Latest / The Vikings Tailgate / Vikings Tailgate: Joe Mande On Fans Yelling Bortles, Growing Up On MN Sports - JAX - Episode 44

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Vikings Tailgate: Joe Mande On Fans Yelling Bortles, Growing Up On MN Sports - JAX - Episode 44 · The Vikings Tailgate

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Speaker 1: Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings drop, so
0:03
Speaker 1: head over to Narl dot com for more details. Hey guys,
0:10
Speaker 1: welcome back. Thank you for joining us again on another
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Speaker 1: episode of The Tailgate. I really appreciate you guys. This
0:17
Speaker 1: is a fun episode. I know I say that every week.
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Speaker 1: But Joe Mandy is here. He's originally from Minnesota. I
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Speaker 1: know we normally do comedians and entertainers and actors from
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Speaker 1: other teams, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to
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Speaker 1: have Joe on the show. Not only is he a
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Speaker 1: fantastic comic who filmed his special here in Minnesota at
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Speaker 1: the Parkway Theater, He's one of the best writers in Hollywood.
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Speaker 1: He wrote on Parks and rec The Good Place, a
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Speaker 1: ton of your favorite shows. It's really fun to have
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Speaker 1: him on this episode because we're playing the Jags, and
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Speaker 1: if you watched The Good Place, you know what. He's
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Speaker 1: responsible from a Jaguars standpoint. We're gonna get into all
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Speaker 1: that on the show. Because he and I talked more
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Speaker 1: Minnesota culture. We talked a lot of Timberwolves, you know,
1:06
Speaker 1: we just talked a lot of general life in sports.
1:10
Speaker 1: I threw a big chunk about the team and how
1:13
Speaker 1: we're doing on the front with myself and my producer Jay.
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Speaker 1: So you're gonna hear about twelve minutes of football breakdown
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Speaker 1: and talk, and then we're gonna hop into our conversation
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Speaker 1: with Joe Mandy. So you guys are getting a little
1:25
Speaker 1: bit of both a little bit of football and a
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Speaker 1: little bit of fun. Thank you guys for listening. We'll
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Speaker 1: see you next week.
1:34
Speaker 2: The Recket Recket I here.
1:43
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Vikings Tailgate,
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Speaker 1: brought to you by ticket Master, the official ticket marketplace
1:51
Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Vikings. I'm your host, Si Aminson, and
1:55
Speaker 1: it is Jaguars Week. You're six and two. Minnesota Vikings,
2:00
Speaker 1: fresh off a win against the Indianapolis Colts, head to
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Speaker 1: their last place in the division Division mate Jacksonville Jaguars
2:09
Speaker 1: to try to start stacking some wins in the first
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Speaker 1: of what will be a three game road stretch. Now,
2:17
Speaker 1: normally on this show, we talk to comedians and actors
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Speaker 1: who are fans of the opposing team. We go back
2:23
Speaker 1: and forth. It's a lot of fun. This week we
2:26
Speaker 1: have something kind of fun and special. He's one of
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Speaker 1: the best comedy writers in Hollywood. And he's just a
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Speaker 1: huge Minnesota sports fan, but he has a unique connection
2:35
Speaker 1: to the Jacksonville Jaguars through his writing. If you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the Good Place, you know what I'm talking about.
2:43
Speaker 1: If not, stick around, Joe's going to be joining us
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Speaker 1: in the second half of the show. But first, before
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Speaker 1: we get to all of that fun, let's talk about
2:51
Speaker 1: I'm here with my producer, Jay Nelson. Let's talk a
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Speaker 1: little bit Jay about where the Vikings are at, where
2:58
Speaker 1: they are existing in this current moment. Because I am
3:03
Speaker 1: we talk about this every week on the show. I'm
3:05
Speaker 1: a psychopath. I get way too dramatic. When we will
3:10
Speaker 1: win two in a row and I believe we're going
3:12
Speaker 1: on a twelve game streak, we lose one and the
3:14
Speaker 1: season's over, I don't I'm not able to I would
3:17
Speaker 1: be a horrible quarterback. I am not able to even
3:21
Speaker 1: things out emotionally. But I think these next two games
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Speaker 1: are perhaps the crucial stretch of the season. I know
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Speaker 1: that might seem crazy to say, because we've got this
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Speaker 1: heavy sided division finish, We've got Kirk and the Falcons.
3:41
Speaker 1: You know, We've got some really tough games coming down
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Speaker 1: the stretch, and I think a lot of people look
3:46
Speaker 1: at these next two weeks as a little bit easier
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Speaker 1: of matchup. Sure, I also understand that two weeks ago
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Speaker 1: I was telling everybody that the Rams game was the
3:54
Speaker 1: most crucial game of the year. I think now, looking
3:59
Speaker 1: back on that, understand that teams our friend Zach Martinez, right,
4:02
Speaker 1: teams that play the Lions usually really struggle physically. The
4:06
Speaker 1: next week, it was a short week, Pooka and Cooper
4:08
Speaker 1: were back. That team looks like it's turning into who
4:11
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be. I don't know that that was
4:15
Speaker 1: quite the canary and the coal mine that I was
4:17
Speaker 1: worried it might be. So let me pitch you this.
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Speaker 1: We are at this point where six and two. These
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Speaker 1: are two I think they're gonna be tough but winnable games.
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Speaker 1: They're both on the road, they're both outdoors. If you
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Speaker 1: go get these two and you bounce to eight and
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Speaker 1: two and you build on what you did against Indianapolis,
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Speaker 1: and that's the key here. That's why I believe it's
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Speaker 1: crucial because what was important to me about that Colts
4:45
Speaker 1: game was it felt like maybe the start of this
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Speaker 1: team building into an identity that you can truly rely on. Sure,
4:56
Speaker 1: I don't want to take anything away from what we
4:59
Speaker 1: did in the first part of the season. That was
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Speaker 1: as fun of a stretch of football to thump the Niners,
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Speaker 1: the Texans, and the Packers through the first half. Just
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Speaker 1: like that. It felt like when AP when they were
5:12
Speaker 1: loading ten people in the box during AP's MVP season,
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Speaker 1: He's like, what if I carried you guys all to
5:18
Speaker 1: the end zone like the movie Little Giants.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know. The thing about it, too, is the
5:22
Speaker 3: beginning of the season was when the pundits and everybody
5:25
Speaker 3: were looking at it saying, this is going to be
5:26
Speaker 3: the hardest stretch of the season. Are they going to
5:29
Speaker 3: be able to survive this? And you aced the course,
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Speaker 3: you went five to zero through that stretch. Everything felt great.
