It’s late round two in the annual madness that is the Stanley Cup playoffs, and all is more than well. Don’t take my word for it, every night - every broadcaster tells me how good the ratings are. They are. It’s just weird to hear it from broadcasters every night on the air.

Here’s Marner, shooting it in from center and oh by the way our ratings are way up…

I don’t think - but maybe you’ll tell me - other sports do that. Tell you about their ratings during the game. When you’re last of the big four and have been for decades, you pump your own tires when you get a little gust.

Mixed metaphors aside, ratings are definitely up and there are all kinds of reasons for this, including, nobody can seem to find NBA games on their own televisions it’s been reported. However, I find it odd that people looking for an NBA playoff game would so readily hop into our camp. But - maybe it was a little of the Olympics push. We’re also in an era of betwixt and between with how audiences are tracked and viewership is measured.

However it’s happened, the NHL will take it. And - welcome to the party homies! This is the greatest show on earth this time of year, and so cool that more people are enjoying it.

But, that means there’s more newbies hearing very strange hockey-speak, and watching guys punch each other in the head with gloves on with no penalties called.

So many crazy bounces and odd calls and wild stuff and the usual strange commentary to discuss.

And, Joel Quenneville is getting lots of love from broadcasters and broadcast outlets, and his GM Pat Verbeek is a finalist for GM of the year - and that’s - fucking disgusting - all of it.

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Quarterbacks, in the NFL, are 80% of your game - unless you don’t have one - then they’re 100% of your game... and nobody found that out more than the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings have never won a Super Bowl in their history. They’re 0-4 in the big game, and haven’t been in one in 50 years.

Seattle just grabbed their second crown Sunday, they’re two for four, and they did it with a journeyman QB in his first season with the club.

The current Vikings boast a top flight and championship caliber defense, strong kicking game, and skilled offensive playmakers that would make Seattle and New England jealous, had everything a contender would want except one thing - they handed the leagues’ most expensive payroll to a young QB who hadn’t played an NFL down and who was coming off a torn meniscus that ended his rookie campaign before it started.

The Minnesota Vikings could have stayed with Sam Darnold. They didn’t. That decision took the Vikings out of contention. That decision reverberated through the building and made enemies of friends and put stress on the club. And that decision cost their GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah his job.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell skates on this one, but for anyone to think that a year ago, the reigning NFL coach of the year, the minted “QB Whisperer” who could get anyone, even Josh Dobbs to play the position (sort of …), didn’t have a HUGE say in who his QB was gonna be going forward, is smoking some good stuff. Yeah - KOC better get his shit straight and figure this one out and fast because… tick tock… tick tock…

It’s RalphStack, and I’m a lifelong Vikings fan, and this - this - this - is as dumb a move as I’ve ever seen with the team - and that’s saying a lot. But I watched yesterday as a fan - a Sam Darnold fan - hoping that he would take those next big steps. He did. Boy did he…

The game was the game was the game. New England, and Drake Maye, had things break pretty well in the AFC. No Lamar. No Josh. No Patrick. No Bo… The Patriots are a year or two ahead of schedule and looked more behind than that for most of the game. Seattle, a 5-point favorite, rolled to a double-digit win. Seattle was better plain and simple. Darnold made plays when he had to and took care of the ball. Boom.

And NBC showed why their NFL coverage is the best of the best - and there isn’t a second place.

I geek up for this every year. My business showing off it’s stuff on the biggest sports stage there is.

Let me take you through the day - the coverage - the SHOW! Because it’s the NFL on NBC - and nobody does it better.

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Lemme guess… the refs screwed em?? Again? The whole damned city??

I get a text from a buddy of mine right after the Bills lost in Denver, Saturday, killing another shot for Josh Allen in his prime to finally get it done. The text read “…and again the refs decide the outcome…”

Huh?

I don’t remember if my friend was also clutching the “the refs screwed them by giving KC all the calls…” last season - but it’s the same thing. And I was in Buffalo in 1999, calling hockey for the Dallas Stars when we took the Stanley Cup and there was much whining over a skate in the crease - which - incidentally was legal if the skate belonged to the guy with the puck - but - let’s not get carried away with “the rules…”.

As a Vikings fan, I know about bad calls, missed opportunities, and crushing defeats. I know about 0-4 in Super Bowls. The Bills and their fans are cousins of the Vikings faithful - few others understand this level of futility.

HOWEVER…

Josh Allen turned the ball over four times himself on Saturday. Four times. Two fumbles and two picks.

