Purple Pain, Postseason Purgatory: Minnesota Vikings (Ep. 11)

Welcome back to Misery Sports Co. The only workplace where motivation is seasonal morale is on the endangered species list. And the only thing we’re harvesting this week is disappointment. That’s right. We’re the chronically exhausted executives of emotional downturn. I’m Zach and I’m Trevor. And here at Misery Sports Co our teams rarely give us reasons to celebrate, but our pile of unread self-help books just keeps growing. Every week we clock in, carve up a fresh spreadsheet of suffering, and review another week of sports induced indigestion. Last week, our deep dive took us straight into the emotional gumbo of the New Orleans Pelicans, a journey filled with promise, chaos and more questions than a family Thanksgiving dinner. Mm. But this week, we’re back with another deep dive led by yours truly. But before we open that can of seasonal sadness, let’s roll a mandatory training video from our first sponsor. All right. This next segment is going to be brought to you by Vikings. Purple Pain starter pack includes a J.J. McCarthy rookie jersey, a bottle of anti acids and a commemorative. We were so close. Foam finger warning not safe for playoff use. Ooh. Well shout out to the Vikings purple paint starter pack. Boy they really went in. All in on uh, on J.J. there. Yeah, I mean, it’s technically his rookie season, right, with the injury, but, uh, it’s not looking great. No. And he’s been around for a minute, too, right? It was like, let’s let’s let him watch. It’s going to be good. Yeah. He had you know, he was supposed to start last year. He got injured that I think that was when Darnold started. We’ll have more on that. But um yeah I just I feel for the Vikings fans. We appreciate the sponsorship though. Yeah. Thank you for your sponsorship dollars. Let’s move into the weekly earnings report where the stats are overcooked. The trends are underseasoned and the auditor has already mentally checked out for the holiday. All right. I will kick off with a grab bag of my team. So the the Cavaliers and the Blue Jackets continue their march of mediocrity. Uh, seems like they’re continuing to win one. Lose one. Uh, the Blue Jackets I’m I’m less optimistic about whereas the Cavaliers have some key injuries. You know Max Strus Darius Garland’s just getting back. So I’m fine with struggling in an NBA season. To kick it off. You just need to hit your peak at the right time after all star break. Um, but shout out to the Browns. They uh they actually got it done against the Las Vegas Raiders. Like I said, go ahead and take this opportunity to rewind to last week, folks. When I said, what was the stat about starting quarterbacks? They are zero and seventeen since the return on their first start and I said, boom, we’re going to be here this week saying they are now one for seventeen. Let’s go. That’s right. Shooter Sanders looked competent. He had some, you know, rookie mistakes. A bad interception. But he was driving the ball down the field. He had a fifty fifty five yard pass. Um of course the city of Columbus said we don’t want to air this. So I wasn’t able to watch your kid of it live. Yeah, they you know, what did they show instead? The Browns are just bad. I don’t even think they showed anything. Oh my gosh. They just left that empty, which I don’t blame them. It was two and eight Raiders against the two and eight Browns. Um it’s Ohio. See our markets are states are losing their own teams markets. That’s how bad we are. Folks like you could be in Tennessee and not see the Titans game. And you can be in Columbus and not see the Browns game. This is madness. Yeah, but the, uh, the defense delivered again. They had ten sacks in this game. Myles Garrett had three. Good. Um he is just marching along. He’s going to get the sack record as long as he stays healthy. Knock on wood. Um but this this win feels more like a loss because the Raiders are now in front of us for the the draft pick position. Yeah. Um, yeah. We’re just not in a place where we can really put it together and make a playoff run. But you know, we’ll see. Shooter showed some some promise. So hopefully he can build on it this week. Yeah. Trevor, how’d your portfolio perform? Like someone dropped the Thanksgiving pie on the driveway. Let me tell you all about it. You know, it was a loss. We lost. Spoiler alert we lost to the Seahawks. But when does a loss feel like a win? How do we feel about moral victories? I mean, here at MSI we have a whole. Yeah, we have a whole office dedicated to moral victories. So, uh, we love em, them. We, um. It honestly felt like our our most positive game of the season. Even, like, more than our one win. We did get JSM after last week. I shouted him out. He’s on pace to just have a season. He’s he is two hundred and sixty yards ahead of the pack in receiving this season. He’s he’s going bonkers. And he did uh have a sixty three yard TD on us. Um, over a DB who is in good position. He had one hundred and sixty seven on the day. So shout out to JSM cam looked great. He was twenty eight of forty two, which is fine. Uh for two fifty six he had a passing touchdown a rushing touchdown, no interceptions, no small hand fumbles where he’s pinching the football. Um, really, it was just about like how and sometimes I’ll spend more time on this because the beginning of our season has been a gauntlet of really good defenses, and whoever made this is just whoever made this schedule for the Titans is a jerk. So thanks League for doing that. But the the Seahawks came in seventh in yards allowed, seventh in points allowed fourth in rushing yards allowed. They were mediocre in passing defense. But like gotta say things were good. He had some really nice drives. Uh some that were negated by penalties. