A (Less-Than-Sober) Vikings-Saints Postgame Soliloquy
Joe Oberle
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I am not sure what to think. As I said in the game wrap last night, we aren’t used to this in Minnesota. I have been watching this game since the mid-sixties (I am sure I was set in front of the TV since 1962, but I don’t remember a lot until Joe Kapp became the quarterback (same first name). This win that we saw on Sunday is kind of new to me. It was either dominant wins all regular season throughout the ’70s or else devastating Super Bowl losses. So, I am not sure what to think.
In fact, it has so flummoxed me that I had to re-watch the game again when I got home from it and had a couple beers while I did so. (Full disclosure that informs this piece, as I had to spend much of that re-watch correcting every mistake and typo in the game wrap because I was basically in shock the first time around—my apologies.)
I was basically in mid-depression stupor writing (yet again) of another season-ending-in-devastating-disappointment story, when Case Keenum, Stefon Diggs and the Vikings offensive line forced me to rewrite in an exhilarating yet brain-dead stupor. It was a relatively new experience for me.
So where do we go from here? What are we to make of this gift from above? Mike Zimmer says that it was a Hail Mary. I only have horrific flashbacks of the original “Hail Mary.” Is this some kind of cosmic convergence, reversal, payback that says we all have suffered enough?
I don’t think so. Fifty-plus years of observing the NFL and this team have told me that there are no paybacks. I do believe in karma, only for the reason that good karma is worth believing in because it makes the world a better place. But I have found as a Vikings fan first, then a Vikings writer that only good football makes champions of players.
Former Minneapolis Laker George Mikan once told me that people used to tell him and the Lakers (who won five pro hoops titles) that they were lucky. Mikan said that Whitey Skoog told one such naysayer that “yeah, the harder we work, the luckier we get.”
He was right. You don’t put yourself in position for a little luck without a lot of hard work. And you don’t get a chance to win if you don’t do everything you did prior to getting that chance. Sometimes the ball bounces away from you. And sometimes, the opponent takes a bad angle and you make the pass and the catch and the decision and the run that makes you feel like your prayer was answered.
Call it what you want. Call it luck, call it providence, payback, karma—or call it the Vikings turn. I am going to call it, “on to the Eagles!” Because that’s what bloody Bill Belichick would say.
Now, back to my beer and the previously recorded winning Vikings drive. Skol, y’all.
Editor’s Note: I am sure I will be correcting this in the morning.