Post by comet52 on Jan 2, 2022 10:38:19 GMT -6
With Bud and Page, there was a feud in the media and fans were as always, divided. In the late 70's Page got into some unusual diet and his weight dropped, he was playing DT at like 215/220lbs and Bud didn't like it. It went into a back and forth in the newspapers which was really rare in those days. Page saying Bud was god to people and no one understood his pov, Grant just saying Page needed to be at football weight. Lotta division in the fan base over picking the hero DT or the hero coach. The resolution ultimately was Page left and finished his career with the Bears, though he lived out his life in Mpls and was on the state Supreme Court as a justice. Pretty sure those two still hate each other.
Schnelker was the OC under Jerry Burns and the fanbase got in a huge tizzy over his playcalling, leading to Burnsie's famous f-bomb filled rant at the presser. You couldn't turn on talk radio without people slagging Schnelker, the guy next to you in the bar wanted to argue about it. I think it was the first time I can remember fans getting upset about an assistant. Before that they just focused on the hc.
Denny - made a taped speech from some basement bunker at Winter Park I think, demanding part ownership of the franchise. Or maybe that was in a book he published, can't recall. But the bunker speech was definitely an infamous moment. Guys with better recall than me can probably do a better job with this stuff. He was in hot water I think over sexual harrasment allegations, or maybe they were directed at his buddy Richard Solly Solomon. A guy who he kept on staff as a favor and whose only contribution was basically ruining any young db who got near him. The details are hazy, but despite his crazy behavior, ownership kept him around. Those were the days of what we called the "Ten Headed Monster" - the ownership of the Vikings was a group, no one had a majority percentage, so they hired a guy named Roger Headrick to be the president of the franchise. Later McCombs bought the team from this group. His bidding competition was Glen Taylor. Look at how bad the Wolves are and count your blessings. Glen announced pre-bid that he had a fixed number he wouldn't go over, based on an accounting valuation of the team. Basically like telling Red "just bid this much and it's yours." Glen is a f*cking genius, but I digress...
The g.m. was a guy named Jeff Diamond and while he was not bad, he had no clue about cap management and the team was in total cap hell. When someone talks today about Kirk's contract or whatever I can only laugh because the one good thing about current management is Brez managing the cap- you could not ask for better.
That stuff is mostly team drama but it always trickles down to the fans and leads to arguments, just that we didn't really have the social media we have now. 90's was just the beginning of chat boards, that's all there was. Talk radio was still where most people who wanted to "participate" would go.
Anyhow other old farts with better memory can probably fill in more details and correct my false memory syndrome moments
... and neither is this Chris guy.