The moment will forever live in infamy for every scorned Vikings fan still seeking that elusive Lombardi Trophy.

On Dec. 28, 1975, the Vikings led the Dallas Cowboys in the final minute of a Divisional Round playoff game. That’s when Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach dropped back to pass and launched a ball to the heavens.

As it plummeted back down to earth, Cowboys receiver Drew Pearson gave what some believe was a subtle shove to the back of Vikings cornerback Nate Wright, providing himself the separation necessary to catch a touchdown pass that proved to be the difference.

Asked about the play afterwards, Staubach said, “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.”

That birthed the term still used today to succinctly describe a desperation heave.

It’s been 50 years since the Hail Mary, and while it’s long been the subject of much debate, yes, the Vikings still think the Cowboys pushed off.

The Pioneer Press tracked down some important figures from the sequence to get their perspective.

As the person at the epicenter of the controversy, Wright, 78, can still relay the particulars of the play with clarity.

“He was running a go route,” Wright said. “I was running with him. I saw the flight of the ball and I was going to try to take it at the highest point. As I began to jump, I found myself on the ground.”

Those words speak for themselves as far as Wright is concerned. He had jumped in the air many times throughout his rise up the ranks. He knows he wouldn’t have immediately ended up on the ground unless somebody helped him get there.

“It happened so fast,” Wright said. “I was in shock.”

As he laid hopelessly on the natural grass at the old Metropolitan Stadium — frankly, it more like natural dirt — he remembers seeing something fly by out of the corner of his eye. He hoped it was the official stepping in to make the right call. It was actually an orange that somebody had thrown from the stands.

“I thought it was a flag,” Wright said. “Obviously, it wasn’t a flag.”

Vikings tight end Stu Voigt, 77, still stands by his original assessment that he gathered from the sideline.

“My stance is the same as everybody else,” Voigt said with a laugh. “That it was a push off.”

He quickly followed up with a fact that supersedes opinion.

“It doesn’t really matter what we think,” Voigt said. “It still goes down as a loss for us.”

In a recent article published by ESPN, Vikings safety Paul Krause, 83, noted divine intervention had nothing to do with the Hail Mary, saying, “They just pushed off and they won the game.” He added that it still makes his blood boil 50 years later, even if some of his former teammates have decided to let bygones be bygones.

“It wears on me,” Krause told ESPN. “It was so wrong. I don’t want to come to peace with it. It took a championship away from us.”

That’s the hardest part for many people to stomach.

On a legendary run through the 1970s that included a few trips to the Super Bowl, the group that the Vikings put together in 1975 might have been the best of the bunch. Not only did Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton win MVP, the Purple People Eaters were still very much at the peak of their powers.

If the Vikings beat the Cowboys, maybe would’ve gone on to beat the Los Angeles Rams to advance to the Super Bowl. If the Vikings beat the Rams, maybe they would’ve gone on to be the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl.

That’s why the Hail Mary was so damaging in hindsight.

“It wasn’t a play from heaven for us,” Voigt said. “It was more like a play from hell.”

As he reflected on the Hail Mary almost exactly 50 years later, Vikings cornerback Bobby Bryant, 81, noted that it’s a shame Wright has been defined by that play despite the fact that his career was so much more than that.

“I felt really bad for him, because he was such a good player,” Bryant said. “To have a play like that go against him was really unfortunate. He was as good as they come. He just did his job and did it very well.”

Asked if he still thinks about the Hail Mary, Bryant couldn’t help but laugh.

“No, I haven’t thought about it since the last time we talked,” Bryant said. “I don’t think about it at all. I doubt Nate thinks about it, either. This life is way too short for us to be dwelling on stuff like that.”

Wright now lives in a retirement community on the outskirts of Tucson, Ariz. He’s taken a liking to collecting antiques in his spare time and made it very clear that he doesn’t think about the Hail Mary.

“I’ve moved on from it,” Wright said. “You learn to block stuff out as a cornerback so that’s kind of been the way I’ve handled it.”

