Falcons Set to Return to Minnesota Where Atlanta Sports History Was Made

The Atlanta Falcons will return to Minneapolis to play the Minnesota Vikings for the seventh time Sunday night since the two teams met in an historic playoff matchup.

The Vikings have a new downtown stadium, and the rosters for the two teams have turned over numerous times. Yet, for Atlanta sports fans, the trip should never really get old.

Minneapolis will always hold a special place in the hearts of Atlanta sports fans as the location where the Falcons won their first conference championship.

The NFC Championship victory came on January 17, 1999 at the Metrodome, which was located on the exact same site where the Falcons will face the Vikings on Sunday night at US Bank Stadium in Week 2 of the 2025 season.

The Vikings entered the 1998 championship contest as 11-point favorites. Early in the fourth quarter, it appeared Minnesota might cover that spread. But the Falcons erased a 10-point deficit in the final 15 minutes to force overtime.

Quarterback Chris Chandler connected with receiver Terance Mathis for a 16-yard touchdown in the final minute of regulation to tie the game.

On the fourth possession of overtime, kicker Morten Andersen connected from 38 yards to send the Falcons to their first Super Bowl.

While the Falcons failed to finish the season with an NFL championship, the 1998 team remains one of the best in the franchise's history. It will likely continue to be the most historic in Falcons lore until the organization finally wins a Super Bowl.

Before 1998, the Falcons had never even been to the NFC Championship Game let alone the Super Bowl. In their first 30 years of existence, the Falcons won two playoff games. But the victory against the Vikings was Atlanta's second consecutive postseason win in 1998.

The week prior, the Falcons knocked off their NFC West rival at the time, the San Francisco 49ers, 20-18 at the Georgia Dome.

Nationally, the 1998 Falcons are probably best remembered as the team that robbed the league of potentially its best ever Super Bowl matchup. The defending champion Denver Broncos were supposed to play the 15-1 Vikings in Super Bowl XXXIII, but the Falcons' upset in Minnesota ruined that from happening.

Instead of the mammoth showdown of Broncos-Vikings, Denver faced Atlanta, which produced another touchdown-plus betting line. The Broncos easily covered the spread, defeating the Falcons 34-19 in the big game.

But history tends to treat the Falcons' 1998 NFC Championship Game win as too much of a fluke for my liking. After all, the Falcons were 14-2 with a top-5 ranked scoring offense and defense. That Falcons team was also rated in the top 10 in offensive yards and total defense.

The team's 14-2 record in 1998 remains the best regular season mark in the franchise's history. Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a pair of 13-win campaigns but never a 14-victory season.

It's probably fair to characterize the season overall as a fluke for the Falcons. In 1997, the team was 7-9, and then the year after their Super Bowl appearance, the Falcons were 5-11.

Actually, during the two seasons prior to their 1998 NFC Championship, the Falcons posted losing records. They also had three losing campaigns after 1998 until Michael Vick arrived in 2002.

But in 1998, the Falcons were a dangerous team. Maybe the most dangerous football team the Falcons have ever assembled.

The organization is trying to get back to that level with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at the helm. He will face what could become one of his biggest adversaries in the years to come -- J.J. McCarthy, who was also a top 10 pick in the 2024 draft class. McCarthy defeated Penix in the 2024 College Football National Championship.

Neither Penix nor McCarthy were alive in 1998. They were certainly not alive for the 1991 World Series, another dramatic sporting event between Atlanta and Minneapolis at the Metrodome.

But unlike that series, the Falcons can remember the 1998 NFC Championship Game fondly. The first moment the Falcons were truly winners.