5:34
Speaker 3: We were talking about you know, power rankings and all
5:36
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff, and then we had the hiccup
5:38
Speaker 3: and now you're hoping that you're getting back on track
5:41
Speaker 3: at this point.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a lot. The beginning of the season
5:43
Speaker 1: was kind of like when Tiger Woods won that Masters
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Speaker 1: where everybody's like, what did he shoot? Yeah, when he
5:48
Speaker 1: was young? Just an outrageous course record that it's just
5:53
Speaker 1: not sustainable. Turnovers and sacks and defensive performances at that level,
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Speaker 1: offensive execution at that level. They were games that were
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Speaker 1: just completely tilted towards the Viking side. And in the NFL,
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Speaker 1: it is a lot easier to execute what you want
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Speaker 1: to do when the game is tilted your direction. I
6:15
Speaker 1: think what we saw against the Lions and what we
6:18
Speaker 1: saw against the Rams were pressurized moments where the game
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Speaker 1: wasn't tilted your direction. And so to have the Vikings
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Speaker 1: come out in that first half against the Colts and
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Speaker 1: play I think you know, most people in that locker
6:33
Speaker 1: room would say about as bad offensively as they're capable
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Speaker 1: of playing multiple turnovers, they just can't sustain anything, can't
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Speaker 1: get anything going. They put zero points on the board,
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Speaker 1: a turnover that leads to points the other direction. To
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Speaker 1: have that happen and then come out in the second
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Speaker 1: half and score three times and most importantly score a
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Speaker 1: dagger touchdown. Like we all know, koc is a fantastic
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Speaker 1: foot ball coach, But I think the thing that a
7:02
Speaker 1: lot of us have been waiting to see are these
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Speaker 1: opportunities for him to define himself in the middle and
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Speaker 1: later stages of a game and put together exactly what
7:15
Speaker 1: we saw against the Colts the game was tilted the
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Speaker 1: other direction, and he and Sam Darnold and the offense
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Speaker 1: came out and went touchdown, touchdown, crucial game on the line. Touchdown. Now,
7:29
Speaker 1: the defense helped him out, But that is the universe
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Speaker 1: in which this team wins really big long term throughout
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Speaker 1: this season. Is that ability right there, And no matter
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Speaker 1: who you think the Colts were or how Joe Flacco
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Speaker 1: looked on Sunday, Jonathan Taylor was back to Forest Buckner
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Speaker 1: is one of the best players in league. That was
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Speaker 1: no slouch. That was no slouch accomplishment in the second half.
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Speaker 1: So that to me, what I'm like, really long windedly
7:59
Speaker 1: getting up in my colin Cowherd Am radio one man
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Speaker 1: to a microphone Ted talk, is I view these next
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Speaker 1: two games Jay as a monster stretch for us because
8:12
Speaker 1: that vibe, that energy, the thing that KAOC talked about,
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Speaker 1: like we need to be able to exist during these
8:19
Speaker 1: struggles and also recognize room for improvement, like that vibe.
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Speaker 1: Carrying that forward and pairing it with the fact that
8:27
Speaker 1: we do have the ability to at times do what
8:30
Speaker 1: we did earlier in the season, that is what makes
8:33
Speaker 1: a more cohesively consistently built contender. So that that's why
8:39
Speaker 1: I'm just really aggressively honed in on this week against
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Speaker 1: the Jags and next week against the Titans.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the idea of you know, building on momentum
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Speaker 3: and getting back into your mojo, getting back on that
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Speaker 3: railroad track. And I guess you know, part of it
8:52
Speaker 3: for me too is I was looking through a couple
8:54
Speaker 3: of stats and the idea right now that defensively against
8:56
Speaker 3: the rush you talked about Jonathan Taylor, we are second
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Speaker 3: in the league giving up eighty one point nine yards
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Speaker 3: per game like that is something that if you can
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Speaker 3: make a team one dimensional and force them to be
9:06
Speaker 3: throwing through the air that kind of stuff against teams
9:09
Speaker 3: that are, you know, trying to be able to control
9:12
Speaker 3: the clock, which we did last game. If you are
9:14
Speaker 3: able to go through with some of these teams and
9:16
Speaker 3: be able to stifle them in one direction, that is
9:19
Speaker 3: something that we have shown that we can then let
9:22
Speaker 3: Flores just really confuse quarterbacks that are forced to throw
9:25
Speaker 3: and keep up with our offense.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you look at these next two matchups,
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Speaker 1: you know that you should be favored, that you should
9:34
Speaker 1: have a chance to their opportunities to come out and
9:38
Speaker 1: do what's expected of you, and if you do that
9:41
Speaker 1: to me, it just provides this really cool opportunity. I've
9:45
Speaker 1: said all season long that this transition away from Kirk
9:49
Speaker 1: Cousins into the new version of the Minnesota Vikings, it
9:53
Speaker 1: is not a this year thing, it is a multi
9:56
Speaker 1: year thing. Obviously, I would like to win as many
9:58
Speaker 1: football games as possible, so I would love to see
10:00
Speaker 1: this team playing in the super Bowl. But I think
10:03
Speaker 1: knowing the cap space that's available in the off season
10:07
Speaker 1: and knowing what the future holds, if some of these
10:10
Speaker 1: building like all of a sudden, here comes Dallas Turners
10:14
Speaker 1: starting to flash a little bit, Jordan Addison starting to
10:17
Speaker 1: flash a little bit in the offense now that Hockinson's back,
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Speaker 1: I think, if you can go out and take care
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Speaker 1: of these next two games, you put yourself at eight
10:25
Speaker 1: and two, yep, and you have a legitimate, big time
10:29
Speaker 1: stretch of big boy football to test yourself. And I
10:34
Speaker 1: don't just mean for right now, the experience that you
10:37
Speaker 1: can garner by having the Bears are not the old Bears.
10:40
Speaker 1: They're not They're fourth in our division, but they can
10:43
Speaker 1: bite you. So you come out and you got to
10:46
Speaker 1: go two Bears games. You gotta get the Packers again.
10:49
Speaker 1: You've got to get the Lions again. You got the
10:50
Speaker 1: Kirk coming for revenge game. The Cardinals are starting to
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Speaker 1: play really good football. You have six minimum, really difficult
10:59
Speaker 1: game that you're set up to deal with. Here. I
11:03
Speaker 1: think it's an opportunity to see where you stand right now,
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Speaker 1: battle test this new identity that you're building, hopefully that
11:11
Speaker 1: springboards you into a playoff run. But more importantly, on
11:14
Speaker 1: top of that, whatever you're doing now and building because
11:17
Speaker 1: of how young the core pieces are that are locked
11:20
Speaker 1: into this organization and how much cap space there is,
11:24
Speaker 1: you just take that and you stack a ton of
11:26
Speaker 1: more goodness. How's that for a proper an educated phrase.
11:31
Speaker 4: You're just gonna stack some goodness on top of it, Jay,
11:34
Speaker 4: But you just you have the opportunity to pile experience
11:40
Speaker 4: and you know, just and be a battle test a
11:42
Speaker 4: team that can build into a very legitimate window in
11:46
Speaker 4: the next few years.
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Speaker 1: So I'm really psyched for this Jaguars game, and I'm
11:50
Speaker 1: really really psyched for the Titans game after it.
11:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think the thing about it too is
11:55
Speaker 3: you have this three game stretch on the road, then
11:57
Speaker 3: you come back home for three games, and then you
11:58
Speaker 3: kind of go every other at the back end. But
12:00
Speaker 3: basically you've gone through now your tough stretch at the beginning,
12:04
Speaker 3: your road stretch is coming up here, and then you
12:06
Speaker 3: have your home stretch at the back end too. So
12:08
Speaker 3: like being able, like you said, to stack those wins,
12:10
Speaker 3: be able to get some of the younger people more experienced.
12:13
Speaker 3: It's like you're clicking on all cylinders going into that
12:15
Speaker 3: final week against Detroit in week eighteen, and then who
12:18
Speaker 3: knows what happens after that. Like I think the team
12:21
Speaker 3: right now feels like they're starting to get some different
12:24
Speaker 3: people back. Hopefully cash Men's back here this week, and
12:26
Speaker 3: I think the Jaguars and the Titans the next couple
12:29
Speaker 3: weeks are the right type of opponent springboarding you into
12:32
Speaker 3: the back half of the season.
12:34
Speaker 1: What a fun way this season could end if you
12:36
Speaker 1: are competitive for a playoff spot and you are running
12:39
Speaker 1: into the Green Bay Packers at home. They're competitive potentially
12:44
Speaker 1: for a playoff spot, and the Lions look like the
12:47
Speaker 1: class of the NFC. But let's see how this thing
12:50
Speaker 1: plays out. Maybe there's a universe where that game really, really,
12:54
Speaker 1: really matters, and I don't think you can ask much
12:59
Speaker 1: more as a fan than that opportunity, because that that
13:03
Speaker 1: is what you want. You want to be the team
13:05
Speaker 1: that is playing these really that nobody expected to be here.
13:09
Speaker 1: Everybody thought you were a couple of years away. You
13:11
Speaker 1: arrived ahead of schedule, and now you're getting these opportunity
13:15
Speaker 1: to play these crucial games down the stretch. Now this week,
13:19
Speaker 1: you got to take care of that first, and then
13:21
Speaker 1: one week at a time. But it's a really cool opportunity. Guys,
13:26
Speaker 1: that's enough of the football, like peer football, me being
13:30
Speaker 1: a lunatic about what I think could happen and how
13:33
Speaker 1: great I think this team could be. Let's get the
13:35
Speaker 1: guests in here. He's so funny, so talented. It is
13:39
Speaker 1: really a treat for me. Like I said, it's normally
13:42
Speaker 1: fans of other teams, so it's fun to have him
13:44
Speaker 1: on here. Let's jump into our conversation with Joe Mandy.
13:48
Speaker 1: We are joined by the great Joe Mandy. Joe, first
13:53
Speaker 1: of all, thank you for being on the show. Second
13:56
Speaker 1: of all, this is fun for me because I love medians,
14:00
Speaker 1: but I also love comedians who've been able to find
14:05
Speaker 1: like long term work as writers. I'm just gonna this
14:08
Speaker 1: is gonna be like me stacking layers on top of
14:10
Speaker 1: a contract. But the next layer to that is when
14:14
Speaker 1: you when you get out to LA, you realize how
14:17
Speaker 1: difficult it is to get staffed on the worst show
14:20
Speaker 1: you've ever heard of in your life. That is a
14:22
Speaker 1: hard thing to do, let alone someone like you who
14:27
Speaker 1: has written on Parks and rec Good Place, all of
14:31
Speaker 1: these absolutely fantastic creative shows. So it's really fun to
14:36
Speaker 1: have you here. And that being said, let's talk about
14:41
Speaker 1: the Bortles man. Let's talk about the bortles thing. This
14:44
Speaker 1: is JAG's week, is there. You are the guy who
14:47
Speaker 1: came up with the bortles idea. You got to tell
14:48
Speaker 1: the story of coming up with that in the room.
14:51
Speaker 1: But I also want to know have you done anything
14:54
Speaker 1: comedically in your career that has hit harder? I mean
14:57
Speaker 1: that's the sort of like gets shouted on this street sort.
15:00
Speaker 2: Of yeah yeah, I mean okay, yeah. So I wrote
15:04
Speaker 2: for The Good Place and was there for its entire run,
15:08
Speaker 2: which was very special. But we knew very early on
15:13
Speaker 2: that we wanted the Jason Mendoza character to be from well,
15:19
Speaker 2: originally it was Orlando, but I had just done a
15:21
Speaker 2: show with John Mulaney in Jacksonville, and he and I
15:25
Speaker 2: were just making fun of Jacksonville the entire trip, and
15:30
Speaker 2: I it was just fresh on my mind, and I
15:31
Speaker 2: was like, no, this guy has to be from Jacksonville.
15:35
Speaker 2: It's so much funnier than Orlando. And then you know,
15:38
Speaker 2: Mike Sure is a huge sports nut, and then you
15:41
Speaker 2: know it then became like, oh, he's a diehard Jaguars fan.
15:45
Speaker 2: And as the as the season progressed, there's a part
15:51
Speaker 2: in one episode where that character throws a a Molotov
15:57
Speaker 2: cocktail at a speedboat, and on set I pitched that
16:02
Speaker 2: he should yell the word Bortles, you know, because at
16:05
Speaker 2: the time, Blake Bortles was the quote unquote star quarterback
16:09
Speaker 2: of the Jacksonville Jaguars. And Mike loved it and thought
16:15
Speaker 2: it was so funny. But then when I watched the
16:19
Speaker 2: first edit they he took it. He took it out,
16:23
Speaker 2: and I lost my mind because I was like, no,
16:25
Speaker 2: you gotta put Bortles in there, like he's chucking a
16:28
Speaker 2: Molotov cocktail, like obviously he would yell Bortles. And there's
16:33
Speaker 2: a long back and forth, and Mike finally uh, we
16:36
Speaker 2: reached a compromise and he put it in and then uh, yeah,
16:40
Speaker 2: it just like the people in Jacksonville loved it, and
16:46
Speaker 2: the people who worked for the Jaguars loved it because
16:50
Speaker 2: I think it was the first time anyone.
16:52
Speaker 1: Satirized the Jags.
16:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly, and yeah, and then we worked it
16:59
Speaker 2: back in multiple times throughout the length of the show,
17:04
Speaker 2: and they actually sent me and Manny Acinta, who played Jason,
17:10
Speaker 2: to a Jaguars playoff game, and Manny's Canadian and not
17:16
Speaker 2: a big sports head, and it was literally, quite literally
17:20
Speaker 2: the worst game of football maybe ever played. It was
17:24
Speaker 2: like two field goals, and like I was kind of
17:30
Speaker 2: apologizing on behalf of like American sports to him, try
17:33
Speaker 2: to be like, it is usually better than this. Yeah,
17:39
Speaker 2: but and yeah, that was right before they replaced him
17:44
Speaker 2: with Nick Foles, and then they were trying to get
17:46
Speaker 2: us to make Nick Foles references. But at that point
17:49
Speaker 2: it was I think we ran our course. But I
17:51
Speaker 2: definitely remember walking outside of a sports bar in LA
17:57
Speaker 2: during that playoff run where they made the conference finals
18:02
Speaker 2: and there were just a group of dudes screaming Bortals
18:06
Speaker 2: that I was like, I really did something here. This
18:08
Speaker 2: is really special. Yeah.
