livingsimpleton does the Vikings game. sort of.

01/03/10


Up until the past few weeks I've done my usual half-decent job of ignoring the NFL season in general and the Vikings in particular. I shoot for watching no more than a few plays per game and that's only for background noise when I'm in the kitchen cuz Miz Susan isn't watching. This is easier than you might think. Baseball lasts well into the football season and even when I'm not dedicating every surviving brain cell to the Twins' chances (as in '07 when they had absolutely no chances whatsoever) I can justify blowing off the purple and gold in the interest of letting the National Pasttime wind down into early November. I even justify this to myself when I have no actual stake in a Phillies/Rays or Bosox/Rocks matchup.


But of all the people in the world to take an interest in the Vikes, I couldn't have been more surprised to discover Susan reminding me when they played and on what channel. I'm half expecting her to be updating me next on the daily injury report out of Eden Prairie and asking just what the hell the odds mean and how can you possibly score 5 1/2 points in a football game. And I'll know I'm really in trouble when money starts disappearing out of the loose change dish after she's fired up a weekly football pool in her fourth grade classroom at school.


Whatever. I'm happy to spend any time I can with her since she usually counters my suggestions that we do something together with a suggestion of her own that I take a flying leap. Family bonding is a good thing, right? We've enjoyed some of the games we've watched even if the locals have been a little flat over the last few weeks. Having discarded all shreds of partisanship years ago, I was able to watch last Monday night's game with an air of detachment and concentrate on the game and the scope of its dramatic plot twists. I'm now free to reserve my situational depression exclusively for weightier matters such as the Twins losing to the Yankees this past October.


It may have been tempting to climb back on the bandwagon after today's romp over the hapless Giants. Was this some karmic turnabout to reward Minnesotans and punish NYCers in the wake of this past fall's tragedy? Maybe but I'm not buying into it. I want that retribution in the form of live coverage of Mark Texeira and AJ Burnett busting up water coolers and folding chairs with fungo bats after losing to the Twinks in post-season. Or news flashes about how MLB is going to start requiring monthly eye exams and random pop quizzes on rulebook familiarity for the most visibly incompetent of its umpires.


We'll probably be watching again at whatever point the Vikes play their first postseason game. I haven't paid any attention to what happened over the rest of the day's schedule and I have no idea whatsoever who plays tonite or tomorrow night or if these games have any ramifications for the survivors. (Note to self: find out if there's still such a thing as Monday Night Football.) I'll have to wait for the 10 o'clock news or tomorrow's PioneerPress to figure that out. And I'm not about to send Miz Susan out to buy me a purple T-shirt. I'm keeping my cool on this one.


On the other hand, my attention was grabbed when the announcers started talking about the possibility of a Vikings/Cowboys meeting next week. I'm still physically sick after having been witness to Drew Pearson pushing off of Nate Wright to grab Roger Staubach's floater and tippy-toe into the endzone back in the '75. Now here's a prospect for some real-live karmic retribution that I might get excited about. Not that I'm going to. Like I said, I'm keeping my cool on this one.