Vikings' season started going awry back in Mississippi

DETROIT - Workers painted the Vikings logo at midfield of Detroit's Ford Field but left a discolored patch near the edges, suggesting the florid bruising around a tattoo on a teenager's arm.

Like a tattoo, the Vikings will be stuck with memories of this season whether they like them or not.

In another strange twist of fate in a season wrung dry of hope and predictability, Brett Favre's record consecutive-games streak ended on the same night as his team's playoff contention, in a "home" game played in Detroit against the New York Giants.

An injury to his sternoclavicular joint kept Favre off the active roster, so the thousands of Vikings fans who packed the lower levels of the Lions' stadium were forced to watch Tarvaris Jackson and even rookie Joe Webb play as if all that fresh purple paint was so much quicksand.

It has been that kind of season, and now the only suspense for the traveling home team will surround the team's search for a home field for next Monday's game against Chicago.

Here's what went right for the Vikings in the last week: Monday night, at Ford Field, the roof did not cave in.

After Monday's 21-3 loss to the Giants, Favre's iron-man streak is over, Leslie Frazier's head coaching record is no longer perfect, and the 2010 Vikings are officially one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL.

"It's tough," Frazier said. "We had high aspirations going into the season and we expected to be back in the playoffs again.

"But we know where we are."

Strangely, the correct answer on Dec. 13 was: Detroit.

In New Orleans, the night before the season began, I expressed optimism about the 2010 season to a high-ranking Vikings official. The official glumly shook his head and said, "When you get close, you've got to take advantage of your opportunity."

That was a reference to the NFC Championship Game last season, when the Vikings outgained the New Orleans Saints but lost in overtime to the eventual Super Bowl champions.

With Favre wearing a sweatsuit and a purple stocking cap on the sideline on Monday, the Vikings took a 3-0 lead but foreshadowed the result on a symbolically destructive play.

In the first quarter, Jackson tried a simple handoff to Peterson but kneed Peterson in the leg. Both went down. Both were forced to leave the game. And Webb, a player who was not supposed to see the field as a quarterback this season, threw incomplete down the sideline to end a drive.

So now we know what Favre got out of this season: the addition of 12 games to his record streak, and $16 million to his bank account.

"It's like I tell these guys, if you play long enough, you'll see and do everything," Favre said.

This season proved that. After all the drama -- Favre's waffling, Randy Moss' temp work, Brad Childress' firing, Percy Harvin's headaches, Sidney Rice's belated surgery, Leslie Frazier's audition, the devastating injuries, the forced march to Detroit in December -- is a bad, aging team lacking a quarterback.

This season, though, was lost not on a Monday in Detroit when Favre couldn't play; it was lost during those August days when Favre chose not to play, dooming the 2010 Vikings to a slow start and bad karma.

The meaningful portion of this season officially ended Monday night, with Favre wearing sweats on the home team's sideline in Detroit, on a field displaying fresh paint the color of old bruises.

The ending proved to be no stranger than the rest of the story.