Norse Nostalgia: Vikings Start Josh Freeman in Monday Night Disaster
Boy, oh boy, what an infamous night in Vikings’ lore. A true “where were you?” moment for those of us that gathered around our television screens on the night of October 21st, 2013 – almost 12 years ago now.
I don’t know where you were, but I was just about two months away from turning 14, and since it was a Monday Night that the Vikings were playing, I opted in to watch the game instead of that week’s airing of WWE Monday Night Raw. And just as the legendary Jim Ross quoted multiple times on commentary, yes, this game was an absolute human car crash.
I remember seeing the notification on Facebook that the Vikings had signed Josh Freeman two weeks before the Giants game on October 6th, and as a 14-year-old Christian Ponder defender, because I was at the age where I couldn’t admit my team wasn’t better than all of my friends’ favorite teams at school, even though the Vikings were 1-4 heading into this Monday Night showdown, and the bye week for the year was already behind them, I wasn’t pleased.
Sure, my 14-year-old brain was intrigued at the thought of the Vikings bringing on a QB that had just been drafted in the first round only four calendar years prior, but again, I was a Ponder guy. I was young, I had just seen what Brett Favre did with my favorite team, and I wanted to experience that again. So, naturally, I defended my guy Christian, and was a ride-or-die with him for a couple of years too long.
Freeman was named the starter for the Monday Night Football game against the New York Giants, and for the foreseeable future. I wasn’t a happy boy that night, as my favorite QB got his job taken, and I also had to go to school the next day at my cute little school tucked in the mountains and valleys of Northern Virginia. The horror.
At least, for one night, I was (kind of) proven right. I wanted Ponder to be my QB, not Freeman. Not for any legitimate reason, other than I wanted to be right and I wanted my team to be right about the QB they just spent a first-round pick on in 2011. I knew in the back of my head that the wolves were at the door for Ponder and his Minnesota tenure, but la-la-la-la, I can’t hear you, the Vikings are the best and smartest team ever.
As we all know, the Ponder era wasn’t exactly over yet. And as well all remember, Freeman’s lone start as the QB of the Minnesota Vikings football club was so bad that he was instantly demoted to QB3 behind Ponder and Matt Cassell after the game, after having been committed to as the starter for the year just days prior.
Freeman went 20/53 for 190 yards and an interception that night, and he was constantly under pressure and on the ground while trying to survive with a limited knowledge of the playbook. The Vikings lost that game 23-7, with the only Vikings’ score of the game coming on a punt-return touchdown by the legendary Marcus Sherels.
Not only was it a disaster on Monday Night, think of what the Vikings actually did in announcing Freeman as the starter; it was a clear-as-day sign that the franchise had zero faith in Ponder (understandably so), and it was an indictment on the entire operations including names like Leslie Frazier and Bill Musgrave. Rick Spielman is also guilty of the catastrophe, seeing as he is the one who sought Freeman out and brought him to Minnesota.
However, one good thing came out of this catastrophe six months later.
But the rest? That’s history, baby.
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