The following takes place between 12:24 am and 2:39 am PDT.
M: Randy Moss. Your thoughts.
Bill Sou: Hey, yet another choke job by the Twins, huh? No, seriously ... I have to say that it is startling to see that the Vikings making a transaction owned the news cycle today. Truly, the Twins game was an afterthought.
M: It all happened so suddenly. And the patriots pretty much gave him away.
Bill Sou: The trade or the loss?
M: The trade.
Bill Sou: (Sorry, I made a point of not watching the game tonight.) I think I was watching, like, Detroit 1-8-7 when I heard the news. Have you ever seen a movie scene where a guy is playing poker, and he's so sure he'll win that not only has pushed all his chips in, he throws in his car keys and the deed to his house? That's what the Vikings did.
M: So what if the receivers aren't the problem? What if it brett just got old in the offseason?
Bill Sou: That's certainly possible. My theory for why the offense isn't clicking is that Favre doesn't trust his receivers. I think they're fine, and honestly, I think Favre should try and trust his wideouts more instead of pouting whenever he throws a jumpball he wants to be caught by a Viking whose seven-feet. (That's what training camp's for -- timing, rhythm and confidence.)
M: And that's where Randy Moss comes in.
Bill Sou: But I think the key to getting No. 4 interested again is giving him all he wants. Childress and the front office is in too deep with Favre. I think he demanded Moss as soon as they couldn't pry away Vincent Jackson, and they knew they couldn't say no because he's the one who holds to ball. Now, he has that guy who can haul down anything he wants. That'll get Favre over the hump until Sidney Rice gets back and up to speed. Then the Vikes, presumably, are unstoppable.
M: I'm very curious to see how Brett Favre will be remembered by his coaches and teammates when he finally quits.
Bill Sou: Yeah, the defintiive on Brett Favre must be written in a future age.
Bill Sou: Of course, he has to retire first, no?
M: When it's all said and done, something will retire Brett. I expect his end will come quickly and awkwardly. Willie Mays falling down in centerfield in the '73 Series level awkward.
Bill Sou: Mays fell in CF in '73?
M: Yep. Playing for the Mets.
Bill Sou: It always seems that a Hall of Famer who had played all his life for one team plays for another team for, like, one year before hanging it up. Johnny Unitas comes to mind. So does Emmitt Smith.
Bill Sou: Anyway, I have a dream about Favre. Not the wet kind.
Bill Sou: In the Super Bowl, with time running out, the Vikings marching but needed a touchdown to win, Favre finally has the balls to tuck the ball in and run. With 0:00 on the clock, he tries to jump into the end zone, gets hit in such a way that he helicopters, he swings around and lunges the ball past the plane of the goal line, and gets crushed on both sides.
Bill Sou: As the official throws his hands up, giving the Vikes the win, Brett Favre lies motionless on the Dallas Cowboys turf, his legs completely shot, like Matthew McConaughey in Two For The Money. That is when he retires.
M: How "Any Given Sunday" of you.
Bill Sou: Never have seen Any Given Sunday. I don't think Oliver Stone knows football.
Bill Sou: Want to see Wall Street 2, however.
M: I've never seen Wall Street.
Bill Sou: Never? Dude, you're missing out on a piece of pop culture!
M: I know.
M: I know the speech.
Bill Sou: A milestone in film, and apt, too.
Bill Sou: So yeah, I guess this makes the Vikings a contender again. They will have Moss's attention for the year, for that I have no doubt. And this should open up the field, especially at the line of Adrian Peterson and underneath for all the other receivers, aka Visanthe Shiancoe. Could it all implode? Definitely. But damn, if they don't win it now ...
