Idunno, I think if they had a legendary quarterback like Brett Favre then they might be able to run that play successfully in a clutch situation like possibly the final minute of regulation in a tie game.
@@ForelliBoyI really wish I had the time and energy to pull something like this off, but unfortunately I don't. I'll leave it to one of the many great video editors out there
D - Demonstrate Value 23:28 E - Engage Physically 25:30 N - Nurture Dependence 49:30 N - Neglect Emotionally 59:41 I - Inspire Hope 1:10:10 S - Separate Entirely 1:15:17
I watched it live as a 10-year old. This episode is my first time watching the Anderson miss since 1998. It still hurts, but I had forgotten so many other plays from that game.
@geoffsteichen3126 yeah and I was a fresh newborn out of the oven and i said yo pops put everything ya got on the mf vikings... I grew up in a dumpster after that bet pops took
@@alexrubenstein3876I knew for a fact that you used some of the same lines, but delivered it differently. It's a beautiful and poetic way to tell the story of that game from the two perspectives. It reminds me of those videos where people show the same play from each teams' broadcasts, and both say something like "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!", but clearly in different tones. Exuberant for one, demoralized for the other.
Chip Myers is a name I remember (before his tragic early passing) from an old Lou Saban video where Saban was miked up for a Broncos game and he kept calling Myers name to get his attention 'Chip! Chip! Chip!'...
The fact they played the EXACT same song from the Falcons documentary leading up to the Gary Anderson missed kick is just so perfect yet so painful at the same time!
In the end, the greatest villain is still the Broncos, and most certainly the 49ers and Cowboys for making the NFC into a bully that Elway decided shouldn't pick on him anymore
The 1998 Vikings were a phenomenal team, and played one of the great statistical regular seasons. At least statistically, you could say they were as good offensively as the 1969 team from the end of Part 1 is defensively (one never scored less than 24 points in a game, the other never allowed more than 24 points in a game). All told, the Vikings went 15-1 with their only regular season loss by three points, scored the most points up through 1998, and had an above average to very good defense (though I do have some questions about how they were against the run given that Atlanta is who they lost to). Minnesota also had nine players named first or second team all pro by the Associated Press, one of four post merger teams to do so (along with Washington in 1991, New England in 2007, and San Fran in 2012). Before which point, the AFL and NFL teams had separate all pro teams, and thus it was easier for teams to have more such selections (Green Bay in 1962 who had 14 AP all pro selections is the most I’ve found among any team regardless of year).
@@fortynights1513 i'm pretty sure the 98 vikings had 0 4th quarter comebacks the entire season, so when they needed to come up clutch vs the falcons in a tight game, they didn't have that experience of having been there before to help them
@@diggsfatherI guess that’s what can happen when you are rarely trailing. I wouldn’t be surprised if in most of their wins they scored first. I find it impressive that the 69 team never allowed more than 24 points and that the 98 team also never scored less than 24 points. So if you hypothetically put the better defense and offense together, you’d get an undefeated regular season.
my dad and John Randle are buddies, and they often smoke cigars together at a local Minnesota spot. My favorite anecdote so far is that after the draft this year, Randle and my dad were smoking when someone comes up and asks him "Hey John, what'd you think of the draft this year?" Randle smiles, counts down from three, and the whole place bellows out "Three Hundred And Five!" He was the 305th person to ask John what he'd thought of the draft. He does it every year.
I don't think it's gonna be brought up in the video, but one of the craziest things of the 1990s for the Vikings, by far, was when they signed a kicker during the 1990 preseason, and never revealed who his name was. Seriously. General manager Mike Lynn said that he was a mystery, no one knew his name, and he was listed on the depth chart as Rich Karlis (as in, the usual kicker who was holding out). Gonna be tough to top that.
Ironically enough, it was a Rich Karlis' kick that he *almost* missed that sent the 1986 Broncos to the playoffs after John Elway completed "The Drive" in Cleveland. In other random kicking connections, after Scott Norwood went wide right in SB XXV, Bills got a kicker named Steve Christy who kicked the GW FG to complete the greatest comeback in postseason history 2 years later. Also also, Morten Anderson missed a FG in Week 17 in 1996 against the Jaguars, allowing the Jaguars to make the playoffs as a wild card. They then proceeded to beat the Bills in Orchard Park (first time in the 90's Bills lost a home playoff game) AND beat the Broncos in Mile High, which the Oilers failed to do in back-to-back years in 1991 and 1992, despite having big leads in both games. And then, of course, Jason Elam, the Broncos kicker, was the first to tie Tom Dempsey's record of a made 63-yard FG. Fun facts for the day.
@@j.a.greene3523 You spelled Morten Andersen's name wrong. But, my favorite Morten Andersen factoid, is that back when everyone was fellating Brett Favre for attempting to get rubbed and tugged in New York, Brett beat his old team, and became the first player to beat all 32 teams... Except he wasn't. Morten Andersen had already done it. Not only did Morten hang an L on every team in the league, but, if one of the teams that Morten beat tried to move or change their name in order to claim that they'd never been beaten by him, HE WENT AND BEAT THEM ALL AGAIN.
I’m not even a Vikings fan and that game makes me mad as well, especially when it’s implied that Gary Anderson’s missed field goal is the main reason why they lost. It’s not. Yes he should have made it but Minnesota still had a decent chance to win. Rest in peace Dennis Green, but it was his ultra conservative, borderline chickenshit coaching at the end of regulation that ultimately cost the Vikings a win. He was trying not to lose rather than trying to win. Also, the field goal attempt wasn’t to take the lead or tie the game, they still had a 7 point lead with not much time remaining. Everyone knew that the Falcons were gonna be passing, thus taking away their best weapon, Jamal Anderson. The Minnesota defense just had to keep CHRIS CHANDLER out of the end zone. It’s not like they were trying to stop Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, just keep Chris f***in Chandler and a slightly above average receiving corp from getting a touchdown, and they couldn’t do it.
I swear, as a 6 year old Bears fan, i cannot believe Cunningham's heyday as a Viking was only 1 season. He seems so much larger and like he kicked the ass of my team as a superhuman star for longer then that. Time really is a lot slower when you are a young kid.
One thing that isn't widely mentioned is Tom Clancy's book "The Sum of all Fears" In the book the Vikings are mentioned tearing it up all season as juggernauts. The climax of the book is the Vikings being the overwhelming favorites in the Super Bowl when terrorists detonate a Nuclear Bomb at the Super Bowl killing all attending. Even in fiction, the Vikings will never win a Super Bowl. Also odd that Tom Clancy wrote it and then tried to buy the team.
I know exactly how it ends (painfully), but every time I watch something on the 98 team, I just think "Maybe this time will be different." My dad literally describes the 1998 NFC championship as "just supposed to be a formality". I was too young to remember, but apparently my mom and cousin say that he and my uncle were just left speechless on the couch after that game.
If you were old enough to witness the '09 NFCCG, you understand about 70% of the anguish that we felt after '98. '98 was worse because they were a better team than in '09. The '98 Vikings were the most dominant Minnesota men's pro team in our state's history (not counting any Minneapolis Lakers teams, can't speak on that).
I avoided 1998 highlights since, I forgot how bad it was. 2009 completely broke me. Giants & Eagles were easy bc it was completely over well before halftime. I don't remember the Skins in the 80s. 1998 Thanksgiving might be the high water mark of my fandom, it was better than Diggs' *walk-off.
Yes - being at that game, we made the mistake of just thinking it was going to be 60 minutes of a large cat toying with a helpless mouse. Me and a friend had breakfast at a downtown bar/restaurant before the game, and took the fan bus to the game--I can still remember how absolutely certain we all were about the outcome. It still hurts.
@@raphaelcurley The story of the last NFC Championships: in it until we weren't (1998 and 2009) or never in it to begin with (2000 and 2017). The 2017 Divisional Round had the family cheering and shouting afterwards. The exact same people sat in the living room the next week completely silent. Although a funny thing about the 2019 Wild Card, me and my dad were cheering about beating the Saints again and suddenly from the garage, we hear a guitar playing "When the Saints Go Marching In". My brother (who doesn't care about football and didn't even know there was a game then, let alone who was playing) was just practicing. I poke my head in to ask if he could play that a little more sarcastically.
Aww, thanks Jon. I wouldn't have ever had the big nuts to say "who needs a super bowl, we did something more special that year" lol I'll roll with that from now on
I mean, I did nod and agree. But then I immediately said "I'd still rather have the Lombardi". ("Eternal happiness for one dollar? I think I'd be happier with the dollar")
@@timfortune9 yes but 20 dollars can buy many peanuts. If we get this "Lombardi", whatever tf that is, then we'll also still have the year of Randall, Randall, Randle, and Randy, which is harder to replicate :)
I don't know what it is about the 1990s, but it seems to bring out the best and weirdest aspects in every part of history. I believe in the Mariners doc Jon describes the era as a time when a good portion of America collectively went insane, and that's a pretty apt description.
