Bud Grant was to Minnesota and the Vikings what Don Coryell was to San Diego and the Chargers — a Hall of Fame head coach who oversaw a golden era.
There was some poetry to the fit. Under San Diego’s bright blue skies, the “Air Coryell” offense jetted back and forth across warm Mission Valley. Grant’s Vikings, unbothered by Minnesota’s frigid weather, were as methodical as locals who cut a hole into frozen lakes and fished in the winter.
Disciplined. Steady. That’s how opponents described the Vikings.
Fran Tarkenton, Grant’s Hall of Fame quarterback, who was elusive as Dan Fouts was stationary, supplied Midwestern slapstick to the stolid show. His maniacal scrambles dropped opponents to the frozen turf.
Grant, who died last week at 95, never won a Super Bowl, a game Coryell nearly reached twice. Both were loath to accept a morsel of credit for their team’s successes, though Grant acknowledged his zeal for consistency served a purpose.
“You have to keep a team going along evenly each week,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1976. “We don’t want ourselves to go leaping out of the stadium one week, and then falling flat on our face the next week. We want our people to be professionals, get their paychecks and do their jobs.”
Even for Hall of Famers, coaching can be unnerving. Someday, you’ll face a club that not only has better schemes but also better players.
Grant’s lot was to have it happen in four Super Bowls.
If Woody Hayes, Midwestern football general, was correct in saying “there’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you,” Grant was a pure-souled saint by the time he walked out of the Rose Bowl in January 1977.
He’d absorbed his fourth Super Bowl defeat, none of them competitive, belying an 11-year stretch in which the Purple Gang won an astounding 81 percent of their regular-season games and 10 NFC Central titles.
The Super Bowl Vikings were consistent. They appeared undernourished, slow, confused and demoralized. They never scored in the first half, a 51-0 skunking.
Super Bowl historian Bob McGinn shone a penetrating light on what went wrong. Each of the four opponents — the Chiefs, Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders — enjoyed massive personnel advantages and greater diversity of tactics. The shortcomings of the NFC Central puffed up several Vikings teams.
Competition in the innovative American Football League, according to Chiefs personnel, fueled the 23-7 romp in Super Bowl IV, the first of Minnesota’s four losses. Turned out, a pair of San Diego legends with the AFL Chargers helped transform the Chiefs into champs.
“Our whole influence was ‘Bambi’ (receiver Lance Alworth) and the things (Coach) Sid Gillman was doing,” linebacker Jim Lynch said, per The Ultimate Super Bowl Book, in explaining Kansas City’s stunningly smooth ride as a 13-point underdog. Said the Chiefs’ backup QB Tom Flores, the future Raiders Hall of Fame coach, of Super Bowl IV: “It was won because we were a much better team than Minnesota and also because the Vikings were a vanilla team.” The same theme held true eight years later in Pasadena. The Raiders rolled. Flores was their receivers coach.
The Vikings’ leading rusher in any Super Bowl was Chuck Foreman with 44 yards on 17 carries. They were outscored, 95-34. Nevertheless, nine years after Grant retired from coaching, football writers voted him into the Hall of Fame, where Coryell’s bust will be unveiled this summer. It was an easy decision.
“Second isn’t all that bad, you know,” Grant said months after his third Super Bowl.
Grant seemingly had a wonderful life. At 92, he said he enjoyed outdoor activities year-round and being around his 30-plus grandchildren and a dozen-plus great grandchildren. “I’ve been lucky,” he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I can’t put it any other way.”
Elsewhere
A fast start to this season would seem extra useful to Casey Stoney’s San Diego Wave FC, who’ll begin March 25 in Mission Valley.
The World Cup will rob them of Alex Morgan, midfielder Taylor Kornieck, defender Naomi Girma and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan for a few weeks this summer. Plus, one of the national teams — senior or under-20 — could come for Jaedyn Shaw, who played in only five matches last year but scored three goals. …
Who saw this coming a decade go? March Madness tips off this week and San Diego State (14th) eclipses Duke (21th), Kentucky (28th), North Carolina and Villanova (60th) in the KenPom.com rankings. Answer: no one, not even Steve Fisher or Brian Dutcher. This is SDSU’s most athletically deep team. …
The Bears should’ve drafted C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young rather than trading the top pick. It’s too dicey to project Justin Fields can evolve into a consistently accurate er. And the hits he takes, both as a rusher and er, don’t argue for longevity. …
Talking Padres/spring training Monday, an MLB scout with another team began with Jackson Merrill.
“I love Merrill,” he said of the 19-year-old shortstop.
Trent Grisham? “Looks the same.”
Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo? “Just OK.” The scout’s not sold that LHP Jay Groome’s strong spring portends a breakout season. …
Among Bud Grant’s irers: Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell (La Costa Canyon High School, San Diego State). O’Connell met Grant a year ago upon getting the job. The two built a warm relationship through weekly chats. “I will forever cherish those conversations because they made me a better coach, a better husband and father, and a better person,” he said.
