Latest / The Vikings Tailgate / Vikings Tailgate: Pete Bercich Digs Down On Surviving Notre Dame and The Infamous Monte Kiffin Prank - MIA - Ep 74

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Vikings Tailgate: Pete Bercich Digs Down On Surviving Notre Dame and The Infamous Monte Kiffin Prank - MIA - Ep 74 · The Vikings Tailgate

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  Speaker 1: Join Paul Allen and Alec Lewis this Friday, October 2nd
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  Speaker 1: at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Monticello for Friday Football
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  Speaker 1: Feast presented by Coors Light. Visit Vikings.com slash BWW for
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  Speaker 1: full schedule and details. Before kickoff, there's one sign that
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  Speaker 1: it's game time, and that's when the mountains turn blue.
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  Speaker 1: Be sure to get your Mountain Cold Coors Light at U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Bank Stadium. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening on the podcast feed.
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  Speaker 1: This is another fun episode for Chad and I. The
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  Speaker 1: great Pete Bursich joined us. He's always interviewing the legends
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: from this organization, so we flipped it on him, asked
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  Speaker 1: him a bunch of really fun questions. I think you
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  Speaker 1: are going to like it a lot. So let's go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and jump into our conversation. with the great Pete Bursich.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Viking fans, welcome to the tailgate brought to you
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  Speaker 2: by Ticketmaster.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Your favorite football team is 3-0. I'm joined by the
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  Speaker 1: great Chad Daniels, and we're not going to waste any
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: time today. We are excited about the Miami game, but
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  Speaker 1: we got the opportunity to sit down with Pete Bursich,
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  Speaker 1: get him in a room for a while, and ask
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  Speaker 1: him a bunch of questions. So Chad and I are
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  Speaker 1: going to jump right into our conversation with Pete Bursich.
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  Speaker 1: Joining us in studio, a guy who spends a lot
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  Speaker 1: of his time asking other Viking legends about their stories,
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  Speaker 1: and now we're going to force him to do it
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  Speaker 1: for us here on the tailgate. Ladies and gentlemen... The
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  Speaker 1: great Pete Bursich.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude. Thanks for doing it. We've been it's been
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  Speaker 1: a really we changed the format of the show this year.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's basically we talked Tom West into badgering
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  Speaker 1: legends and coming on the show. So it's been three
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  Speaker 1: so far. Pretty good run. Jim McMahon. Oh, Brad Johnson.
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  Speaker 1: All right. into Pete Bursich and they all kind of,
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  Speaker 1: all three of you guys kind of land in that
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  Speaker 1: nineties Chad and Cy were children and have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of questions range. So be prepared for a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: that today. And I'm going to start out with one
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  Speaker 1: that feels like it should be at the end, but
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  Speaker 1: you and I talk about 98 a lot. The 98 Vikings,
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  Speaker 1: the 15-1 team, the team you played on. Uh, and
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  Speaker 1: I bother you about it often, but I don't think
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  Speaker 1: I've ever asked you this question, uh, What is something
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  Speaker 1: from that year that you think about or you remember
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  Speaker 1: that nobody talks about or nobody thinks about? Because it's
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  Speaker 1: always the same stuff, right? It's Moss, high-powered offense, heartbreaking kick.
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  Speaker 1: But like when you think about that, is there something
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  Speaker 1: else that pops into your brain that isn't overly discussed?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know. I think, you know, what you think
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  Speaker 3: a lot about is, and it just happened with being
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  Speaker 3: down in Tampa and playing in the big sombrero against
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  Speaker 3: Tony Dungy and Just when you go down there, you
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  Speaker 3: play him, and from the beginning of the game, he
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  Speaker 3: went forward on fourth down. And he knew exactly kind
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  Speaker 3: of where some of the bones were buried, especially with
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  Speaker 3: us defensively. And not like exposing it, but just chipping
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  Speaker 3: away at it, chipping away at it, chipping away at it.
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  Speaker 3: And losing that game, it was wild. You win seven
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  Speaker 3: in a row, and then you lose that game, and
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  Speaker 3: then you win seven more in a row. or eight
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  Speaker 3: more in a row. And then it's just that one hiccup.
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  Speaker 3: And you look back and you're like, what happened? It
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  Speaker 3: was just well done by Tony Dungy, right? And, again,
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  Speaker 3: he went for it on fourth down on every single play.
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  Speaker 3: And back then that was like suicide. It wasn't like
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  Speaker 3: it is now where everyone has the big pile of
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  Speaker 3: analytics and you type it in the computer and it
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  Speaker 3: tells you go for it or don't or whatever. It
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  Speaker 3: was revolutionary, like, back then. But All-Stod and that whole
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  Speaker 3: group and playing down in Tampa Bay, and it's just
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  Speaker 3: wild how that used to be part of our division.
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  Speaker 3: We'd go down there every year. They'd come up here
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  Speaker 3: every year. You just hoped that it was later in
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  Speaker 3: the season because I, as a player, I didn't like
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  Speaker 3: the heat. I'm from the north and played college up
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  Speaker 3: north and the whole thing, so the heat wasn't really
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  Speaker 3: a huge factor. But, yeah, that's a game I think
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  Speaker 3: about quite a bit.