18:10
Speaker 1: Well, you know when you have satirized a community and
18:15
Speaker 1: a team and an area and they're like, yeah, that's
18:18
Speaker 1: you know, that's like perfect, Like you got away with it, right.
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean the only thing I could compare it
18:23
Speaker 2: to is I don't know if you've seen the second
18:27
Speaker 2: to last Kat Williams special. I'm obsessed with it. He
18:33
Speaker 2: is performing on a stage that is dressed to look
18:36
Speaker 2: like the Oval Office for no particular reason. But he
18:40
Speaker 2: shot it in Jacksonville, and the first twelve minutes of
18:44
Speaker 2: his special are local references to Jacksonville, and so if
18:49
Speaker 2: you're not from Jacksonville, you have no idea what he's
18:52
Speaker 2: making fun of, what he's referring to. But people in
18:55
Speaker 2: the crowd are absolutely losing it. He's like, y'all have
18:58
Speaker 2: too many bridges, and everyone's like, yeah, we do, we
19:01
Speaker 2: have too many bridges. Uh yeah, So they have a
19:05
Speaker 2: great sense of humor down there. It goes.
19:07
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with Cat Williams. I think he is. He
19:10
Speaker 1: is easily one of the greats. But when I saw that,
19:13
Speaker 1: it's it's like when you go when you're doing clubs
19:16
Speaker 1: and you always have like here's the six minutes on
19:19
Speaker 1: you you see it, right, let me just say stuff
19:21
Speaker 1: that's never gonna work anywhere else. And he was like,
19:22
Speaker 1: what if that was the like an amount of my
19:25
Speaker 1: special that you really have to be committed to Kat
19:28
Speaker 1: Williams to get to the regular catwa it goes on
19:32
Speaker 1: for so long.
19:32
Speaker 2: It's sort of obligatory as a comic you do some
19:35
Speaker 2: local references. And obviously he knows that, but he was
19:38
Speaker 2: so sure that these were gonna work no matter what,
19:42
Speaker 2: no matter where you were from, and they you know,
19:44
Speaker 2: they don't. But then there is something funny just by
19:47
Speaker 2: like how long he commits to the local references that
19:50
Speaker 2: I think that in itself is a joke. I mean,
19:53
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna question the brilliance of Kat Williams. He's
19:56
Speaker 2: he's on my He's on my Mount Rushmore for sure.
19:58
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's no pushing back on Kat, that's for sure.
20:03
Speaker 1: That year that you were talking about where they you know,
20:07
Speaker 1: people are yelling Bortos they go to the championship, So
20:10
Speaker 1: that is that is the year that the Vikings also
20:14
Speaker 1: went to the NFC Championship, almost got to the super
20:16
Speaker 1: We were talking about this before the show as a
20:19
Speaker 1: lifelong sports maniac. I identified with what you told me.
20:23
Speaker 1: But that is the year that essentially broke you, after
20:26
Speaker 1: a after a life of Vikings fanhood, that it pushed
20:30
Speaker 1: you over the edge.
20:31
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, So here's the thing is. I was born
20:34
Speaker 2: in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spent the first eleven years
20:38
Speaker 2: of my life being a sports fan, but in a
20:42
Speaker 2: region with no professional sports, so all I had was
20:46
Speaker 2: like the University of New Mexico and a minor league
20:49
Speaker 2: baseball team. But then my family moved to Minnesota, and
20:53
Speaker 2: I like embraced Minnesota sports, like in kind of a
20:58
Speaker 2: sad way. Like I've actually seen photos of myself, like
21:02
Speaker 2: in sixth grade going to the first day of school
21:04
Speaker 2: wearing like so much Vikings and Twins.
21:07
Speaker 1: Rin way too hard.
21:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, way too hard. But like was so happy to
21:13
Speaker 2: live in a city with with with sports teams, and
21:16
Speaker 2: and soon after that, you know, maybe the coolest era
21:21
Speaker 2: of Minnesota sports. I mean, I can't say, maybe the
21:24
Speaker 2: seventies were pretty cool or whatever, but like.
21:27
Speaker 1: Back when you could hardly find what was happening on
21:29
Speaker 1: TV or the radio in theory maybe.
21:31
Speaker 2: In theory, yeah, Killa Brew and Tarkington might have been cool,
21:34
Speaker 2: but whatever, like like Garnet and Randy Moss that was
21:39
Speaker 2: the era. Man, that was Like I was so happy.
21:42
Speaker 2: I went to a bunch of Vikings and Wolves games
21:46
Speaker 2: and you know there was that like Culpepper, Randy Moss,
21:51
Speaker 2: Chris Carter era. I remember, yeah, yeah that I mean no,
21:57
Speaker 2: it was Randall Cunningham. That was the team that.
21:59
Speaker 1: That's the team ninety eight.
22:01
Speaker 2: Gary Anderson missed the field goal. I was at a
22:03
Speaker 2: friend sleepover and fully like started crying like I took
22:07
Speaker 2: it like way too seriously. And then uh, you know,
22:11
Speaker 2: and then they are kind of bad for a while,
22:13
Speaker 2: and then yeah, that Minnesota miracle game, it just seems
22:18
Speaker 2: so storybook. I was like, they're gonna do it, like yeah,
22:21
Speaker 2: they're they're the super Bowls in Minnesota, like like it's
22:24
Speaker 2: all it's all happening. And then yeah, when it didn't happen,
22:28
Speaker 2: I was sort of like I can't take this anymore,
22:32
Speaker 2: Like like I like emotionally can't handle because like like
22:35
Speaker 2: as a bat, I mean, basketball is my number one
22:37
Speaker 2: I'm I have to say, but like there are things
22:40
Speaker 2: in the NBA season called scheduled losses, right where if
22:43
Speaker 2: you're playing two nights in a row and you're traveling
22:47
Speaker 2: like you're not expected to win. The team doesn't expect
22:49
Speaker 2: to win. You like, like you know, you mark that
22:52
Speaker 2: as a loss going into it, and there's just no
22:55
Speaker 2: such thing. In football. There's sixteen games. Every game matters,
22:59
Speaker 2: and it like takes an emotional toll on you, especially
23:03
Speaker 2: for a team like the Vikings that are so like snake.
23:05
Speaker 1: Bit it makes every new moment that much worse, you know,
23:11
Speaker 1: because of you're carrying the weight of every other moment.
