Minnesota Vikings Tickets : The Vikings Were The First Team To Play In Four Super Bowls

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional football team based in Minneapolis

, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also known as the Black & Blue Division.

The Vikings have been one of the most successful NFL franchises. They currently have the fifth/highest winning percentage in the NFL. They are also one of only five NFL teams to win fifteen games during the regular season. The Vikings have won one NFL championship (pre/1970 AFL/NFL Merger), but subsequently lost 23/7 to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

The Vikings were the first team to play in four Super Bowls, though losing them. The Vikings have won their division 18 times, third most among teams currently playing in the NFL and most among current teams in their division. Counting playoff appearances only after 1970, they are tied with the second most in the league. No team has as many NFC or AFC Championship game appearances (nine) without a Super Bowl title. Only three other NFC teams have played in more Super Bowls than the Vikings. The team currently has ten members in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The team played home games at Metropolitan Stadium through the 1981 NFL season and have played their home games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome since 1982. The Vikings have been conducting summer training camp at Minnesota State University, Mankato since 1966. From 1961/65 they held camp at Bemidji State University.

Pro football in the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area (the "Twin Cities") began with the Minneapolis Marines/Red Jackets, an NFL team that played intermittently in the 1920s/30s. However, a new professional team in the area did not surface again until August 1959, when three Minneapolis businessmen Bill Boyer, H. P. Skoglund and Max Winter were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League. Five months later in January 1960, after significant pressure from the NFL, the ownership group along with Bernie Ridder forfeited its AFL membership and then was awarded the National Football League's 14th franchise with play to begin in 1961.

Ole Haugsrud was added to the NFL team ownership because of an agreement he had with the NFL since the 1920s when he sold his Duluth Eskimos team back to the league. The agreement allowed him 10% of any future Minnesota team. Coincidentally or not Ole Haugsrud's high school, Central High School in Superior WI teams were also called the Vikings and their school colors were purple and yellow.

On August 18, 2009, after months of speculation and negotiations, twice/retired veteran quarterback Brett Favre, who until 2007 played 16 years for division arch rival Green Bay Packers, signed a two/year, $25 million deal with the Vikings, starting what many Vikings fans refer to as the "The Brett Favre Era". Favre is universally acknowledged to be a future Hall of Fame player, holding many NFL career passing records.

Coincidentally, in 2007, he broke the record for career touchdown passes (previously held by Dan Marino with 420) in the Metrodome while playing for the Packers.

On October 5, 2009, the Vikings hosted the Green Bay Packers as Favre played his former team for the first time. With a 30/23 victory on Monday Night Football, the Vikings moved to a 4/0 record. Favre became the only player in NFL history to defeat all 32 current teams as a starter. The Atlanta Falcons had defeated the Packers in a 1991 game which Favre did not participate. Over 21.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the game, beating the previous record for a cable television program set by a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys in 2008 (18.6 million viewers).

The Vikings beat the N.Y. Giants, 44/7, in Week 17 to help the Vikings clinch the 2nd seed in the conference and a 1st round/bye with an Eagles loss later that same day. The Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round on January 17, 2010, and won the game by a score of 34/3, advancing the Vikings to the NFC Championship game, the ninth in franchise history and first since 2001. Minnesota would travel to New Orleans the following week to face the top/seeded Saints in the first conference championship game held at the Superdome.

Despite out/gaining the Saints on offense by nearly a twofold margin, the Vikings were severely hindered by five turnovers, including a Favre interception in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter (in Saints territory). They were ousted in overtime, 31/28, on a 40/yard field goal after losing the coin toss.

The team is currently owned by Zygi Wilf, Mark Wilf, Jeffrey Wilf, Leonard Wilf, David Mandelbaum, Alan Landis and Reggie Fowler. The Vikings have been conducting summer training camp at Minnesota State University, Mankato since 1966. From 1961/65 they held camp at Bemidji State University.

by: Cynthia Hoffman

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