Well, hi there kids! First off, apologies for being away for so long. It's been a crazy couple of weeks here. I was on my Canada fishing sabbatical the week of Memorial Day, came home on a Saturday, and then turned around and had my daughter's wedding this past Friday.
It's been hectic here, but a good kind of hectic. But things are getting back to normal, so I guess I should start, you know, writing again and all.
I'm still catching up on the Vikes news...of which it looks like there hasn't been a whole lot of, save for the Asher Allen retirement and the Jerome Simpson suspension, so I thought I'd ease back into the saddle by throwing out a classic Vikings highlight.
2004 was an up and down season for the Vikings. A quick 5-1 start ended with a 1-4 finish, 2 close 34-31 losses to Green Bay in the regular season, and Randy Moss famously (infamously?) walking off the field with a few seconds left in a regular season finale loss to Washington. QB Daunte Culpepper had a fantastic season, though, finishing 2nd in MVP voting to Peyton Manning, Nate Burleson stepped up with over 1,000 yards receiving, and the Vikings snuck into the playoffs as a wild card with an 8-8 record.
Their opponent? Green Bay, at Lambeau, in their first and so far only post season match up in this long and storied rivalry.
What happened? Only a 31-17 beat down that saw Culpepper pass for 284 yards and 4 TD's, the defense intercept a frazzled Brett Favre 4 times, and Moss burn Al Harris for two long TD's. The final score, a 34 yard dagger from Culpepper to Moss, still offends Jack Buck to this day. It was the swan song for the Randy Moss era in Minnesota, save for a disastrous return in 2010. A few months later he was traded to Oakland, a few months after that Daunte Culpepper's knee was shredded in Carolina, and several months after that the Mike Tice era came to an ignominious end. But for now, enjoy what I think is the most satisfying post season win in team history:
Enjoy your evening kids.