Gary Anderson's only miss of the 1998 season.

Sunday, January 17th, 1999 ,will forever be etched upon the minds of Minnesota Vikings fans throughout the NorthStar State and beyond and it assuredly hasn’t been a positive memory. Most Vikes fans would rather forget this day forever. The weekend would see my son William, his Mite hockey team and myself at an outdoor weekend tournament at the Twig outdoor ice complex. If my memory is correct we played twice the day before with one final tilt to be played on Sunday afternoon. 

Sure enough our game time would directly coincide with the NFL NFC Conference Championship game between the Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons at the HHH MetroDome in Minneapolis. The winner would earn the right to play for the Super Bowl in two weeks. I could have lined up a ticket with a phone call, but I didn’t like missing games on our schedule. I knew where I would be. The Purple were heavy favorites that day after posting a 15-1 regular season record. But the Falcons (14-2) had a pretty strong team as well. Going into the contest the confidence on display around the state was heavily tilted toward the Vikes. 

The Vikings kicked off to the Falcons to start the game and shortly afterward we were being called out to take our warmup and get the game underway. I honestly don’t remember the result of our game that day but do recall that a player’s older sister kept relaying score information to our bench during it. The Falcons scored first but that just began a back-and-forth afternoon of football suspense. The Vikes were close to going into halftime with a 13-point lead but then coughed up an Atlanta touchdown with 56 seconds left in the first half that cut the Purple lead to 20-14. 

The Falcons got the only score of the 3rd quarter on a Morten Andersen field goal cutting the Vikes lead to 3 points. The Purple would extend that to 10 points on a Matt Hatchette touchdown reception early in the fourth and it appeared as if the Vikes would pull this off and go to their first Super Bowl in 22 years. The Falcons would score a minute and a half after that on a 24-yard FG by Andersen cutting the Viking lead to 7 points. But then, the play occurred that would alter football history on that day and contribute to the eventual Viking loss in OT. 

For the 1998 regular season the Vikings veteran kicker Gary Anderson had a perfect record going between extra points and field goals. He hadn’t missed a kick all year, until this game. The Vikes had driven to the Atlanta 22-yard line late in the 4th quarter but were stalled out on a third down play. This setup a 39-yard attempt for Anderson, which by most standards is a more-than-makeable field goal. Especially when factoring in the near-perfect conditions inside the domed stadium. 

By this time our game had concluded on the ice and after a quick handshake line both teams rushed to the indoor concession area where a TV was broadcasting the game. I do recall that the room was totally packed with fans. The broadcasters and fans alike thought this would be a mere formality for Anderson to make the kick, giving the Vikings a ten-point lead late in the frame and would set them up for an invite to the Super Bowl. But then... Anderson missed the kick! Suddenly it was so quiet in the concession area you could have heard a mouse pass gas! 

The Falcons took over possession of the ball and drove downfield deep into Viking territory and would tie the game up with 49 seconds left on a 16-yard touchdown pass by Chris Chandler to Terance Mathis. By this point in the game it was clear that the Falcons had figured out a few things about the normally stifling Purple defense. In fact they gained almost 75 more total yards (427-356) than the Vikes in the game and most of them came from their passing game. (317-254) 

The Vikings got the opening kickoff in the OT but after getting one first down had to turn the ball over. The Vike’s defense held and got the ball back. But once again they were forced to turn the ball back over to the Falcons. On this possession the Falcons marched down the field with the Vikings unable to stop them. They got to the Viking’s 21-yard line, setup for a kick attempt and Andersen sailed it through and that was that. 

The concession area had turned silent and gloomy while emptying out in what may have been record time. The team packed up their gear and we were off for home on one of the quietest car rides I can recall in my lifetime. Upon arriving back home all I can remember is a very somber remainder of the afternoon and evening. And while I can normally recover from things like that with one good night’s sleep this was different. This one took a while. 

Even now when I consider it, that was the one time they were actually going to go to a Super Bowl and win it. The 1998 Vikings were that good. The 15-1 record was no accident. It wasn’t last year’s 13-4 asterisk mirage season. That 1998 roster was easily one of the Viking’s three best in team history. To this day I still have no reasonable explanation for the Viking’s loss that fateful day and I haven’t spent much time trying to analyze it either. Perhaps there are still some fans in therapy over that day but I’m not one of them.  

Having been a fan since Day one I learned a long time ago to follow this team at one’s own risk! If you don’t adhere to that, you will be receiving counseling or at least be in a Vikings fan support group... 
I got a message from a friend earlier in the week saying that I should lighten up on the Minnesota Wild and GM Bill Guerin. Sure, they aren’t that good this year with or without their immense injury list. I predicted in the offseason that Filip Gustavsson would suffer a sophomore slump and that the team likely would not make the playoffs this year. Unfortunately, both of those theories are holding water so far this season. 

Gustavsson is currently playing with a .892 Sv% and a 3.36 GAA. He is quite a ways down from his stats of last year, and he has had injury issues too. The team isn’t faring much better. They are currently at 19-26 for 43 points. (19-21-5) The team is in the 13th spot in the Western Conference standings, 5 removed from the playoffs and 8 points behind. Yes, I have been critical of Guerin. But he has it coming in my view.        

His teams have had some regular season success, but no division titles or playoff series wins and have always played to the salary cap maximums. In my book I’ve been too easy on him. And BTW, the Wild are currently at a 17% chance of making the playoffs. PEACE