The Monday Meltdown with Big Daddy Drew
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 – 11:22 AMBy Michael Rand
Do you like your Vikings games broken down with a little bit of nonsense and innuendo and absolutely no player quotes? Well, do we have a treat for you. As usual, we’re joined by Big Daddy Drew, who once got a water buffalo to roll over just by looking at it.
RandBall: The Vikings are now 3-0, having outscored opponents by a combined score of 101-30 whenever I get a massage on a Sunday (Falcons, Chargers, Lions). Only a sick-[redacted] sports fan would make the correlation between these two things, but I do enjoy the happy endings … to the games.
Big Daddy Drew: Did Burt Young give you the massages? ‘Cause I hear he’s the best. Yesterday was surprising because you almost felt like the Giants game was kind of a fluke, given how badly the Giants played. But yesterday? Yesterday, they played damn near perfect. It was fun to call for Childress’ head when the Vikes were going 3-6. But he and the team appear to have really turned a corner. They’re using the running game to set up the pass and keep the other team off the field. They’re playing to their potential right now, and that’s been really rewarding to watch. That said, a dude on one of the Viking message boards put it well. Basically, he said just when the team is starting to look good and build momentum, they’ll go and drop a game they’re supposed to win. And that Niner game would certainly appear to be that kind of game. If they go in and win by 20 points, that would be great. If they put up a loss like the one they had against KC, this all goes for naught.
RB: Can we start expecting these types of at least decent quarterbacking games from T-Jack? That’s three in a row. And even after his one really bad throw (the pick), he had the [redacted] (though maybe not the brains) to go plowing into his interceptor helmet-first. I’m warming to the kid.
BDD: Yeah, I think we all maybe owe the guy an apology. Yesterday his throws were spot on. And he’s just so CALM out there. That’s a nice quality to have. I don’t think he rattles that easily. I also dug the plays he made with his feet. He wasn’t overrelying on the run, like Vick or someone like
that. He just made the right decision to run when it was called for. And that, in turn, opened up the medium-range passing game. Bobby Wade isn’t that good, but four or five times a a game he catches those little ten-yard short posts that go for a first down. So that was cool.
RB: Purple Jesus. He has healed the sick. He has healed himself.
BDD: Dude, when they hand him the ball, I get so [redacted] excited. It’s kinda [redacted]. There wasn’t even a trace of a drop in the quality of his running yesterday. And I thought Childress handled him the exact right way, though I’m not sure he needed to be in during the second half. But that’s nitpicking. The play-calling was most excellent.
RB: In retrospect, the injury to PJ might have been the best thing that happened to this team. That’s blasphemy, I know, but hear me out: T-Jack started to assert himself when he didn’t have AP to lean on; Chet Taylor started to run with more authority; the defense picked up its game. Now everything is clicking, and I’m not sure that would have been the case had this remained a one-man show all along.
BDD: Yeah, I can see that. I think the thing that’s happening is that the o-line just keeps getting better and better, regardless of who’s back there. And it’s giving T-Jack more confidence (and more time to throw). The pass
protection earlier in the year was [redacted]. Not anymore. I never would have thought the Cook-Culpepper trade would favor Cook, but there you go. And how about Kleinsasser? He’s destroying people.
RB: How in the [redacted] does Dwight Smith get into an argument with Childress early in a week that follows a defensive player of the week honor, thus resulting in a benching? That’s just baffling.
BDD: [redacted redacted redacted] stairwell.
RB: Aundrae Allison can return as many kicks as he wants. Troy Williamson’s new job is laminating Childress’ cards.
BDD: Yup. I think Troy’s days are pretty much over with. They said it was the longest KO return in team history. I also feel like it was the FIRST KO return in team history.
RB: That’s four wins in five games, with 29 points or more in all of the victories. I never in a million [redacted] years thought I would write any of those things this season.
BDD: Agreed. I think there was a big change after the Packer game where Frazier just said, “[redacted] it, let’s release the hounds”. I mean, they’re zone blitzing and bringing safeties and all sorts of cool [redacted], and it’s working! And the defense is hitting people HARD.
