As Vikings players cleaned out their lockers on Monday, turning in their tablets with their electronic playbooks and tossing their personal belongings into silver plastic bags, they bid a brief farewell to a building that, only 24 hours earlier, seemed destined for a grander sendoff.
Had the Vikings beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, they planned to prepare for the Super Bowl, use their own locker rooms and conduct press conferences at their facility in Eden Prairie. The NFL had planned for the Vikings to stay at Winter Park if they’d won the NFC. In what would have been its final act before the team moved to Eagan, the 37-year-old facility, which had staged preparations for four NFC title game losses, would have held practices for the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.