The circus, the inevitable circus, is officially in town. I got a chance to see first hand what the scene was like at Winter Park on my way home from work today. Living in Shakopee, I go right by there off 494 and what I saw was a media frenzy. Keep in mind that none of the National media was able to make it here yet as this entire thing got dropped on everyone just before lunch time. Fear not though, the National media circus will indeed be here and more than likely set camp between Bloomington and Eden Prairie. I guess Jay Glazer is getting a nice laugh today. I even blasted his "opinionated" article from yesterday while discussing the matter with some buddies of mine.Now that I've had an evening to soak this all in, I'm starting to change my tune on some initial thoughts about this wacky marriage. While watching the press conference, I noticed a few things. Zigy Wilf looked like a rich guy that just bought a new sports car and can't wait to drive it. In a sense, that's exactly what happened here. Instead of thinking about this as a desperation move, I'm now looking at this as a "why the hell not" move. What do the Vikings truly have to lose? SI's Peter Kings claims that this is a huge mistake for both parties. Again, why?
The Vikings are a better team with Brett Favre. Nobody was too excited about Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson leading this team. Excitement is what Favre has brought to the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area that deserves some limelight after watching the Twins collapse, Timberwolves rebuild, and Wild try to re-establish themselves. The PGA Championship at Hazeltine set the stage, but Favre to the Vikings, that's one for the ages and it's got the interest of this entire country. Within a few hours of WCCO's Mark Rosen breaking this story wide open this morning, more than 2,000 season ticket holders jumped back in the ship for the 2009 season and 6,000+ single season tickets were sold.
There's a lot of talk about what this will do to the persona's of Sage and TJack. They are grown men making a ton of money, they can and will, deal with it. Sage has been a career backup and there's a reason for it. TJack is erratic and has more stability issues than your typical reality tv marriage. If Favre is unable to get the job done for whatever reason, one of these two will need to step up and prove themselves. They must continue to practice hard, perfect their craft, and perhaps learn a bit watching a future Hall of Famer.
Like it or not, this team is now poised for a legit Super Bowl run with Favre at the helm. This is one of the most complete teams in the NFC and Favre is not coming in expecting to be the gunslinger of old and I truly believe he understands that after hearing him talk at the press conference today. Adrian Peterson's quest for 2,000 yards just became a serious possibility. Favre still has enough zip and QB savy to make teams pay should they continue to stack the box to stop the dynamic runner. Berrian and Rice are legitimate play making wideouts, Shaincoe has blossomed into the best pass catching tight end the Vikings have had since Steve Jordan, and Percy Harvin will keep defenisve coordinators up all night trying to figure out how to plan for him.
Say what you will about the team's credibility and Favre's for that matter. To me it's simple. There's nothing to lose, it's a once in a lifetime chance for both, why not give it a shot. As Favre said, he's not worried about tarnishing his leagacy, he knows what he's accomplished. When this thing plays out, good or bad, Brett Favre will still go down as one of the greatest Quarterbacks to play the game. A QB that terrorized the Vikings for years. If there's a chance he could help lead the Vikings to their first Super Bowl victory, I'm jumping on the ship and am going to enjoy the ride.
Skol Vikings!
