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It's the season for tournaments across the world of sports, notably in college football and college hockey, and the folks from NFL.com have decided that professional football needs to get into the act as well.
Starting today, NFL.com is holding a tournament to determine the single-greatest play in the history of the National Football League. The Minnesota Vikings are well-represented. . .as both the playmakers and the victims. . .in the 64-play field.
We'll start with the plays where the Vikings have been on the wrong end of things. By my count, there are six such plays.
-Tony Dorsett's 99-yard touchdown run against the Vikings on January 3, 1983.
-Steve Young's touchdown run against the Vikings on October 30, 1988.
-Antonio Freeman's catch on Monday Night Football on November 6, 2000.
-Drew Pearson pushing off in the 1975 NFL playoffs
-Michael Vick's touchdown run against the Vikings on December 1, 2002
-Antonio Cromartie returning a missed field goal 109 yards against the Vikings on November 4, 2007.
But let's not focus on those. Let's look at the positive plays that involved our favorite football team instead. There are three of those.
The oldest one comes from December 14, 1980, as Tommy Kramer found Ahmad Rashad as time expired to give the Vikings a 28-23 victory over the Cleveland Browns.
That one's actually going against the 99-yard run by Dorsett, so go vote for it. . .after you read the rest of the post, I mean.
The next one comes from October 19, 2003, as Randy Moss catches a deep ball from Daunte Culpepper, and flips it over his head to a trailing Moe Williams for a touchdown against the Denver Broncos.
I swear, that's the only video copy of that play I've ever been able to find.
There's one more, and since we're going in chronological order, you can probably guess what it is. But, if you're really stumped. . .IT'S GREG LEWIS! TOUCHDOWN! OH MY HEAVENS! WELCOME TO MINNESOTA!
Still get goosebumps every single time I hear that call. Because it's freaking awesome.
So, the Vikings make a lot of appearances in the tournament to determine the greatest play in NFL history. Head over to NFL.com and vote up our favorite football team. The first round of voting concludes on March 22.