Old School Tailgating: I am going through the content on Vikingstailgate.com with intents to scale it back and eventually rebuild. As I do this, I am finding lots of cool stories from the old days of Washington Avenue. These features and pictures will be shared for historic perspective. I dedicate all these stories to our Varsity tailgate founders; Stier, Saueey, Rocky, Chester, Hagen, Farrell, the Schmidty's, Notre Dame Dan, O.J., Bill, Cindy, Barnie, Lil Buddy, Stripper Skipper, Tammy, Face Paint Gal, CC Gal, Steve and the hundreds who followed....
This is one is from 2000, Vikings vs. the Carolina Panthers
The Perfect Snowball, Southern Hospitality and Sign Here Please
By Marcus "Mookie Vike" Anderson
I wish they would just stop it already, these damn Vikings are making me miserable. For every game they win, I get that much more insecure, worried that we as fans are about to embark on more suffering, more pain and more disappointment. If the Vikings aren't this good, please, please, please, don't break our hearts again and go to the Playoffs as the favorites and choke. I don't think I could bear another heartbreak like the one in '98. I guess this is what it's like to be a Chicago Cubs fan, so we as Vikes fans should relish in the moment and hope for a Twins-like post-season appearance?
I was really looking forward to the 2000 season simply because it was to be the year of "keeping it real."
I felt that this years season ticket would be the funnest to date for the simple reason that we would be witness to the trials and tribulations of a maturing NFL quarterback, who would learn his trade via O.J.T. (On the Job Training). My expecxtations were low, but I felt that the Vikes might still be able to sneak into the playoffs as underdogs and "make some noise." We fans would get to see Daunte Culpepper develop into a potential weapon, while watching established Pro Bowlers Cris Carter and Randy Moss "will" the Vikes into the playoffs.What a wonderful season 9-7 or 8-8 would have been? To be a mediocre NFL team and hear people, and read writers, who constantly bitch about our Coach and owner. I long for those days.
Pregame Tailgate:
The tailgating heartbeat kept on clicking this week, despite the last minute cancellations for family emergencies and personal illness. Saueey was unable to attend due to the passing of his Grandma, and Strawjamms did not make the Saturday Trip from South Dakota with Chester beause of a flu bug. Once again, the Berserkere reserves were tapped into and we brought up Austin, MN natives Scahvs and Mayor Barry (Rocky's girlfriend) to come play with us at the last minute.I picked up Schavs at 7:00 am and we drove to the Metrodome with the confidence that Vikes would easily handle the Carolina Panthers on this fine NFL Sunday. Schavs and I were the first Berserkers on the scene, and waited for nearly 40 minutes before the others showed up. It was the longest 40 minutes of my tailgating life, because Schavs and I were stuck "nothing-to-do-but-sit-on-our-ass-and-wait-it-is" for the first part of the day with no grille to set up, no goalposts kick into, and no breakfast to fry. All we had to do was drink beer for breakfast, so we waited and drank Schavies' stock of leftover Mississippi Mud as the snow started to fall at increasingly faster rates!
Soon other tailgaters started showing up and we passed on a petition for all to sign. The petition essentially marks the kick-off for all Viking fans to form a union of allegience. In this united effort, it is our intent to get the ball rolling in a positive light for state supported funds towards keeping the Vikes in Minnesota by building a new stadium.
Passing the petition to neighboring tailgaters in the lot, we learned that the Vikes fans would sign anything if it meant keeping their team in Minnesota!
All the Berserkers had rolled in before 8:00 a.m. and our temporary base camp took shape. We were all mildly surprised to see that Notre Dame Dan and Little Buddy had stepped up and raised their tailgating prowness to a new level. The duo managed to pool their funds and purchase a kick ass fire pit/grille that can be used for all the winter tailgating activities. Their debute of this new tool was perfectly timed.
Saueey, the Berserkers regular heat supplier, and Sunday morning breakfast chef, was absent from this game, but without realizing his absence, Notre Dame Dan and Little Buddy had "filled the gap" with their new tailgate toy. They fired up the grille and were serving breakfast egg & bacon muffins before you could say "McDonalds heart attack sandwiches!" It was great!
