The Lost Season

I should have known the afternoon of August 30th that this would be a lost season.  It was that afternoon that my phone beeped with breaking news that Vikings starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had been carted off the field in an ambulance after a non-contact knee injury.  Only the Vikings could lose their starting quarterback to a non-contact knee dislocation, with torn ligaments and who knows what else.  Let that sink in – his knee dislocated and no one touched him.  How is that even biologically possible?  I should have known then that this would be a lost season.

Even after the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford and started 5-0 I should have known that it couldn’t last.  This is a franchise that will forever not have nice things.  (See four Super Bowl losses, 1998 and 2009 NFC Championship games)

I should have known when Adrian Peterson went down with a knee injury in week three that the season would be a waste.  I certainly should have known when starting right tackle Matt Khalil was placed on injured reserve that same week that I should abandon all hope.

I should have known that this was a cursed season when starting defensive tackle Shariff Floyd spent all but one game on injured reserve, when projected starting right tackle Mike Harris didn’t play in a single game, when even the Vikings third-string quarterback missed the entire season because he, like a moron, tried to kick in a locked door and tore his Achilles tendon.  Seriously…

I should have known that this was a lost season when Jake Long, the offensive tackle we signed off the street to replace both injured starting tackles, was also placed on injured reserve a mere two weeks after being signed.  We finished the year with 8 different starting offensive line combinations; that’s half the games, and had five different players line up at left tackle through the season.  I should have known…

I should have known this was a lost season before it even started, and yet I watched, and consumed, and cheered (occasionally), and hoped that the playoffs would redeem a lost season.

They did not.

I should have known this was a lost season when the closest game of the entire Wild Card weekend was a 13-point spread.  I should have known that the entertaining Packers vs. Cowboys and Steelers vs. Chiefs games were an illusion.  I should have known not to get my hopes up, as was proven when both championship games were blowouts.  I should have known this was a lost season from the start.

But, what about the Super Bowl you say?  Surely the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, the first overtime in Super Bowl history redeems a lost season.  It may very well have…

…but I missed almost the entirety of the game lying on the bathroom floor, sick as could be.  The cycle was complete.  As Teddy began the season on his back, I ended the season on mine.  The lost season.  I should have known…

So now I look forward to draft day, and the beginning of a new season.  Except Minnesota doesn’t have a first round pick.

And so it begins…