72 Tilting Field
In 1970/71 the Vikings had a record of 12-2 & 11-3 with the most dominant defense in the league with the least points allowed 143 & 139, respectively.  Their quarterback play at the time was much much less than stellar.  In 1972, Fran Tarkenton rejoins the Vikings squad for his second stint where the team promptly posts a 7-7 record missing the playoffs.  The message to the incoming savior was quite clear ... we did it as a team before you arrived, and we'll have none of that holier than thou savior crap.  The result of that after season speech was a series of what should have been four (4) consecutive Super Bowl appearances that soon followed.  The point is, every situation is different ... there is just no time, no patience and no value in allowing history to repeat itself.   

To be direct, for the Vikings to win their first Super Bowl Championship they are going to have to drag some tired old asses across that proverbial championship line.  All but one veteran has earned the so called Viking sweat equity-salt, where this concept just might be the cause of a unfounded blinding rage ... but we need to get over it ... quick.   Be careful ... it all just hype.  Some may now find themselves choking down an indigestible bone as there are just too many young hot-bloods out there that are too proud to acknowledge "the reality" ... where pride has away of getting in the way ... just as it did back in 1972.  We've got to get past the obstacles that are created in our own minds ... as we gosta' make this elephant dance.  Just when you feel like you're about to suck down a boat load of pride, just remember one simple thought ... the tilting field.  

It's taken a life time to understand Bret Farve where only bits and pieces are exposed to us over time.  All this does is bring me back to the initial description of a young college athlete that shouldn't of even been placed upon a football field.  He just survived a horrendous injury, something that should of ended his career.  Then this David walks onto the field of Goliath, and I hear these words for the very first time, "It was as if the field was tilting in his FAVOR, or better said, the field tilts in his FARVER.  Not like a pin ball machine and a 300 pound lineman ... more like a guy carrying Fort Knox in his ass.  Year after year, we've witness his demise, hoping that he'd be officially in our rear view mirror forever, but he, and that tilt, never went away.  How many times had he gutted us like pigs.  The fabric tear in the space-time continuum ... that never balanced ... this was not something that you could hate ... only revere.   

Now I have my daughter lecturing me about her boy friends very verbal conflict with his father.  He's a Farve fan where his father is a Packer backer.  His father called his son a traitor, and his son said, no dad, you're the traitor.  How could the son turn his back on the very thing that tilts the field.  What we all need to understand is that there will be some, with their heads firmly planted in the sand however, there will be way too many that will want to know ... did they pull the rug from under him too soon.  If they did, only a very select few will have to admit to being wrong ... licking their wounds ... all the while, making the Packer nation right.  

The fact of the matter is that Farve backers are nation wide.  They come from every nook and cranny, regardless of their first stated passion, which means that there is an undeniable torrent that is building.      

The Viking Ghost Writer
MyVikingBlood.com
Date: Friday, August 29, 2009