Posted by Anthony Schmidt on March 10, 2011
Before the 2010 season kicked off I pondered out loud what would be the worst thing that could happen to the Vikings. Those ponderings can be relived here: http://brentfavre.com/2010/08/03/the-worst-for-the-vikings/
I’ll admit at the time I was a bit obsessed with the Vikings. The idea of a Packers Legend leading the despised, pathetic, miserable Vikings (spit) to the Super Bowl is beyond comprehension. Thankfully after the 2010 season it is still beyond comprehension.
No really Ted, Thanks!
Just six short months ago the Vikings were the favorite to win the NFC North, Vikings fans were demanding that the division be renamed the NFC ‘Norse’, Jeff and his annoying Purple and Yellow Iron Man with Vikings horns avatar trolled Packers fan sites talking trash, and Favre seemed poised to exit the biggest stage in sports ala John Elway. The Vikings had all the pieces, they just needed to give it one more shot and try just a little harder and they would be Champions for sure (spit).
But it was not meant to be (cheer). The 2010 season has been one of the most forgettable seasons (for Vikings fans) in 50 years of Vikings football. The worst has happened and continues to happen. This season was like a train wreck that took 16 weeks. In the beginning I watched with a certain vindictive giddiness as the first few cars fell off the tracks and exploded into a fiery mess of football drama. As the carnage continued to pile up through the season, I began to feel slight twinges of indifference, if not full out sympathy. By the end I could only watch with a mild indifference, as my wildest fantasies nearly unimaginable a year ago became reality.
Now seems to be a good time to recap all that has happened these past glorious months.
For me it started last season when the Favre/Chili marriage showed cracks during the Panthers game. Childress wanted to pull Favre halfway through a game that saw the hapless Panthers expose the ineptitudes of the faltering Vikings. Favre refused to be pulled. Childress and Favre looked like lovers in a spat. A spat that played out in sports news for weeks.
Fast forward a month and we have the infamous back across the middle championship game interception versus the Saints, which sealed the fate of their 2009 season.
Before the 2010 season even started the Vikings drama was in mid season form. Favre couldn’t make up his mind and reportedly wouldn’t come back due to differences with Childress, differences that would later prove to be irreconcilable. Favre had to be begged off the Farm by his teammates who managed to convince him to return for one more run.
It was clear that the season would not be a repeat of the year before when their star receiver went out with a hip injury before the season even started and their number two receiver suffered from debilitating migraine headaches that kept him sidelined through the first weeks. Also, the ever-dependable Bernard Berrian seemed to be suffering from an acute case of the Dropsies. After starting the season 1-2 the Vikings traded a 3rd round draft pick to New England in exchange for Randy Moss who was brought in to shore up the ailing receiving corps(e). Favre throwing his 500th TD to Moss was to be the only remarkable accomplishment of the legendary receiver in his second stint with the Vikings. After expressing his love for the Pats and his dissatisfaction with the team’s choice in catering, Moss was abruptly released by Childress. A move that was wildly unpopular with the fans and seamed to have been completed with out the consent or even notification of the team’s ownership.
After the Packers soundly humiliated the Vikings in the teams second meeting, a game that ended with fans chanting “Fire Childress” the head coach was sacked. An accomplishment for the Packers who had caused the Cowboys to part ways with their head coach the week before.
Furthermore Favre sustained an ankle injury in the game, which spelled the beginning of the end to the 20-year veterans consecutive starts streak. Favre who added to the season’s drama with a ‘sexting’ scandal eventually found his end concussed in the Gofers stadium of all places.
The collective weight of embarrassment seemed to be more than even the Metro dome could sustain as it chose to collapse spectacularly rather than allow the Viking to play their final two home games. This was the point in the season where I felt karmic justice had been served. Lucky for us Packer fans, the cherry to top off the Vikings manure Sunday of a season was yet to come.
