Haunted

It was the day after Halloween, and a few boos were still lingering in the air in Green Bay.

They came out in abundance when Favre came out onto the field for pregame work. They came out again when the Vikings were introduced. They came out again during each play of the first two Viking offensive series.

As the game wore on, the boos kept coming, yet they were different. A stadium boo is an interesting phenomenon. It is so anonymous -- no one person detectable in the expression, and no one person specified as the object. And yet you can almost always tell, can't you, who is the intended.

And the intended changed, didn't it? After raining down boos on Brett Favre, the boos kept coming, but they were aimed at others. At Packers. Packer penalties, Packer play-calling, Packer sacks. Boooo!

Things improved after halftime. Dramatically. But in the end, the improvement was only a tease. For just when we had begun to reconcile ourselves to the miserable outcome portended by the first half, the Packers came back and made a game of it. Yet, still, when the final gun sounded, the outcome was just what we had feared.

Boo turns into boo hoo.

The boo, you know, is an expression of anger and frustration, of disapproval and disagreement. I'm feeling all of those things this evening. How about you? I feel like booing. How about you?

But whom shall we boo? At whom are you most angry?

Are you angry at Brett for being a Viking, or at Ted for letting him go?

Are you mad at McCarthy for still not getting the sacks and penalties fixed?

Are you mad at the special teams for giving up so many big returns, and for a kicker who can't come through when we need him?

Or are you mad at Rodgers for holding the ball too long? For getting sacked so often? For not being better? For not being Brett?

So whom shall we boo tonight? Or shall we simply boo hoo?