The other day I posted a story about Tommy Kramer being elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, and we had some great 'back in the day' comments about the Vikings, and some other exploits of Two Minute Tommy, ahem, both on and off the field.
One of those was a sequence of plays that have come to be known as the 'Met Stadium Miracle'.
It was the last home game of the 1980 season, and by the end of 1981, Metropolitan Stadium would be no more. The historic run the Vikings were on was just about over, but with a win against Cleveland, the Purple and Gold would clinch their 11th NFC Central title in 13 years, and Bud Grant would get one last shot at a Super Bowl.
It seemed, however, that it wasn't meant to be. The good guys were down 23-9 in the fourth quarter, and although they scored a TD early, they still needed two scores. All Cleveland had to do was run out the clock, but for some reason, Sam Rutigliano called a pass, which Bobby Bryant picked off on the Cleveleland side of the 50. Tommy Kramer quickly struck, hitting Ahmad Rashad and cutting the lead to 22-15 with right around 2:00 to go.
Cleveland forced the Vikes to use all their timeouts, and when they punted, the Vikings had the ball on their own 20, with only 14 seconds left and no timeouts. If I'm not mistaken, the Browns also ran out of bounds on one play as well, which really helped the Vikes cause.
What transpired? Only the greatest two play sequence in Minnesota Vikings history, that's all:
And that's why Cleveland is the only sports town more tortured than Minneapolis, kids
Note that both teams were on the same sideline, and how cool it was a bunch of jubilant Vikes were running past a bunch of forlorn Browns as the game ended.
Oh, and Viva Two Minute Tommy!
Enjoy your Thursday, folks.