CheatSheet.com Writer Says Vikes are One of Four Teams that May ‘Never Win a Super Bowl’… While thinking it’s Still 2015
Joe Johnson
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Now, as is (sometimes) painfully obvious. I’m still relatively new to this whole “Writing” thing. As are a lot of the writers for my site, as the my goal is to both represent Vikings fandom as closely as is possible while also providing opportunities for people who want to explore writing as a hobby/career. So, I don’t typically point a finger at typos or mistakes made by authors on other sites, because I still don’t understand apostrophes or the difference between a comma and a period. But, there are limits to my empathy.
So, I was perusing different Vikings related articles, as I do each morning (Except Sunday’s and Wednesday’s apparently (Told you I struggle with Apostrophes)). So, in doing that, I came across the following article from CheatSheet.com writer Nick Elges. titled “NFL: 4 Teams That May Never Win a Super Bowl”. I assumed that the Vikings were one of them, because we’re known for our terrible luck and general ability to break hearts/brains. So, I clicked on the article expecting some outsiders view of our history of almost intentional levels of failure. Instead, while there was some of that to begin the Vikings section, the rest was amazing. Amazing in a bad way, like “Criss” Angel. Honestly, what I found was so… Really, the best way to explain this is to post the second and third/final paragraph of Elges’ thoughts…
Of course, Minnesota is 0-5 with a trip to the big game on the line, showcasing their misfortune as a franchise since 1976. The current Vikings look solid. A promising young QB in Teddy Bridgewater leads an offense that features one of the best running backs in history in Adrian Peterson. With a dominant defense (at times) as well, this is probably the best shot that the team has had to win a Super Bowl in a long time.
However, something tells us that they won’t reach that level while this roster is still intact. A tough NFC should make the Vikings a mere early-round playoff team — nothing more than a fringe contender. Once the likes of Peterson retire, it will be a rebuilding bonanza in Minnesota, which is never conducive to winning a championship.
Now, far be it to me to disagree with his general point. As I’ve stated many times that I can’t even imagine the Vikings getting to the Super Bowl, let alone winning it. I honestly don’t know if I can even watch that game, should it happen. And I’m not saying that in an attempt to sound like a super fan or something, I just don’t know how I can handle something that important to me as I ended up taking five Ambien during the 2009 NFC Championship and really only really watched it (or retained it) a month or two ago after finding it on YouTube.
My gripe is, well obvious. Now, there are a ton of national pundits that write things about the Vikings without really understanding a lot of the dynamics of the team or narratives that the fans have. And that’s completely understandable, it’d be impossible to be that plugged in to each of the 32 teams. But, this is honestly embarrassing. I don’t really need to point this out, but I will… Teddy Bridgewater isn’t the Vikings starting quarterback and hasn’t been since his leg famously committed suicide in a non-contact drill early last pre-season. Also, Adrian Peterson is no longer a part of the Vikings after the team declined to pick up his $18 million dollar option. How could someone get an article like this, on a site as great as CheatSheet.com, so wrong?
I honestly had to double and triple check the date of the piece as I read it, assuming that perhaps the RSS type feed I used to get Vikings news accidentally picked up a piece from 2015 or something. There’s not paying attention to a team you’re writing about and, apparently, having no idea what a team you’re writing about has been doing since about a year ago.
I also disagree with the sentiment that once Peterson does retire that it’ll be a “Rebuilding bonanza” in Minnesota. Unless you’re talking to Rhett Ellison’s dad. He’s gone now, so to test that theory, you’d think that the Vikings would be doing essentially the exact opposite of what they have been this off-season. They’re rebuilding the line, they added perhaps the best running back in all of free agency and tried to land the top wide receiver in free agency as well. So, that’s strike … Six? Also, honestly, I don’t even agree with his assessment that the NFC is “tough”.
I’ve said repeatedly that if the Vikings can patch up their line and add some play-makers to their offense that they’d be a contender in the weak NFC and thus it’d probably be the best shot they’ve had to actually reach the Super Bowl in a long, long time. Sure, Dallas is good, but the Vikings should’ve beat them and would have if not for some terrible calls by the refs and had punt returned Marcus Sherels played (As Adam Thielen had that costly fumble on the < five yard line) and that was during their implosion. Green Bay had a pretty awful season early on, to the point that Packers fans were actually calling for the heads of head coach Mike McCarthy and even their golden boy, quarterback Aaron Rodgers at one point. Despite that, they still made it to the NFC Championship even with a ton of injuries on their defense. The best team in the NFC is the Atlanta Falcons and they were one season removed from a Vikings like, second half of the season, collapse.
So. If you’re going to rip the Vikings, at least google their depth chart. Here at purplePTSD (I mean, think about the name of our site) get accused of being overly negative all the time. It happened this week, after AJ Mansour wrote an article about Peterson’s free agency woes (Mostly because people misinterpreted the title). So I have zero issue with people being negative, or making negative predictions, about the team that I actually do love. But, again, if you’re going to do it, try harder. I actually don’t like ripping another sports scribe, but this was so bad it would’ve been laughable, if I wasn’t so dead inside that I haven’t laughed since the Challenger exploded. So, I just had to say something.
There goes any cross posting relationship with the CheatSheet, I guess.