Almost 10 years to the day...
The day Brett Favre became a Minnesota VikingTen years ago Sunday, Brett Favre descended from a clear blue Minnesota sky. An angel landing in a private jet, after years of playing the devil. Vikings fans, the media — shoot, the entire states of Minnesota and Wisconsin — lost their collective minds. The Star Tribune's Michael Rand wrote an oral history of that remarkable day — Aug. 18, 2009 — and the Favre Frenzy that came before and after it.
Minnesota sports history is filled with extreme highs, crushing lows, colorful personalities, amazing moments and haunting questions of “what if …”But you would be hard pressed to find a bigger story — one that combines all those aforementioned elements — than the arrival of Brett Lorenzo Favre with the Vikings.
The quarterback swoops into town on a gorgeous summer Tuesday, setting off a frenzy, and signs with his longtime rival — in the year he turns 40, after being cut, no less. And then he takes the Vikings within a whisper of the Super Bowl? Then it all falls apart, and his old team wins the Super Bowl without him? You couldn’t write a more compelling script, and that barely scratches the surface of what happened.
Sunday is the 10-year anniversary of the day Favre arrived at the Vikings’ former training facility in Eden Prairie, with a helicopter, media members, fans and even a guy in a parrot suit giving chase. Yes, it really has been 10 years.
The Star Tribune’s Michael Rand spent the summer constructing an oral history of Favre’s arrival, and all that came before and after that day unlike any other. All interviews were conducted either in person or on the phone except with Favre himself, who responded to questions via e-mail.
Hold on tight. It’s a bumpy ride.
http://www.startribune.com/the-day-brett-favre-became-a-minnesota-viking-10-year-anniversary/523002451/
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
FAVRE: I have not watched nor do I plan to. It is still a painful memory. I feel very guilty for not leading us to a victory.
FAVRE: I would have retired 100 percent [had the Vikings won the Super Bowl in 2009]. … I’m glad I came back. At least I know it wasn’t to be. I would always wonder otherwise.
Favre, Hutchinson, Winfield, Harvin, Peterson, Williams, Allen, Rice...(sigh)...
@"Vanguard83" said: Pants on the ground
Ended up "Dick in the dirt" after the New Orleans game...
I just can't go down this road anymore, even now. Such a fun year with monumental disappointment as the last bitter taste. Such is life as a Viking's fan.
Don't go 1/4 in December of 09? And they play that game vs The Saints in the Metrodome.
@"purplefaithful" said: Don't go 1/4 in December of 09? And they play that game vs The Saints in the Metrodome.
If Peterson doesn't fumble 5 times, I think the team wins that game.
EJ injury in AZ certainly didn't help matters either
Painful end to an amazing season. Really felt like it was "our year", even more so than the recent 2017. We had everything that season but with AD's fumbles and the Saints running a bounty the Vikes just didn't quite get it done. Indy looked bad in the Super Bowl that year too. Sigh
@"purplefaithful" said:
FAVRE: I have not watched nor do I plan to. It is still a painful memory. I feel very guilty for not leading us to a victory.
FAVRE: I would have retired 100 percent [had the Vikings won the Super Bowl in 2009]. … I’m glad I came back. At least I know it wasn’t to be. I would always wonder otherwise.
I am not. He wasn't bought in, only came back because he missed the lockerroom (and extorted another 10 mil or so). As fun as 09 was, 2010 sucked.
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