Let's Talk About That Game...

OK, we need to talk about the Vikings/Saints game from Sunday.  I don't live in MN and never have but my mom grew up in Minnesota and my grandma lives there and there are no other states with NFL teams anywhere close to ND so by default everyone here is a Vikings fan and we have all endured "the curse" for years.  Most years, the Superbowl isn't even on the radar of Vikings fans but every once and awhile...they get close.  The first year I recall was 1998 when the kicker missed his first field goal of the whole season in the NFC championship game and the Vikings ended up losing.  I was in 8th grade and I wasn't exactly a huge football fan.  I knew the biggest names in the NFL and a bit of what was going on in football games but I was at the level where, when I would go to a high school game with friends, my dad would quiz me about who won and what the score was afterwards because he was pretty convinced I wasn't paying any attention to the game and spent the whole time talking and screwing around.  And, he was right.  But, in my defense, it's kind of hard to follow small school football when you are standing along the sidelines and can't see an elevated view of what's going on.  But that 1998 game was rough even for me.  My 4th grader brother was depressed for a few days after that mess.

As I got older, I finally learned the actual technicalities and rules of football.  This was mostly due to playing on a surprisingly competitive flag football team in law school every fall.  We had real practices and our former football player classmates coached us.  So, in 2009 when they were so close again, I watched with my extended family in Mexico as they lost once again at the very end.

So, on Sunday afternoon everything was looking good and the Vikings were ahead 17-0.  But both Justin and I had a sense of foreboding and we were not wrong as of course, the Vikings started melting down and ended up behind by one point.  But then...

The time was running out and we were just hoping for a field goal chance which, based on history, would have ended in disaster but then this happened...as every fan in the state of Minnesota and the surrounding areas yelled "GET OUT OF BOUNDS MORON!!!"  but Marcus Williams there somehow dove into the air and missed the tackle and instead tripped his teammate and this Diggs guy kept running and we realized he was free...and he scored!  And pandemonium broke out everywhere.  I am not a sports youtube video watcher but even I watched it probably ten times yesterday.  He flung off his helmet and ran into the tunnel for some reason, probably overwhelm and not knowing what else to do, and got mobbed by the whole team as the entire stadium went nuts.  I watched multiple videos of fans celebrating including some in the stadium and I can't believe no one was seriously injured.  Those people were tackling and hugging and flinging themselves around and I don't know how no one tumbled over chairs and down the stands.  

The footage from people's own living rooms is even better.  I giggle just thinking about it.  The grown men emitting high pitched sounds like you rarely hear except from toddlers, the rolling around on the floor, the men jumping up and down and hugging and dancing around with other men, the ripping off of clothing, the running around and jumping on furniture, the expletives screamed in disbelieve, the bewildered children and pets looking alarmed in the background...it's all so funny.  I also kind of love seeing inside other people's living rooms.  Sometimes when you are always stuck at home with little kids you feel like there's always some fun party you're missing.  Like everyone else is watching the "big game" at a sports bar and enjoying $2.00 you call it drinks while you sit and deflect whiny kids the whole time.  But, from the looks of it, many many other people are sitting in toy littered living rooms on worn out and unattractive couches with crap scattered on their end tables and coffee tables.  Solidarity to all of you.

Then came the post game interviews which were also pretty funny.  In this one, this guy is freaking out and his teammate comes over and they start hugging and practically making out while the interviewer is stuck between them giggling.  I can't make this huge white space go away above the picture...it happens sometimes with copy and paste from google images. 

Then of course, is the interview with Diggs himself, who ended up crying and walking away after becoming speechless only to be chased by hoards of other news people.  

So, that was pretty awesome but now there is still one more game to win before securing a spot in the home town Superbowl.  Can you imagine?  I know one person who would be so so happy right now...My Grandpa Harold, a lifelong Minnesotan and sports fan and the first TV yelling, loud celebrating fan I knew. 

Dang, I was sure he was wearing Vikings stuff in these pictures but it appears to be local high school gear (where he was a teacher and coach).  Lucky they wear the same colors!  But he was a huge fan.