The Painful Camaraderie of Losing
The Minnesota Vikings lost, as their fans kept warning each other they would. They also showed up to Glendale in droves. What gives?
The Minnesota Vikings lost to the Los Angeles Rams 27-9. It is a scant condolence to know that the Vikings “played above their expectation” heading into the postseason as the highest-win fifth seed in NFL playoff history.
In the offseason, it will be soothing to understand that this year represented the pinnacle of NFL coaching, turning a near-forgotten quarterback draft failure into a shining example of redemption – what more can this coaching staff do when they get the quarterback they want at the helm?
The Vikings lost. Definitively. Whether it becomes part of someone else’s Super Bowl story remains to be seen, but it piles onto the list of examples of how the Vikings can punish their fanbase. Another arrow in the quiver of grievances that fans will aim at the team when they talk about why they guard themselves against hope.
If a team can so consistently pummel its fanbase like this, what gives? Why do Vikings fans return when the guidance the team provides to its fans be that it fear success?
Vikings fans will be reminded of the 2009 New Orleans Saints in some ways if the Rams turn this victory into a Lombardi run. The wildfires running rampant in and around Los Angeles have, appropriately, become a focal point in the coverage leading up to and during the game.
For Vikings fans, the growing rivalry with the Saints and emergent accusations of rule violations following the Super Bowl victory renders the Saints’ story hollow. But that’s not the case in New Orleans. Battered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the city rallied around a football team several years later as a symbol of resilience – success in the face of adversity.
The narrative appeal of recovery after disaster is intoxicating and fulfilling. These are good stories to tell – not just for the cynical reason of finding ways to keep the NFL relevant but because we find something in sports, whether or not we want to admit it.
The ability for sports to connect people within communities cannot be understated. This has been explored in sociological literature, but it’s also easy to see on gameday, where fans from all over the country meet and talk about the game, the team and whatever else is on their mind.
Given the increasing social isolation in our day-to-day lives, covered well in this Atlantic article but present in the background of our everyday, there is something surprisingly unique about the ability sports have to bring people together in otherwise diverse communities.
These lines cut across what seem to be increasingly specific and isolated strata of identity — those formed across political, economic and social lines that have seemingly calcified in a post-pandemic America.

This sense of global belonging is critical not just to our own mental health but to social cohesion. And we see how this spills back into community-building. Polluted as they are by profit motive and corporate sanitization, we still see teams operate as one locus for community in ways that are becoming distressingly uncommon.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Wide Left to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.