Vikings Season Review – Top 10 Stories: #3 Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Roof Collapses

How bad was the Minnesota Vikings 2010 season? Normally when the word “collapse” is used, it’s pretty friggin’ bad. A couple of teams that come to mind would be the 1980 Soviet Olympic Hockey team or the University of Michigan Wolverines coached by Rich Rodriguez. But no, we took it to a whole new level.

On December 12th the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area was being slammed by a tumultuous blizzard. Up to 16 inches of snow were hitting the community and the Metrodome’s roof was certainly not immune to receiving its share. Stadium officials did everything from turning the heat up to 95 degrees to using blowtorches to knock the snow off the roof, but in the end Mother Nature always wins. You can’t fight cancer with aspirin, nor can you flight a blizzard with a hair dryer. Thus the decision was made late Saturday night to move the game versus the New York Giants from Sunday to Monday night.

At about 4 AM, while everyone was sleeping, Mother Nature had racked up enough snow atop the hefty bag like roof that the roof collapsed creating an effect that looked like Charlie Sheen’s suitcase being ripped from the bottom with white powder rapidly falling onto a felt mat. Or else you could just say it looked like a scene in the movie Inception.

Moving forward, this event could actually be a blessing in disguise. First of all, no one was hurt and that likely wouldn’t have been the case had the collapse occurred several hours later. And secondly, it accelerates and emphasizes the need for a Vikings new stadium with their lease on the severely outdated Metrodome expiring after the 2011 season. In fact if you rewatch the tape of the collapse, you can actually see Zygi Wilf dancing on the roof wearing his finest Armani Suit.

Jon Merckle may be followed on Twitter @thevikingpig