Jim Souhan: Sunday's Vikings vs. Packers showdown is proof of better times

Jim Souhan, Star Tribune on Dec 28, 2024

Published in Football

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MINNEAPOLIS — Nostalgia is dubious. The sentimental attachment to “The Ol’ Days” usually confuses the familiar with the ideal.

“Sal, remember when we used to toboggan down that rocky hill and into that pit of steel spikes?”

“Yeah, Bill. Good times.”

Vince Lombardi and Bud Grant helped make their franchises popular and contentious. Good times? Sure, but this Sunday, these teams will again prove that their franchises, rivalry and league have never been better.

The Vikings are 13-2, tied for the best record in the NFC, and have a league-best eight-game winning streak. The Packers are 11-4 and their only losses came against the best of the NFC — Detroit (twice), Minnesota and Philadelphia.

This game is an epic matchup of two teams capable of winning the Super Bowl. It’s also a demonstration of the growth and improvement of the NFL.

Start with the stadium. The Vikings will play host on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, perhaps the best football stadium ever built, providing natural light and views of downtown Minneapolis in an innovative dome.

Compare that to decrepit old Met Stadium and the decrepit-from-the-start Metrodome and ... well, you can’t. There is no comparison.

Believe it or not, through 1993 the Packers played some of their home games at Milwaukee County Stadium to try to drum up fan support and avoid playing all of their games at Lambeau Field, which had become more of a relic than an attraction.

Lambeau has been refurbished and now is a perpetually sold-out football museum.

The game-day experience has been transformed, as well, especially in Minneapolis. A massive Gjallarhorn, dragon heads that shoot flames that singe your eyebrows, massive screens, random loud noises, Broadway-style choreography, fan inclusion, cult-like cheering collaborations, upgraded concessions ...

Don’t tell me you preferred getting frostbite while sitting on a hard bench eating whatever random ingredients they decided to pack into that day’s hot dog.

Before Randy Moss arrived, attending Vikings games felt like something old, grumpy people did if it was too cold to go to the cabin. The Met and Metrodome could get loud, but more often fans sat on their hands until their team did something rousing.

Now the Vikings and Packers are the focus of entire social lives and personal budgets. And the game itself has been transformed.

Lombardi became famous for running a power sweep with a slow running back. That offense would get him fired in half a season in the modern NFL. Bart Starr might have been a nice backup for Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love.

Lombardi’s pulling guards and Grant’s involvement of a running back in the passing game were high-level innovations in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Now those innovations seem as timeworn as a wood-paneled station wagon.

Today’s players are bigger, stronger, better trained, better nourished, better rested and better coached.

The modern NFL has even removed the most obvious reason for a decent human being to avoid watching — viciously caused, unnecessary head injuries, and the league’s former criminal urge to pretend that head injuries and brain damage had nothing to do with football.

Football remains a violent sport that can damage a brain, but head shots are no longer encouraged or justified, and players can easily educate themselves on the risks of playing football.

The Vikings-Packers rivalry itself now features two of the league’s best head and offensive coaches, Kevin O’Connell and Matt LaFleur. The Vikings’ defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, was a winning head coach who should return to the head coaching ranks; and both teams feature other assistants who will likely become rising stars.

Sunday’s game won’t be the most important ever played between these teams. Both have qualified for the playoffs and both are capable of winning on the road, so the jockeying for seeding is more intriguing than vital.

What this game will be, no matter the outcome, is spectacular entertainment, and a scene that Lombardi and Grant probably couldn’t have imagined 50 years ago. But then, who could have?