Now I want you guys to create a monstrous mash-up of the 1998 NFC Championship Game that is 99% already edited and recorded from your Atlanta and Vikings Dorktown series, but with a number of sequences side by side and sometimes even one on top of the other... some kind of mutant horror stepchild not created because anybody asked for it... but because we need it.
BTW, that's not the yards record for a 3 catch game. That belongs to Torry Holt, who went for 189 (24, 80T, 85T) against the Falcons in 2000. But he "only" had two TDs.
Jesus guys. I'm a Seahawks fan from Washington and was devastated by the Vikings losing an NFC championship 25 years ago because of this video. I cannot overstate the level of storytelling excellence you achieve.
I miss Pretty Good. I know there are more of those stories out there, and they really need to be told. I hope Jon has the desire to make another season at some point.
Watching the 3rd quarter section of the 1998 NFC championship and hearing Journey to the moon play at the exact time the falcons begins the March to victory in the history of the falcons series….really good dorktown.
I haven't watched anything on it since, I forgot a lot, maybe I should have kept it that way. Oh well next week is the 09 season with 0-41 thrown in for shits and giggles.
The conflict of secretly hoping the Vikes get the win against the Falcons while knowing they didn’t and also knowing if they did I wouldn’t even be watching this masterpiece. That team was something else. Amazing work by you guys as always.
The '98 thanksgiving game is the first NFL game I can remember watching. I was 9, first time at duck camp with my dad and a few other family members. Good memories. Dad was killed a year and four days ago. The grieving mind finds anything it can to hold on to, so it means a lot to see that game make it into this season of dorktown. Thanks for all that y'all do.
I just got stuck on the two words "was killed." It sucks to lose your dad (I know), but it must be so much worse to see him cut down before his time. My sincerest condolences.
@@qfmarsh64 Thank you for the kind words. The murder trial hasn't started yet, but should commence in early 2024. A kid was driving high on cocaine at 120mph and hit my parents at 11am on a thursday. My parents' truck rolled for over 250 feet. Both mom and dad had their seat belts on, but dad's seat belt broke on the first impact with the ground. He and their chocolate lab were both ejected. Mom rode it out but had 14 broken bones including 2 vertebra in her neck and back that required 6 months of a body brace and continued physical therapy to regain her mobility. Anyway, if anyone has read this far please know that in 2021, 1 out of 93 deaths in the US was due to a completely preventable vehicle wreck, source: National Safety Council. Don't speed. It isn't worth putting another family through what mine and hundreds others every day have to deal with. *edit was to add year and source for the vehicle wreck statistics
The 98 NFC championship game ruined hope for me as a Vikings fan. If that team couldn't do it, then it's like, who can? Any time I watch them play I will forever be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It's good to know that you didn't get your hopes up in 2009. That year the Vikings were just good. 4,000-yard passer and Brett favre, and Adrian Peterson on the ground offensively. I expected them to choke, I just didn't expect it to be a interception in overtime on the outskirts of field-goal range.
I started watching NFL in 1998 as a 10 year old…I saw John Elway win the SB…but I remember more about that Vikings team because they were lighting up the NFL…as an adult Denver vs Minnesota would’ve been the greatest SB ever
As thrilling and heartbreaking as it was to relive that 1998 season again, it was fascinating to hear the tale of the '98 NCF Championship game told now from both team's perspectives. In a way, it's fitting that both teams fought this epic match that defined both their seasons, and both teams ended their season with a loss. Thank you, Jon and Alex, for bringing me to tears once again.
Those top 3 points differential teams shown on the chart (98 MIN, 99 STL, 07 NE) account for 1 Super Bowl. 98 Vikings and 07 Pats are arguably the greatest offenses to ever take the field and neither got a ring. Oh and both featured Randy Moss. Poor guy.
Ugh. I'm going to watch this but I am not going to like re-living the worst day of my life. The day of the 98 NFC Championship game. My Grandfather had died 6 days before and that game was on the day of his funeral. So I went to my Grandfather's funeral at 11 am that day and then had to mourn again later that afternoon after my Vikings lost. It was like getting kicked in the balls after getting sucker punched.
As incredible as Moss’ rookie thanksgiving performance was, the channel 9 cricket theme meant I couldn’t see any of it through the memories of a lifetime of summers of cricket.
49:46 - My brain almost exploded when I heard the Channel 9 Cricket theme. This was the 80s and 90s for so many Australians - and you somehow wove it seamlessly into Randy Moss smashing the Cowboys. Jon and Alex are just magic.
There’s one video of John Randle’s footwork and agility that occasionally makes the rounds on social media. Randle’s speed with which he can navigate a drill vs that of a fringe starter is unreal. It’s like watching a college player then a kid in Pop Warner try to do the same thing
the parallels between the 97 Broncos, 98 Vikings and 99 Rams are really strong. The difference being a coach that was willing to be aggressive and trust at the right times I suppose (and probably just bad luck on the Vikings)
In 2008 I was in my second year of the Navy & I was in Guam for work. I stayed at a hotel & I was downstairs in the laundry room, picking up my clothes from the dryer wearing my 1988 Randall Cunningham Eagles throwback. A dude I didn’t know struck a convo with me about Randall and he lets me know he’s a Vikings fan. I saw the life leave this man’s eyes talking about the 98 Vikings. Little did he know the heartbreak he’d feel just a year later.
I could watch Randy Moss highlights every day and never get tired of them. That man reinvented his position and took it to a level that had not been reached before or since.
that last line of the segment was purely, utterly, brilliant.. thank you for putting such words to that defeat. I'm 56 and still will never get over that loss to ATL. your words were really killer. you guys are some very impressive documentarians!
Im 24, and as a kid I was heavily into NFL Network. With that being said my favorite episode of America's Game was the missing ring episode about the 98' Vikings. Watching that episode made me fall in love with that team (I am a diehard Ravens fan) but those 98 Vikings were so cool and when I finsihed that episode and found out HOW they lost it was kind of heartbreaking. And now I have to get heartbroken all over again.
The 90s is when i started watching the vikings. 98 was when i fell in love with this team. Been hooked ever since. Truly great docuseries here, great job guys!
Hearing about Chip Myers' death at 1:21:54 with the music and all that was heartbreaking enough, but the fact that this guy actually played the vast majority of his career for my Cincinnati Bengals in the 70s made it a little more so. One must think what could've been in 1999 had the man who gave Randall Cunningham the inspiration to play again been given the opportunity to call the plays for him. RIP Chip Myers.
As a young Vikings fan who but heard the myths of these legendary games, it is at once heartbreaking and cathartic for the myths to be brought to life. Thank you, Jon and Alex.
Love this series it’s so well put together as expected and the fact we see our two series intertwined is so cool. Also knowing Tom Clancy tried to buy the Vikings years ago is hilarious
I really love that it could’ve been too easy to do an abridged version of the 98 NFCCG for the people that watched the Falcons doc, but that you guys went the extra mile to recapture it all from the Vikings side makes it special.
Funny, how this documentary will intersect with the history of the falcons at the exact same spot: the Superdome in 1999. And the fall of another promising Viking horde.
I can't imagine being a loyal Lions fan. Decades of basically nothing. 1 playoff win. 0-16, bad draft picks, bad QBs, etc. BUT, I still maintain it's tougher being a Vikings fan. I know 99% of Lions fans will disagree, but I stand by that (see paragraph about the Timberwolves below). Being "good" and losing in the most creatively heartbreaking ways (in games that matter) will break your spirit. Having hope, then having it crushed is worse than having little hope and accepting that. example: I'm a Timberwolves fan. They have the worst winning percentage of any Big 4 pro team. They've won two playoff series in 34 years. They're the Lions of the NBA. Their futility is sad, funny, inexcusable, etc. I've never felt 20% of the sadness about their ineptitude as the sadness I've felt over Vikings losses, and I love the Wolves. We just expect the Timberwolves to lose. It's easy to accept. We're not angry. We're annoyed, but we don't know anything else. ps--I never knew Dennis Green thought he had zero timeouts at the end of regulation in the '98 NFCCG. Goddamnit.
Definitely would love a retrospective for the Cincinnati Bengals Getting to know more about Anthony Munoz, Ickey Woods, Boomer Esiason, and the dynamic 1980s Cincinnati teams would be fun
Lads...lads. You're super stars. This series just keeps getting better and better. All of the work you've put in: research, stats, graphs, sound, editing etc....all rolled into a perfect bundle. Top Shelf! I cannot understand how the NFL or one of the major broadcasters/production companies hasn't called yet to enquire about having you produce a whole tonne of sports related content. This stuff is what true sports fans, the punters, want. A deep dive into the heart and soul of a team, their roster, the staff, the stadia, the city and its community. All angles are fascinating IMHO and, in your case, beautifully presented. I'm not the only one who notices. We, your fans/subscribers/patrons, thank you for your service. 😅 Just have to add. Isn't the sight of NFL footballers scrambling after a free/live ball one of the funniest things you've ever seen?! How they manage to fumble simple receptions in these circumstances is ripe for study by psychology departments all over the US college system. What makes these fellas so useless at this simple task at this very moment? Ineptitude appears the norm whilst steady headed movement and sure hands are the exception. But...it's bloody hilarious!!! Akin to seeing these man mountains skipping the length of the field hand in hand in celebration. That always brings a smile to my face. Big kids having fun playing. Cannot argue with their career choices right there.
