What Kind of Day Has it Been?....
Rambling after week 2...
Painful. No easier way for someone to analyze the most recent of the Vikings debacles. Just think, for all the columns that sports writers out there that have spent the first couple days of this week analyzing the poor start by the Vikings, all they had to write was one word. Painful. In fact, if I was the sports editor at the DNT - I would have freeze framed a shot from the game with such a caption. There was a point in the second half - and I don't remember which point because I kept falling asleep and waking up - where Daunte threw a pick in the end zone after rolling out to his right. The guy in the FOX replay truck, who obviously had Daunte on his fantasy team, replayed it in slo-mo with a caption to the effect of "Where was he throwing this?" on the screen. The replay showed a view from directly behind Daunte as he rolled and threw into either quintuple coverage, or whatever is more than that. My guess, is that as he let it fly, he yelled either 200 or 300 (cause you can't give away 500 points for making a catch like that, it was too easy).
Anyways, the media - and myself for that matter - has been pretty hard on the Vikings. Daunte, Scary Steve, Tice and the O-line have all taken some heat. I will put a lot of the blame on a guy that not too many are blaming at this point. Red McCombs. Yes, good old Red. While he sits on his throne at home watching his 84 inch plasma screen, I'm sure he's laughing as he wipes his you-know-what clean with the bundles of Andrew Jacksons he scammed off Zigi. Red was the man at the helm when the Randy trade went down, therefore The Donald would have held him responsible and that's good enough for me. That trade was just about as bad as the Herschel Walker trade of about 15 years earlier. Its kinda like the old joke, "I'll give you 4 of these nice shiny pennies for that old nickel.". Sure you don't have the nickel anymore, but now you got four coins instead of one - what a deal!
So, as a former QB - let's let Daunte play this out. He's gonna find his way, and with Aaron Brooks and the hapless Saints coming to town next week, it's gonna get better soon - isn't it?
Anyways....let's get on to the BIGFFBL. Without looking anything up, I think this is the first year in a while where we have equality across the divisions as far as wins/losses after a couple weeks. Jason is at 2-0, leading the Bulldogs - Ben is at 2-0 leading the Huskies and Suomala is at 2-0 leading the Bison. As for the other end of the spectrum, Juice, Rich/John and myself all find ourselves at 0-2 at this point. The rest of yous guys are all sitting at 1-1. Wong might comment on parity at this point....and we'll let him do so.
Is it wrong for me to say that I think there has been a little too much pushing for the BushClintonKatrina fund during weeks 1 and 2 of the NFL? If so, then let me know and I'll stop, but here is my take. First, let me say that I have made a contribution to the relief effort and I encourage those of you who haven't to consider doing so. BUT, do we necessarily need to be reminded during every single TV timeout about the good works of groups such as the Red Cross? Does that really help us, much less those from that region who may only be tuning into the game in order to forget about their life for a few hours? Why constantly remind them of the grimness outside their doors....it's not like anyone watching football on week 2 Sunday wasn't aware of the issue. Again, that may be the wrong thing to type, but I'm just aiming to make you think a little.
What's next? Well, I was sent an email by Scotty Wojo on Monday which was called something like "The next edition of getting to know your friends". So I filled it out and sent it out to some folks....and one of the responses I got back was from my good friend Mike Tice. Yes, that Mike Tice. I've copied/pasted his responses below. Some might surprise you, most will not. Enjoy.
Welcome to the next edition of getting to know your friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do and try not to be LAME and spoil the fun! Just give in. Copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it into a new e-mail you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.
Then, send this to a whole bunch of people you know INCLUDING THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about your friends. It is fun for you and person who sent it to you.
Remember to send it back to the person who sent it to you.
1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR KITCHEN PLATES? Moldy
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Ha ha, you're kidding, right?.
3. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? You think I can run a computer?
4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Clue (as in, "I don't have a...")
5. Least FAVORITE SMELLS? Failure...I know it well
6. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? "Cinci was only a dream...."
7. FAVORITE Color: Purple and Gold....for now.
8. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR: Pink (as in slip)
9. HOW MANY RINGS until YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? Well, at least 2 cause I have to get the pencil off my ear first.
10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Randy
11. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Duh...um....
12. DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST? Only when avoiding a press conference
13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? Yep, a life size good luck teddy bear
14. DO YOU LIKE THUNDERSTORMS: Only when it delays my latest huge embarrassing failure
15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? Duh....um....
16. WHAT IS YOUR SIGN? Must be the one finger salute all the fans give me.
17. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? Is that one of them thar vegetables?
18. Coke or Pepsi? Um...coke for onterrio, pepsi for daunte.
19. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR-COLOR WHAT WOULD IT BE? Is 'full head of' a color?
20. IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? Wow, we're way past half empty.
21. FAVORITE MOVIE? The Biggest Loser (yea, I know, it's not a movie, but it fits).
22. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? On the typewriter?
23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? An escape hatch from all this...
24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 84 84 84 84 84 84
25. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Football - but I think I'm gonna be a Raiders fan now
26. YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST INTENSE PAIN? #11
27. PERSON MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Denny Green
28. PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Zigi
29. KETCHUP OR MUSTARD? Man I love having a Dome dog with ketchup during the 2nd quarter...
30. HAMBURGER OR HOT DOG? Dome dogs rule....
31. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON? Preseason/offseason
32. THE BEST PLACES YOU HAVE EVER BEEN: On the winning side.
33. WHAT SCREEN SAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? Every Lucky Charm in the box.
35. NAME YOU WERE BORN WITH: Michael Mud Tice
36. WHAT IS THE MAIN INGREDIENT IN GLASS? Duh, that's a trick question - it's 100% glass
37. DO YOU WORK PART-TIME OR FULL-TIME? Full-time, but I take Sundays off.
38. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? Yea, the ghost of 84 roams the dome
39. HOW MANY JOBS HAVE YOU HAD AT ONE TIME? Well, this one for now, but I'm getting my resume ready
40. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE MUSICIAN? Whoever sang, "Sha-na-na-na, Hey hey hey...goodbye."
Need I say more?
BIGFFBL senior writer Jeremy Carlson sounds off whenever he feels like it on www.bigffbl.com