Harriet Baskas

Special for USA TODAY

Players and fans know they’ll be battling record low temperatures this Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks play the Minnesota Vikings in an NFL wild card game in Minneapolis, but Delta Air Lines is already in hot water.

On Wednesday, Delta, which is the official airline of the Seattle Seahawks, sent out a pro-Seahawks tweet that said “Hey 12s! We’re turning up the volume on Sunday. #GoHawks.”

But Delta is also the official airline of the Vikings. And, with Seattle’s KIROTV.com following the action, Vikings fans took note and began passing team-defending tweets back and forth.

@brianstakston gave a nod to flights Vikings fans could take on American Airlines from Minneapolis to Phoenix.

American Airlines chimed in.

Some Vikings fans seemed seriously outraged and, like @charlierybak, vowed to cancel reservations and avoid flying Delta in the future.

Most tweets harangued Delta for “picking sides,” but not all were negative.

And even Delta tried to play nice, hoping to salvage the day with a “make-up” tweet.

Photos: Boeing's Seattle Seahawks-themed 747

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.