Victory over Packers brings Vikings significant franchise milestone

It’s always fun to watch the Minnesota Vikings get a victory over the Green Bay Packers, regardless of the circumstances or when it happens. However, yesterday’s victory at U.S. Bank Stadium brought our favorite team to a significant milestone in the history of the franchise.

When Greg Joseph put his 29-yard field goal attempt through the uprights with time expiring on Sunday afternoon, it gave the Vikings the 500th regular-season victory in the history of the franchise.

The Vikings’ all-time regular-season record now stands at 500 wins, 417 losses, and 11 ties.

Of all the teams the Vikings have played over the years, it makes sense that they have the most victories in their history over their divisional rivals from Detroit (79 wins), Chicago (61 wins), and Green Bay (55 wins), as well as their former division rivals from Tampa Bay (33 wins). They’ve also beaten the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers 22 times each in the regular season.

If we break them down by coach, here’s how the 500 victories look:

1. Bud Grant - 158 wins
2. Dennis Green - 97 wins
3. Mike Zimmer - 69 wins (everybody. . .1, 2, 3, “nice”)
4. Jerry Burns - 52 wins
5. Brad Childress - 39 wins
6. Mike Tice - 32 wins
7. Norm van Brocklin - 29 wins
8. Leslie Frazier - 21 wins
9. Les Steckel - 3 wins

The win also makes the Vikings the 16th of the NFL’s 32 franchises to reach the 500-win plateau. That sounds like a lot, but then a lot of the teams in front of them have a history that greatly pre-dates the Vikings coming into existence in 1961. The Kansas City Chiefs are just ahead of the Vikings with 502 franchise victories, while the Denver Broncos are the next team behind them at 493. Both of those teams started their journeys a year before Minnesota did.

Congratulations to the Minnesota Vikings on reaching the 500-win mark in franchise history, and by doing so with quite the flourish, if I may say so.