Last season, the Bills failed to move the ball against the Chiefs and made several other mistakes during the game.

And in 1999, the Sabres scored one goal - ONE - in the final nine periods of the series. Their powerplay was 0 for it’s last 17 against the Stars, and their top offensive guys did jack shit for the series.

But - it’s the refs? It’s a call? It’s a completion and not an interception and we got screwed again?

C’mon…

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Somewhere, you gotta think, Justin Tucker cracked a little smirk when Raven’s kicker Tyler Loop pushed the kick right, ending the Ravens season seconds after they all thought they were headed to the playoffs.

Too soon?

Justin Tucker, suspended for the first 10 games of the season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, was told - yeah no - by the Ravens for this season after 13 nearly flawless on-field campaigns.

Baltimore, most understandably, was ready to move on after investigations revealed that maybe the greatest placekicker of all-time was found to be extremely problematic, with multiple accusations of bad behavior with massage therapists over many years.

As a kicker, Tucker was nails and a Baltimore icon. And you gotta know that had it been years past, trotting him out there for a high-pressure kick was no big thing for the Baltimore faithful. He was gonna hit it - everybody knew it - the kick was a formality. Even the biggest.

I don’t know Tucker, I don’t follow where all that’s at now - but - people being how they are - and a confident guy like Tucker - would almost certainly be amused by his former club being kept out of the playoffs by a missed field goal from the guy they brought in to replace him.

Yep - rookie Tyler Loop - who had a monster year - hitting 28/28 from inside 50 yards, missed the one kick they had to have when they absolutely had to have it. He choked. It happens.

And just like that… the Ravens are out of the playoffs. And Aaron Rodgers is in.

What a time to be alive.

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Two of those three titled items are severely interwoven - as the NFL weekend included at least three games lost, and not won on the contest’s last (or dying seconds) play. Could there have been more plays? More chances to win the game than a coach gave his team?

It’s cream rising time isn’t it? Every year December - December is where the teams who know and who are on the hunt - really on the hunt - get their shit done. And the NFL is putting those games on assorted carriers and on the season’s biggest days. Ummmm - yeah. The NFL.

My Vikings… no doubt a playoff team this year with a C-quarterback, a contender with a real guy. I swear - who else but Max Brosmer could make JJ McCarthy look like Tom Brady? Sheesh….

Who else had Aaron Rodgers, Caleb Williams, (ok maybe him) AND Josh Allen all MISSING end zone throws at the gun?

And c’mon - “you don’t want to score too early to give the other team time to score again…” has to be as dumb a thing and era as we’re going through and I’m mad at the species for me even having to mention it.

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I’m laying in my recliner in the ‘half-back’ position, my normal late-day football viewing posture, and I’m watching the Patriots running out the clock on the Ravens, resigned that I’m not gonna hit this one.

I like playing Daily Fantasy on the Sunday and Monday and Thursday night games, and make a small parlay wager or two on those. I’ve done ok this year. I started the season with about $ 350 bucks in my account, and am now up to over $ 1,500 in my balance.

Last night’s was a last minute thing. I got it in under the wire and laid back and watched the game. There was NO CHANCE I was gonna hit it.

Over the weekend there was also NO CHANCE that the Bears were going to rally and beat the Packers. Also, the Rams have Sam Darnold’s number and there’s NO CHANCE he’s gonna beat them - especially with the odds so stacked against them late in that game.

My Vikings - well - if we can keep lining up shitty teams on even worse trajectories - we might be ok going forward. In all seriousness - the Vikings with an even functional guy at QB make the playoffs this season. A decent QB, and they’re in the division race, a really good one - and they may have had a shot.

But none of that happened.

Plenty of other stuff has and did - and it’s why it doesn’t matter who you root for - NFL football wins every damned week, putting all other “unscripted shows” and most other leagues and contests firmly in their rearview mirrors.

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As another NFL day was winding down, as the Vikings and Cowboys were playing on my set on Sunday Night Football, my longtime friend Brian while watching the game with me turned and asked - “Ron and I are going to see Rob Reiner at the Plaza Theater downtown Palm Springs Tuesday night - would you care to join us?”

I thought about it, and thought that might be fun, and then I googled Rob Reiner and saw the fresh headlines. The story was 14 minutes old. What a horrible thing, but if we look at the news for even an instant, we see horrible things. We’ve become pretty desensitized to horrible things.

And that’s why I so value what sports can do and the escapism it provides. I need it. I need to get lost in it - in sports - in the real-life unscripted dramas and storylines.

