First Super Bowl Party

Its disappointing that my first Super Bowl party turned out to be the last time that the Minnesota Vikings played in the Super Bowl. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Super Bowl XI was the Vikings third Super Bowl in four years. If not for a ridiculous pass interference not called by a clearly blind official in the 1975 playoffs, the Vikings would have been to four straight title games. They, at least, challenged for the Super Bowl every year. It was supposed to always be that way. Every eleven years they put another threat together but they haven't made it back to the big game since that January day in 1977.

I mostly watched games with my brother and father back then but I'd watched some with others, mostly Thanksgiving games with family, but I'd never gone to another home for the sole purpose of watching and celebrating a football game. The Minnesota Vikings and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XI would be my first. There were only six of us but it was a party like no other. It was sure to be fun with a Vikings win. Fran Tarkenton said so! It started out great when Vikings linebacker Fred McNeil blocked a Ray Guy punt and recovered on the two-yard line. Two runs up the middle didn't get the first touchdown of the game but the second run gave the ball back to the Raiders on a fumble. Oakland still had about 99 yards to go to score and of course they went 99 yards to score. The Vikings never recovered from the sudden reversal of fortune and the Raiders never looked back. The rest of the game was Raiders receiver Fred Biletnikoff being brilliant and the Raiders offensive line being destructive. Biletnikoff was the MVP but it was Art Shell, Gene Upshaw and the rest of the line just burying the Vikings defense. Its amazing what a three hour football game can do to a kid, adults too.

Despite being hosted by a Raiders fan, the party and group environment was super. I haven't been to many Super Bowl parties since then. They can be distracting if you want to just watch the game. Too many people go more for the party than the game. With the games being more competitive in the past decade the distractions seem even greater. Maybe I'm just waiting for the Vikings to get back to where they belong.  Maybe its just that no Super Bowl party now can measure up to that group and that game when I was 12.