The phone rang at Bud Grant’s house in Eden Prairie the day fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs came out of retirement to coach Washington in 2004.
Gibbs was 63 when he continued a trend of older fellas unretiring to coach or manage in professional sports. The Chiefs’ Dick Vermeil was 67. The NBA’s Hubie Brown was 70. Major League Baseball’s Jack McKeon had just won a World Series at 72.
So, 76-year-old Grant was asked, do you miss coaching?
“Do I miss coaching?” he said. “Only when I go to the bank.”
Grant hadn’t coached since 1985 and said it was a young man’s racket. Asked for any advice he’d give those young men, Grant’s wit stayed sharp.
“Don’t win too fast.”
This was a self-deprecating nod to his own humble beginning in 1967.
Before he became a Hall of Famer and the eternal face of an entire state, Grant started 0-3 in home games played at Metropolitan Stadium. To this date, 63 years of Vikings football have produced only six 0-3 starts at home.
Norm Van Brocklin did it in 1962. Grant did it in ’67 and 1972, ironically when he brought Fran Tarkenton back from the Giants. Leslie Frazier did it in 2013 in games played at the Metrodome. Mike Zimmer did it in 2020 when the pandemic kept fans from attending games at U.S. Bank Stadium.
And …
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has now done it during a turnover-fest start to the 2023 season.
“It definitely feels weird to be 0-3 at home because it is such a big advantage,” said safety Harrison Smith, the team’s longest-tenured player. “Our fans show up. It’s on us to use that.”
Sorry to inform you of this, Harry, but the Vikings have never started 0-4 at home.
As in EV-er.
“I did not know that,” he smiled. “Thanks for letting me know.”
The teams in 1962, 1972, 2013 and 2020 all won their fourth home game. Grant’s ’67 squad came closest to starting 0-4 at home but managed a 20-20 tie with Johnny Unitas, Don Shula and a Colts team that went 11-1-2 that year. There were no overtime games in the regular season at the time.
The current Vikings (2-4) head into Monday night’s game against the 49ers (5-1) as seven-point underdogs at home. The primary place to jump-start an upset is, of course, the turnover margin.
In losses to the Buccaneers (20-17), Chargers (28-24) and Chiefs (27-20), the Vikings are minus-5 with six giveaways and one takeaway.
“That’s a losing formula,” O’Connell said.
And losing isn’t something the Vikings have done a lot of at home. Bloomington’s frozen prairie was the advantage from 1962 to 1981 (90-56-4). The claustrophobic confines and ear-splitting noise of the Metrodome picked up the slack from 1982 to 2013 (162-88). And after two years at the Gophers’ home now known as Huntington Bank Stadium, U.S. Bank Stadium can be among the league’s loudest stadiums, although, as Smith noted, “Chiefs fans show up pretty well, too, last game.”
Among current NFL franchises, the Vikings rank fifth in best home winning percentage during the regular season. They’re 304-172-4 (.638) overall and 39-21 (.65) at U.S. Bank Stadium, eighth-best since 2016.
The Ravens rank No. 1 at .683 (149-69-1) followed by the Packers (.659, 462-234-20), Cowboys (.640, 308-172-4) and Dolphins (.640, 282-158-3). The Chiefs are sixth and gaining fast at .627 (302-179-4).
Not including London games, home teams are only 46-44 (.511) this season. They are only 4-4 on Monday night.
Smith was asked how quickly he thinks teams can lose home-field advantage as fans turn away and, worse yet, sell their tickets to the other team’s traveling zealots.
“I guess I don’t really look ahead and think about it that way, but I guess that could be a reality,” Smith said. “I don’t know. We just need to win.”
