Latest / The Skol Hop / Some Vikings Offseason Thoughts and Best Vikings to Wear Numbers 40-59 | TSH Ep. 47

Transcript

Some Vikings Offseason Thoughts and Best Vikings to Wear Numbers 40-59 | TSH Ep. 47 · The Skol Hop

• 0:23
  All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the school.
• 0:26
  Hot I'm having and I'm Austin. We're's a couple of duds from Iowa.
• 0:29
  We like drinking beer talking about the Vikings. Absolutely we do, and
• 0:32
  we got a good beer this week. I'm excited. It's a mystery.
• 0:36
  I say that I've never tried this beer, but we've tried the brewery and
• 0:40
  the beer looks good, so I'm excited to try it. You know what
• 0:42
  else looks good is your foil wrapping job. You know, you get enough
• 0:46
  brief for something and you gotta you gotta change it. This is next level.
• 0:51
  Pay no mind to the transparent tape on the scene. I did notice
• 0:57
  that, but if it's what keeps it together, and there you go,
• 1:00
  that's true. But yeah, I will say I tried the hardest on this
• 1:04
  foil wrap job, harder than I ever have before. So nicely done.
• 1:08
  Well we'll get into that in just a minute, but before we do,
• 1:11
  we better thank our friends over at Big Top Ventures for sponsoring today's episode.
• 1:18
  So yeah, quick shout out to them. Quick shout out to Big Top
• 1:22
  Ventures for sponsoring today's episode. They can get you the lowest rate possible on
• 1:26
  several all inclusive resorts in Mexico or Jamaica. Big Top Ventures step right up
• 1:30
  to your next big adventure and you can email them at Big Top Ventures at
• 1:36
  LLC. I almost forgot that part, Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot
• 1:40
  com, So that'll be down here on the screen, and yeah, shoot
• 1:44
  them an email if you're interested in checking them out, and please do.
• 1:47
  I just one. Am I a week just over a week since I've been
• 1:51
  down there, and I want to go back to kN Kun today. That'd
• 1:56
  be awesome if I could get a flight right now, and if I could,
• 1:59
  I know Big Top be able to hook me up. But yeah,
• 2:01
  it's it's a good time. And yeah, I'll definitely be booking through them
• 2:06
  again, hopefully sometimes definitely hoping to in the future, so your wife would
• 2:10
  appreciate it. All right, let's get into this beer. Yeah, so
• 2:15
  another week of some tall boys here. Yeah. Yeah, you know,
• 2:19
  you kind of can't go away from tall boys on you once you start getting
• 2:23
  on that train. So so I did. I found this one at our
• 2:27
  favorite spot and I really wanted to try it. I have never tried it.
• 2:30
  I would venture to say that you've never had this one either, But
• 2:35
  yeah, I think it's still guessable. You should be able to get the
• 2:38
  type of beer, the alcohol content, and with some with some help,
• 2:44
  you'll be able to get the brewery, all right, all right, so
• 2:46
  do this, let's crack them open. Always a good chance to remind our
• 2:52
  audience out there that if you're listening, you might want to watch. On
• 2:58
  YouTuber Spotify, you can watch us pour the beer each week, get a
• 3:02
  sense of what we're drinking. You can even find some clips on Facebook from
• 3:06
  time and again. Yea, and yeah, we are not hard to find
• 3:09
  the skull hop everywhere. So what are you thinking of? What are you
• 3:13
  seeing on this beer? What are you smelling? What are your thoughts?
• 3:16
  So my first thought and you said it's one that we haven't had, so
• 3:23
  this would be wrong. But it looks and smells like big Grove arms race.
• 3:30
  Okay, I see what you mean. That is an amber look a
• 3:32
  darker look beer. And this one is also a darker beer. It it's
• 3:39
  not you can't really see through this. This is looking very hazy looking beer.
• 3:49
  Using my words carefully here, Yeah, have you tried it yet?
• 3:52
  Did you just take a sip? Or wait and waiting for that. Let's
• 3:54
  try at school school. Wow. Okay, that's interesting. That is interesting.
• 4:04
  It's got like a a hit of a flavor that I did not expect.
• 4:10
  You don't normally get that kind of I'll almost say, like caramelly te
• 4:15
  type flavor that just comes through at the end. Is that right? Is
• 4:18
  kind of hitting it there. There's some sweetness in there, but there's also
• 4:21
  some happy bitterness as well. It's it's balanced. I think in a lot
• 4:27
  of ways. I like it. This may be the thickest looking non porter
• 4:30
  beer I've ever seen. So it's not a porter. Okay, oh you
• 4:35
  got me? Process of elimination. Yeah again, I need to choose my
• 4:41
  words carefully, okay, gosh. Yeah, So listeners, while he's thinking,
• 4:49
  I'll describe it a little bit more. It's pretty thick looking. It
• 4:53
  has would you say, like a caramel look to it. It does color,
• 4:58
  and it's very viscosity. It's got a nice, i don't know,
• 5:08
  earthy ip a happy flavor. It's definitely got a strong hop character to it.
• 5:16
  But then yeah, it finishes nice and sweet on the back end.
• 5:23
  Is it caramel or caramel? That's kind of the flavor I'm getting. Nothing
• 5:28
  in the name of this says caramel or anything like that. I was more
• 5:31
  concerned about the pronunciation. It's a personal choice. But if you say anything
• 5:35
  other than caramel, you're wrong. Okay, Yeah, I had to think
• 5:41
  about what I say there. I think I've said it both ways. Probably
• 5:46
  data data, I've said both the same or yeah, you know what I'm
• 5:51
  saying. All right, this is tough. Actually you said this would be
• 5:58
  easy, but I think you be able to guess it, So just take
• 6:00
  it one step at a time. Type. What do you think about type?
• 6:03
  I think it's I'm gonna go with it like a hoppy amber. Oh
• 6:10
  okay, so you're saying hoppy amber official guess mmmm going yeah, going,
• 6:17
  all right, all right, well you're wrong on that. It's a it's
• 6:21
  a double dry hopped hazy I p a. H okay, Well that would
• 6:27
  make sense because yeah, it's very hazy first of all. And yeah,
• 6:35
  that that hop character is strong, but it's not the it's not the typical
• 6:42
  color that I would it's not as light. No, just off the color.
• 6:46
  I can see why you guessed amber. And it's got that that almost
• 6:49
  darker flavor, so I can also off the flavor kind of see why why
• 6:55
  you would think of that. That's why it reminded me of arms race,
• 6:58
  because that has the happy I p A flavor to it, but it also
• 7:02
  has the maltiness of an amber beer. So okay, So it's a double
• 7:09
  dry hopped hazy I p A. I'm gonna guess the abb is. Let's
• 7:15
  go six point three percent. Oh oh, now I'm second guessing myself a
• 7:23
  little bit. I had to peel the foil back last week to check.
• 7:27
  I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say, you're definitely wrong. You're you're undershooting it
• 7:30
  a lot. I'm undershooting. Yeah, but I want to, boy,
• 7:33
  I want to figure out if I can. Oh man, I'm not looking.
• 7:39
  I'm looking at the camera, all right, I know it's on the
• 7:44
  can. You picked the wrong spot, so I did, So goodness?
• 7:51
  Is it seven eight? It definitely tastes. Oh, you are wrong.
• 7:58
  It is eight point five? Who good thing? We only have a four
• 8:03
  pack? Yeah? Eight point four two point five? Awo point five?
• 8:09
  Okay, it's four pack hazy a double dry hopped hazy IPA eight point five
• 8:16
  percent. So you're ozerver two so far brewery. Last one's a brewery,
• 8:26
  Okay, Is this a brewery that we might travel to it's coming up.
• 8:31
  Is it on the list, it's potentially on the list. Is it in
• 8:37
  a smaller town or a bigger town, or it's in a bigger area okay,
• 8:43
  very big area des Moines? Well that area okay, so it's in
• 8:48
  the Des Moines area. Yeah. Our football team lost to this this city's
• 8:56
  football team in the state championship one year when we were in hi school.
• 9:01
  Mm hmm, so that would be west of mine. No, no,
• 9:09
  unless I'm mistaken on high school football, it's an ancony. Yeah, maybe
• 9:20
  we did. Yeah, I did an in a championship game. Okay,
• 9:22
  so it's an ankony. I gotta go to the list and look, go
• 9:28
  to the list all the brewery we have had this brewery before. Fire Trucker.
• 9:33
  It is fire Trucker. All right there you are, all right man,
• 9:37
  Well i'll give that to you. I'll say that you got the brewery
• 9:39
  Firetrucker eight and a half percent. What's the name, what's the can look
• 9:43
  like? Let's open it up. So I've already got mine open here.
• 9:48
  It's one I've never even seen before, so I don't know how new it
• 9:50
  is. It is the fire Trucker, Tropical Burn Mango double I PA.
• 9:58
  So I don't know how much mango I'm getting. I'm not getting a lot
• 10:03
  of mango. But that's not to say it's not a great beer. It's
• 10:05
  a really good beer. It has like a if I had never tried it
• 10:11
  and didn't know exactly what it was, I feel like, just tasting it,
• 10:13
  i'd say something similar to what you said. I'd probably say like an
• 10:16
  ambery ipa instead of a happy amber same thing. It's just, you know,
• 10:22
  but the color makes sense with the mango. I think that. And
• 10:26
  now that I know that it's a mango, I can taste the mango,
• 10:30
  and I think that's what adds a lot of the sweetness to it. Yeah,
• 10:33
  I'm still getting a lot of and maybe it's just my taste. The
• 10:37
  caramelly vibes to it a little bit since you said it, that's what you
• 10:39
  taste a little bit in a great way. I like this one a lot.
• 10:43
  What do you think? Yeah? I do too. Double ipa with
• 10:46
  sweet citrus and mango flavors, well balanced hops beer is art, it says.
• 10:54
  I don't see anywhere where it says what hops they use. But there's
• 10:56
  a QR code on there, and maybe I'll scan that at one point and
• 10:58
  try year it not. But yeah, fire truck are really good. I
• 11:01
  like this a lot good stuff. I like it. I think the only
• 11:05
  thing that would keep me from getting this a lot of times and getting a
• 11:09
  lot of it is that high alcohol content. Yeah, but I mean if
• 11:13
  you're looking for one or two to enjoy and to really end your day,
• 11:18
  and maybe it's just me, maybe eight and a half, which is quite
• 11:22
  a bit for me. Maybe that's you know, nothing for some people.
• 11:26
  But for me, if I was gonna have one or two of these,
• 11:28
  it would be like my last one or two of the day, yep,
• 11:31
  and I would enjoy it very much. So yeah, good one Fire Trucker,
• 11:37
  Tropical Burn, Mango double IPA. And unless you have any thoughts on
• 11:41
  it right now, we can kind of give a fully rounded thought on it
• 11:46
  towards the end of the episode. Let's enjoy the rest of all we got
• 11:48
  here and we talk about it in a little bit. Yeah, it's gol
• 11:52
  it's goal, all right. So you rounded up a few articles for us
• 11:58
  to hit really quick. It's been a few weeks since we've really touched on
• 12:01
  like Vikings news yep. And of course we're kind of in the like lull
• 12:05
  of the off season here. Most of the players aren't even at the facility.