And nobody does this better than the NFL, and it’s stretch run. The season, building to a February grand crescendo is chocked full of magnificent moments, and brutal turns. NFL football is involving and all-consuming in ways that matter for fans and stakeholders.

And yesterday we saw the best and the worst and grand achievement, and bone-crushing lows. We witnessed the official end of the line for Patrick Mahomes and this iteration of the mighty Chiefs, we saw a spark from Minnesota’s beleaguered young signal caller, and we saw magnificence from one 44 year-old un-retired QB, who put it all on the line, because that’s who he is and all he knows.

And all of it was insane. Again.

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On December 29, 1975, one day after the big play, the one that set courses for two franchises, I woke up early, and penned a letter to then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. I was 14 years old, and for Christmas, my dad took my two brothers and me to the Vikings - Cowboys playoff game at Met Stadium the day before.

Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton woke up Monday mourning the loss of his father the day before - the day of the game. His father’s name - the Reverend “Dallas” Tarkenton.

This whole thing is crazy.

We sat in the left field bleachers, up high, and at about the south end’s 40 yard line. We were wide open to the elements, but that day was bright and clear, and the temps were tolerable.

I remember for some reason I was focused on the bleachers behind the end zone right after the catch, and I saw, I swear, a bottle come flying out from about midway up. I watched the bottle fly and then hit official Armen Terzian in the head. I saw it in real time.

The letter I wrote, I handed to my dad at breakfast. I was upset. I thought the Vikings got jobbed. So I wrote the letter suggesting the NFL should incorporate replay to check for boundary receptions (the 4th and 17 prior to the TD completion) and pass interference (on the play in question).

I’m sure my dad took it to the office, and showed his partners the latest thing from his unusual 14 year-old son, and they all got a kick out of it. I don’t know if he ever sent it.

So no, I don’t believe I’m responsible for NFL replay as we know it now…

But the flashpoint was real, and still hangs over the Vikings franchise as ground zero of the curse, and make no mistake, the Vikings are cursed.

I’m amused when Cowboys fans tell me of their struggles, how I don’t understand how unlucky they are, given they’ve only won five Super Bowls, but none since 1996…

Please. You’re amateurs. Fucking amateurs. All of you.

We’re 65 years in and have ZERO. And have more kicks to the crotch than most. Favre’s pick. Anderson’s miss. Walsh’s miss. Nelson’s drop. McClanahan’s fumble. The list goes on.

Because when Roger Staubach closed his eyes, and said a Hail Mary, two things happened; The Cowboys became the Cowboys, and the Vikings became the Vikings.

On December 28, 1975, the fates, the fortunes, the gods, all lined up and set the course for at least the next half-century.

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Nothing lasts forever, and pride goeth before the fall. And the Kansas City Chiefs run - the run we all watched and either marveled or moaned at is over. Andy Reid’s most formidable charges are out of the playoff hunt for the first time in - ages - it seems.

What happened?

And, if the Minnesota Vikings could play the 31st ranked defense every week…

And other ramblings from another NFL Sunday.

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Fall and Winter Sundays are the best. This old retired sports broadcaster, living in the desert, still gets giddy like a kid for NFL Sundays. I was raised on NFL Sundays and the Minnesota Vikings. I’m a Vikings fan the same way I was Catholic - that’s what I was taught every Sunday. We are, largely, victims of our geography and at the whim of our parents. If I’m born in India, I’m a soccer fan and maybe a Hindu. So it goes.

But - I’m a purple and gold bleeding OG Vikings fan. And that my friends is a very singular fan experience. O for 65 years… and counting. Sheesh. But I’m stuck and I can’t get out. I quit cocaine - friggin cocaine - and I can’t quit the Vikings and the NFL…

And yesterday was a singular low for my Vikes - and they’re in a place with no good solution. Where do they go? What’s going on in there?

And the last game of the day - an unexpected thriller - and I hit an awesome three-leg parlay that I never thought I was gonna get.

And other observations of another day of NFL football.

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It was a clip of the Vikings head coach last November that went pseudo-viral that showed the kind of coach and man Minnesota had at the helm. The moment featured Kevin O’Connell, after the Vikings November 3, 2024 home win against Indianapolis, seeking out the Colts struggling young QB Anthony Richardson. O’Connell, a former struggling, young, NFL QB himself, embraced the young man, and told him that he had confidence in him - and so did his own coach. To keep his chin up. That there would be better days ahead.

It was the type of moment that would be caught often - this QB guru sprinkling magic dust to all who needed it - whether they thought they needed it or not - and praised by NFL broadcasters and reporters. This coach was different. This coach, who got churned up in the NFL QB grinder himself as a young man, wouldn’t allow it to happen to anyone else.

