Should the Vikings add Daunte Culpepper to the Ring of Honor?
By Adam Patrick
Is former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper deserving enough to have a spot in the team’s Ring of Honor?
Despite the lack of a Super Bowl victory, the history is rich when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings and the guys that used to suit up every season for the purple and gold.
Each decade since their first season in 1961, the Vikings roster has been home to numerous Hall of Famers, All-Pros, and multiple-time Pro Bowlers.
22 players that spent at least one year with Minnesota during their careers have been lucky enough to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Of the former Vikings that still had outstanding tenures in the league but weren’t good enough to earn a bronze bust of their head in Canton, the team has inducted a number of them into their Ring of Honor.
Do the Minnesota Vikings have a spot in their Ring of Honor for Daunte Culpepper?
For those who like to kill some free time (or waste time) on social media these days, some might have seen the video clip of a few old Daunte Culpepper highlights that was recently posted by the NFL Throwback accounts on Instagram and Twitter.
The short clip of the former Minnesota quarterback caused a number of Vikings fans to reminisce about how fun it used to be to watch Culpepper just chuck the ball into the sky and land into one of his receiver’s hands.
After Minnesota selected him with the No. 11 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft out of UCF, Culpepper went on to spend the first seven years of his NFL career in purple and gold.
During his first season as a starter in 2000, he helped the Vikings make it all the way to the NFC Championship. However, that was as close as Minnesota was able to get to playing in the Super Bowl during Culpepper’s tenure with the team.
It wasn’t due to any lack of effort on the part of the former Vikings quarterback. Culpepper had some forgettable seasons, but he also had years in which any impressive numbers he put up were made irrelevant because of the team’s poor defense.
Culpepper’s best season came in 2004 when he threw for 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns. Both marks are still the all-time single-season records in Minnesota team history.
Culpepper currently ranks third among all Vikings quarterbacks in career passing yards, third in career passing touchdowns, first in career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, and second in career passer rating (minimum of 30 games played).
Minnesota currently has 25 former players, coaches, and staff members in their Ring of Honor. Is Culpepper deserving enough to make that number increase to 26?
Fran Tarkenton is the only quarterback who the Vikings have inducted into their Ring of Honor. If an argument for Culpepper to get in is being made, some might want to also make the argument for Tommy Kramer to be inducted since he currently has the second-most career passing yards in Minnesota team history.
While it’s true that Kramer has more career passing yards in a Vikings uniform than Culpepper, he also needed almost 50 more games to reach his total while having a passer rating of 72.9 in purple in gold. In addition to this, Kramer didn’t have the success as a rusher that Culpepper did either.
So if a spot in Minnesota’s Ring of Honor is between these two quarterbacks, the edge should be given to Culpepper.
Culpepper will forever have a place in the hearts of Vikings fans who were able to watch him chuck the ball around during the early 2000s. So why not give him a permanent place in the franchise’s history with a spot in the Ring of Honor?