It Didn't Come Easy In New Orleans

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Here in Minnesota, the football-loving populace is shrouded in purple misery after yet another Vikings team found a way to avoid their first Super Bowl since 1977.

Losing 31-28 in the NFC Championship game in overtime to the New Orleans Saints at the Louisiana Superdome Sunday, it was not the greatest game ever played.  Not even close.  Oh, there were a lot of points scored, but neither team seemed to want this game badly enough.

It is said that the team making the most mistakes tend to lose games.  So it went for the Vikings, with Adrian Peterson becoming a liability with his fumbles, quarterback Brett Favre throwing an ill-advised pass in the dying seconds of regulation, and the offense getting caught with too many men on the field.  The Saints were handed this game on a silver platter.

The Saints defense revealed Favre to be an old, beat-up quarterback who could barely move at game's end.  But he was an old, beat-up quarterback with a high threshold of pain, and for that he earned people's admiration.

After another successful but unfulfilled season, we're into the by-now-annual game of whether or not Favre wants to play another year.  ESPN reports that Favre says it's "unlikely" he'd come back.  If that's the case, then the Vikings should plan on signing a veteran free agent quarterback.  Otherwise, check back with us in August.

We must congratulate the Saints for making it to their first Super Bowl since the franchise was founded in 1967.  After all the team and the city of New Orleans has been through the last few years, they deserve this one.

They will play the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts February 7 at Your Name Here Stadium in Miami (actually it's Sun Life Stadium, the seventh name that place has had since it opened).  Good luck trying to get past Peyton Manning, one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, who has already led the Colts to the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Back in Minnesota, people will be spending another cold winter's day wondering what the hell happened to a football team that had a successful season, but fell apart at the wrong time.