MVN - Most Valuable Network

Vikings Notes: NFL Referees Heart Minnesota

*If you’re like me, you’ve made a habit of moaning and groaning about the officiating while watching the Purple in action — but if this report from ESPN is any indication, perhaps we should start going a bit easier on NFL referees.

The great football minds at The Worldwide Leader compiled a list of the amount of personal fouls called against each NFL team since 2001, and compared that to the amount of personal fouls called against the opponents of each team. The Vikings, as it turns out, have been whistled for 85 personal fouls since 2001; their opponents have been called for 101, giving them a differential of +16 (one of the highest in the league).

Wait, you mean to tell me that there isn’t a far-reaching anti-Minnesota conspiracy among NFL officials, after all?

Given the fact that the Vikings have been a highly-penalized team during several seasons since 2001, I was surprised to see that their personal foul totals are relatively low. I could have sworn that the penalty-ridden seasons of the Tice regime and the many penalties the Vikes racked up during the first year of the Childress era would have made their differential a bit smaller than +16.

*Bryant McKinnie was the Vikings’ lone representative on Pro Football Talk’s 2008 All-Turd Team offense:

Bryant McKinnie, OL, Vikings: He followed up the Love Boat saga by swinging a Hate Pole into a bouncer’s noggin.

We kid about McKinnie’s off-field judgment (or lack thereof) on a pretty regular basis at this blog, but at the end of the day, it’s probably best to simply throw our support behind the guy.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less if he publicly spanks girls at nightclubs, hangs out with annoying hype men, or grinds with enough women to fill the Metrodome (see: this post from March). Big Mac can live how he wants. I simply have two teensy requests for him: Don’t do stuff that’ll get you in trouble with the law, and don’t let your crazy-ass lifestyle be detrimental to your on-field performance. Mmkay?

No one’s expecting McKinnie to be a saint. But it is reasonable to expect him to get his act together, if he has any expectation of remaining with the Vikings for an extended period of time. So far, he hasn’t got the message, but a four-game suspension courtesy of Goodell will hopefully be the wakeup call Big Mac needed (assuming that a suspension is indeed inevitable). Because make no mistake about it: This is his last chance. I just hope he realizes that.

*Viktor, a Vikings mascot, has reached the semifinals of CBS Sports’ “Most Fierce NFL Mascot Competition,” but what on earth is so fierce about him? Just look at the lil’ fella. Ragnar is much more fierce than Viktor — it ain’t even close.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.