It isn’t easy being a Minnesota Viking fan. The ups and downs this team gives me every Sunday is hard on my heart. Sunday they had a two score lead with three some minutes left and Carolina tied it up to send it into overtime. Vikings won in overtime, but my emotions once again were all over the place.

I have been a Vikings fan since the 1960’s! I have suffered through four Super Bowl losses. I cried in my bedroom as a twelve year old boy watching the Vikings lose to the Baltimore Colts in the playoffs in 1968. I had a small black and white tv in my bedroom and watched Joe Kapp, the quarterback for the Vikings and my favorite player at the time lose 24 to 14. I remember it well. I was devastated and cried on my bed when the game ended. That is what kind of Vikings fan I was as a kid. I loved the Vikings and still cheer them on. But, it hasn’t been easy over the years, just once before I die I would like to see them dominate every game during the season and win the Super Bowl.

I get myself pretty pumped up on Sundays. I usually wake up Sunday morning and get excited knowing the Vikings are playing that afternoon. My routine on Sundays is to go to church in the morning and come home to a nice lunch and sit down in my chair and watch football. When the Vikings are on I turn the volume down on the television and put my ear buds in and listen to Paul Allen and Pete Bercich call the game on the radio. I enjoy listening to them. Since I am listening on the radio, they are always one play ahead of the tv, so I listen to the play on the radio, then get to watch it on tv knowing what is going to happen. I love that. I also have my phone in my hand and follow the discussion on the Vikings play on Twitter. It can sometime be pretty funny reading some tweets when the Vikings screw up. So, I am listening to the radio, watching tv and following along on Twitter. That is how I watch the Vikings.

Now that I am a 64 year old, I find myself sitting in my favorite chair on Sunday afternoons and watching the Vikings self destruct every week. Yes, they have won a few games while self destructing but it’s how they are playing the game. I get so frustrated and upset. I can put myself into a frenzy at times. I don’t get like this with any other teams I cheer for. Why do the Vikings do this to me every Sunday? This Sunday was no different.