Where to start? Well, we don't really have time to all the way back to the geographical proximity to Minneapolis that led the good people of Grand Forks, N.D. in the 1980s to get Vikings games fed into their TVs the vast majority of Sundays, shaping innocent young minds and filling them with undeniable history.

So instead, let's fast forward to Monday night and another resounding chapter in the gluttony for punishment book that is watching Vikings football. You don't think Vikings watchers are gluttons? How else to explain:

*Only a glutton would willingly attend last night's game at a noted Bears bar in St. Paul. We were seeking out some sort of bizarre reverse hex, and we decided that the only way to change the Vikings' recent mojo was to accept an invitation to watch Monday Night Football in the belly of the beast. We will say we had a great time with a crowd that was probably 55 percent Bears fans, 40 percent Vikings fans and 5 percent Packers fans (and therefore, for one night, Bears fans as far as we could tell ... and a side note from Packers fans polled: the Vikings are their biggest rival. So take that, Chicago). But we will also say that if there is a GOOD place to watch an 11-win team play a completely listless first half, roar back with a dramatic last-second comeback to force overtime, only to lose after the star running back with the fumbling problem finally puts it on the ground at a time that costs the Vikings dearly ... well, that place is not a bar that will then play Bear Down and celebrate with festivities because their 5-turned-6 win team has somehow managed to get competent QB play for a night.

*Only a glutton would dig back through his e-mails for this nugget, sent Nov. 30 to one Drew Magary: "As I said yesterday, and I never thought I'd say this, but the only thing that can stop this [redacted] team is Adrian Peterson and his [redacted] butterfingers." Of course, that was also in the same e-mail exchange where we both decided the Vikings were the best team in the NFC and might never lose again in the history of history.

*Only a glutton would repeatedly send text messages to previously stung fans in the midst of the second half comeback, imploring them with one word in all caps: BELIEVE. Yes, the seven letters, over and over. Did we really believe, or were we just craving the inevitable fall? That is the question.

*And, of course, only a glutton would conclude that, after three bad road losses that leave the Vikings no longer in control of their playoff bye destiny, things could still work out quite swimmingly. Only a glutton could take solace in knowing the Vikings -- undefeated at home -- should stomp the playing-for-nothing Giants, and that there is at least a coin flip chance, if not better, that Dallas beats the Eagles and lets the Vikings back into that No. 2 seed. Only a glutton would try to assure himself that, no matter what, there will be a home playoff game and a chance for redemption. Only a glutton would see Brett Favre's performance in the second half and think that there might even be hope if the Vikings had to play a road game in Philly in the playoffs. Only a glutton would look past a non-existent pass rush, a startling lack of playmakers in the back 7 on defense, a still-questionable offensive line and a lack of faith in the men wearing the head sets to conclude that the NFC is wide open, fair game, anyone's for the taking. And that the team in question could be the Vikings if they can just get back to playing the way they did in their first 11 games.

The gluttony knows no end.