23:14
Speaker 1: It's funny, like I was even worse in that Minnesota
23:19
Speaker 1: miracle year because if I don't know if you remember this,
23:21
Speaker 1: but so we're playing the Saints in the game before
23:25
Speaker 1: the championship. But on the other side it was the
23:28
Speaker 1: Falcons and the Eagles, right, and nobody everybody kind of
23:33
Speaker 1: now looks back like they were this force and we
23:35
Speaker 1: should have known and Foles and this, and but I
23:37
Speaker 1: think a lot of people win that game, like, of
23:39
Speaker 1: course the Eagles and Nick Foles are going to lose
23:42
Speaker 1: to Matt Ryan. Yeah, and the Falcons. And I remember
23:46
Speaker 1: saying to my The two things that stick out to
23:48
Speaker 1: me is I remember saying to my nephew that I'm
23:50
Speaker 1: not sure that I I think I would rather go
23:54
Speaker 1: to Atlanta and play them and and my nephew just
23:58
Speaker 1: like win on a irade about how bad Nick Foles
24:02
Speaker 1: is that I want to get engraved and hung in
24:06
Speaker 1: his house for the rest he just he deserves.
24:09
Speaker 2: It's his fault.
24:10
Speaker 1: It's his fault. Yeah, But I had I had convinced myself,
24:13
Speaker 1: and my breaking point was the far thing when he
24:17
Speaker 1: in nine, when he threw it to Sydney Rice and
24:20
Speaker 1: he got up across the fifty into field goal range
24:22
Speaker 1: and we had Ryan Longwell, I actually, in my brain,
24:25
Speaker 1: I don't think I even thought it. I think a
24:27
Speaker 1: voice somewhere went.
24:28
Speaker 2: We're going to the super Bowl.
24:30
Speaker 1: That happened. So I had kind of like had that
24:34
Speaker 1: breaking moment and slowly built back to this, and then
24:37
Speaker 1: I convinced myself. I was like, oh my god, not
24:39
Speaker 1: only is it story like, we're gonna we're gonna beat
24:42
Speaker 1: New Orleans who beat us in No.
24:44
Speaker 2: Nine.
24:45
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna beat the Falcons who beat us in
24:48
Speaker 1: the Gary Anderson year, and then we're gonna win a
24:50
Speaker 1: super Bowl. And our build like I bought in so
24:54
Speaker 1: heavily too.
24:55
Speaker 2: I was I was sort of protecting my mental health
25:00
Speaker 2: watching games, he checking scores, and then once it got
25:04
Speaker 2: to the playoffs, I was like, I'm back, here we
25:06
Speaker 2: go and then it yeah, then it just it it
25:09
Speaker 2: was just too much for me. And but but what's
25:12
Speaker 2: great is my best friend from high school is still
25:16
Speaker 2: a Vikings super fan, but just as pessimistic and unhealthy
25:22
Speaker 2: as I am. So he'll he'll kind of give me
25:24
Speaker 2: recaps of every game, which I find very helpful. So, like,
25:28
Speaker 2: you know, and I don't really have much context. I
25:30
Speaker 2: don't know who a lot like, he was so sad
25:31
Speaker 2: when JJ quarterback, oh JJ McCarthy he got hurt, and
25:37
Speaker 2: then he was really happy for a while. And then
25:40
Speaker 2: now I know, an offensive lineman went down, and now
25:43
Speaker 2: he's like, we're that ruined this season for him, he
25:45
Speaker 2: knows we're never gonna overcome.
25:47
Speaker 1: He's just one of those guys who like hanging on
25:51
Speaker 1: every single Yeah.
25:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a I mean, yeah, he's a lunatic.
25:55
Speaker 1: My best friend, uh, one of my best friends, Chad,
25:58
Speaker 1: do you know Chad Daniels. He uh, he were like
26:02
Speaker 1: we have agreed to like we've really had to peel
26:05
Speaker 1: back our messaging on game day because it's just one
26:10
Speaker 1: of us being such a about something and then the
26:13
Speaker 1: other one almost trying to undermine that person as though
26:17
Speaker 1: they're not, Like you're being ridiculous, You're a child, right,
26:21
Speaker 1: And so it's just it's just developed into this really
26:24
Speaker 1: unhealthy dynamic. And uh yeah, when a season goes like
26:28
Speaker 1: this where it's like you come out of the gate
26:29
Speaker 1: and you go, oh my gosh, who knew Sam Darnold?
26:32
Speaker 1: Who is the new MVP? And then you lose a
26:35
Speaker 1: couple like it's just been nothing in my phone is
26:38
Speaker 1: good for me.
26:39
Speaker 2: I understand that completely. Yeah, And the only other context
26:45
Speaker 2: I have is Nick Swardson's Instagram stories, which are just
26:50
Speaker 2: vile at best, just so unhinged that I can't I
26:54
Speaker 2: can't ever often it's like I can't tell if he's
26:56
Speaker 2: happy or upset, Like there's so the son used.
27:00
Speaker 1: When you develop a healthy relationship with your favorite sports team.
27:04
Speaker 1: Seeing Nick Swartzon's post is a lot like when you
27:06
Speaker 1: quit drinking and you go to a bar and you
27:08
Speaker 1: see somebody asleep on a stool. You like, got it, Yeah,
27:12
Speaker 1: I got it. That's why I made this choice.
27:14
Speaker 2: It's like the ghost of Vikings fandom future. Yeah, he is.
27:20
Speaker 1: He Nick is this sort of person who he's so
27:24
Speaker 1: immersed in Minneapolis, like in the normalacy that he wants
27:29
Speaker 1: when he's there, Like he's got a bar, he likes,
27:32
Speaker 1: he's got all the places, because he would show up
27:34
Speaker 1: to like open mic on Mondays back in the day,
27:37
Speaker 1: like in the in the early two thousands.
27:39
Speaker 2: I was there. I remember, Yeah, I mean.
27:41
Speaker 1: And that that was that was wild because you're at
27:46
Speaker 1: the height of the the Sandler fame and all that stuff.
27:50
Speaker 1: But he's just turned himself into such a human in
27:53
Speaker 1: town that he can just like I'll be out of
27:56
Speaker 1: place and all of a sudden, I'll just hear like
27:59
Speaker 1: swore and I'll be outside and all of a sudden
28:01
Speaker 1: somebody will walk by and you go like yeah, ye
28:04
Speaker 1: scream obscenities and you turn your like, oh, there's Nick.
28:08
Speaker 1: I wonder what the school. I wonder if the did
28:10
Speaker 1: the wild just give up a goal.
28:11
Speaker 2: I don't know how he has the bandwidth.
28:14
Speaker 1: So you lived in Minnesota from the time you were
28:17
Speaker 1: like eleven, all the way through graduation and then out
28:21
Speaker 1: to school and then to La when you back at
28:23
Speaker 1: all in between that.
28:24
Speaker 2: Never moved back at all, But I you know, would
28:27
Speaker 2: come back for holidays and stuff. And I always try
28:29
Speaker 2: to go once or twice a year for shows. So
28:33
Speaker 2: and you know, I just take my last special in Minneapolis,
28:35
Speaker 2: So I go back as much as I can and
28:39
Speaker 2: try to catch at least a Timberwolves game.
28:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, or how are you? I know this is a
28:45
Speaker 1: Vikings podcast, But do you buy into Do you buy
28:49
Speaker 1: into this? Because it's it's not just the Vikings, it
28:52
Speaker 1: is the timber You want to talk about snake bit
28:54
Speaker 1: and like we Timberwolves fans own, we have a trademark
28:59
Speaker 1: on the term snake.
