Readers Write for Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010

We fans received the greatest gift the Minnesota Vikings could have ever given us: a mind-bending, up and down, heart-pounding, at-the-edge-of-my-seat game. That's entertainment at its best. Go, Vikes!

RAYMOND STAWSKI, BECKER, MINN.

Target was Brett Favre Several of us watching Sunday's game will most likely boycott the Super Bowl for the first time ever. It was obvious to all watching that the Saints staff and defensive players had one agenda: to physically harm and cripple one of football's greatest players. The Saints do not represent the best of the NFL; they represent the failure of the system to hold egos under control, in order to play the game honestly -- with talent.

NANCY LANTHIER CARROLL, ST. PAUL

Questions for the coach How is it possible to send 12 men into the huddle after a timeout? I'm not going to say anything bad about Favre's play; he was hurried and hounded all game and still the offense had over 400 yards. It seems to me that the team was winning all season despite coaching that was the worst.

JOHN OPPER, BIRNAMWOOD, WIS.

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Mr. Wilf, I am a devoted fan and come August I will be right back to cheer our beloved Vikings. But I am tired of just stints in the playoffs. I want a Super Bowl. We have the talent, so please find us a coach who can get the job done.

JENNY ROBINSON, HOWARD LAKE, MINN.

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Ball on the ground! Ball on the ground! Looking like a fool with the ball on the ground! AP going left, Percy all around! Looking like a fool with the ball on the ground! Trouble hangin' on, not a pretty sound. Can't beat the Saints with the ball on the ground!

TOMMY HINZ, WOOD LAKE, MINN.

JEFF ZIMMERMAN, MINNETONKA

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There is at least one good thing about the Vikings choking (again): They didn't do it in front of their own fans in a new, taxpayer-funded stadium.

BOB POLLARD, PRIOR LAKE

To Brett et al., thanks! I don't care what anyone says -- Brett Favre is great. He was getting hit hard and still played fearlessly. Minnesota fans should be grateful that he played this season for the Vikings.

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Once upon a time we had a Vikings team that was newsworthy primarily for its police-blotter activities. This team gave us a season of effort, thrills and wins. Saying that the loss Sunday means they're anything but winners sends the wrong message to our children.

DAVID KETROSER, MINNETONKA

I wonder if the U.S. Supreme Court majority ever considered, in their recent rulings that corporations are people too, that many "American" corporations are owned partially or wholly by non-Americans. Does this ruling mean our president and Congress can now be bought and paid for by the Chinese, Saudis and others?

RUTH CORDES, APPLE VALLEY

• Since almost $300 billion of the stimulus package (not the same as the "bailout" money) went into tax cuts, would you be willing to return the extra money to the Fed?

• If you would not have bailed out the banks, who would provide the loans for small- and medium-sized businesses and farms?

• If you do not want health care reform, what should the millions who cannot afford insurance and those who have preexisting conditions do?

• If you would not have bailed out the U.S. automakers, how would you replace the huge number of associated jobs that would be lost?

I am also not pleased by the large deficits that have occurred, but until I hear answers to the above I am ready to go along with these programs until I am convinced that something else is better.

Now, the real Vikings season is about to begin (Feb. 4, three days before the, uh, that game in Miami) and, of course, under a dome -- that of the State Capitol.

Now is the time to tell the governor, your state senator and representative that competing valiantly in the conference finals with a shot at the Super Bowl and wasting nearly a billion taxpayer dollars for a new stadium are two totally different things, and that because we have so many socially necessary projects to fund, they must not cave in to Zygi Wilf's extortionist demands.