Injustice
It’s always a pleasure to beat the hell out of the Dallas Cowboys. I enjoy it probably as much as Randy Moss does beating the team that left an indelible image scorched on my brain during my formative football years.
In 1975 I was an 11 year old kid who owned a Fran Tarkenton jersey and who played pickup football relentlessly with his friends, replaying the Vikings glories from the Sunday past and looking forward to yet another Super Bowl appearance.
As an 11 year old kid in the 1970s, it was a foregone conclusion that the Purple People Eaters were playoff bound.
But on December 28, 1975, my childhood innocence was shattered when, in the final seconds of the NFC Championship game between the Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys, with 24 seconds left in the game and trailing by three points, Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach threw what he later called a “hail mary” pass to wide receiver Drew Pearson, who illegally pushed off Vikings defender Nate Wright to catch the ball and score a winning touchdown. [Watch: 1975 NFC Championship – Vikings vs. Cowboys, Hail Mary Pass.]
The push-off was obvious. I recognized it as the play happened on my 12-inch black and white TV screen and looked for the flag that was never thrown.
How could that be? It was obvious. How could the refs not call that? It was their job to make sure the game was fair.
That experience taught me that the world was unjust.
While I delight in Vikings victories over the Cowboys for that reason, the emotional scars have healed enough that I bear no ill will to my friend, colleague, and Minnesota Vikings Chat subscriber who bears the same name as my childhood villain, Drew Pearson.
Crybaby
Though I did cry over that Vikings playoff loss in 1975, I no longer weep when my Vikings lose. The same cannot be said for that crybaby Keith Brooking.
Brooking, you’ll remember, was the Cowboys linebacker who screamed at Brad Childress on the sideline in the waning minutes of the Vikings 34-3 walloping of the Cowboys in last year’s playoff game. Brooking didn’t like it that the Vikings scored with 55 seconds remaining in the game.
Which is all a setup for another wonderful Pat Williams quote, which Judd Zulgad included in his piece:
“If he wants to cry like a little baby, he’ll cry like a little baby but we aren’t worried about what he’s saying.”
Vikings make no apologies to Cowboys
Gotta love Pat Williams! (I think I say that any time I include a quote by him.)
Don’t Mess With Mrs. Moss
Texans are fond of saying “Don’t mess with Texas” but as far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, they’ve certainly learned the perils of messin’ with Mrs. Moss.
We always knew that Randy Moss kept an extra special something in store for the Cowboys because he was lead to believe that Jerry Jones would take Moss with the eighth overall pick in the 1998 draft only to let him slide to the Vikings open arms at 21.
What we didn’t know until now was that it wasn’t that snub that motivates Moss but the look of disappointment on his mother’s face, who had her heart set on her son playing to the Cowboys, when he was passed over.
The Star Tribune‘s Judd Zulgad, again, has the quote:
“When they didn’t pick me, I was kind of more depressed because she was more depressed and I took that to heart. Just seeing her facial expression and how she looked, I really took that to heart, man. I told myself any time I play the Dallas Cowboys I’m never going to forget that look.”
Moss still learning offense, ready for Cowboys