Tomorrow never comes. Neither does next year, at least for the Minnesota Vikings.

It’s been almost two weeks since the exhilaration of the “Minneapolis Miracle,” not quite one week since the debacle in Philadelphia — and soon comes a week of leadup to the Minneapolis Super Bowl that Vikings fans had become convinced was destined to be colored purple.

Nope.

Generations of Minnesota fans are conditioned to expect failure. The Vikings lost four Super Bowls in the 1970s and have gone 0-6 in conference championships since. The Timberwolves and Wild have never so much as reached the finals in the NBA and NHL respectively. Even the Twins, with two baseball championship banners, are now 26 years removed from their most recent World Series.

The baseball poet wrote it more than a century ago: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Stefon Diggs’ improbable 61-yard catch-and-run as time expired against the Saints two Sundays ago, aided as it was by an egregious blunder by a New Orleans defender, turned hope into expectation.

So what if the Vikings were starting their No. 3 quarterback? So what if their rookie standout running back was sidelined by injury? These had been true for most of the season, and the Vikings went 13-3 in the regular season anyway. The defense was statistically the best in the NFL, the Eagles were also using a backup at QB, and the Diggs play had given the Purple a sense of destiny.

But just as the Mighty Casey struck out in the above-mentioned poem, the mighty Case Keenem and Company were thwarted Sunday in Philly. The Vikings scored the first touchdown; the Eagles scored the next, and last, 38 points. And it will be the Eagles preparing to play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl next week.

If the only result that satisfies is a championship, almost everybody has to lose. As fans, we can either be fatalistic and resigned to our fate, or faithful and optimistic. The latter seems the healthier choice. Treasure the joy of the Diggs play, shake off the disappointment of the Eagles game, and press forward. The Timberwolves are good this year, the Twins start spring training in less than a month.

Someday our titles will come, and they will be all the sweeter for the bitterness of the past.

— Mankato Free Press, Jan. 24