• 12:09
  They're on vacation, sipping my ties on the beach and good for them
• 12:15
  something, you know. So not a lot of news coming out of the
• 12:18
  NFL right now, but of course there are some storylines that we're following,
• 12:26
  and with a lot of the stuff that's happened in the off season that has
• 12:31
  kind of dictated a lot of what could happen that the writing is starting to
• 12:37
  kind of appear on the wall a little bit, so to speak, in
• 12:41
  terms of what could happen here in the future. So we got a couple
• 12:45
  of things here to talk about. First, we could talk about Dalton Reisner.
• 12:48
  So the Vikings brought him back, which is exciting, and Dustin Baker,
• 12:54
  our friend of the show, wrote an article talking about how that could
• 12:58
  be kind of an undercover roster battle. Yeah. I mean, I think
• 13:03
  we were all super stoked, or most fans were pretty stoked when they re
• 13:09
  signed Reisner. I feel like at worst you just didn't care because he's not
• 13:13
  a player that I don't think, he's very divisive It's just I feel like
• 13:16
  you either love Reisner and are super happy that he's on a team again,
• 13:20
  or I mean, you can take him or leave him. I think we
• 13:24
  were both in the camp of we like the guy. He's a good,
• 13:28
  good dude. He's great in the locker room. He seems to be very
• 13:31
  good on the field, and the offensive line in general in twenty twenty three
• 13:37
  seemed to skyrocket pretty good once he cracked the starting lineup. Now, there's
• 13:43
  probably some factors to that. I don't know, if maybe something was going
• 13:48
  on with Ezra Cleveland, who obviously is very good, he just got a
• 13:50
  pretty decent contract with Jacksonville, or maybe ed Ingram started to figure some things
• 13:58
  out that he hadn't been figuring out, or the ball just bounced the biking's
• 14:01
  way a couple of times as far as the offensive line went, you know.
• 14:05
  But yeah, he did seem to be an upgrade last year, and
• 14:09
  we were both excited when he signed. However, when he did sign,
• 14:13
  once we figured out the details, it was like the same or even less
• 14:16
  money than Blake Brandell is getting. Which, hey, if Brandell gets the
• 14:22
  starting job and if he's the guy, then that's fine. That's awesome.
• 14:24
  I think we're both fans of the team first and then the players. But
• 14:28
  yeah, Baker's article, Baker, Dustin Baker's article kind of talks about how
• 14:35
  that is going to end up being more of a battle for Reisner to get
• 14:39
  a starting job, whether it's on the left or right at the guard spot,
• 14:45
  and he kind of outlines too. Dustin Baker had a tweet sometime in
• 14:48
  the last week or so. It was a poll and basically asking like,
• 14:52
  hey, Vikings fans, if you had to choose, if it was up
• 14:56
  to you, if you had to choose, what would your combination of starting
• 14:58
  guards be? And he listed out the handful of combination of guards with Riisner,
• 15:07
  Brandell, and Ingram, all options at the various spots. And what
• 15:11
  did that poll end up looking like? Yeah, so the majority says they
• 15:18
  would prefer or they think the most likely outcome is Riisner on the left and
• 15:24
  Ingram on the right. Interesting, okay, forty one point six percent.
• 15:28
  What I find interesting about the poll is the next most popular option was Riisner
• 15:35
  and Brandell left and right, Ingram on the bench, which is interesting.
• 15:41
  I think it also that kind of shows what fans do and don't really know.
• 15:48
  Fans like you and me, we like the names. You know,
• 15:50
  we like the team first obviously, but we also like the names, and
• 15:52
  we we saw Riisner be the guy to make things step up, like I
• 15:58
  just said, so we automatically think, oh, they signed Reisner back,
• 16:03
  pencil him in. He is the starting guard. But then we also know
• 16:07
  Brandell has kind of been there a little bit. Some fans still remember the
• 16:11
  struggles that Ed Ingram had his first first season and then the first couple of
• 16:17
  games of last season, So I can see kind of why a pull like
• 16:21
  that might end up with the Reisner Brandell rather than Reisner and Ingram. I
• 16:26
  could also see any any one of those combinations be true and frankly, as
• 16:32
  fans, and something Dustin said on our show just a handful of weeks ago,
• 16:37
  we should be pretty comfortable trusting Kevin O'Connell and his regime in their decisions
• 16:45
  on the offensive line, because they tend to be productive decisions regardless of who's
• 16:52
  in there. We should just think, think the coaches and trust that they
• 16:56
  know what they're doing, because they've proven that they've known what they're doing.
• 16:59
  The line is one the better ones in the league. I think our offense
• 17:03
  will have a little bit of an identity crisis to figure out because it's been
• 17:08
  Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson for so long and that's made the offense and naturally
• 17:15
  it's been this way with Kevin O'Connell calling the plays too, just naturally a
• 17:19
  pass heavy scheme which has worked really well when you have a high level quarterback
• 17:26
  throwing to the best receiver in the league, you know, whenever he's not
• 17:33
  double and triple team even so, even then, he still makes amazing catches.
• 17:37
  So I think this position battle specifically will come down to what is our
• 17:44
  offensive identity going to be. Reisner started last year because we were a pass
• 17:48
  heavy offense. We didn't have a run game to speak of. And his
• 17:52
  biggest flaw is that he's not a run blocker. Yeah, not at He
• 17:56
  is a better pass blocker than he is a run blocker. That's better said.
• 18:00
  But I think Riisner Brandell it's going to come down to are we a
• 18:07
  run first offense or a pass first offense? And that remains to be seen.
• 18:11
  We don't even know who the starting quarterback is going to be at this
• 18:14
  moment. I mean, if there's a game tomorrow, it'd be Sam Dark
• 18:18
  Sam Donald yet, But I mean there's a lot still to be determined that
• 18:22
  way. Training camp is a whole other thing preseason, and it's just it's
• 18:29
  all new where we're dealing with all new stuff in terms of those offense skill
• 18:36
  position players, running backs and quarterbacks specifically, So a lot remains to be
• 18:42
  seen and I think that will determine who gets the starting job and who doesn't.
• 18:48
  Yeah, And like I said, I feel like as fans really with
• 18:52
  any position, but this battle specifically, whatever shakes out, we should be
• 18:59
  able to trust the coaches. And I think whatever the coaches decide, it
• 19:03
  will be a vetted decision, a thought out decision, and one that will
• 19:07
  be the best for the team. What would be great, and I think,
• 19:11
  just it's already a positive is the fact that we're saying Brandell, a
• 19:15
  guy who has been you know, the sixth offensive lineman for many years now,
• 19:22
  to even talk about him as a potential starting candidate. That should give
• 19:26
  us some confidence in him, because the coaches wouldn't have made the moves they
• 19:30
  did, waited so long to sigin Reisner the way they did if Brandell,
• 19:36
  if they didn't have confidence in Brandell. They would have and maybe they tried,
• 19:38
  but they would have signed some big name free agent guard I don't even
• 19:42
  know who was or wasn't available a few months ago, but they would have
• 19:48
  fought a lot harder to upgrade that position. But they didn't. So we
• 19:52
  should already just based off that, feel pretty good about Brandell as a player.
• 19:56
  Yeah, and I don't have anything negative to say about Brandell. Reisner
• 20:02
  quickly elevated himself to like a fan favorite, and we're just kind of with
• 20:06
  his postgame locker room interviews and even some of just the stuff we caught on
• 20:11
  the field. The leg kick is something that comes to mind, but he's
• 20:17
  definitely Riisner's got the bigger personality. Brandell's a little more. I'm comfortable to
• 20:22
  kind of be in the background and do my job in the trenches. I
• 20:26
  think both guys will make the fifty three man roster. Yeah, I think,
• 20:30
  barring injury or some crazy trade or just steep drop off, I agree
• 20:34
  with you. I don't think either of these guys will be cut unless it
• 20:37
  is something like, hey, they're even and we really can go one way
• 20:41
  or the other. So maybe one guy is a tradeable asset. I don't
• 20:45
  know, and I think in that scenario you'd probably trade a Riisner because you
• 20:48
  have more stability contract wise with Brandell. But yeah, that's a whole nother
• 20:55
  thing to think about weeks from now. So you have to like where the
• 20:59
  Vikings offense the line is that. I mean you're returning all five starters.
• 21:03
  Yeah, barring the entry, you have the best tandem. You could argue
• 21:08
  a top five in the NFL tackle tandem. Yeah. Sorry, I totally
• 21:14
  cut you off there, but I mean you didn't. Garrett Bradberry, who
• 21:18
  I was ready to write off, especially after the early season back injury last
• 21:22
  year. I figured, Okay, that's got to be at that back injury,
• 21:26
  that's going to be this the career killer for him. No, he
• 21:30
  came back and we didn't complain about him once. After he came back.
• 21:33
  He kind of had a resurgence. He didn't get bullied around the same as
• 21:37
  he always had. It's like it's like he finally got healed or he finally
• 21:41
  figured something out. So Bret Bradberry, I'm super stoked for I'm excited for
• 21:45
  him, and you've got question Berry who can back him up adequately? Well,
• 21:49
  he's he's a tackle. Question berry is is he? I thought he
• 21:52
  was a center, but my thinking of that played center than that Schloatman,
• 21:56
  and I think I believe he's on like the Patriots or the Giants or something
• 22:00
  now, which I was kind of bummed when when he left. I think
• 22:03
  he got a good deal, so good for him. But as far as
• 22:07
  a Vikings fan, I was kind of kind of sad when Schloatman left.
• 22:11
  But Brandell was that tackle backup, and now that's a whole other thing.
• 22:17
  Brandell's moving to the inside now, which is another thing. If they have
• 22:21
  so much confidence in him, even with a position change, that's another thing
• 22:25
  to be excited for. Dan Feeney, that's the guy they see. I
• 22:29
  have some I just don't. I think it's a waste of a roster spot.
• 22:33
  Maybe he's a good dude, but I don't. I don't see it.
• 22:36
  He's gonna be somebody that we don't talk about once the season starts,
• 22:40
  and if we do, it's because of injuries, and we're going to be
• 22:41
  saying how awful he's. Sorry, Dan, I don't know why I hate
• 22:45
  you not take right there. Well, anyways, all that to say,
• 22:51
  I think the offensive line is in a really good spot. I'm excited.
• 22:55
  I'm happy for some consistency. That's been a position group that has really struggled
• 23:00
  in recent seasons for the Vikings. So to have that consistency, to have
• 23:04
  those guys back in another year under Kevin O'Connell and that system, I think
• 23:11
  it's just gonna make them better. Yeah. So yeah, Really, that
• 23:14
  whole group since Hutchinson left has been such a wishy, washy good bad,
• 23:19
  mostly bad unit for the Vikings. And you're right, I agree with you.
• 23:26
  It's been at least consistent. It hasn't been consistently thirty second in the
• 23:30
  league the last year or two. It's been at least middle of the pack,
• 23:33
  if not a shade better. And I mean, really, how can
• 23:37
  you complain about that? You can't. Yeah, you also can't complain about
• 23:41
  rumors that cam Akers might be coming back. Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely
• 23:45
  on board with bringing him back. Excuse me. One, he won't command
• 23:51
  to hide high value contract, which for this year that sucks for him.