Literally cried at the end, Carl Eller's words and the absolutely electric description of the 98 Vikings was a great consolation. It still hurts though
Love how throughout the series, we get these mini-documentaries on other teams. This Vikings series provides a pretty good summation of the history of the Cowboys, Rams, Falcons, Titans, and Packers. We even get brief bits on the Browns, Bears, Pats, Giants, Saints, 9ers, Steelers, Bucs, Broncos, and Cardinals. Just excellent sports journalism
Lots of thoughts on this one. From the second it was announced, this is the episode I was waiting for. Having lived through it at age 7, the 1998 team formed a good portion of my early memories. I had no idea the Vikings ownership structure was as chaotic as it was in the early 90s, nor did I know that Mike Lynn had gone as far as to put a group together to buy the team. The sheer idea of a group of 10 people with 10% ownership each is insane. It's a minor miracle we managed to remain as competitive as we did during that time period. A tough but mostly fair assessment of Dennis Green. Yes, Denny was paranoid, understandably so to an extent considering, as Jon touched on, he was just the second black head coach in the history of the modern NFL. I think a part of him took criticism from the Twin Cities media more personally as a result. It didn't help however that he had an acrimonious relationship with them, most notably with Dan Barriero. He accused ownership AND the media of conspiring to fire him in favor of Lou Holtz, Jon mentioned the former but not the latter. Another part of why Denny was as abrasive as the press as he was though was through a desire to protect his players. He'd run through a wall for them. Robert Smith considers him a father figure to this day. When he was ultimately fired in 2001, Orlando Thomas yelled over and over again at the media gathered in the locker room about how they could have pushed for him to be fired when his players still wanted to play for him. "You can't be happy now, can you?" he said. The knee in the NFC title game however? Maybe it just seemed like the thing to do. Randall Cunningham and Randy Moss were supeheroes. If you got to live it as a child, I hope you remember how special it was. If you got to live it as an adult, I hope it brings more happiness than sadness. They did a spectacular job of highlighting what made that team so special. One qualm: when we walked into Lambeau Field that year, the Packers were the kings of the league. They'd appeared in the last two Super Bowls, won one of them, lost another in a colossal upset and there was no reason to believe they wouldn't go there and win again given their future Vikings quarterback was the reigning three time MVP. They hadn't lost at home in 30+ games. A rookie wide receiver walked in there and beat the shit out of them. Wish this had gotten a point of emphasis. There's no reason we shouldn't have won the NFC Championship. We just didn't. The ending was as bittersweet as can be. Despite the result, we really did set the tone for the new millennium of football. The Rams did the same thing we couldn't the next season: win the big one with a lighting fast, devastating offense that played in a dome.
For all of his good/bad as a coach, Dennis Green winning 10+ games and going to the playoffs almost every year with next to no stability at QB is an underrated accomplishment to me.
By far, my favorite era of this team...getting to meet Carter and Dr. Robert Smith while they were in college was quite the treat. What a great team....but, you knew that. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING DOCUMENTARY SERIES IN THE ENTIRE SPORTS WORLD, and I thank you guys for it!
JON AND THE SECRET BASE TEAM IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS VIDEO. IVE GOT MY PS VITA ON THE CHARGER IN ANTICIPATION FOR THE BIG DAY. GONNA BE WATCHING THIS BAD BOY ON MY VITA AFTER A NICE HARD DAY OF LABOUR
That 98 team was special in so many ways. For me personally, I just felt so good for Randall Cunningham getting a second shot and the credit he was due. He always had great talent but was on teams without a good plan for him or good weapons and he got the short end of so many sticks in Philly. I always thought he deserved better than he got. And getting that 1998 season was something he was due.
There’s a neat detail I’ve been noticing. When covering the 70’s the song choice would usually be brass horns and jazz style fanfare, but the further we go along it seem like the more electric guitar and synth gets put in.
It's the little things like, "there's that name again" that get me. I wish Jon the ability to do whatever he pleases in life, but if he ever chooses something that would allow me to hear him speak everyday, I'd probably tune in to that every day.
1:26:30 well said man. Thats what sports is to me now, a beautiful example of possibilities and pushing the envelope. Changing the game. Wins, losses, championships and all that are meaningless when you think about it what matters is a player and a fans enjoyment of the game, and no one can take that away.
43:05 "Randall is Obi-Wan Kenobi. A wise old man many years removed from his ancient adventures, long content to fade into the obscurity of the desert planet of Nevada." lmao
It's fascinating watching this as a Packers fan. I absolutely hate the Vikings, and watching them choke all the time is just as awesome for me as watching my Packs win in '96 and '10... ...But this doc is making me ask myself: "Why do I love watching them lose so much?" And I think I got it... because the Vikings are so compelling. I feel like I'm watching a anti-hero origin story. Where the main character, while incredibly flawed, is likeable and even relatable to the average person. They fail all the time and do despicable and even evil things, but you can't help but continue to watch them to see what they'll do next. If the Falcons are Joker, then the Vikings are Saul Goodman or Walter White. They have incredible success, but never reach their full potential due to a combination of bad luck, infinite hubris and poor decision-making. But no matter how high they rise or how far they fall, you can't help but be enthralled by watching them. I'm probably reading way too much into it, but that's a testament to how good of a writer Jon is. This is a brilliant series.
I like the anti-hero analogy, but bringing up the Packers in a Vikings doc is very apropros for Packers fans. This isn't about you. We don't care who you cheer for. Just comment on what you're watching, or don't 🙄
@@arcadeshift5071 I'm trying to say that this series is making me look at the Vikes in a new light, despite being a fan of an archrival team. I don't know what I did wrong here. Chill bro.
Everyone’s talking about 1998 and Randy Moss, but I want to see how the three-year Warren Moon stint is addressed. Also, there had better be a “seizing the means of production” reference in here for Randall Cunningham.
1:12:24 that pan up/zoom out combined with the musical sting gets me every time. This is the legacy moment of this Dorktown: the Vikings don’t need to win to tell football’s greatest stories.
I screamed in my apartment when I made out the ATLANTA at 1:05:46. I reached for my throw blanket to muffle NOOOOs of horror as I realized I already knew how this story was going to end. Absolutely incredible filmmaking.
Vikings fan here. I have always told anyone who cares to listen that the Vikings have a resume of postseason failure that is unmatched in professional sports history. This brilliant documentary supports what I’ve been saying this whole time.
If you take basically the same timeline (Super Bowl era, 1966-; NHL expansion era, 1967-), the Toronto Maple Leafs are right up there. Like the Vikings, they've never gone below 0.500 in 3 straight seasons. In those 55 seasons, they've made 34 playoff appearances; they've lost in the first round 19 times, and their overall record in playoff series is 20-34. They haven't so much as played in the conference finals since 2002, making only 5 total appearances in the final four and losing all 5 series by a combined 20 games to 7. In terms of aggregate goal differential in each postseason, they're 9-23-2 since 1967 (meaning they've outscored their opponents in a single postseason 9 times, been outscored 23, and scored the same twice). The main, and fairly obvious, difference between the two franchises is that the Leafs have a long history of winning prior to the 1967 league expansion-so much so that the last of their 13 Stanley Cup victories came in the 1967 postseason that immediately preceded said expansion. They've never been back.
John Randle is from a small town near where I live called Hearne and it’s a super rough place even today it’s honestly amazing he was able to become the player he was considering where he started
Bro I'm numb to '98 by now, bring it on! I just finished the video and I'm still laughing my ass off at the ending of that '97 game against the Giants. I mean, I knew Denny punted down 9 on 4th and not very long with only about 4 minutes left, but I never really knew how clownish that clock management was (I lived in a fairly remote area at the time and our TV reception got pretty sketchy at times - including the 2nd half of that game - so I missed it).
Dude you were setting the Gary Anderson miss up so far ahead in advance. I didn’t even know about the miss and I knew where you were going just from talking about his perfect record lol
I was born in MN in 1985 and have been i Vikings fan all my life and i cant describe to you the validation as a fan that ive experienced watching this documentary. Thank you so much.
So I was "around" for the '98 Vikings in the sense that I was alive during that time, but I was an eight-year-old kid who was too busy playing Spyro the Dragon and Pokemon Red to even know about football, but it seems like they were a really fun team to watch. Going back and watching Randy Moss's rookie highlights is especially a treat; probably the best WR to never get a ring. Those '98 Vikings really should've been a Super Bowl team. Vikings/Broncos in SB 33 could've been an all-timer.
