Back when the Minnesota Vikings played outdoors at the old Met Stadium in Bloomington and the afternoon sun began its slide, the storied front four known as the Purple People Eaters would begin a low, slow incantation to Odin, the Norse god of war.
According to team lore, the temperature on the field would plummet by double digits when the sun disappeared, smacking opponents with a deep chill and an unsettling sense of the supernatural powers of the Vikings' defensive line.
For their first U.S. Bank Stadium game before a full house since December 2019, the Vikings on Sunday will conjure the power of their past when retired All-Pro defensive end Jim Marshall recounts the story of Odin in a pregame show designed to prompt a rafter-rattling Skol chant by a near-capacity crowd anticipated to be around 67,000.