You gotta live with the bounce | Dorktown 

hey everybody! Jon here. just wanna drop a reminder that this episode is livestreaming FRIDAY evening, September 8th, 9 eastern / 8 Minnesota time. we just wanted to make sure to get it all in before the Vikings kick off their '23 season on Sunday. this way our history of the team will be 100% completely up-to-date for uh ... i guess about 40 hours or so. aw dang it

"but he's not there... He's here" GOD DAMN Jon knows how to write a scripts that gives me chills.

I want 2 things to happen now: 1. A way for me to explore that graph 2. A 7 second video saying, "Congratulations to the Minnesota Vikings, winners of Super Bowl [whatever]," when it eventually happens.

I can't believe we were all duped into thinking Jon and Alex had assembled a high quality 7-hour docuseries about the Minnesota Vikings, and they instead gave us a high quality _(checks calculator)_ 9-hour docuseries about the Minnesota Vikings. How can we ever trust these guys again?

you know something terrible is about to happen when someone's going to kick a game-winning field goal and they start talking about how good a kicker he is

I wish Bud could have hung on just a few more months to see this. I feel he would have loved it. Rest in peace, the most Minnesota Viking of them all.

The camera turn around when Bud Grant is walking out, with him in his short sleeved polo and the camera crew looking like troops in a Siberian outpost, was one of the most poetic things I've ever seen.

I'm glad we're past the 90's and 2000's. No more brutal missed FGs or losses in the NFC CG for our intrepid Vikings!

I watched this series with my parents who have been lifelong Vikings fans for the past 50 years. Hearing my parent’s reactions, especially my dad’s, to the many iconic moments throughout the Vikings’s history, from my dad declaring the Hail Mary pass a “complete push off” to us laughing our asses off at Jerry Burns’s passionate speech to being baffled at the call to take a knee to reliving the Minneapolis Miracle, has been a really special experience for me. I’ve grown a new appreciation for my hometown team and I got to do it with the people I love. So thank you Jon and thank you Alex. Keep doing what you’re doing. It really is something else.

Bud Grant walking out there in the cold with no jacket is one of the hardest thing I've ever seen in my life

Jon: Only winning matters Jon in every baseball doc: Wins matter less than the human appendix

As a Vikings fan, I've never felt all of my points of pain so laid bare. This was one of the most validating emotional experiences any sports fan can get. Honestly incredible. Thanks gang

Jared Allen deserved to be mentioned in this, he was a fan favorite during those dark times

My Dad passed away in a car accident on June 18th, 2023, he loved his family, college basketball, and the Vikings, he was 10 when the Vikings started playing in 1960. I couldn't watch this when it came out, I'm sorry, it was too hard, I finally healed enough to watch it and I wanted to say Thank you! You are master story tellers, I would say honorary Vikings, it was beautiful, it made me cry, he would have loved every second of the 9+ hours of it.

Seeing everyone try to take the blame for the 2015 seahawks loss was really endearing. No one on the team wanted to put it on Blair, besides himself

I'm so ready for Teddy-Two-Gloves to begin the 2016 season. 2015 had a rough ending, but Teddy's future looks really really promising! I think he might even be the piece we need to get back to the Super Bowl!

Jon and Alex can do what essentially no one else can: Get non-sports fans to care about sports. You guys are amazing. Thank you for all your work.

When I saw Bud come onto the field at 28:58 I literally saluted my screen to pay my respects to the man

For the nine plus hours of joy, comfort, and contemplation I've gotten from this series so far, and for the innumerable hours of re-watching to come. Thank you Jon and Alex for your thorough research, brilliant writing, and storytelling empathy.

2023: The Vikings come back from starting the season 0-3 to 4-4 as they take down the FINALLY bad Packers! ...Kirk Cousins gets injured. Season-ending. *Aw, dang it!*

What an amazing moment: watching Bud Grant march onto the field in the dead of winter one last time. SBN built that moment up perfectly in the script and the score. Brought a tear to my eye. Rest in peace, Bud. We miss you up North.

