The Greatest Team Never to Make It: The 1998 Vikings
Jun 28, 2018 9:26:41 GMT -6
Reignman likes this
Post by Funkytown on Jun 28, 2018 9:26:41 GMT -6
The Greatest Team Never to Make It: An Oral History of the 1998 Vikings by Conor Orr
Plenty more at the link:
www.si.com/nfl/2018/06/27/1998-minnesota-vikings-randy-moss-randall-cunningham-cris-carter-dennis-green-gary-anderson
The Minnesota Vikings didn’t have a losing season from 1992 to ’97, though the team was becoming synonymous with its lack of playoff success—five times in those six years the Vikings went to the postseason, but only once did they make it even to the divisional round. Built by Dennis Green as a new-age Bill Walshian experiment, Minnesota seemed destined to become a forgettable subplot of the Aikman/Favre/Young/Elway/era.
That’s when Green started talking about a player who might fall to his team in the upcoming draft. The story of the 1998 Vikings, arguably one of the best and most heartbreaking teams in NFL history, begins here, 20 years ago …
Marie Green, Dennis’s wife: He had been talking about Randy Moss for weeks. He had his eye on him, and he was thinking, Wow, this could really happen. We could get this guy. He was so excited about Randy. Really, genuinely, he knew that Randy could make a difference for the Vikings, but he also wanted to give him a chance.
Cris Carter, Vikings wide receiver: Denny thought at the beginning of the day we were going to get him at 21. I didn’t think so. He had this feeling he was going to be there, and there was no question he was going to take him.
Brian Billick, Vikings offensive coordinator: I remember that morning, Denny came in and said “Hey, I think we’re getting Randy Moss.” I thought, OK, you’ve lost it. There’s no way we’re getting Randy Moss. To be honest with you, when you’re looking at players, I looked at Moss but not intensely because I thought there was no way we were going to get him.
Jeff Diamond, General Manager: I don’t know if we were confident until pick No. 21 came up because he was such a tremendous talent. We knew we had a good team, we’d been to the playoffs the year before and there were no glaring weaknesses on the team, especially offensively. So, I think our plan was to go defense, bulk up the defense, bulk up the pass rush, and just take the best defensive player or corner available to help in pass defense. That was the fallback.
In the draft on April 18, Dallas, the team many pegged as Moss’s landing spot, took linebacker Greg Ellis out of North Carolina at No. 8. The Tennessee Oilers at No. 16 took the draft’s first receiver, Kevin Dyson. Linebacker Brian Simmons went to the Bengals at 17, running back Robert Edwards to the Patriots at 18, Vonnie Holliday to the Packers at 19 and Terry Fair to the Lions at No. 20.
Brad Johnson, Vikings quarterback: I was in Destin, Fla., hanging out with Mark Richt, who was at Florida State, and we were also with Danny Kanell. As soon as we drafted him, Danny and Mark went nuts. They said “Brad, you’ve never seen a guy like this. You cannot throw the ball far enough. You cannot overthrow him.”
Don Banks, Vikings beat writer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Denny was like the Cheshire Cat, the cat who swallowed the canary, after they took Randy. He understood what Randy could do for that offense in a way that a lot of people didn’t.
Moss called Carter immediately after the draft and asked him to train together. Carter said he wouldn’t make any exceptions but would accommodate the rookie if he moved down to Florida and submitted to his routine. Moss and his agent put an offer on a house later that day.
The result was a refined product that showed up to camp in outstanding shape. Moss’s performances that spring and summer became something like the origin scenes in a superhero comic book.
Fred Zamberletti, former Vikings trainer: The first time I met Moss, he came to our minicamp, and he’s out there—they have him catching punts, and he’s dropping everything that comes to him. So I said afterward “You want to borrow my hands?” He said “What do you mean?” and I said, “I know what you were doing back there. You didn’t come here to return punts and didn’t want to give them any inkling that you could do it.” (Laughs). I like ole’ Moss.
