Mike McCarthy has made 13 trips to the Twin Cities as an NFL head coach. His annual visit to the Packers’ purple-clad division rivals took them to three different stadiums and saw McCarthy amass a mixed 7-6 record in those showdowns.
One thing was a constant, though, for all but the very first of those travel games. Now, as he’s set to return to Minneapolis with the Cowboys, that one thing has stayed with him.
Mike McCarthy is still not a big fan of the Gjallarhorn.
In Norse mythology, the Gjallarhorn (roughly translated from Old Icelandic as yelling horn) announced the arrival of the gods. At U.S. Bank Stadium, it’s sounded by a special invitee as the Vikings players take the field. Then during home games, it blares once again after each and every momentous Minnesota play.
The original Gjallarhorn, made by a local music shop manager, made its debut in 2007. There have been three versions; frigid temperatures cracked the 2016 model during an outdoor playoff game. Occupying its own pedestal in the stadium’s northernmost corner, the current edition is significantly larger, louder… and more obnoxious, depending on your perspective.
The tradition summons from the fans a frenzied roar every time it happens, creates an unmistakable soundtrack for those watching Vikings games on TV, and can make for a miserable afternoon for opposing players and coaches.
“Well, it didn’t play a whole lot- as much- in the earlier years, maybe, as it did the last two years,” McCarthy told reporters Friday. His Packers squads went 6-3 at the Metrodome and TCF Bank Stadium in the first nine years of the horn’s existence. Since the Vikings moved into U.S. Bank Stadium, though, McCarthy hasn’t won there again.
The Gjallarhorn sounded a lot in his three visits to the stadium built to resemble a Viking ship. He’s 0-3 there.
“Hey, it’s unique to their home-field advantage,” McCarthy said. “They’ve done a good job with their stadium atmosphere. Clearly, the new place is superior to the old place from a fan’s perspective. But yeah, it’s not the thing you look forward to as an opponent.”
If McCarthy and the Cowboys can keep the Gjallarhorn mostly silent on Sunday, it means they’re playing well. And that would continue what the coach sees as a noticeable trend of late.
“I think we definitely are a football team that’s improving. The evidence is there in our last two games, the evidence is clearly in our week of preparation, the understanding, the awareness, the speed of how we’re playing,” McCarthy mused. “It’s November football.”
In fact, it’s almost December, and Dallas has yet to notch an away victory in 2020. In this season that turned so quickly from Super Bowl dreams to simply scouring for the faintest silver lining, a road win over the 4-5 Vikings would be an important step for a team trying to stack together positives, no matter how small.
“It’s definitely a threshold we need to cross over,” McCarthy said in his Friday press conference. “That first road win every year always seems to be a little more difficult the longer I’m in this business. It would mean that we have three wins, but the ability to win on the road is clearly a must for us to continue on the path of where we want to get to.”
The Vikings are riding a three-game winning streak. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sounded especially optimistic during his weekly call-in to Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan.
“I don’t, in any way, give us a negative or a real handicap going up here against Minnesota,” Jones said on-air Friday. “We saw Minnesota play Monday night, and we know they’re solid. But I feel we can play a solid team and play well enough to win.”
Playing well enough to win would be music to the ears of Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys’ fans. Much more so than the deafening blast of that Gjallarhorn.
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