• 23:56
  But if he does come back to any team and proves that he can play,
• 24:00
  he's a perfect prove it deal candidate. So yeah, One, he
• 24:03
  won't be very expensive. Two, he's familiar with this regime. He's been
• 24:07
  with O'Connell since they were both with the Rams. And Three, if he's
• 24:14
  healthy, which no news source or anything has said he's not recovered well,
• 24:21
  So if he's healthy. I mean, last year, you could argue he
• 24:23
  was the best running back on the roster for all of the season until he
• 24:29
  got injured. The one awesome run that Josh Dobbs had. He is the
• 24:36
  lead Black Falcons play. Yeah, he like leveled a three hundred pound defensive
• 24:41
  lineman and got up. That wasn't the play he got injured. Like he
• 24:47
  made that play. He's a good football player. However, I think the
• 24:52
  biggest thing with him is is he back to full health and does his achilles
• 24:56
  tear again? I feel like once you tear it twice, that's almost a
• 25:00
  career ender. If you tear one, you know, if you get a
• 25:03
  third achilles tear, my goodness. But how old is cam Akers? I
• 25:08
  think he's twenty four, he might be twenty five. He was I believe,
• 25:11
  a second round pick to the Rams in twenty twenty, so same age
• 25:17
  ish as Jefferson, justin Jefferson. So he he if He's added if they
• 25:23
  get him and if he's healthy and good, he would he would lower the
• 25:29
  average age in the running back room quite a bit because it's a it's on
• 25:32
  the older edge, I feel like for running back rooms. Got Jaskin he's
• 25:37
  thirty seven, Aaron Jones is thirty three. You're looking at Jersey numbers.
• 25:45
  Aaron Jones, he is about to be thirty. I think he'll turn third
• 25:47
  Jones in the season. It is Yeah, that was that was fun.
• 25:53
  That was funny. My mistake. But but to that point, though,
• 25:59
  it is a crowded running back room, it's a room with when your best
• 26:03
  running back arguably is Aaron Jones, who was about to be thirty. And
• 26:07
  what have they always said about running backs at the age of thirty. I
• 26:10
  mean we heard it for a few years before Adrian left Adrian Peterson even they
• 26:14
  were saying when is he going to drop off? Like it's a ticking time
• 26:17
  bomb. So, yeah, cam Akers, I think he can only be
• 26:21
  a positive. It would be one thing if we were thinking like, oh,
• 26:23
  they're going to sign him and they'd need him because they're gonna put him
• 26:27
  at RB one, Like that's probably not what you want to do. But
• 26:32
  he can only be a positive in the room, and if he gets signed
• 26:34
  now and beat somebody out in camp, even better. So yeah, I
• 26:41
  don't know if you said it, but there was another article about on Viking's
• 26:45
  Territory about him potentially re signing. I guess Charlie Walters is saying, hey,
• 26:49
  if he passes some upcoming physical, they'll resign him. So that's definitely
• 26:53
  a possibility. There you go, I'd be all for it. Yeah,
• 26:57
  yeah, I don't. It can't hurt the team at all. Yep.
• 27:02
  All right, one more Vikings Territory article that you rounded up for us here
• 27:07
  is focusing on Danille Hunter and Kirk Cousins and how they are still costing the
• 27:15
  team quite a bit of money. But that will be all over shortly about
• 27:22
  eight months, last than a year. So the article again, I think
• 27:26
  it was another Dustin Baker article, definitely on Vikings Territory dot com. Go
• 27:30
  check out that website. They're awesome, their stuff is good and you're only
• 27:33
  going to get facts over there, so check them out. Shameless plug for
• 27:38
  somebody who's not sponsoring us, but we like them over there, so actually,
• 27:42
  keep tuned for next week. We may have a Dustin Baker appearance on
• 27:47
  the School Hop, so that'll be pretty fun. Anyways, this article we
• 27:51
  were talking about is really focusing on how the Vikings are one of the higher
• 27:56
  ranking teams in most dead money for this season and which what that means is,
• 28:02
  you know, every team has a salary cap every year. It's an
• 28:06
  amount of money you're allowed to spend on your players every year. I think
• 28:10
  this year it's I don't even know what it is, but you're kind of
• 28:12
  looking it up. The Vikings rank pretty high in the amount of salary cap
• 28:18
  that is going towards players that aren't even on the team anymore. So that
• 28:22
  dead money and the two biggest culprits for who's you know, accounting for most
• 28:27
  of that dead money is Kirk Cousins and Daniil Hunter. I think they have
• 28:33
  somewhere around fifty million dollars worth of dead money, so money going to players
• 28:37
  that aren't on the team. And again, most of that is going to
• 28:41
  Kirk Cousins and Daniel Hunter. Not that the Vikings are paying them right now,
• 28:45
  but that smarter people than me can talk about the NFL salary cap and
• 28:51
  how all that works. But they're still on the books. Essentially, those
• 28:53
  two players are still on the books. However, after this season, they'll
• 28:57
  go from one of the most dead money teams in the league to one of
• 29:02
  the least dead money teams in the league. And that article kind of talks
• 29:07
  about how that that switched from most to least is really a sign of Quasia
• 29:15
  dafa mensa and how he and the front office deal with contracts in comparison to
• 29:21
  how Rix Spielman and the last regime dealt with contracts. So that's a good
• 29:26
  read. You learn a little bit more about salary caps and the NFL salary
• 29:30
  than you would have before you read it. Did you read the whole thing?
• 29:34
  Did you skim some of it? I didn't read all of it,
• 29:37
  but I got the gist, And yeah, I do like what he has
• 29:41
  to say about how this situation that the Vikings are in is an indicator of
• 29:47
  Quasi kind of making his mark on the franchise and Dustin as the line at
• 29:53
  the end of his article here he says, the competitive rebuild is over.
• 29:57
  Yeah, like that was always kind of the plan when Quasi took over,
• 30:00
  was We're gonna stay competitive and rebuild this team. Well, the rebuild part
• 30:06
  is over now it's time to be competitive. Yep. And that's not to
• 30:10
  say that having dead money on the books is a It's not necessarily a bad
• 30:15
  thing. It would be bad if it was something like, I don't know,
• 30:19
  you had a player that a quarterback that you paid two hundred million dollars
• 30:25
  and had this big old contract and then he came out to have some huge
• 30:29
  scandal where he just was inappropriate with a bunch of massage therapists and then you
• 30:33
  had to cut him. But he's You're still on the hook for those two
• 30:37
  hundred million dollars, and that's where it would be bad. However, with
• 30:44
  the whole Kirk Cousins is taking a lot of dead money situation. That was
• 30:48
  just kind of the way Rick Spielman would deal with contracts. Some people would
• 30:53
  say it's kicking the can down the road. You can pay pay a guy
• 30:56
  two dollars now and then have a booked on the book for two thousand dollars
• 31:00
  later, that kind of idea. But don't I don't. I think it's
• 31:06
  just another tool that you can use to build rosters. And if you use
• 31:10
  it too much, use these void years in contracts and this dead money.
• 31:15
  If you use it too much, it's definitely going to kill you. Eventually.
• 31:18
  It's gonna every dollar hits the cap. You have to account for everything
• 31:21
  sometime, but if you're able to kind of maneuver things around and stretch things
• 31:26
  around, it can be a good tool to use. One thing Dustin mentions
• 31:30
  is that the Vikings have the ability if JJ McCarthy ends up being at least
• 31:38
  okay, they have the ability to run the next few years with a cheap
• 31:44
  quarterback salary, which usually your quarterback is one of your highest paid players on
• 31:48
  the team, as they should be. It's the most important position. But
• 31:52
  Dustin also does bring up the valid points of Justin Jefferson. His cap hits
• 31:56
  are going to start going up and up and up after twenty twenty four,
• 32:00
  and theoretically, hopefully the Vikings re sign not Dalton Reisner, well that would
• 32:06
  be nice, but Christian darrisaw and he's another guy that in the future will
• 32:10
  have higher cap hits. So it's all a numbers game. I'm not smart
• 32:15
  enough to understand it fully, definitely not smart enough to explain it. So
• 32:20
  you guys can all start waking back up. We're gonna get get more interesting
• 32:24
  on the podcast here, but definitely read that article. It is interesting to
• 32:29
  note, and we'll have the link to all three of those articles in the
• 32:32
  description, both on Spotify and YouTube. Ser if you're interested in that,
• 32:37
  make sure you go check out Vikings Territory. But today's July first. We're
• 32:42
  recording on Monday, July first, and that's Bobby Benilla Day. Yeah,
• 32:45
  which is we've referenced this on the show, but I don't know that we've
• 32:50
  ever gone into detail about him. But he is a sixty one year old
• 32:53
  former New York Mets baseball player who gets paid every year one point one million
• 33:00
  dollars on July first, m h and he will continue to get paid that
• 33:04
  amount until twenty thirty five. Yeah, and that was a whole deal.
• 33:07
  I don't know the ins and outs, but enough to be able to explain
• 33:10
  the high level version of it. Basically, the Mets when they re signed
• 33:15
  him, he apparently was a pretty good player, but in order to absorb
• 33:21
  that contract that they were going to give him, they just basically said,
• 33:24
  like, hey, for the next however long, fifty years, however long
• 33:29
  it was, we're just gonna we're gonna spread out your salary so that we
• 33:32
  can we can still sign you and still have a really good player on our
• 33:37
  roster, but you're just gonna be on our books forever, basically still another
• 33:43
  eleven years from now. And that was us. Did you see when he
• 33:47
  signed that contract? However long ago it was, it was in the eighties.
• 33:51
  I would have to guess it would be that long ago. I mean,
• 33:55
  he hasn't played in a long time, and maybe it was the nineties.
• 33:59
  I mean it was, it was a long time ago. And yeah,
• 34:02
  that is probably not a very smart financial decision. I think Shoheotani got
• 34:07
  a somewhat not as extreme, but a kind of ish similar type of lengthened
• 34:15
  deal from the Dodgers. I might be wrong on that. It was in
• 34:16
  two thousand. Well, I was way off the payday, so they basically
• 34:22
  signed a guy for a few years and stretched it out for thirty five years.
• 34:27
  That would be one thing. I'd be upset at the Vikings signed anybody
• 34:30
  to a kind of contract like that. I don't even think it's allowed anymore.
• 34:34
  Yeah, it's just not really an NFL thing either, Like maybe that
• 34:37
  happens in baseball still a little bit. But well, their salaries are guaranteed
• 34:42
  to NFL is guaranteed to a certain amount, but not well. And there's
• 34:46
  not nearly the salary cap restrictions that there are in Major League Baseball, and
• 34:51
  team budgets are different in baseball than they are in football, So yeah,
• 34:57
  baseball is kind of a whole different animal. Still one of the reasons why
• 35:00
  Moneyball is my favorite movie. Yeah, for sure. It's a It's an
• 35:05
  interesting topic that can get boring, and you have to have at least a
• 35:09
  specific understanding of it. And I have like one percent enough understanding of it,
• 35:15
  and I have like zero point one percent. That's given me way too
• 35:20
  much credit there. I'm just trying to be real here, just the way
• 35:24
  the cap is a myth, and these teams will sign your favorite players if
• 35:28
  they're good enough, like Justin Jefferson, Yeah, who is signed his first
• 35:32
  mega deal. He'll get another one, for sure, as long as he
• 35:36
  stays healthy and keeps producing, for sure. Yeah for sure. All right,
• 35:40
  man, let's uh, let's dive into our our I say, final
• 35:45
  segment of the day, but it's probably gonna be a few minutes. Yeah,
• 35:49
  Uh, this will take us just a little bit longer. But we've
• 35:52
  tried to We're into let's back up here, let's uh, let's make sure
• 35:57
  people know what we're doing here. So we are in a week and Amber
• 36:00
  three. I'm kind of that right week number three of going through all of
• 36:06
  the best Vikings to wear each jersey number. So we're in kind of the
• 36:09
  quiet part of the NFL offseason, hopefully hopefully quiet, hopefully quiet. Yeah,
• 36:15
  if we're talking about our team on anything other than guard roster battle and
• 36:22
  potential RB three signing and how the salary cap works. If we're talking about
• 36:29
  those things, that's fine. But if we're in July and we're talking about
• 36:32
  major news stories of our teams, it's probably not good. It's well,
• 36:37
  there's one way it could be good, like they re sign a big name
• 36:40
  player, but usually it's this player got arrested or oh somebody's holding out and
• 36:46
  ceedee lamb is not going to come to training camp unless he gets gets a
• 36:50
  new contract. Stuff like that. That's when you don't want to be talking
• 36:53
  about your team in July. So right now, the Vikings knock on the
• 36:59
  skull Man Center con Wood. The Vikings don't have anything crazy like that going
• 37:05
  on. Yeah, And so we've been going through each of the best Vikings
• 37:08
  to wear each jersey number. So we started a few weeks ago with jersey
• 37:14
  numbers zero through nineteen. Last week we recapped twenty twenty to thirty nine,
• 37:21
  and so this week we're going to hit forty to fifty nine. We've got
• 37:23
  a few more weeks to go in the series after that to kind of round
• 37:28
  out all one hundred jersey numbers. Yeah, we're trying to tackle them twenty
• 37:31
  at a time over the course of five episodes. Yeah, so we did
• 37:36
  mention the thirties specifically was a group of numbers where there weren't a lot of
• 37:43
  heavy hitters, some historic Viking names that were definitely worthy of being talked about.