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before. Um, uh, but this week really was all about, uh, Xavier Restrepo, who you may remember was a wide receiver at Miami who played with cam. Uh, they had really good chemistry, and he was slotted to be an okay receiver in the league until he ran a four point eight three forty oh. Not great. Not great. Uh, so he actually went undrafted and then signed with the Titans to be with cam, which made sense. But this was the first week. Week eleven I think we’re in week eleven. Um, this was the first week he was elevated to the full roster off the practice squad. He had lost playing time to folks named James Proche, the second Mason Kinsey, Bryce Oliver Owl Presley, the third, Kristian Wilkerson, Lance McCutcheon. Never heard of these folks. So it’s like something was fans were begging like, I don’t care if like, he’s not good. We are playing people who are not good. Just let him go. Let him have some chemistry. Um, and gosh darn it, he had six targets. He only caught two but went for twenty six yards. He had a nice scramble catch. Um, some good, um, special teams plays. And so he played well enough to be on the, the full roster the rest of the way, in my estimation, and maybe build some good chemistry. And it begs the question, like when? When does chemistry matter more than speed? Or like the the tangibles that you can measure, you know, like there’s something to say for chemistry. Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, Tom Brady, when he was throwing to his wide receivers like they weren’t typically speed burners outside of Randy Moss. The couple of years he had him. But I mean, it was just kind of dudes that put in the work. You had timing with them. They got open. I think getting open is more important than the deep balls or, you know, barn burning speed. Absolutely. And when you can get open and your quarterback trusts you to get open like that says more than I think the the rest of the stuff, we’re all interested in seeing what happens to Xavier. It’s nice that he’s on the fifty three man, because now other teams can’t sign him off the practice squad, though nobody did. I think everybody looked at that forty time and was like, we’re good, thank you. Uh, in Mavs land, vibes are fine. They’re better now. Um, we lose a lot of games. We randomly have the second best defense in the league. If you. Nico, it’s not because of you. Screw you. But we are dead last in offense. Oh my gosh. So these games are just painful to watch. It’s just it’s painful. Uh, Cooper’s turning out to be one of the the top clutch players in the league. So when the score is within five, I think, or ten in the last five minutes when it’s a single score, I don’t know, I gotta look that up. But he’s he’s playing very well. And we have a Black Friday game in LA against the Lakers. Oh boy. It’s a it’s on Prime and Dirk is in the studio as a Prime analyst. I don’t know if I can watch it Zach. I have not anytime a Luka clip comes up on the Lakers I don’t watch it. It it hurts too bad. I don’t know if I can watch this game. I’m with you. I felt the same way when LeBron went to Miami. Um, I just couldn’t watch him anymore. And, uh, you know, you know that Luka is going to go nuclear in that game. So you’re telling me that I’ll get to a point in my life where he comes back and then wins? Could come back, wins Dallas a championship? Well, please, God, please let us follow the LeBron arc. Oh my gosh. Please. Hey, you got rid of the the the guy that was the architect of this disaster. He’s gone. I think if you churn through the ownership, maybe Mark Cuban comes back, whatever the case might be. Hey, but Dan Gilbert put out that Comic Sans letter and LeBron came back. Oh, he burned bridges. He burned bridges with that. LeBron came back in spite of that though, right. So like, maybe there’s hope. Maybe, uh, I’ll probably. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ll last. I will come back next week and tell you how long I lasted watching that game because it it hurts and I don’t like it. It hurts. It’s too soon. Investor confidence toasted stock valuations sliding like gravy off a tilted table before this whole operation collapses, like a flimsy folding table at a family gathering. Let’s steady the ship with a word from our next sponsor. Our next sponsor is Hope Springs. Water bottles. Take a sip and realize if we just win out, we are right back in this thing. That’s right. Hope springs water. When you’re fifteen games out of first place with fifteen games left in the season, you can say there’s a chance with Hope Springs Water, the official drink of MSC. That one cuts really deep. Trevor, thank you for the the sponsorship. Hope Springs. Um, I have this conversation in my head every single year and I literally just had it this week. The Browns won. They’re at three and eight. And if we win in the AFC North Trevor this is this is so frustrating. And you’ve probably been in this position before. The the first place teams are the Steelers and the Ravens at six and five. We are three games out of first place. There’s not enough games to come back. If we had just played competent offensive football, we would have had another couple wins and we’d be a game or two behind. But we just I’m drinking, I’m drinking the water. But if we went out, there’s a chance we’re just it’s going to be there’s a disappointment. There’s hey, I tell you what, there’s one win on the schedule. I’ll tell you that right now. I got you for one. Clash of the Titans, man. Browns. Titans. Fourteen dollars to get in the stadium. Oh my gosh, fourteen dollars. Jeez. Fourteen bucks. You couldn’t pay me to go into the stadium. It’s gonna be so cold. It’s in Cleveland, right? Oh, yeah, it’s in Cleveland. It’s going to be dead of winter. Um, yeah. I’m sorry to the fans that show up for that. I cannot believe somebody’s paying money to go watch that garbage. You know what? Positive spin. There’s a lot on the line for their draft picks. There is a lot on the line for that game. So in some ways very interesting in a lot of ways dog. So up to you fans. Up to you. Fair enough. Well it’s time for the mail room where the carpet is damp, the envelopes smell like leftovers and the tweets are somehow more cursed than a holiday group text. Trevor, what did you pry out of your inbox this week? I’ve got a few submissions here. Um, yeah. It’s funny that you mentioned, uh, JJ McCarthy in our first sponsorship. I hate that they sponsored us, and now I’m about to read this, But it’s kind of awkward for everybody. But, uh, Anthony Amico here on Twitter says that J.J. McCarthy now ranks eight hundred and fifty one out of eight hundred and fifty two in EPA among qualified passers since two thousand. The only player below McCarthy is who do you think is the only player