The Minnesota Vikings have not played in a Super Bowl in my lifetime. They last appeared in one 45 days before I was born when they lost Super Bowl XI to the Oakland Raiders. So this isn't about their losses. I have excluded those because even people who were alive when they happened probably have fuzzy memories of them.

Since I actually been a Vikings fan, which I would say started in earnest in 1987, me and every other follower of the Purple have had our hearts broken several times causing me to not really want to watch the Super Bowl. Other editions of the big game were offensive for reasons other than the Vikings absence from the game we thought they would be playing in.

Here are the four Super Bowls that a true Vikings fan should have hated the most.

4. Super Bowl XLV - Packers 31, Steelers 25

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The 2010 Vikings weren't very good. Brett Favre skipped training camp and showed up late for the second year in a row, trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. They finished 6-10. Favre's replacement in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers, led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory over the Steelers and earned MVP honors. But jealousy of a division rival isn't what makes me hate this Super Bowl. The fact that the Vikings could have had Aaron Rodgers for that season and not Brett Favre is why it makes me cringe.

Rodgers was drafted 24th in the 2005 draft. That year the Vikings drafted Troy Williamson with the seventh pick. He was fast, but couldn't catch a virus and was out of the league by the time the 2010 season rolled around.

Granted, the Vikings had Daunte Culpepper coming off an epic season in 2004 and no one thought 2005 would be his last in purple, but it should have been more evident that most of his success was due to mostly collecting stats by throwing bombs to Randy Moss. Culpepper was also out of the league by the time this Super Bowl was played having just finished off his one season in the UFL.

2. Super Bowl XLII - Giants 17, Patriots 14

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Watching the undefeated New England Patriots go down to a last second defeat was an epic NFL moment. The David Tyree catch is probably the most memorable plays in my life of watching Super Bowls. It's probably the top five for me. But this Super Bowl should never have featured and undefeated Patriots team, and they could have instead faced the Vikings had history played out differently.

The Patriots acquired Randy Moss in a trade with the Raiders during the 2007 draft after he had spent the two previous years in Oakland. Without Moss, the most talented and dangerous receiver in NFL history, there is no way the Patriots go 16-0 in the regular season.

The Vikings were tired of Moss' antics by the end of 2004 and traded him away. What I'm about to propose is absurd, mostly because wide receivers by nature are prima donas that are never happy, but in an alternate reality where Moss stays happy in Minnesota and the Vikings draft Rodgers instead of Williamson, 2007 could have been very different.

2. Super Bowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17

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2009 was the most fun season for me as a Vikings fan. The twist of Brett Favre beating the hell out of the Packers twice was absolutely delicious. His Hail Mary against the 49ers is probably my second favorite play of all time.

My second least favorite play of all time was Favre's interception thrown against the Saints in the NFC Championship. Watching the Saints have joy after beating the Colts was also just offensive to me after all of the cheap shots that were taken on Favre. That ended up in Saints head coach Sean Payton's one year vacation from the league and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams being kicked out of the league indefinitely. The Minneapolis Miracle against them in 2018 was a fairly sweet revenge.