100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
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100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633196711 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2016 |
| Series: | 100 Things...Fans Should Know Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
By Mark Craig
Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2016 Mark CraigAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-671-1
CHAPTER 1
Bud Grant Arrives
Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. didn't blast in from Canada as much as he eased across the border, like a new marshall swaggering through swinging doors to an unruly saloon as the chorus stops and heads turn to face those steely blue eyes of authority. "What made Bud such a great coach was his unique style of saying nothing," Vikings defensive end Bob Lurtsema told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Just one look from Bud would maintain your 110 percent effort."
On March 9, 1967, the Vikings were 84 games old. They were 29–51–4 with no playoff appearances and no head coach. Legendary players with names like Marshall, Tingelhoff, and Eller were starving for Grant's organized vision and calm confidence. Six seasons of Norm Van Brocklin's mood swings, volatile temper, and shoot-from-the-lip belittlement had taken a toll and created the kind of toxicity that led quarterback Fran Tarkenton to demand a trade before Van Brocklin resigned and then stick to it afterward because he "didn't want Van Brocklin's blood on my hands."
March 10, 1967 was a new day, and it would become the most important one in the history of a Vikings franchise that was born on January 28, 1960. Owner Max Winter had tried unsuccessfully to hire Grant away from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before the Vikings began play in 1961. But this time on March 10, with four CFL Grey Cup titles to his credit, Grant said yes to Winter and general manager Jim Finks, who had been an adversary of Grant's in the CFL.
Four games into his Vikings career, Grant was 0–4 overall and 0–3 at home. He had lost to the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Bears, and St. Louis Cardinals by a combined score of 117–55. And on deck were Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. They hadn't lost in 11 games, including a win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I. But in a cold October drizzle at Milwaukee County Stadium, Grant beat Lombardi 10–7 with quarterback Joe Kapp completing only two passes and the defense setting up 10 fourth-quarter points with a pair of interceptions. The Packers, of course, would go on to win Super Bowl II. "It didn't make any difference if it was the Packers or the Little Sisters of the Poor," Grant said after the game. "It was important that we win today. It was the timing. We're not that bad ... Now, we should start moving forward a little."
And they did. They reached the playoffs in Grant's second season and the Super Bowl in his third season. Grant coached from 1967 to 1983, retired, and came back for one season in 1985 after Les Steckel posted a then-franchise-record 13 losses. In 18 seasons Grant went 168–108–5 (.609). From 1969 to 1976, he went 95–31–1 while earning seven of his 11 division titles, the last NFL title before the AFL-NFL merger, three post-merger NFC championships, and four Super Bowl appearances. "Bud Grant has more leadership ability, more common sense than any person I have ever known or been around in my life," Tarkenton told the Minneapolis Star Tribune as Grant was preparing to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.
Grant didn't win a Super Bowl, but he forever set the standard for one of the NFL's most consistently competitive franchises. Heading into the 2016 season, the Vikings had reached the playoffs 28 times. Since the 1970 merger, the Vikings ranked third in playoff appearances (26), fourth in division titles (17), and seventh in victories (397).
In 1957, at age 29, with no head coaching experience, Grant went from player to coach in Winnipeg. In 10 seasons, he went 118–64–3 with four championships. Grant, of course, would fall short on the NFL's big stage. His playoff record of 10–12 included lopsided losses to the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV, the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VIII, the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl IX, and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XI. In those four losses, the Vikings were outscored 95–34 while being outrushed by an average margin of 216–57.
As the painful losses have piled up over the years, fans have become more guarded and suspicious of the inevitable trap door. They still cheer like mad and hope for the best, but they definitely expect the worst. "I probably wouldn't say this if I was living in Minnesota," former Vikings left tackle Todd Steussie said. "But Vikings fans enjoy griping about a loss as much as they do celebrating a win. There's a level of mistrust that's been built in for generations. They still want to be fans. But at the same time, they're saying, 'I'm not going to let you guys get my hopes up just to have you burn me again.'"
Grant, the Athlete
Born May 20, 1927 in Superior, Wisconsin, Grant was stricken with polio at age eight but turned to athletics and became a three-sport star in football, basketball, and baseball at Superior Central High. He went to the University of Minnesota, starring in basketball and football while picking up extra cash pitching for baseball teams in the local town-ball leagues. In 1950 the Philadelphia Eagles drafted him 14 overall as an end, while the Minneapolis Lakers selected him as a 6'3" forward in the fourth round of the NBA draft. Always the financial pragmatist, Grant turned down the Eagles' offer of $7,500 because he knew he could make more money in Minneapolis as a backup with the Lakers and hired gun as a pitcher in summer town ballgames.
