A Good Day?

This could be a good day to be a Minnesota Vikings fan. Well, it would be an even better if they were playing in that game tomorrow. Minus that, today may honor Vikings players past and present. If the Hall of Fame voters finally do what they should have done six years ago, Cris Carter will finally be in the Hall of Fame. Later tonight, we'll hopefully see the MVP trophy handed to Adrian Peterson. He might even collect the Comeback Player of the year. Others awards as well. That would be a nice haul. A Lombardi Trophy would've been nice. Once again, that has to wait until next year.

Maybe these individual awards wouldn't mean so much if the Vikings team accomplishments didn't always fall short. 2012 was an excellent year for the Vikings. Improving from 3-13 in 2011 to 10-6 and the playoffs was a gigantic step forward. Getting knocked out in the Wildcard round of the playoffs doesn't take away from that improvement. Still, any season that falls short of the Super Bowl is a season falls short. Nearly every talking head in the media predicted that the Vikings would be firmly seated in the cellar of their division. They might have if not for Adrian Peterson's amazing season. No one expected him to return from the terrible knee injury that punctuated the disaster that was the 2011 season. He didn't just come back. He returned to the football field better than he ever was before. He put the team on his back down the stretch of the season and carried them to the playoffs. Finishing with 2,097 yards rushing, Adrian Peterson was simply incredible to watch. Honoring his performance with an MVP trophy is the right thing to do. When I was a football toddler the players of the NFL were mythic. They didn't seem like mere mortals. I didn't really care about any of the individual honors that were bestowed upon the best each year. It seemed to me that simply being able to play in the NFL was the ultimate honor. As I got older the players became more real, more like me. I started to care about my favorite players being honored as I saw fit. Unfortunately, those that did the honoring rarely saw things as I saw them. Sometimes those individual honors helped justify a season that didn't go so well for the team. Only one team can win the Super Bowl so a lot of fans have to go without. Having an MVP or some All-Pros can sometimes dull that sting for the fans of the other 31 teams. It's not really much help but at least it's something. The 1998 Vikings team had a ton of players get various honors but it did little to soothe the way that season ended. You still like to see incredible football players like Adrian Peterson honored for one of the best season-long performances ever.

The Hall of Fame is a different beast for me. I have such a respect for the history of the NFL that I don't let my passion for the Vikings influence who should or shouldn't be honored in the Hall of Fame. Hearing me speak of Cris Carter's rightful place in the Hall may cause some to doubt that. I don't think that Carter belongs in the Hall of Fame because he played for the Vikings. I think that he belongs in the Hall of Fame because he's one of the best receivers to ever play the game. I think that he's the best pass catcher to ever step on an NFL football field. I'm simply more aware of him and seen more of him because he played for the Vikings. I'm one of the few Vikings fans, maybe even the only one, that questions whether Jim Marshall deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. If any Vikings player from that era deserves that recognition, it's Mick Tingelhoff. I just want to see that football shrine in Canton treated with the respect that it deserves. I don't think that the voters are doing that. It's all politics with them. It's all promises and quotas. Some of the voters don't like Carter because he wasn't always friendly with the media. I never thought that kissing the media's ass was a prerequisite for football immortality. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is seriously lacking until Cris Carter is a part of it.

Cris Carter is a Hall of Famer and Adrian Peterson is the MVP in my book. Maybe that's what matters most. They, however, may say differently. I have a feeling that both will be very happy today.