Reusse: Sam Darnold’s flash-and-flop moment with Vikings comes with parallels in Minnesota history

The performance from Sam Darnold on Monday night was such a shocking display of lost composure in a big moment that it came with a verdict. That would be there’s no chance Darnold will be back in a Vikings uniform, unless it is years from now as an unemployed 35-year-old and the Purple needs a third-stringer.

This firm belief led to a question: In Minnesota’s decades of big-time team sports — defining that as the pros and the Gophers — who would be the comparable sports figures to Darnold:

A hero for several months, then a sudden crash and departure from our scene?

To be a true Darnold comparison, there first must have been success, and the failure that leads to departure could not have been caused by injury.

Not trusting my memory, I sent a message to 20-some veteran members of the Twin Cities sports media requesting nominees.

One name mentioned a few times was Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Japanese infielder signed by the Twins for the 2011 season. Certainly, there was the build-up for Nishioka as a potential standout, but there was no success, meaning no Darnold comparison.

Another Twins baseball name — this from their infancy — came to mind for me:

Bill Dailey, a righthanded reliever purchased from Cleveland before Opening Day in 1963. He was phenomenal that season. Organist Willie Peterson was playing “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey,” and Met Stadium crowds were singing and making it Dailey. Then, Bill’s arm went dead in 1964.

Injury disqualifier to Darnold comparison.

There’s something about the quarterback position and the Vikings since the case can be made that the top comparables to Darnold as Minnesota sports legends-to-be could be a pair of vagabonds who held the position (including one named “Case”):

Jeff George, 1999: Randall Cunningham was failing to repeat his great success from 1998. The Vikings went into Detroit at 2-3 and trailed the Lions 19-0 at halftime, with a Cunningham interception as the only touchdown.

George, signed off the street after being released by Oakland, came in for the second half, ignited the Vikings offense and it became a 25-23 loss. The date was Oct. 17, my birthday, and heading downstairs after the game, I figured this was the present:

Agitating Denny Green with several varieties of the question, “Who is now your starting quarterback?’ And then Green walked into his postgame media session and immediately said George would be the starter the following week vs. San Francisco.

The Sheriff outsmarted us again.

George and the Vikings went 8-2 the rest of the way, beat the Cowboys 27-10 in a playoff opener at the Metrodome, and then went to St. Louis. They lost 49-37, with George notoriously declining to fall on a fumble lying in front of him late in the game.

Most Purple followers were OK with him leaving to make room for young Daunte Culpepper in 2000.

Case Keenum, 2017: Sam Bradford suffered a knee injury and Teddy Bridgewater (coach Mike Zimmer’s favorite) still was recuperating. Keenum, with his third team in five seasons, took over as the quarterback, went 11-3, passed for 3,547 yards and a 22-7 ratio of touchdowns to interceptions.

Our guy Zim seemed to think a lot of Keenum’s success was good luck. The final stroke of that was the “Minneapolis Miracle” — Keenum to Stefon Diggs — in the playoff victory over New Orleans at the Metrodome.

Keenum played poorly along with everyone else in the 38-7 NFC Championship Game loss to Philly.

Goodbye, Case. Hello, Kirk Cousins. And they both had the same number of playoff wins here — Case in one season, Kirk in six.

Here’s the rest of a personal top 10 for semi-Darnold matches among prominent Minnesota sports figures:

3. Scott Bjugstad, North Stars: The Bugler had 43 goals in his second full NHL season (1985-86) and 14 in two seasons after that. Injuries factored into that — but 43, yikes!

4. Crystal Dangerfield, Lynx: WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2020, reserve in 2021, waived in 2022 and well-traveled in the seasons after that.

5. Rick Rickert, Gophers men’s basketball: The 6-foot-11 forward did well in two seasons with the Gophers (2001-03), but he didn’t change basketball as we knew it, which was the hope when he arrived from Duluth East.

6. Frantisek Musil, North Stars: OK, timewise he doesn’t fit with Darnold, but when Louie Nanne went to the trouble of smuggling the Czech defenseman out of Eastern Europe in a trunk in 1986, we did expect more than lots of penalty minutes.

7. Martín Pérez, Twins: His left arm provided the starting ace the Bomba Squad needed in 2019. For three months. Then he couldn’t get your grandson out. But he’s still going today.

8. John Smiley, Twins: Another lefty. Brought in to replace the one-and-done but eternally heroic Jack Morris in the rotation for 1992. Went 16-9, 3.21 ERA, 241 innings — but then he left, without ever living up to his last name in the presence of the Twin Cities media.

9. Bucky Irving, Gophers football: Offered a nice sample as a freshman for a 2021 Gophers team that was 6-3 in the Big Ten: 133 carries, 699 yards. Left for Oregon. Now the main running back for Tampa Bay. Bucky, we hardly knew ye.

10. Russell Shimooka, TV: Came to Twin Cities market as sports anchor for high-flying KARE-11 in 1994 with considerable fanfare. Wasn’t an expert on pronouncing certain Minnesota names. Lasted four months.

Now add your own Darnold comparisons. Many remain available.

I didn’t even get to Larry Calton, the short-term Twins announcer (1974-75) who got punched by Danny Walton for a remark the player considered too personal.