Grant played two seasons with the Lakers and won an NBA championship in 1950. Then he played two seasons for the Eagles, leading them in sacks one year and 56 catches (second most in the NFL) as a receiver for 997 yards and seven touchdowns. When the Eagles wouldn't pay Grant the $9,000 he sought for a third season, he bolted to Canada for $10,000.
CHAPTER 2Super Bowl IV
The hot-air balloon race scheduled as part of the pre-game festivities for Super Bowl IV never went off as planned. On a dreary day in New Orleans, the balloon representing the NFL and carrying a Vikings mascot barely got off the ground before crashing into the stands inside Tulane Stadium. Things went downhill from there.
Favored by 12 points, the Vikings were dominated by a Kansas City Chiefs team that made the most out of coach Hank Stram's astute gameplans. The Vikings threw three interceptions, lost two fumbles, and were a step slow throughout a 23—7 loss in their first of four Super Bowl appearances. "We made more mental mistakes in one game than we did in one season," safety Karl Kassulke told reporters after the game.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Bud Grant's Vikings had dominated the NFL. They went 12–2, winning 12 straight after a season-opening loss. They led the league in points scored (379) and fewest points allowed (133). They crushed the Cleveland Browns 27–7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the final NFL championship game before the AFL-NFL merger. In that game rough-and-tumble quarterback Joe Kapp, who was nicknamed "Indestructible," ran over Browns linebacker Jim Houston, sending the woozy Houston to the sideline.
Meanwhile, Stram's Chiefs had finished runner-up in the AFL's Western Division. Quarterback Len Dawson, the losing quarterback in Super Bowl I and a former five-year backup in the NFL, was underappreciated in spite of Joe Namath and the New York Jets famously upsetting the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III the year before.
History, of course, would be much kinder to the Chiefs. A team with seven Hall of Fame players, including five on defense, would take their Hall of Fame coach's innovative gameplans and attack the Vikings, who many sportswriters were regaling as one of the most physical teams the NFL had ever seen.
The night before the game, NFL Films convinced Stram to be miked for sound during the game, something that had never been done before. It cost NFL Films founder Ed Sabol $1,000, but it was money well spent because Stram's strutting, wisecracking chatter became part of NFL lore, much to the chagrin of Vikings fans expecting a blowout back on January 11, 1970.
One of the most famous scenes is Stram yelling, "C'mon Lenny! Pump it in there, baby! Just keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!" He also took excessive joy in the Vikings' confusion, once yelling, "Kassulke was running around there like it was a Chinese fire drill. They don't know where [running back] Mike [Garrett] was, didn't know where he was! They look like they're flat as hell."
Stram knew the Vikings liked to use smaller, quicker center Mick Tingelhoff to take out linebackers. Stram countered with something the Vikings weren't expecting: he put 265-pound tackle Curley Culp directly over Tingelhoff in a five-man line. Culp's performance that day would help limit the Vikings' vaunted running game to 67 yards and play a significant role in helping Culp enter the Hall of Fame as a senior candidate and pioneering nose tackle decades later. "No one really cared for Hank Stram, but he had a pretty good strategy," Vikings running back Dave Osborn said in 2015. "Everybody played a 4-3 defense. Stram looked at us and knew he couldn't beat us that way. So he came out with a five-man line and two linebackers. They had someone in every crack. It was too many men. Every time Bill Brown and I got the ball in the backfield before we even made two steps, they got to us."
The Chiefs led 9–0 when Vikings kick returner Charlie West fumbled, and Kansas City recovered at the Minnesota 19. Six plays later, Garrett scored on a five-yard run on a trap draw play that Stram's cackling sideline footage captured forever. "Was it there, boys?" he yelled to his players on the sideline. "Was that there, rats? Nice going, baby! The mentor! 65 Toss Power Trap!"
Stram also was the team's offensive coordinator. He knew the Chiefs couldn't block ends Carl Eller and Jim Marshall one-on-one while throwing deep passes. He also knew their tendency to bat down shorter passes. So Stram double-teamed the ends and used shorter passes while sliding the pocket. Meanwhile, "65 Toss Power Trap" was designed to counter the aggressive pass rush of the famed Purple People Eaters' defensive front.
Grant made halftime adjustments, and the Vikings marched 69 yards in 10 plays to make it 16 — 7 on Osborn's four-yard run. But Dawson came right back with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Otis Taylor. "The second half, our coaches made the adjustments, and we blocked them," Osborn said. "But we were too far gone. They had us beat."
