The Minnesota Vikings Are the Best Team to Never Win the Super Bowl (and It Isn’t Even Close)
Cole Smith
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For the 31st time in 62 seasons, the Minnesota Vikings are heading to the playoffs. They hold the NFC’s No. 3 seed after boasting a 13-4 record. Forget their negative point differential. This team is battle-tested, winning all 11 one-score games in the regular season. Sure, their losses were ugly. But they know how to win big games when the stakes are high.
No matter how they got here, the Vikings are the best team to never win the Super Bowl. If you were lucky enough to watch Joe Kapp and Fran Tarkenton throw the rock, you saw the Vikings consistently represent the NFC, only to walk into AFC buzzsaws. If you grew up after the Tarkenton era, you are probably accustomed to heartbreaking losses in the NFC Championship Game. Hell, there are some brutal Wild Card losses in there as well.
So forgive me if I don’t necessarily care about Mr. Irrelevant quarterbacking the dominating San Francisco 49ers to a 13-4 record as well. The Eagles? They won a Super Bowl five years ago (in our stadium even!). They can wait. Even the Bills had a 17-year playoff drought. That’s not to say their fans don’t deserve a conference championship; but they haven’t been consistent winners like the Vikings.
Maybe, somehow, this is the year that everything finally breaks our way. Everyone crowned the Vikings in 1998 before the team inevitably let us down in the NFC Title Game. Brett Favre coming to the Vikings was too good to be true, so much so that Favre threw an unforgivable pass across his body when the Vikings were on the fringes of field goal range. So what if the year that Minnesota is barely winning is the year that things finally break the right way? I’d like to think that it’s possible as far worse teams have been in the league’s biggest game since the Vikings’ last appearance.
The Vikings Are Among the Winningest Franchises in the NFL
When stacked up with all of the franchises in the NFL, the Vikings are among the best when it comes to all-time winning percentage.
Minnesota’s regular season record of 516-425-11 gives them a .548 winning percentage, good enough for seventh among the league’s 32 teams. The teams above them are the Cowboys (.574), the Packers (.572), the Ravens (.561), the Patriots (.561), the Bears (.557), and the Dolphins (.552). This isn’t surprising as all these teams besides the Ravens have had dynasties at some point in their history. And the only team without one, the Ravens, never had to deal with expansion issues. They took a talented Browns team, changed cities and logos, and have won two Super Bowls since moving to Baltimore in 1996.
Here’s where things get interesting. When looking below the Vikings on the list, they rank above many of the league’s most successful franchises. They have a better all-time winning percentage than the 49ers (.545), the Steelers (.536), the Giants (.528), the Colts (.526), and the Broncos (.523). In fact, you have to go all the way down to the Browns at No. 16 (.509) on the list to find the next franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl. Uffda.
Playoff Appearances
To make it to the Super Bowl, you need to make the postseason (obviously). Among all franchises, once again the Vikings rank among the best in playoff appearances. They have 30 playoff appearances prior to the 2022 season, which ranks sixth all-time. This is especially impressive since they are the youngest franchise among the 19 franchises with 21 or more appearances.
Now, these playoff appearances themselves can be considered skewed. They factor in all playoff appearances across all decades since 1933, when the first NFL Championship Game was played (they used to give the championship to the team with the best record at the end of the season). The Packers, for example, have more playoff appearances than anyone with 34. However, they had six appearances before the Vikings ever played a regular season game. That the Vikings are ranked sixth in appearances is remarkable in itself.
The Vikings also just haven’t had long, brutal stretches of incompetent play. After missing the playoffs each of their first seven seasons, Minnesota’s longest playoff drought has been four seasons, from 1983 through 1986. In fact, they have only finished below .500 18 times in 60 seasons. Even a team like Green Bay has had long stretches of poor play. From the time Vince Lombardi coached his final game in Super Bowl II (following the 1967 season) until Brett Favre arrived in 1992, the Packers only reached the playoffs twice.
Failing to Break Through
Now, these nice stats only mean so much. Winning the Super Bowl is the ultimate goal, and, spoiler alert, the Vikings have yet to do so. Minnesota has reached the big game four times, losing all four. They haven’t even had a lead in a Super Bowl yet, which is sad considering they blocked a Ray Guy punt inside the five-yard line in Super Bowl XI.
Since that game, played in January 1977, the Vikings have reached the NFC Championship Game six times. They have lost all six, some being embarrassing blowouts, others being heartbreaking nail-biters.
The losses in the 1998 and 2009 Championship Games were to two teams with very little franchise success up to those games. The 1998 Falcons had made the playoffs for only the fifth time in franchise history. When they upset the Vikings, the Falcons punched their ticket to their first Super Bowl in Miami before losing to the Broncos 34-19.
The 2009 Saints were in the playoffs for only the sixth time in their franchise’s history. By taking advantage of Vikings turnovers (among other strategic moves), New Orleans would punch their tickets to their first Super Bowl in, you guessed it, Miami. Unlike Atlanta, the Saints would win their first title, defeating the Colts 31-17.
Finally, since Super Bowl XI in January 1977, only five other teams have failed to make it to the Super Bowl (the Lions, Browns, Jets, Jaguars, and Texans). Even the two expansion teams of the 1976 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks, have combined for three Super Bowl wins since then their pathetic inaugural seasons. The two teams squared off in Week 6 of 1976, both 0-6. The Seahawks would win their first game in franchise history. The Buccaneers would lose the first 26 games of their existence before a Week 13 victory over the Saints in 1977.
Will We Ever See the Vikings Win It All?
It’s hard to envision the Vikings ever winning it all. Our heartbreaks pale in comparison to those who witnessed Purple Heartbreak before us. Do enough to give us hope, but never enough to give us unwavering faith.
Still, I try to stay positive, as hard as it is. The Arizona Cardinals almost beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, and I never thought I’d see a successful Cardinals team. I’ve seen the Saints and Falcons field worse teams than the Vikings ever have, and I’ve seen them still make the Super Bowl. The Chiefs returned to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years in 2019, then returned again in 2020.
Perhaps the Vikings finally return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 45 years this season. Or, maybe, the golden days are on the horizon, as Kevin O’Connell continues planting seeds for this team’s culture. I’d like to think that a Vince Lombardi Trophy comes when we least expect it. When everyone is writing the team off, and they overcome the odds. Again. And again. And again.
14 fanbases are hoping that their team stands above the rest next month. Many have already witnessed a championship run. Others hope to finally enter relevance after years of being afterthoughts. For Vikings fans, it would be the opportunity to finally break through and not just be a “good” team, but to finally be “the” team.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