As this is the season of Thanksgiving, we all gave thanks to the Football Gods for allowing us to have one of the funnest seasons on record (so far) with a very talented Offensive team. As is true with most Holidays, friends and family make long treks to be with relatives and loved ones, and the Pre-Thanksgiving tailgate this Berserker Sunday was no exception. Viking Pudge and his gang of North Dakotans found their way to our camp and were greeted in Saueey's absence. Tennesse Jim, a long time Vikings fans from near the Music City, flew in just to tailgate with the Berserkers, and enjoy his first ever Vikings game at the Metrodome! It was great to meet such a loyal reader of our tailgating antics and be able to be host for his first Minnesota tailgating experience.
Tennessee Jim brought alcohol to exchange and we swapped Minnesota and Tennesse brewed beers and liquor. Meanwhile, a good old fashioned Minnesota snowball fight was breaking out between Berserkers, with Hagen declaring to have created the perfect snowball! In between sips of J.D. and small-talk conversation about the purple, and occasional groan of pain would emerse from the lips of a Berserker who had just been pelted with one of Hagen's perfect weapons!Soon after more visitors stopped by our camp to sign our petition. In all we had well over 50 visitors!
Game Notes:
Early faction walked in late but was surprisngly early! The game's pre-game festivities had been delayed for some reason. Many speculated that the nation was being given an update on that silly Florida ballot counting controversy that had been dominating the National News for over 2 weeks!
The National Anthem was sung by the lead singer of the Bodeans, who are in town for a Thanksgiving concert.Closer to Free
Everybody wants to live
How they wanna live
And everybody wants to love
Like they wanna love
And everybody wants to be
Closer to Free
Everybody wants respect
Just a little bit
And everybody needs a chance
Once in a while
Everybody wants to be
Closer to Free
Everybody one
Everybody two
Everybody free
Everybody needs to touch
You know now and then
And everybody wants a good good friend
Everybody wants to be
Closer to Free
Everybody wants to live
How they want to live
And everybody wants to love
Who they want to love
And everybody wants to be
Closer to Free
Gary Anderson was on the cover of this week's Purple Pride Playbook IMHO that was the most complete game the Vikes have played this season. Besides Carolina's first drive, the defense really played well. Tate had an awesome game! What a great balance of offense & defense, for a change. I actually went to the game, probably my one & only this year. We had great seats, 35 yd line, 6th row!!! Thanks Steve!! If the Vikes can play like that the rest of the season & into the playoffs, there is no doubt that the Lombardi trophy will be finding a new home in MN!!!! Skal! 9-2 & tops in the NFC!!! • Robert Smith just keeps getting better.
A lot of us here have been clamoring for Robert to get the ball more on screen passes and underneath routes. It's starting to happen now, but I think what we're seeing now is just the beginning. • Offensive line looked awesome. What did Mike Tice call them? The nastiest line in football? They played like it. Kudos especially to Dixon, Lacina and Liwienski who never seem to get any credit but are playing exceptionally well too.
• I can't say enough about the play calling. Variety, imagination, balance. I get the feeling Lewis is having the time of his life with this offense. • Rudd, Randle, Sawyer, Wong and Tate all had pretty good games. Carolina isn't exactly a juggernaut, but for the 2nd week in a row the defense gave up only one real touchdown.
• I don't know who the play by play announcer was for this game, but he was the best I've heard all year. Why is this man doing secondary games while Summerall, who's about as exciting as a fencepost, does feature games?
• If I remember correctly, Culpepper hasn't had to take off running in the last two games. This is the best news of all. It means he's going through his progressions, checking down and finding the open receiver. 150 rating? Are you kidding me? • Winning two games like we've done and playing another hapless team on Thursday is the best thing that could happen to us going into the tough homestretch. Culpepper is hot and getting hotter, the defense is starting to believe in themselves and play with fire, and the play calling is finding a rhythm. If we can somehow secure homefield advantage, we're going to be tough to beat. • It's becoming more and more clear that a meeting with St. Louis for the NFCC is inevitable. Let's just hope and pray we get them in OUR dome this year.
Favorite Plays:
Randy Moss: a beautiful catch on-the-fly for the Vikings first points of the game!
Robert Smith's screen play TD
Carolina's injury-decimated offensive line again had trouble protecting Steve Beuerlein, who was sacked five times. John Randle and Talance Sawyer each had two sacks.
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