It’s not unusual for retailers, restaurants and other businesses to offer local sports fans a great deal if the hometown team wins. But deep in the purple and gold heart of Minnesota, one suburban McDonald’s accidentally brought the enemy to Minnesota Vikings fans, by way of promotional cups promising free food… if the Green Bay Packers were winners that week.

For those not entrenched in NFL football rivalries, there are some Packers fans burrowed into the sports scene in the wintry north, but Vikings fans for the most part would rather pretend their Wisconsin foes didn’t exist (perhaps because the Packers have defeated the Vikings 59 times to their 49 victories in 54 years, [tying twice] but who knows).

So imagine the surprise one Minnesotan got when he received a promotional drink cup at a Twin-Cities-area McDonald’s emblazoned with a Packers logo and offering a buy one, get one free deal on sandwiches if the Packers win.

@RandBall @PBbboese here is the pic of McDonalds trolling Vikings fans! https://t.co/kXBPVsLoXa—
Paul Severson (@paul_severson) December 07, 2015

Michael Rand at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune talked to a manager from the location in question, and says she was just as confused by the mixup as any other Vikings fan would be.

“I know there have been Vikings and Gophers promotions because this is Minnesota,” she told Rand. “It sounds like something that would happen in Wisconsin. I have no idea.”

After doing some more research, she confirmed that there had been an accidental shipment of Packers cups that had crossed the border, and some had made their way to customers. But in a sign of good faith, the manager said the location would honor the deal, considering the Packers’ last-second triumph over the Detroit Lions on Thursday.

That could be some small measure of consolation to Vikings fans after Sunday’s blowout defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, at least. Free food can go a long way to soothe an aching heart.*

*It must be disclosed how difficult it was (very) for this Packers fan to offer any consolation to the enemy, but I’m not a monster.

Shipment error leads to Packers promotion at Twin Cities McDonald’s [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

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