A Packers fan wrote us an e-mail last night. It began thusly:
I read your commentary about the "total destruction of the Packers", and how it was a great day for football on Saturday. After suffering through a year of the StarTribune's leftist (socialist) articles endorsing our re-elected President, now I can read trash about the Packers, who, I believe, have won 4 more super bowls than the Vikings.
Classic Packers fan.
That said, the letter writer should know we are equal opportunity scab-pickers. We don't just tear the Packers apart when they lose. We also are willing to painfully dissect moments of purple infamy
And there are few moments as painful as the NFC title game after the 1998 season. Also, there are few phrases as painful as "take a knee." For Vikings fans, perhaps misery loves company -- and maybe there is a hope that the torch of that burning phrase has been passed on to the Broncos, who did nearly the same thing the Vikings did 14 years ago in this past weekend's AFC playoffs -- right down to defending the move afterwards.
In case you have forgotten, here is the painful history:
The Falcons tied the Vikings 27-27 with 49 seconds left in regulation in the NFC title game. Minnesota, unlike Denver, ran two offensive plays, setting up 3rd-and-3 from their own 27 with 30 seconds to play. They had two timeouts. The Falcons had zero timeouts. They had the highest-scoring offense in NFL history at the time. And Denny Green ordered his QB, Randall Cunningham, to take a knee and go to overtime. The Vikings actually won the toss and had two OT possessions that ended fruitlessly before the Falcons scored. Afterward, Denny said this:
"When you're down to 30 seconds then you need to take two good downs and if you don't have a first down by then, then you better go and move the other way.
