MINNEAPOLIS - Diehard Vikings fan Josh Roueche fled to Mexico to cope with the Vikings' crushing loss in the 1998 NFC Championship Game.
Back from that vacation and now settled down with kids in Elk River, the real estate agent was slumped on the couch at end of the Vikings' NFC divisional playoff game Sunday. He was distraught over how his favorite football team gave up a 17-0 halftime lead and was on the verge of letting him down again.
"I kind of have to protect my heart with how things have transpired over the years," said Roueche, 42.
For Vikings fans spanning decades to younger generations of supporters like Roueche's 9-year-old son Jaden, there's a personal understand of the Vikings' litany of losses across the 57-year history of the franchise. Four Super Bowl defeats. Five conference championships exits. Nineteen losses earlier in the playoffs.
There is fans' optimism despite that legacy, pensive behavior because they feel something approaching a curse lurks beneath the surface and even a fatalism to impending failure because that's all they've ever known.
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The explanation, however, has nothing do with the Vikings; it's about evolution.
"That's human nature," said Mark Hansen, a licensed psychologist for 25 years at River City Clinic in St. Paul. "There is a survival reason that we do that, but basically (today), it's one way that humans prepare themselves for inevitable disappointment, thinking that it won't be as bad if they're prepared. Then hope they get surprised, like we all did."
The Vikings pulled off one of the most stunning finishes in NFL history when Stefon Diggs caught Case Keenum's pass and raced 61 yards to beat the Saints 29-24 as time expired. Now, another spectrum of emotions will transpire Sunday when the Vikings play the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game at 5:40 p.m. Sunday in Philadelphia. Minnesota could end its 41-year Super Bowl drought and become the first team in the 52 years of America's biggest game to play in its home stadium on Feb 4.
When doubts creep in Sunday evening about the Vikings' season possibly crashing to an end, fans can thank their ancestors - and not a father or grandmother who taught them to cheer for the Vikings.
"Back in primitive times, we would have predation threats," explained Hansen, a Duluth native and lifelong Vikings fan. "We would look for things that were threats. Even if you over-interpreted it, you would be more likely to survive because you would avoid those types of situations. While most of us don't have predation threats, in modern civilization anyway, it's transferred into psychological preparedness for disappointments, which is nowhere near an act of violence is going to be committed on you or you're going to be eaten by a tiger or something."
Devyn Stordahl, of La Crosse, Wis., says he "bleeds purple and gold" and has 11,000 likes on his Die Hard Vikings Fan page on Facebook. When Drew Brees marched the Saints down the field to retake the lead with 25 seconds remaining, Stordahl thought: "It was one of those Vikings moments. We kind of let it go in the big game, but it turned out phenomenal."
Boosted by the Vikings' victory in the NFL's first playoff game to end on the last play of regulation, Stordahl, 21, has renewed faith. "After a play like that happens, it's got to show you something," he said. "I don't really believe in destiny or anything, but if there is such a thing, that was it. If they won the Super Bowl at home, that would be totally insane."
A fan's proclivity to be either pessimistic or optimistic on a Vikings outcome can be a tendency they're born with, Hansen said. "Just like extroversion or introversion," he said. "Most people's pessimism, again, is because that had survival value back in earlier times. So I think it's easy to get pessimistic about stuff. The odds (for the Super Bowl) are not in favor of anybody."
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Well, the Vikings are a three-point favorite against the Eagles. The Patriots and future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady are favored to beat the Jaguars in the AFC Championship Game, and they're the oddsmakers' early pick to win their sixth Super Bowl since 2001.
But then again, the Vikings were 5 1/2-point favorites when they trailed the Saints 24-23 with 25 seconds left and needed arguably the most dramatic play in franchise history to snatch away victory.
Although he's only 9, Jaden Roueche has endured his own Vikings letdowns. Minnesota's 10-9 defeat to Seattle in the NFC divisional playoff in 2015 is his biggest loss. "He does not like Blair Walsh," Josh said about the kicker's wide-left boot that sealed that defeat.
But Jaden was optimistic about the Vikings' prospects to score a late touchdown last Sunday. "He was patting me on the leg," said Josh, who wore a Fran Tarkenton jersey as a child in the early 1980s. "I said, 'I don't know, bud. There are 25 seconds left, and we have a long ways to go.' "
Then the Minnesota Miracle happened.
"(Jaden) was the one that just started yelling when Diggs caught the thing," Josh said. "He jumped up. I think I went up a flight of stairs without hitting one stair. Just mass hysteria. It was awesome to share that with him and see he was loving it."
While Josh will always have that memory with his son regardless of this week's outcome, a teary-eyed Vikings defensive end Brian Robison put the indelible win over the Saints in perspective moments later in the locker room.
"It's huge for this franchise, huge for our fan base," Robison said Sunday. "But if we don't go win (Sunday), it's all for nothing."
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On Monday, linebacker Eric Kendricks quickly cut short a reporter's question when he heard the phrase "if you lose."
"Only positive questions," Kendricks replied. "I don't want to talk about that."
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has heard about how fans have toiled for decades and he's been emphatic that "there's no damn curse" on the franchise, saying he's got a crystal ball and a wood spirit in his office to combat any views to the contrary.
But what will fans' premonitions be if the Vikings trail the Eagles late in Sunday's game?
"I struggle with that myself; the 'here we go again,' " Hansen admitted. "Humans are superstitious. You could look at it as a curse; that the Vikings lost four Super Bowls and how many NFC championships. Or you could say they made it four times. The Twins won two (World Series), and they were never supposed to win, so ..."
