Zygi Wilf Wants Vikes to Lose So He Can Move Team (Probably Not)

Hey, it's just like Major League, except, hopefully, the Vikings' players don't have a life-size cutout of owner Zygi Wilf wearing pasties set up in the middle of the locker room.

Here in Minnesota, there is a relatively new conspiracy theory, but one that is gathering tremendous momentum. At first, a couple of Vikings fans tossed it out there like a bad joke. Now I hear it every single day from people who are convinced it is true.

It goes like this: Zygi Wilf is trying to kill interest in the Vikings so it will be easier to move the team.

That would explain the Brad Childress hire last year, I guess. Anyway, Tom Powers, of the Pioneer Press thinks there might be something to this story, though I find it hard to believe Wilf would take such a huge financial risk now in the hopes of turning a profit at some point down the line. But that's probably why I'm not much of a business man.

According to Powers, the first "Wait a minute..." moment was when Wilf came out of nowhere to buy the team when everyone thought Reggie Fowler was the guy. And then there was this recent quote from Lester Bagley, the Vikings' vice president in charge of stadium development, on Gov. Tim Pawlenty: "At some point he is going to have to help us find a solution to this long-standing issue. He has long told our ownership that he wants to work with us to solve the Vikings' stadium problem, to keep us healthy and in this state."

Powers concludes -- rightly, I think -- that "just because Wilf - in large part via the stubborn and so-far inept Brad Childress - is doing a good job of killing interest in the franchise, it doesn't mean he's actually trying." And that's the thing: owners successful in other business endeavors often struggle with NFL franchises. Ask Arthur Blank ... or Dan Snyder. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the quickest way to remedy this problem is to bring back Mike Tice! (I'm kidding ... unless you think it'll work.)