Todd Steussie, Vikings tackle: We’re having our intrasquad scrimmage down in Mankato, it’s like the second Saturday of training camp, and Denny would divide the team up. It wasn’t full live [contact], but it was live on the running backs and receivers. Tackle to the ground. Yellow jersey for the quarterbacks. So Randy was on the other team, and I remember watching him on a play where Randall Cunningham whipped the ball out—he was rushed in his throw and he chucked it in the air. It looked like a wildly overthrown pass, and Randy just somehow ran under it. He caught up to a ball that was just thrown downfield to get it out of Randall’s hands.
So Randy came to the sideline after that, and we always joked about how fast he was. And I asked him, “So was that fifth gear?” And he just looks at me without saying anything and flashes three fingers. Third gear. I’m like, dang.
Brad Johnson: I got healthy for training camp, and after the third practice we just said “Let’s see if we can out-throw him.” We just stood around taking five-step drops, launching the ball as far as we could. We couldn’t make it happen. He caught everything unless we line-drived it.
And this is the crazy thing. Randy told me later on, “I’m never running full speed unless it’s Deion Sanders or Darryl Green.” He said “I’m just setting them up. Throw it out there and I’ll get it.”
Robert Smith, Vikings running back: My agent called me on the first lunch break of the first training camp practice and said “How’s Randy look?” And I told him, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” I had a track background, ran in a race against Carl Lewis. I’ve never seen anyone like Randy. I’ve never seen anyone as smooth. I told my agent after that first practice that if he stayed healthy, he’d be in the Hall of Fame.
The Vikings finished undefeated in the preseason, outscoring opponents 129-50, the highest margin of any team that summer. While the preseason is not necessarily an indicator of what’s to come, those inside the Vikings locker room had a feeling that this team was special. Everyone, except maybe for Moss, was preparing for a career-defining ride as the Vikings throttled the Buccaneers in the season-opener and went on to win their first seven games by a combined total of 125 points.
That’s when Green started talking about a player who might fall to his team in the upcoming draft. The story of the 1998 Vikings, arguably one of the best and most heartbreaking teams in NFL history, begins here, 20 years ago …
Marie Green, Dennis’s wife: He had been talking about Randy Moss for weeks. He had his eye on him, and he was thinking, Wow, this could really happen. We could get this guy. He was so excited about Randy. Really, genuinely, he knew that Randy could make a difference for the Vikings, but he also wanted to give him a chance.
Cris Carter, Vikings wide receiver: Denny thought at the beginning of the day we were going to get him at 21. I didn’t think so. He had this feeling he was going to be there, and there was no question he was going to take him.
Brian Billick, Vikings offensive coordinator: I remember that morning, Denny came in and said “Hey, I think we’re getting Randy Moss.” I thought, OK, you’ve lost it. There’s no way we’re getting Randy Moss. To be honest with you, when you’re looking at players, I looked at Moss but not intensely because I thought there was no way we were going to get him.
Jeff Diamond, General Manager: I don’t know if we were confident until pick No. 21 came up because he was such a tremendous talent. We knew we had a good team, we’d been to the playoffs the year before and there were no glaring weaknesses on the team, especially offensively. So, I think our plan was to go defense, bulk up the defense, bulk up the pass rush, and just take the best defensive player or corner available to help in pass defense. That was the fallback.
In the draft on April 18, Dallas, the team many pegged as Moss’s landing spot, took linebacker Greg Ellis out of North Carolina at No. 8. The Tennessee Oilers at No. 16 took the draft’s first receiver, Kevin Dyson. Linebacker Brian Simmons went to the Bengals at 17, running back Robert Edwards to the Patriots at 18, Vonnie Holliday to the Packers at 19 and Terry Fair to the Lions at No. 20.
Brad Johnson, Vikings quarterback: I was in Destin, Fla., hanging out with Mark Richt, who was at Florida State, and we were also with Danny Kanell. As soon as we drafted him, Danny and Mark went nuts. They said “Brad, you’ve never seen a guy like this. You cannot throw the ball far enough. You cannot overthrow him.”
