Chris Tomasson · @christomasson
13th Mar 2017 from TwitLonger
Full text of what Rhett Ellison's father Riki posted on Facebook Saturday night
Sweet Purple Memories
It is of sweet purple memories of the Purple reign we triumphed, we suffered, we exalted and we tumbled together into the depths of despair and rose together to the heights of ecstasy as we traveled in mind of passion and lore of the Minnesota Vikings over the past 5 seasons. It was magical, it was a deep purple dive into one of the 32 NFL organizations and its embedded culture. We went from the 2012 draft on April 28 through training camp through preseason as a rookie to a first season to blocking for second highest ever rushing season ever by a running back into the wild card playoffs to a 5 year established veteran where it ended on Thursday in the opening minutes of the free agency signing of March 9th , 2017. Those five years beyond the average lifetime of an NFL player were exuberant from three different playing venues of the old Metro Dome, to the frigid weather of the University of Minnesota for two years to the greatest and newest football stadium ever built to finish the purple reign in style. All between those great Minnesota weekends at the Westin downtown, Saturday night butter steaks at Murrays to Sunday Morning at IKEs with friends, purple people believers. It was always a Disneyland crowd and just a welcoming open hearted Minnesota personality of people that warmed the soul and was refreshing from anywhere else in the world to fly in for the 5 years of weekend retreats. Those three traditional black and blue cities of Detroit, Green Bay and Chicago every year in the fall and winter were always an exceptional and memorable places to be a viking fan and have the rarity of winning at each at least once during the 5 years was absolutely meant everything in the purple world. Green Bay was the rival and Lambeau field was the hardest place to win for the Vikings which made the last game of the 2015 season in Green Bay the sweetest in taking the Divison Championship in that victory. The victory against Green Bay at the Metro Dome in the rookie year to claim a wild card playoff, the victory against Green Bay in Green Bay to win the Northern Division last year and the victory against Green Bay to open the new stadium on the opening home opener of this past season were the three best emotional victories over the five years.
It is the players, the teammates, the personalities that came in with Rhett and around him that made the 5 year experience so rare, so empowering and so memorable. It was the other purple daddies too, my boy Steve Fusco! My favorite was Harrison Smith a Domer, Everson and Matt his USC teammates, roommate and best friend, Matt Cassel another great Trojan teammate, Kyle and John Carlson Jr in that Tight End club-more Domers, having AP, CP, Chad, his draft mates and special team players of Audie, Adam, Jarius. Big personalities of Jared Allen, Chad Johnson and weird personalities of Blair Walsh, Christian Ponder with incoming and outgoing Quarterbacks, Offensive Line and the tight group of the tight ends that ran in 3s. Mankato Summer Camps and the Twin City late summer, fall and winter so remarkably distinct from anywhere in the country. So fortunate to have a great coach or two in there especially Norv a legend and a specialness of USC history back to 1978 with him as well as Ram and Cowboy history to have him coach Rhett was truly exceptional and gifted- and Mike Priefer was awesome. Rhett saw false leaders and real leaders- understood it- matured it and learned from this great experience that was truly invaluable in a small market NFL franchise tucked away in Minnesota that he could get developed in his training experimentation and specialization in off seasons with his trainer that enabled focus and cutaway distractions from big NFL cities into the player he is today.
Two head coaches each leading a playoff berth with two of the five seasons in the playoffs with the best run ever for the purple during this time period was the 11-6 Northern Division Champions of the 2015 season that led into one of the great 5-0 starts in NFL history without the starting QB, Left Tackle, and the star Running Back- it was the true team playing together each week and overcoming all odds until week 6 the bye week – it was amazing and brought a feeling of invincibility never witnessed in all of the 5 years there. The Vikings had it all in their brand new Stadium, they were simply unbeatable. All the toil and sweat over those 5 years through everything made it worth it all. It was the best of the best and felt everything from that magnificent too sweet suite suite on the 50 - We just had it all going for us- Then it all went from us- like a dream in the night- never to be caught again. That bye week was tipping point, the Head Coach and GM didn't understand what they had and broke it which lead to was the departure of Norv Turner which was the red flag indicator and the franchise has yet to recover and the damage still taking its toll as it was never addressed still isn't and now there is no core offensive line, no leadership on the offense from the front 7, no running back, no number one receiver and a tremendous void of lack of self-drafted developed players that were part of the best run in 5 years to set and lead the culture. Added to this was mentality of physical practices that continued to hurt players on the offensive line and burn out the desire of the defense to play hard when it counted most. The Minnesota Vikings flowed to rising Purple tide when young Rhett arrived and it flowed again to its highest tide this past first half of the season marking the peak as it now to falls ebbs out to the lowest, a cycle of a 5 year ebb and flow that is indicative of the Minnesota Viking Culture and its heights of triumphs and agony of defeats, not a world championship franchise, one still searching for and missing- critical leadership in leadership identification and development of the real leaders, team chemistry and keeping their tremendous investments of the players healthy and fresh to compete when it counts on game days and on the playoff run at the end of the year, not on Wednesdays and Thursdays during the week.
The Wilfs are great owners, Mark Wilf is a true gentlemen and "to build it and they will come" in the best NFL stadium ever built was a tremendous achievement in funding, resourcing, partnerships and design. Their world class practice facilities will be coming next and putting forward that level of investment for the game experience for the fans and his players is second to none in the NFL. A lot of credit for Lester Bagsley, also a top notch individual that was a major ingredient to the success of the stadium and overall relations to the public.
There is nothing but Big Purple Heart of great memories, high respect and tremendous appreciation for the Minnesota Vikings in drafting Rhett and developing him into a great player, enabling his leadership development, physical toughness, grit, science of the game and the resilience he conquered to be a great team contributor for the Minnesota Vikings for the past five years. The Minnesota Vikings have provided an truly outstanding environment over the past 5 years for Rhett to hone in the hardest NFL skills to master, to the push the envelope of mental toughness to compete in all conditions, to play limited reps behind a great tight end and to lead in the challenging NFL GameDay world of fierce competition. Rhett is postured and positioned - the best ever in his entire life at his prime of his athletic career, to contribute big time, to lead big time to a team and help it significantly to win a Super Bowl Championship. He has the Minnesota Vikings Franchise to thank for that and I thank the Minnesota Vikings for that and just a wonderful 5 years of purple emotion, great people, great city and great franchise that will someday we all hope break the spell, change the culture and win a Super Bowl Championship.
We went purple together as hard as we could, loved every moment of it over the past 5 years and now The Purple Blazer and The Purple Daddy are stepping down and away as their window of time and passion is over. There will always be a enduring purple spark and purple love for the Minnesota Vikings.