Love, Vikings, and Heartbreak

Most people who know me well are aware that I had my heart broken in early 1999. Eleven years ago, on the Sunday before MLK Jr. Day. I'm just hoping it doesn't happen again this year, but I'm trying to prepare myself anyway.

My Minnesota friends are nodding along by now, they also remember well. The 1998 season for the Vikings was a beauty to behold. An offensive juggernaut that had no equal, setting the NFL scoring record that year. A 15-1 record during the regular season, of which I attended several games. The stars had aligned. Home field advantage was ours. Destiny was calling the Vikings, they were going to Miami.

I made the trip to Minneapolis from Omaha that January for the divisional playoff game against the Cardinals. I went to the game with my two best friends at the time, and we enjoyed every minute of it. I remember the bitter cold outside. I remember the "keys to the game" for the Vikings were to "show up" and "not tape to tightly." I remember the joy in the city after the win.

At the time, I was also dating a girl long-distance. Our first date had been in December, just before the new year. As part of our dinner conversation, she asked me to explain the NFL playoffs, as she wasn't sure how different they were from baseball. This was obviously a girl worth pursuing.

So, the weekend following the Vikings defeating the Cardinals, that now infamous weekend, I traveled to Chicago a bit spontaneously (thanks in part to belatedly realizing I had no school Monday) to visit this girl. She already had out-of-town visitors that weekend, but allowed me to come anyway. On Saturday, we saw the sights of Chicago with her friends, and had a great day. Saturday night, before retiring to bed, I was hoping to find out what the plans were for Sunday- for a couple of different reasons.

First, of course, was the Vikings game. It was the early game, and naturally I wanted to watch it.

The second was I knew there would be church. That wasn't a negative, but it was an unknown. See, this girl, whom I was starting to love, was Mormon. Three weeks prior I had no idea what that meant. So, I had done a little research of my own to find out what I could. I also had planned to go to her church for the first time that weekend, but there was one small thing...she hadn't invited me yet.

I ended up asking her if she and her friends were planning to go to church. I think I shocked her by asking if I could go with. Apparently, her ward (congregation) met at 2:00 in the afternoon, which conflicted with the Vikings game. I think she had assumed I wanted to stay behind to watch the game, which I kind of did, but I'd also already decided that I wanted to go to church too.

In the end there was a compromise of sorts. I decided to go to church (as I said, the girl was worth pursuing), and we would record the game to watch after we returned and subject ourselves to radio silence to keep the result a mystery. Her friends I must say were very accommodating and played along. We even picked what we thought the final scores would be for both games (the other game being Jets at Broncos).

The rest of the story is history. The Vikings lost in stunning fashion to an inferior Falcons team. Our kicker who had been perfect all season missed a chance to win the game before overtime. I was heart-broken. Destiny had lied to me, stabbing me in the back.

But Carma made me a cake to try to ease the pain. (Yep, totally worth pursuing.)


Two years later, the Vikings were back in the NFC title game. This game was a blowout, a 41-0 rout by the Giants. I watched the entire game from the hospital room where Carma was staying, as she had just given birth to our first child a couple of days before. I was in a surly mood as we got discharged that day, for which I have apologized multiple times and still have not heard the end of it. While the expectations hadn't been as high, and the disappointment wasn't as bitter, it was still enough to leave scars.

And now we come to 2010.

I was nervous for the game yesterday. History repeating itself a bit, I was at church and recording the game to watch afterward. Thank goodness they won. Now, the Vikings are back in the NFC Championship game, and I am probably going to be a wreck.

Unlike 1999, we don't have home field, and aren't a record-setting offense. Unlike 1999, I'm not confident that the Vikings will win. We are probably not the better of the two teams playing Sunday, but they have a chance. At least it's not the early game. Also unlike 1999 (or 2001), I have two sons that will cheer with me, and both love to sing the "Skol Vikings!" song.

Like 1999, the winner goes on to the Super Bowl Miami. Also just like 1999, both the Jets and Vikings could end up being the losers. Like 1999, I also have 2:00 church.

I guess if they lose, Carma will still be around to make me a cake. I'll just have more people I love to share it with.