I remember this kid in my class who was convinced that Gary Anderson took a bribe to lose the 98 NFC Championship game. It seemed absolutely true when I was 12 or whatever, but in retrospect we never expected the falcons to have a chance. In another universe, the episode of The Simpsons where homer puts the mug in front of his face and says "Atlanta Falcons" he says "Minnesota Vikings" instead, and that's what it means to be a Minnesota sports fan. We definitely would have won that super bowl.
Whenever I think of that epic choke, my first thought is legitimately "WE WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SIMPSONS DAMMIT!" Denver was no pushover - if you recall, the media paid relatively little attention to the Vikings that year because the Broncos started 13-0. Knowing the Vikings, I have to think they would have lost, possibly badly. In some ways, it's almost a blessing that they didn't get a chance to lose their 5th Superbowl.
@@LaslowF1997 The Broncos were very good that year. Like you mentioned, the 13-0 start had many people openly pondering if they could go undefeated, on top of the fact that Terrell Davis ran for 2000 yards. Couple that with a very good defense and the fact that they were the defending champs, and they would have at the very least been the betting favorite over the Vikes. There's some great footage of the Denver sideline right before the AFC Championship being shocked at seeing the result of the NFC title game however. They very obviously were pleased to face Atlanta.
@@baracksays9401 Yeah Atlanta was pretty spent after the NFC Championship game and it showed. "Just happy to be there" described them perfectly in the Superbowl, and the Vikings would not have been just happy to be there. On paper it should have been an all-time classic of unstoppable force vs immovable object, but it would have also been a proven dynasty vs a team with a history of losing big games. idk, Denver was also a choker prior to 1997, so maybe they would have gone back to their choking ways too and we would have had a 2-way chokefest, but I am fairly confident we wouldn't have seen the Vikings team most expected.
@@SimuLord idk, they actually met twice as head coaches of the Vikings/Broncos. In 1996, when the Broncos were a juggernaut and the Vikings were their usual mediocre selves, Green actually outcoached Shanahan, and the Broncos only won thanks to an generous spot on 4th and 1 on the final meaningful drive of the game. The rematch came in 1999, when the Broncos were not good, and Vikings came away with a narrow victory. Small sample size, but it seems to suggest that coaching matchup was at best a push for Shanahan. I just think that somehow, some way, in any big game, on the Vikings simply has to do something stupid that costs them bigtime. It's like, woven into the fabric of the universe.
Love seeing George Teague highlights. His career at Alabama was impressive too. Chased down Lamar Thomas from 10 yards back and just ripped the ball from him. Thomas was a former track star.
Honestly a bit surprised Warren Moon was only mentioned once for off the field issues. Not a complaint really, this episode has the peaks and narration like a great movie would.
Alex Rubenstein's lines are fantastic. "Year 3 of letting his play do all the talking was year 3 of all his play doing all the talking of Charlie Chaplain." Also let's appreciate how the Vikings were founded in 1961, and until 1992, they had only had one head coach that actually seemed like a real person instead of a late night cartoon character. Update: Okay, Dennis might've been more cartoonish than I remembered. These guys have a lot more in common with the Falcons than I thought.
As a german, starting watching NFL in 1998, the CSG was the second Vikings game I ever saw, first one being the week prior. So it didn't hurt at the time. It sure does almost 25 years later, after Moss and Culpepper made sure I became a Vikings fan. To think I could have become a Pats fan like so many of my compatriots....thanks Randy, I guess. lol
You know, when I think about the ‘98 Minnesota Vikings, as great and special as they were, I can’t help but think of them as the Dynasty that Never Was. Just hear me out about this one: Suppose the Vikings reached Super Bowl 33 and defeated the Denver Broncos? You would be looking at a high-powered Vikings squad that would have possibly won at least 2 or 3 more Super Bowl titles after that. With a pass-first offense led by Randy Moss & Cris Carter at wide receiver and a vaunted defense, the Vikings wouldn’t have been denied. And Dennis Green was a good coach. Despite all his flaws - and mind you, there were MANY - Dennis believed his players had what it took to win (“They are who I think they are! A Super Bowl caliber team!”).
This would be the greatest series since sliced bread, except for having to relive all the trauma. From a long suffering Vikings fan (I attended the 98 NFC Championship with my dad) Still love it though, keep up the great work!
Finally, the 90s. The Cowboys and Falcons can't hurt us here
Thanks for making me shoot my drink out of my nose.
😂
Now that’s comedy
Oh no 😅😅😅
For the win
Wow what a silly mistake to throw across your body over the middle in a playoff game. I’m sure the Vikings will make sure that doesn’t happen again
Oof
"But why do you even ponder passing? I mean you can take a knee, and try a 56 yard Field Goal! This is not Detroit man, this is the Super Bowl!"
@@thedude3065This segues into “Ponder passing”
That SB should be given to Minny.
Stupid bountygate Saints
Idunno, I think if they had a legendary quarterback like Brett Favre then they might be able to run that play successfully in a clutch situation like possibly the final minute of regulation in a tie game.
I propose we call the 98 NFC championship game “The Dorktown Bowl”
Done, and there will be no objections.
Co-signed and also someone needs to make the "crossover" episode which combines the two series at this game
Fifthed.
What '98 NFCCG? Never happened.
@@ForelliBoyI really wish I had the time and energy to pull something like this off, but unfortunately I don't. I'll leave it to one of the many great video editors out there
D - Demonstrate Value 23:28
E - Engage Physically 25:30
N - Nurture Dependence 49:30
N - Neglect Emotionally 59:41
I - Inspire Hope 1:10:10
S - Separate Entirely 1:15:17
This is incredible
Why'd I have to scroll so long for this? This should be the highlighted comment
Classic comment 💀 Well done
This is a comment masterpiece. I'm giving the comment sections of the world a month long moment of silence.🍻
I have a really good friend that came up with this system actually
Not even a Vikings fan but that recap of the 1998 NFC title game was so painful despite knowing the outcome in advance
I watched it live as a 10-year old. This episode is my first time watching the Anderson miss since 1998. It still hurts, but I had forgotten so many other plays from that game.
I was 16, still hurts, I forgot about the Griffith near picks.
I was 4 years old. One of my earliest memories of my life is the agony from my family watching this game. Just remember the sadness
@geoffsteichen3126 yeah and I was a fresh newborn out of the oven and i said yo pops put everything ya got on the mf vikings... I grew up in a dumpster after that bet pops took
I’m a Bears fan and still feel pain for them
1:05:29 the fact that we’ve now watched jon & alex do TWO deep dives on the same game, one from each team’s perspective, feels so, so special
i definitely stole a couple lines verbatim from falcons doc hahah, hopefully we dont sue ourselves
@@alexrubenstein3876 Yooooo it's the legend himself!
@@alexrubenstein3876I knew for a fact that you used some of the same lines, but delivered it differently. It's a beautiful and poetic way to tell the story of that game from the two perspectives.
It reminds me of those videos where people show the same play from each teams' broadcasts, and both say something like "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!", but clearly in different tones. Exuberant for one, demoralized for the other.
And reusing some of the music too that creates a sinking feeling about the end of the game. I was hoping for that and it didn't disappoint.
Any chance you have the link and time stamp on the video for those of us struggling to find it >.>
Love the "that's Scorigami!" on the "Revenge of Moss" game in 1998. It's always nice to see a Scorigami.
Chip Myers is a name I remember (before his tragic early passing) from an old Lou Saban video where Saban was miked up for a Broncos game and he kept calling Myers name to get his attention 'Chip! Chip! Chip!'...
The fact they played the EXACT same song from the Falcons documentary leading up to the Gary Anderson missed kick is just so perfect yet so painful at the same time!
Someone is probably already making the "combined" 1998 NFCCG Dorktown video
really making me root for both sides
In the end, the greatest villain is still the Broncos, and most certainly the 49ers and Cowboys for making the NFC into a bully that Elway decided shouldn't pick on him anymore
And incredibly perfect music at that!
Its funny from the falcons documentary as something weird that happened while the vikings documentary shows it as something absolutely horrible
Can’t wait for them to talk about Gary Andersen’s legendary 1998 season and how it definitely ended with him kicking the Vikings to a Super Bowl!
Somewhere in the multiverse this is exactly what happened
@@brettripley6129it happened in every single version of every single universe except the one we live in. :(
The 1998 Vikings were a phenomenal team, and played one of the great statistical regular seasons.
At least statistically, you could say they were as good offensively as the 1969 team from the end of Part 1 is defensively (one never scored less than 24 points in a game, the other never allowed more than 24 points in a game).
All told, the Vikings went 15-1 with their only regular season loss by three points, scored the most points up through 1998, and had an above average to very good defense (though I do have some questions about how they were against the run given that Atlanta is who they lost to).
Minnesota also had nine players named first or second team all pro by the Associated Press, one of four post merger teams to do so (along with Washington in 1991, New England in 2007, and San Fran in 2012).
