I wanted to present a TLL-exclusive interview with Bobby Bryant for this Player of the Week writeup, but he didn't return the couple of calls I made to his office this week.  He works for glass-replacement company in Columbia, SC called Quackt Glass (clever, I know) as a sales rep for insurance agents.  Bryant certainly smashed up the Bears in Week 2, snagging three interceptions off the arm of Vince Evans en route to a 14-10 Vikings' win against their intra-divisional rivals. 

Bryant is one of those lost souls of NFL history, a guy who played a big role on a great team.  He was a starter at corner for Minnesota for ten entire decade of the 1970s, an era when the Vikings were one of the most dominant teams in the history of the NFL.  You probably have never heard of him because the team just never got it together for the big game.  Only Cornelius Bennett has ever played for more Super-Bowl-losing teams (5) than Bryant has.

If you're like me, you spend plenty of time bitching about the "evil empire" that the New England Patriots seem to have established in the AFC during the past thirteen years or so.  But for those of us who grew up during the age of NFL parity, it is probably hard to fathom what the league looked like in the 1970s.

A friend of mine, Brad Tucker, over at his blog I've Got Glue on My String did a much more comprehensive three-part examination of the Vikings/Cowboys/Rams rivalry of the 60s and 70s than I am going to do, and I highly recommend it:

Part I: Pre-Merger
Part II: 1970-75
Part III: 1976-80

But try a few of these facts on for size:

-From 1969 to 1979, one of those three teams was the NFL/NFC representative in the Super Bowl all but once.  That's 10 out of 11.  Only the Washington Ethnic Insensitivities in 1972 broke the streak (beating Dallas before losing to the perfect Dolphins).
-Between 1969 and 1982, at least one of those three teams played in the NFC Championship game every single season. That is fourteen consecutive years!
-From 1973 to 1978, no other team appeared in the NFC Championship game.  I don't even know how to get my mind around that.

Bobby Bryant's career coincided perfectly with this era of tripartite rivalry.  In 1967, he graduated from the University of South Carolina, where he earned the nickname "Bones" for his recklessness on the field and willingness to play hurt.  The Dallas Cowboys told him they were going to take him in the first round, "But then I heard they tell everyone that," Bryant said in an interview for the Vikings Web site back in 2010.

The Vikings ended up taking him in the 7th round: “To show you how much the Vikings thought of me, they had the equipment manager, Stubby Eason, call me to tell me I had been drafted. Nobody from ownership or the coaching staff called me.”  He had other options: the Yankees had drafted him as a pitcher in 1966, and the Red Sox did the same thing in 1967, but he always preferred football, even if he was going to be playing it in the snow and cold of Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis. 

It's a good thing for the Vikings that he did.  He made two Pro Bowls (1975-76), and still ranks second on the Vikings' all-time interception list with 51, behind only Hall of Famer and NFL all-time interception leader Paul Krause.  But Bryant's greatest hour (or greatest three hours) came in the 1976 NFC Championship game against the Rams. 

Los Angeles dominated the game early, driving down to the Vikings' 1-yard line late in the first quarter with no score in the game. The Minnesota defense performed an excellent goal-line stand (including a tackle by Bryant on Lawrence McCutcheon), and the Rams elected for a field goal attempt by Tom Dempsey.  But the kick was blocked by special teamer extraordinaire Nate Allen, and Bryant scooped up the ball, running 90 yards for the first points of the game.

“I was just doing what I was supposed to on the play,” Bryant recalled in the vikings.com interview. “I was too slow to get much of a rush. My job was to wait for the ball to be blocked and to pick it up and run it. I had a little trot as I came across the line. Nate blocked it and the ball took one bounce right into my hands, like a loaf of bread."

The Vikings built a 17-0 lead early in the 2nd half, but Los Angeles came back to close the gap to 17-13, and they were driving late in the 4th quarter.  As Ram wide receiver Ron Jessie appeared to break open in the end zone, Pat Haden targeted him for the go-ahead score.  But Bryant, who was actually covering on the other side on the play, left his man to step in front of the pass and intercept it right out of Jessie's hands.  He already had one interception in the game.

The TLL Week 2 game against the Bears may not have had the heavy implications of a title game, but Bryant's performance was no less heroic, with two of his three interceptions taking place in the end zone in this tight contest.