below McCarthy? Oh, no. Uh, well, I’m gonna guess it’s someone from the Browns. It’s not worst quarterback of all time. Who do you just real quick? Worst quarterback of all time. Off the dome. The dome, JaMarcus Russell, was that it? Yeah. That’s it. He’s he’s number eight fifty two. He’s the only person, uh, worse than J.J. McCarthy. Yep. It’s JaMarcus Russell. Nailed it. Nailed it. Yeah. Sorry. J.J. McCarthy. That’s awkward. We thank you, for your sponsorship. Keep cashing those checks. JJ is she. Yep. We’ll never hear from them again. Um. Second entry. The first runner up is from Will Lomas. Uh, who writes a lot about the Titans. He says it’s wild that cam Ward is on pace for nearly three thousand five hundred yards. Granted, that’s in a seventeen game season, but on pace for nearly three thousand five hundred yards. That isn’t a crazy achievement in NFL terms, but if he hits that number, he will only be the third Titans quarterback to do that since nineteen ninety two. That is thirty three years. Ryan Tannehill did it twice. Matt Hasselbeck did it once. But like, even if you average it out to sixteen games, he would be having the ninth best season in Titans quarterback history, wasn’t it Matt Hasselbeck? Was that like his corpse? Wasn’t he in Seattle? He was the longest time. And then he came to us and turns out. Oh, wow. Balled out in terms of tightness. You know, we also had, um, we also had Ryan Fitzpatrick rolled through in a very similar corpse of Ryan Fitzpatrick. So we love our old quarterbacks. Finally. Um, my tweet of the week is from, uh, Jared Bailey who says, and honestly, I share this sentiment too. So thank you, Jared, for putting this, uh, so eloquently. As I share your position, Jared says I choose to be happy for Shedeur Sanders while simultaneously acknowledging his cult like conspiracy theorist followers are the biggest dumbasses on Earth. And like, that is exactly how I feel. I’ve. You’ve had to watch like the president and Skip Bayless and like Stephen a oh yeah. Be like, you know, have takes and stuff while like, I feel like the rest of us are just like normally supporting him and are happy and are not looking to be proven right on our deep state conspiracy theory. Oh yeah, if he does, you know, poorly then oh, it was he was set up for failure. He didn’t get enough opportunities, which I agree. In the preseason, Stefanski did a terrible job. But like sugar was the fourth quarterback. I mean, we had Flacco, Kenny Pickett, we had Dillon Gabriel and then it was cheddar. So he wasn’t going to have that opportunity. And you know I think between you, me and the fence post, Kevin Stefanski probably wanted to like redshirt cheddar just to give him a year to learn. And now it’s just like, well, I got nothing to lose, so get out there. Here we are. When Gabriel got hurt, that kind of that kind of forced things. So there you go. Zach, what’s jammed in your your mailroom chute this week? So I’ve got a couple. I’m I’m going to start on the bright side first. These are from Andrew Siciliano. Uh, a couple on the Browns, Myles Garrett. Yeah. Myles Garrett eighteen sacks through eleven games is the most by any player since the NFL started keeping track in nineteen eighty two. Uh, can you say that one more time? Eighteen sacks through eleven games is the most by any player since the NFL started keeping track in nineteen eighty two. He’s at eighteen sacks. He’s at a five sack game. He’s had a four sack game. And then against Las Vegas he had a three sack game Trevor. Oh my good gracious. He’s he’s five ahead of everyone else. It’s not even a competition. Again please take care of yourself. Do not get injured. Healthy baby. We love you. Yeah. Um. Another one from Andrew. That’s a pretty crazy stat. Here’s another one. The Browns are the first team in the Super Bowl era with five rookies each recording forty plus yards from scrimmage in the same game against the Raiders. Okay, shooter, Sanders, Quinshon, Judkins and Samson, the two running backs Isaiah Bond, the Texas wide receiver. We we got him undrafted and then Fannin our new tight end. Um I will give credit to Andrew Berry. This the the Cleveland Browns general manager. He did a great job with this draft. We have literally five or six studs that are starting that are contributing Swearinger the the middle linebacker is going to be defensive rookie of the year. Um Mason Graham’s playing great in the middle. I literally just need one more of those drafts because we’re not even close to where we need to be. Man, I feel that so hard. Golly, we were joking this week. It wasn’t. I was joking, but in a real sense, I wasn’t joking. Like, if we get. We just need seven starters from this next draft and we’ll be halfway to repairing all of the holes in the Titans roster. Brutal. It is brutal. And it’s so tough to to, uh, follow that path. I have one more from Unnecessary Roughness. Love it. Uh, UMass, the University of Massachusetts. They have a football team. UMass has lost twenty four straight games versus FBS opponents. Their last FBS win was October tenth, twenty twenty three versus Army. Ooh! Woof! That’s a pretty good win, though. Army’s good. Army’s dece. But I hate that it was a few years ago. They just need a schedule army every year. I don’t know what they’re doing. Like keep coming. Army every year. Um. Homecoming contract. Yeah. Shout out to all those UMass football fans out there. We see you in our mentions. Thank you for joining us in your welcome at Missouri Sports Coat. Yeah. Always chaotic, overly bold, completely unnecessary. In other words perfect. All right. Let’s check in with whichever sponsor forgot to unsubscribe this week. This next segment is going to be brought to you by Zion Williamson’s diet plan, delivering healthy meal kits every week, which he promises he’ll start next week. Probably. Maybe, maybe. I found his his his, um, listed weight. He is six foot six. Trevor. How much do you think Zion Williamson weighs? Six six. He’s only six six. He’s not that tall. That’s not. Yeah, that’s a few inches taller than us. Um, I don’t know, like a little over. Oh, I’m thinking mid twos. Mid twos. Like two fifty two sixty. Yeah. Two eighty four. That’s so much more than Big Boy. He’s only played in eight of the first eighteen games. Um, even like, I feel like