Prior to the 2000-01 NFL playoffs, the Bloomberg News service surveyed every head coach in the NFL and asked what stadium was the toughest to play an away game at. Twenty-one coaches responded and said overwhelmingly that the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Vikings, was the one stadium they’d most like to avoid. Their reason? NFL coaches feared the Metrodome because of the fans inside.

"If raucous fans were the most important factor in determining the Super Bowl winner, NFL coaches said the Minnesota Vikings would be the champions," began a nationally syndicated article run by the St. Petersburg Times on December 23, 2000. The Bloomberg News poll of every NFL coach revealed the "least favorite place to play an away game" was the Metrodome "because the noise from fans affects play."

This survey proved incredibly flattering to Vikings fans because number two on the list was Mile High Stadium in Denver. The reason coaches hated playing in Denver was because of winter weather and thin oxygen from being at a high altitude. Other cold weather teams, like Green Bay and Kansas City, both of which have a loyal fan base as well, received, according to the survey, "some votes."

The Metrodome enjoyed no such environmental consideration and yet still ranked as the best home-field advantage. That means the coaches would rather take an oxygen-deprived blizzard in Denver over the sanitized climate inside the Metrodome simply because of Vikings fans.

According to the NFL coaches—the guys who know best—Vikings fans are more intimidating than Mother Nature. Pat yourselves on the backs, Vikings fans. You are that good.