The Minnesota Vikings, with Brett Favre under center, hosted the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.
And they won.
The Minnesota Twins hosted the Detroit Tigers in the same building in a do-or-die one-game playoff.
And they won. In 12 innings.
Apparently though, things aren't going well enough for Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, who basked in the glory of Minnesota sports on Monday not by predicting a big Vikings win and not by lauding the Twins for scrapping into a fight for an unlikely playoff berth. He didn't even talk about an athlete currently playing in Minnesota.
No, instead he wanted to talk about Randy Moss.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Rybak discussed the acceptance that Favre has gotten in Minnesota and why it has been successful thus far.
"I think there are some times when a fit just doesn't work with the team anymore," Rybak said. "Like Randy Moss may be the greatest receiver anywhere around, but I don't want that guy to ever come back into the city of Minneapolis again. He was a jerk when he was here, and, uh, Brett wasn't a jerk when he was [in Green Bay]. There's a different deal, but sometimes fits don't work in football. So, hey, he fits beautifully here and we are happy to take him."
Rybak went on ESPN's First Take on Wednesday to explain his statements, citing the 2002 incident in which he hit a city traffic officer with his vehicle.
Though Moss' indiscretion seven years ago was inarguably foolish, it seems odd that the mayor of the sports hub of the universe (for a few days) would bring any negativity whatsoever into a conversation about his city. Not to mention the fact that Moss was a major contributor in the Vikings' climb up the ranks of the NFL in the late '90s. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune pointed out that "because of Moss, the city's Metrodump started selling out again. In fact, it's no accident that the current streak of sellouts began when Moss was drafted in 1998."
Moss also didn't seem like much of a jerk after the Patriots beat the Ravens on Sunday, shifting most of the focus of his postgame news conference from his performance to the NFL's initiative to promote breast cancer awareness.
"Most importantly," Moss said, "I think that today was really focused on … We had a lot a lot of heavy hearts out there. What I mean by that, I mean, we had breast cancer awareness. … All week, [we heard] 'macho guys don’t wear pink, this and that,' but everybody wanted to wear pink.
"A lot of people jump on board after the fact," Moss continued. "But I think that guys were really feeling what today was about, playing with a heavy heart, we pulled it through and I think we can hang our hats on that. Keep rocking that pink."
Maybe Rybak is right in his belief, but Monday certainly wasn't the right time to talk about it.
