The Top 5 Vikings Players to Never Win a Playoff Game in Minnesota
Dustin Baker
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The Minnesota Vikings have appeared in 51 playoff games since the dawn of the Super Bowl Era in 1966. The team has won 20 of those games rendering a .421 winning percentage. Although these 20 victories are 9th-most in playoff history, it’s also the seventh-worst playoff win percentage.
Long story short — the Vikings get to the playoffs frequently. If you had not noticed, they have yet to win a Super Bowl.
The Vikings player to participate in the most postseason games with the franchise is offensive lineman Ron Yary. From 1968 to 1982, Yary was a Purple People Protecting tackle predominantly in charge of keeping Fran Tarkenton upright.
Moreover, four seasons is the longest gap the Vikings have ever had between postseason visits. Between 1983 and 1986, the team did not qualify for the playoffs. The team then qualified in 11 of the following 14 seasons.
A handful of notable players have never won a playoff game with the Vikings. Most fell in a period where the team was in a rut of losing in the first round of the postseason.
Herschel Walker was not included in this list of who’s who. Yet, his addition to the Vikings roster 30 years ago paved the way for several Dallas Cowboys playoff wins. Walker arrived with the Vikings via trade — a transaction that was so one-sided it still haunts the franchise emotionally.
Ranked in ascending order of talent and production, here are the five best Minnesota Vikings never to win a playoff game with the team.
Gary Cuozzo — QB (1968-1971)
Gary Cuozzo was effectively the third-ever starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Fran Tarkenton brought the franchise to prominence as its inaugural starter. After six seasons though, Tarkenton bolted to The Big Apple to try his luck with the New York Giants. The next signal-caller was Joe Kapp. The Kapp Era worked out relatively well as the 31-year-old led Minnesota to its first Super Bowl.
Immediately after the Vikings lost Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs, Kapp also went back east. He joined the Boston Patriots in 1970, showed off a 1-9 win-loss record as the team’s starter, and retired for good.
Gary Cuozzo then took the reigns. He led the Vikings to a 12-2 record only to be stunned by the San Francisco 49ers 17-14 in the first round of the playoffs. Cuozzo would start eight more games for Minnesota in 1971 and later find his way to the St. Louis Cardinals for a season.
Overall, Cuozzo has the 12th-most wins by a quarterback in team history and ranks in the top 20 of both passing yards and touchdowns. And in the aforementioned postseason game versus the 49ers, he was particularly lackluster completing just nine of 27 passes. He was also the quarterback of a losing playoff effort against the Dallas Cowboys the following postseason when the Vikings were ousted by a score of 20-12 at Metropolitan Stadium.
Vencie Glenn – FS (1992-1994)
This defensive back from Indiana State University was selected in the second round of the 1986 draft by the New England Patriots. Vencie Glenn spent time New England, San Diego, and New Orleans before making the trek north to Minnesota.
Glenn began his stint with the Vikings at age 28 while the Vikings were in the midst of the Rich Gannon Era in 1992. Unfortunately for Glenn’s sake, he joined the club at a time when it was about to embark on three consecutive first-round playoff losses. From 1992 to 1994, the Vikings were bounced in the wild-card round of the postseason by Washington, the Giants, and Bears respectively. Contextually, these three years marked the onset of Dennis Green’s tenure as head coach.
Vencie Glenn contributed admirably. In three seasons, Glenn grabbed 14 interceptions, which led the Vikings and was eighth-most overall in the NFL during the time frame. He also accounted for 207 combined tackles, and that was the most by any Vikings secondary player in those three years.
Terry Allen – RB (1991-1994)
For all the seasons Vencie Glenn patrolled the secondary, Terry Allen was right there with him but on the opposite side of the ball.
Allen became a member of the Vikings in 1991 when the team selected him in the ninth round of the NFL Draft. The 23-year-old from Clemson would turn out to be tailback Herschel Walker’s replacement. Minnesota sent a sacrilegious haul of trade capital to Dallas for Walker in 1989. What ensued from Walker was a pedestrian 54 rushing yards-per-game over a span of 40 games. The trade is now widely accepted as one of the most one-sided trades in sports history.
Allen, though, was an above-average replacement for Herschel Walker. Particularly in 1993, Allen rushed for 1,201 yards and scored a total of 15 touchdowns. To date, Allen ranks 11th all-time on the Vikings rushing leaders list and tenth in rushing touchdowns.
But as it went for Vencie Glenn, Allen also lost all playoff games with the Vikings from 1992 to 1994. It should be noted, though, Allen missed the entire 1993 season due to injury.
Jack Del Rio – LB (1992-1995)
A University of South California alumnus, Jack Del Rio spent time with New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, and Dallas Cowboys before becoming a Viking in 1992. Minnesota would be Del Rio’s final destination as a player amidst an 11-year career.
Del Rio was another player that got in on the ground floor of the Dennis Green era. What the Vikings got in return was tackling madman. Del Rio registered 504 total tackles from 1992 to 1995; the next closest Viking in these four years was Ed McDaniel with 266 tackles. Overall, Del Rio’s 504 tackles were eighth-best in the league during his four-year stretch with the team.
He also was granted Pro Bowl honors in 1994 when he accrued 129 tackles and three interceptions. As a player, Del Rio was apart of a 1-4 win-loss record in the playoffs, and three of losses occurred with the Vikings.
Del Rio would later become a head coach in the NFL. He became the skipper of the Jacksonville Jaguars 12 years after retiring with the Vikings. He won his first playoff game as a coach on January 5th, 2008, when the Jaguars topped the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-29.
Warren Moon – QB (1994-1996)
Previously a Houston Oilers lifer, Warren Moon signed on with the Vikings in 1994. Minnesota had recently concluded another veteran quarterback experiment with former Chicago Bears signal-caller Jim McMahon. In 1993, McMahon’s performance was tolerable but was not one to hitch the franchise’s wagon.
The Vikings turned to run-and-shoot fireballer Warren Moon. The experiment began about a half-decade too soon. In the manner Moon tossed the ball around the field, he would have been a flawless fit for wideout Randy Moss. Yet by the time Moss entered the NFL, Moon was 42 years of age and wrapping up his career in Seattle.
With Warren Moon calling the shots, the former Oiler was elected to two Pro Bowls, and the Vikings appeared in [and lost] one playoff game. This occurred on New Year’s Day 1995 when Minnesota fell to Chicago. It was the only time in history the two divisional rivals have locked horns in the postseason.