While he was most known for his Hall of Fame career in soccer, you may or may not know Austin loved football too. I knew because I grew up with him. I was his oldest brother.
Austin was the youngest of three boys growing up in the Daniels household located in the North End of Hartford Connecticut. He chose at 7 years old that his favorite football team was the Minnesota Vikings.
He thought their purple uniforms were cool. For me, a Packers turned Broncos fan and for my other brother a Raiders fan, this was yet another example of the baby brother not knowing anything and he'd get ridiculed for it. He remained undaunted. One Christmas he received a Vikings jersey which he wore until he just couldnt wear it any longer.
His favorite Vikings team was the 1969 team that went to the Super Bowl. He loved quarterback Joe Kapp as well as the Purple People Eaters most specifically Carl Eller and Alan Page. Bud Grant was his favorite all time coach.
For Super Bowl IV between the Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs, my brothers and I on one of those primitive tape recorders recorded every scoring drive. Unfortunately for Austin there was only one Vikings touchdown that by running back Dave Osborn. Final Score: Kansas City 23 Minnesota 7 For the post game celebration we let the tape roll. In addition to the TV broadcast ,one could hear my brother Howie and myself giving Austin lots of shit about the Vikings getting stomped in the Super Bowl. While neither Howie or myself were Chiefs fans, part of the sibling rivalry meant one could never stand for a sibling's favorite team to win the Super Bowl.
Guess which brother was most adamant about that fact? Guess which brother was the most obnoxious?
At the end of the celebration we gave the microphone to Austin. His crying response was "The Vikings are still good" As we grew up all three of us would listen to that recording till the tape wore out.
Later on no matter what part of the country we were living in, Austin could count on a phone call from me if the Vikings lost a big game and I'd hear from him if the Broncos lost a big game. The worst scenario would be when the Vikings and Raiders won and the Broncos lost. I'd try to avoid those phone calls..even worse was when Howie and Austin would be in the same town when that happened. Chances were they were watching the games together.
Austin got to experience Broncomania first hand when he was the head coach for the University of Colorado's womens soccer team. When he encountered more rabid Broncos fans than me he concluded that Bronco fans were insane.
When I ended up moving to Minnesota I think it was assumed by many Minnesotans that the insults and smack talk I'd hurl at the Vikings and Vikings fans was simply due to the fact that I was a Broncos fan when in reality it was something Austin had heard and was accustomed to hearing from me from the time he was 7 years old. It was nothing new to him. He seldom posted on Facebook but he did get a thrill from seeing how Vikings fans responded to me.
I visited Austin last fall when he entered hospice. I gave him a Vikings coffee mug
It's going to be different this year not being able to call him when the Vikings lose or to receive his phone calls but I think he'd think something was seriously wrong with me if I stopped dissing the Vikings now.
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