29:00
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. Yeah.
29:01
Speaker 1: Do you buy into this? This thing that has developed
29:06
Speaker 1: since nineteen ninety one? The curse, it's never gonna happen.
29:09
Speaker 1: It's always gonna get pulled out from under us. Do
29:12
Speaker 1: you where where are you at now? As a grown,
29:15
Speaker 1: older adult man in the Is it possible that we
29:18
Speaker 1: will get happiness from a title?
29:20
Speaker 2: I think so? I think. I don't think it's I
29:23
Speaker 2: don't think it's impossible, but I do I do believe
29:26
Speaker 2: in like removing the negative energy at Sage the inside
29:30
Speaker 2: of the target center, you know, and there's probably.
29:32
Speaker 1: Something to send some lady from a Dina in there
29:35
Speaker 1: with a burning like branch to try.
29:37
Speaker 2: To fix everything up. That's what we need. That's what
29:39
Speaker 2: we need. We might need a few few ladies, but yeah, I.
29:42
Speaker 1: Just I think sports has come down to your owners.
29:45
Speaker 1: And I you know, I get people who yell at
29:47
Speaker 1: me for sucking up to the Vikings owners, but I
29:49
Speaker 1: truly think that, like I truly think they're trying to win.
29:53
Speaker 1: I think they put winning a title next to business operations.
29:58
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, to your point with the Wolves,
30:01
Speaker 1: there were so many people who were anti a rod
30:03
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting here in my brain going the rich
30:06
Speaker 1: guy who's very famous, who's a public facing figure, who
30:09
Speaker 1: will take all the heat if we're bad, and who's
30:11
Speaker 1: a competitor. Like to me, it seems like such a
30:15
Speaker 1: great opportunity, and now the twins are for sale. Like
30:18
Speaker 1: wherever you go in sports, if the owner actually cares
30:21
Speaker 1: about winning, it's not a guarantee that you're gonna but
30:23
Speaker 1: it does. I do think it usually translates to a
30:26
Speaker 1: better chance than not.
30:27
Speaker 2: For sure, Oh for sure. I mean that is. Yeah,
30:30
Speaker 2: as I've gotten older and realized the like business side
30:34
Speaker 2: of this stuff, that's that's the most important thing is
30:37
Speaker 2: who the owner, like it's almost never does a cheapskate
30:42
Speaker 2: owner win a title, and when they do, it's not
30:46
Speaker 2: it's not like a dynasty. It's a it's a blip,
30:49
Speaker 2: you know.
30:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, it happens once in baseball, every once in a while,
30:53
Speaker 1: and then four years later they've sold every player they had,
30:56
Speaker 1: Like it feels like it feels like the beginning of
30:59
Speaker 1: a major league when they got Pedro Serrano and everybody's
31:02
Speaker 1: showing up on a motorcycle and stuff like, this was
31:04
Speaker 1: your plan, yeap for this season.
31:06
Speaker 2: I yes, Great Reference is one of the one of
31:09
Speaker 2: the ten VHS movies I owned as a kid, so
31:11
Speaker 2: I know every single frame of that movie.
31:14
Speaker 1: I would argue, I was having this conversation with somebody
31:17
Speaker 1: the other day, I think Major League is not just
31:20
Speaker 1: in the conversation for best sports movie of all time.
31:24
Speaker 1: I think it is. And this you can get very
31:26
Speaker 1: you can push back very hard on this. I think
31:29
Speaker 1: it's in the best if we're talking fifteen to twenty.
31:33
Speaker 1: I don't know how big the number has to be,
31:34
Speaker 1: but it's in the best comedy conversation That one in
31:38
Speaker 1: Kingpin I think kind of transcend their genre into I
31:42
Speaker 1: just love them as movies.
31:43
Speaker 2: Yeah that's fair. I mean I don't I don't think
31:45
Speaker 2: of either of those movies as just like a sports movie,
31:48
Speaker 2: which is saying a lot, you know. So uh yeah,
31:51
Speaker 2: it's up there, probably with Happy Gilmour in that world too.
31:54
Speaker 1: Are you a Sandler fan?
31:55
Speaker 2: I love Sandler. In fact, I've never like yelled at
32:01
Speaker 2: an agent my agent before. But I was so mad
32:05
Speaker 2: to find out that the movie Uncut Gems is like
32:09
Speaker 2: a fever dream. I would have a movie.
32:12
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's what this is where I was
32:14
Speaker 1: going with this go.
32:15
Speaker 2: Ahead a movie starring Adam Sandler and Kevin Garnett. Like
32:21
Speaker 2: how did I not know this movie was getting made
32:23
Speaker 2: into It was in the can Like I was like,
32:25
Speaker 2: I'll I don't even have to be on camera.
32:27
Speaker 1: Could do punch up for free, just go stand by us.
32:29
Speaker 2: A punch up. I would do craft services. I'd make
32:32
Speaker 2: sandwiches for people just to be there.
32:34
Speaker 1: You know.
32:35
Speaker 2: I was so mad, Oh my god, yeah I I.
32:38
Speaker 1: And then you throw ants on the film. I mean
32:40
Speaker 1: that is uh, that's about as good as I know.
32:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I do love Adam Sandler. And if they
32:47
Speaker 2: make a sequel to What a Hustle Uh, that was
32:50
Speaker 2: the name of it, The the Anthony Edwards One. I am,
32:53
Speaker 2: I am there, I will I'll do anything.
32:56
Speaker 1: Or more uncut gems.
32:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like uncut uncut, uttered.
33:00
Speaker 1: Gens, uncut gems to uncutter. Yeah, he is. You know,
33:05
Speaker 1: he's such a huge basketball fan. I just it's funny
33:09
Speaker 1: how and I think that's gonna happen with everything you
33:14
Speaker 1: see it happening with the Office. I'm starting to see
33:16
Speaker 1: it with It's just really hard to remember what influence
33:21
Speaker 1: feels like. And it's really fun to see Sandler have
33:24
Speaker 1: who is not to be corny, but he's in that
33:27
Speaker 1: category of reason I wanted to do it. You know,
33:31
Speaker 1: you're we're of the age where Happy Gilmore and Billy
33:34
Speaker 1: Madison and the wedding singer. You just it's just the silliest,
33:37
Speaker 1: most fun thing. And I think you forget what, like
33:41
Speaker 1: how silly it is, like with how movies are made now,
33:44
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, he just had a culture club dance
33:46
Speaker 1: scene in the middle and a musical number out of
33:49
Speaker 1: nowhere with a clown that dies and a penguin.
33:52
Speaker 2: Well, it's just like they don't make comedies anymore. That's
33:54
Speaker 2: the that's the bummer is like, you know, especially like
33:57
Speaker 2: where I'm at in my career, it's just like, yeah,
34:00
Speaker 2: they it's everything's a comic book movie basically, So like
34:03
Speaker 2: to get a get a silly comedy made is like
34:06
Speaker 2: is such a huge win. It's such a triumph. So yeah,
34:12
Speaker 2: just being able, like he's been able to do that
34:14
Speaker 2: for what like thirty years now you got to give
34:17
Speaker 2: it up. And then on top of that, not just
34:19
Speaker 2: like you know, the movies are very obviously like a
34:24
Speaker 2: way for he's he's figured out a way to like
34:27
Speaker 2: get paid to have fun with his friends and exotic locales.
