Stories about sports anniversaries tend to get overdone at times, but we promise not to waste your time in this space because there is an honest-to-goodness reason to celebrate what happened 25 years ago Wednesday.
Rand: Celebrating Jerry Burns' 25th rantiversary
November 5, 2014 at 5:49AM
On Nov. 5, 1989, the Vikings played one of the strangest games in franchise history, defeating the Rams 23-21 in overtime. They achieved their 21 regulation points on seven Rich Karlis field goals, then won on a safety in OT when Mike Merriweather blocked a punt out of the end zone.
The weirdness of that game might be enough cause to reminisce about an anniversary, but there is more. Oh, so much more. In the postgame interview following that victory, then-Vikings coach Jerry Burns unleashed one of the greatest — albeit extremely profane and available on YouTube — rants of all-time.
He was upset about a lot of things, most notably the fact that many Vikings fans (it was a home game) booed offensive coordinator Bob Schnelker. Five of the seven field goals were from less than 30 yards, and none were longer than 40. We had the good fortune of speaking with Burnsie earlier this week to give him a chance to reflect on the game. Two things stood out to him:
"One of the times we kicked a field goal, earlier (near the goal line) we went to the line of scrimmage and Alfred Anderson was kneeling down trying to tie his shoe," Burns recalled. "We snapped the ball and the quarterback turned around, and that shot one of our downs."
In his postgame rant Burns remembered the play a little more colorfully, but that was the general gist. Also:
"Bob Schnelker was leaving the field, and everybody was jubilant about finally winning the game. And somebody poured a lot of beer on his head," Burns said. "I remember I went to the locker room, and somebody said, 'You'd better go back and see Schnelker because he's madder than hell.'"
Was that the reason Burns was so salty postgame — saying early on that, "As long as I'm in this ... job, Schnelker will be the offensive coach," then building to a boil from there?
"I do remember defending him in there at the press deal," Burns said. "You win the game and you're happy and then that happens and people are booing him."
Fans were upset then, but after seven field goals, an overtime safety and one of the greatest all-time coaching rants? Nobody should be mad about any of that anymore.
Michael Rand
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
