I don’t want to date myself. Despite the cash I’d save on Valentines Day, being my own significant other wouldn’t be a good look. (That was a play on the two different meanings of the word “date”, in case you missed it.)

As for how old I am, with the Minnesota Vikings being founded in 1960, the organization is more than twice my elder. With the first several years of my life being almost as much of a blur as college, my memories of the Purple prior to the 1998 season are few and far between. If the topic of conversation relates to events that occurred before number 84 hit the NFL scene, I’m as uneducated as certain Philadelphia Eagles’ fans.

Well, maybe not that uneducated, but still. If I had to breakdown the Top 10 Vikings of all time, it would be a disservice to those I either never saw, or don’t remember seeing, play. Rather than crash my proverbial car while trying to navigate down that bumpy ass road, let’s dissect the results of those who already made the voyage.

Our @AccessVikings team, and lots of others from the @StribSports staff, tried to do what’s nearly impossible — rank the Top 10 @Vikings of all time. How did we do? https://t.co/HdrdYxkm8A pic.twitter.com/ETrJHbk7go

— Access Vikings (@AccessVikings) January 31, 2018

Per the link in the above Tweet, 12 Star Tribune staffers ranked, in order, their top 10 Vikings of all time. With my brain telling me that’s a total of 120 selections, here’s my brain telling you how said selections break down:

This shows how many of the 12 writers voted for each player (Only 3 players received votes from every writer):

• Alan Page (12/12)
• Randy Moss (12/12)
• Randall McDaniel (12/12)
• Carl Eller (11/12)
• Adrian Peterson (11/12)
• Fran Tarkenton (10/12)
• Cris Carter (10/12)
• Mick Tingelhoff (10/12)
• John Randle (9/12)
• Paul Krause (6/12)
• Ron Yary (5/12)
• Jim Marshall (5/12)
• Joey Browner (2/12)
• Chris Doleman (2/12)
• Gary Zimmerman (1/12)
• Bill Brown (1/12)
• Fred Cox (1/12)

Out of the dozen participants, half had Alan Page as their top Viking of all time, while four had Fran Tarkenton. In regards to the two outliers, Jim Souhan gave his top spot to Randall McDaniel, while Michael Rand went with Carl Eller.

Anyone know if Alan Page ever hung out w/Lebron’s mom? Just curious. pic.twitter.com/NEARp4nZjK

— Johnny Minnesota (@TheJohnnyMN) January 7, 2018

On top of that, as you can see, Page, Randy Moss, and Randall McDaniel were the only ones who made all of the top 10 rankings. I know I’m a novice on a the first 35+ years of Vikings history, but shouldn’t those three be joined by Fran Tarkenton and Carl Eller? What did the fans think?

That’s what I thought. The above is comprised from over 5,000 lists submitted by members of Skol Nation.

The most glaring difference between the fan’s G.O.A.T. Vikings and the Star Tribune’s version is that the fans omitted Mick Tingelhoff. On the opposite side of the fence, the HOF center made all but two of the Star Tribunes’ lists. Whoops! Our bad. It could have been worse. At least we didn’t pull a Souhan and leave out Carl Eller.

When someone completes this exercise twenty years from now, which current Vikings have the best chance of bumping Chuck Foreman from the fans top 10? Harry the Hitman? #RhodesClosed? One of our UCLA LBs?

Hell, maybe Stefon Diggs or Adam Thielen can join Moss and Cris Carter as the only WRs to make the cut. In order for that to occur, we’re going to need John DeFilippo to live up to all the hype surrounding his hiring as the Vikes’ offensive coordinator.

It may be overkill, but here is another reason to get excited about the John DeFilippo hiring: pic.twitter.com/ChVXyYmFjX

— Johnny Minnesota (@TheJohnnyMN) February 9, 2018

Johnny Minnesota @TheJohnnyMN
Minnesota Sports Fan MinnesotaSportsFan.com

Entering Week 17, the Vikings lead the NFL in both scoring and total defense. The last time MN finished a season atop both of those categories was 1970.

During the late 1960’s and throughout the 70’s, Minnesota was spearheaded by the notorious Purple People Eaters. Two LEGENDS from that defensive front, Alan Page and Carl Eller, recently compared their stout Viking defenses to today’s version.

Alan Page, Carl Eller liken the #Vikings’ defense to the Purple People Eaters https://t.co/gzSuZn52gj pic.twitter.com/GCcqKOf1Jx

— Pioneer Press (@PioneerPress) December 30, 2017

If it’s anything #Skol related from prior to 1998, I’m pretty uneducated. That’s a flaw I’m working on eliminating. However, even novice Vikings historians like myself, are familiar with the Purple People Eaters.

It doesn’t take a football savant to realize how impressive it is to reach four Super Bowls in eight years. Even though they didn’t win any, the thought of even appearing in the big game is goose-bump worthy, for a fan who has two decades of tenure, like myself.

That time Packer fans said… “We are gonna be in the Super Bowl in Minneapolis.” #Skol pic.twitter.com/nRPgx1pIoe

— Brian Heintz (@BHeintzSKOL) December 27, 2017

Alan Page and Carl Eller are both enshrined in Canton. Here is what the two Hall of Famers said when likening Minnesota’s 2017 defense to theirs:

Alan Page on leading the league in both scoring and total defense (Pioneer Press):

“I think it puts them in the same category [as the Purple People Eaters]. “That’s just an amazing accomplishment.”

“When you have a defensive team that does that well, good things happen, and a lot of success that the team has had this year is in large measure due to that.”

“That’s a pretty exciting prospect [playing in this year’s Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium]. I think of what it would mean in the context of this community and what it would mean for the state and for [the Twin Cities]. It would be a great thing. … The defense is doing great, but the whole team is doing great.”

Page (72 years old) played for Minnesota from 1967-78. He was a 9x Pro Bowler and won NFL MVP in 1971, before going on to be a Supreme Court Justice. 

Carl Eller on the same subject (Pioneer Press):

“I think they compare well with the Purple People Eaters. It’s quite an achievement [being the top-ranked defense]. Teams in the past have had a really hard time living up to the Purple People Eater legends, and that’s been very difficult, and they’re the best ones to really do that. So my hat’s off to them.”

Eller (75 years old) played for Minnesota from 1964-78. He was a 6x Pro Bowler and 5x All Pro.

Is that the proverbial passing of the torch? It feels like it. A prime example of real recognizing real.

Something similar to this will probably happen when Jimmy Garaoppolo takes over for Tom Brady in New England or possibly Kevin Garnett’s hand-off to KAT in a handful of years.

In closing, I love the current Vikings but they’re not the Purple People Eaters. Two (should be three) out of the four members are HOF. We’re not to the point of putting any members of this year’s defense in a Gold Jacket conversation.

Well, not yet…. But, we’ve got some time.

Johnny Minnesota @TheJohnnyMN
Minnesota Sports Fan MinnesotaSportsFan.com