If anyone knows what it’s like to be a loyal fan of the Purple, it’s the readers of SKÖLIOSIS — your weekly reminder that being a Vikings fan is bad for your health.

By the book, “Skol” is a Scandinavian word meaning “cheers” or “toast,” a term originated from the tradition of passing around a community bowl, often filled with beer, where each person would take a drink and say “skal.” “Skol” has been a part of the Minnesota tradition since the Vikings inception in 1961, when it was included in our original fight song. But in recent years, it has become a cornerstone of our Viking culture most notably when the team moved into US Bank Stadium and adopted “Skol” as our official pregame chant. Today “Skol” has evolved to become the final “LETS GO!!” before battle each Sunday. An appropriate term this week as we gather with our families for a different battle as we attempt to feast on more food than our bodies should ever be able to digest in one sitting. This week “Skol” becomes the pregame battle cry before a gastrointestinal war against gluten and complex carbohydrates and wine and idle small talk conversation with your weird aunts and uncles and stupid brother-in-law that assaults your senses for 3 hours around a dinner table, leaving many of us on the verge of nausea.

“Verge of nausea” is also how Vikings fans felt watching last Sunday’s game against Da Bears, a team that that also knows a thing or two about “Cheers” culture and over-indulging on food and alcohol with friends and family. And while George Wendt’s Cheers character Norm was from Boston, he also played Bob Swerski, in the classic SNL skit about Da Bears superfans.

Sunday’s game against “Da Bears,” with its frantic nail biting conclusion and narrow victory, another in a litany of nerve wracking games that seem to be the “Norm” lately, was a carpet bombing on our senses and reminded many of us Nordic Viking fans of another Scandinavian term featuring a “Da” consonant in it…

Uff Da

{oof-duh} interjection

“Uff Da,” is a phrase often used to express sensory overload or bafflement, surprise, relief, exhaustion, or dismay; it's a placeholder for many common obscenities, and quite frequently the only natural sound our Viking fan bodies can emit after a game like Sundays, where all those emotions seemed to converge on us at once.

Uff Da is an expression that is completely involuntary sometimes, like the grunting sounds many of us middle-aged men emanate unconsciously during the simple act of getting in and out of our cars and that our wives mock us for (or is that just me?). Or the sound after you set down the 12 bags of groceries, we attempted to carry in one trip instead of just going back and forth 3 times like a normal person. Or the sound we make after we push back from the Thanksgiving table after that 3rd helping of stuffing.

Uff Da is the Yin to Skol’s Yang. If SKOL is the “Let’s Do THIS!,” Uff Da is the “We did it, and now we are exhausted.” It’s the “we came, we saw, and we, well, we didn’t exactly kick ass, but we survived.”

Sunday’s game against Da Bears was deserving of an Uff Da in all caps. Actually, this whole 3-week Viking road trip has been deserving of an Uff Da. We did it. We won four games in a row (including the home Indy game four weeks ago), and none of them were easy. Because if there is one thing we have learned as fans of the Purple, it is that nothing comes easy. And apparently nothing will be easy on the road to the Super Bowl in the Big Easy. Hell, even winning hurts way more than you would think it would.

Glicking Issues

Speaking of (Natalie) Portmanteau words like Uff Da Bears, this holiday week many of us may be off to enjoy the latest Barbienheimer of the holiday season, being coined as Glicked, movie goers are once again faced with a Sophie's Choice to either see the new Wicked movie, Gladiator II movie, or both. It’s appropriate that on a holiday week that celebrates gluttony, so many of us just might attempt to shove two blockbuster movies down our eye holes. Bonus points if you see them downtown and then chase them down with a few pints of Glueks beer at the oldest bar in Minneapolis. Glueks has proven to be a great meeting place for displaced Minnesotans back in town for the Thanksgiving holiday over the years. Leaving many of us in a condition of being a bit hungover aka “Glueked” on Thanksgiving day.

But being “Glicked” also feels like an appropriate term for a Vikings Bears game that seemed to hinge on glitches in our respective kicking games. Perhaps a poultry karma from all the Turkey legs about to be eaten exacting first blood on the legs of our respective kickers. Sunday’s game started with the Bears having yet another field goal kick blocked, after losing to the Packers a week ago on another. Later a muffed punt resulted in a Viking recovery and score, and not too long after a kick return by the same “muffer” to put the Bears quickly back into scoring position.

Most painfull of course was watching the Vikings become the first team ever to not successfully field an onside kick attempt under the new format. Since they made the change, there have been ten unsuccessful on-side kick attempts, half of which had been attempted against our Vikings curiously. The failed recovery completed an epic collapse that allowed the Bears to score 11 points in 22 seconds and send the game into overtime. A collapse that elicited a few “Jiminy Crickets” profanities from some of the elderly I watched the game with on Sunday at the Jones Harrison Senior Living dining room. Come to think of it, perhaps they were yelling “Jiminy GLICKS!!” after Martin Short’s portly fictional character.

Anyway, lucky for us Viking fans, the Purple were eventually able to pull off the victory after a successful glick by our substitute kicker, John Parker Romo, who may or may not have been spotted yelling, “are you not entertained!!!” into the crowd afterwards, as most of Bears nation turned green like Elphaba.

Glass Half Full

Which begs the question, are we actually entertained? Why do we even enjoy this form of painful entertainment? For most of Sunday’s game, many of us, including myself and many of the life-long Vikings fans around me at the senior center were downright miserable. The game was ugly, sloppy, and choppy. It had no flow and had that feeling of looming disaster for most of its three and a half hour run time. Not to mention, most of us expected more from our Purple. We expected a blowout. If the Vikes are truly a Super Bowl caliber team, we expect these wins to be more dominant. But is that fair to the Purple? Winning in the NFL is never easy, especially divisional games. Even the NFL darling 10-1 Chiefs narrowly escaped the 3-8 Carolina Panthers, only winning by a last second field goal, but nobody is doubting their ability as a Super Bowl candidate are they?

Mostly we seem to worry about Sam Darnold. Does he have what it takes? In our defense, it seems even coach KOC worries about Sam, as he has been spotted getting quite cozy with every young QB we beat the last few weeks after games. Is it any wonder Sammy “Mayday Malone” Darnold seems to convey some confidence issues now and then as he watches as his coach embraces Caleb Williams and Anthony Richardson whispering in their ears, “do you have prom dates for next year yet?” When they ask “But what about Sam?” KPC replies, “Sam, oh, don’t worry about Sam. He’s only on a one-year contract.”

How about we stop worrying about Sammy D. Let’s give credit where credit is due. It is the season of gratitude after all, so let’s appreciate what we have.

Sammy is balling and winning games. None of us expected to be 9-2 at this point going into this season. Sammy has more TD passes so far than both Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes. Sammy has less Interceptions than Patrick Mahomes. With Sunday’s win, the Vikes assured ourselves of a winning season this year, a glass half full of a season. So, in Sammy we trust.

Let’s also embrace the suffering. It’s the suffering that makes us stronger after all. Nature tells us that the struggle of a caterpillar to break out of its cocoon is a necessary part of its transformation into a butterfly. It gives the butterfly’s wings the strength to fly.

Plus, we won’t have to worry about Turkey Leg glicking karma when we have wings.

Happy SKOLsgiving weekend to everyone!! And SKOL! to the rest of this season. May we close out both with some well-earned Uff-Da’s.

Epilogue: Donate to a Good Cause

Please don’t forget to join us in donating to the National Skoliosis Foundation after each Viking win.

Visit https://www.scoliosis.org/donate/

SKOL!!

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