Vikings Will Have a Chance to Ruin Your Christmas
The Minnesota Vikings are always a good bet to ruin a day for their fans. If you need any evidence, there are four Super Bowl losses, various NFC Championship games, or other playoff heartbreaks. Some might even point to a random Week 8 defeat from a decade ago. I mean, there’s a reason this thing here is called PurplePTSD. Suffering is what we sports fans do, and Skol Nation might even be hit harder than most.
Vikings Will Have a Chance to Ruin Your Christmas
Let’s look forward to next season, and there’s probably someone in your family who hates to have the holidays disturbed by football. Well, those people might not be too happy to learn that the Vikings are slated to play a football game on Christmas Day.
And it’s not just any game, it’s one against Kevin O’Connell’s nemesis, the Detroit Lions, potentially with the NFC North and crucial playoff seeding on the line.
Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling reported Wednesday morning, “The Vikings are expected to host the Lions on Dec. 25, in a Christmas Day matchup of the two teams that battled for the NFC North title last year.”
The Vikings have not played a game on Christmas Day since 2020, when they lost to another nemesis. Sean Payton’s Saints dropped 52 points, and Alvin Kamara ruined many fantasy football playoffs and turned into a Grinch for Minnesota sports fans.
Detroit is a bad matchup for the purple franchise, or at least has been in recent memory. The suddenly roaring Lions have won five straight against the Vikings, and even O’Connell’s one win right before that losing streak was a nailbiter in which Dan Campbell’s uber-aggressive nature didn’t prevail.
Just last season, in Week 18, the table was set for the game of the year when the Lions hosted the Vikes for the final showdown of the regular season. The winner would directly march into the divisional round with home-field advantage throughout the NFC postseason picture; the loser would travel to Los Angeles (it turned out to be Arizona due to the California wildfires) just a week later.
Well, the Vikings got spanked. Sam Darnold seemingly lost all ability, similar to Charles Barkley in Space Jam. He missed more throws than he hit, and the defense was carved up by Jahmyr Gibbs in the second half after keeping the club in the game in the first.
In the playoffs, both teams got embarrassed and lost their first game.
This offseason, the Lions haven’t made any splashy moves. D.J. Reed replaces Carlton Davis at cornerback, and defensive tackle Tyleik Williams was surprisingly added in the draft instead of a pass rusher.
Perhaps the most crucial changes are the exits of both coordinators. Aaron Glenn, who captained a surprisingly efficient defense despite the alarming injury rates, is the new head coach of the New York Jets.
His offensive counterpart stayed in the division. Ben Johnson, the hotshot coordinator, is the new head coach of the Chicago Bears and can still haunt the Vikings twice a year.
VikingsTerritory’s Dustin Baker mentioned Minnesota’s last home game on Christmas: “Minnesota hasn’t played at home on Christmas since 1989 — at the Metrodome against the Boomer Esiason-led Cincinnati Bengals. Current Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was four years old at the time. The purple team won 29-21, thanks to an impressive showing from quarterback Wade Wilson. The 36-year home Christmas drought will end in 2025.”
The Bank should be rocking on Christmas, and it could be one of the most important games of the season.