This coach, Kevin O’Connell, was named the 2024 NFL Coach of the Year.

And this season, with Minnesota leading all teams in cash spent ($343 million in 2025) - let’s go. KOC has a plan.

Kevin O’Connell then put words to it - this “mission statement” of his - that - “Organizations fail young quarterbacks more than young quarterbacks fail organizations…”

And now, because of hubris, and a now seemingly fatal flaw, something terrible, indeed tragic, is happening in there.

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It was during Game 4 of the ALCS when it became apparent that the 2-0 vice-grip created by Seattle’s two series-opening wins in Toronto had been pissed away in their own stadium that I texted my great friend Loop.

“The Mariners got a little Vikings in em.”

“Good analogy.”

Well that’s what I did for a hundred years - articulate sports analogies and so on. And this one came rather easy for me, and Loop, and all of us who are lifelong Minnesota Vikings fans. We’ve never cashed either. Not once. We’re in year 65 of no championships. We’re over a half-century without a trip to the Super Bowl. I’ve been alive for all of it.

And when George Springer came to the plate last night, I had this little feeling in the pit of my stomach - a feeling tortured souls share - that something very “Vikings” could happen here.

Boy did it. Oh - and while we’re at it - WTF are the Vikings gonna do at QB?

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You gotta understand how the NFL works - and it’s really not that complicated.

The NFL cares about one thing - market share - and getting everyone in the world to their product. Everything they do is in service of this mission. The Super Bowl is an annual showcase of how the NFL does their business - this isn’t new. The NFL works to drive audiences old, new, and not yet discovered to their product in myriad ways.

Look at it like this - they already got football fans. They already got me. And over decades they’ve learned the football fan - me - doesn’t leave. Oh we bitch - you see it all the time - Anthems and kneeling and Taylor and whatever else upsets old guys keeps happening - and football fans stay. The NFL knows this.

The NFL wants everyone else - they want the gamblers - CHECK. They want the audience that watches the commercials - CHECK. They want the audience who likes this anthem singer - or this God Bless America act - CHECK.

And a premium area of focus for gaining new share has been - The Halftime Show. That’s where the NFL continues to show why they’re the best in the world at this business.

They got the rest of us - they don’t have Big Bunny’s total audience - not yet…

That’s what this is about. And just because the president doesn’t get it - doesn’t mean you can’t.

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My standard disclaimers first:

If your NFL team has won a championship in your lifetime, you can’t possibly relate.

Further, if you didn’t go through four Super Bowl defeats in your formative teen years, and that’s only gonna be me and my age Minnesota peers, and a similar segment of the Bills fanbase, you have no idea. None. Zero. It’s my friends who are Cowboys fans of similar age who think their team is cursed or nobody understands the suffering… lol. Amateurs all of you. Please. Show a little respect here.

Being in my age group, and a Minnesota Vikings fan, is about as hard a ride as there has ever been in sports. Ours is a unique suffering. It’s not a Cubs or Lions thing. Those teams pop their heads out of the sand once in a blue moon to take a shot. That’s suffering but it’s different. You can ignore your team for large stretches.

No - we’re always there. Always around it. And we just can’t get it done. And more - the nature of some of the epic playoff defeats are without peer. No team has won more North Division Titles. No team in football has had this much success without winning a Super Bowl.

No - it’s gonna be hard for you to hear me. Unless you had a kicker who didn’t miss a field goal all year - ALL YEAR - in fact - he’d hit his previous 122 kicks - only to miss an easy one that would have sent the team to the Super Bowl. OR - your team took a 12 men in the huddle penalty in the dying seconds of another NFC title game that changed the next call from run to pass - and then a pick on that subsequent play that cost you another Super Bowl berth.

That’s Growing Up Vikings.

And, like all self-respecting and abused Vikings fans, I’m pretty sure, there’s lots more where that came from. And add a QB who hasn’t played an NFL regular season down to the mix - and - what could possibly go wrong?

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It is both an anniversary, and the start of a new season, when the NFL kicks off tonight, September 4, 2025, with the world champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys.

It was September 4, 1994, when the fledgling Fox network first went on the air after they outbid CBS for the NFC television package. Rupert Murdoch bet the future of the network on the NFL, and the returns have been incalculable.

At the time, Fox talked about recruiting new and younger audiences for football, but that was a canard. Sure they had transformer type robots and interesting graphics, but Fox hired all the old CBS broadcasters and everything looked and sounded about the same. Fox did very little in those early years for the NFL.

