Keith Brooking's Dallas Cowboys get no love from the Vikings, nor should he

Playing for 60 minutes a day may be enough for the big boys and girls in the NFL's Play 60 program. But for Keith Brooking it is best to stop at 58 minutes. After that, his feelings are just too fragile.

The Minnesota Vikings embarrassed the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 in this year's divisional playoff round. Keith Brooking took exception to the Vikings seemingly running up the score.

Up 27-3 with the game realistically in hand, the Vikings were not taking a knee. And Shots Heard cannot blame them. This game looked over with 6:24 when the Cowboys took over on their own 33. The Cowboys did not attempt to melt down the clock. They went four and out on pass plays. They then used their timeouts to stop the clock on the Vikings following possession.

Given the Cowboys were playing to win still (and had done a lot of talking), the Vikings were right to finish the Cowboys 'Mortal Kombat II' style. The Vikings were especially right to do so when the Cowboys guarded the underneath routes and not the end zone route ran by Visanthe Shiancoe, who caught a Brett Favre TD pass to put the nail in the Cowboys coffin. The TD made the score 34-3.

The coffin was marked, 'The 2008 and 2009 Dallas Cowboys.' And a burial analogy is fitting. In last year's last regular season game, the Cowboys would have made the playoffs with a win. Instead they laid an egg and lost 44-6 to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Cowboys have exited the last two season by a combined score of 78 to 9! What a nightmare (foreshadowing)!

The Vikings were especially right to score when the Cowboys were talking all week after having their ears tickled by the media all week. Meril Hoge of ESPN said that the Cowboys were going to be a 'nightmare' match-up for the Vikings. Nobody was giving the Vikings respect in their own house (The Metrodome), where they are now 9-0.

Brooking in particular has no right to call the Vikings 'totally classless,' when he pinned wide receiver, Bernard Berrian down after a play was over and applied pressure to the jugular with his elbow. As well, the Vikings were well aware of his big mouth before the game and during the game.

The Vikings no doubt have avenged the classless actions of the Cowboys organization. Or you we can look at it from the view of the Master Pragmatic, Brad Childress, who is the Vikings head coach. Childress stated the Vikings were not running up the score, they were just taking care of business.

How do you like that for sweet ambivalence?

But sometimes abivalence is not enough. So Shots Heard is going to spell it out 'Keith Brooking pre-game speech stlye.' The Vikings hit the Cowboys. The Vikings kept hitting the Cowboys. The Cowboys might have backed up and the Vikings hit 'em' again.

And when the Cowboys were barely hanging, the Vikings hit the Cowboys in the mouth, bloodied their nose and knocked them out of the playoffs to the tune of 'Pants On The Ground.' The Cowboys were definitely 'looking like a fool.'

Hat to the side. Someone throw Brooking a hanky. He has something in his eyes and maybe a little blood spatter too.