Bill Sou: I wrote that if they don't win, the Vikings may very well move to L.A. I truly think that the events of today -- not just the trade for Randy Moss but yet another choke job by the Twinks -- might mean they're staying. It's all psychological and therefore dubious. But even though you don't necessarily pay to win in the NFL, Zygi Wilf is showing that he is willing to spend the money for a Super Bowl. Meanwhile, the populace is feeling a lot of guilt for giving the Twins a new ballpark only to see them lose yet another goddamn series to the Yankees. The thinking should go, Well, if they're going to piss down their legs again, why couldn't they do that in the Metrodome?
Bill Sou: There's guilt in the constituency. I don't think the Twins losing means the Vikings won't get a stadium. I think this means that the populace will now shift their love to the Vikes, which means they will get their new billion-dollar stadium.
M: You can always thumb your nose at Tampa. Right now, the Rays would be better off playing in the Metrodome.
M: The Trop is a dump.
Bill Sou: You know, that's an interesting case. I despise relocation personally. I truly feel that markets don't fail teams, but teams fail markets. You heard some of the Bay Rays complain late in the season about lack of support. I hear that the place, located in St. Petersburg, is very difficult to get to. So location is a problem. If this were located in downtown Tampa, or somewhere close to Ybor City (you been to Tampa? Not a bad place, Unforgivable Wetness recommends the Mons Venus), attendance during the regular season should be higher.
Bill Sou: I am also reminded of the Lightning's run to the Stanley Cup. I don't think they ever sold the place out until late in the Eastern Conference Final series? Now, that's hockey, but maybe it's a Florida thing.
M: It's just not a good sports town. Even the Bucs have problems selling out regularly.
Bill Sou: Well, it's not as if the Dome was selling out all these years, either. It could be the Dome, but the last, say, two years, tickets were hard to get. Wouldn't a team have trouble selling tickets if they sucked?
M: I've always believed that.
Bill Sou: Shit, look at the Wild, whose consecutive sellout streak ended two weeks ago.
M: Which is why I get pissed off when a bad California team has trouble selling out games. We always hear from East Coast fans how we're terrible sports fans. I've always countered with the argument that there are plenty of other ways to spend your time and money in California. If a team isn't putting out a good product, why should I waste my time and money on them? Not to mention that continually funneling revenue to an underproducing franchise is no real motivation for them to put a winning product on the field.
M: I applaud Pittsburgh Pirates fans for staying away. I have no contempt for Raiders fans who don't buy tickets.
Bill Sou: Exactly. And you're being called a bandwagoner if you don't pay money to see a shitty team. The rub is, why isn't a good team, such as the Bay Rays, doing better?
M: Apparently their tv ratings are through the roof on a regular basis. So people care. They're watching. They're just not going.
Bill Sou: That points to location.The Twins are downtown, and their TV ratings have been excellent. Not all these past years, but since that miracle run of, like 2006?
Bill Sou: You know, the Blackhawks for years blacked out local games because they didn't want TV cannibalizing attendance. It seems ruthless, but on a logical level, that seems right, doesn't it?
M: It's the basic premise behind the nfl blackout rules. Except the DirecTV package has become an unexpected thorn in their side.
Bill Sou: So if a team does so poorly no one wants to see them in person, no one is allowed to see them on TV ... which has the effect of disconnecting the fan base with the team because they won't get to see them at all ... which is supposed to, what, coax them into seeing the team in person? Maybe the blackout rule doesn't make sense. Maybe they should just fuckin' play better. And the Bay Rays need a new stadium closer to a population center.
M: We've gone two weeks with the Chargers blacked out here in Los Angeles. Because we don't have a team, they've kinda been designated as the team in our market. but making the Chargers disappear in Los Angeles isn't going to make people drive two hours to see them.
Bill Sou: True.
M: Los Angeles is full of football fans. They just happen to be fans of other teams. So if you were a so-so Chargers fan, you can easily defect to another team. I've stumbled across a Seahawk bar, a Buffalo Bills bar, a 49ers bar, a Patriots bar...
Bill Sou: L.A. is kind of different. I don't see it as Chargers country, you know.
M: Because it's not Chargers country.
