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The Minnesota Vikings' 2013 season, to this point, has been all about the quarterback situation. And I have to say that, in almost 30 years of watching this football team, I'm not sure if any situation has ever been botched as badly as we've seen the quarterback situation this season. . .and we're only to the halfway point of the season. That means it could, somehow, manage to get even worse.
Let's do a quick recap of how the Vikings' quarterback situation has gone since the calendar flipped to 2013, shall we?
Following the Vikings' loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL playoffs: "Okay, Christian Ponder is our quarterback going forward, Joe Webb isn't on the depth chart at all. Cool? Cool."
Following the signing of Matt Cassel during the off-season: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Pretty much every single week during the off-season: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Pretty much every single week during the pre-season: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Following the Week 1 loss to the Detroit Lions: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Following the Week 2 loss to the Chicago Bears: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Following the Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns: "Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback, and Matt Cassel is his backup."
Upon the Vikings arriving in London: "Well, it turns out that Christian has a rib injury that we somehow managed to miss before, so we're going to go with Matt this week against the Steelers."
Following the Week 4 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers: "Matt played a decent game today, and we'll have to evaluate Christian going forward. But Christian Ponder is our starting quarterback."
During the bye week: "Well, Christian is healthy enough to start again and has been cleared to play, but we're going to go ahead and start Matt instead. Oh, also, we've signed Josh Freeman and released McLeod Bethel-Thompson."
Following the Week 5 loss to the Carolina Panthers: "Well, Matt had a pretty awful game today, and we're paying Josh a whole lot of money, so playbook be damned, we're going to throw him out there on the road on Monday night."
Following the Week 6 loss to the New York Giants: "Josh had a rough night, but he's still our starter going forward. Also, we apologize to the guy that was driving on the Jersey Turnpike when one of Josh's passes went through his windshield. We're happy he's alright, and we'll cover the new glass."
Today: "Did I say that Josh was our starter going forward? Well, it turns out he has a. . .uhhhh. . .concussion. Yeah, a concussion. It looks like Christian is going to start on Sunday night."
Seriously, if you tried to submit something like this as some hokey Hollywood movie, any respectable executive would laugh you right out of their office. But it's not Hollywood, ladies and gentlemen. . .it's the 2013 Minnesota Vikings.
At this point, do we laugh? Cry? Laugh to keep from crying?