when they list your weight, they’re typically listing a lower weight, which you actually are going to use. Probably higher in height and lower in weight. Yes, one hundred percent. He’s probably pushing three bills and, uh. Yeah. Crazy. What a big boy. Yeah. Yeah. Well. Thank you. Well, welcome to Williams. We appreciate your diet. That’s right. We appreciate you. Welcome to the Office of Moral Victories. Where expectations are low, accountability is decorative, and performance reviews are written in pencil. Let’s hand out some awards. My employee of the week goes to none other than Jason Robbo Robertson of the Dallas Stars. I genuinely don’t remember both because I have a terrible memory and I’ve been drinking tonight. I don’t remember if this is like if he’s won one of these before. If you have Jason. We love you, baby. Uh, but Jason Robertson is on an all time hot streak. He has scored in seven consecutive games. In those seven games, he has eleven goals. Um. He has, uh. I’m sorry. This is in the month of November. He has eleven goals in November. He has twenty two points in November. Both of those are NHL leaders. He scored in seven consecutive games. And that sets a Dallas Stars record for most consecutive games with a goal. Now he is, um, trying to earn his way onto the USA hockey team for the upcoming Winter Olympics. And he’s known for. Starting a little slow, especially the last few years. In twenty two, I think he had like one hundred and eight, one hundred and nine points, something crazy. Um, so he in subsequent years, he started out a little bit slower and then came on strong. Definitely my employee of the week, because seven consecutive games with a goal is nuts. That is crazy. Mhm. Um I, I knock on wood that one. He stays healthy but that he is learning to be more physical. And we would love to see this in the playoffs. His finesse scoring tends to disappear a little bit in the playoffs. Uh when it things get a little more you know rougher a little more physical. I will say when we lost against the Oilers last year, he had a great series. So I can’t really fault him for that. But Zach, the stars beat the Oilers last night. We have our new head coach was an assistant coach there. They have knocked us out of the playoffs the past two years. We went up to Edmonton last night, beat them eight to three without without Mikko Rantanen. We spanked him. Mikko Rantanen is suspended for boarding people in multiple games. Oh, we spanked. Allegedly. Yeah, that’s that’s what the league says. And if you believe that, you’re a dummy. I got some other stuff to tell you. You’re a dummy. So that is my, uh, employee of the week. Congrats. Jason robertson. Congratulations. I’m, uh, I’m going to go across a couple leagues here. I’ve got a few that I’m going to hand out. I mean, I could have done Myles Garrett. We talked about him. He’s just a freak. Um, first one is going to go to Davis Mills. So he is the backup for the Houston Texans. I know you don’t appreciate the Houston Texans however. Screw him. He had two touchdown passes and they actually beat the bills. The Buffalo Bills twenty three to nineteen. Three to nineteen. They were big underdogs. Yeah. Um CJ McCollum. So we covered the Washington Wizards a few weeks ago. Um CJ McCollum plays for the Wizards. Used to be on the trailblazers. That’s where I remember McCollum the most. Same forty six points on twenty six shots versus the Hawks. Got the dub. Um it was only the second dub for the Wizards. They are two and fifteen. Good gracious. Not ideal. I am calling it right now. They’re not going to get the top pick. They could finish with the worst record. They’re not getting the top pick, guaranteed. We’re going to circle those games. Wizards. Mavs. That’s going to be prime time. It’s going to be they’re not getting the because we talked about them. Those are some miserable fans. And I’m sorry. They know they’re not getting the top pick just like the during you know the Pistons are a lot better now. But when they were getting like there’s no way they’re they’re just not getting. Yeah. And with the lottery it’s just a total crapshoot they’re going to get. They’ll probably get screwed. My third one just kind of popped to the top of my head. Um, the New York Giants played the Detroit Lions and a man that we have mentioned several times, Mr. Jameis Winston, he went eighteen for thirty six, which is only fifty percent completion percentage. He went for three hundred and sixty six yards two touchdowns. He caught a thirty three yard touchdown pass. And he like was stiff arming people. That reception was nuts dude. That’s so good. We’ll put it on our website. Um, his touchdown celebrations are just as wacky. I mean, they’re hilarious. Um, and they still lost. So the New York Giants, they got to overtime, though, right? They got to overtime. They lost by seven. Uh, the Giants are now two and ten. Um, but Jameis you are going to win an award this week. Oh what a beauty I’m so glad you gave it to Jamis. We’re huge fans of Jamis here on the pod. Absolutely love him. Well, congratulations to both those recipients. Your rewards will be printed, misplaced, and probably later used to stabilize a wobbly desk. All right, let’s jump into this week’s deep dive, our investigative department, where we analyze a tortured fan base with the warmth of a cold turkey sandwich. Who are we taking a look at this week, Trevor? This week we’ve got an interesting, interesting team for our deep dive. We have talked about some just terrible teams on this podcast. And it makes sense because when you are a fan of a terrible team, it can feel really hopeless at times. Your existence can feel very miserable. And that’s what we’re all about here at MSK. We’re about misery. But Zach, what if what if your team is not that bad, but they’re not great. It’s a rough place to be, kind of in the middle where you’re not super bad, but at the same time you’re not winning championships. And that’s who we’re discussing this week with the Minnesota Vikings. And I do want to remind folks, Zach and I do not talk about deep dives ahead of time. We do not talk about sponsors. So the the fact that we had the Vikings Purple pain starter pack, uh, sponsor our our podcast was totally you know, it was meant to be. It was just meant to be. Um, I