|
Mr. Ed -> RE: Vikes talk for Twins Fans (10/5/2016 10:02:39 AM)
|
now me, I understood the trade, and apparently a lot of armchairs were up in arms over it? whatever.
What if I told you …
that the MVP of the National Football League after a quarter of the season would be a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings who is not named Teddy Bridgewater … who wasn’t even on the team 10 days before the season started … and whose acquisition enraged many of the team’s fans—who felt the GM who engineered the deal was an incompetent boob.
Normally I wouldn’t want to name a player who missed a quarter of his team’s games the MVP. But I will make an exception for Sam Bradford. Acquired for first-round and fourth-round picks eight days before opening day, Bradford sat out the opener (the Vikings got two defensive touchdowns and won by nine at Tennessee) and started the next three Minnesota games. In those three games, learning a new offense on the fly, Bradford has beaten quarterbacks who have played in four of the past nine Super Bowls, and in each game outplayed Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Eli Manning. Bradford has no turnovers. He has the best completion and passer rating, both by a mile, in his career.
The words “valuable” has always meant something to me with this award. Minnesota lost its three most important offensive players to injury in a two-week span in the summer: Bridgewater, Adrian Peterson and left tackle Matt Kalil. The season, justifiably, could have spiraled to hell. But an unwavering coach, Mike Zimmer, and an emerging star defense have held the fort. And a quarterback the Rams gave away in 2015 and the Eagles gave away in 2016 has played the best three-game stretch of his pro career. The MVP, I think, should never be determined on numbers alone—though they help. The MVP should be about the player who means the most to a very good team, and without whom that team would be Just Another Team. And the Vikings would be 2-2 or maybe 3-1 with Shaun Hill playing quarterback right now.
Bradford has lifted the Vikings to believe that without their three leading men they can still win the Super Bowl. And there is tremendous value in that.
“What I’ve gone through has given me perspective I never have had—perspective I didn’t have when I was younger,” Bradford told me after the Green Bay win. “Last year, going through all that stuff in Philadelphia, I’m not sure I would have handled this well. You might not understand it at the time, but there’s always a reason. I just think it’s all part of God’s plan. I don’t worry about it.”
Then he said: “You think I should write a book about all of this?”
What would he say after the third win? On Monday Night Football, over a man with two Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVPs, Eli Manning?
Hopefully, Bradford would say he belongs on a team playing for the biggest prize in the game, something he’s never had a chance to do. And something I feel confident he’ll have a chance to do this year.
|
|
|
|