34:30
Speaker 2: It's crazy. But then you know, his last couple of
34:33
Speaker 2: specials have been like you're like, oh, this dude's still
34:36
Speaker 2: like so brilliant at stand up, so good.
34:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, I love watching And we're way
34:42
Speaker 1: off the topic of vikings, but let's we'll I'll wind
34:44
Speaker 1: it back.
34:45
Speaker 2: It's all the weed. It's someone, yeah.
34:47
Speaker 1: Someone cares about that's right. The Twain Award, Like whenever
34:52
Speaker 1: somebody gets the Mark Twain. If you ever want to
34:54
Speaker 1: like remember why and how much you love someone, watch
34:59
Speaker 1: them receive that prize. It's the greatest the saying the
35:02
Speaker 1: one was the best I've ever seen. It was so good.
35:05
Speaker 2: That's cool.
35:06
Speaker 1: Have you ever wanted to because you know Sure is
35:09
Speaker 1: involved with LeBatard and all those guys and that cool universe.
35:13
Speaker 1: Do you keep your love of sports? I know you
35:15
Speaker 1: were just talking about desperately wanting to be on uncut Jet,
35:19
Speaker 1: But do you keep your love of sports over here?
35:22
Speaker 1: Or does any have you? Do you always find yourself
35:24
Speaker 1: kind of trying to write something that lands in the vein?
35:28
Speaker 1: Have you ever crossed across the two over?
35:31
Speaker 2: I mean I was doing an experiment last year where
35:33
Speaker 2: I was doing like an overly complicated live stream on
35:37
Speaker 2: YouTube where I would have like a comedian friend or two.
35:41
Speaker 2: We would be live streaming watching a basketball game, but
35:44
Speaker 2: because we didn't want to get sued for the rights,
35:46
Speaker 2: the whole joke was that people would have to find
35:49
Speaker 2: the game themselves and sync it up to our own commentary,
35:53
Speaker 2: and you know, just too stupid to make it a success.
35:56
Speaker 2: But it was very fun, and I guess my dream
35:59
Speaker 2: would be to do something like that. I don't know,
36:03
Speaker 2: and I think it would work for football too. Definitely
36:05
Speaker 2: would work for football because there's so much dead air,
36:08
Speaker 2: so much like Discover But like get comedians to do
36:11
Speaker 2: play by play just as an option, Like you know,
36:15
Speaker 2: there's odd like when you are on Netflix, there's multiple
36:17
Speaker 2: languages do like do Like you know, you have Tony
36:21
Speaker 2: Romo as one option, then Joe, Mandy and Friends as another.
36:25
Speaker 2: And it's not like I'm a super expert at basketball,
36:28
Speaker 2: but I know enough to do that. I'm sure you know,
36:31
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's you know, I know you had Megan
36:33
Speaker 2: on last week right like she could do football, like
36:37
Speaker 2: she could absolutely do you know what I mean. So
36:39
Speaker 2: it's like I just like I think with technology, it's
36:42
Speaker 2: certainly an option that should be explored where you could
36:45
Speaker 2: have different forms of commentary because I would I would
36:50
Speaker 2: give up my career to do that full time, to
36:53
Speaker 2: be able to go to basketball games and do like commentary.
36:56
Speaker 1: The uh, it's funny. First of all, the people on
36:59
Speaker 1: you there are people on YouTube who that is they
37:02
Speaker 1: will during the game, they will live stream. You cannot
37:04
Speaker 1: watch the football game. You can watch them and it
37:09
Speaker 1: is it's just no screening. They're like and it's a
37:12
Speaker 1: run okay, and there is no commentary. There's nothing good
37:17
Speaker 1: with it. So I think you'd be surprised at how
37:21
Speaker 1: easy it would be to rise to the top of
37:23
Speaker 1: that mountain. I think the NBA is a perfect place.
37:27
Speaker 1: They've always been so progressive and like, let's let blogs in.
37:29
Speaker 1: Who cares if you show our highlights on social media?
37:33
Speaker 1: Like there is a universe where I do think it
37:37
Speaker 1: is hard though, it's like as I learned at ESPN,
37:40
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of other people when you
37:42
Speaker 1: bring like traditional like you're a real comic who's been
37:46
Speaker 1: on the road and written and done the things you've done,
37:49
Speaker 1: and then you go exist in that world where people
37:50
Speaker 1: take it like you love it and I love it
37:53
Speaker 1: and it's fun, but we also can't stray away from
37:56
Speaker 1: what's the funniest about it. And then you get in
37:58
Speaker 1: part of this guy goes to make fun of the jazz. Yeah.
38:01
Speaker 2: If you say, if you mentioned certain things about a
38:03
Speaker 2: player's pass, you could get in trouble or they could
38:05
Speaker 2: get in trouble. Yeah, so it is like it is.
38:08
Speaker 2: It is kind of it is kind of dicey, but
38:10
Speaker 2: that would be great. I would love to figure out
38:13
Speaker 2: a way to well, I guess I did I I
38:17
Speaker 2: there's a I worked on the show at the beginning
38:18
Speaker 2: of the year. That is uh uh Mindy Kaln produced
38:23
Speaker 2: with is Me by Ike Barnholtz and David Stassen, writing
38:27
Speaker 2: a show that's loosely based on the owner of the
38:30
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Lakers, so it's a lot of basketball and yeah,
38:34
Speaker 2: that comes out on Netflix early next year. It's called
38:38
Speaker 2: Running Point and uh yeah, Kate Hudson is the star.
38:42
Speaker 2: So that, like, that was very fun and I was
38:45
Speaker 2: able to like, it was funny being in a room
38:47
Speaker 2: where I'm there fundamentally to be a comedy writer. But
38:50
Speaker 2: there would be sometimes where people were pitching storylines and
38:53
Speaker 2: I would be like, well, we can't do that because
38:56
Speaker 2: the salary cap, you know, that's just not realistic. The
38:58
Speaker 2: team would enter the second April and yeah, yeah, but
39:03
Speaker 2: I yeah, it was almost like annoying for everyone how
39:05
Speaker 2: much I knew.
39:06
Speaker 1: Well, but that is the worst thing in sport. That
39:08
Speaker 1: is the worst thing in TV. When you see a
39:10
Speaker 1: guy shoot a jumper and it like You're like, I
39:12
Speaker 1: don't think that went more than three feet. You know,
39:14
Speaker 1: you gotta it's nothing shatters the glass quicker than somebody
39:18
Speaker 1: going it'll be a five team trade and you're like,
39:21
Speaker 1: that's not a We've never seen one of those before.
