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Oh, [Expletive]

Well, I guess one unexpected, completely nonsensical playoff victory per year is enough…

The Vikings’ almost tragically up-and-down 2004 season ended on a down note Sunday in Philadelphia, and I was on hand for it. The final score was 27-14, but really, it wasn’t that close. A few notes from the game:

- Wanting to avoid the wrath of Philly’s notoriously, uh, difficult fans, I limited my Vikings paraphernalia to only a purple Culpepper shirt, worn under my sweater and jacket. And while the fans weren’t quite the ruffians often depicted by the media, I did see them harassing various Viking fans with hilarious insults both in the crowd and in the mens’ room, and I get the sense that if I’d worn a Randy Moss jersey, I’d be blogging today from the hospital.

- After a week of being the focal point of just about every media story about the game, Moss didn’t do, uh, [expletive], therefore embarrassing himself in a big game for the third week in a row. And since he didn’t score, he didn’t have a chance to show the crowd his [expletive.] I didn’t see any fans moon Moss, but then it was about 30 degrees.

- The game wasn’t as close as it looked, as the Eagles lost two near-touchdowns. The comically botched fake field goal was a nice touch- in case you’re new to the Vikings yes, Mike Tice is just as good at trick plays as he is at clock/timeout/challenge management. The Philly fans have a tradition of, during the player introductions, shouting “SUCKS!,” in unison, after the name of each opposing player. I stayed silent during most of the Vikings’ intro, though I did join in the “SUCKS!” after Tice’s name.

- I was there as a guest of my girlfriend and her parents, Eagles fans all. One reason to be glad the Eagles won; it would’ve been a long car road home otherwise. Anyway, all season long they (and I) have gotten a lot of amusement out of a certain woman who sits in the seats behind theirs, who spends much of each game pretending to know about football, but really comes across as nothing but a dim-witted dolt. And even SHE was going on about how dumb Mike Tice is.

-As for the other games: After Jim Mora, Sr. famously never won a playoff game in his entire coaching career (mostly because his teams couldn’t do “diddly-poo” on offense), his son and Falcons coach Jim Mora, Jr. pulled off a victory on his first try on Saturday. Sort of like Dubya managing to escape his father’s fate as a one-termer. In the AFC, it was kind of sad to see the dominant Peyton Manning of the regular season disappear once again in Foxboro, and I hope Doug Brien was placed in protective custody as soon as he got back to New York.

- I won’t be as cold for Sunday’s games, as I plan to watch them from either home or a sports bar, but I can safely say we’ll be seeing an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. We know Ed Rendell’s an Eagles guy, but who will Santorum side with?

Posted by Stephen Silver at January 18, 2005 01:54 AM