That’s not how this works.

So what was really happening? Rupert Murdoch bought the NFL’s eyeballs and used the play to solidify his broadcast empire. Sports TV 101 then - when a broadcast entity (like Fox) buys “the rights to broadcast NFL football” - they’re not buying football. They’re not buying the NFL. They’re buying “the audience.”

The audience is the commodity we buy and sell. And nobody has a bigger and more sought after audience than the NFL. The league recruits fans from every corner of the globe and segment of the population, then licenses those eyeballs to broadcast entities.

So Fox was able to promote their new network and new shows like “The Simpsons”, “24”, and ultimately their other affiliated networks (like Fox News) and their local station programming.

And this is still happening today. Think about it - how big is Amazon? Pretty big right? Amazon ponies up $ 1 billion a year over an 11 year contract to do one game a week. Amazon, isn’t close to as big as the NFL, but would like the NFL’s eyeballs (audience) and they pay big money for it.

Netflix too now. See how this works?

So for your friends who tell you nobody watches - or that the Taylor Swift stuff is gonna hurt em - etc etc etc - NO. F-ING. WAY.

The NFL is a king maker for so many stakeholders, and tonight, for so many, including you and me, is the best day of the year. Here’s some of the reasons why they’re IT - when it comes to sports and sports television.

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It wasn’t always this way, but it sure is this way now. And not just in hockey, where I see my local team media gush, fangirl, and step in front of moving trains for favored players. As clicks, views, and impressions rule the day, attending sports media covering local teams stay away from controversy and even criticism and embrace getting on the same page as fans. It’s good for business sure, but there’s more to it than that. Acceptance and validation seem to be a big part of the equation for too many.

As a former NHL extreme insider turned objective and critical outsider, (I was in the Stars - Dallas/Minnesota booth for 25 years, and in the NHL for over 30) clicks and likes come for me now (and even back then) when I jump in and join the chorus. If I change tack, or have a different take, look out. Critical pieces are largely ignored, and the mob comes for my throat. Good thing I don’t care about metrics - and to be fair - I don’t have an employer to answer to. Getting clicks, views, reads, isn’t my job, and not anything I’m seeking.

Which brings us to my football team, the Minnesota Vikings (both me and the Vikings were born in Minnesota in 1961 and it’s been a crazy trip…) and their current situation, and how fans are reacting and media is responding.

Here’s what you have to understand about Vikings fans - we’re fatalists, and we come by it quite honestly. We’ve had more epic kicks to the crotch than most. If your team has won a Super Bowl in your lifetime - you can’t possibly relate. This is year 65 of no championship, and it wears on a fan base. The Vikings have 22 division titles (yes that’s more than the Packers, the Lions, or the Bears), are in the playoffs pretty much every year, have been to nine NFC title games, and are 0-4 in Super Bowls.

As prelude we also have not had much luck drafting a franchise quarterback. Dante Culpepper is as close as we got recently, and he was 2-2 in the playoffs. Whoopie… Fran Tarkenton, taken in the third round in 1961, is a Hall-of-Famer, and took the purple and gold to three of their four Super Bowls, but failed to get it done. And number 10 now - was a million years ago. Most Vikings fans today weren’t alive to see him play.

Mostly, the team has patched, plugged the hole, and worked around the problem, without ever getting it quite right. The list of QB’s that have come through those doors includes big names like Randall Cunningham, Kirk Cousins, Jeff George, Sam Bradford, Brad Johnson, and Brett Favre. None of them could get it done.

In 2024, with the 10th overall pick, Minnesota grabbed JJ McCarthy, fresh off leading the Michigan Wolverines to a National Title.

McCarthy’s NFL career so far - he played two quarters - just two - in the first preseason game of 2024 against the Las Vegas Raiders - the Las Vegas Raiders…. in the first preseason game.

In that game, McCarthy suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee and never hit the field again. But that’s not what fans took from that game. They saw a couple big throws, ignored the pick, the opponent, and the circumstances, and started planning the parade route and getting bids from sculptors for the statue.

Meanwhile, Sam Darnold put together one of the best regular seasons by a QB in team history, guiding the Vikings, a team expected to finish at the bottom of their division, to a 14 win-season, and a playoff berth, while making the Pro Bowl.

Yeah - Darnold spit the bit in the final two games, including the regular season finale in Detroit with the #1 seed on the line, and the Wild Card game in Los Angeles, but he leaves a very high bar. The Vikings engaged in contract talks with him, but were unwilling to give him the guaranteed money the season in Minnesota had set him up to get. Seattle signed him for three years, and $ 105 million dollars, with $ 55 million guaranteed.

