“You Feel It”: Where NFL Players Rank Vikings’ Home Field Advantage
Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Vikings would have a ton on the line come Sunday, even if the playoffs were played at a neutral site. Defeating the 14-2 Detroit Lions on the road doesn’t just mean the NFC’s No. 1 seed (and by extension, the NFC North) title, but getting a first-round bye to rest is welcome for any team after the 18-week grind of the regular season.
But, of course, the Vikings have much, much more to play for than just an extra week off. And you don’t have to take our word for it, either.
ESPN released a poll of 111 NFL players on the toughest places to play on Wednesday. The list went: Arrowhead in Kansas City (57 votes), Lumen Field in Seattle (41.5), then US Bank Stadium, the home of the Vikings (28.5).
No other team had more than 20 votes.
“You feel it,” ESPN quoted Darius Slayton of the New York Giants as saying of US Bank’s home field advantage. “As soon as you walk in there, everything’s in purple. You feel like you’re out of place there.”
ESPN also cites Fred Warner as picking Minnesota. “They made me think differently about how I approach just being on the sideline,” he said. Remember, too, that being on the San Fransisco 49ers means he has to make an annual trip to Lumen.
Vikings fans who’ve been to US Bank Stadium already know that their presence makes a difference, and so does anyone who’s read the penalty stats. When playing at home, Minnesota’s opponents have been flagged 19 times for false start penalties, which is the most in the NFL. It speaks to the disruption that the fans doing the SKOL chant are providing.
Getting that kind of advantage for two home games in the playoffs would be monumental, especially since losing on Sunday means the path to a Super Bowl may instead go through Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (which received 18.5 votes, fourth place) or Ford Field in Detroit (9.5 votes, ninth place). If a best-on-best matchup on Sunday doesn’t get your purple-and-gold blood pumping, then imagining the fear the Lions, Eagles, and the rest of the NFC will have travelling to Minnesota should do the trick.
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