Little something to get you all in the mood...

[PurpleMustReign]

[Eli]

Never really found that whole spectacle to be particularly inspiring. I've always wondered whether it's embarrassing for grown men to be required to come running out of a giant bouncy house to be greeted by a guy in a Hägar the Horrible costume.

[PurpleMustReign]

Other teams do it too.. I know the Bears for sure.

[Funkytown]

This always pumps me up! Thanks for posting!

...I was at that game, too. I miss being that good.

[King James]

This always pumps me up! Thanks for posting!

...I was at that game, too. I miss being that good.

We still are that good!!!

[Funkytown]

We still are that good!!!

Now you're just being silly.

[Arma]

Just reminds me of the '09 season ;(

[King James]

Now you're just being silly.

No we are. We are better than the 2009 team. The 2009 team were riding off one player Brett Favre. Without him that team would have been nothing. If they were so good, they would have did something in 2010 but they didn't and Favre went down. This 2013 is riding off each other as team, most will say we're riding off Peterson but we have enough talent overall to win games without him carrying the team.

We have a better D, better WR, better TE's. We have a better kicker who probably would have been able to make that kick in the NFC Championship rather than letting Favre run it and throw a INT. The only real question mark is QB. Now I bet if Favre had this roster we would have beat the Saints.

[Funkytown]

No we are. We are better than the 2009 team. The 2009 team were riding off one player Brett Favre. Without him that team would have been nothing. If they were so good, they would have did something in 2010 but they didn't and Favre went down. This 2013 is riding off each other as team, most will say we're riding off Peterson but we have enough talent overall to win games without him carrying the team.

We have a better D, better WR, better TE's. We have a better kicker who probably would have been able to make that kick in the NFC Championship rather than letting Favre run it and throw a INT. The only real question mark is QB. Now I bet if Favre had this roster we would have beat the Saints.

I'm going to have to respectively disagree with you on this. I understand some of your points, but we were better in '09. How can you say we were riding off of Brett Favre? Did you forget we won the division the year before? Favre never would have come to the Vikings if we weren't already a good team. Let's just be honest about that right now. The talent was there. A lot thought we were a "quarterback away" from the Super Bowl. Yeah, almost...right? A lot of people--me included--believe we would have won the division again with Sage or Tarvaris as QB. Either one is a pretty significant drop off from Favre. That implies our team had talent. Sure, Favre was tearing it up, but don't pretend he was doing it by himself. Did you see what happened when he tried to do it by himself in '10?!?! Yeah. That happened! We were the stuff in '09. Not too shabby in '08 either there for a bit.

And, I'd rather have a few other question marks on the team with an outstanding QB leading us in the playoffs than what we have now. I love Ponder, but he has a long way to go to earn that trust. So, for me...it's going to take another couple years of making the playoffs and advancing before I say we are better than we were in '09. We'll have to make it to the Super Bowl to be better. We can't get much closer than we got! But no, I get what you're saying...I just, disagree! I'm probably a little biased, though. '09 was the year I had my Row 15 season tickets. '09 was my team, yo! Partly why I stick up for Childress. Like it or not, he was part of some of the greatest memories of my fanhood. Just the feel of that '09 season was something else. It was special. And I'm not just saying that. It just felt different. It was magical. Right up until the end...

[cstelter]

The only positions the Vikings are better at now than they were then are LT, C, FB and S.

I'll take the 2012 version of AD over the 2008 or 2009 versions. He was a fumbling machine back then. I'd also put K on the list-- I think Wal$h will do as well or better than Longwell this year (esp. on kickoffs). I would also hope Loadholt is playing better than he was as a rookie with 5 years exp under his belt. But that's still only 7 positions out of about 25, so I'm not trying to refute the spirit of your point.

[Purple bruise]

I'll take the 2012 version of AD over the 2008 or 2009 versions. He was a fumbling machine back then. I'd also put K on the list-- I think Wal$h will do as well or better than Longwell this year (esp. on kickoffs). I would also hope Loadholt is playing better than he was as a rookie with 5 years exp under his belt. But that's still only 7 positions out of about 25, so I'm not trying to refute the spirit of your point.

I totally agree. I would say that safety (Smith) makes a world of difference as does Kalil. The receiving core has great potential and is at least as good as the 09 squad. Plus and the obvious the coaching. How do you leave dumba$$ Childress out of the equation. Plus plus plus give me Rudolph all day over any version of Shankit.

[Reignman]

Ok anyone here who thinks the '09 team wasn't the best team in recent memory is either one of those anti Favre because he played for the Packers fans, or you're just delusional. That team started 10-1, would have been 11-0 if it weren't for biased officiating in the Steelers game. And we would have made the super bowl if it weren't again for the piss poor officiating vs the Taints. However we would have lost our 5th bowl because there's no way Tarvaris Deer in Headlights Jackson beats Manning on that big stage. Favre would never have been able to play in the bowl with that ankle. Sorry folks the curse lives on either way, but yeah '09 was the best team since '98. Well we had some talented teams in the early 2000's, but we had a meat head for a HC.