This is hardly the first posting here on the topic, but I wanted to provide a couple of personal stories to further move the statement "Vikings fans are obnoxious jerks" from the column marked OPINION to the one titled FACT.

I was in a bar at MSP airport circa 1999.  A guy sitting at a table full of Vikings fans (based on their garb) asked me where I was from, and I said Green Bay.  The guys at the table all start clapping, and one says "How about those Broncos!"  The Packers Super Bowl loss was well over a year in the past at that point, but I simply replied "How about those Falcons?"  Suddenly their frat-boy smiles disappeared, and were replaced by expressions which appeared akin to one which might follow being told by your girlfriend she's leaving you....for another girl.  These guys seemed content with hurling stones, while never once bothering to notice they lived in a glass house.  Had they FORGOTTEN that their heavily-favored Vikings had choked away a Super Bowl berth just a couple months earlier?

Fast forward to November 1st, 2009.  I'm in a sports bar in San Diego, where I now live, watching the Packers get their butts beaten by the Vikings.  At halftime a heavy-set gentleman sees my Packers hat and says to me "You're about the only Packer fan in here."  Before I could even respond, he continues,  "I'm a big Vikings fan!"  I resisted the immediate urge to say something snarky like "I can see that you're BIG, good sir", or "So much so that you're not wearing a single thing with their logo?"  Instead I attempted to take the high road, and replied with "Well, I won't hold that against you."  Apparently not even hearing me, he says "Yeah?  Look at the score!"  Despite the Vikings defeating the Pack that day, I found it to be an odd thing to say.  After all, isn't the score 3-0 in favor of the Packers?  Or you do suppose he wasn't referring to the "score" of Super Bowl victories in franchise history????

If you have a Facebook account and wish to rub a little more salt into the wounds of Vikings Nation, please consider joining the group I recently created with the above two situations (and many more) in mind.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/group.php?gid=275969471850