As the 70's began, starting quarterback Joe Kapp wanted more money from the Vikings. The front office wouldn't budge and ended up trading Kapp to the New England Patriots. They replaced him with a young, fiery Gary Cuozzo. In their effort to rebound from the loss of Super Bowl IV in 1969, the Vikings failed by losing a tight playoff game to the 49ers in 1970, and Grant went back to the drawing board. He evaluated what he was missing and concluded that he needed more offensive punch by putting more points on the board. He concluded that he needed a top flight quarterback.
Searching over the league, he discovered the New York Giants were looking to trade Tarkenton to rebuild their offense. Grant took advantage of the situation and reacquired Tarkenton from the Giants. It was easy enough. Tarkenton wanted to be back with the Vikings and pleaded with the Giants, "If you send me anywhere, send me back to Minnesota." Grant drafted Chuck Foreman in the first round in 1973 and traded with the St. Louis Cardinals for John Gilliam.
With Tarkenton spraying bullets again, Foreman evading defenses, Gilliam snaring passes, Tingelhoff anchoring the offensive line, and the Purple People Eaters on defense, the Vikings exploded in 1973.
In
fact they even invented a new statistic. Then future Hall of Famer Alan Page
was a terror on the Viking defensive front four. It was Page who was the inspiration
for the pass-rushing statistic known as the "hurry". Bud Grant came up with
the term to better measure Page's effect on opposing quarterbacks. Sacks didn't
tell the whole story.
Grant defined a hurry as making the quarterback throw the ball before he wanted to. Every team uses it now.
In 1971 Page had 42 hurries, in addition to 10 sacks. It may have been the finest season ever by a defensive lineman and earned him NFC Player-of-the-Year honors from the UPI. He had 109 tackles, 35 assists and two safeties, astonishing figures for a tackle.
The Vikings faced the returning Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VIII, and once again, the Vikings lost. However, they returned in 1974 for Super Bowl IX against the Steelers and the infamous 'Steel Curtain' but posted another losing effort. By 1975, most of the veterans were supposed to be too old for football, claimed fans and sportswriters. Nonetheless, they won the first 10 games of that season and clinched the division with four games still to go.
Tarkenton
got better at passing each year, Krause was still the best at stealing passes,
Tingelhoff and Marshall had proved their durability, and Fred Cox was still
the most consistent kicker in the league. And Chuck Foreman was the best running
back in the league. Well, almost.
A snowball in Buffalo on the last weekend of the 1975 regular season kept Foreman from winning the 1975 NFC rushing title. It also prevented him from (1) becoming the only player in NFL history to lead his conference in rushing and receptions and (2) sharing the league record for touchdowns in a season.
Well, sort of. This is what happened.
The Vikings were playing the Bills at Rich Stadium on Saturday, December 21. Foreman was having a fantastic game despite the conditions. He would finish with 85 yards rushing, 10 receptions and four TDs in less than three quarters.
After Foreman's third score (which gave him 21 for the year, one shy of the NFL mark), Fran Tarkenton joked in the huddle, "Anybody who gets to the one-yard line, go out of bounds. We want some touchdowns for Chuck."
The crowd was getting ornery. Not only were the Bill being clobbered, 28-6, but it was looking like Foreman and not hometown hero O.J. Simpson might walk away with the TD record. Simpson had gotten his 22nd of the season in the first half, equaling Gale Sayer's 1965 total, but Foreman and the Vikes were really on a roll.
Late in the quarter Foreman was chasing a pass thrown out of the end zone when he was hit in the eye by a snowball. He went out of the game for a couple of plays, then returned with blurred vision and caught a six-yard touchdown pass to tie Sayers and Simpson. That was it, though. He spent the last quarter on the bench.
Less than a minute later, Simpson scored on a 54-yard reception to surpass Sayers. The next day, St. Louis' Jim Otis, playing only the first half, gained 69 yards in 14 carries to edge Foreman for conference rushing honors, 1,076 to 1,070.
Foreman did top the NFC, indeed the entire league, with 73 receptions. But it could have been much more.
Real tragedy did strike the next week as the Dallas Cowboys pulled off the famous Hail Mary pass in the last seconds of the 1975 NFC Championship game. The Vikings and fans cried for offensive interference on Drew Pearson, but the officials wouldn't listen. I guess some things will never change.
Before the 1976 season even started, the NFL had a brief fling with free agency. A federal court overturned the Rozelle Rule, making players who had played out their options the previous season to become unrestricted free agents. The Vikings lost John Gilliam as a result. His Vikings pay had been $75,000. With the Atlanta Falcons the 30-year-old receiver got as much as $275,000 over three years.
In 1976, an angry Vikings team steamrolled their way to Super Bowl XI but were denied a rematch with the Cowboys in the playoffs. Everyone thought, surely the Vikings will their fourth Super Bowl against the Raiders. All commentary aside, the Vikings lost again to John Madden, Ken Stabler, and Fred Biletnikoff. In a television show after the game, Stabler had commented on the number of passes Tarkenton attempted. Fran replied, "Yeah, but most of them were to your guys."
In 1974, DT Gary Larsen had retired and was replaced by long time Viking Mark Mullaney who filled in well in his role along side the other Purple People Eaters. Mullaney played along side the best in the business and lived up to the role, so the Purple Eaters didn't miss a step. By 1979 however, the 'Purple Gang' was down to one, Jim Marshall. Page was traded to the Bears and Eller to the Seahawks. Jeff Siemon and Matt Blair anchored the linebackers, the secondary was relying on the veterans Krause and Bryant. By the end of the 70's, Foreman had spent his last day in a Viking uniform at the end of the 1979 season and retired from the Patriots the following year. The Vikings fizzled out as an average, but punishing team.
| Best Regular-Season Record: | 1970, 1973, 1975, all 12-2 |
| Worst Regular-Season Record: | 1979, 7-9 |
| Best Athlete: | RB Chuck Foreman (one of the best all around athlete's in the NFL, ever) |
| Fastest Player: | WR Sammy White (agility few have seen) |
| Slowest Player: | DE Bob Lurtsema (what can we say, love ya Lurts) |
| Most Intimidating Player: | DT Alan Page (nobody was better before, or since) |
| Famous Firsts: | Raider punter Ray Guy has his first ever punt blocked in Super Bowl X1 by Fred McNeil. |
| Famous Lasts: | Sammy White spikes the ball before he reaches the end zone. "Son," his mother said over the phone after watching TV, "you learned something today." White did. He hugged the ball for the rest of his career. |
| Fashion Trends: | Snowmobile suits worn by fans at January playoff games at the Old Met. |
| Least Appreciated Player: | Ron Yary |
| Best Hit: | Roy Winston on Larry Csonka in Super Bowl VIII. "I can't feel my legs," Csonka yelled from the bottom of the pile. Csonka said after the game he was sure he had become paralyzed. "That was the hardest hit I have ever received in football." |
| Best Trade: | The Vikings reacquire QB Fran Tarkenton. The trade cost the Vikings Norm Snead, Bob Grim one other player and two first round draft picks in 1972 and 1973. |
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