The True Fans

Here’s a Wednesday blog as Thursday is Turkey Day and I don’t know if I’ll be in the office on Friday.  Plus there are some football games played on Thursday – all between division rivals.  So the topic might be appropriate.

As you may know, I’m on the Book of Faces and a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, which I have been since the late 1970s, a time when their quarterback was the much-beloved (at least by Vikings fans) Fran Tarkenton and the team had just lost its fourth and final Super Bowl.   Notwithstanding its 6 NFC Championship losses since then, a few of them agonizingly close, I still support the team and hope it will finally win the Big One.  That is, win the NFC Championship and THEN beat the Chiefs, Dolphins, Raiders or Steelers.   Or whichever AFC team it’s up against, possibly even the Patriots.  Hey, Eli Manning is 2-0 and Nick Foles is 1-0 against Tom Brady, so it can be done.

Anyhow.

Obviously there are Vikings pages on the Book of Faces and us Vikings fans might have cause to dispute things between ourselves.   In observing and participating in these spirited discussions I’ve observed three types of fans.

Type C:  The Fair Weather Fan.   We all know the type:  sporting team gear when the team is competitive but oblivious to the sport itself otherwise.  We love to wrap ourselves in the warm cloak of self-righteous contempt against such fans.   Of course.  Not sure how many Vikings fans are like that now, as the team isn’t exactly dominating its division.  Actually, with both the Bears and Lions getting competitive, along with our hated rivals the Packers, no one team can be said to have a lock on the division championship.  It may well get down to the wire this season, with the losers not even guaranteed wildcard slots.  We’ll see. 

Then there’s the Type B:  The Fanatic.  No matter how poorly the team is doing and how strong its opponent, regardless of whether we’re playing an away game and our star players are all injured, this fan loudly proclaims, with utmost conviction and sincerity, that we’ll win the game.   More to the point, this fan accuses anyone who doesn’t share his optimism as a Type C fan.  Huh?  Come on.   We’re Type A.

Type A:  The Realist.  We support the team even if it’s 0-16 (fortunately the Vikings have never been that bad, unlike our pals in Detroit) or if the coach is obviously a moron.  We’ll cautiously support the team against all opponents but feel free to express skepticism when the opponent is relatively stronger.  Our worst fault is Monday morning quarterbacking.   I try to avoid this, and stick to simply making observations I know are supported by the facts and evidence, because I can’t claim to know nearly enough to exceed the skills of even our most incompetent coach.   

Ideally we should all be Type A, supporting the team through thick and thin but not mindlessly cheering when the team does stupid things or loses games it should win.  Personally, the Type B’s strike me as the same type to support popular demagogues – how many Type B Vikings fans not only voted for Trump but still support him even now?  No clue, but I have my suspicions.  

Now, repeat this for the other 31 teams in the NFL, all the MLB baseball teams, the NBA teams, the NHL (probably quite a few Type C Capitals fans nowadays, Ovechkin being far more ubiquitous than he was before), and so on.   And knock yourselves out this Thursday.   Hopefully Mike Zimmer has a plan to beat the Packers next Sunday.   Or perhaps tie again?

Ipswich vs. St Etienne

Another Wednesday entry as I’ll most likely be in Fo’Lee, NJ on Friday.  Enjoy!

Way back when – 1981 – I was attending a Catholic school in Paris, France, called Marymount.   The NFL was all but unknown and the Internet as well.   Errr, the school did replay the 1982 Super Bowl, 49ers vs. Bengals (with Joe Montana).  Anyhow.  The student body got into a huge uproar about a soccer game (???) between Ipswich (who?) and St. Etienne (who? Part 2).   I figured out that Ipswich was from the England and St. Etienne was from the France.   Did I care?  No.  But I felt like I was the only one who didn’t.

Eons later, with this Internet thing – and having finally gotten “into” soccer, since 2000 – I finally delved into this and determined what the hell was going on.

This was the UEFA Cup Quarter Final – not even a FINAL! – between Ipswich Town FC and St. Etienne (ASSE).   UEFA isn’t even Champions League, which takes the best European teams and plays them against each other (in 1981 Liverpool beat Real Madrid).  UEFA is for the teams not quite good enough to make it into Champions League – think of it as Champions League Jr.   Nowadays Ipswich is in second tier English soccer, demoted thereto in 2002 from Premier League (first division).  St. Etienne is in French First Division but hasn’t won that division since…1981.  Back then they had Michel Platini and were actually competitive.  Not so much nowadays.

