This sucks. There’s no other way to put it. 13-3, NFC North champs, #2 seed, an elite defense, Super Bowl being played in our stadium. Things were set up almost too perfectly for the Vikings this season. But of course they had to remember they were a Minnesota sports franchise, which means they completely blew it. It took a miracle just to get past the Saints in the divisional round, only to follow that up with a complete embarrassment against the Eagles. But such is life as a Minnesota sports fan. As amazing as the Minneapolis Miracle was, the fact that a divisional round moment is my top moment as a sports fan is ridiculous. Top 10? Sure. Top 5? I can see it, depending on the city/state of your fandom. But best of the best, #1 overall? Come on. Let’s run down what Minnesota sports fans have had to endure in my lifetime.
Timberwolves
Playoff Appearances: 8 (last in 2003-04)
Division Titles: 1 (2003-04)
Conference Championship Appearances: 1 (2003-04)
NBA Finals Appearances: 0
To be fair, this season, and the next few at least, look promising if nothing else. Though they will still have the Warriors to worry about, we have a young team with lots of talent and even more potential. But we’re not even at the half-way point yet so you can’t put too much stock into the season just yet.
2003-04 Western Conference Finals, Wolves lose series to Lakers 4-2: The Wolves had the 2nd best record in the NBA, behind Indiana, giving them the top seed in the Western Conference. This wasn’t necessarily a huge upset as the Wolves only won the conference by two games over the Lakers. But as it was the first, and still only, appearance in the conference finals, it bears mentioning.
Playoff appearances all came in an 8-year stretch: Since the Wolves came into the league in 1989, they have made the playoffs 8 times, but it was in a consecutive stretch starting with the 1996-97 season and ending in 2003-04. In only two of those seasons were the Timberpups a top 4 seed. They finished 9th in the conference in 2004-05 and have not finished better than 10th in any season since. While their path to an NBA championship would still likely force them to go through the Warriors at some point (a victory that seems unlikely with where we sit today), it seems all-but-certain the playoff drought will at least end this season.
Twins
Playoff Appearances: 12 (last came in 2017)
Division Titles: 10 (last came in 2010)
AL Pennants: 3 (last came in 1991)
World Series Titles: 2 (last came in 1991)
*All stats reflect their time as the Twins, from 1961-present
There’s not as much to complain about with the Twins, when compared to other other teams here. But there’s still not a ton of successes to highlight either. There has been a fair amount of individual achievements. Two MVPs (Justin Morneau in 2006 and Joe Mauer in 2009); two Cy Youngs (Johan Santana in 2004 and 2006) and three AL batting titles (Joe Mauer in 2006, 2008, 2009).
Playoff Struggles: Sadly this is what has defined the Twins in recent(ish) seasons. Since winning the ’91 World Series, the Twins have only made one ALCS appearance: 2002, losing 4-1 to the Angles.
The Yankees: Since the ’91 season, the Twins have made the playoffs 7 times, losing to the Yankees in 5 of those seasons. They’ve got our number.
Vikings
Playoff Appearances: 27 (last in 2017-18)
Division Titles: 18 (last in 2017-18)
Super Bowl Appearances: 3 (last in 1976)
Super Bowl Wins: 0
*Stats are post AFL-NFL merger, beginning withe 1970-71 season. So yes, they would have one more Super Bowl loss to account for, in 1969, the last year before the merger.
1998-99 NFC Championship Game, Vikings lose 30-27 in OT: The 15-1 Vikings had been dominant all season and came into the game heavily favored. The Vikings were up by 7 with just over two minutes left to play. Gary Anderson trots out to convert a field goal to give us an all-but-insurmountable 10 point lead. Anderson had not missed a kick all year leading up to this point. Nobody watching the game thought that would change with this kick. Unfortunately the kick sailed left and the Falcons scored a touchdown late and then won on a field goal in overtime. This is my first true sports memory and what a doozy it is. I learned early how sad and rough it is being a devoted Minnesota sports fan.
2000-01 NFC Championship Game, Vikings lose 41-0: The 11-5 Vikings entered the playoffs as the #2 seed, behind the 12-4 New York Giants. The seeds won out and the Vikings visited New Jersey for a date with the Giants. It was over as soon as it began. The Giants leapt out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, ultimately winning 41-0. It was the most lopsided NFC Championship game in history.
2009-10 NFC Championship Game, Vikings lose 31-28 in OT: The infamous Bountygate. On top of that, the Vikings had 5 turnovers in a sloppy game. The two most painful being an Adrian Peterson fumble inside the red zone just before the end of the first half and Brett Favre’s interception with under a minute left while in field goal range. The Saints would go on to kick the game-winning field goal on the first possession of overtime.
2017-18 NFC Championship Game, Vikings lose 38-7: Are we sensing a theme here? Despite being the road team, the Vikings came into this game as 3 point favorites. They looked every bit the part on their opening drive, with QB Case Keenum capping off an easy drive with a 25 yard touchdown pass to TE Kyle Rudolph. The Vikings wouldn’t score the rest of the game. They looked terrible and the Eagles looked great. Not an ideal combination. We’re left still searching for that elusive first Super Bowl victory.
Wild
Playoff Appearances: 8 (last in 2016-17)
Division Championships: 1 (2007-08)
Conference Final Appearances: 1 (2002-03)
Stanley Cup Appearances: 0
The silver lining here is the Wild have made the playoffs 5 years straight and are in the hunt again this year; if the playoffs started today they would be the first team out of the Western Conference playoffs. I don’t have any heartbreaking moments to go over here like I did for the other teams. They haven’t had any monumental playoff collapses. They haven’t entered any post-season as a heavy favorite. The year of their one division title, they entered the playoffs as only the number 3 seed so while a first round loss was disappointing, it wasn’t anything to be seen as tragic.
And heck, that’s just from the professional side. We also have Gophers basketball and football to disappoint us.
Gophers basketball has 9 NCAA tournament appearances with another 4 vacated by the NCAA. Their one Final Four was part of one of their vacated seasons. They have one Elite Eight and three Sweet Sixteen appearances, the most recent of each coming in 1990.
Gophers football isn’t much better. They do have 7 national championships,but none since 1960. Since 1990, they have made 14 bowl games, winning only 5. You could argue they haven’t played a meaningful bowl game since winning the 1961 Rose Bowl. The 2015 Citrus Bowl was a New Year’s Day game, but I doubt anyone is taking much pride in that fact, especially considering they got blown out by Missouri, 33-17.
So through all this, why do we keep coming back? What is it about sports that year after year we force ourselves to go through all this misery? I would say there isn’t any one answer for that. It could be the hope of “There’s always next year.” Many (most?) sports fans are former players themselves and they can’t let go of the feeling they got from playing the game(s) they loved and continue to love. There’s a sense of camaraderie between sports fans, whether your team is the New England Patriots or the Cleveland Browns. Where else can tens of thousands of strangers bond over something the way they do at sporting events? I would say nowhere. I know for me, the suffering will make the victory all that much sweeter if and when it finally comes. Whether it’s the Timberwolves, Twins, Vikings, or Wild, if any one of those teams wins a championship, I will go crazy with joy and elation. The feeling I, and all other Vikings fans, felt after the miraculous victory over the Saints this year? It won’t even compare to what would come from a Super Bowl victory. And as fun as this past Twins season was, a World Series championship would beat that 100x over. There’s always hope in life and sports is as great an example of that as anything. Always believe, always have faith, you never know what might be coming next.
Even though we have no championships to revel in, we do have our own series of great sports moments. So let’s take a look a look at a few, get that hope going again.
The aforementioned “Minneapolis Miracle”
The NFL is notorious for blocking NFL content from playing on other websites, so if the video doesn’t play, watch it here on YouTube.
Kirby Puckett’s leaping grab in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series
Puckett’s walk off home run, 1991 World Series Game 6
Have to include Gene Larkin’s series winning walk off hit
Yet another 1991 World Series highlight (told you the Twins gave us the most to be proud of) and one of my all time favorite sports highlights. Kent Hrbek lifts Ron Gant off first base, gets the out call.
Wild beat the Avalanche in Game 7 of the first round of the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs after being down 3-1. (If video starts at the beginning, you can skip ahead to about the 5:40 mark.)
Top plays from the best Timberwolf in franchise history (so far), Kevin Garnett
Alexi Casilla’s walk off hit to clinch the division in Game 163, 2009
Randy Moss rookie year highlights
Like the Minneapolis Miracle, if the video doesn’t play, watch it on YouTube.
A classic Moss moment, “The Moon” (also a great time to remind everyone that Joe Buck sucks.
NFL again, might have to also check this one out on YouTube.
Another great Randy Moss moment, still some of the best sound bites of all time.
And we’ll finish with one more great moment from the 2017-18 Vikings season. And this one doesn’t come from the team. This comes from the fans. A gathering of 4000+ at the Mall of America for a giant, epic Skol chant. What else could bring together and unite a group of people like this?
