Vince McMahon reportedly considered purchasing the Minnesota Vikings

Many of us know Vince McMahon as the man that turned the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) from a regional wrestling promotion to a national juggernaut.

Apparently, we almost got a chance to know him as the owner of the Minnesota Vikings.

On the latest episode of his Something to Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard. . .who long-time wrestling fans will remember as “Brother Love” (among other characters). . .says that McMahon explored the possibility of purchasing the Vikings back in 1998.

How serious were McMahon’s thoughts about purchasing the Vikings? Well, here’s Prichard’s thoughts on it, courtesy of Comicbook.com:

We didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. More than anything it was a publicity stunt because they were floating out there that the Vikings were up for sale and Vince floated it out there that he was interested in it. I dare say that if the price would have been right he might have bought the damn thing for publicity purposes to make it -- okay the WWF just bought the Minnesota Vikings and Vince McMahon is now entering the football arena. So it worked, it got people talking.

According to the story, McMahon would not have had the personal wealth on his own to purchase the team at the time, but he could have headed up a group of investors that would have purchased the team.

Of course, as we all know, the Vikings were sold to Red McCombs, who pushed hard for a new stadium to replace the Metrodome for a while, and then when he didn’t get his way decided to sell the team to a group of investors headed by Reggie Fowler, and later headed up by the Wilf family. Oh, and he traded Randy Moss on his way out the door because he was a jerk.

(McCombs, not Moss. But I have a feeling you knew that.)

I don’t know if the history of the Minnesota Vikings would have been any different had they been owned by Vince McMahon rather than Red McCombs. But, as a wrestling fan, I do think it would have been interesting to see.