My life as a Vikings fan

The life of a Vikings fan is hard to know just where it started. I have loved football my whole life yet never played a down as it is too physical and at times looks painful. 


I think in my opinion is when I moved to Owatonna in 1987 knowing the team was training 45 minutes away in Mankato. Is this the reason?


I f so I am not sure why I did not make my first ever trip to Mankato until 1994. It was an experience going but I was shy yes I said shy meeting players and just getting to know what the experience of Training Camp was all about. I learned year after year it’s not just going to practices its meeting fans from not only the United States but indeed fans come from all over the world such as Germany and England is what I met.


I am not sure how I decided to approach the venture of being a season ticket holder but I guess you talk about it enough you get guts and plunge in and has it ever been worth it with so many memories good and bad


I was able to go to a few games through the year’s one or two and loved it but it wasn’t season tickets. I remember in 1997 my dad called and said he had a coworker who had season tickets but couldn’t use them that year for unknown reasons so I bought them from her just for the one season.


I will never forget it as I bought two so each week I brought someone with. It was crazy because it was in the Metrodome and I don’t remember the section number but they were row one on the end zone. I would never do these seats again for two reasons and one is cost and two is when the team was right in front of me it was awesome but when they were going the other way I found myself watching the big screen seeing what yard line they were on.


In 1998 was the year I decided to make a commitment to season tickets and that was the year never to forget. Anyone remember a certain number 84? Yes, Randy Moss’s rookie year. It was a season where the Vikings offense broke an NFL record of point by a team. It was a 15-1 year and playoffs all in my first year as a committed season ticket holder. 


The Vikes get a bye then win at home and host the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Title game with winner moving on to the Super Bowl. I was so confident we were going to Miami I started getting airline, hotel and anything else I could get lined up. 


I will never forget the game including taking a knee before half which I did not like. The Falcons make a comeback and we go to overtime. I remember before OT Gary Anderson lining up to kick the win that would guarantee a trip to Miami. I remember myself along with 65,000 plus other fans chanting Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl. The snap, the hold the kick and I was jumping up and down because I swore it went in but I saw the refs motion no good.  It was a gut wrenching moment. It’s easy to blame Gary but I look at so many missed opportunities in a team sport.


It was awful watching Falcons kicker, Morten Anderson drill the game winning kick in overtime and I watched Falcons’ Coach Dan Reeves doing the dirty bird on the Metrodome stage.


It was an absolutely devastating day in my life as a Vikings fan but time does heal and the next season soon will be here.


I mentioned heart break earlier and yes plenty such as the 1987 NFC Championship game and seeing Darrin Nelson drop a touchdown in the end zone and the season was over. I went to St. Louis for a playoff game s the tea known as the fastest team on turf and yes they were as I made the long trip home from St. Louis after being eliminated.


My wife and I went to the Superdome in 2010 and watched the Saints kick the game winning field goal in overtime to send the Saints to the Super Bowl making a long flight home from Louisiana.

My wife and I went to Green Bay for the playoff game when Christian Ponder was hurt and Joe Webb was the quarterback. It was my first and only time to Lambeau and again made for a long trip back to Owatonna.


I am a lifelong and proud Vikings fan and losing definitely stinks and hurts like hell but the next day I get out of bed and life does continue maybe a little slower sometimes but it does roll on.

As they say with all bad comes good and I have had plenty of that and just keeps my purple blood flowing,


1998 seeing Randy Moss come onto the scene and being at the games seeing it in person was incredible. 2009 seeing Brett Favre quarterback the Vikings including watching him play at home vs the Green Bay Packers with the Vikes winning. It made him the first quarterback ever to beat all 32 teams and I was there.  


The 49ers game that year with Favre dropping back with 49ers all over him and he find Greg Lewis in the back of the end zone for a catch I will never forget.


The San Diego Chargers game when Adrian Peterson broke the all-time rushing yards in a game with a monster 2^nd half.


The game this season with the Vikings being down 20-0 to Denver at halftime and the Vikings come back to win.


I have had season tickets 19 years and been in all three stadiums: (Metrodome,TCF Bank and US Bank) and proud to say I have only missed four games ever. My daughter got married on a preseason game day, my other daughter’s traveling soccer team made and won the state championship and I had foot surgery costing me two games. You can see these are four very good reasons to miss a game.


I have been to 27 straight years of Vkings Training Camp and have a basement room loaded from floor to ceiling in Vikings gear. I am not the biggest Vikings fan in the world but I do love the team with all my heart.


It was just last Saturday the Vikings traveled to New Orleans and I knew we had a little hope with the odds so stacked against us. I see Adam Thielen fumble and have a bad feeling but the more you watched the more you believed. The touchdown catch by Rudy and all was right in this purple world of mine. It’s an emotion that can’t be described.


Saturday vs the 49ers will be tough but the way this whacky season has gone all things are possible. I am a fan win or lose and winning pf course really helps but no matter what whether the Vikings are Super Bowl champs I be ready and geared up for 2020.


Thanks you for reading
Purplestick