Bill Sou: Don't know. Like Tampa, there's so much to do in L.A. Are the Chargers bitching about it? Are Angelenos bitching about it? Does the advent of DirecTV mitigate the blackouts (in other words, do people who want to see football in L.A. OK with DirecTV?)
M: There are a few Charger fans here, but not enough to make a major stink about it. The dumb thing about the DirecTV package is that if a game in your area is blacked out, you can't see it even with the Sunday Ticket. I've always believed that if you're paying for the service, you should be exempt from blackout rules.
Bill Sou: True. The league is getting money from Sunday Ticket, right?
M: Yes
Bill Sou: You know, I can't really see a problem. What would happen if the NFL ended the blackout rule? Would fans be so complacent they wouldn't go see even a good team?
Bill Sou: I don't want to think like a greedy owner, but it sounds like it could happen.
M: The bigger issue is that the NFL home experience is greater than the in-stadium experience for a lot of people. If you have satellite with a giant television/multiple televisions with surround sound, your own clean private bathroom, free beer and every single game at the push of a button...is that better than fighting crowds and spending a few hundred bucks to watch one game?
Bill Sou: I believe it was Tex Schramm who said that one day there will be an NFL game where no one shows up. Probably that would be in Los Angeles.
Bill Sou: If that's the case, Marcas, then why would one go to a game in-person? Is there something sacred about "being there?" Don't know. That's a philosophical question. I mean, why do you go to a game?
M: It's fun to go to games. but I'm also only willing to pay so much for a game. Just going to a regular season NFL game costs a family of four over $400.
M: If i'm going to spend big money on a game, it's going to be a championship game involving a team I cheer for. The problem is that the NFL is charging championship game prices for regular season games.
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Bill Sou: So it's your budget, combined with too-high ticket prices and the economy, no?
M: Definitely
Bill Sou: So hard to pinpoint a reason. The market finds the right equilibrium, I guess, yet it seems priced out for so many people.
M: Especially because salaries keep going up and owners are complaining about losing money. Those two issues always conspire to drive consumer (fan) prices higher.
Bill Sou: What all pro leagues need is a course correction. Salaries and the value of franchises are just out of whack.
M: When the Golden State Warriors - who have missed the playoffs 16 of the last 18 years and play in an awful, outdated arena - become the largest sale in NBA history, franchise value is definitely out of whack.
Bill Sou: They're pricing the regular fan out of the experience!!!
Bill Sou: I'm surprised you haven't talked about the baseball games today. Halladay is fucking awesome.
M: If you had told me Wednesday morning that one of the six teams playing would get no-hit, i would have guessed the Rays.
Bill Sou: Really? Not Doc?
M: It was Cliff Lee going against a team that got no-hit twice this year and narrowly missed a third.
Bill Sou: The Bay Rays are good for a brown-out. But Halladay was going against the Reds, whom I haven't seen and don't regard highly.
M: If there's one thing the Reds can do, it's hit. I didn't expect them to win, but I thought they'd throw a few punches.
Bill Sou: Really, the Twins could piss down their legs in the Metrodome. Why did we give them a new ballpark to do this shit? If any pro team deserves a new edifice, it's the Vikes. At least in the NFL every team purportedly has a chance of winning a Super Bowl. In Major League Baseball it's a case of money trumping everything, again.OK, there are other things, but this is true, too. Or maybe I'm tired of seeing the Yankees kick the shit out of the Twins again.
M: Kinda the way A's fans felt about running into the Twins most years.
Bill Sou: Well, they got their revenge in 2006. When's ours?
M: I know this was at Target, but i thought this was the game the Yankees had to have. The rest of their rotation is suspect, if they lost with Sabathia on the mound they were in big trouble.
Bill Sou: So, you think the Twinks have a chance?
M: I didn't last week. But yesterday I got a weird feeling like they could pull it off. I'd feel better about it if they had Morneau.
Bill Sou: They've been playing really well without Morneau. Well, until it starts to count. Excuse me, I'm going to brush my teeth now.