• 37:47
  And maybe it was good because I heard some names I'd never heard before.
• 37:52
  But they're pretty good, and there's some of those names sprinkled here in
• 37:55
  this list that we're going to talk about today. But yeah, the thirties
• 37:59
  are a name. There are a number range that if you're an up and
• 38:01
  coming player, you want to make your mark, you want to own a
• 38:05
  number, maybe get it retired for you. Pick pick like thirty eight or
• 38:09
  thirty seven, you know. But there's some numbers in the forties and even
• 38:13
  the fifties too, that you could you could really own it if you're an
• 38:16
  up and coming Viking and you want to be the best of all time to
• 38:20
  wear that number for that team, there's some opportunities, so for sure.
• 38:24
  And I texted you earlier today. I sent you an article from operations dot
• 38:30
  NFL dot com where they explain kind of the new layout for Jersey numbers in
• 38:37
  which positions can wear each one. So I thought it might be interesting to
• 38:42
  just really quickly recap that. Yeah, because they change the rules up twice
• 38:45
  in the last three or four years. Yeah, so for the longest time,
• 38:50
  and actually this article has the history of it. There's another article too
• 38:55
  that I found. I don't know if I have that readily available, But
• 38:59
  anyways, for the longest time, it was very specific. These positions could
• 39:02
  wear these numbers and only these numbers, and it was pretty restrictive. And
• 39:07
  it wasn't until the two thousands that they started to kind of open things up
• 39:13
  a little bit. And then last year they really opened up a lot of
• 39:16
  things and made most numbers available to most players for the most part. Yeah,
• 39:22
  for the most part. So quarterbacks are one of the most restricted positions.
• 39:27
  Quarterbacks can wear anything from zero to nineteen. That's it. Punters and
• 39:32
  kickers have everything from zero to forty nine and then ninety to ninety nine,
• 39:39
  so they've got sixty numbers at their disposal. Defensive backs can wear zero to
• 39:44
  forty nine. Running backs, full backs, halfbacks can wear zero to forty
• 39:50
  nine or eighty to eighty nine. Tight Ends and wide receivers are in that
• 39:53
  same category. So basically, basically, if you're a running back, tight
• 39:59
  end, or receiver, you can almost swear every number. You can wear
• 40:01
  pretty much anything other than fifty, sixties, and seventies. Yeah, the
• 40:06
  offensive lineman ish numbers, and those are the offensive linemen and defensive lineman numbers.
• 40:12
  So offensive linemen can only wear fifty through seventy nine. Defensive lineman can
• 40:16
  also wear fifty through seventy nine or ninety to ninety nine. And then you
• 40:21
  have linebackers that basically have the full gamut of numbers other than the offensive lineman
• 40:29
  number. Yes, I'm remembering. I think it was Sheldon Rankins from a
• 40:32
  few years ago on the Vikings. In the preseason he wore number nine.
• 40:39
  He's a defensive tackle and a large one, and in the preseason he wore
• 40:45
  number nine, but there must be different preseason rules too, because he was
• 40:49
  allowed to for those three or four games. At the time, he'd have
• 40:52
  to wear fifty to seventy nine or ninety to ninety nine, and I think
• 40:54
  he switched to like ninety or something like that. I don't remember, but
• 40:59
  that was a a few years ago, obviously before they changed all these rules.
• 41:02
  But needless to say, before what two or three years ago, like
• 41:09
  running backs and wide receivers and linebackers, they were pretty restricted on the number
• 41:17
  range they could wear, but now they're pretty wide open, and even kickers
• 41:21
  they got pretty wide open as well with the new rules. So if you
• 41:25
  remember Reggie Bush his USC days, he wore number five. It was kind
• 41:29
  of a big deal. He couldn't wear number five with the Saints when he
• 41:31
  got drafted because it wasn't allowed at the time. But now, I mean
• 41:37
  Alex Madison wore number two for the Vikings last year. Yep, I think
• 41:39
  Brian Osimoa he's gonna wear number two for the Vikings this year, so assuming
• 41:45
  mixed team. But yeah, all that to say, this exact segment in
• 41:51
  like twenty years will look a lot different because the numbers we're going to talk
• 41:53
  about today. There's a lot of a lot of defensive backs, a few
• 41:58
  linebackers, and like a couple of running backs that are on this list of
• 42:02
  best to wear for the Vikings. But this range could definitely change, yeah
• 42:08
  for sure, and I could see somebody wanting some of these numbers in the
• 42:14
  future. Yeah. All right, So the best number forty in Vikings history
• 42:20
  I went through. I kind of cheated for us a little bit. I
• 42:22
  went to Pro Football Reference dot com and they kind of ranked players with an
• 42:29
  approximate value number and they explain how they get that number on their site.
• 42:34
  I've read it before. I don't exactly remember. I just know it's like
• 42:37
  an aggregation of their stats and awards they've earned in their career kind of gives
• 42:42
  them like a number that's usually one to one hundred. Occasionally you see some
• 42:46
  guys reach above one hundred. But yeah, So what I did is I
• 42:51
  took all these players I looked at Vikings to wear each number we're going to
• 42:53
  talk about, and I filtered the list of each number by their highest some
• 43:00
  value. So we'll talk about that and then we'll see if we remember any
• 43:04
  other players to wear that number. For the Vikings. Sounds good, all
• 43:07
  right, So number forty, I think without looking at this list, you
• 43:09
  and I would both say something like I Jim Client, Saucer, Ivan Pace,
• 43:15
  Jim Client Sascer and Ivan Paced. Yeah, both of them come to
• 43:17
  mind. Even read Ellison. He was good for a couple of years of
• 43:21
  the Vikings. There was a player, Charlie West from sixty eight to seventy
• 43:25
  three, who has a higher approximate value score of twenty four than anyone else
• 43:32
  in Vikings history. So a defensive back, Charlie West. I guess he
• 43:37
  is the best Viking to wear number forty. And he was a pretty good
• 43:39
  punt returner and kick returner he had, so yeah, he played way before
• 43:45
  our time, in the early days of the Vikings and in arguably some of
• 43:51
  the more successful years the Vikings. He was a Viking for six years from
• 43:53
  sixty eight to seventy three before he went to Detroit, and then he ended
• 43:59
  his career in Denver. But his rookie season in sixty eight he had the
• 44:04
  longest punt return in the NFL of ninety eight yards hotly and then the foe
• 44:08
  sixty that's crazy for that time too. The following year. His sophomore campaign,
• 44:14
  he had the most punt returns in the league, in which might say
• 44:20
  some good things about the defense in sixty nine, So there you go.
• 44:24
  So yeah, Charlie West best to wear number forty Yeah, all right,
• 44:30
  number forty one for a running back by the name of Dave Osborne with an
• 44:36
  AVY approximate value of fifty six. He played for the Vikings for eleven years
• 44:40
  from sixty five to seventy five. Yeah, and I've heard his name quite
• 44:45
  a bit. Really good running back, obviously, way before our time.
• 44:52
  He spent most of his career in Minnesota before going to the Packers for one
• 44:57
  season at the end of his career, so that's kind of interesting. The
• 45:00
  next best, according to Pro Football Reference, forty one is Anthony Harris,
• 45:06
  who really only had one good year with the Vikings, but he was a
• 45:10
  good defensive back. He was he was decent. He had six picks in
• 45:15
  twenty nineteen and that earned him a franchise tag and then he never did anything
• 45:20
  after those six picks. True, So yeah, flashy year. I'm sure
• 45:25
  he's a good dude, but fizzled out real quick. He's had a lot
• 45:30
  of tackles, he was. He was a tackle machine, it looks like
• 45:35
  in twenty twenty, but yeah, yeah, not near the defensive back that
• 45:40
  he was in terms of interceptions and whatnot in twenty nineteen. Yep, that
• 45:45
  was COVID too. It's kind of a weird time, weird year. All
• 45:51
  right, who do we got here? Well, you have on the list
• 45:58
  that we've created here, John on Gilliam seventy two to seventy five. I'm
• 46:05
  thinking Andrew Depaula right now, right now, absolutely Happer. Gilliam though,
• 46:08
  was a wide receiver to wear number forty two. Yeah. Interesting. What
• 46:14
  were some of his stats? Let's look at those quick. Well, he
• 46:16
  Minnesota's one stop along the way of his career. Although I think he was
• 46:22
  the one that he only played four years with the Vikings, and he made
• 46:24
  four Pro Bowls in his career, and they were the only years he was
• 46:28
  with the Vikings, so his best years of his career were with the Vikings,
• 46:31
  so it makes sense. Also, I don't know how that av number
• 46:35
  works. I assumed that approximate value is like of their whole career, So
• 46:39
  there's a chance some of these guys played not as good with the Vikings but
• 46:45
  then moved on and played better somewhere else, So that's kind of a little
• 46:51
  asterix on this list here. The best season of his career receiving wise was
• 46:57
  seventy two, his first year with the vikingso yards twenty two yards per catch,
• 47:05
  seven touchdowns. He had eight touchdowns the following year, and he had
• 47:08
  nine touchdowns one year with Saint Louis in sixty nine, so not the most
• 47:15
  touchdowns of his career, but arguably one of the better years of his career.
• 47:20
  Started every game, So yeah, pretty good wide receiver, just a
• 47:25
  little bit before our time. And the Vikings were his third team too,
• 47:29
  so that's kind of interesting. You don't see. I feel like the league
• 47:31
  changes too. So unless if you're on your third team, usually you're not
• 47:37
  about to make your first Pro Bowl. Usually that's just a series of one
• 47:43
  year deals and then you fizzle out. But I mean, back in the
• 47:45
  seventies, I think the NFL was just a little bit different too in terms
• 47:49
  of how that played out. Some other interesting and notable forty two's from our
• 47:55
  era. For sure, you got BEng Geddion. Oh yeah, he came
• 48:00
  in because they changed up the rules for linebackers at one point for a while
• 48:05
  they couldn't wear anything lower than number fifty. But then I think right when
• 48:08
  he came in Bengeteon, they changed it to open up all the forties for
• 48:13
  all the linebackers too, So he was probably one of the first Vikings linebackers
• 48:17
  to wear forty two. He also got Darren Sharper, who came over from
• 48:22
  the Packers. Yeah, we don't need to talk about that. But still
• 48:27
  a decent player in his own right. Yeah, I did a lot of
• 48:31
  noteworthy things in his free life. Now, I don't think I would imagine
• 48:38
  he's still in jail. I think he's he got quite a hefty sentence for
• 48:43
  his transgressions there. But yeah, that was forty two. Anyone else,
• 48:50
  Charlie Felton, he was kind of fun for a couple of years as a
• 48:52
  full back. Yeah. Orlando Thomas, Yeah, oh oh yeah, late
• 48:55
  nineties, early two thousands. And Andrew Depaula. Although his average value is
• 49:01
  quite low, he's a long snapper, but he is an all pro.
