Critics who insist that pro football is brutal and shows no mercy for losers are shortsighted and basically wrong.
Eventually the season ends.
And a new one began a little more than 24 hours later when the Viking management Tuesday met the complaints of critics who argued that the team needed a clear line of authority in personnel decisions. The Vikings promoted Rick Spielman, until now the vice president of player personnel, to the rank of general manager. The team didn’t say whether that included hiring and firing coaches, but it should give some clarity to the chain of command regarding drafting of players, and signings and firings. The big-money decisions presumably will still rest with the Wilf ownership. Immediately ahead of the Vikings were major decisions on the makeup of the assistant coaching staff.
For the Vikings, this was the one act of uncontested charity in their 17-13 loss to the Chicago Bears Sunday. It interrupted the chronic feuding among the fans over the eventual quarterback of this team and gave them a new cause to carry into the NFL draft:
A crowded ‘to-do list‘
What does the third-worst football team in the NFL and the tied-for-worst football team in Viking history need most, besides love, forgiveness and the ultimate gift for all grieving football audiences — hope?
The answers:
1.) A serious overhaul of one of the worst secondaries in pro football.
2.) Help for a mediocre and embarrassing group of deep-pass receivers. Apologies have to be offered to Percy Harvin, without whom the passing game would have disappeared.
3.) New faces in its crowd of assistant coaches.
4.) Somebody to persuade the Viking management to try a sensible amount of civility and candor to replace its bulldozing strategy in the discussion of a new stadium.
None of these goals are beyond reach. All of them need to be addressed.
Leslie Frazier will return as the head coach after his first full season. Nothing beyond that is assured, and for all of his earnestness and popularity with the team, Leslie will not make it through 2012 if the Vikings start badly. Changes in the staff are certain, primarily on the defensive side where some of the performance and decisions reached the level of embarrassment.
A cause for some comfort
But if you need some interim comfort in the wake of the Vikings’ three wins and 13 losses, you might start with this:
The Vikings’ schedule next year will include these less-than-terrifying opponents: St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Washington, Jacksonville, Seattle, Kansas City and Indianapolis, all of whom lost more games than they won. Put an asterisk, of course, beside Indianapolis if Peyton Manning makes a successful comeback.
Then again, the schedule also includes two games each against Green Bay, Detroit and Chicago in their own division, all of whom swept the Vikings this season.
Enter the NFL draft in a few months. Indianapolis won only two games this season without Manning, giving it the No. 1 choice in the draft. The Colts are expected to figure out a way to keep Manning and to draft Stanford’s Andrew Luck as his successor.
The Vikings will draft third behind Indianapolis and St. Louis. St. Louis drafted Sam Bradford as its quarterback two years ago and liked him as a rookie. But the Rams lost him for most of the the season with an injury. One way or another, Indianapolis will want Luck, the No. 1 draft choice.
But what happens if, for whatever reason, Robert Griffin III of Baylor, the Heisman Trophy winner and generally regarded the No. 2 quarterback prize in the draft behind Luck, becomes available? He declared for the draft recently. And let’s say St. Louis stays with Bradford, who was highly regarded as a young pro before getting hurt.
The Vikings draft third behind Indianapolis and St. Louis. What if Griffin becomes available? Do the Vikings have enough money to take him? Do they bypass their commitment to Christian Ponder and his vulnerable hip? Or do they draft instead the highly acclaimed Matt Kalil, the All-America offensive tackle from Southern California. Here’s a guy with the potential to keep all available Viking quarterbacks in one piece. Christian Ponder and Joe Webb would devoutly cheer a choice like that.
But we’re talking big bucks and vulnerable hips here, folks, to say nothing of the vulnerable ribs and knees of Adrian Peterson.
And then there is this —
If neither Griffin nor Kalil is available to the Vikings, or not preferred, what do they need as much as a five-star quarterback, or a left tackle to keep the quarterback and Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin out of intensive care?
Lots of draft possibilities
Right. A high-quality deep receiver to partner with Harvin and tight ends Visanthe Shiancoe and Kyle Rudolph. Bear in mind that Shiancoe will be a free agent this year. Someplace in the first round of the draft, there will be a potentially hot receiver like Justin Blackmon from Oklahoma State, who incidentally caught three touchdown passes Monday night in Oklahoma State’s overtime victory over Luck and Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl.
There will be another — from St. Paul and Notre Dame: Kyle Rudolph’s teammate last year at South Bend, Michael Floyd. He is now the holder of all of the important pass-receiving records at Notre Dame. There will also be a highly-lauded LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne.
So, the Vikings have choices. They will also have some high-quality professionals, like Peterson, Harvin, Toby Gerhart, Jared Allen, Brian Robison, Chad Greenway and Kevin Williams, plus the promise, if not stardom, of Ponder and the always-exciting Joe Webb at quarterback, still looking for a permanent home on offense.
What are the incidental worries? Some of their biggest stars — Antoine Winfield, Steve Hutchinson, E.J. Henderson and Kevin Williams — are past their better years, although still capable of winning performance.
Cheers for Jared and Jim
And none of them more professional than Jared Allen, the swashbuckling defensive end whose 3½ sacks lifted his total for the season to 22, surpassing the previous Viking record held by Chris Doleman, who was at the game for the occasion and graciously congratulated Allen for his performance, although it fell short of Michael Strahan’s league record of 22½. Teammates surrounded him with admiration and affection, a public declaration that nobody plays the game harder and more relentlessly than Allen without sacrificing his schoolboy joy in playing it.
So it’s over for the Vikings in the 2011 season.
Grim as it was, the final tally could not conceal the fondness and respect the team reserved for Jim Kleinsasser and all he had delivered in his 13 years as a blocking fullback and tight end after arriving unheralded from the North Dakota prairie. With this game, Kleinsasser retired as a player. In almost every way, he defined the compact that the quality professionals accept when they play this dangerous but absorbing game. They have their own words for it. They call it “selling out,” meaning delivering every ounce of energy and commitment on every play, whatever the score.
For his weekly column for the Sports Illustrated website, Peter King asked him about his motivation.
“Everything comes full circle,” Kleinsasser said. “The same things that are important in life — teamwork, work ethic, family — are important in football. I was lucky to have such great parents who taught me the lessons I would need to know. Determination, sacrifice, having pride in your work in football …”
Nobody retired with greater respect among his peers, without the headlines, than Kleinsasser. In some ways, in a different framework, it recalled a tribute bestowed on one of the first Vikings, Hall of Famer Hugh McElhenny, a stylish running back who was honored by the Chicago football writers before a game with the Bears near the end of his career. “Wouldn’t football be a beautiful game,” the plaque read,” if everybody played it the way Hugh McElhenny does.”
Ten minutes later, McElhenny ran back the opening kickoff 100 yards against the Bears.
People like McElhlenny, Kleinsasser and Jared Allen are what make this game all but irresistible, although it’s never going to achieve any high level of comfort for the millions who live and die with it. But ignominy can be dealt with because there’s always the draft.
Which is also spelled hope.
What a wonderful writer! I’m really glad he’s doing sports writing again for MinnPost. There are few better writers out there, sports or otherwise.
I second Mr. Stolpestad comment. As I stated a couple of weeks ago, Jim Klobuchar can still turn out a better Vikings column than sports writers from either newspaper.