The recent acquisition of defensive end Jared Allen required the guy who writes to checks to ask his partners to write some checks.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, owner Zygi Wilf made a capital call to his partners of just under $20 million, to cover the Allen signing bonus of $15,500,069.

In other words, the team didn’t have the cash on hand to pay Allen.

The move serves only to highlight the high-risk/high-reward nature of the undertaking for a team that was/is desperate to enhance a stifling run defense with a top-notch pass rush.  Though the trade can be justified by thinking of it as using the team’s first-round pick on Allen and giving up two third-rounders for the ability to do so, the total package of picks and cash makes this trade the biggest move the Vikings have made since trading for Herschel Walker in 1989.

But while in hindsight Herschel might have been a tad loopy for Lucky Charms, he wasn’t a card-carrying member of the field sobriety test team.  Though Allen has stayed out of trouble for a year and a half, a relapse could be devastating to him, and to the franchise.

The Vikings have had more than their fair share of forgettable moments over the years.  From the Love Boat to Mike Tice’s Super Bowl will-call window to the Koren Robinson fiasco to the 2003 first-round draft pick blunder to the 2002 first-round draft pick blunder to the Artic Blast mess in 2003 to sexual harassment allegations during the Dennis Green era to the antics of Randy Moss to the colossal choke job in the 1998 NFC title game to the Walker trade to four Super Bowl drubbings, the Vikings are as cursed as any pro sports franchise ever has been.

The Allen acquisition could be the moment that changes it once and for all.  For the sake of the team’s long-suffering fans, we hope so.  But we wouldn’t bet 69 cents on it.