Shortly after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, when Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell delivered the news that rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy has a torn meniscus in his right knee that will require surgery, I relayed the information to my wife.
J.J. McCarthy’s injury: A tough day for Vikings and the belief in having nice things
Rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy injected hope into the Vikings fan base with his preseason debut Saturday. The team and its supporters only had a couple of days to bask in the performance before Tuesday’s sobering news of a meniscus tear.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 13, 2024 at 5:51PM
She is not in any way a sports fan or follower, but she has nonetheless absorbed the general ethos of Minnesota sports in our two-plus decades together.
“Of course he does,” was all she said in reply.
Indeed. Tuesday was a tough day for the Vikings. The past 24 hours have been even harder, I would say, on those of us who cling to the idea that Minnesota sports fans can have nice things.
Monday’s preliminary word from O’Connell that McCarthy was experiencing knee soreness came only two days after his dazzling preseason debut. And it was delivered on the same night that Byron Buxton had to leave the Twins’ win over Kansas City with hip discomfort — a double dose of bad news that I talked about on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
At that point, there was at least the hope that McCarthy’s soreness was nothing serious and would clear up in a day or two. But now, with surgery on the horizon, McCarthy will at least miss several weeks.
While that isn’t devastating in terms of the Vikings’ immediate prospects given that veteran Sam Darnold has been operating as the No. 1 QB and figured to begin the year in the lineup even if McCarthy was healthy, it will curtail McCarthy’s development in the short term.
And then there’s the pesky doomsday feeling that Minnesota sports fans (and Vikings rooters in particular) can’t shake. Just when it seems like things are looking up and there’s something about which to be excited, bad news comes along to cancel it out.
This doesn’t always happen, of course. And it’s easier to find a reason to feel pessimistic when you are looking for it.
The McCarthy news, though, does feel like a legitimate “this is why we can’t have nice things” moment. Even if he comes back quickly — Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns missed only a month at the end of the regular season after meniscus surgery in March — McCarthy’s legitimate hype will be on pause until he returns.
It’s eerily reminiscent of 20 years ago, when Joe Mauer injured his meniscus very early in his debut season with the Twins and missed most of the year.
Maybe if McCarthy goes on to have a Hall of Fame career like Mauer, we can finally stop believing in curses.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
