How Do You Feel About The Upcoming Season?

For all of us here it has been way too long without any real football (no, that preseason game doesn’t count). Each season brings its own expectations with it. 2008 was get to playoffs or be fired for Childress. 2009 and 2010 were both Superbowl or bust. This season looks to be about how the team is going to transition into a new set of coaches and QB’s. This makes expectations for this season a bit different than in the past few years.

Usually, we talk about wins and losses when we are discussing how good (or bad) we think the upcoming season will be for the Vikings. While that is fun, it doesn’t really say how we feel about the team.

For example, one guy could think that the Vikings will be going 8-8 and he would be happy with that because to him it would show they are improving.

On the other hand someone may think that the Vikings will also go 8-8, but wouldn’t be happy with that result as he would view anything less than a playoff spot as disappointing.

So instead of asking you guys how many wins/losses you think are team will get. I want to get a sense for how we all feel about the upcoming season. Here’s a brief description of these moods/views; some are rather self-explanatory, others, not so much.

Purple Cool-Aid Drinker

Basically, you are excited about the Vikings to the point where you have hugely irrational expectations of them. E.G. Peterson rushing for 3000 yards, Vikings going 19-0, Ponder is instantly turning into Brady. Fun for day dreaming, but can be kind of disappointing once the season starts. (Not to burst any bubbles, but the odds of those things happening are unfortunately rather slim). I know this is how I was feeling heading into the first year of Favre. For some people, this is how they start off every season. Looking back, I think it’s a little crazy, but to each their own I guess.

Present Optimist

Mainly, if this is your view you are going to be very positive about the outlook of the season, most likely you see us in a McNabb led playoff run, or Ponder having a season similar to Flacco or Matt Ryan for example. It could be something else, just as long as it is something of a more or less a positive outlook on this current season.

Future Optimist

This is slightly different than a present optimist. A future optimist will see the coming season as most likely being rather bad, but sees that as just being part of the process towards eventual becoming a better team. For example, the Vikings could go 3-13, but if Ponder is showing good signs of being the QB of the future, than that season would have been good for them.

Hopeful Pessimist

Yes, I know this is an oxymoron, but that’s the point. This is where I fit in. I’m excited about the season, but really have mixed opinions on how I feel about the team. On one hand there is all the optimism that comes from have a rookie QB. On the other hand it doesn’t feel like the team is going to be good this year. I’d like very much to be wrong, but I just don’t see this being a good year. But at the same time I’m thinking that it’s possible that the team can still get its act together and be in the hunt for the playoff.  All I know is that I’m excited for football regardless of how it turns out.

Pessimist

It’s not difficult to be a pessimist about this coming season. Let’s see, it could be easily argued that:

We are in arguably the best division in the league, we lost four solid players in Edwards, Rice, Leber, and Pat Williams, the replacements for these players most likely won’t be as good, we have a washed up QB in McNabb, a rookie who some say shouldn’t have been in the first round. I’m sure I missed something, but just looking at the stuff on this list. I’d say it would be easy to fall into this category.

Obviously the list is not all encompassing, I’m sure there are things I missed and things that overlapped.

Anyway, vote for whichever option best fits your mood about the season. Obviously, we are all excited for the coming season, but have different expectations for our team. I think it will be interesting to see how this turns out.