The One Where I Say See You Later

Good Morning!

I knew this day was coming soon, I just wasn’t sure when. I’ve mentioned before that I have a family member with health problems, I have to be near my home at all times in case something happens that requires my attention. I’ve reached the point where I can’t have any distractions from that commitment...there are other reasons but I’m an adult and won’t go into them here.

I lurked on the Daily Norseman off and on for a couple of years before taking the plunge and creating a username back in 2014. Looking back I’m not sure what prompted me to create a username (probably an exchange between Filbert33 and Peterplaysbass) but this was a raucous place back then since the team had hired a new head coach, the stadium bill had passed and the Vikings seemed to have an ascending team with a QB not named Ponder. I slowly fit in with the group that was here and began spending more and more time posting about the Vikings and life in general.

Besides the obvious complaining about the Vikings I learned a lot about some of you, we went through job changes and moves, weddings and divorces, birth of children and more together. Some of my favorite people with usernames left but were replaced by friendly and enthusiastic Vikings fans.

Seven years covers a lot of Vikings football and off the field stories; from the AP child abuse case, Blair Walsh, Teddy’s knee, the Bradford trade, Bradford’s knee falls apart, the 2017 run to the Miracle (and then the Letdown) finally though the Cousins signing and then extension.

I started posting a Friday Fanpost Open Thread in 2017 mostly to give Brad a break since he was the only one posting open threads back then after the AP child abuse case and removal of the open thread from the front page. 748-that’s how many open threads, game threads and mailbag articles I posted on the front page. I wanted to reach a 1,000 or something ending in 69 (nice) but it’s not in the cards.

Speaking of Fanposts, this was my favorite: The Neighborhood Schism.

First, I have to say thank you to Christopher Gates, our Team Editor. He was kind enough to allow me to post the open threads on the front page and moderate stories here as I saw fit. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Chris in person but hope to at a Vikings game in the future. I will always wish him and the Daily Norseman continued success as the best Vikings blog on the internet.

Second, a big thank you to Brad. He was willing to take a chance on a knucklehead who had only been posting for a couple of years and move my Fanpost open threads to the front page on Friday, and then talk to Christopher on my behalf since he thought I would be a good fit to become a moderator. We’ve become good friends over the years and one of these days we’ll meet up at a Vikings game.

I also had the opportunity to meet GA Skol and MT Viking in person. GA at the Jags-Vikings game in 2016 and MT at the Vikings-Broncos game in 2018 and the Vikings-Poopeaters game in 2019. That 2019 game was the first home Vikings game for either of us, the stadium and the team did not disappoint that weekend. Even though I haven’t seen either of them in person since then I value their friendship very much and plan going to games with them in the future when I’m able.

Finally, my biggest thanks is to all of you I had the privilege of interacting with here at the Daily Norseman over the years. You were the reason I kept coming back even when the Vikings continued to disappoint (and still do). There are too many usernames (and actual names) to list here because I got to know you personally, but I will miss all of you because this little place on the internet represents a community to me.

The Friday and Saturday lead pictures were my third and second favorite pictures I could select, Jerry Burns (should be obvious why) and John Randle (my favorite player). Today’s lead picture is my favorite, it was taken when Mike Zimmer was hired as the Vikings Head Coach.

I haven’t decided what I’ll do with my Twitter account since I primarily set it up to follow sports writers and retweet articles from here. It is possible I’ll come back to the Daily Norseman in another capacity, but not anytime soon and it’s not something I’ve put much thought into.

I hope someone got the Friends reference up top in the Mythical Words (that no one reads).

Through multiple deployments and moves in my lifetime, I’m not good at saying goodbye.

So, I’ll see you guys later.

Skol

Rob