On a moment-by-moment basis, the NFL can be unsightly, as television timeouts provide the only respite from penalties and replay reviews, but the league remains the undisputed king of making you feel.
Sunday afternoon, the Vikings and Rams played an often unwatchable football game that was nevertheless relentlessly compelling.
The Vikings had to survive the same kinds of cheap shots from the same defensive coach, Gregg Williams, that inflated Brett Favre's ankle to the size of a cantaloupe in the 2009 NFC title game in New Orleans. Two of Williams' defenders took runs at Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, the second knocking him out of the game with a shoulder to the head as he slid on the turf, and Mike Zimmer didn't hide his anger during a millisecond postgame coaches' handshake with Jeff Fisher, or during his postgame comments.
The Vikings won on an overtime field goal 21-18, bringing the team surging off the bench to envelop kicker Blair Walsh, and moments later the TCF Bank Stadium scoreboard was showing the Green Bay Packers losing at Carolina, as thousands stayed to continue cheering.
It is early November. The leaves have turned or fallen, the air has grown baby teeth, and the Vikings are tied for first place in the NFC North with the rich cousins from the East. This is the best Vikings have had it in six years.
"I really like our football team,'' Zimmer said.
In a little more than three hours, fans and players could feel anger, righteous anger, redemption, angst, joy, sadness (for severely injured players), and hope.
"The mood was it was us against the world at that point,'' Walsh said of the sideline atmosphere after the Bridgewater hit. "We weren't getting any help from anybody at that point. We kind of wanted to stick it to them. We thought it was a dirty play. That's kind of the MO on that team — a little dirty."
