A Look Back: Thanksgiving 1998

Let's, for a moment, separate the Vikings v. Cowboys Thanksgiving game from the memories of how the 1998 season ended and take a look back. Considering how far we have come from Denny :: Tice :: Chilly, from offensive juggernaut to a team built around a defense, from Cunningham to Ferrotte, it is amazing that this game actually happened and is part of us as Vikings fans.

Let's breakdown the numbers, you can relive most of the action from memory.

The day started as the 10-1 Vikes, who had locked up a playoff spot, met the 8-3 Cowboys who were leading the NFC East. The day ended as the Vikes won 46 to 36.

Cunningham was 17 of 35 for 359 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT.
Moss had 3 catches for 163 yards and 3 TDs
Carter had 7 catches for 135 yards and 1 TD
Leroy Hoard rumbled for 58 yards (50 of those on one carry) and 2 TDs

Remember how those numbers (maybe not Hoard's) were pretty much standard operating procedure? Here is something you don't say too often: what a great Vikings win.

More than you ever wanted to know about RTS' marriage

How attached to this blog do I feel? I am willing to air my marital problems for everyone to read. Is my marriage in trouble? No. Do my wife and I fight? Almost never. However, we seem to have one ongoing problem.

A little over 2 years ago, my wife, my daughter who was under 1 at the time and I had traveled from the ATL back to the 6-1-2 to visit friends and family. I had gone up earlier in the week for business and my wife and daughter came up Thursday night. They rented a car and went to visit one of her friends in Osceola, Wisconsin before meeting up with me on Saturday.

Everything was fine until we got to the airport Sunday morning. When we dropped off the rental car, I asked my wife if she needed anything in a stack of paper that looked like trash. She said no and I threw the stack away. We proceeded to check-in. The baby was hungry, but we figured we would get through security first and then feed her. We went up to the counter. I showed my drivers license, but my wife could not find hers. She rifled through her purse and her wallet but could not find it. She had an expired license but the agent informed us that we needed a second piece of government issued ID, a library card or voter registration card or Social Security card… This brought about an argument from my wife that it should not be relevant that it is expired because she is not driving and that she is just using it for ID. The ticket agent did not budge. I chimed in that it is ridiculous that the only thing keeping her from flying is a library card. I forgot which one of asked how would we ever get home if we were in a state like Hawaii since we could not fly or drive back from there. The line behind us had grown long. The baby was very hungry and started to fuss. We called my parents to make sure the license was not left at their house. It wasn’t. I tore the luggage apart in line to make sure that it did not get packed. It didn’t. So they we were standing in line, creating a scene, being those people at the airport. Finally, a supervisor came over and agreed to let us through as long as my wife went through the more thorough security check. No problem for us. We got through, fed the baby and made it on to the plane. People came up to us by the gate and said “Hey, I see you made it.” All I wanted to do was slip into anonymity. I was a pissed and I took my pound of flesh from her. We concluded that she probably put the license in the rental agreement and that I threw it out with the rest of the trash. It was probably the biggest fight in the 5 years that we have been married.

Fast forward to today. My wife had a 9:55 flight to NY. I was going on about my pre-market work. At 9:00 I got a call from her. “Do you have my driver’s license from when we went to the zoo?” Sure enough I did. I asked her ‘What do you have with you? Do you have an expired license? How about a library card, voter registration, SS card…?” She said “I am not sure; I am pulling into park now.” I could hear the panic in her voice. She just started at a new job and does not want to F this up. On top of that the last time she traveled the travel dept. booked her on the wrong day, so this would be the second fiasco in as many attempts. The airport is a good 45 mins away from my office. She had 55 mins until the plane was supposed to leave. There was no time to park and check what she had on her. I tore out of the office with my rage boiling over. I was weaving in and out of traffic. There is a Seinfeld episode where Elaine is trying to get someone to the airport and she claims to be seeing moves 3 or 4 cars ahead. I was in that zone. I made it 2/3s of the way to the airport in 25 mins in morning commuter traffic. She called me “I checked in no problem and am going through security now.” What? How did that work? Apparently, all you need to fly is an expired license. She checked in with her Delta Skymiles card and a TSA agent assured her all she needed for security was the expired license. I told her that loved her and that I hoped it worked the same way in NY and that she would make it home. I turned around and headed back to work ½ mad and ½ laughing at the situation. I love my wife and she is a whole lot smarter than I am, but seriously how dumb is it to go to the airport twice with out your drivers license? I mean we are living in a post 9/11 world (I am only saying that ¾ kidding).

Remember me? Bob Schnelker

Yes, the "worst offensive coordinator in Minnesota Vikings history" or at least that is how he is remembered. Not really sure the stats prove it out, they probably don't, but if the Vikings offense is stalling or we are running the ball over and over and over or if we are getting 3 points instead of 7 points, then it's Schnelker's name we bring up.

