Daunte Culpepper

People (all right, nobody) have been asking me what I think of the whole Daunte situation. So here it is, very briefly.
I feel betrayed.
I’ve gone on record, twice, supporting Daunte. First, I said that he needed his chance to be a leader, and that Randy Moss had tainted his first half decade in the league. All of this, I still believe, is true. What I didn’t know, was that he was irrevocably tainted. Then I defended him after his rough start. He faced tough teams, didn’t have an offensive line and got arrested for alledgedly receiving a lap dance (ohmigod, he’s a male in his 20’s and he’s acting like it!). Brad Johnson came in and won some games against really stout teams, like the Lions, and everyone said that Culpepper was done in Minnesota. Except me. But I was wrong.
Daunte Culpepper gave up. He snuck an e-mail to the press revealing that he had enough and wanted out. The fact that I believed in him, and he gave up on the Vikings and Minneapolis, I’m left feeling betrayed.
Now, by the way, that leaves three out of four teams in Minnesota with a star player vocalizing his displeasure. Culpepper with the Vikings (while fans circled the wagons around Brad Johnson), Torii Hunter with the Twins (while Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are worshipped as though they are the second coming of Harmon Killebrew) and Kevin Garnett with the Timberwolves (who is eliciting a new round of sighs and ‘not agains’, while Wally Szcerbiak’s departure almost caused a flood, what with all the weeping). But no, I’m sure there isn’t a race problem in Minnesota. In any case, that’s something for another post.