How does Minnesota media respond to this? Here’s our first example of media homerism:

I know and like Judd, but he’s pretty deep into this fan pathology, proffering that the Vikings would a) offer Darnold a contract they didn’t want him to sign, and b) that Daniel Jones couldn’t possibly compete with a kid who’s never played an NFL down.

Here’s the thing - teams I’ve been with and covered over the years do not routinely offer contracts knowing the player won’t accept… that’s not a thing. The post also refers to Daniel Jones, another busted out first-round pick, who should serve as a cautionary tale for Vikings supporters. Jones, was selected sixth overall by the NY Giants in 2019, and the Vikings scooped him up after NY moved on.

We need to be measured here, and media could be reminding Vikings fans that this is the hardest and most demanding position in sports, and that the NFL is a place where heralded first-round drafted college QB’s go to die. Daniel Jones is on that list, so is Bryce Young, Matt Leinart, Tim Tebow, Trey Lance, Johnny Manziel, Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, among them. Most struggle in their first year or two - most don’t figure it out right away.

Vikings media could be pointing out that JJ is a 22 year-old first-year player, who missed all of his rookie year with a serious knee injury, and that we have to keep an eye on that.

Instead, Vikings media has not only hopped on the train, they’ve taken over the engine and are driving it.

Here’s Alec Lewis, the Vikings reporter from “The Athletic” in June during mini-camp, a time for a guy like McCarthy to get loose, start integrating back into things, and start to get comfortable after rehabbing the injury. Instead of getting reports on the ups and downs of a young guy coming off an injury and into (potentially) the starting job, we get - whatever this is.

He’s not struggling…? Well - he’d be the first then, wouldn’t he?

It’s funny, because a month later, Lewis still feels he didn’t make the point clearly enough - this is from the other day - where he feels like he needs to set someone with the handle “Caleb Williams Fan Club” straight.

What a platform - and what a world indeed, but it’s telling he mentioned the metrics. Because here’s the problem - we have a young man who has enough pressure on him without fans and media getting on rooftops and shouting to the world that this kid is the next Tom Brady or Joe Montana, and that any and all criticism of a guy who hasn’t played a down in the NFL is totally unwarranted.

This is local media these days and it’s crazy and unfair to young players like McCarthy - and there seems to be no end in sight. I think these folks feel like they’re helping the player or the team in some twisted way.

They’re not.

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What a bunch of pretenders these Chiefs are, chief among them is Patrick Mahomes, whose worst finish in 7 seasons is losing in the Conference Championship game twice.

Anyone who knows anything about football should absolutely hate this team.

Because they’re not winning because Mahomes is a player. That’s laughable. It can’t be that Andy Reid is that good of a coach. Or that Mahomes’ safety blanket all these years - Travis Kelce (who isn’t even close to Hall of Fame caliber) who dates Taylor Swift, is actually a decent Tight End. I trust people who think “stats” and “titles” are overrated. My friends are like this. They’re tired of the Kelce’s and this Swift business.

I made the mistake of showing some of them his career stats against others at the position and was quickly put in my place. Hard to blame them with lots of broadcasters talking about Kelce like he’s a real player. Sheesh.

And her - with 20 cameras and hundreds of shots and cuts and promos and graphics and bits in the AFC Title game - they had her on twice for a total of 20 seconds during the game and how does anyone handle that? It’s too much. Sometimes in a 3 hour broadcast - I’ve seen her on for 3 or 4 times for a total of under a minute. Stop ruining football for everybody! Show political ads or - men - men in the stands that have nothing to do with Kelce and who hate Taylor Swift. Real men. Then we got something.

And then there’s the defensive side of the ball. Have you seen that unit play??? I mean how do they stop anyone with that Coordinator and personnel? It’s a total sham. They don’t get calls - the Chiefs Defense is toast.

And the kicker??? Seriously - Harrison Butker??? Lol. Like he could hit one when you absolutely had to have it.

Nope. They don’t’ have the coaching or the personnel. This is a team that clearly needs help every season and every week to be where they are.

Oh I know - they could be OK - they might even be good - and they hypothetically could be a good team that just gets calls. That’s what a lot people say - that both things can be true.

