Cal vs. Vikings

As my football teams, the Minnesota Vikings and California Golden Bears, bungle their way through the beginning of pretty dreadful seasons, I'm left to dream about other things and better football days. I recall a friend asking me, in the early '90s, which of my teams I preferred. I didn't think that I'd ever have to pick one over the other. Professional football and college football are pretty much two different sports. My friend pushed the topic. Saying that if Cal and the Vikings happened to play at the same time, which would I choose to watch? That scenario is much more likely to happen now than it would have been then, but I played along. It was a tough decision and I really can't recall if I actually picked one over the other. I felt like I would do a disservice to one if I picked the other. I waffled quite a bit. Now, this question was posed at a time when my Cal days were still very fresh. I was still traveling to Berkeley on game days. Some friends were still students. I still felt like a Cal student despite the absence of classes. Cal was also playing some terrific football under Bruce Snyder. Dennis Green was systematically turning over a Vikings roster that saw some success under Jerry Burns at the close of the '80s. It was an interesting question then. I've thought about that question several times over the years and decades. There's never really been any waffling since the question was first asked of me.

It's easily the Minnesota Vikings and it really always has been. This fact has always been something of a puzzle. Mostly because I have no connection to Minnesota outside of my passion for the Vikings. I fell for the team as a little kid for no particular reason. It just felt like something clicked into place and that was it. I've only been in Minnesota twice. Once on a very brief, but glorious, layover on my way to somewhere else. The second time lasted a weekend when I attended the 2001 NCAA Final Four. I was in the Vikings home for three basketball games. Somewhere under that little court was the turf upon which my Vikings ran. It was a brief visit but I felt very much at home. On the flip side, Cal is a very significant part of my life. Cal is my school. As they say, "I am Cal." I have a much greater "real" connection to that college football team in Berkeley than that professional football team in Minnesota. It's a puzzle. It isn't really. While I may have a "real" connection to Berkeley, Cal, and the Golden Bears, the Vikings have been a part of my life, part of me really, for as long as I can remember. If you cut me, I bleed purple. Gold too.

If both Cal and the Vikings happen to play a football game at the very same time, there's a DVR. I'll have a football double header. Vikings live with Cal up next. In fact, technology has made it possible to have a bunch of favorite teams and not have to pick only one to watch. It's not like those primitive days of the '90s.