THE VIKINGS' SHAME: In the past few years the Minnesota Vikings have made a few good draft picks (Duante Culpepper and Randy Moss), a few bad draft picks (Derrick Alexander, Duane Clemons, and Dwayne Rudd), and even a draft pick of a player who turned out to be nuts and never actually played for them (Demetrious Underwood). But throughout all those years, the Vikings never simply failed to make their pick, like they did on Saturday. In fact, neither has any other team.
Saturday's blunder, in which the Vikings tried and failed to trade down in the first round and ended up missing their turn (twice), was the latest shameful episode that's proven just what a second-class organization the Vikings have become under Red McCombs and Mike Tice. And you thought they wouldn't be able to top the drunken, Tailhook-like "snowmobile rally" in terms of sheer embarrassment this off-season.
The Vikings spent most of the '90s as Minnesota's premiere sports outfit, but now, with the Twins in the ALCS last year and the Wolves and Wild in the playoffs now, they're down to a distant fourth. Fifth, if you count Gopher hockey. Hell, the WNBA's Lynx are closing in too.