Ipswich won that match-up (two games, home and away) and went on to beat FC Koln (German team – currently in last place in Bundesliga 1, in danger of being demoted down to Bunda-2) in the semi-final, then beat AZ (some Dutch team, currently in fourth place in Dutch First Division) in the final.  For all the hoopla about the Ipswich vs. St. Etienne match-up, no one said any word about FC Koln or AZ, which leads me to suspect that 99% of the people going on about it were probably – out of loyalty to the host country – supporters of St. Etienne.  Actually I have two St. Etienne jerseys, and no Ipswich jerseys.  So count me in favor of the French team, although (as noted) I was militantly indifferent to the two at the time. 

If I had to pick a favorite for French First Division I’d probably pick Paris St-Germain, especially now that they have star Brazilian player Neymar.  Arsenal are my favorite English team (the cannon is so damn cool), Bayern Munich for Germany (visited their Olympic stadium in January 1990), and Flamengo for Brazil.  These are mild preferences though, ones the true fans would scoff at.  (Groundskeeper Willie:  “You call this a soccer riot??”).  I don’t have any MLS preference, not even for DC United, the local team – though I have seen them play Bayer Leverkusen and FC Dallas. 

Oblivious to soccer when I lived in Europe, I corrected that somewhat on my latest trip to Paris.  Although Paris St-Germain was out of town playing a Dutch team (RSC Anderlecht, who they beat 4-0), I visited their store, and picked up the newest Bayern Munich away jersey at the Adidas store on the Champs Elysees. 

Soccer vs. Football.   I might as well address this topic, which I don’t feel is substantial enough to merit a blog entry on its own.  I grew up in the US in the 1970s and adopted the Minnesota Vikings as my favorite team, mainly due to three Super Bowl appearances and Fran Tarkenton.  Plus I like purple and the helmets.  While the Vikings have been to the NFC Championship game several times since then – the winner advancing to the Super Bowl – they have not won (yet).  This includes heartbreaking losses to the Falcons, Giants (41-0…WTF?) and Saints (Brett Favre as QB for the Vikings).  While I wear many different soccer jerseys, including jerseys of mutual rivals, for the NFL I only wear one team’s:  the Vikings.  I have an older #10 Fran Tarkenton jersey, a slightly newer Brett Favre #4 jersey (the throwbacks version, not the contemporary version), and two fairly new ones, #69 Jared Allen and #28 Adrian Peterson.  All are home jerseys.  With the obvious exception of Tarkenton – I was 9 when he retired – the other three I purchased when the players were still on the team. 

I got into soccer in 2000 after visiting Rio de Janeiro a few times and even seeing Flamengo play Fluminense at Maracana in 2004 (an unusually exciting game, 4-3 for Flamengo after falling to 3-1), immediately before the Patriots-Panthers Janet Jackson Super Bowl.  I got cable expressly to watch soccer.  Then….never watched it.   I catch most of the World Cup games, particularly Brazil and Germany, and the Final.  The US didn’t qualify this time, but neither did Italy.  We’ll see what happens in Russia.  FYI, NONE of Brazil’s 5 World Cup victories were in Brazil:  they lost in the final to Uruguay in 1950, when Maracana had just opened, and in the semi-final to Germany (7-1!!!) in Rio this time around.

I can’t say I diligently watch the NFL, but you can bet I watch the Super Bowl and most playoff games, and any locally televised Vikings game.  Of the rest I watch about half, depending on who’s playing and how busy I am.   I try to watch Monday Night Football with my brother, but our schedules don’t always allow it.   

Oddly, I’ve seen only one NFL game – Redskins against ??? at FedEx – but several soccer games.  I don’t even watch Champions League finals, nor Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, nor the Brasileirão.  Mind you, the Vikings have played local games against the Redskins, but even then I didn’t bother.  RFK Stadium, where the Redskins used to play, isn’t too inconvenient, being right next to the metro.  I’ve been to a few concerts there, including two Dead shows and two Metallica concerts.  Actually, I’ve seen soccer games there (DC United and AC Milan vs. Barcelona).  But my brother has warned me off seeing any games at FedEx, which he says is a huge pain in the ass to get to.  Maybe someday I’ll make a pilgrimage to Minneapolis.  I hear they have big mall there, too. 

