Fans Connect With Vikings History and Their Own Thermal Underwear
By CHRISTINA CAPECCHI
MINNEAPOLIS — Where once there were Vikings, there may now be wimps. That was the fear among longtime Minnesota Vikings fans as their beleaguered team prepared for its first outdoor home game in 29 years.
The Vikings were forced to play at the University of Minnesota’s outdoor stadium Monday night against the Chicago Bears because the Metrodome roof collapsed Dec. 12 under 17 inches of snow. A return to the Vikings’ arctic roots, which defined the team’s first two decades, had older fans and retired players pulling out parkas and waxing nostalgic, while some younger players and fans bemoaned the loss of the Dome’s warm shelter in the face of yet another snowstorm.
More griping than grunting came from the Vikings. “The field is hard as concrete,” punter Chris Kluwe wrote Sunday on Twitter, adding, “Anyone that hits their head is getting a concussion.”
That’s a far cry from Bud Grant, who coached in the 1970s when the Vikings played outside at Metropolitan Stadium. He banned heaters and forbade his players to wear gloves. Grant treated frigid weather as an ally, conquering the softer-skinned Los Angeles Rams in 1969 to gain the Vikings’ first Super Bowl berth.
“I won’t be Bud Grant out there,” Coach Leslie Frazier told The Associated Press. “If you guys can recognize me, you’re doing pretty good.”
Running back Chuck Foreman, who played for the Vikings from 1973 to 1979, found the winter woes overstated. “You’ve got to learn to tough it up,” Foreman told The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “That’s the way the game has been played for years. These guys get spoiled.”
Older Vikings fans know how to cope, taking a page from what is, for some, a childhood playbook. Frank Abramson, 63, an attorney from St. Louis Park, has had season tickets since 1962. Abramson said he used to brace for icy home games by wrapping a quilted “stadium bag” over a snowmobile suit and donning a knit balaclava that covered his entire head with slits for his eyes. “You’re either going to a really cold football game or you’re robbing a bank,” he said of the headwear.
Abramson had some terse advice for Kluwe and his teammates: “I think they have to suck it up.”
Steve LaCroix, the Vikings’ chief marketing officer, is hoping old and new fans can bundle up and show each other some “Minnesota nice” on a night that honors the franchise’s 50th anniversary. “It’s ironic but fitting that it played out this way,” he said. “There’s a whole generation of Vikings fans that maybe have not experienced an outdoor N.F.L. game.”
Some natives saw it as a bit of snowy synchronicity that the last time the Vikings played an outdoor home game was 29 years ago to the day. Any added electricity is welcome in a season in which the Vikings (5-8) have struggled, their coach was fired and Brett Favre’s record consecutive-game streak ended. Favre returned to the starting lineup Monday.
Preparing TCF Bank Stadium has been a complicated, costly effort, beginning with the removal of about 40,000 cubic yards of snow, according to the university spokesman Garry Bowman. “To give you a picture, if it were to be all dumped on the 100-yard field, it’d be about 20 feet deep,” he said.
For four days the frozen field has been covered by a tarp, thawing under four massive heaters. At least 15,000 man hours went into stadium preparations, Bowman said.
Fans had to bear the snowstorm sober. TCF Stadium does not serve alcohol. A liquor store a block away had sold about a thousand flasks an hour before the game, according to the owner, George Medich. “This weather is not going to stop these people,” he said.
Jake Koch, a 20-year-old college student, wore long johns and a knit Vikings cap beneath his North Face hood. He said he was excited to prove his mettle and experience something that was commonplace for older generations. “You have to walk the walk if you’re going to talk the talk,” he said. “I think all the fans should go to this game; otherwise you’re going to look like a bunch of babies.”
The Vikings were forced to play at the University of Minnesota’s outdoor stadium Monday night against the Chicago Bears because the Metrodome roof collapsed Dec. 12 under 17 inches of snow. A return to the Vikings’ arctic roots, which defined the team’s first two decades, had older fans and retired players pulling out parkas and waxing nostalgic, while some younger players and fans bemoaned the loss of the Dome’s warm shelter in the face of yet another snowstorm.
More griping than grunting came from the Vikings. “The field is hard as concrete,” punter Chris Kluwe wrote Sunday on Twitter, adding, “Anyone that hits their head is getting a concussion.”
That’s a far cry from Bud Grant, who coached in the 1970s when the Vikings played outside at Metropolitan Stadium. He banned heaters and forbade his players to wear gloves. Grant treated frigid weather as an ally, conquering the softer-skinned Los Angeles Rams in 1969 to gain the Vikings’ first Super Bowl berth.
“I won’t be Bud Grant out there,” Coach Leslie Frazier told The Associated Press. “If you guys can recognize me, you’re doing pretty good.”
Running back Chuck Foreman, who played for the Vikings from 1973 to 1979, found the winter woes overstated. “You’ve got to learn to tough it up,” Foreman told The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “That’s the way the game has been played for years. These guys get spoiled.”
Older Vikings fans know how to cope, taking a page from what is, for some, a childhood playbook. Frank Abramson, 63, an attorney from St. Louis Park, has had season tickets since 1962. Abramson said he used to brace for icy home games by wrapping a quilted “stadium bag” over a snowmobile suit and donning a knit balaclava that covered his entire head with slits for his eyes. “You’re either going to a really cold football game or you’re robbing a bank,” he said of the headwear.
Abramson had some terse advice for Kluwe and his teammates: “I think they have to suck it up.”
Steve LaCroix, the Vikings’ chief marketing officer, is hoping old and new fans can bundle up and show each other some “Minnesota nice” on a night that honors the franchise’s 50th anniversary. “It’s ironic but fitting that it played out this way,” he said. “There’s a whole generation of Vikings fans that maybe have not experienced an outdoor N.F.L. game.”
Some natives saw it as a bit of snowy synchronicity that the last time the Vikings played an outdoor home game was 29 years ago to the day. Any added electricity is welcome in a season in which the Vikings (5-8) have struggled, their coach was fired and Brett Favre’s record consecutive-game streak ended. Favre returned to the starting lineup Monday.
Preparing TCF Bank Stadium has been a complicated, costly effort, beginning with the removal of about 40,000 cubic yards of snow, according to the university spokesman Garry Bowman. “To give you a picture, if it were to be all dumped on the 100-yard field, it’d be about 20 feet deep,” he said.
For four days the frozen field has been covered by a tarp, thawing under four massive heaters. At least 15,000 man hours went into stadium preparations, Bowman said.
Fans had to bear the snowstorm sober. TCF Stadium does not serve alcohol. A liquor store a block away had sold about a thousand flasks an hour before the game, according to the owner, George Medich. “This weather is not going to stop these people,” he said.
Jake Koch, a 20-year-old college student, wore long johns and a knit Vikings cap beneath his North Face hood. He said he was excited to prove his mettle and experience something that was commonplace for older generations. “You have to walk the walk if you’re going to talk the talk,” he said. “I think all the fans should go to this game; otherwise you’re going to look like a bunch of babies.”
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