It seems so un-Minnesotan. Is there an answer beyond, “The Internet”?
Minnesota native. Grew up in the rural SW in the 80s. My grandparents, my parents, would watch the Vikings and if they lost, would turn off the TV, and say something like, “Well, I guess”. I swear if someone was to serve my mom flaming poop on a plate, if you asked her the following day how it was, she’d say, “Well… it was different.”
Here, it’s like, “This guy sucks. That guy sucks. KOC should be fired. Kwesi should be fired. This and that are the worst thing ever. So-and-so posters here who believe this other thing would say this outrageous thing that they would never say and isn’t it stupid.” It seems so un-Minnesotan.
I’ve now lived in NYC for 20 years and this board has worse manners and more vicous talk than what I see here. I was on a flight last night and talking to a guy in the next seat about this. And he asked, “Are they not from Minnesota? Or is it just Reddit trolls?” And I wasn’t really sure what the right answer was.
I’ve obviously never the Vikes win the SB. I’ve lived through some super gutpunch playoff losses. At this point, all I want out of them is an entertaining season where I look forward to watching them, and not dread or avoid Sunday, expecting full well that if they make the playoffs they’re going to choke it in some probably embarrassing way. And I’ve made my peace with that.
Kwesi and KOC seem some refreshing faces and approaches for the franchise. Kwesi hasn’t been perfect, but no GMs ever will be. But he’s made moves that have worked out well and it’s nice to have a GM with a data driven approach. KOC hasn’t been perfect. But last season was absolutely super and just a total culture change from Zimmer and Denny Green if you’re old enough to remember those days. They’ve both done well enough, are young and fresh enough, and are new enough in their tenure that’s there’s 0.0% chance the Wilfs are going to put them into the hot seat in the offseason. So demanding their firing on the Internet is just a waste of time and frankly super misguided. (And often to be contradicted 3 weeks later when there becomes kvetching on how KOC isn’t being on the shortlist for Coach of the Year).
So, in short, for someone who is fairly new to this board… what’s going on here?
Fan culture has changed drastically as more information about franchises have become available and popularized over time. 20 years ago fans paid a tiny % of their attention to personnel moves compared to today because most fans generally accepted the team as a product the owners put on the field and enjoyed watching the sport on the field rather than participating in competitive fan bickering. Plus social media did not give them a place to meet up and debate, we would typically discuss games on Monday with a handful of coworkers.
But now you have people who played a ton of franchise mode Madden growing up who have been conditioned by that and sports media to dissect deals at the contract term level as well as think they’re experts at deal making, talent assessment, and play calling. Plus we now have a place to find a huge number of people to discuss/argue these things with rather than just those few coworkers, meaning we’re far more likely to come across someone with precisely the opposite opinion as ours. Additionally, just like in politics social media selects for the loudest, most explosive disagreements rather than agreement or wholesome stories.
Throw in the Vikings uniquely painful history giving these fans serious psychological baggage (tankers 2 months ago: losing = winning) and voila, you get the diarrhea quicksand that is this sub.