have a very interesting story. Usually I like to go I like to look at, like, their seasons. And they have these long stretches where they’re not in the playoffs. That is not the case with the Vikings. They rarely have long streaks where they’re not in the playoffs. In fact, looking at it real quick like their longest droughts are like four seasons. Oh, no, they didn’t make the playoffs for four seasons. I mean, we’ve looked at teams that have a decade worth of of drought. Oh yeah, just really bad. This is a different kind of pain. And so we’re not necessarily going to walk through like they had this season. And then they had this stretch. We’re more going to look at what it means to be a fan of a middling team sometimes very good team. And if that really constitutes misery, I’m going to argue that it does, that they have a special kind of misery that they’re experiencing. We always love origin stories though, here on here at MSK, and usually it happens with cities doing random raffle or like contest names of like, hey, help us name our new franchise. That is not the case with the Minnesota Vikings. So eventually an owner has ties to a high school that he went to that they were named the Vikings that had the purple and gold colors. And so they just kind of went with it. But I want to like rewind a little bit on why the Vikings are so beloved. Like culturally from the people of Minnesota. So Minnesota has a lot of Scandinavian heritage from Scandinavian immigrants from. And I just learned recently, Zach, that Scandinavia does not include Finland. So it’s Norway, Sweden and Denmark and not Finland, which I did not know. Unbelievable, right? Like, I would have totally told you. All the Finnish players for the Dallas Stars definitely qualified as Scandinavian shocker. They don’t. But they have a lot of Scandinavian folks, um, settling in Minnesota. So let’s rewind to eighteen ninety eight. Let me tell you about the Kensington? The Kensington, uh, farm stone. So in eighteen ninety eight, there is a farmer in Kensington, Minnesota, who alerts the press. I have found a stone that was buried on my farm, and it’s got some weird writings on it. And everybody needs to come and look at this. So he has everybody out to his property. Yeah, we dug up this stone. Look at these writings. So they have a professor come out to, like, tell us what’s going on here. So he comes out and he looks at it and he’s like, yeah, man, this is like, this is like a mash up of some languages. So like Swedish and Norse, um, from different like time periods. And the translation basically says like this was left there from the Swedes and Norse a long time ago. And they’re like, whoa, like, this is amazing. Like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. The professor then says, this is clearly a fake. Like this is not real. Like I guys, I cannot tell you how clearly of a fake this is. Somebody obviously with Scandinavian heritage like knew some languages and stuff and like made this and buried it. But guys this is not real. And collectively the community was like shut up nerd. Why don’t you why don’t you pack your bags and get. And like, nobody listened to him. Another, uh, scholar just happened to randomly show up and was like, let me take a look at it. Like, goes in and is like, yeah, this is real as hell. You know what? This is from thirteen sixty two. This is from when the Vikings came in and like, left this this totally makes sense. Like they’re like yeah. Yeah. So like Viking culture. Their like is so ingrained in Minnesota and among their people. Like there was a poll I got deep into this man. I’m not even to the football part like I was. I’m deep into just like Viking culture in Minnesota. Like there’s a poll that sixty percent of Minnesotan, Minnesotan people at one time, like, not that long ago, maybe like thirty years ago, thought that Minnesota folks like descended from Vikings that like Leif Erikson who like, landed in Newfoundland, Canada, traveled, navigated the Great Lakes and like settled in Minnesota. And there’s interesting no evidence of this except that there’s those folks did later in a normal year immigrate to this state and settle there. But all that to say, long before there was football, there was Viking culture. And who cares if it’s real or not? We don’t care at MSK, we don’t care whatever. Tell us your culture. It’s fine. Right? Yeah. That’s right. And I whenever I think of Vikings I’m like oh cold weather. They’re like big, you know, crazy dudes. And that just fits Minnesota. Like Minnesota’s freezing. You gotta be a little tough, you know? Thick skinned. Yes. Makes sense. And at the Super Bowl was there in a in a special year that we’ll get to here in a little bit. It was there and I remember listening to the local sports station in Dallas who went up there to cover the Super Bowl. And they were like, it is so. And these are people from Dallas. I’m from Dallas, kind of. But we have the very thin blood there. Like it is so cold here. But The Twin Cities has a bunch of tunnels that connect their buildings so you don’t have to go outside. So they’ve like, adapted to it, but they’re very I totally agree. It’s cold. They’re tough people. It’s a it’s a hardy people. So it just works. So let’s fast forward. That was eighteen ninety eight. Let’s fast forward to nineteen fifty nine. So Bill Boyer is the owner’s name. And some other folks, they get rights to an AFL expansion team. But then the NFL comes in and is like, wouldn’t it be a lot cooler if you had an NFL team instead of an AFL team? So they end up, uh, canceling their AFL deal, and they sign with the NFL to become the fourteenth team in the NFL. Mm. Funny enough, they have to add another person to the ownership team because back in the twenties, when they had professional football, they had promised a guy, hey, if we ever have a pro team again, you can have ten percent of it. And he was like, that sounds like a good deal to me. So they just had to tell this group, like, we made this deal with this guy. So like, you kind of got to take him on. Hope you’re cool with that. Uh, so he comes in, and that’s the guy that has the high school connection to the Vikings and the purple and yellow. So, like, all of that was because of that weird deal back in the twenties. So if I say