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Not from the beating his body took from playing on the defensive line over 14 NFL seasons, 11 with Minnesota, but from the arguably most disappointing defeat in Vikings history.
The 30-27 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game following that unparalleled 1998 season is for many fans the hardest to stomach of all the heartbreakers this franchise has been responsible for, because it impacted the Randy Moss generation as well as their fathers who endured four Super Bowl failures.
Randle feels your pain.
``Every day. It's a game that sticks in my head,'' he said recently. ``There's not a day that there's not something that reminds me about it.''
Even random references to Georgia and the city of Atlanta itself bother him.
``You kind of knew we should've went to the Super Bowl,'' said Randle, one of the stalwarts on the team that went 15-1 during the regular season and set an NFL record for points scored that stood until Moss and the New England Patriots broke it last year.
Randle finds solace in his current life, focusing on his family and playing as much golf as he can. He still lives in the Twin Cities area.
``In life you have mistakes. You just move on, and you just have to learn to deal with it,'' Randle said.
Randle became the 17th member of the Vikings' Ring of Honor in a halftime ceremony during Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears. It was quite the accomplishment for a guy who went undrafted out of a Division II school then called Texas A&I. With 114 career sacks for the Vikings, he ranks third on the all-time list behind Carl Eller and Jim Marshall.
Wearing his black warrior paint and playing with a relentless motor, Randle helped redefine the tackle position as a legitimate pass rusher in a spot normally reserved for oversized run stuffers.
``I always doubted myself every day that I went on the football field, and I tried to play that way — to prove that I did belong,'' Randle said. ``I tried to do that for 14 years.''
Randle, in his first year of eligibility, is among 25 semifinalists for the next round of Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. Also on the list of modern-era candidates are three former Vikings: wide receiver Cris Carter, offensive guard Randall McDaniel and defensive end Chris Doleman.
