The History of the Minnesota Vikings (2023)

I was happy as could be to see Dorktown taking on the woeful tale of the Minnesota Vikings. Woeful, that is, as perceived by most, including me, and as debunked by Dorktown with their usual veracity and mind-numbing statistical detail. The Vikings are the football team tarred for going on 50 years with the label of “can’t win the big one.” (Later joined by the Buffalo Bills. Both teams have made four trips to the Super Bowl only to be turned away in defeat. The Bills did it in four consecutive years. The Vikings did it in four of the first 11 Super Bowls. It’s the reason I have been hoping last year and this for a Bills-Vikings matchup—someone would have to win.) But wait, Dorktown principals Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein are here to set the record straight as only they can. They say early it would take them seven hours to tell all the Vikings stories—in the end, it’s closer to 10 spread across seven episodes going decade by decade (the team’s glorious ‘70s get two). And they probably didn’t tell all the stories. Perhaps Dorktown’s most salient point about the Vikings is that their winning percentage across the Super Bowl era is stellar, one of the best, bettered only by the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, with the New England Patriots starting to nip at their heels. It’s a record of remarkable consistency and high level of play, not able to win the big one notwithstanding. Full disclosure, though I grew up with them—the first episode covering the ‘60s brought back some memories of home so intensely it made me cry—I was never much of a fan. In my hippie years, and still, to some extent (if indeed my hippie years are over), I was opposed to organized sports generally and football specifically. I can’t claim to be a Vikings fan but at least I can tell you, in case you didn’t know, that Prince’s obsession with the color purple is because of this football team.

Bois declares, in a summary statement, “Only one team can call themselves the Minnesota Vikings, the carvers of the runes, the great American storytellers.” I’m not sure exactly what he means by that but there are hours and hours of great stories here, some of which fans may have gratefully forgotten. I guarantee you’ll be surprised by how many there are, and while many are quite painful, even vicariously, they are often inspirational in some way too. Defensive tackle Alan Page, for example, played for the Vikings 11 years, finished law school, became an attorney, became a judge, and, in 1993, became a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Quarterback Fran Tarkenton saw into the future and created a style of quarterback play that ultimately caught on, even if decades later. He’s also, by happenstance and grit determination, now one of the richest men who ever played the game. Two postseason victories—one in 1980, the other in 2018—are certifiable miracles, the moments we are looking for when we look at sports. I love how much Jon Bois loves Bud Grant, who made an argument shortly before his death earlier this year about what makes football unique. The ball is not round and not always easy to handle—drop it, and no one knows what it’s going to do. It’s all luck. I’d say, with The History of the Minnesota Vikings, Dorktown has knocked another one out of the park, but that’s the wrong sports metaphor. Say they put it through the uprights (unlike, in the most unexpected ways imaginable, two Vikings kickers covered here). (Note to Dorktown: now do the Mets, please.)