The Vikings Miss The Pick
I hope you guys are ready for a lot of Laterals this month. I got a backup of topics now and outside Fitz/Gore retiring (next week’s business).
Anyway, I saw this one suggested a few times, but it’s also not as well-known a blunder as you’d expect it to be. In 2003 the Vikings were on the clock at #7. They tried to get a trade with Baltimore done, but it didn’t become official, and then the clock ran out. The Vikings missed it. Pretty sure it’s the only time in modern history this has happened. From the sound of things, Baltimore didn’t commit to the trade in time, and when the Vikings realized the trade wasn’t official, it was too late and they didn’t have a backup plan to pick somebody.
Sadly, this did not result in the Vikings simply being denied a pick as the rules of “You Snooze You Lose” clearly state. The Vikings were told they could make their first-round pick at any time now. Clearly flustered, it took the Vikings dropping two more picks to finally make their own pick at #9. They picked DT Kevin Williams, which thankfully ended up being a good choice. If the pick had busted, this blunder would probably be more well remembered. It is a small but funny moment in draft history.
It also belongs on the incredible “Minnesota Vikings Franchise Blunders” hall of fame wall. I think a lot of laterals are going to be about the Vikings. I’ve already made two about Vikings stuff prior to this, the Randy Moss Moon and Sex Boat. Other highlights include 41-donut, the Gary Anderson Miss, losing 4 super bowls, Favre throwing across his body, the stadium roof collapse, Blair Walsh shank (technically also had a comic), the Wrong Way Run, The Hershell Walker trade, 4th and 24 against the Cardinals, Josh Freeman, and probably more I’m forgetting. Not every moment in Vikings history is laughably bitter sadness, but you’d have to do some work to find the few teams with more famous bloopers.
Also, apropos of nothing, Mike Tice is absolutely the kinda guy who would take a 40-minute dump and then proudly strut out of the bathroom and tell everyone about it.
The Too Much Mustard archives cover Josh Freeman on the Vikings pretty well. But what about the OG Hail Mary in ’75
The fact that you could literally remake an old comics into a lateral is just insane dude. Still don’t understand how you’ve been doing this for nearly 10 whole years now.
The best thing to happen for the Carolina Panthers was the Vikings skipping their pick. Being able to get Jordan Gross and anchor the LT position for 10 years. Too bad the Panthers learned nothing and just made it harder.
If I’m not mistaken, all of this was centered around Baltimore trying to trade up for Byron Leftwich. After it happened, Jacksonville swooped in and drafted him immediately.
You obviously mentioned Kevin Williams but Baltimore flaking out ended up benefitting them as well considering they took Terrell Suggs with the 10th pick. In the end, Jacksonville was the team that got screwed despite it looking like they might have gotten the steal of the century at the time. Funny how things work out.
It happened again in 2011 and also involved Baltimore. They were trying to make a trade with the Bears and thought they had a deal. Chicago never confirmed the trade with the NFL (two staffers reportedly thought the other were going to do that), so it was never official. Unlike the Vikes in 2003, the Ravens GM was still able to get his pick in before the next team called in a selection.
This is not the only time in history this happened. In 2011, the Ravens tried to make a deal with the Bears, but the bears never reported the trade and time expired. The Chiefs then picked Jon Baldwin with what should have been the Ravens’ pick, and the Ravens picked Jimmy Smith with the next pick. All in all the Ravens came out the better part, even though the Chiefs got to leapfrog them.
I don’t actually believe it, but I have read that the Vikings did this intentionally. The ownership wanted to save cash, and the front office wanted to save cap space. (This was prior to the rookie wage scale.) So they let their time eclipse and took their guy two spots lower. If true it would make the sequence of events more of a dick move than a boondoggle.
Huh, never heard that one before. It actually DOES make some semblance of sense, if they were willing to gamble on their guy still being available a few spots lower just to save a few pennies. But I’m 50/50 on whether they deserve that kind of faith in their collective mental capacity.
Absolutely love this comic but my head canon will always feature Tice with a pencil nestled safety behind one ear.
How did the constipated NFL coach solve his problem? He worked it out with a pencil!
It’s reported that the phone line was busy when the Ravens were trying to call the trade into the league office (and rumors were the Jaguars were doing that intentionally because the Ravens wanted Leftwich) In following years, the league would add more phone lines.
If you gonna be doing all laterals in a desperate attempt to successfully complete the offseason, you may as well do “The Play” and/or “River City Relay”.
an entire comic about poo
well done, dave