Richard Davis was the chief operating officer of U.S. Bank in May 2005 when news broke that a little-known real estate family from New Jersey might lead the purchase of the Vikings from Red McCombs, after questions about Reggie Fowler’s worth threatened to scuttle the deal.
Since U.S. Bank handled the Vikings’ business, Davis had more information than most about the situation. He had lived in the Twin Cities long enough to know Minnesotans would react with suspicion. He had worked enough with the Wilfs not to share those concerns.
“I knew they were good businesspeople. I assumed they would be smart owners if they were going to get into something like this,” Davis said. “They would be a family ownership. They wouldn’t dilute it down to five million other people.”
Davis, who retired as U.S. Bank’s CEO in 2017 and co-chaired the host committee for Super Bowl LII, still watches every Vikings game from his home in Arizona with the nervous hope he learned in Minnesota.
“I have my T-shirt that says, ‘Optimistic since 1961,’ ” he said.
He looks at the Vikings now and knows his 19-year-old hunch was right.
“If the Minnesotans and the Wilfs stay as close as they seem to be,” he said, “this franchise can be owned and located in Minnesota for as long as you can see.”
On Sunday night, the Vikings will play the final game of their 20th regular season since the Wilfs bought the team, with a chance to earn the NFC’s No. 1 seed for the first time since 1998. It concludes a second decade of the Wilfs’ ownership marked by major investments designed to put the franchise on solid footing.