Winning

I've always been amazed by the impact that a win can have on a fan. Especially a fan of an NFL team. College football too. Having only one football game each week allows for a few days of sheer happiness. There are too many games each week in the other major sports. Baseball is nearly nightly. There's so little time to savor a victory. You have a few days in football. We get so wrapped up in our teams. I know this as fact from my own personal experiences and emotions. The Minnesota Vikings just experienced their most significant win in over two years with their victory over the San Francisco 49ers. You have to go back to their 2009 playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys. This win over the 49ers was significant because of the low expectations that most had for the Vikings and the very high expectations for the 49ers. These were two teams at opposite ends of the NFL spectrum. The win showed that the difference between the two teams may not be as great as most assumed. Most Vikings fans that I know gave their team no chance. As a result all are walking tall right now. Some maybe in a state of shock. Soon they'll be crunching the Vikings chances against the Detroit Lions. That's what follows in the week after a big win. First, relishing in the shine of a win. Then, happily looking toward the new game. It wasn't that way last week. After the Vikings loss to the Indianapolis Colts these same happy Vikings fans were driving nails in their team's coffin and looking to the draft. What a difference a week makes. Sports fans are a fickle bunch. Sometimes I think that Vikings fans are more fickle than most. There have been so many close calls in the Vikings history. Close calls without that one final win. There are a lot of glass half empty Vikings fans. The happiness of any football fan is determined mostly by the results of the last game. Winning changes everything.