• 49:06
  I would say, like he's valuable. You want a good guy snapping the
• 49:12
  ball in those situations on punts and field goals and extra points. Absolutely,
• 49:17
  he's kind of the long snapper position. I'm trying to say this the way
• 49:22
  I mean it, because I mean it to be very, very complimentary of
• 49:28
  that position. But it's one of those It's kind of like the pinky toe.
• 49:32
  You don't think about it too often, yep, but if you have
• 49:36
  a bad one, it can ruin your life. If you've ever had like
• 49:39
  a broken pinky toe nail or something, or even a broken pinky toe,
• 49:45
  like it's the only thing you can think about it, it's the worst ever.
• 49:49
  But if your pinky toes are good, like one of my phrases I
• 49:52
  say all the time is like I'd rather have my pinky toe chopped off?
• 49:57
  Then what did I just say earlier before he started recording, Like I'd rather
• 50:00
  have than a bug flying in my nose. That's what they said, And
• 50:05
  I'm probably pretty crazy. Because the pinky too is very important. So the
• 50:08
  long snapper is very important. If you have a good one, or even
• 50:12
  just a regular okay one, you don't care because they're doing their job.
• 50:15
  But the second you have a guy that can't snap the ball to the holder,
• 50:20
  you can lose games off that. So Depaula, please keep playing as
• 50:23
  long as you're good, And I don't care if you're seventy years old.
• 50:25
  If you're good, keep playing. We like you, all right. Moving
• 50:30
  on to number forty three. Yeah, I forgot about this, and I
• 50:37
  think he's changed the numbers since then. He's not the best yet, could
• 50:40
  could be maybe Cam bine them, yeah, or that number for a couple
• 50:45
  of seasons. Yeah, I think he was forty three at least his first
• 50:49
  year. Yeah, I think just his first season in twenty twenty one.
• 50:52
  That dude is on the rise. I first really got to know him when
• 51:00
  he was on Ben Leeber's podcast a few years ago. It was like right
• 51:04
  after his first season. He seems like a great dude. He's another one
• 51:08
  the Vikings have had no issues putting out in front of the media and kind
• 51:13
  of highlighting and talking about I think he A big story of his from a
• 51:20
  year or two ago was his wife had some issues with her visa. She
• 51:23
  was kind of couldn't get to the US or moved to the US. She
• 51:28
  was in the Philippines. I believe I think that's all figured out now.
• 51:31
  Yeah, he's a good player on the field and one of the reasons Lewis
• 51:36
  scene can't get on the field. So keep being good there, Cam Yeah,
• 51:38
  for sure. Nate Right though from nineteen seventy one to nineteen eighty he
• 51:45
  has the highest av yeah of anybody to wear the number forty three for the
• 51:52
  Vikings. Yeah, like this, this kind of reminds me to say,
• 51:55
  like, if we have any listeners that were fans, or even even if
• 52:00
  you're a kid, you know and you remember some of these game these names.
• 52:02
  Obviously these were guys that were good. It's just Evan and I were
• 52:07
  born in the early nineties, so we weren't even awake to the Vikings until
• 52:13
  at least the mid to late nineties. So a lot of these really cool
• 52:16
  and really good players that mean a lot to the team, we have no
• 52:21
  idea who they are. Nate Wright, who had a lot of stats,
• 52:23
  played a lot of ten years for the Vikings. Yeah, one hundred and
• 52:27
  twenty nine games, how many thirty one interceptions justin Minnesota. Like, that's
• 52:31
  a good dude, and we would love to sit and reminisce about you know
• 52:36
  how awesome Nate Right was. We just weren't alive then, so let us
• 52:39
  know, how do you feel about these guys that were in the sixties and
• 52:42
  seventies and eighties, you know, we want to hear your your thoughts of
• 52:45
  watching them on TV or hearing them on the radio. And we've got good
• 52:51
  stats here like Pro Football Reference where we can kind of get a glimpse into
• 52:55
  the past a little bit, and we can see in Nate Wright, for
• 52:58
  example, had thirty one picks for the Vikings. Unfortunately, none of those
• 53:05
  were touchdowns, but thirty one interceptions is nothing to scoff at, like,
• 53:09
  yeah, that's almost as much as Harrison Smith. That's awesome. That's pretty
• 53:14
  awesome. Yeah, so in a handful of fumble recoveries on the along the
• 53:19
  way as well, and so and one touchdown in that right looks like so
• 53:25
  yeah, all in all, Nate Right, good defensive back. Yeah,
• 53:29
  and arguably the best to wear number forty three. Forty four is a fun
• 53:34
  number for the Vikings. We got a few names. We got Matt Asciata
• 53:38
  Siata Aciata. That dude was fun to watch. He was just a hammer.
• 53:43
  You know, he's not he was never the home run hitter, but
• 53:45
  he would he would just punch your way through. I think I've mentioned this
• 53:50
  even recently on the podcast. He had the game where he had like thirty
• 53:53
  rushes for fifty yards and three touchdowns like the yard it doesn't really blow your
• 54:01
  mind away, especially when you think about he had, you know, almost
• 54:06
  a little bit better than a yard per rush, but three touchdowns like that.
• 54:09
  Guy's just a hammer. And he's got a good story too. I
• 54:14
  think he was working in like a warehouse and then got a phone call to
• 54:16
  come try out for the Vikings. But matt Osciato was good. Josh Mattellis
• 54:21
  right now, who just clone him ten times? You have eleven Josh Mettelis's
• 54:25
  and you can have a decent NFL defense. I mean, the line might
• 54:30
  not hold up forever, but he's he plays everywhere. He's a fun story
• 54:37
  right now. And I hope he gets another contract extension because I think he's
• 54:43
  only up for another two years with the Vikings. But then, who's the
• 54:47
  best listed out? Chuck Foreman. Chuck Foreman, Chuck Foreman, full back,
• 54:52
  running Back Rookie of the Year, one of the one of the first
• 54:55
  rookies of the year for the Vikings Rookie of the Year. He got quite
• 54:59
  a few MVP votes in his second and third seasons, and he was a
• 55:05
  pro bowler the first five seasons. It looks like with the Vikings. So
• 55:12
  yeah, really good career with the Vikings. Some of the stats that stick
• 55:17
  out to me, Again this is kind of before our time, but he
• 55:22
  had one thousand rushing yards. Over one thousand rushing yards in three seasons from
• 55:28
  seventy five to seventy seven, he had combined He led the league in combined
• 55:37
  rushing and receiving touchdowns twice his sophomore campaign in seventy four and then two years
• 55:44
  later in seventy six rushing and receiving. Yes, that's crazy, yep.
• 55:50
  And I think he was a pretty effective receiver out of the backfield. He
• 55:54
  led the league in seventy five in receptions with seventy three, so that's wild.
• 56:01
  So obviously, I've known Chuck Foreman to be a great player forever.
• 56:06
  He is one of the few guys that played in the early early years of
• 56:09
  the Vikings that his name means something, you know, the Paul Kraus,
• 56:15
  the Chuck Foreman, the FRAN targeted the Mctinglehawks. You know, there are
• 56:19
  some guys that we know about. When we were in high school. I
• 56:22
  got the chance to meet him. He was at like some Walmart event one
• 56:25
  time, and I rushed out and got a picture with him, and he
• 56:30
  signed a he signed. Oh. One of my favorite Vikings mementos. I
• 56:35
  have a print of Fran targeton either tossing a quick pass or handing off to
• 56:42
  Chuck Foreman, and I have Chuck Foreman's signature on that print, and it'll
• 56:45
  never happen, but I'd love to get Fran's signature on that same print.
• 56:49
  I almost need to carry it around and like just walk around wherever that I
• 56:55
  think. I think I would cry if I ever got that prints signed by
• 57:00
  Frank Targentton, just to have both of them. But yeah, he's a
• 57:05
  Chuck Foreman, great player, good personality too. He's actually a decent Twitter
• 57:09
  follow right now, even still today, I think that picture of you and
• 57:14
  Chuck Foreman might need to make its way into the thumbnail obs. I was
• 57:16
  just thinking about that, listeners, you'll know now already before you clicked on
• 57:22
  anything if that was the thumbnail. But I might I might have to make
• 57:27
  that happen because I I do have pretty quick access to that polaroid. However,
• 57:31
  I'm a weird looking high school kid. I think some of my families
• 57:38
  in that picture too. Well, we'll figure it out. We'll make something
• 57:42
  happen. We can photoshop some stuff if we need to. We need to
• 57:45
  get good on photoshop. If you've seen our thumbnails, you know we need
• 57:50
  to get good on thumb shop or thumbshop photoshop thumbshot anyways, Yeah, Chuck
• 57:53
  forman great Viking grade forty four. Yeah, we're out to enter a weird
• 58:02
  section of numbers, kind of the rest of the forties where there's some guys
• 58:08
  with decent Pro Football reference value numbers, but guys I've never really heard of
• 58:15
  outside of one who's the best of forty five, Ed Scharrackman, which is
• 58:22
  not a name that I know very well, and that's because he was on
• 58:28
  the first Vikings team ever in nineteen sixty one. But he had a fumble
• 58:35
  recovery for eighty eight yards which led the league, and a touchdown in nineteen
• 58:43
  sixty two, one of the more notable stats there. He had a handful
• 58:46
  of interceptions pretty much every season he played his whole career with the Vikings.
• 58:52
  Yeah, he's a guy that right now with those numbers, like people would
• 58:55
  be buying his jersey, he would be getting a high free agency cond and
• 59:00
  maybe he did. In terms of the seventies and sixties, but really mostly
• 59:05
  the sixties. But yeah, I think he is the guy that in that
• 59:10
  group of I'm glad they played because if we didn't have them, we wouldn't
• 59:15
  have the NFL as we know it now. Like every Viking should know that
• 59:20
  name. But it's unfortunate that I just saw his name for the first time
• 59:22
  today and he's one of the better Vikings in team history. Just based off
• 59:29
  of numbers, some other number forty five's that stand out to me, Troy
• 59:35
  Die. Yeah, the current well, I don't know if he's currently on
• 59:39
  the team. He might not be. I think his contract expired at the
• 59:44
  end of last season. I might be wrong on that, sorry Troy if
• 59:46
  I am, But yeah, a good special teams player, linebacker drafted in
• 59:52
  twenty twenty. I guess he started a few games, eight games in his
• 59:58
  Vikings career, at least so far. I don't think the Vikings resigned.
