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BREAKING NEWS: Vikings to Move |
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EDEN PRAIRIE, MN (News Services) – Purple Pride is history, at least in Minnesota. Ending years of speculation, the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings are relocating, according to team and league sources. The move will take place in time to establish a new location before the start of training camp this summer. Team owner Red McCombs, long dissatisfied with poor facilities and lukewarm fan support in Minneapolis, privately sought and received approval from league officials during the current off-season. McCombs, who has been attempting to sell the team for a number of years, chose to relocate when no buyer came forward, according to sources. The team’s new location remains in question. Los Angeles, currently without a pro football franchise, appeared the most logical destination. McCombs reportedly is leaning toward a location where fan support would be strong and land values low, including Mexico City. The NFL has marketed American pro football outside of the United States in anticipation of an eventual team relocation or league expansion. The time may have arrived with the Vikings’ move. McCombs began informing key players yesterday. “Sure, some players would prefer L.A.,” said a source close to the situation. “I think it was Randy (wide receiver Randy Moss) who said something about L.A., but the team is really embracing the idea and getting excited about beautiful Mexico City. For Red, it’s a shorter commute.” McCombs is a resident of San Antonio, Texas. The automobile mogul began his career in 1957 as the nation’s youngest owner of an Edsel dealership. The team is co-owned by his wife, Charline Hamblin McCombs, described by the Vikings website as a “lady of passions.” Founded 1960, the Vikings were named to honor the hearty Nordic traditions of the upper Midwest. The purple uniformed team, however, has underachieved throughout its history, and fan support became so tepid that crowd noise had to be amplified inside the home stadium. The 2003 season typified decades of futility. The Vikings began the season with six consecutive wins. Following their first defeat McCombs appeared in the locker room and berated his team as an “embarrassment.” The Vikings responded by losing five of their next nine games. Their worst loss came in the final game of the season and resulted in the team’s elimination from the playoffs. Leading 17-6 with two minutes remaining against the Arizona Cardinals, the Vikings gave up two touchdowns and lost on the game’s final play. Their elimination guaranteed a playoff birth to the archrival Green Bay Packers. That loss was the latest in a string of at least thirteen crushing letdowns dating back to the Vikings’ defeat in Super Bowl IV, the first of four losing appearances in pro football’s ultimate game. Recent defeats have included the 1999 championship and a lopsided 41-0 shutout in the 2001 championship. The loss to the Cardinals on the final play of the 2003 season reportedly convinced McCombs that it was time to wipe the slate clean. “Like anyone is going to weep when they take down those silly-ass division winner banners,” McCombs reportedly told his staff. “The Packers have 12 championships. If there were banners for chokers, we would be Titletown.” The Vikings will close their Eden Prairie headquarters immediately. “No team can fold its tent better than the Vikings,” McCombs was overheard telling officials from a moving company. “We’re like Girl Scouts at a jamboree.” Sources say McCombs will change the team name to “Conquistadors.” Residents of Mexico City were dismayed to learn that their new team honors Spanish explorers who enslaved and killed untold numbers of indigenous people. “Perdedores púrpuras salen,” said one local resident, summing up the feelings of football fans from one end of North America to the other: “Purple losers go away.” |
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