Vikings fans celebrate an annual holiday: Packers' playoff elimination

The tortured existence of a Vikings fan is marked by both the specific and the cumulative.

Missed kicks. Missed opportunities. The 0-4 Super Bowl record. The fact that it's been 45 years — with six NFC title game losses in between — since the Vikings even went to a Super Bowl.

Those wounds won't heal permanently until the day when (if) the Vikings finally break through and win the big game.

But they do get a temporary salve almost every year around this time.

Short of winning the Super Bowl, the next best thing for many Vikings fans is knowing the rival Packers also won't win the Super Bowl — as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.

That knowledge has arrived in doses of varying bitterness for the Packers in the past decade, translating into savage sweetness for Vikings fans.

And Saturday, Vikings fans celebrated with a great intensity after the Packers loss to the inferior 49ers 13-10 at Lambeau Field.

In terms of pure gut punches for the Packers, there have been worse. Last year's loss to Tampa Bay, similarly at Lambeau but in the NFC title game, qualifies as such.

But this one had some unique qualities that had a piling on effect. (Full disclosure: I might have indulged a bit on Twitter).

You had the Aaron Rodgers anti-vaccine narrative, enhanced by his garbled pseudo-intellectualism.

You had the narrative that this could be Rodgers' final year year in Green Bay.

And you had a game the Packers would have won easily if not for glaring special teams problems and Rodgers' inability to do much beyond the first drive.

Game on the line and Atlas ... punted?

The Packers lost while an opposing QB made throws a high school sophomore wouldn't even attempt. Losing in large part because of a blocked field goal and a blocked punt is audacious for a regular season game, but it is outrageous in the playoffs.

Packers fans were left to vent. Or say good riddance to Rodgers if they don't like him personally or don't like his 7-9 record in his last 16 playoff games (including 0-4 against both San Francisco and in NFC title games).

And Vikings fans, even if they know it's petty, are still hung over Monday after celebrating the near annual holiday of a crushing Packers playoff defeat.