Super Bowl brings unique North Dakota interest

The eyes of many North Dakotans were on the Super Bowl on Sunday evening. For football fans, that’s nothing new, but this year’s big game brought many more reasons for interest from the Peace Garden State.

The first and most obvious was the fact that two NDSU Bison alumni were stalwarts in the Champion Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line. Center Jalen Sundell and rookie guard Grey Zabel did an admirable job protecting quarterback Sam Darnold and blocking for Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III.

It’s the stuff of movies and fairy tales. The two former college roommates now started, side by side, in a Super Bowl for the world championship team! Zabel was a first-round draft pick, but a rookie, and rookies starting for any NFL team is a rarity, not to mention starting in and winning a Super Bowl!

It shouldn’t be a surprise — the pair’s fellow linemen from a Championship Bison team are also playing in the NFL.

North Dakotans are well aware of the quality of NDSU’s football program, although the Bison are often overlooked or brushed aside by many because they play at the FCS level, not FBS (the top level of Division I College football). That’s unfortunate and unfair — not just because of the Bison’s success, but also because players from other quality FSC teams are also playing in the NFL. In fact, the Seahawks started three additional FCS players, including a previous Super Bowl MVP — Cooper Kupp.

The disrespect often demonstrated for FCS programs will soon be a thing of the past for NDSU football, as the program has just officially announced its pending move up to FBS, where it will play in the Mountain West Conference.

Another reason for North Dakotans’ interest in the big game was its ties to a team of which many are fans — the Minnesota Vikings. 

Darnold — the Super Bowl-winning quarterback — won as many games last year at the helm of the Vikings offense as he did this year for the Seahawks, although his poor playoff performance against the Rams last year may have been a major reason the Norsemen let him get away. That turned out to be a poor decision, with their young quarterback this season proving to be injury-prone and in need of more experience during a disappointing year which, at least in part, led to the recent firing of the team’s general manager.

The QB wasn’t the only point of interest for Viking fans in North Dakota. Former Vikings center Garett Badbury was the starting center for the other Super Bowl team — the New England Patriots — and former Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs also played for the team which came up short in the big game.

The architect of the Champions’ winning offense also had Vikings ties. The Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak, was previously a Vikings assistant coach, along with his father, Gary Kubiak. The running and screen game he designed for the Champions was reminiscent of what the two had orchestrated under previous Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and it resulted in a running back being named Super Bowl MVP for the first time in many years.

There was even a North Dakota angle in the famous Super Bowl ads so many look forward to. Last, but not least, this year’s Budweiser ad (often the most prominent among Super Bowl ads) featured, in addition, of course, to one of the famous Clydesdales, Coleharbor, ND farmer Brian Fransen.  A fourth-generation farmer, he reportedly called the experience one he’ll remember for the rest of his life.

The Super Bowl is a major event, nationwide and throughout much of the world, but this year, it was of special interest to many right here in North Dakota.