In 1981, the Minnesota Vikings played their last season in the old Met. Gone were the days of watching the Purple in the bitter cold, but something was lost when they moved inside. The Metrodome amplified the crowd noise, but they were no longer the hard-nosed team built in Bud Grant‘s image.
Luke Braun profiles the Vikings’ growing pains in Part IV of his documentary on the history of the Minnesota Vikings. He details the team’s issues post-Grant, which culminated in the ill-fated Herschel Walker trade. There still were some stars in that era, including Joey Browner, Steve Jordan, and Ahmad Rashad, who kept the team relevant. They just weren’t what they once were.
Braun bridges the gap between Grant and the Randy Moss Vikings in his latest installment.
Here’s Luke:
In Part IV, the hangover the Vikings experienced after their four Super Bowl losses loomed for a decade. The Vikings relocated to the city, moved indoors, and took their time to figure out exactly what that meant for them. It takes a lot to turn a perennial contender into an impotent middle-dweller, and, well, it indeed was a lot. The Herschel Walker trade, the Les Steckel debacle, and multiple strikes totally derailed the Vikings’ momentum. Let’s itemize the pain.
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