The Vikings, as an organization, have always had the supreme ability to do the exact opposite of what we think they will do. Write them off, and they start winning. Finally believe, and then they pin you with a crushing loss. Think they’re going to roll the dice, and they go vanilla. Think they’ll play it safe, and they’ll take a chance. It makes them frustrating and fun to follow. It also requires a multiple-step process in assessing what player they will draft in order to placate a friend adamant that a Saturday afternoon includes some sort of side bet (settled on eventually as the loser buying the winner lunch).

It all centered around Percy Harvin. This friend, whom we will call L. Quipster, is generally pretty astute about which players are going to wind up with which teams. He’s a draft fanatic, which is demented and sad, but he makes it social every year by having people over to his house. LQ was absolutely convinced from the start that the Vikings would take an offensive tackle in the first round, and even more so when Michael Oher fell to No. 22. Logically, he was more than right. The offensive line was, by far, the team’s greatest position of need and a player projected by many to go top 15 or top 10 slid right to them.

But that’s where things get complicated if you know the Vikings. When news leaked that Vikings head coach Brad Childress had gone down to visit Harvin a few days before the draft, some assumed it was a smokescreen when it was, indeed, just the opposite. When the organization made such a big deal about character leading up to the draft, saying 78 players had been given red dots and were undraftable because of character and/or injury issues, it meant just the opposite (indeed, we now know — considering Harvin, Phil Loadholt (DUI in college) and seventh-round pick Jamarca Sanford (two prior arrests, including one in 2008) represent three of the team’s five picks — that the red dot stuff was either an elaborate ruse or pure nonsense … and perhaps a little of both). And when Oher fell right into Minnesota’s lap, which would presumably cast a doubt over who the team would take, it only seemed to reinforce — given the speed with which the pick was made — that Harvin was the Vikings guy.

Lunch to us, and the tacos will be delicious. As for the rest of the fallout, we really thought the team should have taken Oher (not as much as another friend, who set a new record with a text message starting with five consecutive [redacted] words). We think Harvin is saying the right things right now, but when doesn’t a player with a checkered past say the right things during good times? That said, we communicated yesterday with two other trusted Vikings fans who are fired up about the Harvin/Loadholt combination and think it was the right move. Harvin could no doubt make them dangerous, and we’ve at least softened our stance that it was a move made more with ticket sales than a long-term foundation in mind. We’re starting to get us talked into this thing, which is always dangerous. Because we suspect that, like always, just when we start to warm to the idea it will turn the other way.

*Perhaps the only other real draft highlight was watching Aaron Curry’s face when Kansas City decided to pass on him with the No. 3 pick. It doesn’t show up as well in the low-res split-screen with Tyson Jackson (who was chosen), but in HD on Saturday it was priceless. It could be placed in the dictionary of expressions, next to “are you [redacted] kidding me?”

Fasola-link! The alphabet of nations.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 7:16 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.