Before which point, the AFL and NFL teams had separate all pro teams, and thus it was easier for teams to have more such selections (Green Bay in 1962 who had 14 AP all pro selections is the most I’ve found among any team regardless of year).
@@fortynights1513 i'm pretty sure the 98 vikings had 0 4th quarter comebacks the entire season, so when they needed to come up clutch vs the falcons in a tight game, they didn't have that experience of having been there before to help them
@@diggsfatherI guess that’s what can happen when you are rarely trailing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in most of their wins they scored first.
I find it impressive that the 69 team never allowed more than 24 points and that the 98 team also never scored less than 24 points.
So if you hypothetically put the better defense and offense together, you’d get an undefeated regular season.
my dad and John Randle are buddies, and they often smoke cigars together at a local Minnesota spot. My favorite anecdote so far is that after the draft this year, Randle and my dad were smoking when someone comes up and asks him "Hey John, what'd you think of the draft this year?"
Randle smiles, counts down from three, and the whole place bellows out "Three Hundred And Five!"
He was the 305th person to ask John what he'd thought of the draft. He does it every year.
That's an incredible story. Here's hoping it keeps on giving c:
Bro that's so dope
And that dad's name? Pitbull.
Every John Randle story I’ve heard paints him as an awesome human. This thankfully continues that streak.
@@DoctorCyan lmfaooooooo
I don't think it's gonna be brought up in the video, but one of the craziest things of the 1990s for the Vikings, by far, was when they signed a kicker during the 1990 preseason, and never revealed who his name was. Seriously. General manager Mike Lynn said that he was a mystery, no one knew his name, and he was listed on the depth chart as Rich Karlis (as in, the usual kicker who was holding out). Gonna be tough to top that.
How do you always manage to find the most random niche stories that are simultaneously interesting as all hell lmao
"An undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is..."
Ironically enough, it was a Rich Karlis' kick that he *almost* missed that sent the 1986 Broncos to the playoffs after John Elway completed "The Drive" in Cleveland.
In other random kicking connections, after Scott Norwood went wide right in SB XXV, Bills got a kicker named Steve Christy who kicked the GW FG to complete the greatest comeback in postseason history 2 years later.
Also also, Morten Anderson missed a FG in Week 17 in 1996 against the Jaguars, allowing the Jaguars to make the playoffs as a wild card. They then proceeded to beat the Bills in Orchard Park (first time in the 90's Bills lost a home playoff game) AND beat the Broncos in Mile High, which the Oilers failed to do in back-to-back years in 1991 and 1992, despite having big leads in both games.
And then, of course, Jason Elam, the Broncos kicker, was the first to tie Tom Dempsey's record of a made 63-yard FG.
Fun facts for the day.
@@j.a.greene3523 You spelled Morten Andersen's name wrong. But, my favorite Morten Andersen factoid, is that back when everyone was fellating Brett Favre for attempting to get rubbed and tugged in New York, Brett beat his old team, and became the first player to beat all 32 teams...
Except he wasn't. Morten Andersen had already done it. Not only did Morten hang an L on every team in the league, but, if one of the teams that Morten beat tried to move or change their name in order to claim that they'd never been beaten by him, HE WENT AND BEAT THEM ALL AGAIN.
@@imightbebiased9311
My bad.
Everyone is using dark humor and sarcasm as coping mechanisms. And here I sit just excited to see John Randle again.
Six footers for life!
After watching the Falcons series so many times this is going to be like watching a movie in the villains perspective.
Heroes*
The villains are the football gods and the individual choke artists that keep the vikings down, gnomesayin?
@@miamisasquatch one's hero is another's villain
this is an interesting take
I watched that series viewing it like a biography of Hitler. Sure he is the protagonist but also the villain.
1:01:27
what a nice heartwarming story about Chip, out fishing on a random lake which will surely not come up again in this series
Fred Smoot is waiting!!
What? People like lakes.........and boats. Just good clean family fun......on boats....in lakes
it's Minnesota
there WILL be more lakes
I was waiting for a joke about boats
As angry as Alex Rubenstein is even capable of getting angry, i love how angry he gets about the end of the 98 NFC Championship game
I’m not even a Vikings fan and that game makes me mad as well, especially when it’s implied that Gary Anderson’s missed field goal is the main reason why they lost. It’s not. Yes he should have made it but Minnesota still had a decent chance to win. Rest in peace Dennis Green, but it was his ultra conservative, borderline chickenshit coaching at the end of regulation that ultimately cost the Vikings a win. He was trying not to lose rather than trying to win. Also, the field goal attempt wasn’t to take the lead or tie the game, they still had a 7 point lead with not much time remaining. Everyone knew that the Falcons were gonna be passing, thus taking away their best weapon, Jamal Anderson. The Minnesota defense just had to keep CHRIS CHANDLER out of the end zone. It’s not like they were trying to stop Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, just keep Chris f***in Chandler and a slightly above average receiving corp from getting a touchdown, and they couldn’t do it.
I swear, as a 6 year old Bears fan, i cannot believe Cunningham's heyday as a Viking was only 1 season. He seems so much larger and like he kicked the ass of my team as a superhuman star for longer then that. Time really is a lot slower when you are a young kid.
Damn. You've got a long memory for a 6 year old
@@murseglen😆
Cunningham spent a majority of his career on some crappy years as an Eagles quarterback
@@Braylon1997 if only randall had gotten to play on the bears
One thing that isn't widely mentioned is Tom Clancy's book "The Sum of all Fears"
In the book the Vikings are mentioned tearing it up all season as juggernauts. The climax of the book is the Vikings being the overwhelming favorites in the Super Bowl when terrorists detonate a Nuclear Bomb at the Super Bowl killing all attending. Even in fiction, the Vikings will never win a Super Bowl. Also odd that Tom Clancy wrote it and then tried to buy the team.
I know exactly how it ends (painfully), but every time I watch something on the 98 team, I just think "Maybe this time will be different."
My dad literally describes the 1998 NFC championship as "just supposed to be a formality". I was too young to remember, but apparently my mom and cousin say that he and my uncle were just left speechless on the couch after that game.
If you were old enough to witness the '09 NFCCG, you understand about 70% of the anguish that we felt after '98. '98 was worse because they were a better team than in '09. The '98 Vikings were the most dominant Minnesota men's pro team in our state's history (not counting any Minneapolis Lakers teams, can't speak on that).
I avoided 1998 highlights since, I forgot how bad it was. 2009 completely broke me. Giants & Eagles were easy bc it was completely over well before halftime. I don't remember the Skins in the 80s. 1998 Thanksgiving might be the high water mark of my fandom, it was better than Diggs' *walk-off.
Yes - being at that game, we made the mistake of just thinking it was going to be 60 minutes of a large cat toying with a helpless mouse. Me and a friend had breakfast at a downtown bar/restaurant before the game, and took the fan bus to the game--I can still remember how absolutely certain we all were about the outcome. It still hurts.
@@raphaelcurley The story of the last NFC Championships: in it until we weren't (1998 and 2009) or never in it to begin with (2000 and 2017).
The 2017 Divisional Round had the family cheering and shouting afterwards. The exact same people sat in the living room the next week completely silent.
Although a funny thing about the 2019 Wild Card, me and my dad were cheering about beating the Saints again and suddenly from the garage, we hear a guitar playing "When the Saints Go Marching In". My brother (who doesn't care about football and didn't even know there was a game then, let alone who was playing) was just practicing. I poke my head in to ask if he could play that a little more sarcastically.
These days I take conference championships for granted way too much being a Chiefs fan.
"The Atlanta Falcons are known for jokes, cruel jokes. This is all they are ever good for." Couldn't have been more accurate
Aww, thanks Jon. I wouldn't have ever had the big nuts to say "who needs a super bowl, we did something more special that year" lol I'll roll with that from now on
I mean, I did nod and agree.
But then I immediately said "I'd still rather have the Lombardi".
("Eternal happiness for one dollar? I think I'd be happier with the dollar")
@@timfortune9 yes but 20 dollars can buy many peanuts. If we get this "Lombardi", whatever tf that is, then we'll also still have the year of Randall, Randall, Randle, and Randy, which is harder to replicate :)
I don't know what it is about the 1990s, but it seems to bring out the best and weirdest aspects in every part of history. I believe in the Mariners doc Jon describes the era as a time when a good portion of America collectively went insane, and that's a pretty apt description.
That was actually The Bob Emergency Doc :)
@@agoo7581 Yeah, you're right. Jon's put out so much good content that sometimes I forget what came from where
As someone who loved it in real time I can assure that it was wierd.
It was the lead poisoning
@@dfp_01 Mariners went a little insane in the 90s too so I don't blame you for thinking it came from that lol
Now I want you guys to create a monstrous mash-up of the 1998 NFC Championship Game that is 99% already edited and recorded from your Atlanta and Vikings Dorktown series, but with a number of sequences side by side and sometimes even one on top of the other... some kind of mutant horror stepchild not created because anybody asked for it... but because we need it.
