As diehard Vikes fans, we know how to lose the Big ones. Starting all the way back in the 60′s when “Injun Joe” Kapp took his lumps against the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV, all the way to January 2001 when the New York Giants thumped 41-0 in the NFC Championship Game, Viking fan have dealt with the biggest loses in NFL history.
My worst nightmares as kid came as a result of the 4 Super Bowl appearances the Vikings made. They were ugly! I can still remember my Uncle Warren, a Dallas Cowboys fan, cheering for the Oakland Raiders as they ran up the score in Super Bowl XI. It hurt my feelings to see him rudely cheering on a team that was crushing my dream. It hurt worse when I got the pointy number # 1 finger in my face as Willie Brown ran Fran Tarkenton’s intercepted pass back for a touchdown. I never cried so much in all my life. Back then, I was just 11 years old but I can still feel the pain of our losing jinx today!
The jinx has become so well-known that a local radio station has cut a song called the “Choke-a-Polka” where they reference the big losses of the Viking history including the “Drew Pearson Push-off” and the fumbles at the goal lines in the Super Bowls against the Dolphins and the Raiders.
Most recently we Vikings fans has been the victims in NFC Championship loses, watching our team choke away golden opportunities to advance to the Super Bowl. In 2010, the darkest day in my Vikings life, the team lost it’s lightning in a bottle season with a devastating overtime loss to the Saints.
In 1998, as we all know the Vikings finished 16-2, and were as close as a team could get to the Super Bowl without actually being there. When we left the Metrodome in January, 1999 after watching the Vikes lose 30-27 in overtime to the Falcons, not a one of us said a word to each other for nearly an hour. We sat out in the cold weather and drank beer in silence, wondering what the 16-2 Vikings could have done different to win that damn game.
Two years later we sat in the garage and watched the Vikings publicly embarras themselves in the 41-0 loss to the Giants in the NFC Title game. It got so bad in that game that when we trailed 34-0 at halftime, all we could do is laugh. It is quite funny that we invest so much time hoping that our team will get a shot at the Super Bowl, when we know that we are the Champions of big game losses. As Randy Moss said after the Giants game,
“It’s going to be hard for us to win a Super Bowl in Minnesota. I believe that. It’s going to be hard.”
From our perspective, it’s really no use going into the reason why we lost the NFC Championships, or the Super Bowls, so we can only HOPE for better results in the future. As Viking fans we were all raised to endure the pain of tough losses. We have lost in some of the biggest and the best games in NFL history. Choking in the big games is familiar territory for a Viking diehard. That’s not saying we like to lose! No way! Losing is the worst feeling a person could ever have, and should never be viewed as a positive experience! As legendary Viking Hall of Fame Quarterback Fran Tarkenton once wrote in the preface of his book, “No Time for Losing,”
“The true competitor is hurt deeply when he loses. He acknowledges his defeat, but convinces himself it is only temporary and he will come back, until he stands in the winner’s circle. We need sportsmanship, true, but let’s not misconstrue sportsmanship to mean a casual acceptance of defeat.”
And so it goes, a 2-5 start to 2010, another coach on the brink, another legendary quarterback is banged up, and Moss is gone again. The only thing left to say is UFFDA, pass me another bottle of Premium Grain Belt Beer and enjoy the tailgating. Hang tough Vikings fans. History is yet to be made with 9 games left on the schedule.
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