From a Wikipedia search on Jerry Burns:
"During his time as the Vikings head coach, he may be best remembered for a November 12, 1989 profanity laced tirade where he defended then-offensive coordinator Bob Schnelker, despite the fact that the Vikings kicked a league record-tying 7 field goals in a 23-21 defeat of the Los Angeles Rams."

Here is the audio - wow, I miss Jerry.
http://rope.93x.com/hams/audio/burnstirade.mp3

Also, 7 field goals! Holy crap that must have been an infuriating game to watch. Probably the game that sealed Schnelker's fate in Vikings history.

That Felt Like About 2004

Well, that was one miserable weekend of football, lads.

Can the Vikes please can their offensive coordinator? I mean, are you f-ing serious with those calls on the last drive? 3rd and 2 and you don't give the ball to Peterson on EITHER chance?!?!

Pathetic.

The Dose: Bucs week? Recruit this!

It's rainy, cloudy and 36 degrees right now. I heard a news guy say that Winter is coming, why not just say Spring and Summer are coming too and while we're at it so is Fall . . .

Anyway -

1. Vikes (5-4) travel to the Bucs (6-3) to face a former NFC Central foe - growing up didn't it always feel like the Bucs derailed us? While we are 31-19 all-time against the Bucs (18-7 at the HumpDome and 13-12 at Ray Jay Stay) there were some bad Bucs teams, we should have won more than 62% of those games but they were the quintessential 'let's play to the level of our competition' opponent for us. While this is a total trap game for us, I think the Bucs are bigger frauds than we are.

2. Speaking of the Bucs, Cadillac Williams is back from IR. Who did they drop to make room for him? Give you a hint - he was a sprinter at University of Wisconsin.

3. Tubby lands four man recruiting class that is top 20 nationwide. We got that kid Royce White from Hopkins which would normally be props out to BG but considering that Royce had some "academic honesty" issues at De La Salle he is only a transfer to Hopkins since last year, sorry BG. He also has some "attitude problems" on the court (this summer he was kicked out of a game after throwing a ball at future teammate and current Gophers forward Damian Johnson); he blames it on being ultra-competitive which might be true or might be because he is a ball-hog jerk-wad.

4. Did you know that Minnesota has a professional basketball team? It's true. After KG was traded we apparently kept the rest of the team. However, we still suck.

5. Franken/Coleman race is in the midst of a recount that will stretch to December. A little over 200 votes separates the two out of 2.9 million votes cast. Too bad Franken became so douchey or it would have been 199 votes that separate the two.

6. I was emailing with friend of this blog and Cubs fan Lucas Erickson and casually mentioned that I thought of him during the Cubs recent demise etc. I empathized with Mr. Erickson and said I thought the Lord was a Cubs fan when he replied: "God can't like sports teams . . . I think he only chooses a few to hate." Puts 1998 into a bit more perspective.

How you like me now?

In a game we clearly should have won by 14 points without all the drama it still feels really good to get that win.

Photo: Rich Gabrielson/Icon SMI

The Dose: The Inaugural Version

In an attempt to post something when I'm not totally fired up about one topic in particular, I will periodically introduce "The Dose" which will basically be random crap on my mind, sports-related and sports-unrelated.

1. Nice work BG, I hold you and your rooting for Northwestern as the reason Adam Weber threw that heartbreaking pick. Guess who is now rooting for Northwestern to lose every time they play for eternity? I am now a super-anti Northwestern fan (kind of, not really.)

2. Went to the Vikes game yesterday - ho-hum. Most exciting part was the drunken 45 year old superfan who sat next to us and proceeded to scare the crap out of the 10 year kid in front of her (yes, her) as she bent down to sing, nay, yell "You been thunderstruck!!!" (at least that's what I think the song was, it was kinda loud) directly into the kids face. She also danced around like a weeble-wobble. There was also some dude about 5 rows back who tried to start the "Fire Childress, clap, clap, clappity, clap" but quit after the second "Fire Childress."

3. I saw this on 60 minutes last night click here and it blew my f'ing mind. Honestly, it made me think - holy shit, this is why the USA kicks ass!

4. Minnesota Senate race between Coleman, Franken, and Barkley has come to epitomize all that is wrong with politics. I want to vote for Barkley but I feel like I should at least cancel out one of Coleman's supporters and vote for Franken. Then again, Barkley thinks the driking age should be 18 and that the "War on Drugs" is pointless - one of those things I would have benefited from 16 years ago, the other I might benefit from in years to come.

5. If McCain wins tomorrow you can find me here.