GUEST POST: The Elusive Vikings Super Bowl Win

[NOTE FROM ARIF: Keep them coming! This guest post pairs well with (unintentionally or not) the previous post on “hope” and how it relates to Vikings fans, this time written by active Tweeter @LAHfreya23, otherwise known as Ligeia Heagy in meatspace.

To my knowledge, this is her first guest post as well! Again, email me at arifmhasan (at) gmail DOT com if you want to write a guest post]

By Ligeia Heagy

Every Vikings fan hopes for a Super Bowl win…before they die. It’s the age old joke between fans, and the twisted verbal knife from other teams.  The thought of a Vikings Super Bowl win is almost too much to hope for, considering history.  Some fans might argue that hope is a four letter word.  To date, a Super Bowl win for the Vikings has been entirely elusive. Is it possible?  Our quest begins with a trip down memory lane.

Vikings fans are inured to disappointment.  There was the 1970s run at the Super Bowl, only to be disappointed four times in one decade. The consolation prize was a series of NFC North and NFC Championships.  Fair enough.  No one is really complaining about those, until the 1998 and 2000 NFC Championship losses are broached. Enough said. Oh, but then there was the 2009 NFC Championship loss to add to an already boiling pot of misery.  Clearly, the Universe did not believe that 2009 had inflicted sufficient pain among the Viking brethren.  Almost on cue, the roof of the Metrodome collapsed in 2010.  Prophetic? Why think otherwise?

On the road towards a Vikings Super Bowl, there have been a number of questionable pit stops along the way.  Notably:

  1. The Herschel Walker trade (If you must ask, visit Wikipedia. It simply cannot be relived here.)
  2. The Love Boat scandal (Included because, well, the Vikings needed this like a hole in the head.)
  3. The acquisition of Brett Favre (Questionable from the point of view that he managed to win a Super Bowl for the Pack, but not for the Vikings.  In his own words, he choked.  Yes, yes he did.)
  4. The 2013 quarterback carousel (This fueled the image of the Vikings as a perennial laughing stock organization. Deepest of sighs.)

By the end of December 2013, the Vikings had secured their future as the laughing stock of the league. At times, being a Vikings fan is akin to stabbing oneself in the eye with thousands of needles daily.  Counter argument?  As they say on Twitter, meh.  But enough grousing.  Is there a Super Bowl for Viking fans on the horizon? 2014 appears to be a pivotal year for Viking fortunes.

Black Monday arrived with few surprises and additional agony for fans, who would surely be disappointed by the selection of a new coach.  Knife wounds to the gut are expected.  Fans carry first aid kits in anticipation thereof (at least one would hope they do).  But the unthinkable occurred.  In mid-January, Vikings brass interviewed Mike Zimmer.  Zimmerwatch commenced upon a tweeted picture of Zimmer at the Cincinnati airport on his way to Minneapolis.  Fans and media allowed themselves two full days of giddiness.  They bathed in it.  Because this kind of joy is so fleeting for Vikings fans.  In the end, Vikings brass hired Zimmer, ushering in a potentially whole new world for Vikings everywhere.

The hiring of Zimmer potentially flips a switch.  The position of Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings is a first for Zimmer and fulfills a lifelong dream.  Zimmer is a no nonsense personality with a self professed chip on his shoulder.  Needless to say, the Vikings also have a chip on their shoulder and about 50 years of pent up Super Bowl adrenalin.  This is a marriage in Valhalla for Vikings fans.  The bottom line is that Zimmer wants to be the effing coach that brings the effing Super Bowl win to the effing Minnesota Vikings.  And, he is effing believable in his process.  Which brings us back to the possibility of a Vikings Super Bowl win.

Show of hands, who wants to be the one to tell Zimmer he can’t do it?

The room is empty ladies and gentleman.  Go ahead and effing HOPE!

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