The Minnesota Vikings is a team that plays football.
American football , referred to as football in the United States and Canada , and also known as `` gridiron football '' or simply `` gridiron '' , is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end . Minnesota Vikings . The Vikings joined the National Football League ( NFL ) as an expansion team in 1960 , and first took the field for the 1961 season . The team competes in the National Football Conference ( NFC ) North division ; before that , the Vikings were in the NFC Central , and before that they were in the NFL 's Western Conference Central Division . The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League ( NFL ) .