MINNESOTA (Kare 11) – Like many in the Twin Cities, Vanessa and Andy Hardecopf grew up Vikings fans.
“Me and my dad have had season tickets for over 25 years,” Andy said.
“I grew up a Vikings fan, that’s what we lived for,” Vanessa said.
“They were never playing internationally, so this was never a dream of ours,” she added.
Vanessa, Andy and their two kids, Ava and Tate, planned on heading to London for the game against the Cleveland Browns next week. It’s the second game the Vikings will play, after facing the Pittsburgh Steelers this coming Sunday in Dublin.
Those plans were almost interrupted earlier this year.
“They determined chemotherapy would be beneficial to keep all of this at bay,” Vanessa said.
Diagnosed with stage one breast cancer earlier this year, Vanessa went through four rounds of chemotherapy.
“My body’s getting back to where it needs to be,” she said.
While it wasn’t at the top of the list after her diagnosis, having the London game as a way to celebrate Vanessa’s journey made sense.
“When I saw London come up, it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Andy said.
“He started it with, let’s do Dublin and London, and I had to be like ehh,” Vanessa said, laughing.
“We backed it off to just London!” Andy responded.
They’ll join the thousands of fans heading from the U.S. to watch the games – and the thousands already overseas.
“It’s nice when they come over here, I get to see a win all the time,” Rich Dawson, Co-President of the UK & Ireland Minnesota Vikings Fan Club, said.
“The Vikings are really well supported this side of the pond,” Dawson said.
Dawson says he’ll be at both games, and they’ll meet up with fans at multiple bars. That includes Phil Ryan’s Hogan Stand near Croke Park in Dublin, and the Two Brewers and The Victoria near Tottenham Stadium in London.
“We then do a big SKOL march down the road all the way to the stadium, which always goes down quite nicely,” Dawson said.
Lifelong passion no matter which side of the pond you’re on – no matter what your reason for celebrating is.
“This is much, much more friendly on the sleep patterns,” Dawson said.
“Those international fans that will definitely bring us into their fold, and see how the Londoners do it!” Vanessa said.
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