I watched last night's game with a life long Vikings fan. He wasn't even there for the SB losses but has seen enough in his day (for example Minny v. Falcons or that Minny v. Cards game to give us the North, etc). But he broke down last night and it was sad man.

I felt for him on so many levels, as a friend and as a fan. After the Cards/Packers game I was sad and wondered why I invest so much into sports but at the end of hte day I have 1996, no matter what.

They have nothing. And to lose like that. 35 yard line, two runs (if just ONE got some yards, they have a chance at FG). That 12 man in the huddle call AFTER a timeout! The INT! The coin toss. The Asher Allen PI on 3rd and 5 in OT. The DROPPED sure INT off the Colston drop right into the Vikings safeties hands. The 4th and inches (HOW did he hold on to the ball with the helmet hit). The PI on the LB, when he didn't touch him AND it was uncatchable. A kicker in the post season FINALLY actually kicks a FG.

I know its fun to rub into their faces but man that was a LOSS. I looked into my friends eyes as taht FG went into nad it was just pure PAIN. What a way to lose. A fumble at the 4 yard line, a fumble at the 10 yard line, a fumble at your own 15. That could have been a 21 point swing alone.

Vikings fans, I feel for you. I no longer doing my "Got SuperBowl?" jokes.

But Saints fan, you deserve it too after what that city has been through.

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I don't think I've ever made a Super Bowl crack to Vikings fans. Some people seriously need new material.

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It's pretty sad what some fanbases have been through. The Bills are on that same level. You could make a case for the Chargers, Cardinals etc. Sometimes, it might be better to just go down like the Lions than it is to get your hopes crushed in a way like this.

This one was a real heartbreaker. I have to admit, I wasn't rooting for the Vikings. I think that most Packers fans wheren't. But still, this one is pretty sad.

Exactly, I'd rather be a Lions fan. These types of defeats take so much out of you.

But Bills fans, oh man. Imagine losing FOUR Super Bowls in a ROW. Including one in which you just had ot hit a FG and your whole lives would be completely different. Plus that Music City Miracle in Tennesse. Wow. That city's never even won anything, hockey too, many heart breaks.

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I dunno about the Saints love anymore. To be honest, it looked to me like their game plan on defense was to take Favre out of the game. Not just hammer him, that's fine. But several of those hits were borderline (or across the border) cheap shots. If it happens once, I can understand. But it happened several times.

I don't think the Vikings played well enough to win. You ought not to go to a Super Bowl after a game with that many turnovers. And if you do, you're a pretender.

But IMO if I were a Saint, I wouldn't be standing all that proud today either. To me, the Saints played like the streets of New Orleans they warn tourists against.

You know the ones. The ones that, despite all the post-Katrina love for the Big Easy, still make New Orleans one of the most dangerous cities in America.

No, I'm sorry. Count me among those who won't be watching the Super Bowl. I don't believe in "lesser of two evils" voting. And I don't want either of those teams to win.

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The only hit that wasn't a clean shot as he was throwing was the late hit after he handed off the ball, and the guy was flagged for it. Hell, I don't consider it out of the realm of possibility that he thought Favre still had it on a bootleg after a fake hand-off. It was a physical game. I strongly disagree that there was anything dirty about it.

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Exactly. He actually got a BS call for him when the DT drove him to the ground, while he couldn't know the ball was out already.

I saw one cheap hit and the others where all legal. Maybe some where harder than necessary, instead of regular tackles, they often went for the big hit, but I wouldn't call that dirty. It's a strategy you take to bang up a pocket passer. It can backfire horribly, because you can usually make the tacklers miss more often. It worked for them yesterday, though.

I usually wouldn't say anything about that hit where he was driven into the ground, but Brees took an identical hit later on in the game and no flag was thrown, so I have to say it was a b.s. call, or a b.s. no call on Brees. I prefer the former.

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How about going for the back of his knees on the play where he had to be helped to the sideline afterwards?

How about Darren Sharper launching himself at his neck?

Sorry, I don't buy it. I don't give a shit what the Joe Bucks and the Troy Aikmans of the world say. It looked like the Saint strategy on defense went well beyond "hit him hard and hit him often." Well beyond "take his head out of the game." It looked to me like it was "take him out of the game."

And I don't give a rat's ass whether the hits were legal or not. My standard for play isn't what's legal. Alex Gibb's offensive blocking system is legal, and it's immoral as hell, based in techniques that are so dangerous you can't practice them.

A cheap shot isn't cheap because it's against the rules. A cheap shot is cheap because it's not justified by the morality of the contest.

What the Saints did wasn't hard football. It was bush league. It's in the same realm as Buddy Ryan "bounties" and Forrest Gregg "hit list" territory. As Warren Sapp's hit on Chad Clifton.

Yes, I wanted the Vikings to lose. Yes,I want Favre to retire and just go away. In my opinion, the only thing worse than the Vikings winning a Superbowl is the Cowboys losing a Superbowl. Yes, I'm glad the Vikings aren't in the Super Bowl.

But in my opinion the Saints defense played like a bunch of thugs. And if they were executing Gregg Williams' and Sean Payton's game plan, then they're thugs, too.

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I can't comment on the hit to the back of the knees, because I wasn't watching the player who went low to see how it happened. I just didn't see anything out of the ordinary. That's pretty much what happens when an immobile QB throws into the face of blitzes, and the Vikings did a piss poor job protecting him.

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