Of course, I’ve been to more concerts than all sporting events, of whatever sport, combined.  The larger concerts are held at indoor arenas (where basketball or hockey would be played), the biggest at football stadiums, e.g. RFK.  My brother had the unpleasant experience of bringing his son to a Redskins game at FedEx Field (the boy was born long after the Skins moved there from RFK) and had to put up with foul language and behavior from the notoriously ill-behaved Redskins fans.  By its nature, a sporting event celebrates adversity:  the outcome is a zero-sum game with one team’s victory at the expense of the other team’s defeat.  Naturally this elicits a dynamic of aggression and hostility.  Some of the nastier thrash bands do this as well – Slayer and Metallica come to mind – but for the most part at concerts the entire crowd is essentially cheering for the same team.  Moreover I’m far more of a music fan than a sports fan.  Anyhow.

The sad truth is that I find soccer more fun to PLAY than football (though I haven’t played in ages), but football is more fun to WATCH.   Not even close.

SKOL!!!

Halls of Fame

We had occasion to meet up with an old friend of ours from high school – the American School of Paris – in Cleveland, Ohio.  It was good to see John/Jean again, and remarkably the Trumpers due to invade the RNC that Monday were mercifully absent from our adventure.  Instead, it was two Halls of Fame which provided the bulk of the entertainment for our meeting.  PLEASE:  if you have occasion to meet an old friend who lives on the other side of the planet – and will likely continue living there until all of you are dead – seize it with both hands and drive 6 hours if you have to.  Life bends us over without a condom all too often, so return the favor whenever possible.  Life, that is, not John/Jean.

Rock’n’Roll.   Cleveland, Ohio, right up on the Lake Erie waterfront, within walking distance of the Fist Energy Area where the Cleveland Browns lose 1-8 games per season.   It’s in a big pyramid shape, with the bulk of the exhibits in the basement, getting progressively smaller as you go up.  The top two floors are a mishmash of tributes to rockers who thought they could tell us what to do (i.e. politics), though I didn’t mind the shots of Peter Frampton with Gerald Ford or Gregg Allman and “Ask President Carter”.  Hell, they even showed Bono with GWB. 

            Anyhow. The main exhibits feature lots of this “vinyl in the window”, Angus’ outfit, ticket stubs, some guitars, and the multitude of “exhibits” you might expect from a museum about rock stars.   A few major issues:

            A.   Deep Purple is finally getting in, long after they were eligible.  Black Sabbath got in back in 2006, and Led Zeppelin much earlier (1995).  This is glacial. 

            B.   Prince, Madonna, etc.  The majority of bands could qualify as “rock’n’roll” by some generous definition.  But when it comes to very popular musicians, the RNRHOF can’t seem to resist. The clear bias is in favor of popular musicians and less so for heavier bands.  This turns it into the Popular Music Hall of Fame. 

            C.   Beatles & Rolling Stones.  Each got its own section of equal size facing each other.  I don’t dispute the Stones’ legacy as belonging here – they are clearly rock’n’roll and are one of the best rock bands around.  What I dispute is ANYONE claiming they are as good as – much less better – than the Beatles.  That’s like the NFL HOF giving equal credit to the Vikings as the Steelers.  Try the Bills instead.  Actually, given their talent and stature, the Beatles deserve a museum of their own, but I suspect if one were to be established, it would be in Liverpool, far away from anywhere I’m likely to go in a 6 hour drive.  Then again, I suppose any true Beatles fan has a duty to make a Mecca-like pilgrimage to Liverpool.  “Strawberry Fields” on the west side of Central Park, across Central Park West from the Dakota, doesn’t cut it. 

            D.   The gift shop.  We’d have preferred artist-specific merchandise aside from vinyl and CDs, though I was pleasantly surprised to see a good selection of vinyl.  Moreover, they carried music by non-HOF members, e.g. King Crimson. 