But c’mon now - we know a conspiracy when we see one. We’re smarter than that. And sure there are lots of people that need to be on board for this - including 31 other owners, and the real power brokers of the NFL - but that wouldn’t be so tough. I mean they all turned their heads for “Cheatin Tom” and the Patriots. I’m still pissed that he won 7 Super Bowls. Like please - he could win anything without cheating - it’s a joke.

How did they do it?

To pull this off, the NFL first needed to identify which team would be the one they wanted to fix games for. Then - they’d go about getting everyone on board. Then - they apply the exact right calls at the exact right moment and voila - they’ve got their dynasty.

How did the NFL identify the Chiefs? How did they get everyone, (including Josh Allen) in on it? That’s the genius of it all. And who exactly is the NFL? Keep reading….

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In the end, there can be only one…

This past NFL weekend, six NFL fan bases watched helplessly as their teams were eliminated from Super Bowl contention. Along the way to the playoffs, 22 others lived with various forms of disappointment and failure. Now just 4 remain.

So, for 28 fan bases, it’s another year of not getting it done. Three more fanbases will join the rest of us in a few weeks, leaving only one group to party like it’s 1999.

And for Cowboys fans - the sharp ones knew a few weeks into the season - most others came to it pretty quickly after that. Is that better or worse than losing on a field goal that doinks off the post at the gun?

The Stars - we’ve all had some great teams to cheer for - especially in the last few seasons. But they don’t win it. Is our time wasted? Do we take it harder than the players? In some ways - oh yeah. And by a lot. We live it for decades - they’re in and out and it’s a job. I’m not saying they’re not engaged here - it’s just different. I’ve seen it first hand.

I won’t be cute or trite here - silver linings, progress, gains - fans don’t really care about any of that in the moment. The argument that not all teams who didn’t win the Super Bowl had a bad year… sell it to someone else. From a fan standpoint we didn’t do it. Again. And we’re all trying to find some hope to look forward to - and in my case today - a reason to keep doing this to myself.

Organizations like the Stars and Vikings (not the Cowboys who don’t seem to be functioning properly) are more dispassionate when it comes to evaluating what happened, where they are, where they need to get better. It’s why we don’t always like players reactions after season-ending losses. They don’t view it like fans do - and we want them to. Sam Darnold saying he “missed some throws….” only exacerbates our suffering.

But there are ways to lose that hurt more than others. Losing at the gun - losing on a call - losing on a mistake - these are hard pills to swallow. The Vikings have had more than their fair share of that. Knowing you didn’t have much of a chance when the season starts is easier. (I thought the Vikings would be competitive and a playoff team this year even after McCarthy got hurt so I wasn’t totally blindsided by regular season strong play.)

Hockey might be the cruelest of all. Playoff overtime isn’t for the meek. One instant you ring one off the post - 10 seconds later they score and your season is over. Brutal. I’ve been moved to my knees in the booth on season-ending playoff defeats.

But no matter how badly it ends - it ends. And today I’m fielding calls and texts from all my Vikings people - and there’s a similar pattern. Do you know who we’re all blaming here for this???

US!!! We the fans - We Vikings fans blame ourselves for annually handing the Vikings a sledgehammer at the beginning of the year, to break out later in the season and knock us all in the nuts.

The happiness now is always part of the pain later.

Fan bases get teased, tormented, and occasionally broken. We all share that. Unless you win every year - you’ve been through this. And you ask yourself the same questions I do. Even if you’ve been paid off with a Championship or more. Cowboys fans are funny about this - comparing their “suffering” to Vikings fans suffering… please. Show a little respect.

Is it worth it? Why do I do it? I’ve given this team my entire life. Every Sunday during football season for over half-a-century - without a championship.

This morning I thought a lot about this fan business. My hockey team has only won ONE in 55 years. I called the damned thing and it was awesome but not before or since. And the Vikings - ZIP.

So, I’ve made some decisions today.

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Rivals…

It’s a little after 8:00 pm, on Saturday night, December 28, when wheels hit tarmac at DFW and my cellphone chimes with a text from my great friend Bob Sturm -

“I am curbside at B9, but I can certainly come to you if that location sucks.”

We planned it this way - that because of the originally slated noon kickoff in Minneapolis, I’d fly from my home in Palm Springs, California to Dallas Saturday night, Bob would pick me up and I’d stay overnight at his place and about 9 hours later Bob, his son Brett, and I would get in the car and go back to DFW for the early flight to Minneapolis. As an aside, we were hoping the game would get flexed and it did. That helped us with time on Sunday.

Wisconsinite Bob Sturm is all Pack all the time, right down to the Green Bay Logo tattoo he sports. Like the Vikings, I was born in Minnesota in 1961 and have been through all of it - and I do mean all of it.

