Halloween Tales: The Scariest Part of Vikings Fandom
Please note: The article on our sister-site, PurplePTSD.com.
From PurplePTSD editor Kyle Joudry:
It is a perilous calling, one filled with disappointment, heartache, and sorrow. Indeed, being a Vikings fan is not for the faint of heart. Our squad consistently finds unique, creative ways of letting us down. It is this reality alongside our upcoming Halloween night game that got me thinking: what is the scariest part of being a Vikings fan? To help answer this question, I’ve reached out to writers from both Purple PTSD and Vikings Territory.
Prepare to be terrified.
Josh Frey
As some people who have read articles on VikingsTerritory and PurplePTSD for a while may know, I don’t truly identify myself as a Vikings fan. Because of that, the question of “what is the scariest part of being a Vikings fan” doesn’t quite apply to me.
However, over the past season and a half of writing about this team and rooting for them, the Minnesota Vikings have constantly provided stressful moments that have left me on the edge of my seat before slumping back and contemplating, “what the hell just happened?”
The scariest part about the Minnesota Vikings experience is that they are like an earthquake. At the epicenter, diehard Vikings fans experience the brunt of all the week-to-week stress that the team causes, but the ripple effects are felt throughout the league. Every fan base in the league should be, out of dread, circling the Vikings game on their schedule because it is bound to be the one that leaves everyone involved with a few grey hairs
Cole Smith
The scariest part of being a Vikings fan is that even when something good happens, you know misfortune will ollow. A perfect kicker? Forget it, he’ll miss the field goal to send you to the Super Bowl. A 6-0 start in 2003? You’ll still miss the playoffs. Brett Favre having the best year of his career? Don’t worry, he’ll cap it off with an interception in game-winning field goal range. A miracle pass to send you to the NFC Championship? Ha! Just wait until the NFC Championship a week later. Heck, our coach lost eyesight when a laminated playsheet cut his eye on Halloween Night in Soldier Field in 2016, a stadium that in and of itself is a house of horrors for the Vikings. Like a teenager tripping and falling over their own feet while trying to escape Michael Myers, the Vikings have bumbled and fumbled games, seasons, and careers away since 1961.
Adam New
What’s the scariest thing about being a Vikings fan? There are many, but as a UK-based fan, it’s those night games. Whether it’s Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night, when you think staying up for a 1:15 or 1:20 am kickoff is perfectly sensible. Despite the fact, you will be expected to be up at 7 am to get the kids ready for school. You know you’ve been hooked into the insanity of following this team. Imagine the roller coaster of following this team through the first six weeks (and since the beginning), and putting yourself through that mental anguish, followed by the ecstasy and then anguish again. Repeat as nauseam. Then imagine doing it during the early hours of the morning. It’s bad enough to go through on the early kick-offs!
I’m not alon. There is a number of us dubbed the “late night vikes” by the UK and Ireland Minnesota Vikings fan club. Who are there every time, ready for the next bout of torture.
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Dustin Baker
This one is simple, although I hate that it is.
In many Vikings games — not all of them — there is a foreboding sense of doom when deepest “what-if” fears often play out on the television screen. What if the Panthers block this punt? Oh look, there’s the blocked punt I just saw in my brain.
I love the Vikings dearly — obsessive-like and I always will — yet I know when the cataclysmic events are about to transpire. I am not an anxietal guy (at all), but I engage in stinking-thinking when a Vikings game starts down a fluky path. Often, this is at Soldier Field. Weird stuff begins to occur, and I fundamentally know — beyond the shadow of a doubt — the rest of the game will careen away from the Vikings sphere of luck.
In 2021, this is happening weekly. Five of six games tunneled to the final play of the game for a win-loss decision.
On the whole, this is the scariest part. Thinking doomful thoughts that play out before my very eyes.
But, hey. I made it through this little spiel without mentioning kickers!
Tom Woldum
So many choices here. Is it the annual angst about whether the secondary can stop the passing game, or will they just keep folding like a wet newspaper? This has been a theme since the eighties. Is it the fear (or lately, expectation) that somehow, someway, our special teams will sabotage an otherwise-satisfying Viking performance?
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For me, it goes deeper than that. As a young fan of the Purple People Eaters, I watched the Vikings lose three Super Bowls (I was too young for the first one), and I’ve also seen them lose 6 NFC Championship Games for good measure. As a youngster, I was always convinced that we were one year away from winning the whole shebang. I knew it was just a matter of time, and I would see the Vikings win a Super Bowl. Now, I’m on the wrong side of fifty, and with each passing year, I become more aware of my own latent fear of dying someday; but the more egregious fear is that of never having seen a player in a purple horned helmet hoist the Lombardi trophy. Or, even more horrifying: what if they finally win one—and I’m not around to see it?
Henrique Gucciardi
“The scariest part of being a Vikings fan” is a tough one for me to answer simply because I don’t think I have much experience in this area. I’m a fan since 2016 (but managed to watch the games since 2017), so I’ve “missed” some of the biggest recent heartaches.
That being said, I believe the scariest part is being forever in this limbo, you know? If you look through NFL history, we are one of the best franchises in terms of wins, playoff berths, and division titles, played in four Super Bowls, and at least one NFC championship game in every decade. Even recently, we have had (and have now, at least for me) some great teams that are never able to get over the hump.
So I think this is the scary thing, having a great history, amazing players, some great things, but never able to win the big one. And also never Jaguars-level bad, so we always have the hope of better days – hope sometimes can be scary.
Kyle Joudry
When I was far too young, I watched the original Halloween movie. John Carpenter’s classic was pretty overwhelming to my youthful mind. As I’ve reflected on what made that movie so scary, I keep coming back to the idea of inevitability. It didn’t matter how much you ran away or tried to hurt him, Michael Myers would still catch up to you in the end. I can remember thinking, “why don’t you just run faster!??!” Even when they did, though, the killer found a way to track them down. That was – and still is – terrifying.
Watching the Vikings feels similar to being chased by Michael Myers (as Cole mentions up top). We can spend to the cap, bring in great talent, and have a strong coaching staff; our ignoble fate will still find us. We can run the ball well, create turnovers, and have some explosive plays; we’ll still find a way to lose. In this sense, the Vikings remind me of Michael Myers. I always feel like it doesn’t matter what we do. The masked murderer will still catch us in the end.
On Halloween night, I’m hoping we find a way to elude Myers (played by the Dallas Cowboys). Even if we have a good lead, I’ll be pretty scared until that clock hits zero.
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