Jim Souhan: Vikings must find franchise quarterback

Wisconsin gave football the Ice Bowl.

Monday night, we'll give football the Minnesota (N)Ice Bowl.

It's just another holiday party. The Vikings are borrowing a place-setting from their neighbors, getting a bunch of kids to shovel the snow, hiding the booze, and letting everybody sit wherever they want. The Bears will bring the fruitcake (Jay Cutler).

It's been such a strange couple of weeks -- the Vikings are culminating their three-game homestand with a home game in a third different stadium -- that you might have lost sight of the real story of the 2010 Vikings season.

For a team that was supposed to contend for a Super Bowl, tonight will provide a reminder that the Vikings haven't just fallen behind division rivals such as the Bears.

Monday night will provide a reminder that the Vikings have even fallen behind the woebegone Golden Gophers.

Nearing the end of what was supposed to be a Super Bowl season, the Vikings are not only headed for a last-place finish in a mediocre division. Suddenly, they have reason to be envious even of the regular inhabitants of TCF Bank Stadium.

The Vikings are tied to a decrepit stadium, employ an interim coach and have no idea who will rank as their starting and backup quarterbacks a month from now.

For the 2010 Vikings, the sky started falling long before the roof did.

Being lousy for a season isn't the problem here. The problem is that by investing so heavily in one season, the Vikings are in danger of becoming a last-place team in the NFC North next year, as well as this year.

The Vikings have an old, battered roster. More vexing, they have no quarterback in a league dominated by great quarterbacks and filled with good, young, quarterbacks.

That's why their transition from a franchise desperate to win a Super Bowl to one desperate for long-term health should begin tonight.

Long before Brett Favre started telling us how "all-some" he is, the Vikings were scrambling to find a true quarterback of the future.

The scramble began back when playing home games outdoors was an accepted practice, not a measure of desperation.

Here's a partial list of Vikings' starting quarterbacks since Sir Francis Tarkenton departed:

Tommy Kramer. Steve Dils. Wade Wilson. Rich Gannon.

Sean Salisbury. Jim McMahon. Warren Moon. Brad Johnson. Randall Cunningham. Jeff George.

There are plenty of impressive names on that list, but only two of them belong to players the Vikings developed from the start of their careers as potential franchise QBs:

Just as Gannon was showing signs of becoming a Pro Bowl quarterback, Denny Green benched him for Salisbury in 1992. It was perhaps the worst personnel decision Green ever made, and it led to the Vikings' desperate search for veteran quarterbacks.

And Culpepper had a chance to be a remarkable player for a long time, had he managed his career more intelligently.

Instead, the Vikings found themselves luring Favre as an older and better version of McMahon, Moon, Johnson, Cunningham and George.

It almost worked. Favre came close to taking the Vikings to the Super Bowl last year, a game they might have even won.

Maybe Cam Newton will be the answer. We should know by now that McNabb will not be.

On a night the Vikings will try out a temporary quarterback in a temporary stadium, they should start planning for a permanent resident at the most important position in sports.