Just like it was for the Browns of the last half of the 1980s, the time is now for the Minnesota Vikings as they get ready to play the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday night.
The football gods have deemed that this is the Vikings’ year. That miracle touchdown pass – thrown by Case Keenum, who is the Vikings’ third-string quarterback — to stun the New Orleans Saints in last Sunday’s divisional-round victory proves that.
Indeed, the stars are all aligned for the Vikings to beat the Eagles and get to the Super Bowl, which will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in two weeks. They would be the first team to play in a Super Bowl on their home field.
It doesn’t get any better than that. It really doesn’t.
And if you’re the Vikings, you had better realize that. You can’t say, “If we lose to the Eagles, we’ll come back next season and get the job done.” No, No, no! It doesn’t work that way. Next season, the window of opportunity will be wide open for another team yet to be determined. The football gods know which team it will be, but they’re not saying. They’ll never say. We just need to watch and find out.
But we’ll worry about that when it happens, and it’s long way off – a whole year from now. We’re concerned – the Vikings sure as heck had better be concerned – with what will happen on Sunday.
This privilege comes with a tremendous responsibility. The Vikings have to – absolutely, positively have to – defeat Philadelphia and finish the job so they can leap through the window. Next year – even if the Vikings have a better team – it will be closed to them.
The 1986 Browns were this year’s Vikings. After coming back from 10 points down with four minutes left in the fourth quarter to edge the New York Jets in two overtimes in the divisional round, it was the Browns’ turn to get to their first Super Bowl. But the Browns didn’t finish the job. Instead, The Drive finished them.
They were going to come back in 1987 and get it done. Then 1988. Then 1989.
But it never happened.
We’ll see if the Vikings get the message.
They’ll never forgive themselves if they don’t.