            Notwithstanding these faults, if you consider yourself a “rock fan”, by all means check it out if you are in Cleveland.  Then go to Liverpool.

National Football League (NFL).  In Canton, Ohio, about an hour south of Cleveland on I77.  This is somewhat shaped like a football and has an extremely confusing interior pattern.  PEOPLE!   The Marine museum near Quantico has it right:  a linear progression from start to finish.  You start at the beginning, and when you get to the end….STOP.  

            It has some great exhibits, and what I really like is older stuff from 1892-1922 and much about the era before 1958, when TV made the NFL competitive with college football, which is NFL Jr.  I also appreciated seeing Adrian Peterson featured – if only in passing – despite the Vikings’ 0-4 record in Super Bowls.  Moreover, OJ’s bust is still in the gallery despite his later mistakes.  Excellent and very worthwhile for anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of American football. 

            And because I know you’re all wondering:  yes, the gift shop rocks.  What I like is that it’s 25% “NFL Hall of Fame” stuff and 75% team-specific merchandise – including, but not limited to, jerseys.  Very well stocked and deserving of our money.  Again, If you like the NFL you will love this place.        

Even if your team sucks.

Prince

A few weeks ago we lost another musician, the guy called Prince.   Facebook lit up like a huge purple Christmas tree; it seems everyone was a fan and everyone was sad to see him go.

I’d never been a fan, but I was aware of who he was. So I checked out 1999 and Purple Rain (album and movie).   Here are my observations.

Vikings Fan.  Dude was from Minneapolis.  He set “Purple Rain” in that city.  By all accounts he was a big Vikings fan, and used purple frequently for that reason.  However, he never actually played for the Vikings.  True story.

Music.  He had lots of albums: 39 studio albums from 1978 to 2015.  Due to some BS with his record company, he had to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol, so in 1993 we started calling him “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince”.  Then things got sorted out and he changed his name back in 2000.  I suppose he could have changed his name to “King” or “Duke” or something along those lines; maybe his lawyer can explain.

1999 and Purple Rain.  As noted, he had a lot of material released.  So far as I could tell, these two were his most popular and well esteemed.   And?

Well, my favorite two bands are AC/DC and Black Sabbath.  Veering off from them, I’ve enjoyed the Beatles, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and even stuff like Parliament-Funkadelic.  However, I have NEVER been a fan of dance music, of any sort, by any artist.  Nor do I care for rap – except for “Epic” (Faith No More), which I tolerate but don’t like.  1999 is dance music, as is Purple Rain, though the latter is closer to mainstream commercial rock music than the former. 

However, it’s still very beat oriented and doesn’t begin to approach even the Beatles.  Don’t call it genius.  That’s reserved for albums like Sgt Pepper and Dark Side of the Moon.  Not Purple Rain.

The movie was OK.  Notwithstanding my dislike of the music itself, the story was coherent enjoyable.  Nothing special, though.

Guitar.  Recently Prince played the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.   There is also some excellent guitar on 1999 and Purple Rain.  Definitely he could play, whether a natural Telecaster or any weird-shaped thing.   My problem is not with that, my issue is with his music.  Dance music with a killer guitar solo thrown in here and there is still dance music.  Not my scene.  Oddly, even Janet Jackson (“Black Cat”) and Michael Jackson (w/Jennifer Batten and Eddie Van Halen) have a few songs which could be described as “rock”.  “Beat It” could be qualified as a rock song, though Jackson wasn’t close to Iron Maiden, AC/DC, or even Van Halen.

I really dislike dance music.  The 128 bpm constant rhythm evokes an unpleasant mixture of boredom and nausea.  Moreover, it all sounds exactly the same.  Hell, Paul Stanley wrote “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” (from Dynasty) precisely because his impression was, “writing this stuff is easy.  Even I can do it.”  Fortunately for KISS fans, that song was the exception, not the rule – though much of Unmasked comes a little too close.

