Doubters Gonna Doubt

Remember How We Got Here

It’s more than a feeling. It’s something deeper, something guttural and instinctual. Deep inside the core of your soul. The fire that burns for the Minnesota Vikings. The heartbreaking losses are ingrained in us Vikings fans, like an inescapable gene. Year after year we always fall short. Year after year we get our hopes up. There’s always next year. Year after year after year after year…

When listening to a Minnesota Vikings fan, one often hears the phrase “I’m ready to get hurt again.” Well guess what, I won’t get hurt again, I can’t. Not because I believe that the Vikings will go undefeated for the next 10 seasons, winning each Super Bowl consecutively (which frankly, is the outcome we’ve earned over the decades). It’s because that hurt is something I live with every day. It walks beside me. It lives in the shadows of my mind. I am so accustomed to that feeling of pure despair, anguish, and misery that comes from the inevitable Vikings’ collapse, from the years of torment, that the pain is irrelevant.

Don’t be mistaken. This does not mean that I have, by any means, given up on this team. What it means is that I will cheer for them week in and week out. I will have high expectations of the 2025 Minnesota Vikings; expectations that this can be the best team in the NFL and can prove it on the field all the way to Santa Clara. What I won’t do, is let a Vikings loss ruin my day. I am done mourning. I will skip past all phases of the Skol grief cycle and live in the world of acceptance. I will continue to be grateful that I wake up with air in my lungs and the knowledge that the best is yet to come for the Minnesota Vikings.

We are in the time of the preseason where everything is conjecture. It’s all on paper and everyone’s analysis is an opinion. The Minnesota Vikings look great on paper, and that is the framework from within I will operate until the first snap of the regular season takes place. This is the second segment in my series: Season of Gratitude, where I showcase the many things about the Minnesota Vikings, for which I am grateful.

Reason #9: The Doubters

I believe the tide is turning. We have rebuilt our warships over the years, each time stronger, and we are finally ready to conquer the NFL. It has been over six decades of soul, sweat, and tears bleeding for our forlorn franchise. The national media has always underestimated the Minnesota Vikings, perhaps rightfully so. What has this franchise done to ever prove the haters wrong? Sure we have had some great runs and have played in multiple conference championships and super bowls, but have never finished our story. Then why bother, right? If this team always comes up short and we know it, why should we care? What’s the point? What’s different about this year? Everything.

It’s always going to be the same old Vikings…. Wrong!

J.J. McCarthy is here. He is the present and the future. He is going to turn heads in the 2025 NFL season and he will help lead this team on a deep playoff run and contend for a Super Bowl. For the next 10-15 years, the Minnesota Vikings will be one of those teams that you just can’t count out no matter what happens in the regular season. It is now or never. Time for this franchise to be perennial Super Bowl contenders who just need to get hot at the right time. This is the train that I am aboard. There’s still room, but you’d better jump on while you can. One doubter that I know for sure is going to miss this train is Colin Cowherd.

Cowherd is probably one of the most polarizing sports analysts out there. He has convictions in his takes, no matter how unsubstantiated or flat out wrong they may be. Recently on his talk show, he voiced the following concerns about J.J. McCarthy:

“Nobody knows what J.J. McCarthy is. I’m a skeptic.”

“He played for a college team known for run game, and defense.”

“He wasn’t asked to win games, he was asked to not lose them.”

“He’s got a modest arm.”

“He’s marginally athletic.”

I have a question for you Colin. Do you live in reality with the rest of us? In Cowherd’s defense, he covers a lot of different sports and talks about so many different teams. He doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of the entire NFC North, let alone the Vikings. Much like me, his takes are all based on conjecture. Let me address these criticisms one at a time.

“Nobody knows what J.J. McCarthy is. I’m a skeptic.”

Not much substance here. Logically, this statement is true as we have not seen McCarthy play in a Vikings uniform, with the exception of the most wonderful half plus of preseason football I have ever witnessed. You can literally have this take about any rookie player in history, so I think it’s a lazy one, personally. The truth is, we have an idea of what McCarthy is: a player with a championship pedigree, intense work ethic, and incredible potential. He is someone who shows up every day trying to get better. The last thing he said to Kevin O’Connell when he met with Vikings staff during the combine was: “I just want to say I’d run through a brick wall for you.” He wanted to come to this team and is willing to do whatever it takes to win football games. He means business.

“He played for a college team known for run game, and defense.”