RB: Playoffs. They control their own destiny, and I have to bump their likelihood from last week’s 20 percent to an even 50-50 now based on how everything else broke Sunday.
BDD: I wouldn’t go that far yet. The last four games are all winnable, but that’s what makes them daunting. How this team does with a burden of expectation will be interesting.
RB: A pass rush. Yes.
BDD: Indeed. Couple extra things: Nifty fake FG. Why not save it for when we, you know, need it? … What was with the cocktail party that erupted on the field during the Detroit challenge? I half expected them to break out some Chablis. … MY BOY SIDNEY RICE IS A [REDACTED] STAR!
30 Responses to "The Monday Meltdown with Big Daddy Drew"
Fake field goal: wholeheartedly agree BDD, shouldve saved it. Noone wouldve expected that from Childress, shouldve saved it til we needed it.
Sydney Rice looks good, should continue to develop along with TJack. It was hard for him to have a big game when Tjack would miss the receivers by 5 yds.
Im leary about praising Frazier. He had a good game plan with SD, but then decided that he would bow down and hand the game to Sir Brett.
Vikings make the playoffs, but then lose in the first round. Still a year or two away from being where they need to be. But now it feels like we are moving in the direction, something I couldnt say 3 weeks ago.
Thoughts:
*Syd Rice is, indeed, a big, bright, shining star. South Carolina owed us.
*The San Francisco game terrifies me. But so did the Detroit game.
*Besides yesterday’s Resurrection, my favorite part of the last three games has been watching T-Jack hit those slants and posts accurately and quickly. I couldn’t be more surprised by that.
*Oh, Dwight Smith, what kind of shenanigans will you get into next?
This brainstorm has as much to do with foo’ball (since it happens everywhere and on every team) as sociology but, just listening to announcers mangle the pronounciation of this newest generation of player names, I wondered if the ol’ Purple People Eaters like Alan Page would ever dare to sport such names as …Tavaris, Mewelde, Visanthe, Aundrae (wow, that one is a winner !), Dontarrius, or Antoine ? I mean when did quote/unquote “normal” names like Alan or Dave or any on that team back then (or any team or people anywhere for that matter) become old school to be replaced by the Meweldes ? Or even Adrian which seems a far better fit for a pianist than a football player. Adrian ! A weird but thoroughly understandable question this is, since this only happened it the last few decades.
That’s a brainstorm?
P3, your veiled racist and sexist remarks in this post and the last page give us a nice window into your mind. Your defense of the all-cheerleader tackle football game as ‘not being sexist if I would like it’ is a joke. Thats akin to saying that “it’s not a stereotype if it’s true” or “it’s not racial profiling if we’re arresting all these minorities”.
My favorite part in your racist rant about the names of African-Americans is the fact that your name, whether it be real or otherwise, is far goofier than any of the Vikings you named.
Oh yeah, if you want to see all-female football game check out the Vixen:
http://www.minnesotavixen.com/
Careful though, you might get your [redacted] kicked in.
Is it a coincidence that the Vikings D has played better since Antoine Winfield has been out? Seems odd that the supposed best defender isn’t being missed that much. Maybe it has something to do with ex-Bills because Clement has been terrible for the 49ers.
jama, you’re getting really close to ol’ Bill Simmons’ patented “Ewing Theory,” which he reminds everyone about over and over again.
I’m not saying you’re wrong though.
danon, My question was serious. When did names like these appear ? I remember Carroll Dale, I believe a white Packer, but look over old rosters incl. the Purp. This question may be beyond you, but like I said the answer may be more sociological in nature. It is an interesting thought/question despite your name calling.
I, too, worry that team history shows they’re bound to blow it. And Chris Collinsworth predicting the Vikes as the wild card is the kiss of death.
Collinsworth said that? Yeah, we’re doomed.
That said, look at the game dispassionately: Team A has just throttled above-.500 teams back-to-back, and their next opponent is clearly worse than those two. You pick Team A to win 10 out of 10 times. Replace “Team A” with “the Minnesota Vikings,” though, and that’s when the nausea, heartburn and indigestion set in.