Gay?  Nope.  Remarkably, I don’t think he was even bisexual.   No men have come forward claiming to be intimate with him.  My take on it is that at an early stage, he knew he was not going to be macho and masculine.  So he turned things around and decided that androgynous – thank you, David Bowie – was the way to go.  As implausible as it seems, there are actually women who find androgynous men attractive, not because they think of these men as gay or bisexual, but as heterosexual men.  Bizarre, I know.  Clearly, many women did find him attractive, so his image worked on that level.  And it worked for his image, and for his music as well.  He was the total package – just not one I would buy.   :p

Minnesota Vikings

This is my favorite NFL team, despite the fact that I’m not from Minnesota and have never even been there.  I started liking the team in the 70s, a time at which I was growing up in the US and too young to appreciate anything more substantial than purple uniforms, cool helmets, Fran Tarkenton and 4 (lost) Super Bowls. 

 Origins.  The team was formed in Minnesota in 1961, as part of the NFL’s expansion at that time, and took Vikings as the mascot due to the high number of Scandinavian immigrants to that part of the country.  In 1970 the team was aligned in NFC Central Division.

 Fortunes.  The team made it to the Super Bowl 4 times, and lost all 4 times.  In 1969 they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs (23-7); in 1973 to the Dolphins (24-7); in 1975 to the Steelers (16-6), and finally the Raiders in 1978 (32-14).  Joe Capp was the quarterback in 1969 (Tarkenton was with the Giants at that time), while Tarkenton was present for the remaining three losses.  Nevertheless, they dominated the division during this decade.

            Since the 70s, they have reached the NFC Championship several times, but never won.  In 1998, despite a 15-1 record in the regular season, they choked, giving up the game at the end to the Atlanta Falcons, and in 2000 were crushed by the New York Giants, 41-0, despite being favored to win.

            The team is usually competitive in the running to either win the division or get a wildcard slot, but generally tending to lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.  Again, 2000 was the last NFC Championship appearance. 

 ** Aside for NON-NFL readers.  The Super Bowl is between the NFC Champion vs. the AFC Champion.  The AFC approximates the former AFL (American Football League), which merged with the NFL in 1970.  After 16 games of the regular season, 6 teams from each Conference enter the playoffs: the 4 division champions (North, South, East and West), and then the 2 teams remaining with the best records are the wildcard teams.  Each playoff game is “win or go home” – no aggregates (home & away) as often happens in soccer, nor “best of 7” series like baseball, basketball or hockey.  In soccer standings, a team gets 3 points for a victory and one point for a tie, as ties are not only common (including 0-0 ties) but also give the team a point.  Ties are almost nonexistent in the NFL.  

 Uniform.  The home uniform is purple with yellow stripes (unlike soccer, where we have Real Madrid, Santos, and Tottenham with white home jerseys, no NFL team has a white home jersey – except for the 1964 season when the white jerseys were the home jerseys) and white away jersey with the stripes on the shoulders.  The throwbacks uniform has the 70s style stripes.  The helmet is purple with “horn” decals on the side.  Compared to many other teams, especially the Broncos, Bucs, and Patriots, the Vikings uniform has remained fairly constant, and the current helmet is – in style if not in construction – almost identical to the original 1961 helmet.  The team is far too new to have ever played with the leather helmets or sweater-type jerseys of the older teams.

 Stadium.  Originally they played outdoors in Metropolitan Stadium, until they moved into the Metrodome in 1982.  As it is, the Bears and Packers play outdoors (Soldier Field and Lambeau Stadium) whereas the Lions (Ford Field) and Vikings play indoors.

 Rivals.  Up until the realignment in 2001, the Vikings were in NFC Central with the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Since 2002 the NFL now has 32 teams, and is aligned into 4 divisions with 4 teams each, changing what had been Central to North, pushing the Bucs out and leaving the Packers, Bears and Lions as consistent rivals.  I tend to think of the Packers as the biggest rivals, but the Bears and Lions also qualify.  On the other hand, of the 4 teams, the Vikings are by far the youngest. 

            The Packers were founded in 1919 by Curly Lambeau.  The Packers have 9 pre-Super Bowl NFL Championships and won the Super Bowl three times, not only in the late 60s with Bart Starr at QB and Vince Lombardi as coach (’67 and ’68), but more recently with Brett Favre at QB and Mike Holmgren as coach (’97). 