So what? Would you rather he played for a team known for losing? The way I interpret this, is that he is a question mark because played for a good team. He has seen first hand what it takes to win. Would playing for a team known for throwing the ball 50 times a game and giving up a ton of points make him a better quarterback, or just make that a bad team? Here is an analogy: your first job is at a toxic workplace. You learn how to work within that broken system and an environment that is not conducive to success. After learning the skills for the role, you want something more and find a new job in a functioning environment that is loaded with high performers. Suddenly, you find yourself in a position where you are improperly trained and struggle to simply keep up with expectations, as everyone is lightyears ahead of you with similar amounts of experience. Now, compare this situation to if you start out in a positive work environment. You see how a team is supposed to function properly so you know what it takes to be successful. You have a manager who helps you actualize your skills and teaches you how to properly do your job. Which would you rather have? Which is going to lead to higher levels of achievement? RIDDLE ME THAT, COLIN!!!

“He’s got a modest arm.”

61 MPH. That’s all I’m going to say.

“He’s marginally athletic.”

Again, somewhat inane analysis by Cowherd. What do you mean by marginally athletic? Who are you comparing him to? If you watch college tape on McCarthy, you see time and again different athletic scrambles outside of the pocket that end with an absolute laser to a wider receiver. He is not as athletically gifted as Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams, but he can make athletic plays that will translate at the NFL level. He is not a perfect player, but he has room to grow and can be an elite NFL QB. This is all conjecture on my part, but watch some game film and form your own opinions.

The Final Word, Ya Herd? (Terrible pun, I am so sorry).

Warning: this section may contain rambling. If you want to be a sheep, go ahead and listen to Colin CowHERD. You can listen to him prattle on about how people are overhyping J.J. McCarthy and that his only redeemable quality is playing with a chip on his shoulder. “You always have a good team. You don’t have to play well to win” -Colin Clownherd. God forbid the Vikings have a good team. And newsflash, Colin: in the NFL, every single player needs to play well, or else they don’t get to stay on the team. McCarthy is going to essentially be a redshirt freshman this season. He shouldn’t have to be Superman. Plenty of teams are successful with competent quarterback play and I believe that is Jonathan James McCarthy’s floor. His ceiling is the G.O.A.T. Again conjecture, but I believe it. Go ahead, try to prove me wrong. Ya can’t!!!

In the NFL, “you trail a lot. You need to bring your team back. J.J. McCarthy has never done it.” Just because someone hasn’t done something before, doesn’t mean they can’t!!! I mean, come on. I didn’t know how to tie my own shoes, UNTIL I HAD TO TIE MY OWN SHOES!!! McCarthy is more than capable of a comeback win or performing in the clutch. Ask any Michigan fan, and they will tell you that McCarthy can straight up ball out. He shows up at the most pivotal moments where he needs to be at his best. He is on one of the best rosters in the league and has a head coach guru/magician that got this team to 14 wins with Sam Freakin’ Darnold! J.J. and Sam are obviously different players, and Darnold has seen his fair share of NFL action, but you can’t sit there and tell me that this offense didn’t improve overall this offseason.

The NFL is the ultimate team sport. J.J. needs to take care of the ball, make smart decisions, and grip and rip it when the opportunity presents itself. Will there be growing pains? Sure. However, a person can learn a lot in 18 weeks. Every moment that J.J. McCarthy is on a practice field or in an NFL game, is an opportunity for him to learn and improve. Don’t forget, he’s just a kid. He is only 22 years old, and will be until January of 2026. He is impressionable and malleable. He has amazing veteran leadership around him with Jetts, Ryan Kelly, Christian Darrisaw, and Aaron Jones etc. and an NFL coach of the year award winner. He is going to be fine, regardless of what the national media say, especially Colin CowNERD. Ok, last one. I am sure Colin is a great human in real life. I just strongly disagree with his takes sometimes.

Now it’s out of my system. The doubters are white noise. I use them like my sound machine because they put me to sleep. We will come across so much Vikings slander for the rest of lives that it is better to just let it roll right past us. Let them talk. Let them rank us as 4th in the NFC North. Let them believe that just because the Packers are young, that somehow makes them good and better than us. It’s possible to be young and bad at football. Let them think the Bears can sweep the Vikings. Let them think the Lions are the Kings in the North. Let the doubters doubt, let the haters hate. We got ‘em right where we want ‘em. Let them have their false sense of security. We’ll be ready, waiting to take the NFL by surprise. We just have to continue to believe. No matter how tough it gets, or how bad it looks, we need to keep going. We have made it this far. We are so close, we just need to visualize success. Reinforce your belief in this team as part of your morning routine. Be like our franchise quarterback and brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand and manifest a championship.

Until next time.

-Jesse M