Waitin' all week for Sunday night!

I can't get Faith Hill out of my head this week. You know she sings the lead-in song on NBC's Sunday Night Football: "I've been waitin' all day for Sunday night!"

Now for the first time since 2000 the Vikings are in the NFC championship game, and Viking haters all around us are prepared.

They are already circulating e-mails about Hell being about ready to freeze over. (Cute!)

They are calling us "bandwagon fans" because the team is winning this year, not considering that most of us have been Vikings fans forever---through thick and thin.

They can't wait to gloat if we lose to the Saints, and if we win, they can't wait to remind us of the Super Bowl record of Vikings teams of an earlier generation (1960s and 1970s). Better to not make the Super Bowl than win your conference championship and get there, right? Sort of like our high school basketball team---you know, we never want 'em to make the state tournament because they might lose once they get there. Great argument! Especially if their team is one of those who has never been consistently good enough to reach the Super Bowl at all or only consistently good enough to win their conference championship only once or twice.

Another of their sticking points is that here we are, after hating Brett Favre all those Packer years, we are now cheering for him. For a fan like me who was at the first-ever Vikings game vs. Dallas in Sioux Falls in August 1961 (one of 4,954 fans at Howard Wood Field), I'm not about to forsake my team, no matter whom they bring in as quarterback. But no one can argue what a success that decision has been. After all, the Green Bay organization decided they didn't want him. (Thank you, Wisconsin.)

There have been countless ups and downs these 49 Vikings seasons, so many thrilling games, so many heart-wrenching losses, but that's what being a fan(atic) entails. One of the worst was the first Super Bowl in which the favored Vikings from the "old" NFL took on Kansas City of the "old" AFL. The later Super Bowls (yes, there were three more) were major disappointments but not the heartbreaking loss the Chiefs game was. The sight of that pompous Chiefs coach Hank Stram strutting on the sidelines of that game still makes me ill.

Despite the four Super Bowl losses, one forgets some of the dramatic playoff wins there were en route to those Super Bowl games. Fran Tarkenton, Joe Kapp, the Purple People Eaters, Chuck Foreman, Ahmad Rashad, Cris Carter, and all the rest.

One of the toughest losses was the 1975 playoff lost at Metropolitan Stadium to Dallas when Drew Pearson caught a Roger Staubach pass in the final minute and was not called for offensive pass interference. I had to leave the house and drive around the streets of Onida for an hour after that one.

Was it 1997 that we were one reception away from the end zone with the winning touchdown at Washington in the NFC title game, but a wide-open Darren Nelson dropped the ball at the 5-yard line. Another was the 1998 team, which breezed through the regular season and seemed unbeatable, only to lose to a pathetic Atlanta team in the NFC championship game at the Metrodome when a kicker who hadn't missed a field goal for months and months, missed one that would have won the game and sent the Vikings to the Super Bowl. A couple years later the Vikings again went back to the NFC championship game but lost to the Giants, 41-0. That one didn't hurt nearly so much.

Now the Purple is back. Sunday's 34-3 domination and demolition of Michael Irvin's, Troy Aikman's, Jerry Jones' and America's Team was oh-so sweet.

I still can't sit comfortably on the couch and watch a Vikings game. After 49 seasons there is always a sense of impending doom. New-generation fans can't understand that. We who were here in the old days have that sickening feeling in the pits of our stomachs that something awful is about to happen. But this is a new generation. Nevertheless, I need to remain standing and prefer to watch in the company of nobody but myself. Keep the "Skol Vikings" song on the computer, shut the window blinds, shut off the annoying TV announcers and listen instead to Paul Allen, and hope for the best. What's the worst that can happen? Get some obscene Facebook comments from haters? (Not if I block 'em! Ha, gotcha there!)

The game in New Orleans should have tremendous ratings in prime time. And it can't come fast enough. Win or lose, it's been an exciting season. And what fun to have a couple South Dakota "boys" as starters on that defense! I could name some people who have been watching the Vikings who, for all I know, haven't watched a football game in decades! Maybe it goes on for another two weeks. The media love the Saints, the world loves the Saints, the Superdome will be noisy, but let's play the game and see what happens. And yes, the Facebook goes off at 5:30 so the haters can't spoil the evening for me, win or lose.

Skol, Vikings!

And to keep the Vikings' song handy to play when appropriate, go to www.google.com, search for "skol vikings", then scroll down to find the song. I have it already to go. Hopefully there will be enough touchdowns and field goals and enough super defensive plays on Sunday to keep the song blaring out of the computer all evening on Sunday.

But if not, there will be next year. But till it's over, this is a fun roll to be on. Enjoy the week, Vikings fans. Like 'em or not, the nation and the ESPN "experts" are talking about our team this week, and perhaps even more so next week and the week after. The haters will say it matters only if you get the ring. Baloney! Let's relish in the journey.

Past disappointments aside, maybe this is the year we move beyond them and get to the other side. Maybe not, but here we are, still alive for the championship game.

And in the meantime, yes, I admit I'm a hater, too. But it is sweeter than sweet that the haters who say their team is the Packers or the Bears or the Cowboys or the Steelers or the Broncos or the Giants or the Eagles or whoever have no team to cheer for in a big game until September. The Packers' website this week is counting down the days to the Pro Bowl game. Ooooh, that's a biggie. And the Bears' site is counting down to the NFL draft. Ooooh, can't wait for that!

Play ball. And may the better team wearing purple win again this week!