Now - Bob and I as you know have been inside long enough to understand professional sports on a different level, and (mostly) be able to temper our reactions when appropriate.

My brother Paul and Bob’s son Brett - not so much.

In the car on the short ride to Bob’s house he begins -

“I had a chat with my college age son Brett about being good guests (they were going to be in our seats in the Vikings stadium) and whether we win by 30 or lose by 30 or anything in between, that we are to keep our attitudes up and be gracious because these are great friends.”

I said -

“I had the same talk with my 62 year old brother.”

This was gonna be quite a thing.

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I’m a fan of only two teams - The Stars and The Vikings.

You’d think after spending 40 years in sports broadcasting, I’d be fully immuned to the ups and downs as a fan following a team. I am - but with two notable exceptions - The Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Vikings.

These teams are the passions of my youth. I didn’t care about the Twins, or the Gophers, or the TWolves when they came to town. But the Vikings and I both were born in Minnesota in 1961. The North Stars and I go back to 1967.

A quick word here on the Stars. I was a fan well before I was hired by the team in 1990. In those early days I had to learn to not be a fan on the air. Then that evolves into full-on, hired corporate spokesman. That means that on the air - I wasn’t as critical as I could have been - not by a long shot. My job was to put a good face on anything that happened. If a Stars player or the team was horseshit on any given night - I would dance around it - that’s the job. “They could be better here - you don’t want to take that penalty there - could have really used that save but we’ll get it next time…”

I’ve noticed some Stars fans now not knowing what to with me now that I’m not a paid home broadcaster and a fan just like you. More in a post on this next week. (“Hey Stars fans - Please allow myself to introduce myself… again…”)

The Minnesota Vikings & Me

If your team has won a Super Bowl in your lifetime - then you can not appreciate what this is like. If your team in the Super Bowl era hasn’t made much noise - only occasionally qualifying for the playoffs - never getting to a Super Bowl - (Detroit…) then you can not appreciate what this like. Buffalo and their fans are the closest comp. Really good team, always around it, 0-4 in Super Bowls - we understand each other.

There is no NFL team in the Super Bowl era with this body of work and no Lombardi Trophy.

• 31 Playoff Appearances

• 21 NFC North Division Titles (Packers have 17)

• 9 NFC Championship Games (have lost their last 5)

• 4 Super Bowl Appearances (0-4)

And some crazy huge kicks to the balls.

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY????

• “The Hail Mary” (Roger Staubach finds Drew Pearson on a last second prayer - I was in the stands - I was 14 years old, 1975)

• “Nelson’s Drop” (Redskins 17 - Minnesota 10. Wade Wilson puts the ball on Darren Nelson’s hands at the goal line on 4th down and 2 with under a minute remaining. Nelson drops it. 1988) (NFC CHAMPIONSHIP)

• “Anderson’s Miss” (This is a missing ring, and an almost unfathomable ending - The Vikings went 15-1 in 1998. Randal Cunningham, Randy Moss, Robert Smith - this team was the shit. Our kicker, Gary Anderson during the regular season was - ready…? - 35/35 on field goals and 59/59 on PAT’s. He has a chance to put the NFC title game away with a 38 yard field goal. Indoors in the dome. He MISSED IT. It still gives us nightmares to think about. (NFC CHAMPIONSHIP)

• Favre’s Pick (Or as I call it - Brad Childress’ bonehead 12 men in the huddle penalty) - Brett Favre gave us one of the most exciting and compelling seasons in franchise history. We blow the Cowboys out so badly in the divisional round that even my pal Brad Sham called the Vikings “classless” for running up the score. We go to New Orleans for the 2009 title game.

The final stats of that game reveal one of the most lopsided games in NFL playoff history.

- Vikings 475 yards of offense - Saints 257 (Favre 310 yards - Brees - 197) - Vikings 31 first downs - Saints 15 - Vikings Peterson rushed for 122 yards-3 TD’s - Saints Thomas 61 yds - 1 TD

The story behind the story here was - Vikings had 5 turnovers including on a critical late drive to kick the go ahead field goal. This was also the Saints bounty game - AND - NFL Playoff OT rules were changed following this game - to make sure both teams had the ball once in the session. (NFC CHAMPIONSHIP)

That’s the backdrop. Every self-respecting long-time Vikes fan like me - just knows - KNOWS - something bad will happen. We don’t know exactly what - exactly when - we just know - and it always happens. Until someday when maybe it doesn’t.

THIS IS THE CITY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA…

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