Thank God!

As someone who has spent their entire life as a Minnesota Vikings fan, there are two things which are required.

First, you learn to expect heart break. I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers the vaunted "prevent" defense employed by Denny Green, Foge Fazio, et al on 4th quarter drives in the 90's. Or how about Gary Anderson wrecking his "perfect" season with his wide-left chip shot from 38 yards out? Could you have forgotten Nathan Poole eliminating the Vikings from the playoffs on the last play of the 2003-04 season? No, it's not possible to forget these catastrophic collapses, the scars are just to deep. Following the Vikings is like following the banking industry...you're just waiting for the next failure (I told you there would be some banking references ;)).

Second, you're expected, no check that, required to HATE the Green Bay Packers. Can any true Vikings fan honestly tell me they don't HATE the Packers? If you can, then you aren't a real Vikings fan, just someone who enjoys the Purple and Gold, Ragnar, "Three Deep", gold braids, and the inflatable Viking ship.

Because of that second point, I cannot for the life of me understand the excitement up until today of acquiring Brett Favre to run Chilly's "Kick Ass Offense". As a Vikings fan, is there a single player who you have hated more over the last 15+ years than Favre? Is there a single player who has caused more heart-breaking moments than Favre? This is the same guy who was threw the pass in the epic Favre-Antonio Freeman-Chris Dishman MNF game. The same guy who broke the all-time passing TD record against the Vikings. The list could go on and on.

Somehow, in a matter of 8 weeks, the entire Vikings fan base has been brainwashed into forgetting all of these heart-breaking moments and thinking this guy is going to lead us to the Super Bowl. This guy is going to be 40 years old part way through this season. Do you know who the last 40 year old QB to win the Super Bowl was? Oh that's right, it's never happened before. In fact, take a look at Favre's stats for the last 4 weeks of the season from 2005-2008:

2005: 890 yds (222/gm), 1 TD, 8 INT's
2006: 1037 yds (259/gm) 3TD, 6 INT's
2007: 743 yds (186/gm) 6 TD, 5 INT's
2008: 764 yds (191/gm) 2 TD, 8 INT's

Those are the stats of a guy that is going to lead us to the Super Bowl? Look at the Vikings schedule in weeks 14-17: Home vs. Cincy (Decent pass D), @ Carolina (Decent Pass D), @ Chicago (Terrible pass D, but very tough place to play, especially at the end of December when you'll be lucky if the temp. is above zero) and home vs. New York Giants (Good Pass D). You're telling me you want to hitch your wagon to a 40 year-old QB trotting out onto Solider Field on December 28th in what could decide the division? I'll pass.

Don't get me wrong, Favre definitely would have been an improvement over Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels. There's no doubting that. But I'd rather run either of those two out there, finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs than sign and cheer for the NFL version of Satan. For those of you still upset we didn't sign him, at least you can take comfort in the fact you won't have to look at the 10+ shots/game of his wife Deanna throughout the course of the season. Now all we have to hope for is he means what he says, and I'm about as sure of that as MJ was when he was 99.9% sure he was done too.