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The year is 1999. NFC Championship Game. The Atlanta Falcons at the Minnesota Vikings in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis. The Vikings, on the verge of returning to their first Super Bowl appearance in more than two decades, can put the game away late by adding a field goal to a seven-point lead with under two minutes remaining.

Vikings kicker Gary Anderson, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, has been perfect the entire regular season, going into the most important kick of his life, the first kicker in the history of the league to ever not miss an attempt over a 16-game season. Overall, Anderson has converted 122 consecutive attempts, a record that still stands today.

So, of course, he misses from the relatively close range of 39 yards out. The Falcons drive for the game-tying touchdown, force overtime, and win on a field goal to reach their first Super Bowl in franchise history.

And that’s the rub: Field goal kickers are rarely remembered for all the made kicks and almost always remembered for the one that got away. Any human being perfect at anything is virtually impossible, but that’s the pressure guys such as Anderson signed up for. To this day, Viking fans will look back at that missed kick with disgust and wonderment.

Why then, at that moment, did Anderson miss for the first time in 123 tries? A short kick? In a dome with no wind? On essentially a carpet?

All good questions.

Twenty-seven years later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol now face the same exact challenge: Be perfect, or face the wrath. And in this case, perfection is the bar set by Democrats and legacy media amid the coordinated chaos created by the Left.

We saw this on display this past weekend after Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pretti was armed with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and not one, but two magazines of ammunition with dozens of bullets at the ready, if needed. He also carried no identification.

A WELCOME........

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