Roger Goodell where they can cram their threats with illustrated maps on how to do it.

Not only would that be a huge PR blow to the league, it would also end the Vikings' time in Minnesota. Because right now there are threats. This would force the NFL and the team to carry out those threats unless they didn't mean them.

They have to mean them; otherwise they can't pull this with another reluctant state. It's like being a parent. If you threaten punishment and don't follow through, your kids will stop listening.

If you leave Minnesota, you're going to get a lot of very angry NFL fans—or maybe ex-NFL fans.

Sure, the hardcore Vikes fans will stick it out. Many casual fans will not. They may keep watching football; they may still buy the merchandise. You will damage their love for your league, though.

Los Angeles is itching to get a team (maybe the Vikings), but it took a while. When the Rams and Raiders left, people were angry—especially when the reasons were largely greed-based.

There are people who still hate Georgia Frontiere for moving the Rams. How many years later?

The Raider fans fly up to the Raider games in Oakland, but that's a combination of distance, cheap flights and an unusual fanbase of nutburgers (and I say that lovingly in case I end up on an L.A.-OAK flight this year).

Even then, it's the hardcore base, not the vast majority.

Hard feelings will run deep and take a long time to quell.

Possibility three: Somewhere in between, cooler heads prevail and a compromise is reached.

I put this at 25 percent. I'm sorry, but if it didn't happen before now, how would heavy-handed demands change it? It will probably make it worse.

Because how dare the NFL come in and tell a state how to do its business? Who are they to threaten Minnesota with the loss of its team, however soft the velvet is over the metal glove?

I'm not a Vikings fan or Minnesota resident, and I'm angry. This is bullying, plain and simple. A big business didn't get the result it wants, and so it's threatening to, quite literally, take its ball and go home.

This looks bad. From a public-relations standpoint, it looks awful—the big mean bully telling the little kid that if he doesn't get the little kid's lunch money, he's stealing the kid's bike.

We hate bullies in this country. We hate seeing the little guy get crushed by the weight of an unstoppable juggernaut.

I can't believe the NFL has put me in the position of defending a STATE GOVERNMENT.

What the hell, NFL?

Get out. Get out now, and let the people of Minnesota, the Vikings and the politicians figure it out.

I don't want the Vikings to leave Minnesota, but this isn't the way to go about it.

Threatening to get the outcome you want only looks awful.