Vikings fans had yet to endure the unthinkable, another Packers Super Bowl Championship. Vikings fans had to watch the Packers make one of the most unlikely runs in sports history. The Packers showed their merit by overcoming and avoiding some of the same adversities the Vikings had fallen prone to. The NFC Title game was an especially bad day for Vikings fans as they were forced to watch the Packers and Bears square off for the chance to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. After losing three of four games, and with the season on the line, the Packers rattled off six wins in a row including three straight road playoff games to become the first NFC sixth seeded team to win it all.
In the end all that was wrong in the football universe has been set right. The Packers are now poised to make continued runs at the big game while the Vikings find themselves worse off than before their version of the Favre era. The Packers have now won as many Super Bowls as the Vikings have lost. But best of all, the Packers are now being highlighted as the premier franchise in the NFL with the greatest fans and the most historic stadium, while the Vikings will probably be packing their bags for LA after the 2011 season.
The 2010 season was the worst for the Vikings.
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Posted by Anthony Schmidt on March 9, 2011
Today I would like to discuss the finer points of trash talking. Because what is brentfavre.com about if not trash talking? Trash talking can be one of the most rewarding things we do in support of our team. It can also be one of the most disrespectful things you can do for your team.
As fans/owners of the Green Bay Packers, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard when delivering the verbal smack down to our rival’s fans. The things we say do in some small way represent the Packers, even more so than the fans of other teams.
Here are a few Keys to successful trash talking.
1. Know the Facts.
Prior to engaging in any trash talking it helps to have done at least a small amount of research. For example, when I trash talk Vikings fans before any big game I read up a bit on how the Vikings have been playing. It also helps to know how the Packers have been playing and which teams they have beaten compared to the teams the Vikings have beaten (if any).
2. Know MORE facts.
The more Facts you have about the stats of your players compared to the stats of the players of the other team, the better off you are. This doesn’t mean you have to run a statistical analysis of each player, but it does help to know who’s QB is statistically better and how many points each team’s defense has allowed each game.
3. Cherry Pick the Facts.
Even if your team isn’t doing as well as the other team, be sure to focus on the things your team is doing well. In week 15 the packers were 8 and 6 and the Bears had won the division. For the next two weeks I made sure to remind Bears fans that the Packers were really only 26 points away from being undefeated and that the Bears were one bad last second call away from being knocked off by the Lions at home on the opening day of the season. Even though the Bears fans I trashed talked with, should have had the upper hand, I was able to make them doubt their team because I focused on the Packers highlights and the Bears lowlights. Focusing on the fact that the Packers won the Super Bowl and avoiding the fact that they almost missed the playoffs is another great example of cherry picking… however it can be turned around if you frame it in the right light. Saying the: Packers almost missed the playoffs and had the longest and toughest road to the Super Bowl and yet we still ended the season with the Lombardi Trophy, is what I call spinning it!
4. Know your History.
Knowing that the Vikings have lost four Super Bowls and that the Packers have won four Super Bowls is an unspeakably powerful weapon to have in your arsenal. Facts like that get under the skin of Vikings fans like nothing else. They have no come back for it. If they seem unfazed by this fact quickly remind them about Gary Anderson and twelve men in the huddle. Using these kinds of Facts can be very rewarding and almost always guarantees capitulation.
5. Be Tactful.
Don’t make personal attacks. Don’t use fowl language. Don’t use sweeping generalizations and most importantly of all don’t use Hate Speech. You are only making yourself and your football team look bad… not the other way around. Stick to the facts and you can’t go wrong. Even when the Fans you are trash talking break this rule, don’t give in. One of your objectives should be to get them to break rule five out of sheer frustration, when they do this it means you won. If you break rule five it means you lost.
6. Have a clear Objective.
Having a clear objective is an oft-overlooked part of trash talking. What are you trying to accomplish through your trash talking? At different points in the season/off-season I have different objectives for my trash talking. Right now (being the off-season) my goal is to rub the Super Bowl win in the faces of the fans of the Bears and especially the Vikings. I do this by sticking to the above stated rules. The biggest hurdle I have had to overcome in accomplishing my objective is finding any Vikings or Bears fans willing to listen. I usually find Vikings and Bears fans posting comments on articles about their teams on NFL.com However they are usually chased off whenever I come around and start telling them how bad their teams were and are. They are experiencing a lot of shame these days and are not ready to come out of hiding. The best way I’ve found to get them started is to start out by asking them non-confrontational questions about their team or about the NFL. Example: ‘Hey are you excited about next season getting started?’ Vikings fan response: ‘Awe jeez I shur am!’ My response: ‘Me too, of course I probably wouldn’t be if I were a Vikings fan.’ This is a great way to goad them into a trash talking battle they cannot win.