CHAPTER 3Randy and Red Resurrect a Franchise
Coach Dennis Green walked down the hall and into offensive coordinator Brian Billick's office in Winter Park, Minnesota. It was April 18, 1998, and the NFL draft was starting in less than an hour. "I think we're going to get Randy Moss," Green told Billick. For months the Vikings had talked about selecting Moss. But every conversation ended with someone saying, "Yeah, but we'll never get him, so let's move on," Billick said.
But this time Green was hearing that concerns about Moss' character would cause him to slide past 20 teams and into the Vikings' lap at No. 21. Billick looked up and this was his first thought: What are you smoking, Denny? But Green was clear-headed and sober. Moss, the enigmatic superstar with the rebellious attitude and checkered legal past going back to high school in West Virginia, was considered too toxic for many NFL teams. "Once we got Randy, that's when the excitement and the magic around the Vikings began," Billick said. "I don't think I even paid that much attention to the rest of the draft that year."
Like Billick, the fans knew the 6'4", 215-pound Moss was the deep threat the team needed to complete the puzzle on a team that had made the playoffs in five of Green's first six seasons but had never made it past the divisional round. The Moss pick would be remembered as the spark that resurrected interest in the Vikings. For the next 14 years, the Vikings would sell out every game at the Metrodome. "Growing up in St. Paul, I remember when the games weren't selling out," said center Matt Birk, a rookie backup in 1998. "But in 1998 it was like almost everything came together. Not only did we win, we were the sexy, exciting team. I think that appealed to more people. We got a lot of younger fans that year. The Metrodome became the hip place to be."
The Vikings set the NFL scoring record of 556 points while going 15–1 that season. The way that season ended — with a 30 — 27 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game — is the memory most associated with 1998. But the excitement generated that season was lasting and just plain fun. And it all started with a lanky kid from Rand, West Virginia, who was so gifted and so incredibly fast for his size that his nickname, "SuperFreak," was spot on.
Left tackle Todd Steussie remembers Moss turning heads in the huddle during a scrimmage against the New Orleans Saints in training camp. Brad Johnson, who would get hurt and be replaced by Randall Cunningham early that season, was the starting quarterback at the time. "Randy obviously had this incredible speed, and he was saying, 'Trust me, Brad, you can't overthrow me,'" Steussie said. "He said, 'I might not be there when you see me, but I'll be there when the ball gets there.' Sure enough, next play, boom, Randy goes the distance for a touchdown."
Moss would score 156 regular-season touchdowns during a 14-year career with five NFL teams, including seven years in his first stint with the Vikings and a month in his disastrous second stint in 2010. He led the league in touchdown receptions five times, including an NFL-record 23 with the 16–0 New England Patriots in 2007. His national breakout game came on a rainy October night at Lambeau Field in 1998, when he had five catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns. On Thanksgiving Day in Dallas, where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had passed on Moss in the draft, the SuperFreak caught three balls for 163 yards and three touchdowns. Moss caught 69 passes for 1,313 yards and a league-high 17 touchdowns that season. A year later, season-ticket sales at the Metrodome increased from 43,472 to 60,025.
Moss wasn't the only larger-than-life presence that arrived in 1998. Shortly before training camp, ownership changed hands, introducing a suspicious band of Upper Midwestern fans to San Antonio businessman Red McCombs, whose Texas-sized personality and deep southern drawl blew into town serving optimism with a Purple Pride chaser. Although Minnesotans would come to distrust the out of towner because of his threats to move the team if he didn't get a new stadium, 1998 was one of the greatest honeymoons between an owner and his fanbase. "When we would do a radio show from a bar or a restaurant back in 1998 and Red would show up, he was like the Pied Piper," said Dan Barreiro, a KFAN talk show host and former Minneapolis Star Tribune sports columnist. "It was like the emperor has arrived."
Steussie said it was McCombs who got the fans more involved at the Metrodome. "Everything was tied into Red showing up in '98," Steussie said. "I played there for like five years before 1998 and I didn't even know the names of the 10 co-owners we had. Then here comes this gregarious, dynamic owner running around yelling, 'Purple Pride! Purple Pride!' The fans bought into Red."
Early in the 1998 season, McCombs taped a message that was shown on the Jumbotron at the Metrodome. It was his invitation to "come on out and meet the players in the parking lot after the ballgame." "I remember looking up and seeing that," Steussie said. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, he did not just say that, did he?'" Before 1998 players would hang out in the parking lot after games, and the fans would be long gone. "I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but a couple of guys had coolers in their cars," Steussie said. "Unless it was 20 below, we'd sit out there and drink beer."