• 1:00:00
  He's with the Chargers, Okay, all right, Well, following Eric Kendricks,
• 1:00:06
  whose name might come up later. But yeah. Outside of so,
• 1:00:09
  there's Ed Sharrockman and then someone named Tom Hannon, which I'm probably offending a
• 1:00:15
  lot of people here. Defensive back from the seventies and eighties. Another guy
• 1:00:22
  I'd never really figured out he had fifteen interceptions with Those were kind of the
• 1:00:25
  dog days of being a Vikings fan, though, like the eighties specifically were
• 1:00:30
  a rough deck. In the early eighties, Yeah, for sure, eighty
• 1:00:32
  three wasn't that the worst record in team history or at least tied for But
• 1:00:37
  then outside of you know, Troy Died, shar Rockman, and Hannan those
• 1:00:42
  are the names, and even Die, he's got an avy of seven,
• 1:00:46
  so like everybody else is less than half of that. So that's a number
• 1:00:52
  that if you can be better than a nineteen sixties defensive back who had pretty
• 1:00:57
  good numbers, you can really own forty five for the Vikings. The next
• 1:01:01
  number is even more sparse. Yeah, this is this is a come get
• 1:01:08
  me number. Yep. If you can be better than Ursul McBee who played
• 1:01:15
  for the Vikings from sixty five to sixty nine, what was he a defensive
• 1:01:19
  back? If you can get more than fifteen interceptions in your career, you
• 1:01:23
  will own number forty six for the Vikings. So come get it. It's
• 1:01:29
  a good linebacker number. Yeah, I think if you're a yeah, I'm
• 1:01:31
  gonna check the linebacker. Oh yeah, zero to fifty nine. Yeah,
• 1:01:37
  if you're a linebacker, you're looking for a good number forty six. I
• 1:01:42
  will argue with this Pro Football Reference ratings scale right now, I will go
• 1:01:49
  ahead and say that Colon Leffler, long snapper for the Vikings, who has
• 1:01:53
  an AV of twenty one, which is half of Ursul mcbee's avy, I
• 1:02:00
  will argue that Colon Leffler is the best Viking to wear number forty six.
• 1:02:05
  That's fair. He was a long long snapper for eleven seasons, and did
• 1:02:10
  we ever complain about him? I think we only ever Every once in a
• 1:02:15
  while he'd have like some crazy awesome tackle on like a punt return or a
• 1:02:20
  punt punt player or whatever. But he he was he might be mister consistent
• 1:02:25
  for the Vikings. He did his job every time he was asked. And
• 1:02:30
  I don't even remember. Was he just old? Did he just retire?
• 1:02:32
  Is that why he wasn't on the Vikings anymore? I would expect. So
• 1:02:37
  he played played ten seasons. Yeah, I think it went from Leffler to
• 1:02:42
  Connor McDermott sounds right, And yeah, I don't know if it was just
• 1:02:47
  maybe it was just a camp battle that didn't go his way at the end
• 1:02:51
  of his career at thirty three, so he played until he was thirty three,
• 1:02:54
  thirty four years old. Colin Leffler, great Viking, come on the
• 1:02:59
  pot. Well we'll welcome me on. For sure. He was the long
• 1:03:04
  snapper of our kind of high school college AA of Vikings fan I'm not even
• 1:03:10
  lying. If Colin Leffler came on the podcast, I that would be freaking
• 1:03:15
  awesome. Would you fan girl a little bit? Maybe a little bit?
• 1:03:19
  I don't know. Did I fangirl over Dustin Baker? That might be a
• 1:03:22
  yeah, yeah, that might be a similar thing. Yeah, all right,
• 1:03:28
  Well I'll work on Colin Leffler. I think he's got a social media
• 1:03:30
  press forty seven, forty seven. If it weren't for Joey Browner, this
• 1:03:37
  number would be wide open for anybody that wants to come get it. However,
• 1:03:42
  you're not going to be better than Joey Browner defensive back from what eighty
• 1:03:46
  three to ninety two, but with the Vikings for through ninety one, I
• 1:03:52
  mean, what do you have? He's a pro bowler six times. He
• 1:03:58
  was AP All Pro three times in the late eighties early nineties, which weren't
• 1:04:06
  terrible years for the Vikings, but they weren't the best either, So he
• 1:04:15
  was a standout player in his era for sure, one of the better players
• 1:04:18
  on the rock. Just looking at his numbers, I'm getting Harrison Smith vibes.
• 1:04:21
  Yeah, for sure, he's got thirty seven interceptions for the Vikings.
• 1:04:27
  Which is that Harrison Smith can We can probably look it up. He's probably
• 1:04:30
  got right around thirty six thirty seven interceptions. And not that that's the only
• 1:04:35
  that's the flashy number, you know, that's the sacks for a defensive end.
• 1:04:41
  But yeah, Joey Browner and Harrison Smith might be very similar numbers wise.
• 1:04:45
  Harrison currently has thirty four interceptions. Oh wow, Okay, so all
• 1:04:50
  right, Joey Browner. He is without question the best forty seven in Vikings
• 1:04:55
  history. But if it weren't for that, you would have had to beat
• 1:05:00
  long snapper Kevin McDermott for the highest av which Kevin McDermott dermott four season with
• 1:05:05
  the Vikings long snapper again only ever did his job. You can't complain about
• 1:05:12
  that. I think the best thing about the Vikings to have worn number forty
• 1:05:15
  seven are their names. Because you've got guys like tough Borland. Wasn't he
• 1:05:21
  Australian? I don't know. I'm hearing his name for the first You might
• 1:05:25
  as well have just said Albo. No, he wasn't. He's from Illinois.
• 1:05:31
  Sorry, tough. Yeah, that's pretty tough there. But then there's
• 1:05:34
  another one from twenty twenty, Hardy Nickerson. What a name, Hardy that
• 1:05:42
  said, that's a modern name. That dude's still walking around. He's younger
• 1:05:45
  than us. Yeah, so some cool names in number forty seven history for
• 1:05:53
  the Vikings. Yep, what about forty eight? Forty eight? Matt Asciata
• 1:05:59
  wore that number? Did he for a season twenty twelve? It looks like
• 1:06:03
  interesting. I didn't know that. I always picture him in forty four,
• 1:06:08
  So forty eight. The best they have listed is Nasee Mustafa, and I
• 1:06:15
  guarantee I pronounced that at least not one hundred percent right. But he's got
• 1:06:20
  a score of twenty four, which is okay in the grand schemes of that
• 1:06:28
  av score goes you know, starter level, but definitely could lose their job
• 1:06:32
  to somebody better. He had ten picks for the Vikings defensive back. Ten
• 1:06:40
  picks for one hundred and ninety five yards one touchdown, and he had won
• 1:06:44
  for ninety seven yards in nineteen ninety one. Okay, but those ten picks
• 1:06:47
  were all throughout four seasons too, So yeah, I mean that's you know,
• 1:06:53
  ten picks more than I actually can dream of having myself. But no,
• 1:06:58
  you're right four seasons. He played for the Vikings for five seasons,
• 1:07:01
  but he didn't really have any notable stats in nineteen eighty seven. But it
• 1:07:05
  looks like he was a decent contributor on defense a couple of picks every year
• 1:07:12
  from eighty eight to ninety three, and then he went to Oakland and didn't
• 1:07:15
  do anything, and that's looks like that's where his career came to an end.
• 1:07:20
  Yep. So another number, Come get it, come come own it.
• 1:07:26
  When I say that, like come get it, come own it,
• 1:07:29
  I always think of Sharif Floyd, who was a defensive tackle who wore number
• 1:07:33
  seventy three for the Vikings, and I think he wore number seventy three at
• 1:07:39
  Florida as well. And he something I just will never forget is he had
• 1:07:44
  some quote where he said, like somebody asked him, like why do you
• 1:07:46
  wear seventy three? Like don't you do you want to wear a flashier number.
• 1:07:51
  I think even his rookie year with the Vikings, Shurif Floyd wore number
• 1:07:56
  ninety five because seventy three wasn't available, and he just said, seventy three
• 1:08:00
  is my number, like it was a signed to me at one point in
• 1:08:03
  like high school or college. And he had a coach that was like,
• 1:08:06
  hey, the number doesn't matter. You matter, you make the number.
• 1:08:12
  So that's the point where Shari Floyd really just like owned to seventy three,
• 1:08:15
  which for defensive tackle is not the flashiest of numbers. So be a running
• 1:08:21
  back or a linebacker or defensive back or whatever and just own number forty eight
• 1:08:27
  and you can you can have that. It'll get retired, like you can
• 1:08:30
  be the best ever to wear forty eight for the Vikings. Forty nine pretty
• 1:08:35
  similar. In fact, I'm looking at this list and I don't know any
• 1:08:39
  of these names on the list for number forty nine, And part of that's
• 1:08:42
  just because I'm too young, yeah, probably to know any of these.
• 1:08:48
  Dale Hackbart, Yeah, Dale Hackbart is the best with an avy of thirty
• 1:08:56
  played from sixty six to seventy He was a defensive back. Looks like he
• 1:09:00
  bounced around the league quite a bit, especially in his early years, who
• 1:09:04
  was all over the place Green Bay, Washington, then the Vikings, then
• 1:09:10
  Saint Louis, then Denver to end his career, so he bounced around quite
• 1:09:14
  a bit. I just noticed if you are on Pro Football Reference dot Com
• 1:09:18
  and you click a certain player, it'll show you their stats by year,
• 1:09:23
  and one of the stats they show you is their av for that year.
• 1:09:28
  So we won't change anything on our list here, but we could have averaged
• 1:09:31
  it out for like all their Vikings years and had a more accurate number.
• 1:09:36
  So who is it? Dale Hackbart had an AVY of his career for thirty
• 1:09:43
  with the Vikings, no of his total career for thirty. Oh, but
• 1:09:46
  with the Vikings his highest was like eight, so and none of his other
• 1:09:50
  years even came close to thirty. So I don't know how that's all calculated.
• 1:09:55
  And I don't know how it's calculated either, because if you go down
• 1:09:58
  to the bottom here where it's just five years with the Vikings and it kind
• 1:10:00
  of, oh yeah, sums all of his stats with the Vikings, then
• 1:10:03
  his a V with the Vikings. Maybe maybe the lists we're going off is
• 1:10:08
  accurate to their Vikings time then because it does break it down for other teams
• 1:10:14
  too. Anyway, thirty on this Oh yeah, yes, yeah, look
• 1:10:16
  at us, we're just figuring out. Look at us all of this wile
• 1:10:19
  we go school school. Thank you for being with us. Still, this
• 1:10:24
  is awesome. Let's let's keep moving on. We've got nine more numbers to
• 1:10:29
  go. All right here, I say we blow past We just quickly go
• 1:10:33
  through these numbers through the fifties. Really and if we if we can think
• 1:10:39
  of a player that isn't the best or isn't listed, or if it is
• 1:10:42
  the best, then we can talk about him for a minute, because like
• 1:10:45
  Jim huff Hoff h o UGF number fifty one, he's not who I would
• 1:10:53
  say is the best fifty one for the Vikings just because he played from seventy
• 1:10:57
  eight to eighty six right before we were born. My best fifty one is
• 1:11:02
  Ben Lieber. We're still on fifty. Oh, son of a gun.
• 1:11:06
  Hey, don't get ahead of yourself. Well you know what, hey,
• 1:11:10
  we can clip that. We'll just we'll move that audio file right there.
• 1:11:14
  So fifty fifty, what do you think of the best one? Per Pro
• 1:11:19
  Football Reference in their av ranking is Jeff Simon Seamen Simon. He was a
• 1:11:28
  linebacker in the seventies, early seventies to early eighties, mostly middle linebacker.
