When the “Minneapolis Miracle” struck pandamonium in the aura of our Minnesotan hearts of whom bled purple for their entire lives, I realized that I may have been one of very few Vikings fans wearing a Case Keenum jersey. If there were others, then I am 100% ten fold certain of the fact that I am the only one who was wearing a Nike Color Rush special edition version of his jersey that we didn’t even wear this year.

Forever these words will be branded into the brains of the brave-bold-bodacious Vikings fans for the rest of our future history when Joe Buck utterly sang the “sanctuarious” song that sonically sounded:

“Keenum steps into it.

Pass…is…CAUGHT!

DIGGS!

SIDELINE!

TOUCHDOWN!

UNBELIEVABLE!”

I don’t own many sports jerseys unless the player resonates with me, has a cool number, and plays with my favorite team. Well, Case Keenum hits all of those hard to capture categories. Also, I have very frugal tendencies so I habitually do not buy things for myself ever besides gas, food, and gifts for loved ones. Investing in a physical item for myself, let alone a jersey of a player is a major honor.

Changing lanes, when I was a kid, during the ’98 season I wore a Cris Carter jersey that my Father purchased for me. Boy, I wore that loud and proud, letting everyone know that Cris Carter was the bee’s knees. Yes, I was 6 years old and if you didn’t have a Cris Carter jersey on the playground, then you were not as cool as me. No one had that jersey and that meant that I was the coolest kid in school. Even up to the fifth graders, a kindergartener was cooler than they were.

I wore that jersey at least once a week to school until I grew out of it in second grade. My Father is the reason why I am a die-hard Vikings fan, and this may be the reason why I am very passionate about it.

If you’re hanging out with me during a game, and I am ignoring you because of what is going on the television then don’t take offense. Rarely, if I engage with you on another topic than Vikings football then that probably means that I really like and respect you.

Throwing it back again, in third grade, my Father bought me a Patrick Roy jersey, my favorite hockey player of all time. I wore that jersey every day for six months as the Colorado Avalanche made their Stanley Cup run. You better believe that I didn’t care about what other kids on the playground thought of me when I wore that uniform every day. No kid in Minnesota had that jersey, and at a young age, I took pride in being an individual.

I learned the lesson of being a trailblazing non-conformist kid, which follows my spirit till to this day.

Kid’s made fun of me so much that it was a huge problem, where they stole my jersey, pulled on it, ripped it, and tried to ruin it with glue and so what forth. This gave me tenacity and a crazy amount of mental toughness when I was only 9 years old. It was so bad that the Principal had to come into our classroom to set things straight for my class. I’ll never forget as a kid when she said that everyone needed to understand that they didn’t know what it was like to be so proud of something in their lives, and what it was like for something so powerful to resonate with them. Mrs. Wyatt, my third-grade teacher interjected that it was so remarkable of how she has never seen any kid in her 30 years of teaching, a student that was so prideful in something in their life.

Due to my grandiosity as a child, it got me into a lot of trouble. I needed to find other ways to be cool, and after that experience as a kid, I learned that the only way to do that was to be a good person. Therefore, I never wanted a jersey for anything else, for any other player, for any other sport for the rest of my life.

But, my Father was always there for me. Eleven years later he bought me a Jared Allen jersey, my favorite player for the Vikings at the time. Last year for Christmas, he bought me a Harrison Smith Jersey. My Father is the greatest man I know, and I will cherish those jerseys forever but nothing will compare to my Case Keenum jersey; the first ever jersey that I have ever purchased in my life.

After the second half of the Tampa Bay game this past year (9/24/17), I became a Case Keenum believer as I understood what he meant to me because of all of our commonalities. When he takes the field and leads the offense down the field, I am doing it with him in spirit.

The following Monday I customized a Nike Color Rush, purple, and gold, number seven Case Keenum, Minnesota Vikings uniform.

SKOL.

If you own this same jersey and have written about Case Keenum, then you’re almost as cool as I am. We could possibly start our own club because together we are the coolest kids on the block.

Fast forward to right now (1/14/18), as my divisional round playoff party ended, we left my house and walked to the bars to celebrate with a drink or two. Once again, I was the only one wearing a Case Keenum jersey, and everyone noticed.

Thank you, Case Keenum,for making me the coolest kid on the playground again for the first time since I was 9 years old.

SKOL, and you cannot forget that this Case is Closed.

Remember, “The Zos Knows”.

-David Zosel