In "History of the Minnesota Vikings," Jon Bois, Secret Base tackle team's glorious, groanworthy saga
MINNEAPOLIS -- Documentarian Jon Bois, whose latest project chronicles the history of the Minnesota Vikings, guarantees the oft-beleaguered team will win a Super Bowl someday. But to Bois, a Lombardi trophy is not really all that important to the team's story.
"I guarantee they will, they absolutely will. Law of averages. On a long enough timeline, they absolutely will. And it could happen sooner than we think," he said. "But then there's the nice sort of like further caveat of that, which is that if you get to call yourself the Minnesota Vikings, if you get to point to all these amazing people and stories in your history, then like, how special is the Super Bowl, really? You've already won. I know this is not like what a Vikings fan necessarily wants to hear, but from my perspective, you've won already."
"The History of the Minnesota Vikings" is the third in a series Bois created with his partner Alex Rubenstein for Secret Base, an offshoot of sports website SBNation. The first two covered the Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Falcons. It was during that Falcons documentary the idea for the Vikings series first came about.
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"Two years ago, Alex and I were working on 'The History of the Atlanta Falcons,' and we stopped at, of course, the 1998 NFC championship game, and that was when we told each other, like, 'We have to do the Vikings series some time.' And we knew we would," Bois said. "Finally last November, about eight months ago, was when we finally greenlit it, like OK, this is the time to do it. We want to spend eight months putting every detail we can into this, making it as great as we can and having it ready for kickoff. It's been eight months of some pretty hard work."
The common thread tying together the Falcons, Mariners and Vikings is a lack of championships, of course. But what these teams lack in ultimate success they make up for in highlights, lowlights, hijinks, heroes and losers.
"What attracts us to a particular franchise is not how many wins they've racked up, how many championships they've won, it's how many stories they have to tell and how many fascinating personalities they have to offer," Bois said. "Any team can win a Super Bowl, but only one team gets to call themselves the Minnesota Vikings. And I hope that means a lot coming from an outsider, somebody who, I am not a Vikings fan, I'm a Chiefs fan, but I see so much beauty in the Vikings story that I can't look away from it."
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There is plenty of material to mine from the Vikings' six decades of history, and much of it is heartbreaking, but Bois' pick for the most crushing – and, simultaneously, funniest – loss might surprise some viewers: the last-second loss to the Arizona Cardinals in week 17 of 2003 that kept the Vikings out of the playoffs.
"It was Randy Moss' last full year in a Vikings uniform. He was at his peak, Daunte Culpepper was amazing that year and they started 6-0, and then they found themselves in a situation where they had to win in week 17 to make the playoffs," Bois said. "All lined up for them was the Arizona Cardinals of 2003, which were statistically one of the very worst teams of the 21st century. I mean, this should be the free space on the bingo card. Instead, the Vikings get shut out at halftime. They do take a two-score lead, but then they give up an onside kick in the final moments. And, despite everything, despite all logic, Josh McCown throws that 30-something yard touchdown to [Nate] Poole. There's the classic Paul Allen reaction, which is one of my favorite calls of all time in any sport. That is the one that we have allowed ourselves to really laugh at because like, what else can you do?"
As for favorite Vikings, Bois picked two quarterbacks – Teddy Bridgewater, an obvious pick for a Louisville native like Bois, and the other an underrated choice.
"I gotta say Joe Kapp, because not only was he maybe the toughest quarterback of all time, and not only was he a guy who like overcame – frankly, he could not throw well. His mechanics were terrible, but he still inspired his team, he was a leader, they looked up to him and he put it all on the line for them no matter what it cost for him," Bois said. "And not only that, he was very, very ahead of his time when it came to labor and, you know, union stuff, NFL players' rights, who walked away from a huge contract out of principle because he disagreed with the Rozelle rule. So, like, rest in peace to him. He obviously passed away just earlier this year. But I find him an extremely fascinating, inspiring, great guy."
Much like their oft-disappointed fandom, Bois believes the Vikings are defined by their stoutheartedness, forged by decades of occasional dominance punctuated by what-could-have-beens.
"I love the idea of the original Vikings, the Purple Gang, Fran Tarkenton, Joe Kapp, the Bud Grant Vikings. Nearly made it to the top of the mountain. They got as close as you could to the top without actually getting there, which is amazing," Bois said. "And the rest of the Vikings story has been about them doing all they can and pulling out all the stops to try to make good on the promise that Bud Grant established. And they get close so many times and you can kinda see that in their win-loss record. Across the Super Bowl era, they are the only team never to have three consecutive losing seasons. Even the Steelers, Cowboys, all those teams have had down eras. The Vikings never have and they keep pushing, for better and honestly sometimes for worse. But their spirit is just unbreakable."
"The History of the Minnesota Vikings" premieres on the Secret Base YouTube channel Aug. 1. All seven episodes will be posted before the Vikings' season starts Sept. 10.
