Honor code? We don't need no stinking honor code

Ah, Monday Night Football and a double-header at that! (Heh, double-header in a game involving Fred Smoot... Good times.)

First and foremost - what the fuck was that opening about? Really, who green-lit that monstrosity? First there's a city, then people run and turn into football players and whatnot? Honestly, I'm confused and a little ashamed to be a football fan right now.

I swore off the talk radio today, opting instead to listen to the iPod and new songs downloaded this weekend. Besides, it's been the same song and dance all month regarding the Vikes. That, and you really have a hard time gauging a team until Week 3 at the earliest - it gets to be a little grating after a while.

Pretty much all I need to know about this year's team is that Brad Johnson is the face of it on ESPN right now.

Yeah, Viking fever, catch it!

Aside from that, they cut their top wideout because of personal problems and they might have to scrape their punter off the field after he was just laid out after a bad snap on their first score of the 2006 season.

(Who the hell are these "Redskins" fans? I lived there a whole year and didn't meet a single fan of the home team. Most were transplants from somewhere else and the locals backed the Ravens. So how are they filling a stadium? The NFL needs to look into this... Coach Janky Spanky can't have this many fans, right?)

As a bonus, I'll tell my favorite Viking story that has nothing to do with pro football.

My high school's mascot was a viking and as such we had a big, goofy costume for pep rallies and such. My chemistry teacher was the advisor responsible for those sorts of things and she took them fairly seriously.

Well, Victor the Viking gets out with a microphone and is whipping the students up in our championship season in 1995 and is doing the "spell the name / cheer the name" bit and is really into it.

As I remember, it wasn't even the cartoon head, it was a guy with a beard in the costume rushing about (Frank the Tank may remember this more clearly) and hollering.

He says, "Gimme a 'V' everyone!"

We say, "Veeeee!"

"Gimme an 'I!'"

"Iiiiiii"

And so on. Only, when it was all done, he'd spelled Vikins. V-I-K-I-N-S.

Pretty funny overall. What I remembered the next day is the capper for the story for me, though.

We ask our teacher what she thought and she said something to the effect of, "The freshmen didn't really get it, the sound system had a lot of feedback and Victor the Viking should at least know how to spell 'Vikings.' It's written all over the floor."

(Photo from WashingtonPost.com)