            The Chicago Bears, along with the Arizona Cardinals (originally from Chicago), are one of the few remaining original NFL teams from the league’s formation in 1921.  They have 8 NFL Championships before the Super Bowl era, and beat the Patriots in 1985 in Super Bowl XX – back when Jim McMahon was the QB and Ditka the coach – and lost recently, with Rex Grossman at QB and Lovie Smith as coach, to the Colts. 

            Originally from Portsmouth, Ohio, and called the Spartans, the Detroit Lions moved to Detroit in 1934 and became the Lions. The Lions have never been to the Super Bowl.  They have only been to the playoffs 9 times since 1957, the year they last won an NFL championship.  After an abysmal NFL record 0-16 season, it doesn’t look too good for them this season either.

 Players.  Fran Tarkenton is by far my favorite, quarterback #10 from 1961-66 and 72-78.  I even have a Vikings jersey with his name and number, which I bought ages before the Beckham and Ronaldo jerseys.  During the 70s, the defensive line of Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, and Alan Page were notorious.  More recently, John Randle was a heavy duty lineman.  Cris Carter and Randy Moss were stellar wide receivers.  I liked Gus Frerotte, was not impressed with Tavaris Jackson, and was hoping that Brett Favre would sign on.  The #1 washout was Herschel Walker, obtained from the Cowboys at heinous expense (giving the Cowboys a lock on the Super Bowl for several seasons) and then hardly ever used.  They’ve had Warren Moon (who I associate with the Houston Oilers) and Jim McMahon (#9 with the Bears) at QB slot for brief times.  Brad Johnson, who won the Super Bowl with the Bucs, started and ended with the Vikings.

 Coach.  The current coach is Brad Childress.  The original coach was Norm Van Brocklin, who was eventually replaced by Bud Grant in 1969.  More recently Dennis Green brought the team to the playoffs several seasons, but could never quite manage to get them to the Super Bowl. 

 Outlook.  They still have Adrian Peterson, the fantastic running back.  At quarterback it seems to be a toss-up between recently acquired Sage Rosenfels and prior starter Tavaris Jackson – assuming Brett Favre doesn’t sign up at the last moment.  The Vikings always appear to underachieve, never quite matching their potential considering that the team usually has consistently strong players; unfortunately, the whole appears to be less than the sum of its parts.  I can only hope this season will be different.  At least we’re not the Lions!

NFL vs. College Football

Now that the regular season has begun, it’s time to for a sports-oriented blog entry.  I love the NFL...and can’t stand college football.  Here are some of the reasons why:

 1.         Super Bowl v. College Bowls.  The NFL has ONE Super Bowl, preceded by NFC and AFC Championships and a sensible playoff schedule.  On the other hand, there are 32 college bowls and NO playoffs.  That’s as many bowls are there are NFL teams!  Come on.  At least college basketball has the March Madness bracket.  College football is a confusing mess.  Unfortunately the powers that be are too strong and have too much to gain by maintaining the current system and refusing to switch to a playoff system.

 2.         Mascots.  NFL has the Vikings, Cowboys, Giants, etc.  What do we have for college teams?  Terrapins (my school)?  Boilermakers?  Sooners (what’s a sooner?)?  Orangemen?  Gamecocks?  Cornholers – err.. Cornhuskers?  Ok, there are the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Duke Blue Devils.  But most of the college teams have pretty lame mascots.

 3.         Uniforms.  Why is it that the top college teams have the dullest uniforms?  Notre Dame – black with a simple gold helmet (at least they’re no longer riding horses – see above).  Penn State – dark blue, white helmet with a stripe (not even player names on the backs of the jerseys).  Ohio State – silver with red stripe on the helmet.  Michigan – lame Wolverine type design.  For every Florida State with a spear there are dozens of others like Nebraska with just an N stencilled on.  The uniforms look like those generic football uniforms you see in ads for TVs or beer.  Only the Cleveland Browns combine a lame name and a lame uniform.  They’re better off renaming themselves the Dawgs and at least putting a paw print on the side of the helmet. 

 4.         Quality.  Only the top college players get picked in the NFL Draft, so the quality throughout the NFL is far higher, played at a far higher level, than college football.  Everything about the NFL is high-tech, professional, and top tier.  College football, by its nature, is a distant second.  And any NFL player will tell you exactly the same thing.

 Finally: GO VIKINGS!