Giants dominate Vikings 34-13

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/03/2004

Tice’s public support for Bush adds another distraction

  Let’s cut to the chase: The Vikings are still in first place with a 5-2 record. And, hindsight is twenty-twenty: the New York Giants are better than the Vikings, period. For the third straight year, the G-men came into a sold-out Metrodome and handled the Vikings, this time 34-13.

 Sooner or later the game of football teaches you a life lesson, and for the Vikings, they have to gather themselves and figure out what that lesson is. At this point last season, the Vikings were 6-0 and the Giants beat them 29-17. What followed later was a complete collapse. The Vikings lost four in a row and seven of their last 10 to become the second team in league history to start 6-0 and blow the playoffs.

 This cannot happen again. This is a different team, right? Another season, and the Giants just happen to have their number right? Don’t pass it off without considering this: Randy Moss, for the second week in a row, could not play. His right hamstring won’t allow him to use his greatest gift, his legs. Next for the Vikings is the pressure spotlight of Monday Night Football and a date with Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts. 

 Now, the Colts have their own problems. They have lost two straight games, 27-24 to Jacksonville and 45-35 to Kansas City Sunday. So this game takes on even greater importance for both teams, who want to get the taste of defeat out of their system. Last year, Vikings owner Red McCombs scolded his team after the loss to New York, and you know the rest of the story. The team folded like a tent and missed the playoffs.

 Head Coach Mike Tice was reminded again last week that he is the lowest paid head coach in the NFL. Sports Illustrated reported recently that McCombs said he would discuss a long-term contract extension with Tice and exercise his option for $1 million.

 Tice said, “I don’t really worry about that stuff. I think the only ones that do worry about it are my wife and daughter. They comment about it all the time, how embarrassing it is. They’re mad it’s not being addressed.”

 As many of you are aware, I wrote about this issue weeks ago and pre-warned readers that it is a distraction to this team. Tice made a big mistake Saturday, before the Giants game. He introduced President George W. Bush, who was in town and who is being challenged for the White House by Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, to a huge gathering of 20,000 Republicans at Target Center.

 His mistake is that Bush might win reelection but Tice might lose his football team. I assure you that many of the Vikings players don’t feel the same way about Bush that Tice does. In my view, it’s another distraction that could have been avoided. After all, this is a young, impressionable football team.

 Politics and football do not mix, and just like the polls that indicate this presidential race is tight and too close to call, Vikings players and fans have different views on Bush.

 These are emotional and personal issues, the war and the economy, and Tice has made an emotional decision to do what he feels is right — support the president. But it exposes him to his players, who may not have the same convictions regarding Bush, and now regarding Tice because they view him differently. I have never identified the Vikings as Republicans.

 Well, by the time this column appears we will probably all know who wins the presidential race, Bush or Kerry. But in the case of the Vikings, it’s time to buckle up. The Colts, Packers, Lions and Jaguars are next.