Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Robison could only laugh when he saw a “Mullet Militia” T-shirt inspired by Jared Allen on display in the 2009 section.
“When I look back at this team, I just think of the star power that we had,” Robison said. “You look at guys like Adrian, Jared, Brett Favre, Steve Hutchinson, The Williams Wall, all of these guys that are Pro Bowl types. It’s kind of crazy to me that I was able to be on that caliber of a team and be right there with them, playing. It’s just surreal to look at that and understand the type of players you had. It’s pretty cool.”
As Hutchinson surveyed the memorabilia, he was asked about his strongest memory from that season and quietly said, “There were so many. Let’s look at the schedule.”
“Probably those two Green Bay games, having swept them, that was probably the first time in a while that we had swept them,” Hutchinson said.
He’s right. Minnesota had last previously swept the Border Battle in 2005, before dropping five contests in a row.
“Those Detroit games (27-13 and 27-10 wins) were closer than the scores showed,” Hutchinson added. “That Carolina game (a 26-7 loss) was interesting. That Dallas game (a 34-3 victory in the Divisional Round), that was a fun one. Then, of course, the end one (a gut-wrenching 31-28 loss to New Orleans in the NFC Championship), they’re still talking about.”
That game was about as crushing as any in the team’s nearly 60 years of frequent success in the regular season followed by grueling postseason agony.
The subsequent season was supposed to be a second chance but was anything but. Even the roof of the Metrodome caved in during a blizzard, forcing the final two home games of the season to be played at Detroit’s Ford Field (a day after it was initially scheduled) and at the University of Minnesota.
“2010 was a really eventful year, and not in a good way,” Hutchinson said. “I couldn’t even tell you about all of the stuff. It will be in a book one day. Why wouldn’t we go to Detroit and play a home game? And play a Tuesday night game [because of a blizzard] in Philly.”
Across the museum, Robison stepped through spaces about the three permanent Vikings homes on game days (Metropolitan Stadium, 1961-81; the Metrodome, 1982-2013; and U.S. Bank Stadium, which he helped officially open in 2016 with a win over the Packers).
“That’s crazy. I remember when that happened,” Robison said, looking at an aerial photo of the Metrodome after the roof collapsed. “I was like, ‘WHAT?’ And then we went to Detroit for a home game.”
The decision to replace the Metrodome with U.S. Bank Stadium on the same site meant the Vikings would play the 2014-15 home schedule at the University of Minnesota.
“I think the main thing for us was, ‘We’ve got to play outside for two years?’ We went from that [mindset] to kind of embracing that,” Robison said before lamenting that his contemporaries didn’t incorporate the “O-din” chant that the Purple People Eaters uttered over howling winds at Metropolitan Stadium.