Congratulations to Jon Bois & Alex Rubinstein for doing great work on the History of the Minnesota Vikings. This was the latest masterpiece by these gentlemen...and it won't be the last.

This series has been a cathartic release for this lifelong Vikes fan. Christ. Its our story! Writ large and eloquently. I can't adequately express my gratitude to you guys.

Kirk Cousins to the Falcons definitely means you have to do an extra episode follow-up to both histories.

I’m not a Vikings fan or a Falcons fan from the last series… but these are so freaking good. Please never stop making these. I will donate to a gofundme for these

as a minnesotan, this is the best thing sports related i have ever seen. thank you jon and alex for making this absolutely wonderful series.

The emotional roller coaster from the Minneapolis Miracle....to the very next game, will be legendary

1:28:20 Man, this is brilliant writing. The whole thing leading up to "when you row, you don't face your destination" just hits. While you're moving steadily toward an unknown destination, you're constantly looking back at the memory of the albatross following you from a distance, reminding you of everything you've done.

Each and every one of these documentaries truly defines the statement of "How can yoy not be romantic about sports?" There's always so much love, care, and joy that goes both into each episode and each team and their city; it's absolutely incredible.

This is the greatest series in all of RU-vid history and I hope it stays here forever. Like with the history of the Falcons, it's insane to think how much work this has to take. Jon, Alex and everyone that was involved, thank you. Thanks for everything.

I’m gonna cry when Jon says “congratulations to the Atlanta Fal-, sorry the New England Patriots, winners of SB LI”, at least I’ll get to rewatch the Minneapolis miracle

Teddy's knee injury was one of the most crushing things ever

when you got to that moment of "Bud's not there. He's HERE."..man, that reveal made my jaw drop and start crying. fuck.

As a Vikings fan who went into this series with trepidation at all the pain I was about to experience, I walk away loving this team even more than before. Thank you so much!

Lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, but I absolutely love these hours-long series about franchises like the Vikings and Falcons. Somehow its a deep-dive into another city's passion for its football team and the reasons why that fierce love exists. I think i'd wish for my desert island playlist to just be Jon and friends doing these series for every sports team in history.

As a Vikings fan... this was a beautiful, heartbreaking gift! Would genuinely buy a copy of this whole thing! Thank you all for all your hard work! SKOL!!

Would love to see a behind the scenes video about the work that goes into making this series. You guys deserve to have people know just how much effort goes into these documentaries

If there's one thing about the early Vikings that helps everything make sense about the current Vikings, it's that there is a blood price for when things go right for this team. And given the season opener, 'Congratulations to the Detroit Lions, winner of Superbowl 58 or 59 or 60, this is their 1st Superbowl win' feels like the latest price in the works.

As a long suffering Vikings fan since I was 8 years old in 1992, I cried during many of those games. Many of those moments. I cried again watching this series. Thank you Jon for giving this fan some catharsis, knowing that while our team may not ever win, there are those that know our story.

This series man…. You have outdone yourselves, again. Watching Bud walk out onto the field on that frigid day in short sleeves, unaffected, brought a genuine tear to my eye. Bravissimo, Secret Base Team.

This might sound astronomically illogical, but the one moment that made me a true Viking's fan was seeing Walsh miss the chip shot. Something about that happening and knowing they never won a superbowl made me even more committed for the ride to see their first SB win.

I wish Jon and Alex and the rest of the team could cover every sports story. I don't really follow sports, outside of my college football team. But every single video that comes out of this channel is amazingly compelling and must-watch television. Can't wait to see the conclusion

At last the final episode! What a journey it has been! I can already tell this is going to be a masterpiece.

"Myths are an essential and beautiful component of the human experience... But Myths do not offer actionable information." Not only are y'all the best sports writers ever. Making me care about things I never knew I could love, but have absolute bangers like this!

