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Shot at redemption Vikings hope there's no more looking back
Updated: Friday January 12, 2001 12:58 PM
"It's the kind of thing you'll look back on, not just the rest of your career, but the rest of your life if you let it slip through your fingers. This is as big as it gets." -- Vikings running back Robert Smith, three days before his team's Jan. 17, 1999 overtime loss in the NFC Championship Game at home against Atlanta. MINNEAPOLIS -- It has been two years now, but for anyone who was there that day at the Metrodome, and watched the scene unfold, the image remains indelibly burned into memory. It was the picture of defeat personified. Vikings receiver Cris Carter, distraught and sobbing as if he were at the funeral of a loved one, had to be half-carried, half-dragged up the ramp toward the Minnesota locker room, wailing ever louder as one of his brothers supported him under each arm. Carter's very public grief symbolized the Vikings' pain that day, a pain borne out of the realization of what they had allowed to escape their grasp. When the upstart Atlanta Falcons rallied from a 20-7 deficit to stun heavily favored Minnesota 30-27 in the NFC title game, the Vikings' storybook 1998 season ended one game shy of the Super Bowl. As an organization, the Vikings were blindsided by that shocking near miss, the aftermath of which seemed to set off the chaos and confusion of the team's roller-coaster 1999. But if there was any positive to come from that dark day in team history, it will show itself this week, when the Vikings get yet another chance to end their Super Bowl drought, which now stretches 24 seasons. In this, the 40th year of the franchise, another precious shot at the Super Bowl has presented itself. With Sunday's NFC title game against the New York Giants, this Vikings team is two years older, and poised again on the doorstep that leads to the game's grandest stage. But what purpose will the memory of 1998 serve? "Everyone understands. Everyone knows what this game means," Carter said quietly Wednesday. "You just like having this opportunity, anytime you can get it." The Giants, Oakland and Baltimore all have a hunger that won't truly be satisfied short of the Super Bowl. But all are relative playoff neophytes. No team that will play this weekend carries with it the same level of motivation that Minnesota possesses. For the Vikings, the quest to get back to this point started the day after the loss to the Falcons. "It was devastating, or whatever you want to call it," Vikings offensive tackle Todd Steussie said. "Just the reality that day that it didn't work out. "But it's a new year, with new possibilities, and the veterans on this team are excited about it. Because I think of the guys that were here in 1998, if there was any lesson learned, it's that opportunities like this don't come around too often. Guys don't want to see the same thing happen again, because you realize how rare this all is. That's what came out of '98."
More than any other Vikings player, Smith eloquently summarized what was at stake for Minnesota in 1998, when it last played for a shot at the Super Bowl. When that opportunity did indeed slip through the Vikings' fingers, he openly wondered if it would be his last. Now, as a potential free agent this spring, Smith must again view the opportunity before the Vikings against the backdrop of the future. Minnesota has made the playoffs in eight of head coach Dennis Green's nine seasons, and seven times since Smith arrived in 1993, but the Super Bowl is still a goal unattained. "We haven't finished the job yet since I've been here," Smith said. "There's only one way to end the season happy, and that's to win a Super Bowl championship. Until then, what do you have to celebrate?" Carter has spoken openly about retirement this year, and how a Super Bowl would provide a natural capper to his Hall of Fame career. But there were days after leaving the field a loser against Atlanta when he wondered if he would ever be in such prime position again. "I didn't know what to think about our chances," Carter said. "This opportunity is special. They're all special. The first one was special and this one will be special. I think we're ready. We're in good shape. Real good shape." Vikings players this week were repeatedly reminded by Green to not waste time replaying and reliving the mistakes of their 1998 NFC title-game loss. Instead Green stressed the importance of each man making sure there were no regrets to wallow in this time around. "We were shocked too that we lost," veteran linebacker Ed McDaniel said. "We were like, 'Oh, we lost? We weren't supposed to lose this game.' We got shocked then. But now we're going in with our eyes open, knowing what we have at stake. We want to make sure we take care of our responsibilities. We know that you can be beaten on any given day, but we're not going to be beaten on this day. "We have an opportunity to be in the same situation, to knock down that door and go to the next level." The Vikings two years ago were 11-point home-field favorites in the NFC title game. Atlanta's upset was the biggest in NFC Championship Game history, and punctured the air of Super Bowl inevitability that surrounded Minnesota's record-breaking 1998 season. This time, the Vikings are a 1-point favorite on the road against the Giants. But there is no assumption of dominance by Minnesota. Only a determination on the Vikings' part to finish the business that was left undone two years ago. "It's an opportunity of a season, not a lifetime," Green said Wednesday, correcting a reporter's question. "A chance to be world champions. You've got two steps [left] to be world champions. Somebody is going to get it. We think we've got as good a chance as any. We think this is our best chance to have an exceptional year." For the Vikings, after the agony of Atlanta, another chance is all they sought. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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