Viking Curse

While it is a great story that the New Orleans Saints will go to their first superbowl, one can only imagine how many Viking fans called in sick instead of going to work today. The Minnesota Vikings throughout their history have come so close to winning a superbowl but failed at achieving that goal and yesterday's heartbreaking loss to the Saints for Viking fans adds another chapter to this sad saga. In the 70's the Vikings made the Superbowl three times and lost all three and take away a hail mary pass from Roger Staubach (Viking fans still think Drew Pearson pushed off Nate Wright) probably would have made it to four. In 1998, the Vikings who finished the regular season 15 and 1, lost in the NFC conference finals to the Atlanta Falcons in overtime 30 to 27 after kicker Gary Anderson missed a 38 yard field goal in regulation that would have put the game away and Head Coach Dennis Green opted to down the ball toward the end of regulation even though the Vikings had the most explosive offense in the NFC. It was hard to believe the Vikings could choke as bad as they did against Atlanta in 1998 but the 2009-2010 Vikings did just that. Despite Brett Favre throwing for more almost twice as many yards as Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson running for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns, the Vikings turned over the ball five times and took defeat right out of the mouth of victory. The first 4 turnovers were the reason why the Vikings did not have the lead in the final minute of the game and the 5th turnover will be hard Vikings fans to forget. With about 30 seconds left in the game and the score tied the Vikings got the ball to New Orleans 33 yard line. The Vikings were within field goal range and after taking a time out just needed to hold on to the ball to give kicker Ryan Longwell a chance to win the game. What instead happened was a comedy of errors that Viking fans found no humor in. After the timeout the Vikings were penalized 5 yards for 12 men in the huddle and moved out of field goal range. Then Brett Favre had the ultimate brain freeze moment at the worst possible time by scrambling right and throwing the ball across his body into the middle of the field, when he had 5 yards in front of him to run, right into the arms of Saints Cornerback Tracy Porter. The Saints then won in overtime with the help of some controversial calls by the referees and Viking players and fans were left with the bitter taste of a season ending defeat in a game the Vikings should have won. It's easy to blame the loss on Brett Favre but this was a total team meltdown and the hardest type of loss to take. It's one thing to lose because the opponent is better but when a team plays well enough to win and loses because of it's own careless mistakes, the pain of the loss is is compounded and lingers in the memory of players and fans. This year's superbowl between the Saints and the Colts will bring in high ratings but the one place where TV's will be turned off during the game will be in Minnesota.