Vikings blame weather for playoff loss

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Meeting the media after their disappointing 26-14 playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, members of the Minnesota Vikings readily acknowledged the sloppiness of their game, but were unwilling to take the full blame for their collapse.

“Did we make mistakes? Sure we did, no question about it,” much-maligned Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. “But I’ll tell you it’s really damn hard to throw accurately when it’s that freaking cold. I mean, your hands just don’t stick on the ball.

“You think Matt Birk just goes around snapping it into people’s feet? Hell no. He’s a consummate professional – that was a clear product of the cold and the snow. Yeah I threw an interception, but it’s not like I’m Chad Pennington. It’s below freezing here in Minnesota.”

To Jackson’s point, the weather in Minnesota has been twenty degrees or lower for quite a while, and the Saturday night preceding the game saw a sleeting snowfall. Nevertheless, Philadelphia players saw no merit in Jackson and his teammates’ complaints.

“Yeah it’s cold in Minneapolis, you don’t have to tell me that,” standout running back Brian Westbrook told SSNN. “But most of that effect is neutralized by playing inside a dome, don’t you think? I don’t know, I didn’t really notice the cold in there. Definitely not the snow.”

Despite the protection offered by a largely airtight dome, however, Minnesota’s players seem to agree that the area’s nasty weather played a big part in the team’s lack of success.

“I know I felt the wind pick up on Tarvaris’s interception, and I sure as hell saw Tarvaris slip in the snow and fall over when he was trying to tackle Asante Samuel,” Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson said. “I’m not trying to make excuses here – I’m just saying that if it wasn’t for the nasty weather, we probably would have won that game.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!