Dan Marino confirms something we kind of already knew

As the Minnesota Vikings prepared for the 2000 NFL season under the late Dennis Green, there were rumors swirling around about what the team was going to do at the quarterback position. Randall Cunningham had lost the magic of 1998 and after an impressive season in relief Jeff George had moved on to Washington. Green was, reportedly, hesitant to turn the reins over to second-year quarterback Daunte Culpepper, and the team was looking for an alternative.

And they almost had a pretty big one.

In an article from Daniel Chavkin at Sports Illustrated, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino confirms that Green and the Vikings did have an interest in him going into the 2000 season.

After Marino’s final season in 1999, Miami hired a new coach in Dave Wannstedt and was going in a different direction. If Marino wanted to extend his career there were opportunities elsewhere.

“Minnesota was interested in me, in what would’ve been my 18th season, [and the] Pittsburgh Steelers talked to me,” he said. “Those two were the main teams.”

It definitely would have been weird to see Dan Marino lead the Vikings out of the Metrodome tunnel for a season or two. No weirder than seeing Brett Favre do it nearly a decade later, but it still would have been pretty weird.

As we all know, however, the Vikings went with Culpepper after all was said and done, and he had a very solid season as he led the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. And then the season mysteriously ended and nothing of note happened.

What would your thoughts have been had the Vikings gotten Dan Marino into the fold, folks?