In the Star Tribune Jim Souhan recounts the long, sad saga of Minnesota’s quest for a franchise quarterback after Fran Tarkenton retired:
Vikings fans like to claim they are cursed by big-game losses, but losing in excruciating fashion isn’t a curse, it’s the nature of sport for all but a lucky few franchises.
If they want to claim a curse, they should cite their quarterback history, which features as many hospital gowns as game jerseys.
Sam Bradford’s knee isn’t just sore. It’s the aching juncture of an existential threat to this year’s team and the franchise’s near future.
Since Fran Tarkenton retired, the Vikings have been scrambling like Sir Francis to fill the position.
Some franchises can brag about multiple greats. Joe Montana and Steve Young. Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger.
The Vikings counter with Spergon Wynn and Christian Ponder.
[…]
The Vikings have won one playoff game in the past 13 seasons. And that came with a renegade Packer making a cameo.
The Vikings haven’t won a playoff game with a quarterback they drafted since Daunte Culpepper beat the Packers in the 2004 playoffs.
The past two quarterbacks drafted by the Vikings to play in a Super Bowl: Brad Johnson with the Buccaneers, and Rich Gannon with the Raiders.
Other than Culpepper, the Vikings haven’t won a playoff game with a quarterback they drafted since Wade Wilson beat the Saints in the 1987 playoffs.
And if greatness and Super Bowl championships are the goal, this may be the most damning piece of history of all for the Vikings:
They haven’t drafted a quarterback who would make the Hall of Fame since 1961.
The Vikings’ current roster features two potential franchise quarterbacks, Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater. Both have knee injuries that threaten the team’s season and possibly their careers.
Either could theoretically be the starting quarterback at the end of this season and the beginning of next. But the team has to fear that neither will be able to recover well enough to be the players they are capable of being.
The last true franchise quarterback the Vikings employed, Culpepper, also had his career path ruined by a knee injury.
