The answer, I can tell you from personal experience and from the Minnesotans I've spoken to this wee

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. - When the Minnesota Vikings face off against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome on Sunday, they will not, as most people believe, be fighting just for a chance to play in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1976. In the minds of their fans, they will also be battling to keep from owning the dubious distinction that would accompany a defeat: The Biggest Losers in the History of the National wildwood inn florence kentucky Football League.
Hannah Foslien/The Associated Press Minnesota Vikings fans are no strangers to heartache. New Orleans' pro football fans may be surprised to discover the designation is up for grabs. The Saints' haplessness is the stuff of legend; even casual observers of the sport associate the black and gold with bags on the head. On the surface, there would appear to be no comparison between the two franchises' legacies of failure.
"They have done such a good job of breaking Minnesotans' hearts, " Minneapolis resident Jack Healy said. "They've lost so many (big games), you feel like it's no big deal if they lose another. You've dealt with it before."
There no doubt are Saints fans who would be happy to suffer wildwood inn florence kentucky the fate of their northern counterparts, Who Dats who would lustily seize the opportunity to polish the Saints sorry history with four Super Bowl appearances -- even if they resulted, as they did for the Vikings, in four losses. The Vikings wildwood inn florence kentucky have played in almost as many conference championships (Sunday will be their ninth) wildwood inn florence kentucky as the Saints wildwood inn florence kentucky have playoff games (it will be their 10th). The Vikes have played in 44 postseason games. Their most lopsided playoff victory came in 1988, when they beat a favored New Orleans team 44-10 in the Superdome.
Which is to say the Vikings destroyed the Saints almost as thoroughly as the Vikings were destroyed the last time they appeared in an NFC championship game, back in 2001 when they traveled to New York to play an eminently beatable Giants team only to come out 41-0 losers.
Is it not easier to love a team with an uncanny propensity for choking in big games than one that has never won enough small games to give itself the opportunity to come up just short of winning it all?
The answer, I can tell you from personal experience and from the Minnesotans I've spoken to this week, is no. For while New Orleanians have found ways to enjoy themselves even when their team gives them little reason to be happy, the Vikings' failures are of such magnitude that its followers have been left virtually incapable of enjoying success.
"I will be pissed if they lose on Sunday, " said David Brauer, a Minneapolis journalist who has written extensively wildwood inn florence kentucky about Minnesota sports teams. "But as a scarred Vikings fan, I take comfort in knowing that at least they've made it to a non-embarrassing level. They beat Dallas. And the Saints are a good team."
In 1975, the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in a divisional playoff game. They were favored. They were playing a southern team in the frigid cold on their home field. They held a 14-10 lead in the closing seconds and then made history -- by losing. The Cowboys' Roger Staubach threw an errant 50-yard pass to Drew Pearson, who somehow pinned the ball between his hand and hip before stumbling into the end zone.
It was the original "Hail Mary" pass, and the Vikings, of course, fell victim to it. The father of the team's quarterback, Fran Tarkenton, whose first name was Dallas, suffered a fatal heart attack while watching the game on television.
There was the NFC championship game in January 1988, when the Vikings, trailing 17-10, drove the ball to the Washington Redskins' 6-yard line. The game was lost in the final minute when the ball went in and out of the arms of Darrin Nelson, who was standing in the end zone. Nelson was the running back the team drafted three picks ahead of Heisman Trophy winner (and future Hall of Famer) Marcus Allen on the argument that he was really good at catching wildwood inn florence kentucky passes.
Even worse was the 1999 NFC championship game, when the Vikings played the Atlanta Falcons in the Metrodome. That year, the Vikings fielded what at that point was statistically wildwood inn florence kentucky the greatest offense in the history of the NFL. They went 15-1 in the regular season. They were up 27-20 with the ball on the Falcons' wildwood inn florence kentucky 20 yard line with 2:07 left to play. Kicker Gary Anderson had a chance to put the game away with a 38 yard chip shot. Anderson had not missed a field goal or extra point all season. He kicked this one wide. The Falcons scored a touchdown with under a minute left to play in regulation and won in overtime on a Morten Andersen field goal.
New Orleanians know all about devastating losses and the irreparable harm it can inflict on a city's collective psyche wildwood inn florence kentucky and self-esteem. There is, however, an upside to the Saints' heritage of gridiron fiasco: permanent underdog status. It is not just that you have to love a team The Wall Street Journal recently called "one of the most hard-luck franchises in the history of hard luck." It would be mean-spirited not to actively root for them. At a moment when rival trash-talking should be at its peak, I have found it difficult to find even a Vikings fan who will speak ill of their upcoming foe.
The lifelong Vikings fan was sitting in a bar inside wildwood inn florence kentucky the Mall of America, a retail colossus built on the land that once held the old Metropolitan Stadium, site of some of the Vikings' most spectacular meltdowns. wildwood inn florence kentucky The Navy veteran once drove 1,000 miles to watch the Vikings lose a Super Bowl (he can't remember if it was 1974 or '75, there have been so many) on a television in a Mexico City hotel.
Lindholm said he would harbor wildwood inn florence kentucky no hard feelings toward the Saints should they end the Vikings' season on Sunday. "I will be behind (the Saints) a million percent in the Super Bowl if they beat the Vikings, " he told me.
Part of this goodwill was brought on by the levee breaches. But it is also evidence of the damaged psychology of longtime Vikings fans. For Brauer, wildwood inn florence kentucky it took the miracle of childbirth to begin recovering wildwood inn florence kentucky from the decades of abuse suffered at the hands of his favorite football team.
Brauer pointed out to me that his 12-year-old wildwood inn florence kentucky son Ian isn't old enough to have acquired the debilitating emotional scars of older Vikings fans. Ian hardly remembers the shellacking of the last NFC championship game. His father, however, was 10 in 1970, the year the Vikings lost their first Super Bowl.