Football gods have turned on the Vikings — and went too far with Justin Jefferson injury

One of the mysteries of today's America is that parents and guardians, aunts and uncles, friends and counselors, are more likely to encourage athletic young men to play European futbol rather than American football, yet those same people will spend hours per week fulminating over the fate of their favorite NFL teams.

Or as importantly, the fate of their fantasy team, or their DraftKings and FanDuel investments.

Pete Rozelle made "parity" a sacred term for the NFL when he became commissioner in 1960, and decades later, the belief here is the modern form of that has much to do with pro football's astounding success.

Yes, there are a handful of excellent teams and an equal number of lousy teams every season, but in the NFL's Great Middle comes game after game that remains undecided at the two-minute warning.

The full stands at U.S. Bank Stadium will include supporters adorned like the Black Knight guarding the bridge in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and perhaps dedicated enough to sacrifice a digit if not a limb to see the Vikings pull this one out with a successful last-minute drive.

Talent-wise, the Vikings were a team in that Great Middle during the 2022 season, and through amazing fortune that would have challenged the legacy of Horseshoe Harry Grant (aka Bud), they wound up the regular season at 13-4.

The true talent of coach Kevin O'Connell's first team was revealed in a home playoff opener on Jan. 15. That was the day when those Vikings turned their backs on good fortune.

The Giants were leading 31-24 and needed a first down to run out the clock. On third-and-15 at New York's 41, Daniel Jones hit an open Darius Slayton and he was certain to get the game-deciding first down.

Slayton dropped the pass.

It seemed clear what would come next: Kirk Cousins would complete a few passes, the Vikings would tie the game in the final seconds and then win in overtime.

Didn't happen. The Giants stopped them. The Skol crowd headed glumly for the exits.

Soon thereafter, I was waiting for the press box elevator, as was Coach Grant.

"I thought the football gods were smiling on them again, Bud, when Slayton dropped that pass," I said.

Bud nodded and said: "A couple of us said the same thing … that the drop was the break they needed."

The next week, the Giants went to Philadelphia and lost 38-7. In their next official game, opening the 2023 season, the Giants lost 40-0 to Dallas.

So the team O'Connell's favored team lost to on its home turf lost its next two games by 78-7 … yowza.

We have a minimum of a half-dozen Vikings mavens dialed in on Minnesota's most popular sports team here at the Star Tribune.

That allows me to keep a distance and pontificate, along with the masses. And when allowed to offer an opinion as this new season approached, it was always this:

"The Vikings were 11-0 in one-score games in the regular season — and several in improbable fashion. I'm a firm believer in football gods for the NFL, and this O'Connell team owes them three or four gut-busting losses at a minimum."

Fate rarely messes with the excellent teams, and it can't help the lousy teams, but those 20-plus teams in the Great Middle — such as the Vikings, then and now — are regularly left waiting for mystical intervention after the two-minute warning.

Tony Romo, former quarterback turned well-paid and verbose game analyst, was telling us last Sunday that, "watching tape," he liked this Vikings team better than the 13-win bunch in 2022.

Yes, verbosity is Romo's thing, but he repeated the theory several times to sound (almost) sincere. Romo's opinion also had to change with Justin Jefferson's hamstring injury, which wound up putting the receiver on the injured list.

Bottom line: It wasn't just rambling to put the football gods into the preseason discussion on the Vikings. I did see them as an OK team, nothing more, in 2022, and that luck could not be repeated.

They are headed to Chicago this weekend at 1-4. The Philadelphia loss was more than the 34-28 score, and a straight-up defeat. The other three losses, including to the unimpressive Chiefs, were there for the taking, which could soon lead to tanking.

And the football gods have gotten a bit greedy by including a Jefferson injury in the payback for all their grace in 2022.