28:25 to 29:25 is just phenomenal storytelling. One of the more unexpected and moving payoffs of this lovingly and creatively woven sports tapestry. "Where are you Bud?" Such layered writing -- we're at the point in the narrative where even non-Vikes fans are pining for the days of Bud Grant's heyday, and imagining the impact his actual physical presence might have for the franchise on that day. But he's 88 now, already turned down a coaching return. It's double digits below zero. No way he's here. "He's here." Watching Bud Grant walking astride the Vikings players felt almost supernatural -- I was compelled to stare, mouth agape, and do nothing else. It was as if I had seen Paul Bunyan and his giant ox strolling to the coin toss or Leif Eriksson himself donning the purple and gold and walking to the 50 yard line. By the end of this series, he felt like the folk hero of this uniquely American sports tale. The moment was monumental -- it takes a special kind of subject and a special type of storyteller to capture and magnify the moment the way it deserves. A testament to Bud Grant's entire life summed up in this entire sequence. It's bittersweet -- perhaps the farewell of more than one era (not to mention that this game is one the most vomit-inducing losses in the modern NFL): 1. the Vikings won't ever play at home outdoors again, and far more importantly; 2. it's a sort of swan song for Bud Grant and his era of coaching. Again, such awesome writing -- congratulations Secret Base (Dorktown team especially) on the whole series. It's unbelievable I can view this kind of elite content for free.

Bud Grant entrance gave me chills… no pun intended

Never seen a football game in my life (I'm not American obviously), but thanks to you guys now I have NFL app in my phone. Also thanks to you guys, now I wonder if I ever see the Mariners to be in the WS, and the Vikings to win the SB in my lifetime. But what if, what if they both happened in the same year? Wouldn't that be crazy?

The line about Vikings facing backwards to row forwards no matter the weather was PERFECT! A great way to bring home the meaning behind this history. That and the episode’s namesake (the bounce) are two brilliant analogies that sum up this anomaly of a franchise’s history! Great work guys!!

I hadn’t cried this entire series. I came close, but I’m a Vikings fan, I know pain. I was prepared for heartbreak after heartbreak. What I don’t have much history of experiencing is the victory of a hard-fought, close, playoff game. I’m not married, and I don’t have children; I can look back at the Minneapolis Miracle and wholeheartedly say that I have never felt such an overwhelming rush of anxiousness, elation, and overall feeling of relief in any event throughout my life. It was such a feeling of “everything is finally going to be ok.” Whenever I watch a highlight, let alone a breakdown as good as this series has produced over and over again, it never fails to bring me to tears again. Bravo

This series was overwhelmingly incredible. As a lifelong Vikings fan, just...thank you.

I cannot express the sheer joy this series gave me. This may be the single best documentary series about football ever made and i do not say that lightly. It is beautiful, funny, sad, and amazing all wrapped up into one. I know it is not possible, but i wish such an in depth series could be made for each and every NFL franchise by you guys. Thank you so much for your hard work and giving us this.

It's very weird for an artist or a creator to make Something considered a "Masterpiece". Jon, Alex and Company now have 3 under their belt with these History of teams Series. There's nothing else to say but "Thank you" for delivering Everything you got on making these ones. The next one can't come any sooner.

Waiting for a full 10hr long release to just have in my favorites. I’ve only lived through two of the last decades of hardship but hearing stories from my dad who through a good portion of it himself I still feel pride to be a fan and see where the team has gone and come from. This series you guys have done has solidified that. So thank you! Even if we haven’t won the big one

Thank you for this beautiful tribute to the only sports team I have ever followed. I live in Wisconsin, surrounded by Packers fans, and it's only made me more of a die-hard. There's truly something special about this team, and I'm honored that non-Vikings fans like you see that.

the transition at 1:31:50 sums up everything i love about these series. thanks jon, alex, and any other people who helped 19-year-old packers fan like the vikings for a good 9 hours. spectacular work.

