Regret is a painfully strong emotion — one with which Minnesota sports fans are well-acquainted.
Just uttering the name "Drew Pearson" or "Gary Anderson" is enough to send a Vikings fan of a certain age down a spiral of what-ifs.
But our collective sense of regret, after a lot of good seasons but too few great postseasons, is perhaps too fine-tuned.
As a defense mechanism, we sometimes pre-imagine the worst — perhaps to feel relief if and when the perceived worst doesn't happen.
That's a tough way to live, and as it relates to Minnesota sports I blame two people: Lou Holtz and David Ortiz.
Holtz, of course, revitalized the Gophers football fan base with two promising seasons in 1984 and 1985 before using that as a steppingstone to a decade as Notre Dame's head coach.
Holtz's departure came almost 40 years ago, but the damage lingers. There has hardly been a promising — or at least competent — major coach to come along in this market that hasn't immediately made fans (particularly Gophers fans) worry that they could leave.
And yet I can only think of one prime example — Brenda Oldfield (now Frese) leaving the Gophers women's program more than 20 years ago — of someone that bolted for a better job.
