Minnesota Vikings By The Numbers: #14

Like most of the numbers in the teens and single digits, not many players in Minnesota Vikings’ history have ever worn the number 14. In fact, in the entire history of the franchise, there have been only five. But three of those five players were actually pretty darn good, so we have some interesting options to choose from here.

Chronologically, the first notable #14 in Vikings’ history was kicker Fred Cox. Cox was drafted in both the NFL and AFL Drafts in 1961 (by the Cleveland Browns and New York Titans, respectively), but did not take to the field in the NFL until he joined the Vikings in 1963. Cox played his entire career with the Vikings, a career that spanned 15 seasons. He was the kicker for all four of Minnesota’s Super Bowl teams, and to this day remains the team’s all-time leading scorer with 1,365 points. To put that into context, Cris Carter is the Vikings’ second leading score with 670 points, meaning that you could double Cris Carter’s career scoring output and he’d still be in second place in team history.

On top of that, during his career with the Vikings, Cox invented something that we’ve all had in our houses at some point in our lives. . .the Nerf Football. Cox said in this interview that he doesn’t know how much he made off of the toy, but you can bet that it’s a lot.

After Cox retired following the 1977 season, the number took nearly two decades off before being picked up by a young, spry quarterback from Florida State named Brad Johnson. Drafted by the Vikings in the 9th round of the 1992 NFL Draft (despite starting just one game in his senior year for the Seminoles), Johnson was primarily a backup for the early portion of his Vikings’ career. He even played a developmental year for the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football in 1995. After that, he started eight games in 1996 and was the team’s starter in 1997. He started the 1998 season as the team’s top quarterback as well, but an ankle injury in Week 2 put him on the bench and gave Randall Cunningham the opportunity to have one of the great renaissance seasons of all time.

The Vikings wound up trading Johnson to the Washington Redskins before the start of the 1999 season, and after that stop and a stint in Tampa Bay that saw him win a Super Bowl, he returned to Minnesota and got the starting job back after an injury to Daunte Culpepper. He wasn’t quite the same the second go-around, owing largely to his advanced age at that point, but he’s still fifth in Vikings history in both passing yards and passing touchdowns. . .including one special one.

It took a while for Stefon Diggs to get onto the football field. . .he spent his first three games in his rookie season as a healthy scratch. . .but once he did, he started to make things happen. He went over the 100-yard mark in two of his first three career games, and quickly established himself as a legitimate threat in the Minnesota offense. He has had issues with injuries thus far during his career, but has still managed to put up 1,623 yards receiving and seven touchdowns in his first two seasons in purple.

Joe Webb was also a football player for the Vikings that wore #14.

Vikings that have worn the number 14:

• George Shaw (1961)
• Fred Cox (1963 - 1975)
• Brad Johnson (1992 - 1998, 2005 - 2006)
• Joe Webb (2010 - 2013)
• Stefon Diggs (2015 - present)

That’s it for the number 14, folks. We’ll be moving on to the number 13 tomorrow!