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Vikings coach Mike Tice's cellular phone kept ringing.
"Condolences from my friends are coming in like mad," he said.
Tice had about the grimmest look ever seen on a man not being led to a gallows.
He was trying to make sense of what happened an hour earlier, of how the Vikings
lost 18-17 Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals on the final play of the final game
of the regular season.
There would have been more games if the Vikings had won. Ticket master. They
would have been in the playoffs as NFC North champions.
With two minutes to play, that seemed a lock. The Vikings had an 11-point lead
over a team that had lost seven games in a row. But then the Cardinals scored
a touchdown, then recovered the onside kick and then, on fourth and 25 from
the 28-yard line with every second drained from the clock, they scored the winning
touchdown.
The Vikings were stunned. They didn't leave the field, not right away. There
was a review of the play to make sure the receiver, Nate Poole, hadn't lost
possession of the ball as he hit the ground. When the replay was shown on the
giant scoreboard in Sun Devil Stadium, most every member of the Vikings waved
his arms the way officials do after an incomplete pass.
The Vikings waited several minutes for a ruling. It seemed like several lifetimes.
The touchdown was upheld. Minnesota's season was over.
Within nanoseconds, the score was beamed across America. In Green Bay, the Lambeau
Field crowd erupted in cheers. The Vikings' loss gave the NFC North title to
the Pack.
"That's a shocking way to lose a football game," Vikings center Matt
Birk said. "With everything we had at stake, it's almost surreal."
Actually, it was the perfect ending to the imperfect season.
The season began with six consecutive victories and ended with losses in seven
of 10 games.
"We blew it," Birk said. "We blew it long before the last play."
He was talking about the Arizona game, but it was a capsule for the entire season.
Sunday's game was lost on the final play, but the playoffs were squandered in
places such as San Diego, Oakland and Chicago. The Vikings did Sunday what they
did too often throughout the season. They self-destructed against a team they
should have buried.
And now, so much is uncertain.
If the Vikings had won, Tice was sure to be back as coach, probably with a fat
new contract.
There is no telling what Vikings owner Red McCombs will do now. He has been
known to be knee-jerk. When he owned the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, he fired Jerry
Tarkanian 20 games into his first season of a three-year contract.
McCombs refused to discuss Tice or anything else Sunday, repeating over and
over, "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
That's not a good sign. McCombs should keep Tice. Though the Vikings collapsed
after that 6-0 start, they did improve over 2002, and this team is stocked with
players who want to play for him. Tice came in with a three-year plan. Give
him next season. And if the Vikings mess up and miss the playoffs again, then
dump him.
"I want him to be our coach," quarterback Daunte Culpepper said. "I
want him to be our coach when we win a championship because we're definitely
going to win it."
McCombs' reaction to Tice's first-quarter decision to pass up a field goal and
go for a touchdown on fourth and goal from inside the 1-yard line could factor
into whether the Vikings have a new head coach in 2004. The Vikings didn't score,
and the Cardinals went 94 yards and kicked a field goal for a 3-0 lead. If Tice
had kicked the field goal for a 3-0 Vikings lead, it may have prevented the
Cardinals from catching up.
"We had the No. 1 offense in the league," Tice said. "I didn't
think they'd go 99 yards. I'm not second-guessing the decision to go for a touchdown."
Tice answered just about every question put to him, but he wasn't much in the
mood to talk about his job status.
"I'm more worried about my poor daughter and wife than about me,"
he said. His wife, Diane, and daughter, Adrienne, attended the game, and he
didn't know how they were handling the outcome. "And I'm worried about
my players and how they're hurting."
There was a world of hurt in the Vikings locker room.
The game had been over about a half-hour, and defensive tackle Chris Hovan still
hadn't taken off a stitch of his uniform. He just sat on a stool, not moving,
not wanting to accept the season was over.
"I'm too sad to talk," he said. "I've never felt like this in
my life."
Across the room, safety Corey Chavous said to cornerback Ken Irvin, "All
you want is a chance. It's all you want."
He was talking about making the playoffs and having a chance to reach the Super
Bowl. There was no mistaking the sorrow in his voice.
"Guys have got to learn," Tice said, his cellular phone ringing again,
"you've got to make one more play."