Tuesday, September 01, 2009

What is a fan to do?

Ok, there was some mega-super-duper homerism going on after Favre made the perfect hand-off in the first play of last night’s EXHIBITION game. Watching the Purple Jesus glide on turf for 75 yards while even the D-backs couldn’t contend with the exalted one’s speed as it was the tinge of excitement necessary to get entrenched into this possibly epic season.

The fan in me wants to believe Favre is the guy despite age and injuries.

The homer in me still cringes every time number four trots out from the sidelines in a spiffy new Vikings jersey.

After seeing the schedule for the first five games, should the Vikes not come away with at least a 4-1 record over the Browns, Rams, 49ers, Packers (go 1-4 and this one is a must win since there’s December pride on the line), and Detroit they need to hang it up with the Super Bowl talk and face the music that this shovel of cash towards this talented team, and the three month media circus surrounding Brett Favre was not worth it as they’ll float back towards a possible wild card team and I’ll store the Helga hat for 2024 and wait for the next Fran Tarkington or Touchdown Tommy Kramer to lead this team to something significant.


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The Minnesota State Fair kicked much ass and deserves its own post with some pictures. The sad state of the average Minnesotan sports fan came out as the lowest common denominators strolled down Dan Patch Ave. while double fisting cheese curds and Wild Bill’s curly fries.

Oh wait that was me.

It was the below tilt-inducing numbers that got this home town fanboi shaking his head towards the quickness of the Favrewagon being unleashed towards the land of 10,000 lakes.

Number of seconds upon paying admission first Vikings Favre jersey/t-shirt spotted: 26.2

Number of Joe Mauer jerseys worn by studly bloggers who get free drinks from random women in Chicago-land bars: 1

Number of Joe Mauer jerseys worn by various fair-going fans: 13 (including one entire family of four)

Number of Brett Favre t-shirt/jersey variations found: 17

Think this is a Vikings town? The epitome of hometown sports hero and the first one people gathered around since Kirby Puckett (maybe KG, but most people have given up on the Wolves), and the fan base turns their “Favre Sucks” t-shirts inside out to expose how quickly their loyalties change.

Granted I’m climbing up the wooden steps myself, ready to hitch a rickety ride on the sparsely covered Favrewagon myself, but this is still baseball season with a team that isn’t giving up being only 3.5GB of Detroit after a 4-1 win last night over the White Soxs (thanks to Mr. Mauer’s home run of course). Part of me wanted to go up to each Favre toting follower to ask why they choose to lend their fan-dom towards a figure in a state that has made Brett Favre their personal Dr. Doom for all these years.

I still can’t explain what the heck I’m supposed to feel when he scrambles and hits Shinacoe down the middle for 19 yards (or as BG mentioned on twitter, 22 yards if you count his John Holmes sized baby rattle). A fan of the franchise forced to root for the enemy and looking to break the string of almosts and could-have-beens that have hung over the Vikes since Jim Marshall ended up on NFL Films for eternity by scoring a wrong-way touchdown.

Its only preseason, and ignoring their 3-0 record is easy but shying away from the spark that the defense and offense showed last night gives hope that sports fans in this town may have something to root for in January other than above zero temperatures for once.

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