DIGGS! SIDELINE! TOUCHDOWN! UNBELIEVABLE! VIKINGS WIN IT! Best call of Joe Buck's career.

i'm a 49ers fan, AND i remember watching the Minneapolis Miracle live, and yet somehow watching it with full context in this documentary made me pull a Matthew McConnaghey from Interstellar kind of cry. You don't get that kind of effect unless the documentary is *that good*. Looking forward to the next Dorktowns.

The pit in my stomach when I learned about Bridgewater's injury back in 2016 through breaking news alerts, knowing how serious a dislocated knee is, is one of those sports related memories outside of the game that I'll never forget.

Jon Alex and everyone at secret base, this was an incredible series. Every detail is perfect. The stories, the commentary, the music is unmatched. Great job everyone, this is by far the best sports channel on RU-vid. Also, in terms of story telling ability the Toronto Maple Leafs would be a great team to deep dive. The horrible ownership by Harold Ballard, the game 7 heartbreaks, and the current core 4 drama.

Thanks for being the best sports documentary makers out there and giving the Minnesota Vikings the amazing retrospective video they deserve. My Dad was a lifelong vikings fan and now I understand why he followed them religiously every season despite being repeatedly let down. :P

Your charts & graphs are absolutely unreal! On top of your story telling and general other abilities, the visuals you present are unlike anything I've ever seen in 3+ decades of sports Fandom. So much appreciation for you all and your series/videos/ideas!

I only started watching football around 2005 so I’m completely unaware of who Bud Grant was. But I distinctly remember an old man walking out to a standing ovation on the coldest day of the year in goddamn short sleeves and knew that this man was a legend.

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs, winners of Super Bowl LVIII, this is their 4th Super Bowl win.

Dorktown is the greatest series in modern sports media. They bat 1.000 every episode. I’ll revisit old series while waiting for what is next. There is nothing like the magic of these finely detailed tapestries. Thank you for all your hard work

This was not only the best dorktown/secret base video I’ve ever seen, it was the best SPORTS video I’ve ever seen. Particularly the story of Bud Grant made me appreciate this team and that man a great deal more. Amazing job guys, it was so thought provoking and emotional it made me cry. Every filmmaker should want to do what you both have done here and that’s provoke feelings and emotions. God damn that was amazing.

39:04 As much as I love both Teddy Bridgewater and Jon Bois, I'm going to have to push back here and say that it was either Vinny Testaverde, Josh McCown, or Ryan Fitzpatrick who was the originator of this subversion of the journeyman moniker, although I could agree that he is probably the best player of those four on a rate basis. Put all four of them on the Mount Rushmore of fan favorites with decent talent, unshakeable wills, and heartwarming feel-good stories.

Vikings fans i sincerely hope some day you get to rewatch this series after a Super Bowl win

hearing that a real human being at a real point in this universe has been inspired by a quote from margaret god damn thatcher is one of the most hilarious things i have ever heard

This was simply fantastic. The narration and storytelling- awesome. The graphics superb. 10 hours and worth every minute. Best graphic was showing the skyline on the last pass from playoff game from last year. The history, the heartbreak. We fans live with it every year. Thank you! Masterful series and I’m recommending to all my friends.

As a Vikings fan, unlikely football lover, and lifelong geek, this may just be the finest sports history series I've ever seen. I moved to the Twin Cities for my career. So, my memory really begins with episode 6. I love stories that combine heart and empathy with the context and data I need to truly understand. So, thank you for telling this story in the language I get, and so skillfully. You helped me connect with the past of something I love and affirm that yes, the Vikings are my team and not by chance. Because for me, the stories are what really matters.

I can think of no greater gift than to have a documentary like these to be made for my favorite sports team. Truly amazing work these guys create and hope to one day get a Phillies or Eagles one.

I didn’t have Sam Darnold as the Vikings new savior on my bingo card

Asbo-fucking-lutely amazing series! I also wanna thank you, as someone who started to follow American football in 2014 and chose the vikings as my team because i chose the timberwolves in the NBA 2 years prior all because i'm Swedish and Minnesota is where a lot of swedes ended up in the late 1800s emigration. This series has helped me a lot to get a better overview of my teams cursed history, and made me a big fan of people I only knew the names of. Like Bud Grant and Alan Page. So again, thanks! Looking forward to more great works from you guys!

