Minnesota Sports Curse

The Minnesota Sports Curse is an alleged curse on the Minnesota pro sports teams. Since the Minnesota Twins won the 1991 World series, no pro sports team in the state of Minnesota has won a championship, nor have they been able to get to one since. The closest they've been to one was in the conference/league finals. As of 2009, Minnesota teams have been 0-5 in the conference/league finals games. Minneapolis/St. Paul is number 1 on the championship drought cities with teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL.
1991 was a great year to be a Minnesota sports fan. To refresh your memory, it was the year the Twins won that classic seven-game World Series, the North Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals and the new NBA team, the Timberwolves, completed their second season. Things were looking up for Minnesota sports.Nobody could have fathomed that through the next 18 years, loyal Minnesota fans would be forced to endure one of the great professional sports droughts in history.From 1992 to present, Minnesota sports teams have left their fans feeling betrayed, sad, confused and bewildered.ESPN.com recently conducted a poll that asked it’s readers to select the worst sports city. Minneapolis was among the five options.Take this statistic for example—Of the four major professional sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL), there are 21 cities home to teams from at least three of the leagues (see chart on top right). Out of the 21 cities, 20 have had at least one team make it to the championship since 1992. Minnesota is the only city in the group that has failed to see one of their teams reach the final game in the last 18 years.The Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves and Wild have combined to go an incredible 0-5 in their conference/league finals appearances since 1992. Of the 21 cities, this mark ranks dead last.There have been moments where our teams were on the verge of something great, but every time they have come up short. The 1998 Vikings for example, who were one overtime from the super bowl and lost to the Atlanta Falcons. Speaking of the Vikings, it’s got to be any season now before ESPN tags this franchise with some kind of curse. The Cubs have their curse of the Billy Goat and the Red Sox had their curse of the Bambino, give the Vikes a few more years and they will be ready.The Vikings are quietly climbing their way towards the top of the “we’ve broken countless hearts, we can’t win the big game, we deserve a curse of our own” list.Consider—The Minnesota Vikings joined the NFL in 1961. Since then, they have won 17 division titles, they’ve made 25 playoff appearances and they were the first team to appear in four Super Bowls.
Of course, they were also the first team to lose four Super Bowls. The Vikings just completed their 48th season and every one has ended with a loss.If this isn’t a curse-deserving resume, tell me what is.The Timberwolves and Twins haven’t done much better in recent years. Both teams have had lots of talent and been able to put together multiple winning seasons, but when confronted with a chance to play for the championship, they fell one series short (Twins in 2002 and Timberwolves in 2004).The Wild are Minnesota’s most recent addition to the Minnesota sports world and saw some early success. In 2003, the Wild made a great postseason run as the seventh seed in the Western Conference, making it to the conference finals, but fell short at the hands of the then Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

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