The following is excerpted from the book SUPERFANS: Into the Heart of Obsessive Sports Fandom by George Dohrmann. Copyright © 2018 by George Dohrmann. Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All Rights Reserved.
It is Week 11 of the 2015 NFL season, and in Lot 37 on the northeast side of TCF Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis, amid the parked cars and barbecues, amid the folding tables covered in food and the shade tents and the tall poles flying purple Minnesota Vikings flags, a special ceremony is under way.