A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
Watching football is good for three things: drinking, gambling, and having something to do on Sunday nights.
Thankfully, Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect combination of all three.
And what fun is it to just sit around and drink casually on your own terms? Why not have a little fun with it?
We are less than a week out from Super Bowl XLVI, but we’ve technically already seen this game before, so what’s the fun in talking about it?
Instead, let’s talk about the best Super Bowls that never happened. [Read more...]
Some time last year, our faithful leader Jerod introduced me to Indie Christmas. It was an idea some of his friends came up with to compile their favorite indie songs over the past year into a playlist and share it with their friends. Out of this idea, Jerod created his own list as well as a website and twitter page.
Indie Christmas is a great idea. As someone who listens to indie music more than anything else (other than the occasional 80s rap binge), this was something that I felt compelled to participate in as well.
Sam Hurd is currently involved in one of the more ridiculous stories in recent memory: A professional athlete making millions of dollars per year to run around and catch a ball has been accused of running a multi-million dollar drug ring.
The details of the story are what make it unbelievable, especially considering the amount of time that cable TV has dedicated to the “art” of drug dealing in the last 10 years. Sam Hurd obviously never watched The Wire. If he had, he would have found very simple ways to avoid getting into trouble.
Joe Webb is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. It is that simple.
Some people may disagree with that statement, especially those that watched him this past Sunday against the Lions or saw him lead the Vikings to an improbable Monday night win over the Philadelphia Eagles last year.
Joe Webb is a fantastic athlete. A former quarterback at UAB, Webb was originally drafted by the Vikings as a wide receiver. He jumps really high. He runs really fast.
But he is not a starting quarterback.
I earlier this week I had the opportunity to interview college football legend and former NFL star Warrick Dunn for the latest episode of the Assorted Balls podcast. We spoke with Warrick about a number of subjects, including his participation in the Crown Royal Heroes Project.
We as a culture of NFL writers and fans need to find something else to talk about other than Tim Tebow and Ndamukong Suh.
I’m not saying to eliminate them as a topic altogether, because obviously they are leading stories week to week in the NFL. What I’m saying is there has to be something else to talk about.
Dear Little Crying Vikings Girl,
I know how you feel.
Every Vikings loss, especially to the Packers, makes me want to cry and wonder what went wrong in my life that I cheer for that team.
I wish I could tell you that it gets better as a Vikings fan, but it really doesn’t.
Don’t worry Little Crying Vikings Girl, we have all had our own “crying girl” moment, except most of us were fortunate enough to not have one of our parents film it and put it on the internet. But you’ll have plenty of time in your life to get your mom back. You’re a girl. You’ll think of something.
My own “crying girl” moment came back in 1998, but not for the reason most people think.
I didn’t actually cry after the Vikings lost in the NFC Championship to the Falcons. That afternoon I just sat in my chair staring at the screen, not moving or saying anything, while my dad and his friend laughed at me and told me to get used to it.
No, my “crying girl” moment was when the Vikings lost to the Buccaneers and ended their run at a perfect season.
1998 was my first year as a diehard Vikings fan and I watched every game and expected them to win them all. They actually did win all the games I watched that year, but I wasn’t able to watch the end of the Buccaneers game because my mom wouldn’t leave me home alone and made me come to town with her so my sister could go to her skating lesson. We listened to the game on the radio in the car, but it wasn’t the same.
I cried. The whole time.
The Vikings had lost, and it was my mom’s fault because she wouldn’t let me watch the end of the game. I could have done something! They wouldn’t have lost!
Little Crying Vikings Girl I leave you with this:
The Vikings are going to break your heart more times than any boy (or girl, or dog, or cat, or fish) ever will. It is an incomparable number. But don’t give up on them. No one like fans of teams that win all the time. Patriots and Packers and Cowboys fans are the worst. So whatever you do, definitely don’t be one of them.
No, keep cheering for the Vikings, and don’t give up. For all we know, you are our saving grace.
That’s right. You can’t give up on the Vikings, Little Crying Vikings Girl. You may be our only hope.
Yours in eternal pain and frustration,
Drew Lange
Crying Vikings Fan Since 1998
Like 80% of America, I own a smart phone. Specifically a Blackberry. I am on my Blackberry constantly, much like everyone else who has one. I email, text, tweet, check my Facebook, and play the occasional BrickBreaker.
So please indulge me in a quick rant before we get to this week’s Power Rankings.
On Wednesday morning, The Black Keys debuted their lead single, Lonely Boy, off their upcoming album, El Camino, which comes out on December 6. As usual, the lead single was accompanied with a music video.
The last lead single by The Black Keys was joined with a video of a dinosaur puppet going singing around a pool full of bikini-clad women, a video the band hated. They even displayed their displeasure with a constant scroll on the bottom of the video, which actually ended up making the video better.
This time around, there is no scroll. There isn’t even a cut away shot. It is just one man dancing along to the song. Let’s break it down and explain why it is one of the best videos of the year.
We are seven weeks into the NFL season and I have no clue what to make of it.
Teams are wildly inconsistent and we may have just had the worst week of games yet.
We had three nearly unwatchable games (Browns-Seahawks, Broncos-Dolphins, Ravens-Jaguars), the “return” of Carson Palmer, and the worst combination of prime time football games since ‘Nam. The Saints scored more points on Sunday night against the Colts (62) than the Rams have scored all season (56)! The best game this week was Vikings-Packers, which wasn’t really even that good of a game, just the least bad throughout the entire 60 minutes.
Through seven weeks of the season, I am sure of only three things:
Is this an affect of the shortened preseason and teams just aren’t used to each other yet? Maybe. Kind of hoping so. If this turns into a trend and we are getting handfuls of bad games each week, the NFL might start losing fans.
I don’t really have anything to rant or tangent about this week. I’ve been sick lately, and no one really wants to hear about me not being able to breathe or getting two new prescription inhalers to use. Yes, I am a nerd. I walk around listening to hipster music wearing glasses and keep an emergency inhaler in my backpack. [Editor's note: actual picture of Sick Hipster Drew Lange below.]
Image source: Monkey Jedi
At least I like football right? That’s got to count for something.
[Editor's note: Drew and Amanda often exchange Facebook messages, tweets, and emails that include lots of Packers-Vikings trash talk. This post is an email thread between the two in which Drew does his best to jinx the undefeated Packers and Amanda tries to hold back her laughter while discussing the winless Vikings.]
I don’t like that NFL teams wear pink during the month of October. I love the idea that they are celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month and doing what they can to increase awareness and honor those who have fallen victim to the disease, but I don’t like that they add pink to the uniforms for the whole month.
30 years from now when the next generation of kids are watching highlights from the 2011 season, they will randomly see players wearing pink, and unless the NFL continues this practice forever, they won’t know why. The great thing about highlights from the 60s and 70s is that teams always looked the same. They were the definition of uniform.
Nowadays each team has at least one throwback or alternate uniform that they wear periodically throughout the season. And while they look great, it messes with continuity. I realize that the extra uniforms bring in racks on racks on racks of extra money each season, but they need to do away with it. Teams should be forced to pick one uniform design – one home, one away – and stick with it. If the throwback uniforms are such a hit and look better than the default uniforms, then switch back.
On to the Week 5 Power Rankings.
