Vikings fans are so well-versed in their favorite franchise's, ahem, difficult playoff history that they sometimes wear it as a badge of honor. Ask them if another team's fans might have it even worse, and they tend to get offended.
Worse than the Vikings? Worse than four Super Bowl losses in eight seasons between 1969 and 1976 … and then five NFC title game losses with no victories since then — many of those losses in heartbreaking fashion?
Can it get worse than that?
Well, maybe you'll concede fans of the Bills, losers of four consecutive Super Bowls with no victories, can claim more misery. The Browns went 0-16 this year and have buried themselves in their own kind of hopeless misery. The Lions have exactly one playoff victory since 1957. So maybe it can be worse.
But what about … Eagles fans. Do they have it worse than Vikings fans?
Purple backers might immediately answer emphatically, "no!" their NFC title game counterparts Sunday are not worse off.
But while you're certainly well aware of the Vikings' past, there is at least this to consider:
*From 1998 to 2017, a span of 20 NFL seasons, no team has made more appearances in the NFC title game than the Eagles. Sunday will mark their sixth trip in those 20 years. They went 1-4 in those first five tries, including 1-2 in games in Philadelphia. They lost three consecutive NFC title games from 2001-03 before finally making the Super Bowl in 2004 — where they lost 24-21 to the Patriots.