NFL Films: Missing Rings- 1969 Minnesota Vikings

Source:NFL Films- the 1969 Minnesota Vikings yearbook photo.

"I know that this video has already been posted on YouTube, but for those of you that have never seen it, here's a great documentary by NFL Films on the 1969 Minnesota Vikings season. I was only seven at the time, and professional football wasn't quite yet on my radar, but for hardcore Vikings fans, the finale of this season must have been a pretty hard pill to swallow. Anyway, I hope YouTube/NFL Films allows me to keep this video posted, so until then...

From Randy Fast 

NFL Network has a series called America's Game which originally was about the top 20 Super Bowl Champions of all-time and then became about the latest Super Bowl champion. And then they created a spinoff about the greatest teams to never win the Super Bowl or should've won the Super Bowl. Well, the 1969 Minnesota Vikings was part of their Missing Rings series, meaning they should've won the Super Bowl in 69 and beaten the Kansas City Chiefs at Tulane Stadium in January, 1970. 

My point about Bud Grant's Vikings is that he had very good, if not excellent teams. They always had one of the best defenses in the NFL and generally had very good offenses as well. But I think to be part of a Missing Ring series when it comes to the NFL Super Bowl, you had to have a team that should've won the Super Bowl that year. 

To be part of a Missing Rings series, you have to of had the best team in the NFL all year and you even lost the Super Bowl, or you didn't even get to the Super Bowl. Like the 1998 Vikings that probably had the best team in the NFL that year and I think were probably better than the Denver Broncos that year, but the Vikings got upset in the NFC Championship to the Atlanta Falcons who hadn't even been in the playoffs for 3 years, before beating the Vikings in the NFC Championship. 

But, the Vikings lost 4 Super Bowls from 1969-76 and lost to 4 better teams. You could argue that they could've beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 9, but their offense was overwhelmed by the Steelers defense and the Steelers moved the ball well enough and just scored enough points to beat the Vikings 16-6. And the Vikings were overwhelmed by the Chiefs in Super Bowl 4 and were never in the game. They were overwhelmed by the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl 8 and were never in that game. The Oakland Raiders took the Vikings apart in Super Bowl 11 and beat them 33-14. 

I don't know how a team makes a Missing Rings series when they lost 4 Super Bowls in 8 years and had the 2nd best team in each of those games. The Vikings were very good in the 1970s and had one of the best defenses in the NFL during that decade and had good offensive teams as well, but they never had the best team in the NFL at any point during that decade. To me the 1970s Vikings are a better version of the 1980s Denver Broncos that lost 3 Super Bowls in 4 years and never came close to winning any of those games.