Vikings seem destined to suffer more than others

The Minneapolis front yard seems a colder place than it was last week when it was covered by snow and there hung a purple Vikings flag at half-staff as the Minnesota Vikings lost their NFC champion to the New Orleans Saints, a woeful memory to all those who were watching the game in their beloved purple and while Vikings jerseys.

After losing four Super Bowls in the 1970s, the Vikings are now 0-5 in NFC championship games. No matter if the loss was because of the too-many-men-in-the-huddle penalty that infamously preceded Brett Favre’s interception or the three lost fumbles earlier, the Vikings familiarly lost the most critical game despite dominating the Saints in total yardage. Many Vikings supporters can’t help feeling like their sports-fan souls are somehow destined to suffer as much as or more than any others.

“It kind of feels like it doesn’t it?” said Randy Komorouski of Rosemount. “I grew up with all the Super Bowl losses, so, yeah, it’s like they’re snakebite a little bit.”

As the Saints are to fight for their first Super Bowl Championship against the Indianapolis Colts this weekend, what the Vikings fans all could do is to keep their hope for next season. Some day they will make it, just believe it.

Saints RB Bush is overcoming his youth while career continues

When putting on the New Orleans Saints jersey in 2006 as the second pick of first round, Reggie Bush was just 21 years old. But just in his very first season, he helped lead the Saints to the NFC title game, and three years to now, he is still playing important role in leading the Saints to the Super Bowl.




Although he failed to be even the Saints’ second-leading rusher in 2009 and has been bothered by left knee injuries for parts of the last three seasons, Bush remains capable of brilliance: he exploded for 217 all-purpose yards in the Saints’ divisional-round win vs. the Cardinals, bursting away for an 83-yard punt return for a score and breaking tackles and sprinting away from the Arizona defense on his way to a 46-yard TD run.

When Bush won the Heisman Trophy as a junior at USC in 2005, Saints head coach Sean Payton predicted that youth was a hurdle he had to overcome early in his career. And now Bush is to turn 25 by March, Payton said “Reggie’s developed his overall understanding of what we are doing.”

Drew Brees’ mother died of suicide

Three months after the death of Mina Brees, the mother of New Orleans Saints quarterback Brew Brees, a coroner concluded this week that the death was a suicide as the woman died of a prescription drug overdose.




Grand County coroner Brenda Bock said Brees died while staying at the home of a friend in Granby near Rocky Mountain National Park. And according to reports, the Texas attorney general’s office subpoenaed her business records three days before the death.

She allegedly sent letters to some restaurants in Austin and Houston stating that they had lost their rights to use their names to a company she represented, Chicksports, but they could win the rights back by paying up to $25,000.

Besides, relationship between Drew Brees and his mother were strained at times since the quarterback refused to hire his mother as his agent six years ago. And Brew Brees used to call the relationship “nonexistent”.

Jets waived punter Parrish and LB Mauga, claiming punter Pakulak

On Friday, the New York Jets announced that that they have claimed punter Glenn Pakulak off waivers from New Orleans, and waived punter Ken Parrish and linebacker Josh Mauga, in an attempt to end worries about the team’s punters.

Previously, Parrish was working with Reggie Hodges on the punter, but coach Rex Ryan has said that their performance was not satisfying. Both Parrish and Mauga were signed by the Jets on Aug. 16.

Pakulak was waived the next day by the Saints after he played eight regular-season games for the team. He used to stay with several other NFL teams and play in NFL Europe.