Voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, made keen observation ahead of Sunday’s game vs. the Seahawks, and it should leave fans in Minnesota very concerned
Zygi and Mark Wilf weren’t on the sidelines for possibly the first time ever before the game, and that raises a major red flag.
The Minnesota Vikings are now 4-8 this season, and their play has been one of the worst we’ve seen in team history. People are invoking the disastrous 1984 season, when Les Steckel was head coach, and they went 3-13 and had to bring back Bud Grant one year after he retired.
It’s been awful to watch this team at times, especially on offense. The carousel of quarterbacks with J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer has been a huge factor in their lack of success. Not having competent quarterback play has cost them at least four wins. Despite the 26-0 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, another factor was arguably the bigger cause for concern coming out of their fourth consecutive loss.
Absence of owners Zygi and Mark Wilf raises cause for concern
One thing that is commonplace for the Vikings is having owners Zygi and Mark Wilf on the sidelines pregame. Voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, has been calling Vikings games for the past 26 seasons, and has been the only radio broadcaster for the 20 years the Wilfs have been the owners.
This is critical context, as Allen noticed something very peculiar. The Wilfs weren’t on the sidelines for the game on Sunday against the Seahawks.
“In all the times I’ve been on pregame sidelines for Minnesota Vikings football games, and that’s a lot of times,” said Allen on his Monday morning radio show. “Yeah, with respect to those listening in Eagan and New Jersey, don’t kill the messenger. I’m the announcer trying to make everybody, including you, smile. The first time in all the ventures of tracing sidelines two hours and 15 minutes, up to about an hour and 10 minutes before football games, I didn’t see a member of the Wilf family on the sideline yesterday.”
Normally, something like that wouldn’t be a major cause for concern, because there aren’t many people who have been with the Vikings’ organization for 20 consecutive seasons. That is something Allen has over everyone else.
“The next line was the one that God probably chose to eliminate, because it may have been dicey for the future of nine to noon and yours truly,” continued Allen. “And it was something like, if I’m within the walls of TCO PC (TCO Performance Center), I take notice. I take notice when you don’t see any of them down there.”
Could this mean that wholesale changes are coming for the Vikings? It wouldn’t be the first time that the lack of ownership presence meant significant changes were coming across the NFL. After having this bad a season with all of the resources the owners put in, it is certainly worthy of discussion.
It’s no surprise there is internal frustration, even if it’s not outward. They want to win a Super Bowl, and that’s not happening anytime soon. This will be something to monitor, as there could be significant changes.