Well, when we last left Coronation Street. . .er, the Minnesota Vikings. . .the Beloved Purple were in the process of losing 26-7 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday Night Football, Brad Childress was considering pulling Brett Favre out of the game when the Vikings had a 7-6 lead, Bryant McKinnie was getting benched for being unable to block Julius Peppers, and Steve Smith was pimp-slapping anything in a purple uniform that got in his general vicinity. Apparently, all of this is cause to panic in Minnesota, declare them to be one-and-done in the NFC playoffs, and make the Earth stop rotating on its axis the way it has since the beginning of time.
Clearly, the focus of the national media this week has been on the schism. . .thank you, Adam Schefter. . .between Favre and Childress. And while those media types are in the process of falling all over themselves in a race to be the first people to write the Minnesota Vikings off, my thoughts on the matter are a little bit different. Honestly, I can sum them up in four little words.
Who. . .the heck. . .cares?
See, what's great about this entire situation, in my opinion, is the fact that the entire world seems to be under the impression that this is the first time in the long, illustrious history of the National Football League that a quarterback and his head coach have had a disagreement over something. Am I the only one that thinks that such an assertion is just mind-numbingly stupid? For crying out loud, there are instances of players going off on coaches almost every week in the National Football League for some reason or another. The big difference is that, in many cases, most of those things aren't even brought up once the final whistle sounds and the teams head to the locker room.
But in the case of Brett Favre, Brad Childress, and the Minnesota Vikings, it's Wednesday afternoon, and we're still listening to questions and reading stories about this garbage. And it's not terribly surprising, to be honest. After all, there are a lot of people that have waited all season long for this to happen.
Anyone remember the pre-season hype surrounding the NFC North this year? About how Jay Cutler was set to be the second coming of Christ in Chicago? Or how the Green Bay Packers were the choice to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XLIV because they put together the OMG GREATEST PRE-SEASON EVER? How the Vikings were basically an afterthought because Favre was too old and couldn't get the job done any more?
Let's see. . .wrong. Wrong. And. . .wrong.
The extent to which this has been blown completely out of proportion by the media is nothing short of incredible. For crying out loud, this is an 11-3 football team, and apparently their head coach and their quarterback hate each other or something. I'm not sure if I even have the words for how ridiculous that sounds.
There's a reason the Minnesota Vikings are an 11-3 football team. There's a reason that they're still, despite two relatively ugly losses in their past three games, in the driver's seat and controlling their destiny for a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs. And that's because whatever it is that Favre and Childress have done through the first 14 games of the year. . .it's working. And, for the most part, it's been working pretty darn well. Teams don't get to 11-3 by accident. Fans of opposing teams may think that that's the case, but really. . .who cares what Packer fans or Bear fans or fans of any other team think of the Minnesota Vikings? Or what the national media thinks of the Minnesota Vikings? These are the same people that gave Minnesota zero chance to do anything in 2009, and the same people who will look for any excuse to write them off now.
It's two days before Christmas, and the Minnesota Vikings are 11-3. They've already locked up their second consecutive NFC North championship. They have a great chance to have a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs. And all anyone wants to talk about is some manufactured controversy between Brad Childress and Brett Favre. Good. Let them talk. I don't care. We've seen what this team is capable of, and they already have an invitation to the NFL's post-season party. And, as the Arizona Cardinals showed us last year, what you do leading up to the party isn't nearly as important as what you do after you get there.
I know I'm not terribly worried. I'll worry when there's reason to worry, and not one minute sooner.