History of the Minnesota Vikings
The ownership group, along with Bernard H. Ridder, forfeited its AFL membership (which was subsequently passed onto the Oakland Raiders) and then were awarded the National Football League's 14th franchise on January 28, 1960, with play to begin in 1961.
From the start, the Vikings embraced an energetic marketing program that produced a first-year season ticket sales of nearly 26,000 and an average home attendance of 34,586, about 85 percent of the 40,800-seat capacity of Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.
During the late 1960s, the Vikings were building a powerful defense known as the Purple People Eaters, led by Alan Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, and Jim Marshall.
After years of beating the Rams in frozen Metropolitan Stadium, they finally had to go to Los Angeles for the divisional round due to receiving the #3 playoff seed and being denied home advantage.
In the divisional playoffs, the Vikings rolled past the Arizona Cardinals 41–21 and came into the Metrodome heavily favored for their NFC Championship Game showdown with the Atlanta Falcons, who had finished 14–2.
In 2000, led by first-year starting quarterback Daunte Culpepper (a 1999 first-round draft pick out of Central Florida), the Vikings had a season in which Robert Smith ran for a team record 1,521 yards with seven touchdowns.
The Vikings' top running back, Chester Taylor, was out with bruised ribs, but backup Artose Pinner had the game of his life against a team that cut him a mere three months ago.
With the seventh worst record in the 2006 NFL season, the Vikings selected prized running back Adrian Peterson out of the University of Oklahoma, who led the Sooners to the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
Peterson made his Vikings regular season debut on September 9, catching a 60-yard screen pass from Tarvaris Jackson that went into the end zone for a touchdown against the troubled Atlanta Falcons at the Metrodome.
The Vikings stumbled out of the gate after that huge win over Atlanta, losing to Detroit at Ford Field 20–17 in overtime, the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium 13–10, and Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers 23–16 at home.
That game between the Packers and Vikings is noteworthy in that quarterback Brett Favre threw touchdown pass #421 (to Greg Jennings), breaking Dan Marino's mark of 420.
After a three-game skid, the Vikings then stormed back by winning against fellow division rival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field 34–31, but then dropped their next two games against the powerful Dallas Cowboys (14–10) and Philadelphia Eagles (23–16).
Not only that, Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie returned Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell's 57-yard field goal attempt 109 and a half yards for a touchdown, setting an unbreakable record for the longest single play in NFL history.
However, in a move that drew a lot of praise from Vikings fans, coach Brad Childress benched starting quarterback Tarvaris Jackson and replaced him with Gus Frerotte.
After losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium (the host site of Super Bowl XLIII later in the season) 19–13, a four-week winning streak ensued.
The Vikings beat the floundering Jacksonville Jaguars 30–12, the Chicago Bears 34–14 on Sunday Night Football, and the Daunte Culpepper-led Detroit Lions at Ford Field 20–16.
But the ensuing playoff match with Philadelphia turned into a disaster when Brad Childress decided to pull Gus Frerotte and replace him as starting QB with Tarvaris Jackson despite frantic protests from the team.
On August 17, he signed a two-year deal with the team and instantly provoked the outrage of Packers fans, former players (including former Viking quarterback Fran Tarkenton) and other critics.
After the bye week came three wins at home over weak opponents, after which the Vikings faced the Cardinals in Arizona and lost 30–17 in a contest where linebacker E. J. Henderson broke his leg and was taken out of commission for the rest of the season.
In a long, difficult game in which Favre was hit multiple times (though never sacked) by a New Orleans defense that forced six fumbles, recovering three, the Vikings fought to a standstill.
On the next play, Favre threw across the middle and was intercepted by New Orleans cornerback Tracey Porter, ending the potential game-winning field goal attempt with seven seconds left in regulation.
However, the Vikings found themselves with a badly thinned receiving corps due to Sidney Rice suffering from an injury sustained in the game with New Orleans and Percy Harvin having severe migraine headaches.
Despite dire predictions, Joe Webb managed to lead Minnesota past the playoff-bound Eagles in Week 16, but they lost the final game in Detroit to close 2010 at 6–10 and a last place finish in the NFC North for the first time since 1990.
Minnesota headed to Kansas City in Week 4 hoping for a victory over the winless Chiefs, but the game was another loss at 22–17, and the Vikings now began 0–4 for the first time since 1962 (the franchise's second year of existence).
In Week 2, the Vikings traveled to Indianapolis, but solid offensive performance was negated by poor clock management and a series of personal fouls in the fourth quarter, costing them the game.
The Vikings made the playoffs for the 27th time in franchise history, their first trip since the Brett Favre era, clinching their first Wild Card berth of the decade, but fell to the Green Bay Packers 24–10.
The offense suffered from inefficiency and uncertainty at the quarterback position and a carousel of signal callers between Ponder and acquired free agents Matt Cassel and Josh Freeman.
In 2016, after Bridgewater suffered a season-ending knee injury in preseason, the Vikings traded for Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford, giving up their first-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft.
The game would be set in stone when the Giants' defense swarmed T. J. Hockenson at midfield after a 3-yard catch to force a turnover on downs with only 1:44 to go in the final quarter, and no Vikings timeouts remaining.
During Minnesota's Week 8 game against their division rival, the Green Bay Packers, starting quarterback Kirk Cousins ruptured his achilles tendon, ruling him out for the rest of the season.
