Purple correctness

Here's a note from a reader, and we had a few more along these lines, especially when we ran a pic on the front page that featured the Packers logo rather than the Vikings, the weekend of the Vikings-Packers clash in December:

Hello, Mr. Furst,
      I just wanted to take a minute to comment on a couple of MN sports articles from the Post Bulletin.
 
     I was looking at today’s paper and noticed the picture of Brett Favre in his Viking’s cap….the article starts out….”Three-time NFL MVP and former Packers and Falcon’s quarterback Brett Favre will join NFL Network’s Gameday on Sunday.”    He’s wearing his MN Viking’s cap and MN is not even mentioned as a team that he most recently played for!!! 
 
    Also, when we had the BIG GAME between MN Vikings and the Packers, the Post Bulletin had a big article on the front of that section of the paper on Packer fans “Neighbors show their colors with friendly rivalry”……no Vikings!??    I guess I would like to have seen the big article /picture on MN fans in a picture instead.  I would be shocked if they ever ran an article in a Wisconsin newspaper with a huge picture of Vikings fans before a big game like that was……
 
     I am not saying there couldn’t be supporting articles for the other teams, but we need to show some Home State pride for our teams, win or lose! Personal opinion and opinion of Vikings fans that saw the article in my presence.
 
Thanks for letting me share,
Sara H.

And my response:

Hi, Sara -- thanks for this and sure, ideally the Favre item refers to his Vikings tenure...at least he was wearing the cap!

Regarding the Vikes-Packers game, the story and photo turned out a little differently than we were expecting -- our understanding was that the pic would feature Packers and Vikings logos...in any case, looking at our sports coverage week in and week out through this season and every season, we have more Vikings coverage by a factor of 10, so I don't feel like that was a major outrage.

Based on a few of the comments we received -- not necessarily this one -- people do seem to expect that we treat the Vikings with reference and act as a "homer" paper, rooting for the home team, etc. That's not our job. We have plenty of coverage, thousands of column inches, of Vikings news every season, and we sent a beat reporter to just about all the home games this season.

There's no need to question our purple credentials just because we also have strong coverage of the Packers, who are of keen interest to a lot of Minnesotans, too, especially our thousands of readers on the Wisconsin border.