Re: 2013 NFL Season. Tebow on the Brady Bunch(en)? Goodell will to all men!
It happens every 10-11 years.
Sounds about right...although occasionally more frequent:
1969: Best record in the NFL, win the last NFL Championship before the merger, 13 point favorites going into the Super Bowl... 7-23 L
1970: Best record in the NFL, heavily favored against SF at home...14-17 L
1971: Best record in the NFL (tied w/Dallas but had tiebreaker), Vikings outplay Cowboys at home, but turnovers lead to 13 Dallas points...12-20 L
1973: Best record in the NFL (tied w/LA & Miami), Vikings get to Super Bowl against the Dolphins...7-24 L
1974: Best record in the NFC (tied w/St.L, Wash, & LA), Vikings get to Super Bowl against the Steelers...6-16 L
1975: Best record in the NFL (tied w/LA, but had tiebreaker), Vikings host Cowboys at home, up with just seconds left...Hail Mary is born...14-17 L (Fran Tarkenton's dad also died of a heart attack while watching the game)
1976: Best record in the NFC, advance to the Super Bowl to take on the favored Raiders...14-32 L
1987: Minnesota sneaks into the playoffs, upsets New Orleans, stuns the world with a victory over SF, plays WASH to get to the Super Bowl. Down 7 with seconds remaining on 4th & Goal, a wide open Darren Nelson drops a pass in the endzone...10-17 L (WASH would go on to crush DEN in the Super Bowl)
1989: The Herschel Walker trade leads many to predict that Minnesota will win the Super Bowl in 1990
1990: Vikings go 6-10 and fail to make the playoffs
1998: Best record in the NFL, play ATL to go to the Super Bowl, Gary Anderson misses his first FG of the season that would have put the Vikings up 10 with less than 2 minutes to play. Falcons drive down in just over a minute to tie the game...27-30 L
2000: Start 11-2 under rookie QB Culpepper and look like they will finish with best record in NFL, lose their last 3 games in the regular season, manage to play NYG for the right to go to the Super Bowl...0-41 L
2001: Korey Stringer dies in the preseason, Robert Smith retires, and Denny Green gets fired with one game left of a 5-11 season. Minnesota makes the playoffs just once in the next 7 seasons
2003: Vikings start the season 6-0, and look to have the NFC Central title wrapped up...not so fast. Minnesota goes 3-6 over their next nine, but only needs to beat the 3-12 Arizona Cardinals in the last game of the season to go to the playoffs. Up 17-6 with less than 2 minutes to play, the Cardinals score two touchdowns, including one on 4th and 25 from the 28 with no time left on the clock...17-18 L
2009: Under Brett Favre, Vikings surprise many with a great season, and advance to the NFC Title game against NO, where they outplay the Saints, but fall in OT...28-31 (the NFL then changes the rules of OT)
2010: With Brett Favre back, Minnesota is hopeful of another run, disaster in the clubhouse as Coach Childress gets fired midway through the season, the metrodome implodes, Favre misses a game for the first time in his career, and the Vikings finish 6-10.
There are of course countless other games where Minnesota had chances to do something big only to **** it down their leg. I tried to focus on the major ones.
It is not easy to be a Vikings fan, but hopefully, at least sometime before I die, they will win it all, and it will be all that sweeter because of the history. That being said, I'm not optimistic about those chances.
