GLENDALE, Ariz. - Dahlen Schnieder knew he’d spend his birthday watching the Vikings.
Vikings fans came from all over for Monday night’s wild-card game: ‘This is our year’
At State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., purple was prominent and pro-Minnesota sound obvious.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 14, 2025 at 2:52AM
He didn’t think he’d be doing so in person.
The South Dakota native, who now lives in Phoenix, didn’t have tickets to the game when it was scheduled to be played in Los Angeles.
He figured the NFL would move the game to Las Vegas, if anywhere, because of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles County. But it was moved to his home, Arizona.
“Once I got the news, my phone just exploded,” Schnieder, face painted purple and gold, said Monday. “ ‘Well, you got your wish. You got the Vikings here.’ ”
Schnieder is one of the many Vikings fans who traveled varying distances to see them play the Rams in Monday night’s wild-card weekend finale at State Farm Stadium.
What was supposed to be a home game for the fourth-seeded Rams turned into a neutral field.
Inside the stadium, the lower bowl bore a clear divide between Vikings and Rams. The cheers for the Vikings entrance were louder than the boos.
Tailgating with Schnieder was Jamie Lynch, a fellow South Dakotan who now lives in Tucson. The two had not met before Monday, greeting each other with a “Skol” and chatting from there.
Asked how many Vikings fans they knew who’d made the trip, the community nature of football fandom showed.
“Now? About a thousand,” Lynch said with a laugh.
Kelly Boone and her husband are lifelong Vikings fans who moved to Goodyear, Ariz., and found a community of other Vikings fans among retirees there.
They weren’t planning on going to the game in L.A. When it was announced it would be in Arizona, Boone’s first thought was, “Yes!”
Some in purple were just hopping on the bandwagon for a night, like Roberto Paolinelli, a Cardinals season-ticket holder dressed up in a Vikings alternate identity, Bothor. He put his outfit together in 48 hours: a Vikings poncho, Vikings socks, a gray pelt and horned helmet.
“I’m gonna go big or go home,” Paolinelli said, explaining that as a Cardinals fan he couldn’t root for the Rams.
While many present at State Farm Stadium were Arizonans, plenty of Minnesotans made the trip, too.
The boarding area for one outbound Delta flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport heading to Phoenix on Sunday night was adorned with purple and gold balloon columns topped with football balloons. Vikings-branded rally towels were laid out on every seat, and the pilot ended his preflight greeting with “Skol Vikings.”
The flight attendants tried to get a Skol chant going when the flight landed but were unsuccessful. The groans and laughs as the in-flight TVs repeatedly glitched on replays of the Commanders' game-winning field goal against the Buccaneers were louder.
In Phoenix, headed north toward Glendale, a Lyft driver said he’d already picked up around six parties with Vikings affiliations Sunday night.
He hadn’t met any Rams fans, though he speculated many made the five-hour drive from Los Angeles themselves.
Tim Chadderdon of Montgomery, Minn., said his crew’s decision to come to the game was last-minute and helped by friends who live in Arizona.
He said his excitement level about being at the game, on a 1-to-10 scale, was a 20, citing in part the good weather, a warm welcome, literally, for those from up north.
Minnesotans John Hughes and Diane Hughes had tickets when the game was at SoFi Stadium.
They arrived Monday morning and went straight out to tailgate, joking the friends they’re planning to stay with might not even know they’ll have housemates for the night yet.
The Hugheses have been Vikings fans since their teen years. They were joined at their tailgate by multiple generations of family members and friends.
They said they were not shocked by the number of Vikings fans who made the trip. They also were in London in Week 5, when the Vikings beat the Jets amid a similar sea of purple.
John Hughes said at this point it’s expected. He already has a campsite booked just outside New Orleans for himself and his son in case the Vikings make the Super Bowl.
“It’s crazy fun,” John Hughes said. “I’m just very confident. Seriously, this is our year.”
If O’Connell was a favorite to win coach of the year before this two-game collapse, he should be a lock now, because we can see what he was working with and fighting against.