He paused for a few seconds before acknowledging irony of that statement while on the phone talking about the play he’s been intentional about leaving in the past.

“It still lingers on,” Wright said. “That’s what I’m remembered as. I’m the guy in the Hail Mary that ended up on the ground. That’s the way it goes.”

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By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has overturned decades of U.S. trade policy — building a wall of tariffs around what used to be a wide open economy.

His double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country have disrupted global commerce and strained the budgets of consumers and businesses worldwide. They have also raised tens of billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.

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Trump has argued that his steep new import taxes are necessary to bring back wealth that was “stolen” from the U.S. He says they will narrow America’s decades-old trade deficit and bring manufacturing back to the country. But upending the global supply chain has proven costly for households facing rising prices. And the erratic way the president rolled out his tariffs — announcing them, then suspending or altering them before conjuring up new ones — made 2025 one of the most turbulent economic years in recent memory.

Here’s a look at the impact of Trump’s tariffs over the last year, in four charts.

Effective US tariff rate

A key number for the overall impact of tariffs on U.S. consumers and businesses is the “effective” tariff rate — which, unlike headline figures imposed by Trump for specific trade actions, provides an average based on the actual imports coming into the country.

In 2025, per data from the Yale Budget Lab, the effective U.S. tariff rate peaked in April. But it’s still far higher than the average seen at the start of the year. Before finalizing shifts in consumption, November’s effective tariff rate was nearly 17% — seven times greater than January’s average and the highest seen since 1935.

Tariff revenue vs America’s trade deficit

Among selling points to justify his tariffs, Trump has repeatedly said they would reduce America’s longstanding trade deficit and bring revenue into the Treasury.

Trump’s higher tariffs are certainly raising money. They’ve raked in more than $236 billion this year through November — much more than in years past. But they still account for just a fraction of the federal government’s total revenue. And they haven’t raised nearly enough to justify the president’s claim that tariff revenue could replace federal income taxes — or allow for windfall dividend checks for Americans.

The U.S. trade deficit, meanwhile, has fallen significantly since the start of the year. The trade gap peaked to a monthly record of $136.4 billion in March, as consumers and businesses hurried to import foreign products before Trump could impose his tariffs on them. The trade gap narrowed to $52.8 billion in September, the latest month for which data is available. But the year-to-date deficit was still running 17% ahead of January-September 2024.

Import shifts with America’s biggest trading partners

Trump’s 2025 tariffs hit nearly every country in the world — including America’s biggest trading partners. But his policies have had the biggest impact on U.S. trade with China, once the biggest source of American imports and now No. 3 behind Canada and Mexico. U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports now come to 47.5%, according to calculations by Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The value of goods coming into the U.S. from China fell nearly 25% during the first three-quarters of the year. Imports from Canada also dropped. But the value of products from Mexico, Vietnam and Taiwan grew year-to-date.

Market swings

For investors, the most volatile moments on the stock market this year arrived amid some of the most volatile moments for Trump’s tariffs.

The S&P 500, an index for the biggest public companies in the U.S., saw its biggest daily and weekly swings in April — and largest monthly losses and gains in March and June, respectively.

Need a recap of how Trump’s trade actions unfolded in 2025? See a timeline here.

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER, Associated Press

Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration of African culture and community in the United States since its founding in 1966 and also is celebrated in countries with large African descendant populations.

The holiday, which serves as a nationwide communal event reinforcing self-determination and unity in the face of oppression, spans seven days from the day after Christmas through New Year’s Day. It is observed in large, city-sponsored events as well as in smaller communities and homes across the nation.

Kwanzaa has grown in popularity in the decades since its founding and is celebrated by 3% of the country, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all released statements commemorating the holiday, and in 1997, the U.S. Postal Service began issuing Kwanzaa stamps. It is not recognized as a federal holiday.

Kwanzaa’s origins

Kwanzaa emerged during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s as a way to reconnect Black communities in the U.S. with important African cultural traditions that were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also promotes unity and liberation.

“It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s,” Maulana Karenga, the holiday’s founder, wrote in his annual Kwanzaa address in 2023. “Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.”

