Yes, Blair Walsh missed a field goal yesterday. But, as one writer says, he's still human: https://t.co/KIWNJuCikj pic.twitter.com/MiNrqOATrH
— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2016
Despite all odds, the Vikings found a way. Somehow, some way, they reached through the arctic air, stretched and twisted their iced-over, seized-up muscles, grunted one last time…and tore you heart out.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Vikings fan; I have been since I was old enough to know what a football was. I grew up with Bud Grant not allowing Vikings players to wear jackets on the sidelines, have access to heaters, or to wear gloves on the field. My father took me to a late December Vikings- L.A. Rams game when I was eight (It was as cold and miserable as I can ever remember being…oh, and Minnesota lost 31-3) at old Met Stadium, on which the Mall of America now stands. I can rattle off names of former Vikings like Bill Brown, Fran Tarkenton, Dave Osborn, Alan Page, Tommy Kramer, and so many others as if they were in my wedding party.
Amongst the traumas of my childhood were four lost Super Bowls. When I was living in Houston, I went to a Rice-Colorado State game at Rice Stadium…and all I could think about was Super Bowl VII (January 13, 1974), when Minnesota lost to Miami 24-7 in front of 71,882 people in the very stadium in which I sat. I’ve seen the Vikings play in Houston and Seattle, and I still vividly remember Adrian Peterson’s 75-yard run against the Seahawks…in a game they’d go on to lose handily. Being a Vikings fan is kinda like that.
I entered this season resigned to the fact that even with a new coach (Mike Zimmer) and promising young talent, Minnesota was probably a couple years away from having a shot at success. Imagine my delight when, despite being blown out at home by Green Bay and Seattle, they went to Green Bay on the season’s last weekend needing only a win to secure the NFC North Division championship. They won the game and managed to dominate the Packers for most of it. The Vikings were in the playoffs as a division champion, something no reasonable observer would have predicted or expected, certainly not until they learned how to get over the hurdle represented by Green Bay.
This season they managed to leap that hurdle, sooner than I or anyone else could have reasonably expected. Then, just as the football gods giveth, they then turn around and rip your frickin’ heart out. This is what it means to be a Vikings fan.
MINNEAPOLIS — There will be a time for historical perspective. Lord knows this franchise can squeeze one more self-inflicted loss into its well-worn lore.
On this night, however, I’m finding it difficult to look past the scene in the Minnesota Vikings’ locker room minutes after their 10-9 wild-card playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Place-kicker Blair Walsh, who missed a 27-yard field goal attempt that would have won the game, was sobbing.
He sat in his locker, still wearing the long underwear and shirt that helped keep him warm on a frigid day at TCF Bank Stadium. This was no silent cry. His face was contorted in anguish. His shoulders shuddered. He gasped for air each time a player, coach or support staffer walked over to console him.
This went on for 15 minutes, long after Walsh had taken full blame for the miss and exonerated his holder for setting the ball with the laces in. Finally, Walsh walked slowly to the shower. He emerged 10 minutes later, dressed, swiped through phone messages — for his sake, hopefully he avoided Twitter — and departed.
Yesterday, Seattle traveled to Minneapolis to play Minnesota in what will be remembered as the third coldest game in NFL history. It was -6F at kickoff with wind chills approaching -20 (The Vikings played last season and this one in the University of Minnesota’s outdoor stadium while their new billion-dollar palace is being built three miles away in downtown Minneapolis.). The game itself reflect the conditions it was played in- brutal. To their credit, the Vikings showed up for this game, unlike the 38-7 dismantling the Seahawks laid on them on the same field a few short weeks prior. In fact, Minnesota outplayed Seattle, and there was little doubt who the better team was on the day.
Long story short…Seattle had taken the lead for the first time in the third quarter after the sort of stupidly lucky play Russell Wilson’s legend is made of. Even so, in the final 90 seconds, all Minnesota needed was to drive down the field into scoring position for a touchdown or field goal. With 22 seconds left, they set up for a 27-yard-field goal that would have sent Seattle back to the Pacific Northwest to thaw out and themselves on to sunny Phoenix for next week’s playoff game.
The snap was good, the placement looked good (OK, the laces were facing the wrong direction, but that had happened earlier on a longer successful attempt)…and Blair Walsh, one of the best kickers in professional football, pulled it wide left. I was aghast, managing only a shocked, guttural scream aimed at my television, followed by a kick-in-the-stomach sense of stunned disbelief at what I’d just witnessed. It was as if the Vikings’ long history of THIS-close-but-not-quite had come home to roost again. I’ll spare you the recitation of the long litany of Vikings season-ending disappointments. Suffice it to say that Walsh is not the first Vikings kicker to miss a potential game-winning chip shot. As disappointing as his miss was, all a Vikings fan needs to hear is “Gary Andersen” to put things into something resembling perspective. Despite what one long-suffering Minneapolis sports writer opined, Walsh’s miss is NOT even the team’s worst ever.
As of this morning, I’ve seen the missed field goal replayed so many times and from so many different angles that I’ll probably see it in my dreams for the next few nights…and I’ll be left to ponder this disappointment, like so many others that came before. Living in the Pacific Northwest, the Seahawks have become my adopted team of choice…unless they’re playing Minnesota. Now, I don’t know that I’ll even be able watch and root for a team that advanced because of one botched field goal attempt. Frankly, I hope Arizona leaves them for dead and picks the bones clean…figuratively speaking, of course.
In the meantime, I’ll ponder what could have been, even as Minnesota far exceeded expectations this season. In Minnesota, there’s always optimism for next season, because right now that’s all Vikings fans have left.