That ended in 1998. "We were like a rock band coming out of that place after games," wide receiver Jake Reed said. "People were everywhere ... It wasn't, 'Are we going to win?' It was, 'How much are we going to win by?'"
With each victory, the fans got louder and more willing to trust that the Vikings wouldn't stomp on their hearts like the old days. "People thoroughly believed because of the team's history and losing four Super Bowls that this was going to be the year they won their Super Bowl," Billick said. "No environment got louder or was tougher to play in for the opposing team than the Metrodome was that year. We were good, we were exciting, we could score a lot of points, and we had Randy, the most exciting player in the league. That was going to be the year."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Mark Craig. Copyright © 2016 Mark Craig. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Randall McDaniel,Introduction,
1. Bud Grant Arrives,
2. Super Bowl IV,
3. Randy and Red Resurrect a Franchise,
4. The 1998 NFC Championship Game,
5. Adrian Peterson, MVP or Miracle?,
6. The Purple People Eaters,
7. Super Bowl VIII: Dominated Again,
8. Favre Arrives,
9. 2009 NFC Championship Game,
10. Tarkenton Arrives on the Scene,
11. Mick Tingelhoff,
12. The Push-Off,
13. Alan Page,
14. Cris Carter,
15. Herschel Walker Trade,
16. Jim Marshall,
17. Visit Kezar Stadium and the Wrong-Way Run,
18. Carl Eller,
19. Super Bowl IX,
20. The 2010 Season Implodes,
21. Stormin' Norman,
22. Trading Tarkenton,
23. Fred Cox, the Father of the Nerf,
24. Korey Stringer's Death,
25. Sing Prince's Purple Prose,
26. Max Winter,
27. Favre vs. Packers,
28. The Scrambler,
29. Jim Finks,
30. Super Bowl XI,
31. A.P. and the Chaotic 2014 Season,
32. Viking Durability,
33. Bud Grant, a Man of Few Words,
34. Joe Kapp,
35. Visit Howard Wood Field,
36. Purple Pass Rushers,
37. Take a Love Boat Cruise on Lake Minnetonka,
38. Cris Carter's Family,
39. John Randle,
40. Ahmad Rashad and the Miracle at the Met,
41. Darrin Nelson's Drop,
42. Randall McDaniel,
43. Paul Krause,
44. Gary Zimmerman,
45. Eat at Tinucci's — Where Randy Moss Wouldn't Take,
His Dog,
46. Unsung Heroes,
47. Ron Yary,
48. Dennis Green,
49. Dave Osborn,
50. Adrian Peterson Rushes for 296,
51. Mike Tice,
52. Chris Doleman,
53. Tingelhoff's $500 Signing Bonus,
54. Go to Mankato for Training Camp,
55. Jerry Reichow, a Scout's Life,
56. Red and Randy Split,
57. Keith Millard's Guns,
58. Tony Dungy,
59. Jared Allen,
60. Robert Smith,
61. Go to Adrian Peterson Day,
62. The Wilf's American Dream,
63. Boom Boom Brown,
64. Daunte Culpepper,
65. Antoine Winfield,
66. Les Steckel,
67. Find a Community Tuesday Event,
68. Brad Childress,
69. Chuck Foreman,
70. Warren Moon,
71. Favre's Magical Metrodome Debut,
72. The Williams Wall,
73. Tommy Mason and His Monkey,
74. Jerry Burns,
75. Benchwarmer Bob's Place in History,
76. Steve Hutchinson's Poison Pill,
77. Enjoy Winterfest,
78. Matt Birk,
79. Matt Blair's Scary Journey,
80. Grady Alderman Was No Stiff,
81. Go to U.S. Bank Stadium and Join Club Purple,
82. "Two-Minute" Tommy,
83. Randall McDaniel, Student-Athlete,
84. Roy Winston,
85. Super Bowl LII,
86. Dirty Jobs,
87. Joey Browner and Family,
88. Studwell, Greenway, and the Art of the Tackle,
89. Big Play Bobby Bryant,
90. Lynn Loathed Replacement Players,
91. Feisty Prankster Wally Hilgenberg,
92. Anthony Carter,
93. Gene Washington,
94. Ed White,
95. Isiah Thomas vs. Cris Carter,
96. The Tragic Case of Orlando Thomas,
97. Visit Lambeau Field, the Site of Moss' Moonshot,
98. Rick Spielman,
99. Mike Zimmer,
100. The 2015 Season and Beyond,
Acknowledgments,
Sources,