Vikings football, what kind of like in terms of like quality of football product, how would you grade the quality of football product in general? Um, in general I’d say, you know, like a B minus. I mean, I can remember a lot of offensive stars and, you know, the early two thousand. Um, and even recently, they, they seem to get to the, the playoffs pretty consistently. But there’s always these bigger teams that they’re kind of casting their shadow over the Vikings. It feels like. Yes. And it’s a really tough division up there. Um, now I guess. But like you have the bears, the Packers and the Lions. Uh, so there’s always competitive football up there. Something about the North divisions are just competitive. Folks can come on down to the South. I tell you what, you want to win at nine and seven or whatever it is, nine and eight. Now you can. So that’s that’s kind of how I would grade them too. Um. The butt of some jokes, I guess. Like, maybe they can’t get it done. I think the the Vikings and the bills are similar in that at times the product was very good. But I don’t think that the the Vikings have had the dip in quality that the bills have gone through. Uh, and also the Vikings have not lost three Super Bowls in a row, but they have lost two Super Bowls and three in four years. So back in the seventies, they did lose the seventy three, seventy four and seventy six Super Bowls. And that was on a stretch where they made the playoffs six years in a row. Um, Fran Tarkenton like it was a very good team. Yeah. Um, but they could never get it done. Now they had, um. A very, very good defensive line, like one of the best in history. And we’ve talked about funny nicknames. They were the Purple People eaters, which is elite. That is elite nickname. Uh, really, really good. Dominant physical team. Just could not get it done. They lost Super Bowls to the Dolphins, the Steelers and the Raiders. Um but but very good team. So you think like uh there’s promise the eighties were um okay. That was where they had their biggest playoff drought in the eighties. Um, I guess before I, before I start going through, because we’re going to hit the nineties, the two thousand and then and then today. So you’re right, I think a B minus is accurate. So they are, um, one of only nine teams to ever win fifteen games in a season. And if you get rid of the Lions and the Chiefs who did it last year in a seventeen game season, they’re only one of seven teams in a sixteen game season to win fifteen of them. Uh, which is. Which is great. They have an exceptionally good all time winning percentage. They are seventh best. Uh, they have one of the highest games over five hundred at one point in the last few years. They were third behind the Cowboys and the Steelers. So like historically, some very good football very good football in Minnesota. They’ve made the playoffs thirty times. That’s a lot. They have zero Super Bowls to show for it. They’ve been to the Super Bowl four times. That’s pretty bad. Yeah. And it actually connects. So it’s funny you said to the Raiders in the seventies because we did a deep dive on the Raiders. On the flip side that was John Madden who actually coached that team. So it’s like all these teams are interwoven. And even success in the seventies eighties doesn’t mean success now. Like there’s there’s just a lot of tough breaks. Yeah, and it’s tough when you are in the middle of that run where you’re like, okay, like things are looking good. Like, we’re going to get over that hump. And to just not is soul crushing. I just feel that in my bones. Um, I’m not going to go. We’ve talked about this for a while now. I’m not going to go through, um, each and every season. Um, we’re going to fast forward. We’re going to do light speed. Now. We’re going to fast forward, uh, really quick. So from overall, from nineteen sixty one, when they started to today, they’ve only had ten coaches, which seems crazy to me. Wow. Like that’s not a lot. Just to frame that. The Titans if you count like the Oilers history as well. We’ve had twenty one coaches. And if you count interim coaches um the Browns now you have to go back to like forty six. But the Browns have had twenty two. And so like we’re on kind of the same level. But the Vikings have only had ten coaches. Um, it’s great stability. Very good stability. Um, we don’t have time to walk through every decade and everything, but, um, let’s fast forward to the nineties. You get Chris Carter from Philly. Freaking love the nineties Vikings. Yes. Freaking love them to pair with, uh, Rich Gannon, who in my head is like a Raider. But he didn’t get to the Raiders until ninety nine. But, uh, it was Rich Gannon and Chris Carter for a while. Uh, incredible team, obviously. Then we get to they go to a thirty eight year old Warren moon Titan. Yay. Uh, and then eventually a thirty four year old Randall Cunningham in nineteen ninety seven. So fun. And then the next year, in ninety eight, you get Randy Moss. Um. who’s there through two thousand and four? Um, and also Dante Culpepper, like, these teams in my head are so fun offensively to watch, not just from an on the field product, but like any time I was firing up a video game I’m playing with the Vikings. I can remember doing, uh, whatever the Dreamcast football was like, twok maybe. And I was like, give me the Vikings all day. Um, NFL blitz, give me the Vikings. I just remember in the, in the early two thousand the astroturf that they had. Yes. Um, I actually was in the sixth grade. I was part of the Vikings team for our local football team. Yeah, I played for them. So yeah, I like you. I remember all their offensive stars. I don’t think there were a lot of routes. It was just Randy, go deep and I’m gonna I’m gonna chuck this to you. Yep, yep. And they must not have had a good enough defense to really carry them in some of these key moments. Yeah. They had a they had from two thousand to oh four. They don’t make the playoffs now. They they had a nine and seven season in oh three. But they don’t get back until oh four where they lose in the divisional round. And those are the the prime Moss years. So like Culpepper and Moss they get to the conference championship in two thousand. Um they get to the conference championship and then they lose forty one to zero. Oh no against