Super Bowl Weekend Hard on Vikings Fans

The first pro football game I ever watched was January 11, 1970. I was 6-years old. My mom took me with her to my first Super Bowl party at the home of a friend of hers. There was a lot of food and laughing as people gathered around a TV to watch our hometown Minnesota Vikings (I'm a Minneapolis boy, by the way) take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV. I was already a baseball fan by this point and got caught up in all the fun and the game itself. I was hooked despite a less than stellar showing by the purple and gold as they lost 23-7.

Flash forward to January 13, 1974, I was now ten and was playing pee-wee football (plus all the neighborhood kids would gather in our backyard as we played full contact tackle with no pads haha) and off we went to another Super Bowl party as the Vikings were facing The defending champion Miami Dolphins. Well the Dolphins and Larry Csonka were too much for my Vikings again as we lost 24-7.

A year later, it was yet another Super Bowl party as the Vikings were taking on Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yep. Steelers win 16-6.

Two years later, January 9, 1977, the Vikings got yet another shot at the big game (and another party) as they took on Ken Stabler and the Oakland Raiders. Yet another loss, this one 32-14.

So I'm 13 years old and my team had played in four Super Bowls, even though they lost them all, I was still optimistic because it seemed like this is what happened: I'd cheer for my team all year and then we'd get together with a bunch of friends and tables of food to cheer the Vikings on in the Super Bowl. It happened four times in the first seven years I watched the game!

It's Super Bowl weekend again. I'm now 49 years old. And I'm STILL waiting for my beloved Minnesota Vikings to play in another Super Bowl. My team is still ridiculed as the team that couldn't get it done, yet there are FOUR teams that have lost four Super Bowls, including the Buffalo Bills who famously lost four CONSECUTIVE Super Bowls in the early 90's! For Super Bowl trivia fans, the other two teams that have lost four Super Bowls are the Denver Broncos (who lost three in four years, but won in Elway's last two years to 'redeem' themselves) and the New England Patriots, who won three out of four in the early 2000's.

So Vikings fans, it's another weekend of food, friends, beer and a Super Bowl that doesn't include our team. I don't know about you, but 36 (and counting) years of 'maybe next year' is getting a little old.