Don Banks, Vikings beat writer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Denny was like the Cheshire Cat, the cat who swallowed the canary, after they took Randy. He understood what Randy could do for that offense in a way that a lot of people didn’t.
Moss called Carter immediately after the draft and asked him to train together. Carter said he wouldn’t make any exceptions but would accommodate the rookie if he moved down to Florida and submitted to his routine. Moss and his agent put an offer on a house later that day.
The result was a refined product that showed up to camp in outstanding shape. Moss’s performances that spring and summer became something like the origin scenes in a superhero comic book.
Fred Zamberletti, former Vikings trainer: The first time I met Moss, he came to our minicamp, and he’s out there—they have him catching punts, and he’s dropping everything that comes to him. So I said afterward “You want to borrow my hands?” He said “What do you mean?” and I said, “I know what you were doing back there. You didn’t come here to return punts and didn’t want to give them any inkling that you could do it.” (Laughs). I like ole’ Moss.
Todd Steussie, Vikings tackle: We’re having our intrasquad scrimmage down in Mankato, it’s like the second Saturday of training camp, and Denny would divide the team up. It wasn’t full live [contact], but it was live on the running backs and receivers. Tackle to the ground. Yellow jersey for the quarterbacks. So Randy was on the other team, and I remember watching him on a play where Randall Cunningham whipped the ball out—he was rushed in his throw and he chucked it in the air. It looked like a wildly overthrown pass, and Randy just somehow ran under it. He caught up to a ball that was just thrown downfield to get it out of Randall’s hands.
So Randy came to the sideline after that, and we always joked about how fast he was. And I asked him, “So was that fifth gear?” And he just looks at me without saying anything and flashes three fingers. Third gear. I’m like, dang.
Brad Johnson: I got healthy for training camp, and after the third practice we just said “Let’s see if we can out-throw him.” We just stood around taking five-step drops, launching the ball as far as we could. We couldn’t make it happen. He caught everything unless we line-drived it.
And this is the crazy thing. Randy told me later on, “I’m never running full speed unless it’s Deion Sanders or Darryl Green.” He said “I’m just setting them up. Throw it out there and I’ll get it.”
Robert Smith, Vikings running back: My agent called me on the first lunch break of the first training camp practice and said “How’s Randy look?” And I told him, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” I had a track background, ran in a race against Carl Lewis. I’ve never seen anyone like Randy. I’ve never seen anyone as smooth. I told my agent after that first practice that if he stayed healthy, he’d be in the Hall of Fame.
The Vikings finished undefeated in the preseason, outscoring opponents 129-50, the highest margin of any team that summer. While the preseason is not necessarily an indicator of what’s to come, those inside the Vikings locker room had a feeling that this team was special. Everyone, except maybe for Moss, was preparing for a career-defining ride as the Vikings throttled the Buccaneers in the season-opener and went on to win their first seven games by a combined total of 125 points.
Plenty more at the link:
www.si.com/nfl/2018/06/27/1998-minnesota-vikings-randy-moss-randall-cunningham-cris-carter-dennis-green-gary-anderson
Isn't that what you do when you're that high on someone? I mean really, they just sat there hoping he'd fall to 21? Yowzers. Well aren't they lucky it worked out?
Isn't that what you do when you're that high on someone? I mean really, they just sat there hoping he'd fall to 21? Yowzers. Well aren't they lucky it worked out?
Someone gave me a "good question" over on YT the other day, but I can't remember what it was about. I should've pinned it on the fridge. One more and I'm entitled to an "oh sh*t". Because I've been told by a former boss that it takes 3 "at-a-boys" to make up for a single "oh sh*t".
The '98 Vikings ranked 109th (out of 1805 teams since 1960) with a 74.89 score (79.84 on offense and 4.95 on defense), lowest score on defense is better. The 2009 team ranked 167th with a 66.2 score (44.5 on offense -21.7 on defense). But the 2017 team was better than both ranking in at 109th, with a 77.14 score (21.74 on offense, -55.41 on defense).
... and neither is this Chris guy.