Vikings Fans Cope With Heartbreaking Loss
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It was the coldest game in Vikings history, and that wasn't the most brutal part of the day.
The Minnesota Vikings season ended with a last-second missed field goal and a loss to the visiting Seattle Seahawks. The final score: 10-9.
This was the first time the Vikings had been to the playoffs since 2012, a loss to the Packers in Green Bay. WCCO's Nina Moini shows us how Vikings fans dealt with the tough loss.
After hours of cheering through the sub-zero temps, fans filed out of TCF Bank Stadium. The cold, hard truth setting in after a season-ending loss.
"What do I think about Blair Walsh? Unfortunate," one Viking fan said.
"He ended up choking on a short kick," another fan said.
Decades of ups and downs don't keep true Vikings fans away.
"It seems like every time we get some place, something always happens. We had that fumble, that was a game changer from (Adrian) Peterson," one Vikings fan said.
They'll need some time to recover from this one.
Blair Walsh's missed 27-yard field goal with seconds left on the clock was reminiscent of another missed field goal in 1999.
Gary Anderson's miss in the 1999 NFC Championship game cost the team a trip to the Super Bowl.
"We don't speak of that as Vikings fans," Garret Duncan said.
"We don't talk about that season," Casey Peterson said.
Almost 20 years later, fans can use social media to commiserate. A certain player's jersey went up for sale on Facebook almost immediately.
A Vikings' fans video showing his dad's reaction to the missed field goal got almost 1,000 retweets within an hour.
But the Minnesota nice spirit prevails, still bundled up from the coldest loss in history. The truest fans are already warming up for another season.
"It'll be a long wait because I think they're building a great team and I'm looking forward to next year already," Mike Donahue said.
The game didn't end well, but just being there and experiencing the coldest Vikings game will be a fun memory for a lot of people.
