Murphy: Las Vegas without a plan

Brian Murphy writes about his trip to Las Vegas that resulted in skipping the stadium and suffering through the Vikings' 3-0 win elsewhere

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By Brian Murphy

LAS VEGAS – Conquering Vegas as a group without an alpha organizer is akin to grinding out a playoff berth on a parade float of afterthought quarterbacks.

Moments of brilliance bracketed by chronic disorientation, crashing 72 hours later without a defining memory and more confounded by what was endured more than experienced.

It’s impossible to have a lame time in any great mashup of humanity, let alone a 24-hour town where sinners, families, misfits, degenerates and people watchers check their identities at the airport and mainline checked-out Americana for weekend entertainment.

Especially with the National Football League and National Finals Rodeo combining demographics to create a costumed frenzy of high-octane beer guzzling and high-octave slurring.

But it also is impossible to wrangle eight dudes from four states and three hotels for an orderly procession anywhere when every shiny object lures a straggler into some dark corner and a six-hour communication blackout.

Unofficially, my dads without wives crew of mostly 50-somethings spent about two hours together as a group. Only half of us even went to the Vikings-Raiders atrocity at Allegiant Stadium. 

The best $240 never spent to witness the most devastating victory in franchise history.

The rest of the weekend was spent sending out SOS texts and securing ride shares to the next destination before the lone wolves scattered to another casino, lounge, dispensary or nap.

Endless ideas without execution. Kind of like the Vikings’ offense.

It’s how you end up on the outskirts of the Vegas Strip drinking alone for an hour Saturday night at a bar in a strip mall surrounded by a dry cleaner, tax clinic and $10 wholesale shoe store waiting for the posse to ride.

Champagne’s Café is open 24 hours, with heavy pours, red velvet walls and ghosts of the Rat Pack lurking in the shadows. You can feel the history oozing from the infamous mob hangout, notably when the bartender vanishes to the back to take a phone call and you’re expecting to get garroted as an interloping tourist.

Chasing the get-together became the never-accomplished mission, and the only way to enjoy the disorganization was to fully embrace it.

No need for an agenda when you’re following the Vikings with what seemed like half the state of Minnesota across the country for the obvious road trip of the 2023 season.

I hadn’t been in a stretch limousine since my senior prom. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see a chauffeur from Circa Resort and Casino clutching a namesake placard at the bottom of the escalator Saturday morning at McCarran Airport.

The least I could do was pay it forward to a bunch of St. Paulites who have been guys-tripping to one Vikings game a season for 15 years running. Hat tip to Circa for accommodating PurpleInsider like the ballers we aren’t and letting us peak behind the high-roller curtain for a couple days.

Best I can recall, the first hour of the trip was the only time the group had quorum.

Downtown Vegas and the Fremont Street experience is shot-and-a-beer compared to the hipster martini crowd on the Strip. Full-frontal authenticity, from the cover bands and street entertainers to the beggars and the pimps. 

A self-contained, easily walkable Petri dish of wanderers, where it’s practically daylight 24 hours and the stimulation never ceases. All of which made the Sunday morning trek to the stadium and watching three subsequent hours of alleged pro football feel like a church obligation without the salvation.

This was the first time that trip veterans had failed to secure tickets in advance, which was a blessing. I can’t imagine paying pennies on the dollar to walk in at halftime let alone dropping $200-plus for a standing-room ticket for an unscripted root canal.

Four of us wisely decided the sun was shining too warmly and the booze flowing too freely at the Modelo tailgating party to chase disappointment in the indoor spaceship.

What a nightmare for the 65,000 who paid to watch two NFL teams shadow box before Greg Joseph’s 36-yard field goal euthanized a 3-0 Minnesota win that somehow tightened their grip on an NFC wild card berth.

Since we may never see him throw a pass in purple again, what was your defining Joshua Dobbs moment? 

Coming out of the cornfield to rally for a win in Atlanta? Running and chucking his way to a dominant victory over the Saints? Frozen in the headlights against the Bears?

It was magical while it lasted. But the notion that Dobbs would seize the quarterbacking reins and re-engineer the position in Minnesota after being forsaken by a half-dozen other teams was a pipe dream.

He’s an exciting placeholder, but he will always be just that – a placeholder. In the long game of NFL evaluations and scheming, Dobbs doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful No. 1 QB.

His biggest mistake might have been leading Justin Jefferson into a monster hit by a Raiders safety that took the superstar wide receiver out of the game moments after he returned from a seven-game injury absence and blew up whatever game plan coach Kevin O’Connell had scripted for Dobbs.

This is Nick Mullens’ offense now as the Vikings turn to their fourth starting quarterback. It’s like handing the car keys to a 16-year-old. Hope they can get from point A to point B without wrecking the vehicle. 

The Vikings are a one-dimensional, defensively dominant team, which would be so fascinating to watch if it was 1983. How defensive coordinator Brian Flores has rebuilt this downtrodden unit on the fly is a master class in maximizing collective talent for the greater good.

Flores’ herculean efforts ultimately may be swept into the dustpan of history. Imagine the Vikings making the postseason on the backs of their forgotten defense, just as they had drawn up in training camp.

This could also turn to ash like the Dobbs legacy. It’s one thing to shut out the regressing Raiders and yield four field goals to the middling Bears. It’s quite another to score one-dimensional wins over surging Cincinnati, division-leading Detroit (twice) and the still-contending Packers over the next four weeks.

Like traveling to Vegas without a leader.

The possibilities are endless so long as you can endure the ride.

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Brian Murphy is a former Pioneer Press columnist who contributes to Purple Insider. Follow him on Twitter at @murphmedia_