Long before losing to the Eagles in the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs the consensus opinion around the Twin Cities and from the national sports wonks was that the Vikings were a quarterback away from being a true Super Bowl contender. With a sore back from two hours of shoveling a heavy Minnesota snow last night, I woke up this morning in dire need of a cup of Guatemala Peace Coffee, aspirin and more importantly some good news from my favorite team on the first day of NFL free agency.

For a fourth round pick, Zigi Wilf and the Minnesota Vikings are now the proud owners of something called Sage Rosenfels. Yesterday the Vikings were a quarterback away. Today? The Vikings are a quarterback away. The fact that Sage may already be the second best quarterback in the NFC North says a lot more about the division than the guy whose parents decided to name him after a garden herb. Herb names are fine for girls. The first email I received on this subject was from a buddy who said he didn’t even like to say “Sage”. I hope Sage grew up next to some kid named Thor.

After reading the news I turned on the radio to hear the response from those closest to the situation. I heard a local “expert”, who I normally respect, say that Brad Childress hasn’t had great luck bringing in veteran quarterbacks. He actually pointed to Kelly Holcomb, Brad Johnson and Gus Frerotte as not becoming significant, contributing quarterbacks in Chilli’s version of the west coast offense. I literally threw my coffee pot at the radio. Lets see, instead of bringing in a veteran quarterback who would be better than all three of those guys ever were in Minnesota and one that would give this team the best chance to go to a Super Bowl, you go after a guy who will probably never be as good as any of the three veterans that our local expert pointed to? I guess the good news is Sage only threw ten interceptions last year. Too bad he only threw six touchdowns. I had six touchdowns. Sage reminds me of a younger Gus without the Pro Bowl capabilities. That is not a good thing.

Last year brad Childress almost won a preposterous statement competition, and yes there was an actual competition, when he said, “We have two good quarterbacks and that is a good problem to have.” So Chilli, is this now a really good problem or a great one? Chances are Gus (now there is a man’s name) will be cut so the choices at Winter Park this summer will be T-Jack, Sage and Booty, aka, John David Booty. We don’t even have a “has been” anymore. The Vikings have “never were’s” and more sadly “never will be’s”.