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Iowa is disputed territory when it comes to the NFL. There are the Vikings from the north with generations of Iowa fans, and there are the Chiefs to the south with the game's most-dynamic and popular player in Patrick Mahomes.
There were also pockets of leftover Packers fans in the northeast corner, and some Bears fans around in the Quad Cities, if they still exist after Chicago's latest abomination.
There is very little dispute as to loyalties in Mason City, a city of 27,000 and located 24 miles from the Minnesota border.
"Almost all of us here are Vikings fans,'' Tom O'Neill said. "If we're going to a football game on Sunday, it's the Vikings. If we're going to a couple of ballgames in the summer, it's almost always going to be the Twins.''
There were four kids in the O'Neill family growing up in Mason City. Older brother Patrick was always more interested in flying than following sports teams, and he's had a career flying for major airlines. Sister Mary had lukewarm interest, and now lives in Colorado, and her nephew is Derrick White, an NBA veteran currently with the Boston Celtics.
The twin brothers, Tom and Tim, were the fanatics on the Vikings and the Twins with neighborhood pals about the time they started grade school.
"The last Super Bowl loss to Oakland … we were 9 and I cried so hard our Dad took us to Dairy Queen for sundaes they served in little helmets,'' Tom said. "It was a Vikings helmet. I might still have it.''
Jerry and Sharon, the O'Neill parents, were not attached to watching sports. By 1980, they were willing to get two Vikings tickets as 12th birthday presents for the twins, put them in the huge Buick Electra 225 and drive them to Met Stadium on Dec. 14, 1980.
Two tickets? "Yes, they dropped us off near the parking lot, went to the Science Museum or some place, and told us where to meet them and what time after the game,'' Tom said.
And you're right. The Tommy Kramer-to-Ahmad Rashad Hail Mary pass that game gave the Vikings a 28-23 victory over Cleveland that put them in playoffs.
A year later, the O'Neills dropped off the twins for the last-ever game at Met Stadium. When they met up after that one, the sons were each carrying a seat that had been pounded out of its moorings by crazed fans with sledgehammers.
"No problem getting two seats in the trunk of that Electra,'' Tom said.
The O'Neills, now 54, became family men with careers: Tom as a probation/parole officer, Tim as a high school baseball coach and phy-ed teacher.
Tim's in the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, having won state titles at Sioux City Heelan and West Des Moines Dowling. He's not coaching now, although that might not be permanent.
The O'Neills went in on four Vikings seasons tickets in 1999. The Atlanta loss notwithstanding, the dreams of a return to the Super Bowl remained strong.
"That's why we wanted to be in New Jersey for the championship game [Jan. 14, 2001],'' Tim said. "We wanted to be there to see them beat the Giants.''
Patrick the pilot got them on standby freebies to Newark. Another person arranged for passes to get into Giants Stadium.
The O'Neills roamed Manhattan until 4 a.m., looking at sights as first-time visitors, and slept a couple of hours in a hovel of a hotel in Newark.
"We got in the parking lot and were invited into a group of Giants fans,'' Tom said. "Gave us beer, gave us food. We thought, 'Hey, these Giants are good folks.'
"Then, the game started and they turned into wolverines."
The O'Neills stood in a lower corridor, trying to figure out where to locate themselves. The Giants scored, kicked off, Moe Williams fumbled that, and the Giants scored again.
Tom: "It was 14-0, boom, and the place was insane. A Viking fan, a big guy, came running out of one of the men's room, his pants pulled down below his rear end, and four or five Giants fans were chasing him, beating on him.''
Tim: "We turned around and there was an older man on the floor. He appeared to be in cardiac arrest. I got down there and helped give him CPR. Tom went running off through the mob of happy Giants fans, trying to find help.''
Tom: "I found a cop. Pretty soon there were five around the man, screaming at people to get back, get out of there. They came with an AED, hit him with the paddles. We were pushed back by then, and not sure how it turned out.''
It was 34-0 at halftime. The O'Neills left to get on an earlier flight at Newark.
"We were going through St. Louis,'' Tim said. "On the way they announced, 'Giants, 41-0.' "
Tom was telling the crazy story to a friend a while later, including the Giants fan in cardiac arrest.
"I saw that in Sports Illustrated,'' the friend said. "It was an item about having AEDs available at more sporting events. The man lived.''
Fred Oser was his name. He was 64 on that day he was saved at Giants Stadium. And he lived until age 83, with this opening to an obit that appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 13, 2020:
"Fred W. Oser, scholar, librarian and violinist, died of heart failure, overlooking the Manhattan skyline on Oct. 5, at the home of his partner, Linda Wasserman, in New York City.''
Tom said: "He had almost 20 more years of what sounds like a great life. That's tremendous.''
The O'Neills, still Vikings season-ticket holders and now attending with their adult sons, have had 20 more years of waiting for a fifth Super Bowl.
"This has been such a crazy, great season, and I think it's going to happen,'' Tom said.
And for that to continue, why not start with the Giants, forever associated with crazy for these Iowa twins and Vikings fanatics?