I know there's at least one sentence that's said word for word in both, not just the same background music
Can’t believe Jon didn’t include Moss’s legendary final stat line to that 1998 Thanksgiving Day game:
3 REC
163 YDS
3 TD
Absolutely iconic 🔥
I'm surprised they didn't show *that* picture. It was so freaking baller.
BTW, that's not the yards record for a 3 catch game. That belongs to Torry Holt, who went for 189 (24, 80T, 85T) against the Falcons in 2000. But he "only" had two TDs.
and 1 hate crime on a white kid
Straight cash homie
As an Aussie, hearing the Wide World of Sports cricket theme accompanying 1998 Randy Moss was surreal
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this!
yeah lets get a 10 hour cricket episode
@@Raddlesnakes000 mitchell johnson miniseries on dorktown would go hard
Couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I was like ‘does Jon know what cricket is and how iconic this tune is?’
@@MeltingPotOfSplicing thatd be elite! Would no joke love to see a Kepler Wessels Dorktown
Jesus guys. I'm a Seahawks fan from Washington and was devastated by the Vikings losing an NFC championship 25 years ago because of this video. I cannot overstate the level of storytelling excellence you achieve.
As a reminder from the Falcons videos, Jesus of Nazareth was undrafted
I love that throwback to the Larry Walters: Pretty Good episode.
"To put something into the world that had not been there before"
Didn't catch that at first. Thank you.
I miss Pretty Good. I know there are more of those stories out there, and they really need to be told. I hope Jon has the desire to make another season at some point.
or at least one or two more eps @@tohrazul
@@tohrazul I've got some Pretty Good news for you then!
Watching the 3rd quarter section of the 1998 NFC championship and hearing Journey to the moon play at the exact time the falcons begins the March to victory in the history of the falcons series….really good dorktown.
as a vikings fan this episode was inexplicably good (and inexplicably painful)
nah, it was very explicably painful for vikings fans
I'm not a Vikings fan at all, and yet seeing Dennis Green completely mess up that 1998 NFC Championship Game infuriates me.
A true all-time buffoon
He was who we thought he was.
I haven't watched anything on it since, I forgot a lot, maybe I should have kept it that way. Oh well next week is the 09 season with 0-41 thrown in for shits and giggles.
He cost NFL fans one of the greatest super bowls ever
He's ordered to throw the game for the Dan reeves/ Elway storyline in Elway final game
The conflict of secretly hoping the Vikes get the win against the Falcons while knowing they didn’t and also knowing if they did I wouldn’t even be watching this masterpiece. That team was something else. Amazing work by you guys as always.
The ‘Dennis Greene let ‘em off the hook’ bit was hilarious 😂
I could not stop laughing at that
The '98 thanksgiving game is the first NFL game I can remember watching. I was 9, first time at duck camp with my dad and a few other family members. Good memories. Dad was killed a year and four days ago. The grieving mind finds anything it can to hold on to, so it means a lot to see that game make it into this season of dorktown. Thanks for all that y'all do.
I just got stuck on the two words "was killed."
It sucks to lose your dad (I know), but it must be so much worse to see him cut down before his time.
My sincerest condolences.
@@qfmarsh64 Thank you for the kind words. The murder trial hasn't started yet, but should commence in early 2024. A kid was driving high on cocaine at 120mph and hit my parents at 11am on a thursday. My parents' truck rolled for over 250 feet. Both mom and dad had their seat belts on, but dad's seat belt broke on the first impact with the ground. He and their chocolate lab were both ejected. Mom rode it out but had 14 broken bones including 2 vertebra in her neck and back that required 6 months of a body brace and continued physical therapy to regain her mobility. Anyway, if anyone has read this far please know that in 2021, 1 out of 93 deaths in the US was due to a completely preventable vehicle wreck, source: National Safety Council. Don't speed. It isn't worth putting another family through what mine and hundreds others every day have to deal with.
*edit was to add year and source for the vehicle wreck statistics
The 98 NFC championship game ruined hope for me as a Vikings fan. If that team couldn't do it, then it's like, who can? Any time I watch them play I will forever be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The 1969, 1973, 1974, and 1976 teams. But could win that game, but the next one. We forget about it
Just be glad that you didn't have to watch them lose to Denver in the Super Bowl, which is what would have happened if they had won.
It's good to know that you didn't get your hopes up in 2009. That year the Vikings were just good. 4,000-yard passer and Brett favre, and Adrian Peterson on the ground offensively.
I expected them to choke, I just didn't expect it to be a interception in overtime on the outskirts of field-goal range.
@@paysonfox88 or have 6 turnovers (maybe 7) and still barely lose.
@@MJKeenan30a couple plays and Denver wasn’t there either. Don’t act like they were a dynasty
I started watching NFL in 1998 as a 10 year old…I saw John Elway win the SB…but I remember more about that Vikings team because they were lighting up the NFL…as an adult Denver vs Minnesota would’ve been the greatest SB ever
Just like the 2000 Blazers in game 7 in the WCF against the Lakers & they lost. These Blazers could've beaten the Pacers in the finals.
As thrilling and heartbreaking as it was to relive that 1998 season again, it was fascinating to hear the tale of the '98 NCF Championship game told now from both team's perspectives. In a way, it's fitting that both teams fought this epic match that defined both their seasons, and both teams ended their season with a loss.
Thank you, Jon and Alex, for bringing me to tears once again.
If either team won it all, then their entire history is probably not being talked about in a Dorktown doc.
Those top 3 points differential teams shown on the chart (98 MIN, 99 STL, 07 NE) account for 1 Super Bowl. 98 Vikings and 07 Pats are arguably the greatest offenses to ever take the field and neither got a ring. Oh and both featured Randy Moss. Poor guy.
Ugh. I'm going to watch this but I am not going to like re-living the worst day of my life. The day of the 98 NFC Championship game. My Grandfather had died 6 days before and that game was on the day of his funeral. So I went to my Grandfather's funeral at 11 am that day and then had to mourn again later that afternoon after my Vikings lost. It was like getting kicked in the balls after getting sucker punched.
49:48 think all 13 other Australians watching this video jumped out of their seat after hearing this song play lmao
As incredible as Moss’ rookie thanksgiving performance was, the channel 9 cricket theme meant I couldn’t see any of it through the memories of a lifetime of summers of cricket.
49:46 - My brain almost exploded when I heard the Channel 9 Cricket theme. This was the 80s and 90s for so many Australians - and you somehow wove it seamlessly into Randy Moss smashing the Cowboys. Jon and Alex are just magic.
It’s another Brian Bennett KPM piece. Recorded in 1974
There’s one video of John Randle’s footwork and agility that occasionally makes the rounds on social media. Randle’s speed with which he can navigate a drill vs that of a fringe starter is unreal. It’s like watching a college player then a kid in Pop Warner try to do the same thing
the parallels between the 97 Broncos, 98 Vikings and 99 Rams are really strong. The difference being a coach that was willing to be aggressive and trust at the right times I suppose (and probably just bad luck on the Vikings)
In 2008 I was in my second year of the Navy & I was in Guam for work. I stayed at a hotel & I was downstairs in the laundry room, picking up my clothes from the dryer wearing my 1988 Randall Cunningham Eagles throwback. A dude I didn’t know struck a convo with me about Randall and he lets me know he’s a Vikings fan. I saw the life leave this man’s eyes talking about the 98 Vikings. Little did he know the heartbreak he’d feel just a year later.
I could watch Randy Moss highlights every day and never get tired of them. That man reinvented his position and took it to a level that had not been reached before or since.
that last line of the segment was purely, utterly, brilliant.. thank you for putting such words to that defeat. I'm 56 and still will never get over that loss to ATL. your words were really killer. you guys are some very impressive documentarians!
Im 24, and as a kid I was heavily into NFL Network. With that being said my favorite episode of America's Game was the missing ring episode about the 98' Vikings. Watching that episode made me fall in love with that team (I am a diehard Ravens fan) but those 98 Vikings were so cool and when I finsihed that episode and found out HOW they lost it was kind of heartbreaking. And now I have to get heartbroken all over again.
Man the days of Moss and Carter….those were the days. Simply incredible to have witnessed the magic happen.
21:30 Hilarious and simultaneously painful Favre-shadowing there. Good one, Alex.
The 90s is when i started watching the vikings. 98 was when i fell in love with this team. Been hooked ever since. Truly great docuseries here, great job guys!
Hearing about Chip Myers' death at 1:21:54 with the music and all that was heartbreaking enough, but the fact that this guy actually played the vast majority of his career for my Cincinnati Bengals in the 70s made it a little more so. One must think what could've been in 1999 had the man who gave Randall Cunningham the inspiration to play again been given the opportunity to call the plays for him. RIP Chip Myers.
As a young Vikings fan who but heard the myths of these legendary games, it is at once heartbreaking and cathartic for the myths to be brought to life. Thank you, Jon and Alex.
