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Too Undefeated
The very best part of not being directly apart of any NFL organization is that we are afforded the luxury of being able view and conjecture the future without the risk of losing our livelihood.  This weekend, 2 of the 3 NFC teams are going head to head where only 1 is assured to come out of that particular match undefeated.  What is odd, as outcomes go, after this weekend, there is a possibility that all 3 teams remain undefeated ... a slim possibility nonetheless.  
 
What is also odd is that never in the history of the NFL has there been 2 undefeated teams entering the final season contest where both remain undefeated with a 15-0 won-loss record going into the seasons final days.  This year, it is a possibility, although a very remote possibility, but it's fun to imagine such an event especially with all the records that seam to be falling on a weekly basis at the feet ole #4.  

It's as if the gods are playing with us, thinking of new and obscure ways to peak our interest.  How about this week, we'll let him have this record too.  In all fairness, any time he walks onto the field, the erasers have to come out as several new records are created every week.  What is of greatest interest however is the records that fall that have been held for decades like Jim Marshall's most consecutive games played streak.  Will he get there?  Will he make it?  Only time will tell.       
   
The fact of the matter is that any one of these 3-teams can fall at any time ... especially when the opposing teams decides that they're going to play.  It is without doubt that Brett Favre is the greatest and most scrutinized story of the entire 2009 season ... as it should be.  What this brings to the table is a 5-0 record that is under great scrutiny due to a combined won-loss record of our past opponents.  The reality was that these teams were completely different entities due to the polarizing effect caused by just one man.  It's as if every game played this year was a nationally televised event, which they were ... like playing a continual playoff schedule.  Although these facts are irrelevant to most, it is working to prepare this team for major media events ... there is nothing like deja vu all over again.  In other words, you don't get overly excited when it happens every week ... week in, week out.  

Now at this stage of the 2009 season, no NFC team should be overlooked as the final stretch run may reveal some very interesting developments however; as it stands today ... there are some obvious comments to consider here.  

The first is in relation to the Saints.  The history versus the Vikings in many ways reminds me of the Detroit Lions.  In no disrespect to Bree's and his mates, as they are an exceptional crew ... there are some things that cannot be overlooked.  For example in 1987 the Saints were the best NFC team.  We faced them in the first round and what transpired on that day was in short incredulous.  Just like last year, it was as if the Saints, being in the shadows of all those great Viking teams for so long, overplayed their hand consistently, to their own demise.  To be direct, the Saints are no different than any other team as the Vikings history indicates their own nemesis too.  This year this shall be interesting development. 

As for the New York Giants, the other NFC's undefeated team, well that's an entirely different matter.   This is the team that skewered Brett Favre's life for all time for after that championship game, his career in Green Bay was over.  As for the Giant's ... there just might be an overdue message that looms on the horizon.  As for Eli and his mates, the departed Darren Sharper said it best ... I wish we could play these guys every week.  This really wasn't a reflection of Eli's talents or that of his mates ... it was in reference to how these players matched up.  In particular the North-South running of Brandon Jacobs versus the Williams Wall.  There aren't many teams that can make the Giants 1-demensional but let's just say, at this juncture, that we are not quaking in our boots.
   
There is a point to all of this and once again, it is not for the reasons that you might think.  It's not to slam or to belittle our competition as my passion for the game and its participants is far to great.  A play within the play.  For me, it is a celebration of what is to come ... of what might be achieved ... of what legends are stroked upon that canvas.

Bob Lilly just won Super Bowl V.  He was exhausted but he wasn't about to miss out on this party.  Then he woke up the next day, and everybody and everything was gone.  That is except for a few tent hole pegs in the ground and a bunch of garbage that remained.  For him, that moment was a surreal event.  Brett Favre once remarked that after winning the Super Bowl it was also a very surreal event for him too.  He just couldn't put his finger on his emotions as if to say, "I should of felt different, it shouldn't be like this".

The Super Bowl ... is the finality of it ... that season.  Although it is the pinnacle of achievement it is not the end all.  Just ask Timmy Smith as for him it was only one day in his life.  What it is all about is the journey.  Something that must be relished each and every day.  This in itself makes Jim Marshall the most heinous embarrassment perpetrated under the veil of this league and every member of it should be ashamed.  He is the symbol of the ultimate fraternity brother in that he binds directly with every member of this league from its beginning to it end due to the commonality of what was shared between these brothers.  Do you hold your manhood cheap or will you stand against the whimsical nature of these selectors?  It is for this reason that every word in regard to the iconic image that is Jim Marshall is nothing more than a pompous bit of omnipotence.  

Jim's play of folly, which has been used to deflect his admission, is actually a celebration of of the culmination of every mistake made by each and every player that ever walked upon an NFL gridiron.  This axiom applies to all men.  He who is without sin shall cast the first stone.  Any takers?-

B

Many years ago, Robin Williams portrayed a Russian Immigrant where he was able to describe something that few American's understood.  Under socialism you have nothing, you own nothing, there is very little that you can call your own.  There was one thing that truly belonged to him however; it was his pain and his misery.  It was this and only this that he did not have to share with anyone.  It is these very experiences that binds every NFL player that ever was and that ever will be.       

For me, this journey began in 1966.  For this, when I observe all these people coming out of the wood work, jumping upon that band wagon, I will have a comfort that not one of them will understand.  It was my misery ... the polar opposite of ... a fantasy league.

The Viking Ghost Writer
MyVikingBlood.org
Date: October 16, 2009