The 1998 Season

Note: 1998 was the second season that I wrote down thoughts the entire year. Therefore, the 1998 season summary will come in multiple additions to my blog. Today's 1998 entry will be June and the Ownership Battle thoughts.

Clancy Denied: Ownership Battle Renewed

I was in Phoenix two weeks back on business and as usual worked late each day. Lying on my bed, finally resting, I would vegetate in front of the television.

One evening as I flipped through the various channels available at my resort hotel, I came across an all-time classic, Patton. Early in the movie, George C. Scott, as the volatile World War II commander, directs his driver to a deserted battlefield, littered with shards and stones from a millennia-old massacre of Carthaginians by Roman legions.

"Two thousand years ago, I was here," muses Patton. In the background, unobtrusively, though hauntingly rendered, is a somber, scintillating ghostly piece of music marked by soft trumpet flourishes and the steady throb of a bass drum. And the musical score put me in deep thought. Yes, here we are again as in a time before.

Again, we must battle through another ownership bidding war, possibly just as hard on us, the troops, as it was earlier in the year. Which general will emerge to take the Viking legions to the ultimate victory?

Shruti Misra: Last time I checked, a person still couldn’t make a snowball in Hell, and that’s about the odds of this bid being accepted. Her first bid was under the $200 million minimum asking price and with a built in clause to move the team. The next bid was reportedly at $225 million but is structured improperly. The present ownership has stated that it won’t be the highest bid that wins, but the one they feel is best for the team and community. This isn’t it.

Carl Pohlad: Valued at over $1.3 billion, Carl is the one of the richest of possible bidders. That’s great for the slew of free agents we have next year but Carl was never one to easily part with his money. I think Carl would like to own the Vikings so that he can rework the Metrodome lease in favor of himself…and the Twins. I don’t want the Vikings taking a back seat to baseball. I also wonder what will happen when Carl passes away (God rest his soul) within the next 5 to 10 years. Will there be a legal battle all over again for ownership of the team? Chances are yes, and that’s why I really don’t like Carl as Viking owner. But thanks, Carl, for those World Series championships in ’87 and ’91!

Roger Headrick: It is really a matter of finance that you find Roger so far down my list. He just does not have the money unless he recruits a ton of minority owners and then we’re really back where we started, aren’t we? Roger’s heart is in the right place. He’s always wanted what is best for the team and the fans but has been hindered in the past by the other nine owners on the Viking board. And the mere mention of Headrick brings to mind the Alabama connection we have all read about. Would Roger move the team to Alabama eventually? I doubt it, but I don’t want to roll the dice either. Headrick could become a compromise candidate if the remaining nine lock up votes between Glen Taylor and J. Bruce Llewellyn or Red McCombs. And Headrick has NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in his corner. Consider Headrick a dark horse.

Red McCombs: I favored McCombs during the last season when this all started. But keep in mind the only other name mentioned as a possible bidder at that time was Mike Lynn. McCombs is worth $1 billion and the name Two Minute Tommy Kramer has been mentioned as a possible part of the McCombs team. Wouldn’t you just love to see the Vikings driving down the field late in the fourth quarter with Kramer’s head hanging out the owner’s box yelling, "Just throw the damn ball already, Billick, you moron!" And McCombs owns FOX29 in the Twin Cities so you know he would advertise this team from sun-up to sun-down, something that I have wanted for several years. So what’s bad about Red? If a car salesman looks you straight in the eye and says, "Son, I would never, ever move this team out of Minnesota," are you going to believe him or will you, like me, get that squirmy feeling in your underwear, just like when your wife asks you, "Do you think I’m fat"?

J. Bruce Llewellyn: I like this guy very, very much. He’s my kind of guy. Started small and made it big. He’s got the money, reportedly worth over $900 million. And wouldn’t you just love the Cola War on November 26 this year when the Coke-endorsed Minnesota Vikings demolish the Jerry Jones/Pepsi-endorsed Dallas Cowboys on national television? Yikes! But there are several things wrong with the Llewellyn proposed bid. The reported offer is less than the minimum $200 million. It does not involve a 100 percent sale of stock, another requirement. And it involves Lynn, a man whose motives always appear genuinely for the good of the team but down the line always turn out to have been the best for himself. The man is still making $1 million per year off the Dome lease he wrote a decade ago.

Glen Taylor: Yes, I have saved the best for last. Or at least whom I consider the best of the bunch thus far. At the beginning of 1998, Taylor was reported to be worth over $1.5 billion. So there is no worry about the coming up with money. Since that time, Wall Street's love of printing companies has grown stronger, and Taylor's company has become even more valuable. Using the estimates of DeWese, who consults on printing company deals nationally with Compass Capital Advisors in Radnor, Pa., and a revenue figure of $900 million, Taylor Corp. could be worth $2 billion, after subtracting its relatively modest corporate debt. That would value Taylor's ownership interest at $1.78 billion, making him the richest Minnesotan. Already a saint in the Twin Cities for saving the Timberwolves franchise from moving to New Orleans, Taylor would most assuredly keep the team in Minnesota. No question about it. And Taylor would be the perfect owner. He just signs the pay checks and hands over the operations to those nearest the game. With the Timberwolves, Taylor hired Duluth native and Boston Celtic great Kevin McHale to run the show. Rest assured that Taylor would bring in a football-minded person, very close to the game, to be the Viking GM. He’s talking with, and has the endorsement of, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. A possible new lease for the Dome could be in the works since both parties are on friendly terms. Taylor’s marketing department is ready to move in and sell the Vikings to a community hungry for the season to start. So what’s my reservation about Taylor? One name, Leslie Alexander, the Houston Rockets basketball team owner. Should Taylor, God forbid, meet an untimely death or sell his share of the team, Alexander could feasibly become majority owner by just purchasing an additional five percent. Then it would be a matter of time for a rare losing season to come along and dwindle the ticket base, giving Alexander the impetus to move the team to Texas. But Taylor receives my endorsement, albeit not a ringing one. And he is certainly capable of being the General Patton we need to go toe-to-toe with the Sports Commission and the minority owners he will have under him. Meet Glen "The Tank" Taylor, new majority owner of the Minnesota Vikings.

How The Central Division Was Formatted

I came across a little known fact the other day I thought I would share with everyone. After the merger with the AFL, the old NFL had to be reduced to three divisions, but the owners couldn’t agree on how. (Some things never change!) So the alignment of the NFC was determined by none other than commissioner Pete Rozelle’s secretary, Thelma Elkjer. When eight months after the merger found the owners still stalemated, Rozelle came up with a decision-making process. He had his secretary reach into a vase and pick one of five plans. She pulled out plan number three. It was the only one that kept the black-and-blue division (Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, and Minnesota) intact. If she’d selected any of the other four, the Vikings would have been in the Eastern Division. Earlier there had been nine plans. The possibilities were positively absurd. Two broke up the Bears-Packers rivalry. Another put Philadelphia and Detroit in the West. The current set-up isn’t perfect, but it could have been a lot worse. Thanks, Thelma!