Alto's All-Time All -Viking Team

Assembling my all-time Viking lineup was more daunting than I had expected.  So many great players have come through this franchise that I didn't know who to include and who not to.  Players like Joe Kapp, Hugh McElhenny, Stu Voight, Sammy White, Lonnie Warwick, Adrian Peterson.  The list is pretty impressive.

What really didn't impress me was my memory.  I thought I could name every player at every position by sheer recall.  Without much research.  Man, was I wrong.  Looking up the past rosters was way cool and brought vivid memories back that I had forgotten.  Which was a lot.  Football is not individualistic, but in recent years it has become just that.  My team is 98% from the Super Bowl teams.  Most of them played together for most of those years and had deep chemistry.  I loved Chuck Foreman but I couldn't name his blocking back that opened up the holes.  But Bill Brown and Dave Osborn.  Now that was a backfield. 

I have picked obvious choices that all Viking fans would probably agree with.  I also picked one team - one year that was the complete package that shoulda/coulda won a champeenship.  So, here is a slight stroll down memory lane.

Coach- Bud Grant

OFFENSE

Quarterback- Fran Tarkenton

Running Backs- Dave Osborn and Bill Brown

Wide Receivers- Gene Washington and Paul Flatley
Tight End- John Beasley

Offensive Line : Grady Alderman, Ron Yary, Milt Sunde, Randall McDaniel and Mick Tinglehoff


Kicker- Fred Cox
Punter- Bob Lee




DEFENSE

Defensive Line : Alan Page

                              Carl Eller

                            Jim Marshall

                           Gary Larsen

Linebackers : Wally Hilgenberg, Roy Winston, Dale Hackbart

Secondary : Karl Kassulke, Earsell Mackbee, Paul Krause, Nate Wright


My pick for the most powerful team that probably should have had at least a chance to win the Super Bowl was the '98 team.  They went 15-1.  Players: Randall Cunningham, Robert Smith, Cris Carter, Jake Reed, Randy Moss, Todd Steussie, Korey Stringer on offense and John Randle, Dwayne Rudd, Ed McDaniel, Jerry Ball and Corey Fuller on defense, Gary Anderson, placekicker and Dennis Green, coach.  As a team, at least for one year, they crushed teams and, on the first FG miss all season from Anderson and an overtime loss (sound familiar?), didn't quite make that game against Elway and the Broncos.  As they say, the rest is hysteria.