How the Vikings (and PurplePTSD) Changed a 26 Year Old’s Life
My name is Brevan Colton Bane, and I am a Minnesota sports addict. Am I recovering? No. In fact, I’m in the middle of a two-decade long bender. That addiction has led me here, to being the new Managing Editor of PurplePTSD.
I’m just a kid that was born in Midlothian, Virginia back in 1999. My father was a brick-layer then, and my mother was a stay-at-home wife and mom. My middle-brother, Matt, was also a Vikings fan and remains one to this day. Our oldest brother, Chris, isn’t a huge football guy (for that, he’s a wimp).
My early childhood was pretty average other than an open-heart surgery at around 16-months old to repair a hole in the old blood-pumper (a hole that the Vikings that been trying to re-open for the better part of 20 years).
Discovering the Minnesota Vikings
While I know I sat on my dad’s lap as a little guy and watched the Earnhardts race in NASCAR and the Vikings play on Sundays, I don’t remember too much of the early 2000s, for obvious reasons. For whatever reason, I do remember when Kevin Harvick won that Atlanta race after the Daytona 500 crash that claimed Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s life. I also remember Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the first race back at Daytona after the crash some months later. But between then, and Adrian Peterson’s record-breaking performance against the Chargers, there’s not much there.
My first couple of real memories of Vikings football came during that almost-euphoric 2009 season. I remember the Brett Favre drama, the Greg Lewis miracle, and a ton of other games that year. Of course, I remember when the Vikings absolutely decimated the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of those playoffs. You bet your bottom dollar I remember what happened the week after. That was my true introduction into Minnesota sports, and what I should expect from them.
I remember drafting Christian Ponder and watching him play (this 11-year-old loved Christian Ponder), I remember Adrian Peterson tearing his ACL at FedEx Field, and I remember his 2012 season in which he returned and won MVP. That was quite the spectacle.
When the Vikings Went from Entertainment to Therapy
I know what you’re thinking. “Brevan, now just how in the hell are the Minnesota Vikings ‘therapeutic’?”.
I understand the question, and I’m also sure there are people out there that understand the answer.
On December 24th, 2012, just two days after my 13th birthday, the world lost one of its lights, one of its best people that have ever inhabited it, and my best friend that I have ever had. My mother, Angela Evans Bane, passed away in her sleep.
There is no amount of purple pain that can top that. This isn’t a sob story, but it is an origin story. When you are 13 years old, your body doesn’t know how to handle that type of grief. I didn’t cry for a long time because I understood, but I also didn’t. It wasn’t real in the moment.
What was real, were distractions. I think you can see where I’m going with this. Friends, video games, sports, they were all escapes out of a cruel world that had just absolutely robbed me of my greatest teammate. I still feel robbed almost 14 years later, but now, I at least have understanding. The Minnesota Vikings, and sports in general, became that escape hatch. The Vikings QB drama, Adrian Peterson, the emergence of Harrison Smith, signing Greg Jennings, drafting Teddy Bridgewater, they all played a part in the mental rebuilding of a growing teenager, whether good or bad.
When you recover with something and use it as your crutch, you can grow an almost irrational love for it, no matter what it is. That crutch, for me, has been and still is the Minnesota Vikings. The amount of times I’ve been asked why I care so much about sports, and why they even matter, is very high, and the inquiries usually come from the tongues of people who simply don’t understand. In fairness, that isn’t their fault.
The Vikings became the main bond between my father and I. Our relationship was fine back then, and has since fizzled out. We had watched the 2009 NFC Championship together, the Blair Walsh miss in the 2015 Wild Card Round, all of those brutal losses during that time frame. The last Vikings game we watched together (so far) was the 2017 NFC Championship game. Not a great one to end it on.
Vikings Therapy Becomes Way of Life
We’ve passed the trauma dump, but it is foundational as to why this means so much to me. When I was younger, I didn’t know how, but I wanted to work in the sports industry. I was always told I was great at reading and writing when I was younger, and always given that “atta-boy” on school writing assignments that I actually tried on. There weren’t many of those.
Naturally, that led me in the direction of writing about the Vikings. Fast-forward years, Vikings disappointments, loves gained and loves lost, some skill, knowledge, and experience, and I grew a decent little relationship with Dustin Baker. Dustin and I did a lot of videos on VikesNow together in 2023 and 2024, and in my opinion, we were pretty good on camera together.
Some time before that, I had DM’d Dustin on (at-the-time) Twitter, since we had been following each other for a while and I knew his status within Vikings Territory. I asked if they needed people, sent a very amateur writing sample that was way more surface-level than I realized at the time, and he kept me in mind for future endeavors.
After some time on VikesNow, Dustin eventually asked me if I’d be interested in the contributing for PurplePTSD. There was an obvious answer there, and in the coming weeks, the wheels got turning. I worked with two wonderful managing editors before me in Josh Frey and Janik Eckardt, a couple of fellas I consider good friends even when we go long without communication. PurplePTSD was my first ever paid writing gig, and it was a professional foundation for me.
It was the first step into what would eventually allow me to make writing about this crutch I call the Minnesota Vikings full-time. My experience with this site helped me also pick up a contract with Heavy Sports, another website I contribute to and will continue to during my time as Managing Editor with PurplePTSD.
Finishing It All Off Better Than the Vikings Ever Could
I’ve done a lot in my years as an online Vikings personality. I’ve been on countless shows, written a ton of articles, made a name for myself on X, even started my own show “The Skolcial Network” with my great friend and brother-from-another-mother Jason Harmon, and much more.
At the end of the day, I’m just a 26-year-old dude with a large love for the Minnesota Vikings because, believe it or not, they were one of the few constants when my life was at its lowest at an age it shouldn’t have been.
There is no possible word count to an article that could being to describe my gratitude to this website and those that all play major roles in running it.
Dustin Baker is the reason I had an opportunity to even produce a singular article for this website, and that built me a foundation in which I built my dream career. To him, I am forever indebted and grateful.
Josh Frey and Janik Eckardt are two immensely talented writers and editors that had to go through countless times and read my complaining about T.J. Hockenson or whatever else I was emotional about that day. To them, I am forever indebted and grateful.
Kyle Joudry, whom will now seemingly be the Batman to my Robin, onboarded me when I began with PurplePTSD, and has been available for any question I’ve ever reached out to him with. He has motivated me behind the scenes to make sure I’m doing what is best for me, and I feel genuine care from his end for my career. To him, I am forever indebted and grateful.
The Woldum family has been an absolute joy to work for, and are a wonderful group of people that are doing a spectacular job of carrying on the late Joe Johnson’s legacy. They have been available for any question I’ve had the least couple of years, and have provided me a platform to truly make a name for myself in this game. To Stephanie and Mike, I am forever indebted and grateful.
Joe Johnson was someone I never met, but he lives on through these websites, and that is not something that I would take lightly for a second. Joe was a visionary for Vikings news and opinion consumption, and was the architect of a business that produces some of the most genuine and passionate pieces and opinions on the internet.
To Joe Johnson, I am forever indebted and grateful, and I’d like to think that some day in eternity, Joe, myself, my mother, and a couple of other friends we all lost along the way, could sit down together and catch a Vikings game in Valhalla.
SKOL, my friends. It’s time to go to work.
