"My love of the Steelers might be the purest thing in my life, just because it's always been there and it's so unquestioned. I love the Steelers like a golden retriever loves a tennis ball."-Kirven Blount
I noticed this quote in last week's issue of Sports Illustrated. It describes very well my love of the Minnesota Vikings. Kirven Blount is the son of Sports Illustrated writer, contributor and author Roy Blount Jr. The younger Blount fell for the Steelers as a child around the time that the elder Blount spent the entire 1973 season with the team for his excellent book, About Three Bricks Shy of a Load. Kirven was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers at a time when they were getting ready to win a bunch of Super Bowls. I was taken by the Minnesota Vikings at about the same time when they were losing a bunch of Super Bowls. One of which was to those Steelers. Despite four Super Bowl losses and no return to the big game since 1977, I've never regretted for one moment being a Minnesota Vikings fan. Not even when most around me were celebrating three Oakland/L.A. Raiders and five San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl wins. My time with the Vikings has been well spent and it's been a blast. Sure, it could have been better.
Like Kirven with the Steelers, it seems that the Vikings have always been a part of me. I can't remember a day that I was aware of football and I wasn't part of the Vikings faithful. There had to have been a few days but I can't remember a single one. Falling in with a team that easily may not be a shock when that team is nearby. The 49ers and the Raiders were my local teams and everyone around me seemed to be a fan of one or both. The Vikings were a half a continent away and they might as well have been much more. I discovered and learned of Minnesota as a result of being a fan of the their NFL team. A little Minnesota Vikings fan in the middle of California. It's just the way it was.
The fun part about being a Vikings fan in the early '70s was that they were either in the Super Bowl or seriously contending for it. They made it to three in a four stretch. The Buffalo Bills of their day. It wasn't so fun that they always ended their playoff runs with a loss. If you told me then that the Vikings wouldn't make it back to a Super Bowl for over 35 years I would have thought that you were nuts. Kirven certainly had the better run. Four championships in the '70s. Two more in the last decade. The Vikings will get some of their own. I have no doubt. The fun part is the ride and I'm settled in for a long ride.
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