Karenga, an African American author, activist and professor, founded Kwanzaa following the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, in Los Angeles in 1965.

Karenga described Kwanzaa as a “political-motivator holiday” in an interview with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. for PBS.

“The idea is for African and African descended people to come together around family, community and culture so we can be in spaces where, in Dr. Karenga’s words, we feel fully African and fully human at the same time,” said Janine Bell, president and artistic director at the Elegba Folklore Society in Richmond, Virginia.

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The basics

Many people who observe Kwanzaa, which is a secular holiday, celebrate it alongside religious festivals such as Christmas. People of any faith, race or ethnic background can participate.

The name Kwanzaa derives from “mutanda ya kwanza” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits” or “first harvest.” The final “a” was added to the name to accommodate the seven children present at the first Kwanzaa, each of whom was given a letter to represent.

The holiday is governed by seven principles, known collectively as the Nguzo Saba, and a different principle is celebrated each day: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

The Nguzo Saba is represented by a candleholder with seven candles called a kinara. Each night, one of those candles is lit. The candles are the same colors as the Kwanzaa flag: Black representing the people, red their struggle and green their hope.

Large Kwanzaa celebrations happen across the country every year in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. These events often feature storytellers, music and dance.

The holiday is also observed in individual homes, often focusing on children because they are key to the survival of culture and the development of community. This concept of children and the future they embody is often represented symbolically by corn.

“The intention is that it’s 365 (days a year),” Bell said. “The need for the principles and the strengthening value of the principles don’t go away on January 2nd.”

Family celebrations also involve giving gifts and sharing African American and Pan African foods, culminating in the Karamu, a feast featuring dishes from across the African diaspora. Typical meals include staples of Southern cuisine like sweet potato pie or popular dishes from Africa like jollof rice.

Activities over the seven days are geared toward reaffirming community bonds, commemorating the past and recommitting to important African cultural ideals. This can include dancing, reading poetry, honoring ancestors and the daily lighting of the kinara.

What did Pro Football Focus think of how the Vikings performed on Thursday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium? Here’s a look at the player grades from the Vikings’ 23-10 win over the Detroit Lions:

Top 3 on offense (minimum 20 snaps)

Blake Brandel … 68.0

Jordan Addison … 67.6

Justin Jefferson … 65.0

Analysis: It’s honestly surprising that any of the grades were even this high with how much the Vikings failed to move the ball on offense. The pass blocking of Brandel was deemed to be a bright spot, as was the splash play from Addison, who took a jet sweep 65 yards to the house. The consistency of Jefferson was also on display despite the fact that he didn’t get many opportunities.

Bottom 3 on offense (minimum 20 snaps)

Max Brosmer … 38.3

Will Fries … 45.3

Josh Oliver … 50.5

Analysis: It looked like Brosmer might finish the game with negative net passing yards until a late completion that helped the Vikings put the game away for good. He completed 9 of 16 passes for 51 yards while taking sacks that amounted to a loss of 48 yards. The grade that Brosmer received reflected his struggles. As for Fries, he once again was leaky in pass protection, which brought his grade down near the bottom of the list.

Top 3 on defense (minimum 20 snaps)

Dallas Turner … 83.6

Blake Cashman … 81.2

Harrison Smith … 79.7

Analysis: The story of the game was how Smith turned back the clock with a vintage performance that paced the Vikings to a win. He was actually outperformed by Turner and Cashman, however, when it came to the grade he received. That’s because Turner was a beast rushing the passer and Cashman was a tackling machine that couldn’t be stopped. That said, Smith still ended up near the top of the list, which was very much deserved given the impact he made on the game.

Bottom 3 on defense (minimum 20 snaps)

Levi Drake Rodriguez … 50.4

Eric Wilson … 55.2

Fabian Moreau … 62.2

Analysis:  There wasn’t much to critique with how well the Vikings played on defense. There were a few missed tackles from Rodriguez and Wilson that group their grades down. As for Moreau, he only played in spot minutes, so his lone mistake was heavily weighted against him.

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