the New York Giants. So like is it better to get close to the Super Bowl and not win it? Or would you rather get blown out in the conference championship forty one to zero. They don’t even get a field goal. Like this is insane. That’s really tough. I want the ticket to, you know, the show, so to speak. But we’ve been on the receiving end of that, too. Ohio State got destroyed, forty one fourteen, in a championship game. Alabama just had their way that Covid season in the championship. It’s like part of me as a fan. I just I want to have that next game. I want to, you know, extend the season. But when you get blown out like that, you’re like, I don’t know if I can watch the fourth quarter because it’s already thirty to nothing or whatever it is. It’s like there’s no hope in that. Yeah. Now I’m with you too. I would rather I think I’d rather get there. It was fun when Luca got to the finals, even though it was a gentleman’s sweep. But, like, it was good that he got there. Mhm. Um. Fast forwarding. We’re going so quick. We’re running out of time. But um, in twenty seventeen. So that’s when the Super Bowl was in Minnesota. And there hadn’t been a team that played in the Super Bowl in their home town. Hometown, and then we get to the divisional round in Case Keenum throws a bomb to Stefon Diggs. And the Saints defender jumps up for some reason. Or like no no he dives under him to try and take his legs out. Misses Stefon Diggs turns turns around. And it’s you know the Minneapolis miracle. They went on the walk off touchdown. It’s incredible. Um. Definitely the the the top moment I think in in Vikings history for sure. Um yeah I remember what that Super Bowl two um Justin Timberlake did the Super Bowl that year. So that was the first year where I was like, oh man, they’re starting to like gear these Super Bowl halftime shows toward us. We are now we’re in the old graphic. Yeah. And then I remember everybody’s talking like, this is the team of destiny. This is happening. You’re going to get there. And then the next week, they get blown out in the championship thirty eight seven by the Eagles in the conference championship. Yeah. And like that time you know from when Randy Moss and Chris Carter and all them you know ended up leaving the league to what you’re covering. They were really carried by Adrian Peterson. So like oh my. They always had an absolute stud. He was a problem. Yeah. And that was back when they would give you thirty forty touches a game as a running back. And it wasn’t as spread out as it is now. Yes. I remember being in college and we were watching um, Adrian Peterson like trying to set the record. And he got so close and he couldn’t, like, quite get it. Um, but I remember watching that. And I also remember watching Brett Favre randomly went to Minnesota to break the hearts of Packers. Uh, and he did like, he got all the way to the conference championship and then threw a really stupid pick to the Saints at the end of the game. And it was just soul crushing. And we roomed with a, um, a diehard Packers fan who was rooting for Brett Favre to do well against the Vikings. So that kind of tells you like that fandom. Um, but all that to say, this is a team who has to, uh, has had incredible athletes come through. So Chris Carter, Randy Moss, Adrian Peterson, uh, Justin Jefferson. Right. Like just like, yeah, he’s a freak. Just such good athletes. And then to not have the pieces to put it together, to get all the way to the top, um, and just be super frustrated. And now they’re dealing with the investment in J.J. McCarthy. They’re in a really bad way. And I think that assumption of like, hey, we’re not going to win. The whole thing starts to creep in, like almost to your bones. Like you can feel it so deep in your body that this just is not happening. And I think that’s a special kind of misery. And we absolutely welcome folks, uh, from Viking Nation into MSC. Yeah, no, it’s a great perspective. I mean, even that mid-tier, uh, is welcome in Misery Sports Co. I mean, you just you hit it right on the head. Just the inability to close it out. Uh, it’s so painful when you have an all time great, like Adrian Peterson. Um, I feel that with the Browns and Nick Chubb, it’s just like you cannot take that talent and just push it over and even just have, like, one championship game. Even if you lose it, so be it, right? Um. We’ll see. JJ McCarthy, this is his first year. He was injured all of last year. Um, they just I don’t know. In today’s league, they churn and burn rookie quarterbacks really quick. They do. There’s not a lot of time given to develop. So yeah that’s tough. That’s tough. Well grim avoidable. Historically tragic. Exactly. The kind of energy that we specialize in. And that wraps up the deep dive. Please direct any follow up questions to HR, who is currently out of office and attempting to salvage their holiday plans. And now a message from a sponsor who deeply regrets renewing their contract. From the makers of the New York Times best selling book, What Color Is Your Parachute? Comes a new self-help book from Super Bowl participating coach Jim Harbaugh titled When to Pull That Ripcord. Readers of every age will love this one page easy read. Do you love audiobooks? Then you’ll love this fifteen second of Quality Advice, narrated by the ghost of Bo Schembechler. Here’s the book in its entirety. Just cheat and then leave before the hammer comes. Hey, you’ll bust your gut when you get the joke that guess what? There is no hammer. It never drops. Buy it today. Wherever made up books are sold. That’s right. When to pull that ripcord. Well, thank you so much. It’s too soon. But thank you for that sponsorship. Uh, too soon to rip cord. Uh, that, uh, that that one hurts a little bit. Bounced. He bounced a. Oh, yeah. He knew, he knew. He he got that ring and he said, you know what? There’s a lot of fire. I’m smelling smoke. I’m out. Feels like I should go ahead and leave. And all of Michigan was like, yeah, bam. Thank you. Thank you for that. What? Yeah. Well here at Misery Sports Co, we wrap things up with something loosely resembling optimism. My pep talk this week is actually going to go into the college football ranks. Um, so we have a bunch of great games this weekend for Thanksgiving. Um, I’m going to talk to Georgia Tech