For Vikings fans on Capitol Hill, victory was sweet.
"Purple power," a smiling Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced as she served up bowls of purple Vikings-themed Kemp's ice cream that the Minnesota dairy had created and shipped to her office to help settle a bet.
Klobuchar made a playoff bet with her Louisiana colleague, Sen. John Kennedy. He bet a New Orleans king cake on the Saints. Klobuchar bet ice cream — a purple-colored, vanilla-flavored concoction studded with little chocolate footballs — and despite the Vikings' improbable victory, served up the ice cream when Kennedy and his staff dropped by her office to pay the piper.
Traditionally, king cakes — bright hoops of pastry slathered with icing and sanded with purple, green and yellow sugar — are baked with a tiny baby Jesus inside.
Safety-conscious Kennedy provided a cake with the baby Jesus curled up harmlessly on the outside, like a Saints linebacker. "See the baby?" Kennedy said. "That's the Saints player when he fell down."
And the bets just keep on coming.
Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz has belatedly collected on his 2017 Army-Navy game wager. Walz, a National Guard veteran, was rooting for Army and won a basket full of maple syrup, potato chips and a USS Minnesota cap from Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut.
Ahead of Sunday's Vikings-Eagles game, Minnesota Rep. Jason Lewis has laid it all on the line. By "all" we mean "a can of Spam." When the Vikings win, Lewis stands to collect a Philly cheesesteak from Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania. If it's the Eagles, winner takes the Spam.
