http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/113855959.html
Vikings, Packers and Bears: Why them and not us?
A year that started with legitimate optimism for the Vikings' first-ever Super Bowl victory and first appearance in the big game in 3 1/2 decades will end with one of their two biggest rivals -- and their insufferably gloating but deserving fan bases -- instead guaranteed to go instead.
And so it has come to pass that a season that seemingly couldn't get any worse for Vikings fans has done exactly that. Yes, it wasn't bad enough that this all-in season went bust. Now, we are confronted with this reality:
A year that started with legitimate optimism for the Vikings' first-ever Super Bowl victory and first appearance in the big game in 3 1/2 decades will end with one of their two biggest rivals -- and their insufferably gloating but deserving fan bases -- instead guaranteed to go instead.
The Moss mess, the Favre-capades, the coaching upheaval, the collapse of the Metrodome, going 0-4 against the Bears and Packers ... it wasn't enough. One year after that crushing defeat in New Orleans, next Sunday will end with Vikings fans receiving texted pictures of a smiling enemy.
Maybe we can get a massive blizzard next Sunday and spend the day shoveling out instead of licking our wounds. Otherwise, in this living nightmare within the decidedly mediocre NFC, we would guess the majority of Vikings fans will be reduced to rooting for Chicago as the rare lesser of two evils.
The Bears to this generation of Vikings fans are a relatively harmless franchise that catches lightning in a bottle once every five years and rides an extraordinary mixture of well-timed plays and ridiculous breaks to a huge season.
This year's collection of horseshoes included the Calvin Johnson play (turning an almost certain loss against Detroit into a victory in Week 1); an inordinate amount of games against backup quarterbacks; and needing only to win a home playoff game against a team with a losing record to gain the right to host the NFC title game. It's frustrating, but it's also true the Bears could just as quickly be 7-9 again next season. It's just how they work.
The Packers, on the other hand, had already created separation as the Vikings' top rival before the Brett Favre years here ratcheted everything up another couple of notches. As currently constructed, with depth and a franchise quarterback developed from within, they are a model franchise the Vikings would probably like to emulate. They are set up to be good for several years.
And yet while a Vikings fan might watch them execute and grudgingly admire what they can do on the field, they know in a deeper place that this must not happen. Not the Packers in the Super Bowl. Not this year.
Even if the only other choice is bearing down, as the fight song goes, with the Chicago Bears.
MICHAEL RAND
StarTribune.com wrote: