Heartbroken

Ever hear the song "Inside Out" by the band Eve6? Well there is a wonderful line that goes
"...I wanna put my tender heart in a blender and watch it spin around into a beautiful oblivion....." Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel right now.

As a loyal and long suffering Minnesota Vikings fan I'm very used to heartbreak and disappointment. Usually it's the same ol same...win a decent number of games, get to the playoffs, lose. Some years the team doesn't even get that far. It seems like there is always something ( or someone) stopping the team from reaching "The Big Game". It could be the coach isn't good enough (see Mike Tice) or the quarterback isn't very good (see Travaris Jackson) or this year the offense is hot and the defense has more holes than Swiss cheese and then the next year the defense gets it done and the offense develops end zone amnesia. It's always one thing or another and even if they get it right in a game or a season, well this team still possesses an innate ability to trip over itself and screw things up royally (see massive list of stupid penalties and dumb mistakes on the field). Well, you get my point.

Normally, I'm pretty mellow when it comes to how the team does in a season, I just know that if they make it to the playoffs, they will eventually lose. If not the first game then it's the second one that sends them home. I'm not trying to be negative or anything, it's just the way things seem to go for this team. Oh, there have been some really good years when some sports announcer/analyst will put Minnesota down as their pick for Superbowl favorite based on what the team looks like on paper. This usually pans out by the middle of the season when the team is barely above .500 and half of the starters are out with major injuries. If the team does make it to a 1st round game then odds are high that it's one and done. The few years they do make it out of the first round, they fall flat in the second game..aah disappointment. Then there are those rare championship game appearances....

1998, the head coach was Dennis Green and the quarterback was Randell Cunningham. The Vikings were living up to their nickname ravaging and destroying all that was in their way. The hottest receiving team of Cris Carter and Randy Moss just could not be stopped. The defense was feared league wide and up until Tampa Bay spoiled the party talk of a perfect season. 15-1, shoe-ins to not only make it to the Super bowl but take home that elusive trophy that 4 previous teams could not get. I was all but planning my purple party. Then Atlanta came to town. My heart was shattered into a million pieces as I watched the Atlanta ball sail though the uprights in OT.

2000, The head coach was the same but now Daunte Culpepper was QB. Randy Moss and Cris Carter were still catching passes and Robert Smith was running circles around and through the defensive lines. Maybe this is the year. Nope, the team forgot to show up in New York that last game. The score was 41-0 and by the end of the game I was just numb. Ok, I probably turned it off at some point but I have erased that game from my memory.

2009-10 The head coach is Brad Childress and he went all out and persuaded retired (yeah right) quarterback Brett Farve to come out and play just one more season of football. Never mind he spent almost all of his storied playing career in arch rival Green Bay. The old dude said yes and Vikings fans were spared another year of bad quarterback. Last year's hot rookie Adrian Peterson looked even better this year and the new guy Percey Harvin exceeded expectations. Throw in some awesome performances from the rest of the team and you've got a winning season and a first round bye. The very much full of themselves Dallas Cowboys went home with their tails between their legs land all that stood between the Vikings and the Superbowl were the New Orleans Saints.

After Atlanta, I was very wary of ever putting my heart back into this team. It was much easier to tell myself the other team was going to win and expect that outcome. It really made all those losses easier to take. I did have some hope in 2000 that maybe, just maybe the team got it right but by halftime I had accepted the inevitable so that one didn't hurt as much. This year's game I had the same strategy. The Vikings were not favored to win and they were playing on the road and this year they had a lousy win record for away games. My plan was to turn the game on but find other things to do and just check in occasionally to see the score. I spent the week and most of the day telling myself that the Saints will be the ones in the Superbowl. I did however put the same shirt on that I wore last week when the Vikings trounced the Cowboys in hopes the win would rub off.

I did pretty good, I watched a few plays in the first half, amazed that the score was almost always tied. I tuned in the 3rd in time to see Minnesota stumble and fumble and once again started to go down the "they're gonna lose this" road. Then something amazing happened late in the 4th. They got the tieing TD and then the defense started to get physical on the Saints. Minnesota got the ball back and was chewing up the clock, making big plays and inching closer and closer to field goal range. A tiny kernel of hope started to sprout and grow. As the minutes ticked down closer and closer to the end with the Vikings in possession of the ball my hope grew and took hold. I was excited, jumping up and own, shaking with nervous anticipation. They could actually win this game! A stupid penalty ( go figure) knocked them back 5 yards, on the very very outside of long field goal range but they still had two downs to go. 19 seconds left on the clock, all they had to do was get a few yards and then make the attempt. If it was a miss (good chance) then the game would go into OT. I could barely watch. I should mention "The Purple One" as I call Farve, had a season low interception rate. 3rd down, I'm expecting a run play but no, "The Purple One" opts to throw the ball down field. INTERCEPTION Yep, that's right, the other team caught it. Rip Shatter Squish (that would be my heart) AAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!! I made my way up the stairs as the kids were yelling "Mom, they didn't get a touchdown". Meaning the other team of course.

It didn't matter, the game was lost. So close and once again stupid mistakes doomed them. I stayed upstairs the rest of the game and OT. Hubby lovingly turned on the TV and kept track of the rest of the game while I took my frustrations out on the stove top stains I had been meaning to get rid of. Except for a few seconds of booth reviews, I refused to watch the rest of the game. I will say that at lest one penalty and 2 booth reviews were the fault of some really bad and biased ref calls but the Vikings never got the ball back and in 1998 flashback, the ball went sailing though the uprights in OT sending the Vikings back to Minnesota to watch the Superbowl in the comfort of their own homes. No, I did not watch that kick either, I was conveniently putting Matthew to bed and heard Jim swear when the kick went though.

Once again my heart is broken. I'm hoping that maybe next year will be the year they finally end the 30+year Superbowl absence. In the meantime I'll be sitting in front of my TV on Superbowl Sunday watching commercials and yelling....


GO COLTS!!!!!!!