• 1:11:34
  It looks like he was pretty decent Pro bowler four times and got some defensive
• 1:11:42
  Rookie of the Year votes his rookie year. So ab of seventy eight.
• 1:11:45
  That's like, that's good. That's by your kid. His jersey worth of
• 1:11:49
  numbers, Like, that's that's good. There are some other just interesting names.
• 1:11:54
  This is a longer list. Number fifty is Pete Bursich, Yeah,
• 1:12:00
  which you may know his name more for the Vikings Entertainment Network. He is
• 1:12:04
  the color guy for Paul Allen On on the radio for kfa N during the
• 1:12:11
  Vikings games. Yeah, good guy. I like I like him a lot.
• 1:12:15
  He's he's the guy that goes during the Minneapolis Miracle replay. Go check
• 1:12:23
  that out. Well, well we'll link that maybe somewhere. I don't want
• 1:12:26
  to clip that part of you doing that. I was trying not to yell,
• 1:12:30
  but my kids are sleeping. Don't like him up, I'm just kidding.
• 1:12:34
  I'm not gonna but yeah. Another name Aaron Henderson, whose brother e
• 1:12:41
  j. They played together for the Vikings for a while. Aaron is still
• 1:12:45
  pretty pretty active on social media. I'm trying to think other other names for
• 1:12:53
  this list. Gerald Hodges had a year or two there for the Vikings where
• 1:12:57
  he was decent. So Vinny Churchy I think he came in the same time
• 1:13:02
  Ben Lieber did free agents wise, but he only played for one year.
• 1:13:08
  So yeah, a little bit of a longer list for fifty All right,
• 1:13:13
  fifty one though fifty one I already said all I can say it's not for
• 1:13:19
  me. It's not Jim Hoff, which I'm very sorry. He's got an
• 1:13:24
  avy of forty two, which is respectable numbers. Granted, I know that
• 1:13:30
  my AB is like negative forty billion, but as far as compared to everybody
• 1:13:35
  else, forty two is pretty pretty decent. Some people remember him, please
• 1:13:40
  let us know. Comment if you remember him, comment if you are him.
• 1:13:43
  That'd be cool. He can be on the pod. Jim was a
• 1:13:45
  center and a guard mostly left guard. Played all of his career with the
• 1:13:49
  Vikings from seventy eight to eighty six, so before our time, and center
• 1:13:57
  guard that's just a really hard position to really statisfy. Yeah, I thought
• 1:14:02
  that was interesting. When I was typing things out, I thought he was
• 1:14:05
  an inside line lineman, so I don't know, maybe he bounced around a
• 1:14:11
  little bit, but I would agree with you, Ben Leber, for it's
• 1:14:15
  it's my vote. And part of that's just because he's in a more statistically
• 1:14:19
  friendly position, but also he's more visible to us even since he maybe even
• 1:14:27
  more since he retired. I hear him all the time on the Power Trip
• 1:14:30
  on kfa N. I'd follow him on Twitter. We watch his like post
• 1:14:34
  game, and he's part of the Vikings Entertainment Network. He is very much
• 1:14:40
  involved with the team still. Yeah, I mean this as a compliment.
• 1:14:43
  He is as entertaining and talented of a personality on in media as he ever
• 1:14:49
  was a linebacker in the NFL. He's he's a level headed, very football
• 1:14:57
  knowledgeable commentary and I appreciate that, especially in those post game That's really where
• 1:15:01
  I watch him the most is those postgame recaps. It's usually him and one
• 1:15:06
  other Vikings Entertainment Network staffer down on the field wherever they play. They travel
• 1:15:14
  with the team everywhere and they just recap everything and he kind of gives his
• 1:15:18
  hot take on what happened, and that's trustworthy because he's so Yeah, he
• 1:15:25
  may be one of the most as far as former players in the league goes.
• 1:15:30
  He's one of the people that I trust and respect his opinion are the
• 1:15:36
  two words that come to mind quickly. But I guess it is trust.
• 1:15:43
  If he says something, I'm gonna be like, hey, maybe I didn't
• 1:15:45
  think of that, but Ben Leber said it, And maybe that is how
• 1:15:48
  things go in the locker room, or maybe that is how coaches talk to,
• 1:15:53
  you know, stuff like anything he says, and be like, all
• 1:15:55
  right, hey, Ben said it. I trust that. Like, I'll
• 1:15:59
  respect whatever he's said. He's been on vikes Now with Dustin Baker a couple
• 1:16:03
  of times in the last few years. I would that's talk about fangirl.
• 1:16:09
  I would love it if we ever got him on the skull Hob and that
• 1:16:12
  would be fun. Yeah, it's it's an itch enough that hey a fish,
• 1:16:16
  I'm throwing it out. Ben Leeber, come come on the show.
• 1:16:18
  Well, we'd love to talk about We'd love to talk about nine the way
• 1:16:24
  Meat Sauce makes fun of you, about that past interference call. We'd also
• 1:16:27
  love to talk about actually like how good of a football player you were and
• 1:16:30
  how good of a media presence you are now, so come on, please,
• 1:16:34
  come on, come on our lowly show. We'd love it. Number
• 1:16:38
  fifty two is kind of a repeat. I can't really think of anybody that
• 1:16:43
  would be the best ever. So this is one where I agree with Pro
• 1:16:46
  Football Reference on who they say is the best ever Viking to wear fifty two
• 1:16:50
  and who I would say immediately who is it? F Chad Greenway, Chad
• 1:16:56
  freaking green I think he wore number eighteen with the hot guys, And that'd
• 1:17:01
  be a fun question to ask him if he came in the league right now
• 1:17:04
  or if when he came in, if the number rules were the same as
• 1:17:09
  they are right now, would he have continued with eighteen because he couldn't wear
• 1:17:15
  eighteen when he got drafted. It wasn't allowed, But that would have been
• 1:17:17
  pretty sick. I don't know when he was drafted who wore that number if
• 1:17:21
  he would have had to compete for it, But yeah, Chad Greenway,
• 1:17:25
  great Viking. Yeah definitely. And I mean, obviously we're a little more
• 1:17:30
  biased because we're from Iowa and played for Iowa and like just to see him
• 1:17:34
  kind of go from just an hour down the road to playing for our favorite
• 1:17:41
  football team and playing really well for our favorite football team for his entire career.
• 1:17:46
  Yeah, he's, uh, he's a dude. I think he's he's
• 1:17:51
  also and I respect this. He's pretty proud of the fact that he was
• 1:17:56
  able to play for the Vikings his whole career. I've heard him say a
• 1:18:01
  few times because there was one time he was franchise tagged, which he's one
• 1:18:06
  of the few players I've heard say like, I loved it because I was
• 1:18:10
  guaranteed X amount of dollars. Like, I'm sure on some level he didn't
• 1:18:14
  love it, but at least publicly he said he loved being franchise tagged.
• 1:18:17
  But yeah, we've said it a few times before. Guys that love being
• 1:18:23
  Vikings, you know, Harrison Smith comes to mind, Jim clin Saucer,
• 1:18:28
  maybe even Dalton Reisener. Those guys love being Vikings. And I definitely group
• 1:18:31
  Chad Greenway into that. He seemed to love being a Viking and being in
• 1:18:36
  Minnesota. I think he still lives there today. Yeah, not a ton
• 1:18:41
  of like super notable names on the fifty two list. Some names before our
• 1:18:46
  time that we would probably like get flak from the older generation for not mentioning
• 1:18:51
  you like Dennis Johnson, Kaylee or Kylie Wong Okay currently played for them during
• 1:19:00
  the ninety eight season. I was going to say that name kind of sounds
• 1:19:03
  familiar. Henry Crockett sounds familiar from two to three season, Okay, After
• 1:19:12
  that, though, it's a huge well starting with Henry Crockett, it's a
• 1:19:15
  huge drop off from the top three names. I would say that outside of
• 1:19:19
  Chad Greenway, that's another number you can come and own. But I mean
• 1:19:24
  it'd be you'd have to be a Hall of Fame type player to suit usurp
• 1:19:30
  Greenway for the best to ever wear fifty two for the Vikings, what about
• 1:19:34
  fifty three? Talk about Hall of Fame type players. This guy a handful
• 1:19:40
  of a handful of episodes ago. I was surprised that this guy was undrafted.
• 1:19:45
  I didn't know until somewhat recently. McK tinglehoff center number fifty three.
• 1:19:50
  He was the first guy to wear that number for the Vikings. He only
• 1:19:54
  ever played for the Vikings, and he only ever wore that number. He
• 1:19:58
  played from sixty two to seventy eight. He's a Hall of famer. He
• 1:20:00
  was Fran Tarkinson center and they retired his number justifiably, although I was surprised
• 1:20:09
  to learn today. I think I told you earlier they didn't retire his number
• 1:20:13
  until like twenty some years after he retired from playing, which was I feel
• 1:20:17
  like that's not how it goes anymore. Like, if you're worthy of having
• 1:20:20
  your number retired, pretty much as soon as you retire from playing, they
• 1:20:26
  just retire your number, unless your name is Randy Moss, which apparently the
• 1:20:30
  Vikings are never going to retire eighty four anyways, make Tinglehoff. I don't
• 1:20:34
  think there's any question. The best fifty three of all time for the Vikings,
• 1:20:39
  maybe the best fifty three of all time in the NFL. Yeah,
• 1:20:45
  I would proudly wear his jersey. The last person to wear that ward in
• 1:20:51
  ninety nine. Yeah, it's crazy, crazy that they let that Kivu Sama
• 1:20:59
  and I don't know nine. I don't know anything about him either, But
• 1:21:02
  that's the last time anybody will wear the number fifty three in purple. Yeah,
• 1:21:06
  and good for it. Yep. What about fifty four fifty four?
• 1:21:12
  There's probably a handful of decent linebackers on there. The best on the list
• 1:21:16
  is linebacker Fred McNeil, played from seventy four to eighty five, so twelve
• 1:21:20
  years without. I had never really known his name, but if you had
• 1:21:28
  asked me, i'd say Eric Kendricks, and that's Pro Football Reference agrees as
• 1:21:35
  far as he's right there. Kendricks has a score of sixty five. McNeil
• 1:21:41
  has a score of sixty nine, so they're very close. I'd still give
• 1:21:45
  the nod to Kendricks. He played for what seven seasons with the Vikings and
• 1:21:50
  was undersized and played oversized every play of his career, So for me,
• 1:21:56
  it's Eric Kendricks. Anthony Barr wore that last year last year when he came
• 1:22:01
  back, which was fun, but still it was weird not to call him
• 1:22:05
  Eric Kendricks because he saw fifty four running around here, like, wait,
• 1:22:09
  that's not Eric, that's the Anthony Bar Yep, all right. We got
• 1:22:13
  a few more like three heavy hitters here between fifty five and fifty nine,
• 1:22:17
  so fifty five. The best ever listed is Scott Studwell, who basically spent
• 1:22:23
  up until a couple of years ago, his entire adult life with the Minnesota
• 1:22:27
  Vikings organization. Played on the team from seventy seven to ninety. He's got
• 1:22:31
  an avy of ninety one and He's one of the few players on this list
• 1:22:35
  that has a score higher than ninety. There's only four of them on this
• 1:22:40
  list. Micktinglehoff's the only other one we've talked about so far that have a
• 1:22:45
  score above ninety. He was just consistent for many, many, many many
• 1:22:50
  years, and then after he retired, he joined the organization. I don't
• 1:22:55
  know how soon after he retired, but pretty soon he joined the organization scouting
• 1:23:00
  area and he helped shape the Vikings roster up until like what a year or
• 1:23:06
  two or three ago, like he's had with the Vikings forever. Yep.
• 1:23:12
  Some other good ones to wear fifty five. Anthony Barr, of course we
• 1:23:15
  just mentioned him, ye War fifty four in the twenty three season, but
• 1:23:23
  War fifty five for most of his career and the most notable years of his
• 1:23:27
  career, I would say, with the Vikings. And we've got Jack del
• 1:23:31
  Rio, who you may know him as a coach, went on a coach.
• 1:23:34
  Yeah, probably most people know him as a coach, But he played
• 1:23:38
  for the Vikings for what four years from ninety two to ninety five. Yeah,
• 1:23:44
  he wore fifty five. He kind of bounced around a little bit.
• 1:23:46
  He's definitely more accomplished as a coach than he was as a player, but
• 1:23:50
  he was a decent player. Total career av score seventy one, which is
• 1:23:56
  pretty darn good. Zadarias Smith wore that number for a handful of games in
• 1:24:04
  two and two or twenty two. I think he ended up being healthy for
• 1:24:09
  all of the games that year that he was with the Vikings. He was
• 1:24:14
  fun to watch in the Vikings. It was really fun for the first half
• 1:24:17
  of that season. And then I don't know if it was a combination of
• 1:24:20
  injury or what, but he kind of dropped off. But yeah, still
• 1:24:26
  very fun, all right. Moving on fifty six. So Pete Bursich wore
• 1:24:32
  fifty six for most of his career with the Vikings, which is why I
• 1:24:36
  was a little surprised earlier when we talked about number fifty. Merci switched to
• 1:24:41
  fifty in the what two thousand season or the ninety nine season. Oh,
• 1:24:45
  it was before that, ninety five to ninety eight. Really, let's double
• 1:24:50
  check though. Yeah, But so it lists the numbers they wore after their
• 1:24:56
  position, fifty six, ninety five through nine, and then he switched to
• 1:25:00
  fifty in two thousand. Yeah, So Burstich wasn't on the team in ninety
• 1:25:04
  nine or missed it for whatever reason. It's missing from the Pro Football Reference
• 1:25:09
  anyways, Bursich wore fifty six for most of his Vikings career except for that
• 1:25:15
  two thousand season. Otherwise, it's hands down. Here's the third guy with
• 1:25:19
  a score above ninety. Chris Dolman. Yeah, he's got an av score
• 1:25:25
  of one hundred and eleven. Played for the Vikings from eighty five to ninety
• 1:25:29
  three and then again in nineteen ninety nine. For a while, he was
• 1:25:34
  one of the highest sack leaders in NFL history, led the league in sacks
• 1:25:41
  in nineteen eighty nine. He's a Hall of Famer, eight Pro Bowls,
• 1:25:46
  a good Viking, and I think he sadly passed away just a few years
• 1:25:49
  ago. But yeah, he's absolutely the best. Other ones might be E.
• 1:25:56
  J. Henderson comes to mind. Currently it's Garrett Bradberry, but I
• 1:26:02
  don't think he's the best. He's just pretty good. Yeah, Yeah,
• 1:26:08
  fifty six, it's a good number. Fifty seven, come get it.
• 1:26:12
  The best listed is Mike Merriweather, who played from eighty nine to ninety two.
• 1:26:15
  He's got a score of thirty three, So come get it. If
• 1:26:18
  you can be a few time Pro bowler and maybe even sign a second contract,
• 1:26:25
  you're probably better then. Who might be a good dude? Mike Merriweather.
• 1:26:30
  So yeah, fifty seven Dwayne Rudd from the late nineties was another fifty
• 1:26:38
  seven. Audi Cole. Oh, yeah, I remember Audy Cole. He
• 1:26:44
  had back to pack, back to back pick sixes in the preseason one time.
• 1:26:48
  That was a lot of fun. But yeah, that's definitely a number
• 1:26:51
  that somebody could come get if they wanted it. What about fifty eight?
• 1:26:58
  All right? Pro Football Reference who this guy has a score of eighty nine.
• 1:27:01
  He played for the Vikings from sixty eight to seventy nine. I had
• 1:27:05
  never heard his name before today, Wally Hilgenberg, So I'm sorry I've never
• 1:27:11
  heard your name. I would probably have your jersey if if it was today,
• 1:27:17
  but it was just before my time. He was a long time Viking.
• 1:27:20
  He spent twelve years with Minnesota. Yeah, and not a huge contributor
• 1:27:26
  on defense as a linebacker, but good enough. They don't I wonder if
• 1:27:35
  they didn't record tackles as a stat because he's a linebacker here, which you
• 1:27:41
  would think. Okay, he was involved in a lot of tackles, but
• 1:27:44
  he only has interceptions and fumbles sacks and safeties as the main stat category when
• 1:27:53
  sacks weren't even official stat until like eighty two, Right, so that's so
• 1:27:57
  interesting. Yeah, it is kind of interesting, but he has a sack
• 1:28:01
  recorded in a handful of seasons in the mid sixties. Interesting, it's as
• 1:28:09
  official since eighty two based on play by play, game film and other research
• 1:28:14
  since nineteen sixties. So it sounds like Pro Football Reference maybe kind of fills
• 1:28:17
  in the blanks a little bit and gone back a little bit with sacks.
• 1:28:20
  But anyways, Yeah, reasonably good Viking for sure. Sure all right,
• 1:28:29
  last but not least, and one of the best Vikings on the list.
• 1:28:31
  Here's the fourth guy above a ninety score with a ninety three score played for
• 1:28:36
  the Vikings from seventy four to eighty five. Linebacker Matt Blair. Matt Blair.
• 1:28:43
  Ye, I've definitely heard the name, but couldn't begin to tell you
• 1:28:49
  other than looking at Pro Football Reference how good he was Pro Pro Bowl?
• 1:28:56
  Sorry. Pro Football Reference has him as a Pro Bowler for what six seasons?
• 1:29:01
  Nice? So, and the Pro Bowl meant a whole lot more Back
• 1:29:05
  in the seventies and eighties than it does today. So that's kind of cool.
• 1:29:11
  I feel like being voted a pro bowler is still a high honor today,
• 1:29:14
  but it's still a popularity contest. It's a lot different today. They
• 1:29:17
  need to figure out that math equation. Agreed, But yeah, we had
• 1:29:26
  some good years for the Vikings, had a handful of interceptions every year,
• 1:29:30
  for some fumbles, or was involved in some fumbles, had a few sacks
• 1:29:35
  here and there. So yeah, done, and that's it. That's forty
• 1:29:42
  to fifty nine. Did you think we missed anybody? Do you remember watching
• 1:29:47
  any of these players that we just totally skated over? Do you wish we
• 1:29:53
  would have mentioned somebody else? Let us know? How can they let us
• 1:29:57
  know? You can send us a message, can drop a comment. You
• 1:30:00
  could, uh, if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment. There.
• 1:30:05
  We have a stack guy we do. Yeah, what's what's his name
• 1:30:09
  again? Dennis? Dennis? I think, hey Dennis, we need you
• 1:30:12
  to correct all our incorrect stets. Yeah, so Dennis or anyone else out
• 1:30:16
  there, if you, uh, if you have more knowledge than we do,
• 1:30:23
  yeah, let us know. Let us know. We'd be more than
• 1:30:26
  happy to correct ourselves and uh, acknowledge you as the one that has more
• 1:30:32
  knowledge than us. Absolutely. All right, we've had a couple. Now,
• 1:30:36
  what did you think of the fire truck or brewery, tropical burn mango
• 1:30:42
  double? I p a. I will say eight and a half percent.
• 1:30:45
  I'm feel a bit. I'm feeling it for sure. We've had two,
• 1:30:51
  We've most have had most of two, and I think that's all that I
• 1:30:56
  can do for tonight. We're gonna have to We're gonna have to hang this
• 1:30:59
  up, but I'm gona I need to go to bed. This is this
• 1:31:01
  is a night cap. This is the one that you're you're finishing, you
• 1:31:06
  got the TV on, or you're staring at the fire and you just need
• 1:31:10
  one more And this is this is it. I like it. It's a
• 1:31:14
  good one. I think for me, it's the caramel. Yeah, I
• 1:31:19
  guess I can't figure out any better way to describe it. But it's that
• 1:31:23
  finish that kind of reminds me of a caramelly finish. It definitely surprised me,
• 1:31:28
  like I was expecting more of an amber, but I could I could
• 1:31:31
  sense the higher ABV too, and I'm surprised that I guess it's so low,
• 1:31:36
  but I guess that's because we're typically more in the like four and a
• 1:31:41
  half to five and a half range, which is why I started like above
• 1:31:45
  six. But yeah, eight and a half, that's that's hefty. Yeah.
• 1:31:49
  So I also knew, so Evan's a teacher and this is the summer,
• 1:31:56
  and I knew Evan, of the two of us, Evan is the
• 1:31:59
  early one to go to bed. I knew the summer is the best time
• 1:32:04
  to have a beer that was higher than eight percent. I appreciate it,
• 1:32:09
  I really do. Yeah. So I was I was thinking of you,
• 1:32:12
  thank you, and I knew you'd like it. So I'm glad. I'm
• 1:32:15
  glad I like it because the description really I was like, that's gonna be
• 1:32:17
  good, and it was good. Yeah, I agree, very good,
• 1:32:20
  Uh, very complex, Might I add, yeah, it's it's not your
• 1:32:25
  typical like oh yeah, that's just that's a bud light or whatever. Like
• 1:32:30
  it's just you had me stumped from the beginning with everything. So well,
• 1:32:35
  it wasn't me. It was Fire Trucker. It was good stuff, good
• 1:32:39
  stuff from Fire Trucker. Good on you for picking it, and great,
• 1:32:44
  great wrapping job too. Just let's just admire that one more time. If
• 1:32:46
  you're watching, What a what a solid tinfoil wrapping job we have here,
• 1:32:55
  so smooth, hardly any wrinkles. You got the tape? Oh stop,
• 1:32:59
  here, the tape on the scene. All right man. Next week we're
• 1:33:05
  gonna cover numbers sixty through seventy nine. Yeah, so let us know if
• 1:33:11
  you can think of the best to play for the Vikings to wear anyone in
• 1:33:15
  those number ranges. Hopefully we'll be talking to Dustin Baker, so keep tuned
• 1:33:21
  in for that and we'll kind of ask him. We won't go through every
• 1:33:25
  number with him, but we might ask him who he thinks the best Vikings
• 1:33:29
  are to play wearing that range of numbers, so it'll be interesting. He
• 1:33:35
  saw a different age of Vikings slightly, he's only a little bit older than
• 1:33:41
  us, but he definitely saw some more Vikings to wear those numbers than we
• 1:33:45
  did, so that'll be a lot of fun. So yeah, here you
• 1:33:47
  go, all right, all right man, good dear, best episode yet.
• 1:34:14
  Hey, Vikings fans evan here from the School Hop, and we just
• 1:34:16
  wanted to say thank you again so much for listening to the School Hop.
• 1:34:20
  And we also wanted to take one more opportunity to let you know that this
• 1:34:24
  episode of the School Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures.
• 1:34:28
  If you're considering taking an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach
• 1:34:31
  out to our friends at Bigtop Ventures at Big Top Ventures LLCAT gmail dot com.
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  Big Top Ventures step right up to your next big adventure and thanks again for
• 1:34:51
  listening to the Schoolhop. School I think, I think, I think after
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  I think, I think a