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One more swing Vikes a step away from another shot at the Super Bowl
Posted: Friday January 15, 1999 02:17 PM
Twenty-two seasons ago, the Minnesota Vikings had a year like this one. Twenty-two seasons ago, when the NFL still played 14-game seasons and a stone-faced coach named Bud Grant was calling the shots in Minnesota, the Vikings were the best of the NFC. They were as close to a Super Bowl shoo-in as anyone could be. Now, 22 seasons later, the Vikings are overwhelming favorites again, an 11-point choice over the Atlanta Falcons to win Sunday's NFC Championship game. If the Vikings can pull out a win, it would give them their first NFC title -- and their first trip to their own little house of horrors, the Super Bowl -- since that wondrous 1976 season. "That was a long time ago. These [players] don't remember it," said Jerry Reichow, the Vikings assistant general manager/national scouting and the so-called "dean" of the team's front office. "A lot of [the fans] don't remember it, either. It was a different era. A whole different era." Still, Reichow, one of a handful of Vikings employees still around who was there for the last go-round at glory in Minnesota, remembers. In fact, he remembers all four of the Vikings' trips to the Super Bowl in the 1970s. It's hard to forget: All four were losses. And Minnesota didn't get within 10 points in any of them. "It's like pulling the plug on you when you lose," Reichow said. "But we got pretty good at it." Sunday's game will be the Vikings' third NFC title game in the 22 years since they last made it to the Super Bowl. They lost after the '77 season to the Dallas Cowboys and to the Washington Redskins after the '87 season. Since then, they've been trying to recapture whatever it was that made them one of the dominant teams of the 1970s. But it would be hard to imagine teams more different than the Vikings teams of the '70s and this one.
Starting with the 1969 season, the Vikings of yore were pretty good offensively. The Vikes won at least 10 games seven times in eight years and went to the Super Bowl after the '69, '73, '74 and '76 seasons. Quarterback Fran Tarkenton was there for the final three trips Minnesota made to the Super Bowl, and the Hall of Famer ended up as one of the most prolific passers of all time. But defense was the name of the Vikings' game in those years. They were in the Top 3 in fewest points allowed in each of their Super Bowl seasons. This year's Vikings are good defensively -- only five teams let up fewer points this season -- but they have made their mark as the highest-scoring team in NFL history. "It didn't work out with those [defensive] teams," Reichow said, "so let's try it the other way." After the Denver Broncos broke their oh-fer at the Super Bowl last season, Minnesota is left as one of only two teams to lose four Super Bowls. The Vikings are tied for the haplessness record with the Buffalo Bills, who went 0-4 in consecutive trips in the early '90s. So that makes Sunday's game even more important to Reichow, a former wide receiver and tight end who spent the last four years of an eight-year career in Minnesota (1961-64). If the Vikings can win Sunday, they'll have a chance finally to do a Denver and rid themselves of the Super Bowl loser tag. "I'm getting up there. I don't have too many more swings at it," laughed the 64-year-old Reichow, speaking by phone from California, where he's scouting the East-West Shrine college all-star game. "I think this is the best opportunity we've had."
Around the Championship GamesAtlanta Falcons at Minnesota Vikings, Sunday at 12:30 ET, NFC Championship game : Much of the talk surrounding this game -- at least around Atlanta -- concerns dealing with the noise expected in the Metrodome. But both these teams know how to play in the noisy indoors, as evidenced by their records. The Vikings have won 11 straight games in a dome, while the Falcons, who play their home games in the massive Georgia Dome, have won 16 straight indoors (including five on the road). In fact, the Falcons will be playing in their ninth straight dome game Sunday ... The game will mark the first time a 14-2 team has ever had to travel to play in a conference championship game. Atlanta finished the regular season 14-2. The Vikings were 15-1 ... The Vikings are pulling out all the stops to make sure they're healthy. Matt Callison, an acupuncturist and athletic trainer from San Diego, was flown into Minneapolis to take care of nine hurting players. Safety Robert Griffith, who lives in San Diego in the off-season and who uses Callison regularly, paid for the trip ... Despite their success in domes, the Falcons are taking the noise issue seriously. They blared a tape of jet engines through loud speakers at practice Wednesday. New York Jets at Denver Broncos, Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, AFC Championship game : Jets coach Bill Parcells still hasn't decided whether cornerback Aaron Glenn, nursing a sprained ankle, will start. Glenn isn't sure, either. "It's going to take a while before I can get in the position to break on the ball and anticipate," Glenn told Newsday. "I'm not playing at the top of my level. Through the week, hopefully I can get close, but it's going to be hard." ... Some of Denver's defensive players have said one of the keys to beating the Jets is getting inside the head of Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde. Before this season, Testaverde definitely had the reputation that he could be rattled, throwing 183 interceptions and 175 touchdown passes in his career. This season, though, he's turned it around. He tossed a Jets-record 29 touchdowns this season to only seven interceptions ... The Broncos are still wondering whether this is, indeed, the final go-round for quarterback John Elway. For the first time, coach Mike Shanahan said this week he'd be "surprised" if Elway comes back.
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