Like so many others, I'm what people would describe as a fair weather sports fan. I don't pretend to know the stats of individual players on most of the Twin Cities/Minnesota teams and I don't even know the positions most of them play but I do know when their fortunes are looking either up or down.
Currently, the only bright spot for Minnesota sports fans is the Minnesota Twins. They are already a lock for the playoffs and, despite losing two of three to Oakland, are still inching closer to winning their division and having the overall best resord in the American League. But even with that comes negatives. They'll likely face the buy-a-championship New York Yankees at some point which means that no matter how well the Minnesota Twins are playing their season will come to a brutal end. It's the way it is and if you're like me you've come to accept the fate of Minnesota sports teams. A couple are usually competitive but when push comes to shove they just don't win championships because this is the midwest. We're "just happy they made it to the playoffs". But that's bullshit.
Why should we be happy, as sports fans or anything else in life, with "being good enough"? When did that become acceptable? Why have we been brainwashed to accept that second-best status? It's like the job market as of late -- I hear plenty of people, after I bitch about paying upwards of $6,000 per year for health insurance that covers nearly nothing only to have the other person in the conversation say "you should just be happy you have a job". Don't get me wrong, I'm damn happy that I have a job but would it hurt the big guy in charge to take a cut in pay so the worker bees can afford some heat for their hive?
And that comes back to sports to a certain extent. If other cities can afford to essentially buy a championship, why doesn't that work here? The Minnesota Vikings, and their owner Zygi Wilf, forked out millions of dollars and put up with hijinks, shenanigans and downright bullshit to land greying and broken quarterback Brett Favre for a second year. Has he produced anything thus far? No. Unless you count two losses in two regular season games producing results then he hasn't lived up to the legend. But by God he's here and that's good enough for the diehard Vikings fans.
But in my opinion it's not enough. Why couldn't the Vikings step up all aspects of their game and win enough games to make it to the playoffs while grooming a young quarterback under the tutelage of Brett Favre. We all know that Favre will eventually explode in to a huge cloud of grey dust and him playing for a 21st year is becoming less and less likely with each passing day and each loss so plan ahead. Do the Minnesotan thing and promote from within and quit accepting "good enough" and second best. I once had hope too but after watching yesterday's brutal and sloppy loss to the Miami Dolphins I'm back to being bitter and jaded.
For the flip side of my personality, check out the refreshingly positive MinnPics -- chock full of killer photos from across Minnesota.
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