7. Have Fun.
Trash talking is supposed to be fun. So go out there and tactfully rub it in the faces of all of your Bears and Vikings fans friends, because you never know when you might have the chance to do it again.
If you have any trash talking stories about how you Pwned or got Pwned by someone be sure to tell me about it in the comments section.
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Posted by Anthony Schmidt on August 3, 2010
Today we welcome Anthony Schmidt as a guest blogger to BrentFavre.com. Are you interested in being a guest blogger? Email us at info@brentfavre.com.
Brent Favre is dead to me. The day he signed with the queens his legacy and everything he did with the Packers became null and void. It was easy to turn on Favre. He’s just one player and not bigger than the team or the game. I love the Packers more than I like Favre and I hate the Vikings way more than I like Favre.
Many of my friends have remained fans of Grandpa Favre. They love him so much that they are willing to forgive his betrayal and wish him the best, if not full out root for him. Not me. I despise the Vikings and hope the worst for them.
So what is the worst thing that could happen to the Vikings? Is it a career ending injury for Brent (who is coming back…everyone knows it)?? Is it another humiliating championship loss in overtime?? Is it a Super Bowl loss?? Or is it missing the playoffs altogether after all the hype??
I contend that it’s none of the above. The worst thing for the queens is this: Send them to California to become the Loss Angeles Vikings. Most people roll their eyes or laugh at the thought. I mean, what would be better than having the Vikings in the NFC West and the Rams in the NFC North? It turns out there is a chance it could happen! Right now in LA a new stadium is being built. The owner of that stadium is trying to get a team to relocate. On his short list are the Bills, the Jaguars, and the Vikings.
Purple Stadium
It may seem like a long shot, so hear me out. The Vikings are currently in desperate need of a new stadium. The ‘Mall of America Dome’ doesn’t seat enough fans to keep the team fiscally viable. Even with a sell out crowd every game, they cannot make enough money. The lease on the dome is up after the 2011 season and the team doesn’t want to resign. The problem is that the owners only want to front $200 million of the $900 million needed for the project. They want the State to front the rest of the cash, which is not exactly popular with today’s economy.
In a state that is facing massive budget deficits, along with teacher, police and firemen layoffs, a $700 million taxpayer funded donation to the Vikings new stadium is not getting a lot of momentum in the state legislature. To date there have been several stadium bills put forward and all have gone down in flames. Time is running out, and with the owners threatening to relocate the team if no stadium deal is reached, hope seems to be dwindling. The tone on Viking fan sites is that of desperation and panic.
Last winter I came across this site, a grass roots effort to save the Vikings and build them a new stadium. http://www.savethevikes.org/
I like the enthusiasm of the members on the site so I decided to create my own facebook counter movement called ‘WAVE THE VIKES GOODBYE: NFL fans for moving the Vikings to LA’. Which can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101936639842064&ref=ts
I hope with every fiber of my being that the Vikings move to LA. What could be better? It would almost ensure Packer dominance of the NFC North for the next ten years. But more than that it would signal the final defeat of the Vikings not as a team, but as a rival from a state with some of the worst fans in the NFL.
For the Team, moving to LA may be a good. They would be in the soft NFC West and have a larger fan base with higher profits. And the Packers would have a better chance of seeing them in the playoffs, which would keep the old rivalry alive.
But for the Minnesota Vikings fan it would be the ultimate defeat. Their team would be gone forever and they would be left empty and void, forced give up football or find a new team to support. More than anything else, it would highlight the superiority of the Packers, who cannot be moved because they belong to the people of Green Bay.
Anthony Schmidt is an artist and sports enthusiast. Checkout his blog at: http://anthonyjschmidt.wordpress.com/
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