It’s a familiar pain. The Vikings have fallen flat on their face once again in the NFC championship, failing for the 41st consecutive year to get to the Super Bowl. This one feels like it stings more, considering the state-wide energy leading up to this game. Skol chants rung through schools, churches, and the Mall of America, Millie Wall became a national phenomenon, and purple lit up the Minneapolis skyline. We had a chance to do the inconceivable – play in the Super Bowl at home. But Case Keenum threw a pick six, Harrison Smith got his lunch eaten by Zach Ertz, Andrew Sendejo and Pat Elflein got hurt and Mike Zimmer was thoroughly embarrassed. A sixth NFC Championship will be notched into the bedpost of the Minnesota Vikings, and at this point, it’s a drop in the bucket. Right now, this hurts worst because it’s the freshest in all of our minds. But where does it rank among NFC Championship losses, new and old?

This should be a cathartic exercise.

6) 1987, 10-17 Loss To The Washington Redskins

The least painful is also the least likely to happen. The Vikings got there by beating the juggernaut Joe Montana 49ers in the divisional round. It would be the last time that decade that Joe Montana would lose a playoff game. But Darrin Nelson dropped that infamous pass on the goal line, and Doug Williams went on to become the first black quarterback to win a ring.

Vikings fans could walk away from that game with their heads held high as their plucky Vikings handed it to the greatest of all time and made a deep run. The 1987 Vikings weren’t a team of destiny, or some wasted once-in-a-generation opportunity. They were just an also-ran.

5) 2000, 0-41 Loss To The New York Giants

After an 11-2 start, a three game skid took them into the playoffs as a team that was clearly not championship caliber. Sure enough Kerry Collins and Joe Jurevicius torched the struggling Vikings defense for 41 while Carter, Moss, Culpepper and Robert Smith couldn’t find a way to get on the board.

Forty-One Donut is listed amidst the laundry list of painful moments in Vikings lore, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the other magical seasons that fell short of the big dance. Daunte Culpepper was a second-year QB. Carter and Moss were coming back the next season. It felt like the team was just getting going. Sure, the score was worse than Sunday night’s, but there was far less on the line. This game drowns in the shadows of the two NFC championships by which it is bookended.

4) 2017, 7-38 Loss To The Philadelphia Eagles

The Vikings sleepwalked through their Sunday Night bout at the Linc, with a pick six kickstarting a thorough whooping of the best defense in football. Nick Foles looked like Aaron Rodgers, slinging perfect passes over the heads of supposed superstars. The game had lost all competitiveness by halftime.

Dress it up with a little perspective. This blowout stings, but the core of the team is locked up for years. The defense, head coach, and skill players will all see minimal turnover in the coming offseason. The quarterback situation is confusing, but most of the options are exciting ones. It’s an extra sting to lose out on the chance at a home Super Bowl, which vaults this over 41-donut, but this is far from the Vikings’ last bite at the apple.

3) 1977, 23-6 Loss To The Dallas Cowboys

After a near-shutout in Los Angeles, the vaunted Vikings defense went up against the likes of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach. The Purple People Eaters only let up 23, but Chuck Foreman, Ahmad Rashad and Fran Tarkenton were shut down firmly as Dallas stomped their way to a Super Bowl ring.

The Purple People Eaters, Bud Grant, and Fran Tarkenton are all that Vikings fans have to hang their hats on right now. This was the team’s chance at a dynasty. Instead, this loss marked the end of that era’s presence in the deep playoffs. The Vikings would only make the playoffs three more times in Grant’s time with Minnesota, and Fran Tarkenton would retire after the next season. The Vikings were coming off an incredible stretch of NFC dominance, and this is how it ended. Not with a much-deserved Lombardi, but as a stepping stone to someone else’s dynasty.

2) 2009, 31-28 Loss To The New Orleans Saints

Adrian Peterson, turncoat Brett Favre, and a star-studded defense gave Vikings fans a magical 12-4 ride in ’09. But their time would be cut short when the Saints and their “aggressive” defense chipped away at the team’s will with cheap shot after cheap shot. A concussed, broken, and battered Favre threw an interception on the cusp of field goal range, and the offense never saw the ball again.

It was overtime, it was heartbreaking, and it was controversial. 2009 shook us all to our cores. This wasn’t a young team with a bright future, it was a team of veterans on their last gasp. The team dissolved soon after, making way for a miserable half-decade. This was the best the Vikings could do for Chad Greenway, Adrian Peterson, Steve Hutchinson, and a number of other superstars. The next game, we had to watch as the villains of the NFL collected the most coveted prize, and wonder what could have been.

1) 1998, 30-27 Loss To The Atlanta Falcons

What else is there to say about this loss? We all know the story. Gary Anderson missed for the first time on the year. The “Dirty Birds” improbably knocked off a 15-1 team, a record the Vikings haven’t gotten close to replicating. They were the best team in the NFL, save John Elway’s Broncos, and the entire country was stripped of a marquee Super Bowl matchup. Instead, we got a forgettable, boring, public execution as Elway rode off into the sunset.

This is the worst loss. Like the 2009 season, this was a team of rentals. Randall Cunningham, John Randle, and several other key members dissolved away after this heart-wrenching anticlimax. The Vikings still haven’t been the #1 seed ever since. They haven’t played an NFC Championship at home ever since. This game hurt so badly, How I Met Your Mother centered an entire episode on it. And the team that did it didn’t even have the guts to make it a Super Bowl winning story. Just another forgettable playoff also-ran.

For now, we throw the Stink at the Linc in the pile with the rest of the heart-crushing losses. As good midwestern folks, we brush our shirts off and move forward. There’s snow to shovel, homework to do, appointments to attend. Life moves past NFC Championship games. Perhaps someday, the Vikings can move past one too.

Thanks for reading!