Saturday, February 19, 2011

Will This Epic End In Hollywood?

The following is a guest piece from Dan Buri, of TC Huddle.

The NFL season is wrapped up. The Green Bay Packers are clutching the Lombardi Trophy close, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and 30 other NFL teams lick their wounds. The NFL Players Association has recently agreed to mediation with the NFL in hopes of resolving their labor dispute and avoiding a lockout.

Quietly, in the northern most state in the continental U.S., another debate rages. One that may seem potentially futile with a lockout looming. One that many out of work Americans may find offensive, because while they struggle to make ends meet, the powers that be have the gall to ask for their money in the form of taxes. A debate that another city, over 1,500 miles to the Southwest, watches closely in the hope that the failure of one would become their success; in hope that they will finally fill a void that they’ve experienced for nearly 20 years. The debate is important, yet it is so minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Still, our story is straight out of the ancient epics and transformed into a modern day Greek tragedy. The setting has heroes and villains; preparations and battles; and a band of Norse warriors nearly tasting sweet victory only to see it slip like dust between their fingers. Devastation. There is a Legendary leader and his fiercest enemy coadjuting in Benedict Arnold-like fashion for a chance at supremacy. There is the former field general finding himself displaced by The Legend, while the leader of this northern nation suffers his dreadful demise at The Legend’s hands. There is a massive Coliseum-esque structure collapsing in a magnificent manner, leaving hundreds wandering Northern America in search of a new home. The story is replete with thrilling battles and crushing defeats, magic and wonder, illicit sex and tawdry images. 

Like every great Greek tragedy, though, seeming glory transforms into bitter despair. Leaders are destroyed. Dreams shattered. Almost as if John Woo was directing this story, The Legend suffers blow after blow from jealous enemies and somehow cannot be vanquished. Struggling to go on but too proud give up on his destiny, The Legend continues to fight. In the end, he suffers one blow too many. He can fight no longer. Victory comes, not to our band of Norse warriors, but instead to their most malevolent rivals. The Legend watches in despair as his former contingency, the one that he betrayed, marches on. He can only stare in disbelief as the leader that displaced him in his former land snatches up the destiny written for his name; a cruel twist of fate. Crushed, The Legend disappears into obscurity, the Fates cutting his thread short.

But the story is incomplete. While the larger world of the NFL argues over compensation structures and hopes to avoid a lockout, the smaller world of the Minnesota Vikings argues over a new stadium. Who will fund it? Where will it go? Will it happen at all? Will the aforementioned city to the Southwest, the one that stole the Minneapolis Lakers 51 years ago, now steal our NFL team and rename them the L.A. Vikings? Like any good cliffhanger, the struggle of The Legend was only one part of this epic. And so, Minnesotans wait with baited breath for the ending. While the rest of the NFL world hardly notices, Minnesota is focused on the simple yet complex issue that will decide whether their team remains in Minnesota or leaves forever. Is a new stadium going to be built for the Vikings?

Will our story be finished in devastating fashion by the pen of Aeschylus? Or will we find ourselves celebrating a Homeric victory in the end? As the immortal poet himself wrote in the words one of his greatest warriors, “No man, against my fate, sends me to Hades.” In the end, only the Vikings and Minnesota will be to blame if the great tragedian Aeschylus gets a hold of our story once more and we find ourselves in the Hades of L.A.



Dan Buri is an attorney for a global consulting firm. In addition to writing for various legal blogs, he muses about the adventures of marriage with his wife at Buris On The Couch and is a writer and chief editor for the Minnesota Sports blog TC Huddle.

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