I've always been fascinated by myth-making and unintended results in sports.
When I first started covering the Twins in 1993, I remember looking back at Andy MacPhail's signing of Jack Morris and Chili Davis, and having MacPhail tell me that he had actually targeted Mike Boddicker and Kirk Gibson.
The Twins would not have won the World Series in 1991 had they signed their original targets.
Which leads us to the Vikings' draft in 2014.
They chose Anthony Barr with the ninth pick. They did very well there.
Reports on draft day - including one from my buddy Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press - indicated that the Vikings then tried to trade up into the first round to take Johnny Manziel. He wound up going at No. 22 to the Browns. Then the Vikings traded for the 32nd and last pick in the first round to take Bridgewater.
I still think Manziel can be a very good NFL player if he can learn to regulate his life away from football. But while Bridgewater has not been brilliant this season, he turned out to be the better pick to date.
The Browns are a mess and so is their supposed franchise quarterback. The Vikings winding up with Bridgewater has allowed them to get to 7-3 this year and to stop spending assets on the quarterback position.