Love this series it’s so well put together as expected and the fact we see our two series intertwined is so cool. Also knowing Tom Clancy tried to buy the Vikings years ago is hilarious
I didnt expect to hear Tom Clancy get mentioned, and I REALLY didnt expect to hear Saddam Hussein mentioned (Twice). This is such a great series lol
I really love that it could’ve been too easy to do an abridged version of the 98 NFCCG for the people that watched the Falcons doc, but that you guys went the extra mile to recapture it all from the Vikings side makes it special.
Funny, how this documentary will intersect with the history of the falcons at the exact same spot: the Superdome in 1999. And the fall of another promising Viking horde.
I can't imagine being a loyal Lions fan. Decades of basically nothing. 1 playoff win. 0-16, bad draft picks, bad QBs, etc.
BUT, I still maintain it's tougher being a Vikings fan. I know 99% of Lions fans will disagree, but I stand by that (see paragraph about the Timberwolves below). Being "good" and losing in the most creatively heartbreaking ways (in games that matter) will break your spirit. Having hope, then having it crushed is worse than having little hope and accepting that.
example: I'm a Timberwolves fan. They have the worst winning percentage of any Big 4 pro team. They've won two playoff series in 34 years. They're the Lions of the NBA. Their futility is sad, funny, inexcusable, etc. I've never felt 20% of the sadness about their ineptitude as the sadness I've felt over Vikings losses, and I love the Wolves. We just expect the Timberwolves to lose. It's easy to accept. We're not angry. We're annoyed, but we don't know anything else.
ps--I never knew Dennis Green thought he had zero timeouts at the end of regulation in the '98 NFCCG. Goddamnit.
I loved the Falcons series, and this series has been phenomenal! Hoping for a Browns retrospective one day.
I think the Bills retrospective would be arguably better. 4 SB losses in a row? C'mon now!
A Jets one, after Super Bowl 3
They did a mini one on the browns. I think it was called the browns live in hell.
Definitely would love a retrospective for the Cincinnati Bengals
Getting to know more about Anthony Munoz, Ickey Woods, Boomer Esiason, and the dynamic 1980s Cincinnati teams would be fun
@@Venom3254 Different sport, but I'll for sure raise you a Blazers retrospective after '77.
This was when I really started being a Vikings fan (born in '91) it's easily the hardest, but most enjoyable episode so far!
Same, born in 91 and 98 is the season I fell in love with the Vikings and with football. Unfortunately I’ve been let down ever since lol
Lads...lads. You're super stars. This series just keeps getting better and better. All of the work you've put in: research, stats, graphs, sound, editing etc....all rolled into a perfect bundle. Top Shelf! I cannot understand how the NFL or one of the major broadcasters/production companies hasn't called yet to enquire about having you produce a whole tonne of sports related content. This stuff is what true sports fans, the punters, want. A deep dive into the heart and soul of a team, their roster, the staff, the stadia, the city and its community. All angles are fascinating IMHO and, in your case, beautifully presented. I'm not the only one who notices. We, your fans/subscribers/patrons, thank you for your service. 😅
Just have to add. Isn't the sight of NFL footballers scrambling after a free/live ball one of the funniest things you've ever seen?! How they manage to fumble simple receptions in these circumstances is ripe for study by psychology departments all over the US college system. What makes these fellas so useless at this simple task at this very moment? Ineptitude appears the norm whilst steady headed movement and sure hands are the exception. But...it's bloody hilarious!!! Akin to seeing these man mountains skipping the length of the field hand in hand in celebration. That always brings a smile to my face. Big kids having fun playing. Cannot argue with their career choices right there.
Literally cried at the end, Carl Eller's words and the absolutely electric description of the 98 Vikings was a great consolation. It still hurts though
Thank you for the kind words towards the end Jon.
Love how throughout the series, we get these mini-documentaries on other teams. This Vikings series provides a pretty good summation of the history of the Cowboys, Rams, Falcons, Titans, and Packers. We even get brief bits on the Browns, Bears, Pats, Giants, Saints, 9ers, Steelers, Bucs, Broncos, and Cardinals. Just excellent sports journalism
Don’t forget the dig on the Jets in part one
1:25:31 The way Jon Bois is saying this makes it seem like 2009 is gonna be that deja vu moment for the Vikings LMAOOO
When he talked about that last second pass across the body that was direct foreshadowing to 2009
That " you let em off the hook" @1:16:20
9:53 "The NCAA being the (string of of expletives that would make Jerry Burns blush)"
Lots of thoughts on this one. From the second it was announced, this is the episode I was waiting for. Having lived through it at age 7, the 1998 team formed a good portion of my early memories.
I had no idea the Vikings ownership structure was as chaotic as it was in the early 90s, nor did I know that Mike Lynn had gone as far as to put a group together to buy the team. The sheer idea of a group of 10 people with 10% ownership each is insane. It's a minor miracle we managed to remain as competitive as we did during that time period.
A tough but mostly fair assessment of Dennis Green. Yes, Denny was paranoid, understandably so to an extent considering, as Jon touched on, he was just the second black head coach in the history of the modern NFL. I think a part of him took criticism from the Twin Cities media more personally as a result. It didn't help however that he had an acrimonious relationship with them, most notably with Dan Barriero. He accused ownership AND the media of conspiring to fire him in favor of Lou Holtz, Jon mentioned the former but not the latter.
Another part of why Denny was as abrasive as the press as he was though was through a desire to protect his players. He'd run through a wall for them. Robert Smith considers him a father figure to this day. When he was ultimately fired in 2001, Orlando Thomas yelled over and over again at the media gathered in the locker room about how they could have pushed for him to be fired when his players still wanted to play for him. "You can't be happy now, can you?" he said.
The knee in the NFC title game however? Maybe it just seemed like the thing to do.
Randall Cunningham and Randy Moss were supeheroes. If you got to live it as a child, I hope you remember how special it was. If you got to live it as an adult, I hope it brings more happiness than sadness. They did a spectacular job of highlighting what made that team so special. One qualm: when we walked into Lambeau Field that year, the Packers were the kings of the league. They'd appeared in the last two Super Bowls, won one of them, lost another in a colossal upset and there was no reason to believe they wouldn't go there and win again given their future Vikings quarterback was the reigning three time MVP. They hadn't lost at home in 30+ games. A rookie wide receiver walked in there and beat the shit out of them. Wish this had gotten a point of emphasis.
There's no reason we shouldn't have won the NFC Championship. We just didn't.
The ending was as bittersweet as can be. Despite the result, we really did set the tone for the new millennium of football. The Rams did the same thing we couldn't the next season: win the big one with a lighting fast, devastating offense that played in a dome.
For all of his good/bad as a coach, Dennis Green winning 10+ games and going to the playoffs almost every year with next to no stability at QB is an underrated accomplishment to me.
By far, my favorite era of this team...getting to meet Carter and Dr. Robert Smith while they were in college was quite the treat. What a great team....but, you knew that. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING DOCUMENTARY SERIES IN THE ENTIRE SPORTS WORLD, and I thank you guys for it!
JON AND THE SECRET BASE TEAM IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS VIDEO. IVE GOT MY PS VITA ON THE CHARGER IN ANTICIPATION FOR THE BIG DAY. GONNA BE WATCHING THIS BAD BOY ON MY VITA AFTER A NICE HARD DAY OF LABOUR
Awww. The ending made me cry. I’m
glad Jon was as happy about the 1998 Vikings being so fun as I was.
That 98 team was special in so many ways. For me personally, I just felt so good for Randall Cunningham getting a second shot and the credit he was due. He always had great talent but was on teams without a good plan for him or good weapons and he got the short end of so many sticks in Philly. I always thought he deserved better than he got. And getting that 1998 season was something he was due.
There’s a neat detail I’ve been noticing. When covering the 70’s the song choice would usually be brass horns and jazz style fanfare, but the further we go along it seem like the more electric guitar and synth gets put in.
It's the little things like, "there's that name again" that get me. I wish Jon the ability to do whatever he pleases in life, but if he ever chooses something that would allow me to hear him speak everyday, I'd probably tune in to that every day.
Kirk going to the Falcons is really full cycle
Dangit secret base we need some more episodes
1:26:30 well said man. Thats what sports is to me now, a beautiful example of possibilities and pushing the envelope. Changing the game. Wins, losses, championships and all that are meaningless when you think about it what matters is a player and a fans enjoyment of the game, and no one can take that away.
49:49 was not expecting to hear the Wide World of Sports theme. Would play before cricket matches here in Australia.
43:05 "Randall is Obi-Wan Kenobi. A wise old man many years removed from his ancient adventures, long content to fade into the obscurity of the desert planet of Nevada."
lmao
It's fascinating watching this as a Packers fan. I absolutely hate the Vikings, and watching them choke all the time is just as awesome for me as watching my Packs win in '96 and '10...
...But this doc is making me ask myself: "Why do I love watching them lose so much?" And I think I got it... because the Vikings are so compelling. I feel like I'm watching a anti-hero origin story. Where the main character, while incredibly flawed, is likeable and even relatable to the average person. They fail all the time and do despicable and even evil things, but you can't help but continue to watch them to see what they'll do next.
