You cannot understand.

Unless you are a fan of the Minnesota Vikings – or a fan of another team with as many heartbreaking losses – you cannot understand the pain and anguish I and other Viking fans felt the night of January 24th. Again, the Vikings were on the verge of a memorable playoff accomplishment. Again, it was snatched away. Ha-ha, start over next year. I felt sick that night. I was far from the only person who felt that way.

The list of “cursed” sports franchises, teams with fan bases for which you feel a certain sympathy, typically consists of the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox (not so since 2004), Buffalo Bills, and Cleveland Browns and/or Indians. Mention any of these teams to the average sports fan, and first thoughts include Bartman, Buckner, Bucky Dent, The Music City Miracle, and the Byner fumble.

For whatever reason, the Minnesota Vikings tend not to make that list. Is this because of our Upper Midwest status as flyover country? Perhaps because Minnesota fans “take it” better than bigger market fans?

This oversight happens despite the most excruciating set of playoff and significant game losses in the last four decades. Witness: the Hail Mary Game of 1975 (Drew Pearson’s push-off to catch the Cowboys’ game-winning TD); the ’87 NFC Championship (Darrin Nelson stopped at the half-yard line with the tying touchdown at the end of the game); the ’98 NFC Championship (Gary Anderson … I almost can’t type this one); the ’00 NFC Championship (41-Doughnut, in the words of Randy Moss – a shameful performance by the team); Nate Poole’s 4th-and-25 TD catch to keep the Vikes out of the playoffs in 2003; and now, the ’09 NFC Championship.

No other team can match this level of recent heartbreak, except perhaps the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. The Gophers tend to surrender leads – even sizeable advantages of 31 points, or 21 in the 4th quarter  – about once every two seasons. ESPN Classic could air a day-long marathon of Gopher football collapses from the last 10 years. A 20-DVD box set of Minnesota Vikings/Gophers nightmare football games would be a top seller on Amazon – admit it, Packer and Badger fan, you would buy this.

Packer fans were strangely sympathetic in the wake of the Vikings-Saints game. I cannot count the number of times a Packer fan said something like “Now you know how we felt after the 2007 NFC title game.” True, a winnable game was lost in overtime following a Brett Favre interception. However, you cannot really know how we Vikings fans felt. Your team has 11 titles, including three Super Bowls, plus a trophy named after your coach, to fall back on. We’re still waiting for something. Anything. Brett Favre brought you another championship. Brett Favre brought us another black mark.

If 2009 turns out to have been Favre’s only Vikings season, the question becomes: “Luc, had you known the ‘09 season would have ended the way it did, would you still have gone through the Favre experiment?” The answer? No. I’m not anti-Favre; if not for him, the Vikings do not even make the NFC Championship game, and don’t stay competitive despite all their turnovers to the Saints. Rather, the pain of this loss is not worth the emotional investment of entire season. I would rather have lost by two touchdowns, or lost to the Cowboys a week earlier, or not made the playoffs, or even gone 3-13, than end yet another season this way.

I could become a Packer fan and remove most of the anguish … except that would make me merely a bandwagon-jumper after years of loyalty through thick and (much) thin. I’m from Wisconsin. I respect, almost envy, the Packer organization, culture and tradition. Yet, if I converted to Packer fandom – and then the Vikings actually *did* win the Super Bowl – I would be sacrificing an incredible emotional reward and validation of a lifetime of being a true fan. Many said the Red Sox would never win a World Series … then they did; that experience gives me hope. The hope for that moment of ecstasy, the payoff for the years of frustration and anger – that future thrill is something only a Viking fan will understand.