Sid Screws Up

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Minnesota Vikings may officially be in trouble.

Sidney Rice, the team's leading receiver from last season will miss the first half of the season after undergoing hip surgery on Monday. The injury was initially suffered in the NFC Championship Game, but Rice had elected to put off surgery and try to rehab the injury. You know, cause that always works. Just ask Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan about that one...sigh.

Rice is still hopeful that he can return in 6 weeks, which would have his return bumped up to a crucial matchup against the Dallas Cowboys on October 17th. However, it's more realistic that Rice will miss that game along with Favre Bowl III the following week.

So, now what? Well, maybe we need to look at Sidney Rice's last 12 months. Last time this year, he was a mere afterthought on a pretty good offense. It was expected that Bernard Berrian would be the team's #1 receiver. Berrian went down with a hamstring injury in Week 1 of the preseason and BOOM! Psycho Sid was born.

Sid's season (83 catches, 1,312 yards, 8 TD) earned him his first Pro Bowl appearance, and that can only mean one thing: "he outperformed his contract." Again, sigh...

So after Rice suffered this injury, I'm sure that he could have just gotten this surgery and have been ready for the steel cage...no...Hell In A Cell Street Fight going down in New Orleans on September 9th. (If you have no idea what the difference is here.) Instead, it's being assumed that Rice's agent told him to hold off on having the surgery until he got paid. Knowing football, Rice had dollar signs in his eyes and dreamed of money out the wazoo.

But there was just one problem, the Vikings didn't budge. They didn't budge with anyone this offseason...except for Brett Favre. If Sidney would have looked across the practice field, he would have noticed that Ray Edwards, who was doing a more blatant holdout, wasn't getting paid either. (Neither was anyone else in the NFL until there is a new CBA...good luck with that.)

So Sid becomes the newest holdout to completely screw himself (and his team) over with a holdout. If you look at a couple recent wide receiver holdouts, he should have known better.

First, there was Javon Walker (who ironically signed with the Vikings on Tuesday). In 2004, Walker put up great numbers for the Green Bay Packers. The next year, Walker decided to holdout and was ripped by Brett Favre for not attending training camp (Excuse me, I need to laugh at that one a second). Walker eventually did show up to camp, but tore his ACL in the season opener. Walker was traded to Denver and had one good season before suffering another knee injury, got cut, signed a huge deal with Oakland before getting his ass kicked in a Las Vegas alley, got cut again, and signed with the Vikings.

Then there was Deion Branch, who racked up 998 yards and 5 touchdowns with the New England Patriots in 2005. After winning Super Bowl MVP honors that season, Branch decided to holdout into the season. The Patriots didn't budge, and shipped Branch to Seattle for a couple of draft picks. Branch got paid and has nothing but disappoint for the Seahawks, failing to register a 1,000 yard season.

There have been many other holdouts, including ones that have been successful, but most of them turn out the wrong way.

Mark Schlereth was on ESPN talking about how players are "indentured servants" in the National Football League because you are let go once your talents deteriorate therefore they need to go after the money after one big season. Wow, what a rough life. 300 K to play football? I don't know how they can feed their families off that, Mark. I think that players should get paid after having a couple of successful seasons, not after one breakout season.

I honestly hope that Rice can come back and contribute in 2010, but to say he made the right move in this situation doesn't make sense to me. Sometimes it's the behind the scenes stuff that doesn't make you feel sorry for someone.