It has been almost nine years since the Vikings chose Dimitrius Underwood in the first round of the 1999 NFL draft. Since then, we cannot read a draft preview article about “all-time busts” without wincing in anticipation. For those who don’t recall, Underwood showed up for camp signed and in that famous military gear (pictured), ready to “go to war.” He left camp almost immediately and never played a single down for Minnesota, which released him about 10 days later. He later played briefly with the Dolphins and Cowboys, but in terms of a draft bust, it doesn’t get much bigger than that. So it was surprising to see ESPN.com’s list of 50 all-time draft busts without seeing a single word about Underwood. Maybe it’s just not as big a deal nationally as it was locally. Maybe he gets more of a free pass because of the demons he was fighting. But from a team standpoint? Come on. He’s top 10, top 5 material.

Things we forget about that draft:

1) Underwood was the Vikings’ second first-round pick of 1999, No. 29 overall. Chosen No. 11 overall was a young QB named Daunte Culpepper.

2) Culpepper was chosen as part of the haul obtained for trading Brad Johnson to Washington. In all, the Vikings got a first, second and third round pick for Johnson. Wow. Johnson went on to be a Pro Bowl player in 1999; Randall Cunningham was benched in favor of Jeff George.

3) Underwood was a defensive end; another DE, Patrick Kerney, was taken one spot later at No. 30, by the stupid Falcons, only a few months after they had broken everyone’s hearts. Kerney has 72.5 career sacks (including 14.5 last season) and started 105 consecutive games at one point in his career. All of those numbers are the same number more than Underwood ever accumulated with the Vikings.

4) What if: the Vikings had taken Kerney instead of Underwood; if the Vikings hadn’t traded Johnson; if every draft bust list had a mandatory Underwood inclusion; if a certain kick in a certain game … nah, let’s not.

Fasola-link! Two cents from our former colleague Tom Jones, cranking out the 10 most overrated events in sports.

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