ESPN recently surveyed 111 NFL players to rank the league’s toughest places to play. The ranked voting system gave two points for a first-place vote, one point for a second-place vote, and half a point for a third-place vote.
Players ranked U.S. Bank Stadium among the toughest venues in the league.. Minnesota finished with 28.5 points, which ranked third. Kansas City finished first with 57 points, and Seattle was second with 41.5. The three teams were in Tier 1, places that can leave you “scarred.”
Despite U.S. Bank Stadium being indoors, players noted how intimidating the environment feels.
“You feel it,” New York Giants receiver Darius Slayton said. “As soon as you walk in there, everything is purple.
“You feel like you’re out of place there. That is what a good atmosphere does. It makes you feel like you’re in the wrong place. If you’re in a different color, you feel like you don’t belong in there.”
One AFC South player, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted to getting rattled by the noise.
“I heard that ‘Skol’ chant early and often,” he said. “Kind of scarred from that. But it’s a cool place.”
This shows how important it would be for the Vikings to get home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. The energy from fans gets ramped up in the playoffs, too. There is also the natural advantage of being the No. 1 seed. The top seeds are 6-2 since the NFL expanded to seven playoff teams per conference in 2020.
Other playoff teams in the NFC that received votes included Philadelphia (4th, 18.5 points), Green Bay (8th, 11.5 points), Detroit (10th, 9.5 points), and Los Angeles (tied-20th, 0.5 points).