MINNEAPOLIS - No team has ever come this close to playing a Super Bowl in their home stadium, and if the Vikings lose to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, Jan. 21, the NFL might discover the dangers of presenting the league championship on non-neutral sites. If the Vikings aren't one of the teams playing in Super Bowl LII, Minnesotans won't simply become apathetic to the big game in U.S. Bank Stadium; they'll resent it.
Imagine your spouse leaves you, remarries your archrival and then pitches a tent in the backyard, whence the happy couple keeps knocking on the sliding glass door and asking you to bring out their morning coffee.
For two weeks.
You, of course, didn't sign up as a volunteer for your spouse's new life, so you quickly pull out the stakes, throw the interlopers off your lawn and sow the earth with salt. Ten thousand Minnesotans won't have that option if the Vikings leave them Sunday; they have volunteered to help the NFL present Super Bowl LII.
Win or lose, they'll be expected to be up bright and early to greet visitors at the airport, direct traffic and schlep quote sheets for NFL minions celebrating two teams that won one more game than the Vikings did when it counted. Again. If that's the case, one likes to believe there might be a few recalcitrant helper gnomes giving directions in the skyway.
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"Hi! Can you tell me the best way to find the, let me see ... Super Bowl LIVE presented by Verizon?"
"Get bent."
Because they're honest, fair, hard-working Minnesotans, they'll show up and get to work regardless of whether their beloved team is playing in the big game. But let's not kid ourselves, it won't be easy, especially for the poor souls who have to work outside.
"OK, Courtney, we're going to have you directing fans at the corner of, let's see ... looks like at the Nicollet Mall and 12th Street for the Super Bowl Experience Presented by Genesis!"
"It's minus-5"
"Uh-huh. Bold North!"
The Vikings have had Minnesotans on a high since October, and it only grew more intense with that Case Keenum-to-Stefon Diggs miracle touchdown in last week's division playoff victory over New Orleans. Coming down cold turkey will be painful enough; it seems especially unfair to make the vanquished stick around and serve the victors, but that's generally how history has worked, even if it would be a first for the NFL.
The Vikings (14-3) certainly have a Super Bowl-worthy team, but that has only made things worse for generations of fans who watched the 1987, 1998, 2000 and 2009 teams lose when that championship berth was on the line. Playing without star rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, out because of a knee injury, the Eagles (14-3) look beatable, but so did the Redskins, Falcons, Giants and Saints.
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So, yeah, Minnesota football fans have borne bad losses in the NFC Championship Game before, but following that with a Super Bowl in their own backyard? That would be an indignity difficult to face, especially in the heart of a cold, dark January.
The host committee was looking for 10,000 volunteers to help with Super Bowl LII. That's an army of delighted, friendly Midwesterners eager to show off the great State of Minnesota if the Vikings advance to their first Super Bowl since 1978. If they lose, some enterprising assistant professor at the U might want to use the opportunity to conduct a scientific experiment on the true meaning of Minnesota Nice.
For natives it means, "We're nice!" For transplants, it tends to mean, "We pretend to be nice!"
Eh, well, come to think of it, if the Vikings don't win Sunday, either of those will work.