Another total masterclass in crafting a narrative on sports. It still blows my ever aging mind that something of this quality could be made and just put up on a website for everyone to see without additional roadblocks and costs behind it. I can't wait for the next thing you guys make. Here's hoping its some obscure character or team from a sport I, as of this moment, don't care a thing about. If only so that I can get a taste of why I might should start watching or caring about them.

Unreal series. A+ work as always. I remember watching the Minneapolis Miracle in the basement of a friend's house. It was a party and a lot of the people were fans, but just as many weren't. People who were passively rooting for the Vikings but not much else after that. When the catch happened, all of the fans in the room went nuts (minus the Saints fans that were there). They were screaming & running out of the room. I remember looking at my cousin, who hasn't watched a football game in 20 years, start to cry because she could just feel the emotions of how big of a moment that was for Vikings fans. It was still one of the most surreal moments I've ever been a part of.

Y'know, I never cared much about football for the first 19 years of my life, it seemed useless to me, the kid who was good at math, for people to go hit each other and get concussions just for a sport, thought it was ridiculous. But if I was in a room with a TV and a football game, as a Minnesotan born and raised, I would always root for the Purple and Gold. Since my 19th birthday a few things have happened, while I still haven't hit my 20th it's been a crazy year in my life. First, my sister convinced me to go to a Taylor Swift concert, which was a nice family experience during which I became a full blown Swiftie. The second thing that happened was that, as you might have guessed, Taylor started dating Travis Kelce. This brought my family together, just hours before writing this I watched the NFC and AFC championship games because I was actually interested with my dad not even knowing I was doing that. And the final thing that happened was the PWHL was created and it brought with it an opportunity to cheer for the only other purple team in Minnesota. My dad is one of the greatest men I know, not the nicest or the most upstanding man you'll ever meet, but I can assure you he will be one of the kindest. When the Minneapolis Miracle happened and Diggs ran the ball in my dad yelled in excitement louder than i've ever heard him yell in anger or otherwise. A painting in the hallway fell as he stomped around more excited than a kid on Christmas. It was in the moment I saw the first Minnesota PWHL home opener goal that I understood what had happened that day and the excitement that my dad felt. After watching over 9 hours about the history of this incredible team I have never in my life been prouder to be a Vikings fan. I guarantee there will be a day that I will reply to this comment about a story of me , my sister, and my dad sobbing together as the Vikings either toss another Super Bowl loss into the dredges of history or, by the grace of the universe, actually manage to win one. Whenever that happens, that moment between my father, my sister, and I will be in no small part thanks to this series. Thank you for helping bring a jock outside his prime, a Computer Engineering Major who was the worst player on his highschool soccer team, and an artsy girl with a knack for chemistry together to cheer for a team that seems unable to dislodge itself from our hearts. Skol.

I knew very little about Bud before this series, just that he coached them in the era we went to the SB, but I would run through a wall for the man. RIP, hope you got your duck hunt in.

As an Eagles fan, I was hoping to enjoy the 2017 NFCCG beatdown they gave the Vikes, thinking you'd make it one of the sad emotional beats. It's true though, very few people remember that clobbering, but everyone remembers the Miracle over the Saints, it was incredibly memorable and I'm glad you made the choice to look back on the season and choose instead to appreciate the way the ball bounced. Keep up the good work fellas, looking forward to the history of the San Diego Chargers!

28:45 - 29:25 Just…wow The last walkout for Bud Grant in them short sleeves with AP, Teddy, and Griffen is a moment in history for the Vikings themselves, that group of 4 men WERE some of the best to ever do it for their team. One helluva moment that got me choked up

Thank you, Secret Base. This lifelong Vikings fan appreciates this incredible journey you took us on.

