Remember When Tom Clancy Almost Owned the Vikings?

Remember that time when Tom Clancy almost owned the Minnesota Vikings? Because I sure don't. And it's not like it was decades ago, it was only back in ……. 1998 … Which … Oh God, that was 15 years ago?! What have I done with my life?!

Anyway, this Daily Reminiscent is being brought up because Mr. Clancy passed away this week at the tender age of 66, the same age that Brett Favre played his last down of football with the Vikings. So it seemed like a fair time to dig back into the history books and pull out the details on this one.

In the early 1990's, the Minnesota Vikings more closely resembled the Green Bay Packers than the Vikings you know currently. By that, I of course mean that the people who actually "owned" the Vikings were a bunch of weirdoes that you've never heard of, and who probably smell like cattle. From Carl Pohlad (that tax-cheating, chummy local baseball owner!) to some dude named John Skoglund, the Vikings ownership was a mess. Rightfully so, this collection of part-time rich guys and gals decided to shove ownership off onto another fool.

That's where Tom Clancy comes in. In 1998 he actually had the winning bid to purchase the Vikings, but then a WOMAN tore down his dreams. Because Clancy divorced her. And questions about his money were brought up. And he couldn't own an NFL team anymore. Or something. But we were this close to renaming the franchise THE MINNESOTA H.A.W.X. and from playing in the GHOST RECON DOME, all of which would have been awesome.

I mean, think about all the cool people Clancy had access to, right? Sean Connery would have been the Vikings biggest fan instead of Josh Duhamel, thanks to the "Hunt for Red October" ties. We could have gotten Ben Affleck to probably play quarterback for us at one point, and Willem Dafoe to be the grimy old ball coach on the sidelines. GOD THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME. But no, simply because a man decides to get a divorce, he can't own a football team anymore. It's thought he won't have enough income to put towards and NFL franchise, because he won't go on to develop a trillion dollars through the video game industry, either. YOU MORONS.

Anyway. Instead of Clancy, the team went into the sweaty palms of Red McCombs, then to the finger pinching hands of Zygi Wilf. Now tell me, during any of that time, wouldn't you have rather had a dude like Clancy at the helm? There would have been so much more intrigue.