A hush will fall over the crowd on Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium, just before kickoff between the Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons.
The calm before the storm.
In that moment, Hall of Fame defensive end Jared Allen will raise his arms above his head, wait for that unmistakable beat to drop, then clap his hands together while more than 65,000 people join in unison.
“If somebody isn’t ready, for whatever reason, I promise they’ll be locked in after that Skol Chant,” safety Josh Metellus said. “It’s almost like a college feel because everybody in the building is doing it.”
As the tempo slowly picks up and the Skol Chant builds to a crescendo, Allen will put an exclamation point on the pregame ritual by sounding the Gjallarhorn from its permanent perch in the northwest corner of the stadium.
“There’s nothing quite like it,” edge rusher Jonathan Greenard said. “It really makes it feel like we’re about to go to battle.”
That type of reaction has always been the ultimate goal for vice president of content and production Bryan Harper. He has served in his current role with the Vikings for the past decade and takes immense pride in fostering an environment in the stands that provides an advantage on the field.
Where does the Skol Chant fall into that equation? It might be the most important part of an elaborate production that features everything from fake snow falling from the rafters to players running out of a tunnel shaped like a Viking ship that used to shoot fire before the NFL banned pyrotechnics.
Though the addition of the Skol Chant can be traced back to Sept. 18, 2016, when the Vikings were host to the Green Bay Packers in the first home game at U.S. Bank Stadium, the inception of the idea came a few months earlier — when Iceland upset England in the knockout stage of the 2016 European Championship to reach the quarterfinals of its first major international soccer tournament.
After bowing out in the next round, Iceland returned home to a hero’s welcome, greeted by more than 30,000 people that showed up in the capital city of Reykjavik to celebrate the accomplishment. A video clip of the celebration went viral on social media. It showed the crowd participating in something known in Iceland as the Viking War Chant, with everybody in attendance raising their arms over their heads, waiting the beat to drop, then clapping their hands in unison.
That sound familiar?
“We knew we had an opportunity to create a new tradition when we opened U.S. Bank Stadium,” Harper said. “That happened and it kind of smacked us in the face, like, ‘There it is.’ ”
As intrigued as the Vikings were immediately after seeing it, it was important to them that they didn’t rip it off. They wanted whatever they did with it to feel authentic at its core.
That prompted vice president of social impact Brett Taber to reach out to Football Association of Iceland on behalf of the Vikings. Eventually, Taber got in contact with team captain Aron Gunnarsson.
“It meant something special to us that it was coming from Iceland,” Taber said. “There was like a Viking heritage aspect to it.”
In the end, Gunnarsson gifted the Viking War Chant on behalf of Iceland, doing so with the help of professional powerlifter Thor Bjornsson, who has also starred as the Mountain in the HBO hit series “Game of Thrones.” A video clip of Gunnarsson and Bjornsson explaining the Viking War Chant was shown on the big screen at the first home game at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“They were visible Icelandic figures that people might recognize,” Harper said. “The pride that they had in it was really cool.”
After making some subtle tweaks to make it their own, the Vikings rolled out the Skol Chant before kickoff. A number of team legends were at the epicenter of the spectacle, including quarterback Fran Tarkenton up in the stands and the Purple People Eaters down on the field.
“We knew the key was going to be how we launched it,” Harper said. “We knew if we got it right, it was going to something that we could build upon.”
It was a steady build from there as the Skol Chant started to become more and more ubiquitous across the state.
As much traction as it gained in the early stages, the defining stretch came roughly a year later when journeyman quarterback Case Keenum led the Vikings on a magical run that culminated with the Minneapolis Miracle.
“We started seeing it pop up everywhere,” Harper said. “You really started to see it take hold and we knew, ‘OK. This is going to last.’ ”
Asked if there is a specific Skol Chant that stands out above the rest, Harper and Taber both pointed to the immediate aftermath of the Minneapolis Miracle. There’s a memorable camera shot of Keenum leading the Skol Chant amid of the euphoria.
“He just started doing it by himself, and then the crowd started doing it with him,” Taber said. “That was when it it was like, ‘OK. This is never going to die. This is a part of who we are.’ ”
The momentum has continued over the past decade as the Skol Chant has taken on a life of its own. It’s commonplace for fans to greet each other on the street by raising their arms above their head and clapping their hands together.
“It has become this rallying cry synonymous with the Vikings,” Taber said. “That’s even more special than what it means inside of U.S. Bank Stadium.”
It still means something inside U.S. Bank Stadium, too.
“I’m extremely excited to get that Skol Chant going,” quarterback J.J. McCarthy said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
It’s safe to say the Skol Chant has worked out better than anybody could’ve ever imagined.
“We hoped that it would turn into something like this,” Harper said. “Now we look at what it’s become and it’s like, ‘Wow.’ ”
What if Iceland never goes on that Cinderella run?
“None of this ever happens,” Taber said. “We never would’ve thought of it.”
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