39:23
Speaker 2: You know, ultimately it's an office place comedy, so like
39:27
Speaker 2: we it was a sort of mandate within the room
39:31
Speaker 2: to show as little actual basketball as possible because Basketball
39:35
Speaker 2: fictionalized basketball, and and you know, I guess football is
39:38
Speaker 2: a little better. I mean, any given Sunday looked good.
39:41
Speaker 2: I think in retrospect.
39:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, the way they can I think, the way they
39:44
Speaker 1: can chase shots with the action a little bit.
39:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, and everyone's in pads and you just have to
39:50
Speaker 2: show people slamming. But like, yeah, there's like, you know,
39:53
Speaker 2: you can tell pretty quickly if someone's played basketball before,
39:57
Speaker 2: just by the way they dribble and shoot. You know,
39:59
Speaker 2: most of the show it was just people in the office,
40:01
Speaker 2: the front office, just yeah, discussing trades and stuff.
40:05
Speaker 1: The one thing that somebody live action thing that somebody
40:08
Speaker 1: was dumb enough to cast me in was a tennis movie.
40:11
Speaker 1: And I played tennis in high school. I could really
40:13
Speaker 1: play tennis. And I don't know that I'm the worst
40:16
Speaker 1: actor of all time, but you know, for sure, I'm
40:19
Speaker 1: a bad auditioner.
40:21
Speaker 2: And sure, yeah, but easy.
40:23
Speaker 1: No, for sure. But part of the audition was you
40:26
Speaker 1: read the lines and then you go out and you
40:30
Speaker 1: hit a few balls. On camera and I could really
40:32
Speaker 1: play tennis. And I think they were having such a
40:34
Speaker 1: hard time finding a human who could play tennis that
40:39
Speaker 1: they actually like. They changed a Latin dude to it
40:44
Speaker 1: was and they named the character for Hayes Davenport. They
40:46
Speaker 1: switched it to after him. And then I came in
40:50
Speaker 1: and they were like, man, this guy could play tennis.
40:51
Speaker 1: And then the first scene they were like.
40:54
Speaker 2: Oh, no, what have we done? Like, oh, but he can't.
40:59
Speaker 1: But they hit I'll tell you what, they hid the
41:00
Speaker 1: acting and the tennis looks really good. Man.
41:04
Speaker 2: You know what that's that's called you you cut together,
41:07
Speaker 2: That's all that matters. Uh. Yeah. We had a thing
41:10
Speaker 2: on Parks and rec once where we cast Chris Bosh
41:14
Speaker 2: to be on the Eagleton basketball team, and he was
41:18
Speaker 2: so nervous about delivering his line that he would say
41:23
Speaker 2: his line and then just brick jump shot after jump
41:26
Speaker 2: and these are like bunnies, These are like eight foot
41:28
Speaker 2: jump shots that he would make a thousand times out
41:30
Speaker 2: of a thousand. But he was so nervous about landing
41:33
Speaker 2: his mark and saying his line that we had to
41:35
Speaker 2: literally like do a clever editor.
41:37
Speaker 1: Because Chris Bosh one of the greatest power forwards of
41:41
Speaker 1: all time couldn't make a jumper.
41:43
Speaker 2: So yeah, so you you struck. You have the same
41:46
Speaker 2: struggle as Chris Bosh.
41:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. What I've always said is Chris Bosh and I
41:49
Speaker 1: are very similar.
41:50
Speaker 2: We're very in so many ways. Yeah, I was gonna
41:53
Speaker 2: mention it very similar.
41:54
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate you letting it you know, you
41:57
Speaker 1: letting it trickle out. Just in this late moment in
41:59
Speaker 1: the show he had that Chris Bosh had that weird,
42:01
Speaker 1: that weird period where obviously the sad thing happens with
42:05
Speaker 1: his heart and he's got to leave the league, and
42:06
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden they were sticking him stuff.
42:08
Speaker 1: He was in like a kid show, and I remember
42:10
Speaker 1: being like, and they just introduced him as Chris Bosh
42:13
Speaker 1: in a fictional world, and I was like, I don't
42:14
Speaker 1: know that this makes sense, but that is Chris Bosh right.
42:17
Speaker 2: There right now. Hero. He rules, He rules. I was
42:21
Speaker 2: a huge fan of his.
42:22
Speaker 1: Who is the who is the most fun person in
42:26
Speaker 1: the sports world that you have crossed with?
42:29
Speaker 2: Well, I'm friendly with Blake Griffins. He did a thing
42:32
Speaker 2: for my first special. So he rules. Uh, Roy Hibbert,
42:38
Speaker 2: I'm only I feel badly that I'm on this football podcast.
42:41
Speaker 2: We wrote a thing for Kroll Show years ago that
42:44
Speaker 2: nom the Awesome Wa ended up doing, and he was
42:48
Speaker 2: he was great and very funny.
42:49
Speaker 1: That's a deep cut, A nom the Awesome Wa cut.
42:52
Speaker 1: That's a deep cut. Yeah, yeah, it's funny when you
42:55
Speaker 1: see somebody like Blake Griffin. It's the same thing with
42:57
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning. You know, we've got a guy in town
42:59
Speaker 1: here who you know, he just does broadcast and radio
43:02
Speaker 1: and host like it's he's kind of the Minneapolis version
43:06
Speaker 1: of oh you got I don't know why I'm explaining
43:08
Speaker 1: it to you like this. It's Ben Lieber. Liber is
43:11
Speaker 1: so former linebacker for the Vikings retired. He is so
43:16
Speaker 1: talented and like in and around media, it's almost infuriat
43:21
Speaker 1: And that's the thing you always see with Blake Griffin.
43:23
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, so you just you just were one
43:25
Speaker 1: of the greatest athletes to ever walk the earth, and
43:29
Speaker 1: you have this version of comedic timing. It's wild.
43:33
Speaker 2: No, it's it's so annoying. It's so annoying.
43:36
Speaker 1: Uh, dude, I really appreciate this man. Do you have
43:38
Speaker 1: a We put everybody on the spot. They don't like it.
43:41
Speaker 1: But okay, the Jacksonville Bortals are playing the Vikings this weekend.
43:45
Speaker 1: Can I get a prediction from you?
43:47
Speaker 2: I think the Vikings will win forty two to three.
43:55
Speaker 1: I like forty two to three.
43:57
Speaker 2: Justin Jefferson will have four touchdowns three hundred yards, four.
44:03
Speaker 1: Touch three hundred yards, four touchdowns. The great Joe Mandy, Hey,
44:08
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us.
44:09
Speaker 2: Man, of course, thank you for having me. This is fun.
44:12
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Joe Mandy for joining the show, and
44:15
Speaker 1: thank you for listening to our podcast feed. Hey, while
44:18
Speaker 1: you're here, make sure to give us a subscribe. Maybe
44:22
Speaker 1: you give us a comment that helps a review. I
44:24
Speaker 1: think they're called on podcast apps. Also a huge shout
44:29
Speaker 1: out to Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings,
44:33
Speaker 1: for helping make this show happen. We will see you
44:35
Speaker 1: all again next week.