fans and the Georgia Tech team. Um, you’ve got Georgia. You’re hosting Georgia at home Friday afternoon, three thirty PM eastern. You had one of the most soul crushing losses I have personally ever witnessed last year. I mean, controlled the game. How many overtimes was it, Trevor? Like seven. That sounds right. Yeah. And that coach was basically in tears at the end. Yeah. And it got to the point where they were just doing two point attempts. It’s like, this isn’t even football at this point. We’re just we just want the game to end. Yep. Georgia Tech you know had every right to win that game last season. They are big underdogs this week. Um, hang in there. Georgia Tech fans, come out. I know that you’re on the fringe of the playoff. A big win against Georgia would help. I don’t know if, you know, you can get lucky and get in the SEC Championship, but I’m here for Georgia Tech this week to try to right some wrongs from last year. Um, yeah. It was an incredible game. And I just remember, yeah, when they were trading two point plays, every single one. Joe Tessitore had to be like and this play to make the SEC Championship. I was like, buddy, like the drama is built. You don’t have to keep doing this like we are invested. I, I hate big noon kickoff, but I loves me some Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt. Yeah, and I just Georgia is one of those teams the last few years. They’re fantastic. Right. But they always squeak out the close wins. Uh, they should have lost to Tennessee this year. Yes. They ended up pulling out a three point win. Four point win against Florida up eight points, one score against Ole Miss. It’s just like every time that Georgia needs a big play, their defense comes up with it. That Florida game, man, that messed me up. They did work Texas like a puppet which credit them. Yeah yeah they did. It’s hilarious. Uh, do you have a feel for. I feel like I need to talk about A&M now. Every time I didn’t, we didn’t get an A&M sponsorship, which seems like a mistake. But do you have a feel for the that rivalry this year? That’s the one I’m most excited. Besides Ohio State Michigan, that’s the one I’m most excited to watch. So that is Friday night. Um, Texas is the home team. Yeah. Um, I don’t know that I have enough confidence in Arch Manning to pull it out. A&M defense is good. It’s really top three. Yeah. Good. They are very good. Texas has a good defense I just don’t know if they’re going to generate enough points. I like A&M and I just like, you know, Arch Manning maybe making one or two mistakes. Uh, what are your thoughts on that one? I feel like similar I think it’s going to be a game where like, maybe Texas jumps out to an early lead from like either a trick play or like, but they have that returner who’s really good. His name escapes me right now, but he is a weapon, is it? I don’t want to guess. Let’s not guess. We’ll guess. We’ll look it up. Um, I don’t want to guess. Um, he’s really good. So I could see them, like, jumping out to a lead. Um, okay, one A&M could be. I think that A&M could be a candidate for one of our deep dives. I mean, historically, they’ve always been in the shadow of Texas. Um, but they have an opportunity to win the SEC, beat Texas. Go to the SEC Championship and be a top four seed, you know. Number two. Number three Ohio State loses. They could be number one. Yeah. Ryan Niblett I was right. That was my guess was Niblett. Thank you for researching that. And just double checking. Always, sir. Good luck to Mr. Ryan Niblett and the rest of the team. Okay. My pep talk this week is to one Jamie Benn. Jamie Benn has been the captain for the Dallas Stars for quite some time. I mentioned in an earlier episode this year that he has been out with an injury. He is now back. He just scored goal number four hundred. So congratulations to Jamie Benn. That’s very exciting. Uh, but Jamie Benn is maybe, perhaps in his last season. Um, he’s only thirty six, but, like, he feels super old. Which means I’m super old because that’s how old I am. Here’s the thing I mentioned earlier that Jason Robertson scored a crap ton of goals and has been on a tear. He’s kind of a restricted free agent next year, so we’re gonna have to pay him some money. It sure would be cool if somebody came off the books because they retired, and then we would have some more money. That’s a weird thing, because you balance like. Jamie. We love you. Sorry that I’m talking about you while you’re here listening to this, but is your. Is it time? I don’t know. Maybe. Let’s see if you skate the cup. If you skate the cup, it’s time. And I want to pep you up for that and say, go off into the sunset if you don’t skate the cup. Maybe it’s also time, I don’t know. I’m just a guy wondering some stuff about some things, And, um, you probably don’t feel pepped up by this, but let me end on a high and say you’re doing great. Congrats on four hundred. Keep it up. We got a long season. Carry those young kids. We have a lot of young players. Carry them to greatness. And thank you for what you do to your body on a daily basis. Thank you so much. And I think out of our professional teams, um, you know, together the Dallas Stars, would you agree the Dallas Stars have the best chance of winning a championship this year? Yes. Of our professional teams. Professional. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah. By far they have are the Dallas Stars. GM has one GM of the year three straight years. Holy cow. Yeah he is running. Our farm system has been incredible. And we have a lot of those young kids. So they are very well positioned. Um, however, if you asked me that question. Not ten months ago, I would have said, I don’t know, maybe it’s the Mavericks that’s too soon. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Well, on that note that closes out this week at Missouri Sports Co where every episode doubles as an informal performance warning. Follow us online. Send us your most tragic takes and tell us which team personally ruined your week. We’ll be back with more pain, more laughter, and if the universe feels generous, one moral victory worth toasting. Until then, clock out. Grab some pie. Mhm. Love me some pie. And remember, misery loves company. Especially around the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving.