We’re not going to the Super Bowl — again — this year. But there’s a mostly proud and wonky history here in Minnesota. In politics, think Hubert Humphrey, Floyd V. Olsen, Walter Mondale, Gene McCarthy, Jesse Ventura, Michelle Bachmann, Al Franken, and Amy Klobuchar. In sports, think the Minneapolis Lakers and the North Stars before they left the Land of 10,000 Lakes to become bigger fish in Dallas and L.A., Harmon Killebrew, Jim Kaat, Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Kevin Garnett, Paul Molitor . . . and last, but by no means least, remember the name Minnesotans are still trying to forget: Shawn Chambers who gave up one of the most famous goals in all of hockey history in game two of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1991.
After the Minnesota Vikings did a Shawn Chambers in the NFC Conference Championship game that would have put them in the Super Bowl, I remembered Gene Wilder’s mocking Green Bay Packers’ grin and heard his Packers taunt.
Grumpy Old Men
I’m a Philadelphian transplanted in Minnesota, still learning how the game is played here. I love my adopted State and today I’m still a little grumpy about the loss to the Eagles and having to be nice to them.
Although it will be the the Eagles who will fly into Minneapolis for the Super Bowl we Minnesotan thought belonged to us, I have no desire to return to my native Philadelphia.
Nope! In an hour or two, I’ll head north to the cabin. No ice hockey. No ice fishing. No football. No TV. No cell phone. No internet. Just a warm fire and a book in the woods next to the wetland where the eagles soar and the owl perches in the oak tree, reminding me that I’m dust and to dust I shall return.
- Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, January 23, 2018.
Views from the Edge 
No ice fishing? Does that mean your fish comes … fresh and unfrozen? One day, the Patriots will no longer rule. Brady will retire. Gronk will retire. Our reign as football El Supremos will vanish and we’ll be the same scrubby team were were back in the long ago before times. But for now, YES.
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Marilyn, all our fish in MN is fresh but the only fish we get are Walleye and Muskie. The Walleye are great any way you cook them. Muskie’s bad no matter how you cook them. I think. Never had a muskie.
And what about the Red Sox and the Celtics?
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The Sox are good, but the Yankees have a killer lineup and they are going to be VERY hard to beat. For any team, anywhere. The Celtics were doing great, but I think they lost the last few games. But they’ll make the playoffs and who knows after that?
The Sox couldn’t make a deal with any of the players they wanted. They made the offers, but the players all wanted more money and specific (unavailable) positions. I think the days of endlessly bigger contracts is ending. None of the teams want to go to the “luxury tax” level. So these guys who won’t play because a 5-year contract for 125 million (with extras too!) isn’t enough … I think they may discover that NO team is going to pay them more.
Free agency is about to change.
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I sure hope so, Marilyn. Those contracts are obscene.
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BTW, I took my 2 sons to game 6 of the 91 Stanley Cup playoffs in Bloomington. Pitts won the Cup in that game, 7-1, just like last Sun with the Vikes. I always count touchdowns like hockey goals so the football score, 38-7 was 6-1, eerily like the 7-1 North Stars defeat.
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De ja vu all over again in the North Star State!
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Me too! Really funny!
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-:)
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