Goodbye Mr. Tice

Goodbye Mr. Tice, we hardly knew yee.

It’s kind of hard to believe, but big Mike is no longer the Vikings head coach.

Even though his tenure was a wild rollercoaster ride right to the end, I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut.

The birds aren’t singing, the bells aren’t ringing, and even beer doesn’t taste too good right now.

It’s more than he’s just gone; it’s the completely classless way in which the Wilfs’ dispatched him.

Just one hour after an NFL victory over the Bears, Zygi drops the guillotine on his neck. The media has the story before the players, coaches, and even Tice’s family.

Shame on you Mr. Wilf!

This tacky behavior could be expected from your predecessor, but not from someone asking for $750 million from MN taxpayers.

That lack of dignity may play well in New York, but I assure you sir, it does not sit well in Minnesota, even to the most casual fans.

Now, I say this as someone who had up until last week wanted Tice fired for other reasons, most notably, his Super Bowl ticket scalping fiasco. My thought is; if a guy who’s making $1M per year risks everything to pick up an extra few thousand, what kind of judgment does he possess?

And what sort of culture does that instill in his team?

Well, I guess we found out on Lake Minnetonka.

So I had gone from an early supporter, to wanting him fired before this season…until last week.

I was traveling over the Christmas holiday, and I heard on the radio a very revealing comment by Tice, that sort of balanced out all of his weakness’ (clock management skills #1, although this year he finally showed signs of improvement) and I thought let’s give him one more year.

He was asked about why he took a chance bringing in a troubled Koren Robinson (who had an All-Pro year), and he said he’d talked to many athletes over his career who refused to take responsibility for their actions; they always blamed others for their problems.

Not Koren. He said Koren told him he’d hit rock bottom and only wanted a chance, and the rest is indeed history.

I think that says as much about Tice, as it does about Robinson.

Were there legitimate reasons to let Tice go? Of course.

Was there any reason to let him go in the unceremonious manner Mr. Wilf chose? Of course not.

Mr. Wilf, up until Sunday, you had impressed me as a new owner. So as Mr. Tice had redeemed himself in my eyes, will you be able to as well?

It’s not so much what you did, as much has how you did it.

You should have taken a course on “Minnesota Nice,” before you fired Mr. Tice.

Then again, maybe you thought you did, by monitoring the U of MN’s adroit handling of Glen Mason’s contract (that was a joke- literally).

Maybe “Minnesota Nice” has been replaced by “Minnesota Incompetence,” and I just missed it.

Jim Haslett caused Hurricane Katrina!

Regarding Mike Tice losing his Vikings head coaching job, see my 10-31-05 post, and check this site in the very near future.

We all know Tice was handicapped by not being allowed by ol' Red to hire a real offensive coordinator, but think about poor Saints coach Jim Haslett.

He was handicapped by not having a home.

After New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, he had no home field advantage and no hometown crowd. For most of their "home" games, they played in Texas, so they didn't even have a home state crowd.

They set a new NFL record by playing 16 strait road games!

So owner Tom Benson fired Haslett. Why?

Because he obviously knows that Jim Haslett caused Hurricane Katrina!