Actually said "wow" out loud at one point. Congratulations on a captivating series any accolades are very well earned

As a lifelong (25 years) Vikings fan, it was so incredible to see your breakdowns on all of the greatest moments before I was born, seeing all of the legendary stories I have heard of from family, friends and strangers since I was a child. This was an absolutely incredible series. Thank you all so much.

As a Minnesota Vikings fan I'd just like to say thank you to Alex and Jon. It's been a pleasure watching.

Once again I look back at the multiple times I have cried watching a series about a team I knew nothing about at the start of this journey. Thank you and your team for so much hard work, long hours of research and production, and true dedication to your craft.

Oh god, that missed field goal from Walsh was heartbreaking. Once y'all started talking about how he's been perfect all season I just knew he was gonna miss it, and it still just hit me like a truck.

That 2010 Minnesota Vikings season was probably the most miserable season ever for a Vikings fan. Going from 12-4 that close to a Super Bowl to 6-10 and everything that could possibly go wrong did. - Brett Farve had the worst season of his entire career - Vikings give up a 3rd rounder for Randy Moss only for Childress to cut him after 4 games despite the owner wanting to keep Randy. - Childress gets fired after an underachieving 3-7 start - Then if it couldn’t possibly get any worse, the roof of your own stadium collapses and you can’t even play the final month of the season there.

I will never forget the Minneapolis Miracle. Still brings chills to me all these years later

I was at that Bengals game when Teddy stepped back into the huddle for the first time in the regular season. You should have heard the way the stadium erupted. It brought my brother and I to tears.

52 years and counting as a Vikings fan, and reliving all those moments that I thought I would never want to see again...was amazing! Such great narration and detailed facts really made it seem like you feel our pain from a team that continues to piss me off year after year!!

This series is a masterpiece. I enjoyed your histories of the Falcons and Mariners as well but this one was your best. Thank you for making these. Can’t wait for whoever you cover next!

I have lived in the twin cities my entire life. I remember watching the Minneapolis miracle and being so overwhelmed with emotion that I ran into my mother’s back yard and collapsed into the snow. It was brutally cold as well and I remember just laying there crying tears of joy for a good 5 minutes.

As a young Vikings fan I didn’t experience the first majority of vikings history so learning about it all was cool but these last 2 episodes were the ones that I have lived and boy has it been emotional…kudos to you all for such a great series, I appreciate it beyond belief.

I’m high and the opening extended sail-team success analogy is blowing my mind Bravo Jon!

Another awe-inspiring series by Secret Base! Please never stop making these longer documentaries, they are some of the highest-quality, highest caliber sports/storytelling content on this entire website

Man thanks for this series. Nothing is worse than knowing whats coming and this may have been your best one with the cold chart

thanks to this series i became a Vikings fan even though i barely understand the concepts of football as a european, it was a thrill watching the drudgery of Vikes. i hope they can manage a SB appearance soon...

every new episode of this I'm like "oh god this is the 1998 episode" "oh god this is the nate poole episode" "oh god this is the blair walsh episode" vikings are such an enigma with how much they've won in their history, except when it matters the most

Can’t wait to get emotionally devastated one more time god bless you both

What an incredible series once again by Alex and John! I literally shed a tear at the end. The music, the stats, the graphics, etc… everything about this was carefully constructed and detailed amazingly. Thank you very much guys! ❤❤ Next do the History of the Chargers or Bills. Those two I think would be awesome to do!

These videos are so amazing. Visually stunning and the scripts have an innate longing for the honor of the sport itself. As a packer fan, I was expecting to get a good laugh out of the misery of the Vikings, but I'm sitting here feeling sorry for them, compelled by their history, getting chills juxtaposing the Minneapolis miracle with their entire franchise history. Thank you for the work you do. I will sit and patiently wait for the next "history of" series. I know it may be a while, but I know it's a while because you're working exhaustively to make the next one better than the previous. This was a fantastic watch. Thank you.