7 Case Study: Why have the MN Vikings have never won a superbowl?
The scenario
Josh, Kent, and Dylan, who are huge Minnesota Vikings fans, are bummed out after their team had another disappointing season. They just don’t get why the Vikings can’t seem to make it to the Super Bowl. Josh thought the Vikings had only been to the Super Bowl twice, but Dylan and Kent were pretty sure it was at least four times. To settle the debate, they asked Google Gemini the following:
Prompt: “Why have the Minnesota Vikings never won a Super Bowl?”
The response
The Minnesota Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, despite a long and storied history with a high number of playoff appearances. The team has a strong all-time winning percentage and has consistently been a competitor in the NFC. However, they have struggled to win the “big one,” often losing in heartbreaking fashion.
Here’s a breakdown of their history:
Super Bowl Appearances:
- The Vikings have appeared in four Super Bowls and lost all of them.
- All four of their Super Bowl appearances were in a seven-year span in the 1970s under head coach Bud Grant, losing Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX, and XI.
- In these games, the Vikings were outmatched, often by dominant AFC teams. They were the last team to win an NFL Championship before the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 but have not won a Super Bowl since.
Heartbreaking Playoff Losses:
- In addition to their Super Bowl losses, the Vikings have a history of painful defeats in the NFC Championship game, which would have sent them to the Super Bowl.
- One of the most famous examples is the 1998 NFC Championship, where the Vikings, with a high-powered offense led by quarterback Randall Cunningham and wide receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss, went 15-1 in the regular season. They were heavy favorites but lost to the Atlanta Falcons after their kicker, Gary Anderson, missed a field goal in the final minutes of regulation, his first and only miss of the entire season.
- Another notable defeat came in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the New Orleans Saints, where a late-game turnover by Brett Favre and a “12 men in the huddle” penalty ultimately cost them a chance to kick a game-winning field goal.
Capabilities of GenAI
- Using a GenAI tool helped these fans quickly access historical information about the team so they could fact-check Josh’s assertion about the number of times they’ve been to the Super Bowl.
- A GenAI tool was also able to synthesize stories and statistical facts about a sports franchise from information available on the open web to help answer the initial prompt.
Limitations of GenAI
- GenAI can’t really explain why the Vikings haven’t won a Super Bowl or offer a clear way for them to do it. That’s because GenAI doesn’t actually think. It only tries to predict the most likely answer based on the information it has. It can’t understand the less obvious things that affect a team, like team chemistry, psychological pressure, and coach and player decisions.
- GenAI can’t predict what will happen in the future or give the team (or fans) actual strategies to finally win a Super Bowl. Its analysis just looks back at what has already happened and describes it.
- GenAI can sound like it has opinions. Look at the language used in the response where it mentioned “heartbreaking losses” and “painful defeats.” It’s predicting the likely words based on the sources in its training data.
Next steps for these fans
Google Gemini provided probable responses to the question prompt, but couldn’t answer the question. These fans might want to fact-check the historical data on the team that Gemini provided, but should take in some comfort that no one, not even a GenAI, has a concrete strategy for getting the Vikings to the Super Bowl.
