We greatly enjoy Bill Simmons (ESPN’s “The Sports Guy,” in case you just decided to check out the “Internet” for the first time today), but we fear his pop culture/sports combo platter might ruin sports if it falls into too many of the wrong hands. You see, there’s an art to it. We try it here sometimes. We fail at it sometimes. But the key to Simmons’ success is that he always brings it back to sports eventually. He mixes and matches. Because it works so well for him, however, we’re subjected to things like this, which has the fatal flaw of being on a sports web site (SI.com) and having absolutely nothing to do with sports. You don’t read “People” for a breakdown of Johan Santana’s pitching mechanics. And you don’t read SI.com to find out about “Seinfeld” guest appearances unless they can somehow be weaved into an analysis of the Red Sox bullpen. Let’s all try to remember that.

We’ll leave you for the weekend with a thought: If you are a Vikings fan, you want the team to win on Sunday. You do not want them to lose so they can get a better draft pick. The latter logic has never appealed to us. You play to play. And you play to win. If you don’t, you will pay for it somewhere down the road. Just look at the Houston Texans last year: They lost several close games down the stretch, some in questionable fashion, and finished with the No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft. And then their collective brains froze, and they didn’t pick Reggie Bush. They didn’t even take Vince Young. They took Mario Williams.

A win is a win. Don’t mess with karma.

We want to keep this thread alive, so we’re butting in with a quick update: The second RandBall Commenter Of the Week (COW) award will be determined at 4:30 today. That person will get a 300-word post on RandBall on a topic of their choice Friday. Details to follow in an hour. And now back to your regularly scheduled Vikings ranting: 

The Vikings should have been a playoff team this season. There’s no other way around it. Their defense is at least top 15, maybe top 10. They put enough money into the offensive line that they should have been able to dominate the line of scrimmage, both running and passing. And the biggest component: Look at their schedule. The NFC is horrendous; and with the excpetion of the Jets, and to a much lesser extent the 49ers, every team on their schedule has either played at an expected level or underachieved. Washington? Bad. Carolina? Overrated. Same with Miami. Detroit? Even worse than expected. Ditto for Arizona. Ditto for St. Louis. Ditto for Seattle. The Packers? A mediorcre team that would be 5-10 had the Vikings defeated them twice instead of the other way around. Simply put, to be 6-9 right now is unacceptable. So: Who’s to blame? We’ll try to break it down percentage-wise. 

Brad Childress, 50 percent: The Vikings coach is getting absolutely whaled on by readers. Seriously, the anti-Childress e-mails we get dwarf the anti-Tice e-mails we got last year. His play-it-safe strategy worked early, but he’s proven to be clueless when it comes to adjustments, both within games and within the season. This is his system, and to a certain extent this is his personnel. And right now, not much he’s touching is working.

Zygi Wilf, 15 percent: He signs the checks. He made the call on Childress. The owner is on the hook for some of this mess.

Brad Johnson, 15 percent: He was handcuffed somewhat by the system he was playing in, but he also dug his own grave many times by making the wrong decisions – both in terms of forcing the ball at the wrong times and checking down to a two-yard completion when other things were open.

Offensive line, 7 percent: Too inconsistent for the amount of money and talent. It should have paved the way for consistent TD drives, not sporadic field goal drives.

Pass defense, 7 percent: This includes the pass rush. This includes linebackers not covering well. This includes the secondary falling asleep at times. This includes D coaches not making adjustments. This includes the off-field stupidity of Dwight Smith, Fred Smoot and Darren Sharper.

Wide receivers, 6 percent: Troy Williamson. Catch the ball. Everyone else: Get open once in a while.

Add it up. 100 percent. 6-9. Unacceptable. Your thoughts?Â

OK, that’s probably not true. But don’t rule it out. Let’s just say the announcement Tuesday that the Star Tribune has been sold is putting a few people on edge around here. As for RandBall, we’re reserving judgment. Change can be good. We’re hoping it is in this case. With change, however, comes a renewed discussion of the future of newspapers. It’s no secret that circulation figures nationwide are on the decline. The Interwebs, podcasts and other forms of “new media” are carving into the print base. But here’s a question: How much do you still value the printed paper? I still like a good hard copy of the paper every day, and I can’t imagine that ever changing. But what about you? And what will a “newspaper” look like in 10 years? 30 years? 100 years? You know, aside from the holograms.

Not to go Bill Simmons on everybody, but Tony Romo reminds us of the guy who goes on an unbelievable black jack run in Vegas, suddenly has $20K in his pocket and thinks he’s invincible even though 8 hours ago nobody knew who he was. He came into the Cowboys’ lineup and reminded everyone that he’s not Drew Bledsoe. He freelances. He has a nice arm. He throws interceptions. But it’s far too early for the comparisons to a young Brett Favre. Then we get Romo linked to Jessica Simpson — clear evidence that the young man is flinging $100s at valets and inching toward the Vegas police blotter. Then we come to find out he has Carrie Underwood watching Monday’s game from Jerry Jones’ suite. And it’s one of his worst games of the year. Tony: Baby steps. You’re overmatched here. Get back to fundamentals, like the 8-yard slant. Stop splitting fours and face cards. Stop thinking you’re the next big thing because two more games like Monday’s and nobody will want to date you. Not even T.O.Â