Apparently, into the fourth day of the hostage, one Minny sports writer, Judd Zulgad, is cracking under the immense burden:
I have received various forms of communications from readers in the past few days expressing their displeasure with our coverage of the Brett Favre story and the fact that much of this is a media creation and until the Vikings or Favre say something definte about this they don’t want to hear or read it.
If I disagreed with this line of thinking at one point, I don’t anymore.
It has come time for the Vikings and Favre to both step up and address this issue. Not later, right now. Take the sources and the guessing out of it.
Favre might be a long shot to do this — although at the moment a great legacy is circling the drain — but the Vikings owe this to their fan base, many of whom are trying to decide whether they want to purchase tickets for next season and are trying to pay bills in a horrible economy. There is simply nothing for the Vikings to hide behind when it comes to this situation.
Favre is under contract to no one and tampering rules do not apply. Favre is not being sought by a handful of teams and would only play for the Vikings. Thus, there is absolutely no competitive disadvantage to telling the fans what in the heck is going on. The Denver Broncos at least kept updating their fans on the Jay Cutler situation. It isn’t rocket science to issue statements.
If the economy was great, the Vikings were assured of selling out games and this team had been to the playoffs the past five seasons, maybe they could hide behind the old, “We know what’s best and will talk when we want.” None of this is true and at the end of the day the Vikings are trying to sell a product to a public that right now they are shutting out.
In this economy nobody can afford to be that cocky. It’s not good business.
I don’t blame Brad Childress, Rick Spielman and Co., for not wanting to talk but sometimes the business side of things is more important than the football operations. Zygi Wilf didn’t get filthy rich by not having business savvy and right now he needs to put it to use.
The Vikings owe the public a statement on where things stand. They don’t owe that statement to the Star Tribune, ESPN, the Pioneer Press or any other media outlet. Nobody deserves the scoop on this. That statement should go to every media outlet that serves Vikings fans.
The same fans that purchase merchandise, buy tickets and spend time on this and many other blogs. The people that in reality help pay the bills at Winter Park. Right now, those people are getting a raw deal.
http://blogs.startribune.com/vikingsblog/