“…a groin kick followed by an uppercut to the chin followed by another kick to the nuts. Welcome to Minnesota.”

Alternate Title: I understand they’re calling the Viqueens loss at New Orleans last week the “12 Men” game.

You know, for that 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty that drove the ‘Queens out of field goal range in the 4th quarter.

Two years ago, sportswriter Bill Simmons wrote about “the 16 levels of losing:” a ranking, of sorts, of the types of sports losses, organized by sheer gut-wrenchingness.

The question he tries to answer today is: where does last week’s Minnesota loss rank?

Several criteria exist, and sports fans will argue over whether that loss was worse than, for example, the Packers’ 4th-and-26 game in the 2003 playoffs.

I’d like to highlight one of those criteria here:

6. Outsiders need to instinctively empathize during a Level 1 takedown.

Going in, they already know, “Wow, that team’s fan base has been brutalized in a variety of ways; this is becoming unfair.” So when that brutalization kicks into motion again, even casual fans with no real interest instinctively start rooting for that team to NOT get brutalized. It cannot be up for debate. There are no degrees. It’s like how we should figure out prospective Hall of Famers — either you know or you don’t.

I think we need a caveat: rival fans will have the opposite response.