If the Falcons are Joker, then the Vikings are Saul Goodman or Walter White. They have incredible success, but never reach their full potential due to a combination of bad luck, infinite hubris and poor decision-making. But no matter how high they rise or how far they fall, you can't help but be enthralled by watching them.
I'm probably reading way too much into it, but that's a testament to how good of a writer Jon is. This is a brilliant series.
I like the anti-hero analogy, but bringing up the Packers in a Vikings doc is very apropros for Packers fans. This isn't about you. We don't care who you cheer for. Just comment on what you're watching, or don't 🙄
@@arcadeshift5071 I'm trying to say that this series is making me look at the Vikes in a new light, despite being a fan of an archrival team. I don't know what I did wrong here. Chill bro.
Only other Rookie to have 3 TDs in a game i believe was Antonio Gibson and he also did it on Thanksgiving vs the cowboys.😂
Everyone’s talking about 1998 and Randy Moss, but I want to see how the three-year Warren Moon stint is addressed. Also, there had better be a “seizing the means of production” reference in here for Randall Cunningham.
The Atlanta Falcon only knows how to do one thing, make cruel cruel jokes
1:12:24 that pan up/zoom out combined with the musical sting gets me every time. This is the legacy moment of this Dorktown: the Vikings don’t need to win to tell football’s greatest stories.
I screamed in my apartment when I made out the ATLANTA at 1:05:46. I reached for my throw blanket to muffle NOOOOs of horror as I realized I already knew how this story was going to end. Absolutely incredible filmmaking.
I just wanted to say I super appreciate the captioning on all of your videos, but I especially love the captioning choice at 13:32
Yeah that’s cool!
Vikings fan here. I have always told anyone who cares to listen that the Vikings have a resume of postseason failure that is unmatched in professional sports history. This brilliant documentary supports what I’ve been saying this whole time.
If you take basically the same timeline (Super Bowl era, 1966-; NHL expansion era, 1967-), the Toronto Maple Leafs are right up there. Like the Vikings, they've never gone below 0.500 in 3 straight seasons. In those 55 seasons, they've made 34 playoff appearances; they've lost in the first round 19 times, and their overall record in playoff series is 20-34. They haven't so much as played in the conference finals since 2002, making only 5 total appearances in the final four and losing all 5 series by a combined 20 games to 7. In terms of aggregate goal differential in each postseason, they're 9-23-2 since 1967 (meaning they've outscored their opponents in a single postseason 9 times, been outscored 23, and scored the same twice).
The main, and fairly obvious, difference between the two franchises is that the Leafs have a long history of winning prior to the 1967 league expansion-so much so that the last of their 13 Stanley Cup victories came in the 1967 postseason that immediately preceded said expansion. They've never been back.
John Randle is from a small town near where I live called Hearne and it’s a super rough place even today it’s honestly amazing he was able to become the player he was considering where he started
As a 41 year old Minnesotan I honestly both cannot wait and cannot watch the second half of this. I know I have to, but it is gonna be tough
Bro I'm numb to '98 by now, bring it on! I just finished the video and I'm still laughing my ass off at the ending of that '97 game against the Giants. I mean, I knew Denny punted down 9 on 4th and not very long with only about 4 minutes left, but I never really knew how clownish that clock management was (I lived in a fairly remote area at the time and our TV reception got pretty sketchy at times - including the 2nd half of that game - so I missed it).
Dude you were setting the Gary Anderson miss up so far ahead in advance. I didn’t even know about the miss and I knew where you were going just from talking about his perfect record lol
I was born in MN in 1985 and have been i Vikings fan all my life and i cant describe to you the validation as a fan that ive experienced watching this documentary. Thank you so much.
As a How I Met Your Mother fan, the 98 game was etched into my brain already.
So I was "around" for the '98 Vikings in the sense that I was alive during that time, but I was an eight-year-old kid who was too busy playing Spyro the Dragon and Pokemon Red to even know about football, but it seems like they were a really fun team to watch. Going back and watching Randy Moss's rookie highlights is especially a treat; probably the best WR to never get a ring.
Those '98 Vikings really should've been a Super Bowl team. Vikings/Broncos in SB 33 could've been an all-timer.
“He let them off the hook.” is MASTERFUL trolling.
I remember this kid in my class who was convinced that Gary Anderson took a bribe to lose the 98 NFC Championship game. It seemed absolutely true when I was 12 or whatever, but in retrospect we never expected the falcons to have a chance. In another universe, the episode of The Simpsons where homer puts the mug in front of his face and says "Atlanta Falcons" he says "Minnesota Vikings" instead, and that's what it means to be a Minnesota sports fan.
We definitely would have won that super bowl.
Whenever I think of that epic choke, my first thought is legitimately "WE WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SIMPSONS DAMMIT!" Denver was no pushover - if you recall, the media paid relatively little attention to the Vikings that year because the Broncos started 13-0. Knowing the Vikings, I have to think they would have lost, possibly badly. In some ways, it's almost a blessing that they didn't get a chance to lose their 5th Superbowl.
@@LaslowF1997 The Broncos were very good that year. Like you mentioned, the 13-0 start had many people openly pondering if they could go undefeated, on top of the fact that Terrell Davis ran for 2000 yards. Couple that with a very good defense and the fact that they were the defending champs, and they would have at the very least been the betting favorite over the Vikes. There's some great footage of the Denver sideline right before the AFC Championship being shocked at seeing the result of the NFC title game however. They very obviously were pleased to face Atlanta.
@@baracksays9401 Yeah Atlanta was pretty spent after the NFC Championship game and it showed. "Just happy to be there" described them perfectly in the Superbowl, and the Vikings would not have been just happy to be there. On paper it should have been an all-time classic of unstoppable force vs immovable object, but it would have also been a proven dynasty vs a team with a history of losing big games. idk, Denver was also a choker prior to 1997, so maybe they would have gone back to their choking ways too and we would have had a 2-way chokefest, but I am fairly confident we wouldn't have seen the Vikings team most expected.
@@SimuLord idk, they actually met twice as head coaches of the Vikings/Broncos. In 1996, when the Broncos were a juggernaut and the Vikings were their usual mediocre selves, Green actually outcoached Shanahan, and the Broncos only won thanks to an generous spot on 4th and 1 on the final meaningful drive of the game. The rematch came in 1999, when the Broncos were not good, and Vikings came away with a narrow victory. Small sample size, but it seems to suggest that coaching matchup was at best a push for Shanahan. I just think that somehow, some way, in any big game, on the Vikings simply has to do something stupid that costs them bigtime. It's like, woven into the fabric of the universe.
What do you mean "seemed true when i was 12"?
1998............Oh great, I don't think even 56 lbs of beer will save me from this......
This was the best and worst (early) birthday gift I have ever received.
Love seeing George Teague highlights. His career at Alabama was impressive too. Chased down Lamar Thomas from 10 yards back and just ripped the ball from him. Thomas was a former track star.
25:41 "I feel angry. Like Warren Moon must have felt back in 1995" - Grizz, 30 rock
You know it’s gonna be crazy when the first 7 years of the decade are over within the first 1/4 of the video
Honestly a bit surprised Warren Moon was only mentioned once for off the field issues. Not a complaint really, this episode has the peaks and narration like a great movie would.
Alex Rubenstein's lines are fantastic. "Year 3 of letting his play do all the talking was year 3 of all his play doing all the talking of Charlie Chaplain."
Also let's appreciate how the Vikings were founded in 1961, and until 1992, they had only had one head coach that actually seemed like a real person instead of a late night cartoon character.
Update: Okay, Dennis might've been more cartoonish than I remembered. These guys have a lot more in common with the Falcons than I thought.
As a german, starting watching NFL in 1998, the CSG was the second Vikings game I ever saw, first one being the week prior. So it didn't hurt at the time.
It sure does almost 25 years later, after Moss and Culpepper made sure I became a Vikings fan.
To think I could have become a Pats fan like so many of my compatriots....thanks Randy, I guess. lol
You know, when I think about the ‘98 Minnesota Vikings, as great and special as they were, I can’t help but think of them as the Dynasty that Never Was. Just hear me out about this one:
Suppose the Vikings reached Super Bowl 33 and defeated the Denver Broncos? You would be looking at a high-powered Vikings squad that would have possibly won at least 2 or 3 more Super Bowl titles after that. With a pass-first offense led by Randy Moss & Cris Carter at wide receiver and a vaunted defense, the Vikings wouldn’t have been denied. And Dennis Green was a good coach. Despite all his flaws - and mind you, there were MANY - Dennis believed his players had what it took to win (“They are who I think they are! A Super Bowl caliber team!”).
This would be the greatest series since sliced bread, except for having to relive all the trauma. From a long suffering Vikings fan (I attended the 98 NFC Championship with my dad)
Still love it though, keep up the great work!