Vikings Give to the Who Dat Nation

January 18, 2018 8:44 AM

Since Sunday Minnesota Vikings fans have raised more than $150,000 for the New-Orleans based charity What You Give Will Grow founded by Saints punter Thomas Morstead. Morstead said 100% of donations will go directly to Children's Minnesota to support their Child Life department.

Early in the New Orleans Saints / Minnesota Vikings game Morstead was injured making a tackle that prevented a touchdown. Though clearly in pain he kept playing for the entire game which ended with a surprising last-second touchdown and a Vikings victory.

Once the uproar subsided the two teams still had to meet on the field for one last snap, the mandatory point after touchdown play. Despite his injury, he was the first Saints player to come out of the locker room and back onto the field.

After the game a Vikings fan posted on reddit the suggestion that they donate to Morstead's charity as a show of respect. They had no idea just how much would be donated or that it would come right back home.

Morstead said "It’s humbling to have fans from an opposing team doing something like this – it just shows that football is more than a game and it really is a community. Minnesota fans had no idea when they made donations that it would come back to their own community – but what you give does really grow and we’re honored to be able to support the child life program at Children’s Minnesota – this is what our foundation is all about."

posted by komara (11 comments total)

Hooray for when the word "sportsmanlike" actually gets embodied as intended.

all for one, and one for all.
posted by eustatic at 8:51 AM on January 18, 2018 [8 favorites]

This is an interesting twist on a larger trend.

Bills fans donated more than $300,000 to Dalton's foundation as a gesture of gratitude for the Bills ending their 17-year playoff drought, which was only made possible when Dalton threw a touchdown pass in the final seconds to beat the Baltimore Ravens on the final Sunday of the regular season.

This week, Bengals fans have paid it forward.

When Jacksonville Jaguars dispatched the Bengals' arch-rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in Sunday's AFC divisional playoff game, Cincinnati sports radio host Mo Egger encouraged fans to donate to the Blake Bortles Foundation to assist the Jaguars quarterback's charities. (Buffalo News)

I really like that this version is centered around respect for the player instead of just elimination, and I hope it continues.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:58 AM on January 18, 2018 [7 favorites]

I can't begin to imagine how the Saints felt, to lose in such dramatic fashion with 0:00 left on the clock. When Diggs hit the end zone with no flags, the vast majority of the Saints players left the field. Understandably, they were stunned and devastated. The celebration continued for about 10 minutes when it became apparent that under NFL rules, the Vikings had to go for the extra point. Saints players had to return to the field - didn't matter who, it just needed to be a quorum of players - while they were still in probably the worst shock of their lives.

Earlier in the game, Morstead took a hard hit and wound up with torn cartilage on the right side of his ribs. In a punt return situation, the punter is literally the last line of defense if the receiver gets away and is making a break for the end zone. This rarely happens so Punters usually don't get much tackling action. He was clearly in pain but played the rest of the game. The fact that he was the first guy out for the extra point, leading his defeated teammates for one last mandatory play, speaks volumes to his sportsmanship.

And the gods know that we Vikings Fans know what it's like to lose in such dramatic, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching fashion.

I also dig this trend of sportsmanship, not only on the players part but on the fans of opposing teams. Let's keep it going.

Can I take a moment to say holy crap, what an amazing last 3 minutes? I couldn't watch, I had to listen while huddled behind the couch. SKOL! But this week I'd like less of a nail-biter, please, as I have no nails left
posted by Elly Vortex at 10:42 AM on January 18, 2018 [12 favorites]

And the gods know that we Vikings Fans know what it's like to lose in such dramatic, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching fashion.

Hell yes they do. Nobody could believe it wasn’t the Vikings who blew it this time. Not even the players!

I’m sure Blair Walsh is glad to let someone else have the spotlight for “Playoffs LVP” for a few years.
posted by Autumnheart at 12:09 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yep, even Vikes who weren't alive Back In The Day know the team's history of painful losses. They damn sure better have to have some respect for that kind of fortitude.

My Minnesota-bred hat horned helmet is off to Mister Morstead.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:30 PM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hell yes they do. Nobody could believe it wasn’t the Vikings who blew it this time. Not even the players!

I'm pretty impressed by Linval Johnson who came over and just lifted almost 300 completely stunned lbs in a bear hug.
posted by srboisvert at 2:34 PM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Can I take a moment to say holy crap, what an amazing last 3 minutes? I couldn't watch, I had to listen while huddled behind the couch. SKOL! But this week I'd like less of a nail-biter, please, as I have no nails left

I was watching the game. I told my wife at 1:00 left that the Vikes did it again - snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. She laughed and said "I told you not to watch".

Then IT HAPPENED. I couldn't even believe it. Had to rewind the Tivo like 5 times looking for the flag, the foul, the offside. There had to be some reason to call it back. This just doesn't happen! As it sank in, I think I scared the dogs with the shouting.

I'm still in shock.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:56 PM on January 18, 2018 [4 favorites]

We're not the largest group or anything like the most important, but I'd like to voice the pain of all the British (and presumably European) NFL fans who reached half time in what had up until then been a truly tedious game, realised it was midnight and they had work very imminently, and packed it in, sleeping through what would immediately turn into one of the greatest games of all time. Pity us.

The charitable giving is wonderful and laudable and a great contrast to Sean Payton's (hilarious) petty Skol clap mocking of the Vikings fans just before his team somehow beefed it.
posted by ominous_paws at 10:45 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

A few years ago some friends happened to be in London when the Vikings played in the NFL's annual game across the pond. They went, and were amazed to find out how many Vikings fans there were from northern Europe. But yeah, I guess it makes some kind of sense that, without a "home team", folks from the Nordic countries who were into American football would be Vikings fans.
posted by Elly Vortex at 8:09 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

That does make a ton of sense.

A lot of Minnesotans are of scandinavian descent, including me on my father's side. His grandfather came over from Norway and his grandmother from Sweden.

According to a former co-worker who has family in Norway that he sometimes visited, Norway looks a LOT like Minnesota. Similar looking forests, lots of lakes, and a lot of people have a cabin on a lake up north.

I'm more surprised that there are all that many football fans in Europe generally.
posted by VTX at 9:19 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ha! International Design Center, a Minneapolis furniture designer, published a tweet that offered Sean Payton a free couch to watch the Vikings in the playoffs. He accepted and said it should be donated to Children’s MN and that he would be adding $25K.

I feel that this is a happy ending all around.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:33 PM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]