I’m not so sure the remaining “patsies” are patsies. Having said that if they play against the remaining teams as they did against the hapless (no running game, no db) Lions, they could, unfortunately, sneak in the back door and who in this land, besides the Scandihovians at Menard’s up here, want the Vikes in the playoffs though if Mr. PopaLigament stays healthy he will be a national draw. (and ligaments once torn..I know this well..are a tad more likely to tear again..Yikes !!)
Anyway in quick order….the Bears, a division rival, would make a good game but the crowd in the muffin reduces all games into noisy fat lady drunkalogs, not a good place to be i.e. I did like the Vikes long ago when they played at Met stadium since the crowd’s roars were muffled in their frozen throats, and the game could go on in peace..Redskins .. just lost an emotional game but also have to play in this asinsine place but the…Broncos at home, especially if it’s miserably cold to freeze out their proven indoor pansy opponent, despite their record might be the best bet to derail the Purple (no football color is that) machine….GO BRONCOS !!!
Stu, you want this team to win so bad, you’ll believe anything, wouldn’t you ?
Paul, how does that question follow from anything that I wrote? I know you’re a great NFL mind, but please, slow it down for us simple, unlearned folk.
Rand
The Yankees fans have taken over the Strib’s blogoshpere. Advertisement prices should have been increased for the Johan chatter. If that happened maybe the Strib could afford to give you that Christmas bonus you almost deserve.
As PPP’s formerly harmless rantings slip further and further down a racist and sexist slippery slope, I can’t help but wonder if maybe this isn’t one big postmodern commentary on Don Imus. Perhaps PPP is challenging our established understandings in an effort revolutionize our thought and to embolden our perspective. Perhaps PPP wants to shake the tree of knowledge in order to ask us to confront that which we believe to be sacred and true. Perhaps PPP is adopting the Imus-esque role of provocateur to reveal both our revulsion and obsession with such characters. Perhaps the only way to respond to such a mind-bending possibility is through haiku:
Paul Peter Paulos
Postmodern provocateur?
Or drunken blogger?
Stu, I was thinking of your pretty lucid thoughts (1:40 pm) and my keen memory that you are indeed …a member of the Purple tribe. Blessed be your misguided soul
And Rocket me ? a Postmodern provocateur ? I like that !!, but only wish I made as much as Imus even at his reduced salary.
But as for My Question, decidely straightforward as it was and asked as well to my black friends it still remains, when did, as one of those friends remarked, when did “melodius names” replace the Michael Jacksons ? I.e the phenom happened only recently…within your lifetime…and it isn’t anymore racist to ask why than it is to ask why football, b’ball and many sports are dominated by black athletes. People/columnists have posed all of that for years (and one prominent announcer was axed for doing if I remember) but none of this should be seen as covered by “no-talk” rules as those in my profession call such avoidance. They are simple questions that carry no agenda, unless you want to imply one….which I’m sure you will.
I forgot the announcer who got canned for breaching the race question that some maybe many people have wondered about as to why blacks dominate sports. The announcer, I’ll find his name and words, postulated (pulling this thesis out of his butt) that it was a slave leftover, some of my black track friends in high school, called it “slavery’s revenge” where the biggest momma mated (by order of the slave owner) with the biggest man…thus huge players now.
Only problem is that that thesis has been roundly disproved in many controlled studies some involving DNA tracking. So, when I wondered why blacks dominated sports, I really wanted to know. It’s not like I do know. So, sorry for asking I guess
Strangely enough, Melodius Names is the starting tight end for UCLA.
As for the whole racist/not-racist angle, has anyone’s case ever been helped by playing the “my black friends” card?
However, I believe the answer to Paul’s query has already been provided by a great American, when he said, “White people have names like Lenny, and black people have names like Carl.” This is self-evidently true, and one of the defining threads in this great tapestry we call the United States of America.
I thought Lenny was the black guy! Awwww…
tru enuf about the name’s stuff stu, but ever since the “slavery’s revenge” nonsense has been put to sleep (by Nova I believe…yet people still believe that thesis) no real explanation has been put forth for black dominance in sports. Look at the common “fast twitch” muscle thesis, one I believed in since though I went to State as part of a 4×400 relay, my 3 black teammates being much faster.
Anyway, (this argument is not mine) when exercise scientists (or whoever does these experiments) go to the African countries most devastated by slavery, they often find great distance runners if those runners can train at altitude but no speed burners as in Olympic caliber sprinters. So, if the original gene pool is not loaded with fast twitch, where did it come from ?
That’s the open question. I don’t have a clue why the disparate dominance in sports then, but it’s obvious, don’t you think, and it’s no monster sin to ask why…It’s not like I think the Vikings shold load up on slow white guys in the off season, so back off Rocket et al. I was just wondering out loud. It happens…
I e-mailed my blog above to a friend of mine at his work, and he had an interesting addition. We are both Olympic’s freaks (except for figure skating. Yechh ! Can you say “bite the boards”..Ooooops now someone else will be mad at me)
Anyway, he pointed out that except for the occaional Russian or Frenchmen, usually all the sprints are won by Americans, American blacks, even though black athletes train and live in many countries. So what is it about (his question) America that we produce so many of the best athletes in the world, Rocket ?
Stu - In light of Allison’s record-setting reture, would you please please please do a Huntdown for Lance Rentzel? I promise you will not be disappointed.
Although my input in this particular blog is not filled with my usual “Drown the Vikings” rhetoric, I do ask questions, albeit unusual ones, concerning the makeup of pro sports, and I have to admit that I’m surprised that no one has taken those questions seriously, choosing simply to sidestep such issues or bury it under the one size fits all rubric of racism. Too bad. An open discussion of such a difficult subject could not help but raise the integrity and intelligence of this space. But, if simple name calling is what you want or rah rah Viking posts, go at it.
I’m confused–how is a discussion about where and when athlete’s strange names started to come about going to “raise the integrity and intelligence” of this blog?
And why wouldn’t it be perceived as somewhat racist? You mention several names, all of whom happen to be minorities, and them imply some sort of negative conotation, since you wonder if players from the Purple People Eaters days would “dare to sport such names.”
Maybe it isn’t how you meant it to sound, but I certainly can’t blame people for wondering.
Toonces…good pt, but my post above was meant to address my other questions, not the trivial one about athete’s names but that one is interesting nonetheless but a little fluffy.
My other questions about the makeup of athlete’s playing various sports is more interesting and has been addressed in many places more scholarly than here. As for answering those questions (as on 3:16 above) I’ve admitted already I don’t have any clue, but that doesn’t mean the question is somehow mean spirited or racist, but i wish, nonetheless, that I didn’t bring it up now, since these little post entries can’t do those questions any justice when I have seen entire courses while at the U of Florida address the same concept. Sorry you took it the wrong way.
Oh, those questions. I just don’t have any meaningful insight on those questions. Fast twitch and long distance running have never been of great interest to me, lacking speed and any desire to be a long distance runner.
There was a well respected (though obnoxious columnist ? announcer ?) who was canned for asking the same questions. Problem was he threw out his own answers and that’s a no-no since sometimes people don’t want to address an issue even if there is no problems or shame in that issue. As a counselor, in family therapy or alcohol abuse circles, that is called a no-talk rule, meaning, obviously, that the “issue” (hate that word) concerns something people wish to not talk about. Which really is counterproductive since burying something never makes it disappear.
And the questions I bring up are not earthshaking and maybe do not need to be addressed any more than seeing that hockey is, predominately, a white sport. Nonetheless, I find stuff like this in sports more interesting than listening to Childress…but who doesn’t ?
The list of things more interesting than listening to Childress is not a short one. You’re right that a lot of racially sensitive questions can’t easily be asked without the asker being shouted down–although I’m also not sure that sports shows are where the questions should be posed.
I’m not sure who the columnist/announcer would be–only three I remember raising a stir were Howard Cossell back in the day, Jimmy the Greek (who wasn’t raising the question, so much as just insulting), and Rush Limbaugh (often the first to raise controversy, and one of the last who should).
Jimmy the Greek. That’s the guy I kept forgetting who got fired for linking the inputs of slavery with sport’s outcomes. Many before him had, but he did it as if it was fact (which it isn’t)…but that’s the guy. He was the Imus of his day..worse