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  Speaker 1: I think. Yeah, I'm going to get out of the
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  Speaker 1: way because our boy here, Chatty D, so he's a
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  Speaker 1: lifelong Viking fan, but it waned for a while and
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  Speaker 1: really liked the Eagles when he was younger.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I know. I'm with you. But here's what brought him back.
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  Speaker 3: Seth Joyner.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what brought him back.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, back then, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and Herschel Walker.
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  Speaker 3: They had some good defense.
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  Speaker 4: Keith Byers, Jerome Brown.
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  Speaker 3: They were bad. Crazy. I've been to Fergus Falls, by
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  Speaker 3: the way. Have I told you that? Oh, you have?
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  Speaker 1: What'd you do? I mean, it's not that far away.
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  Speaker 1: It's not like a huge.
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  Speaker 3: Flew out there on Ziggy's jet. This is back when
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  Speaker 3: they were trying to garner.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, this is real?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, they were trying to garner support for the building
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  Speaker 3: of the stadium. And Lester Bagley, there was one of
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  Speaker 3: those big, I don't know, whatever, city council meetings or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Ben Lieber, me, and I can't remember who else it was,
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  Speaker 3: but just jumped on the old Falcon and flew out
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  Speaker 3: to Fergus Falls and flew back. It took like 10 minutes.
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  Speaker 3: Something I would only take a two and a half
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  Speaker 3: hour drive. I was like, zip, zip.
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  Speaker 4: I wish I would have had one of those when
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  Speaker 4: I was touring. That would have been nice instead of
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  Speaker 4: driving three hours to the airport every single week.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 4: And having my kids go, you're gone a lot. How
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  Speaker 4: come you don't love us?
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  Speaker 3: And try.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, well, I am.
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  Speaker 3: It's just funny because I'm not from here originally. I'm
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  Speaker 3: from Chicago area. But when I come up here and
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  Speaker 3: I meet someone from like Fergus Falls or. you know,
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  Speaker 3: International Falls or whatever, and you've been there, you're like, hey,
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  Speaker 3: I've been there.
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  Speaker 1: It pains in your brain.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. Because when you get out of the cities, it's
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  Speaker 3: a little different.
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  Speaker 4: Well, to go to your hometown, Joliet, right?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So I know two things.
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  Speaker 1: Home of the Slammers.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, see, now I know three.
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  Speaker 3: Joliet Slammers.
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  Speaker 4: There's a prison.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: And then Rudy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: That's the two things I know about Joliet.
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  Speaker 1: Have we talked about, because you went to Notre Dame,
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  Speaker 1: have we talked about Steve Gillespie's grandfather? No. On the show, Jay?
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  Speaker 1: Have we talked?
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: So how many years post-Rudy were you?
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  Speaker 3: One was Rudy. I don't remember exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Late 70s? That shows how relevant Rudy was to the
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  Speaker 1: University of Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk Rudy. All right. I know a bunch of
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  Speaker 3: his brothers.
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  Speaker 1: Of the Rudigers.
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  Speaker 3: Yes. So there was France.
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  Speaker 1: Was his name Rudy Rudiger?
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  Speaker 4: Am I remembering that right?
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  Speaker 3: They called him Rudy. Rudy because of his last name.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: One of his brothers, Francis, was a detective in the
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  Speaker 3: Julia Police Department.
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  Speaker 1: 75.
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  Speaker 3: Little bitty guy. Okay. Set national records in powerlifting. And
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  Speaker 3: he had his own gym. It was called Rudy's Gym.
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  Speaker 3: And Rudy's Gym was a gym that was in a garage.
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  Speaker 3: But it was so big, if you got invited to
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  Speaker 3: Rudy's Gym, you had to go. And then you'd walk
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  Speaker 3: in with your work because you had to wear work boots.
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  Speaker 3: That's what you lifted in. And then the weights were all,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the humid and rusty and slippery and the
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  Speaker 3: whole thing. I mean, it was anybody that did a
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  Speaker 3: drive-by and looked and they're like, what the hell? This
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  Speaker 3: guy's got a torture chamber in his garage.
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  Speaker 4: The lamest party I've ever seen.
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  Speaker 3: But it was like the biggest deal. His other brother
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  Speaker 3: was the head wrestling coach in my high school. Illinois
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  Speaker 3: High School State Coach of the Year a couple of times.
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  Speaker 3: His other brother was the first four-time state champion in
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  Speaker 3: wrestling in Illinois state history. He was a single A
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  Speaker 3: two years and then double A won it two years later.
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  Speaker 3: Joey Gilbert, I think, was the first four-time state champion
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  Speaker 3: in double A. Not that it matters. And then they
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: make the movie about the little one. The run. He
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  Speaker 3: was a maintenance guy at the condos were right by
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  Speaker 3: right by school. Right. And then they would let him
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  Speaker 3: come in and work out. And he would tell us
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  Speaker 3: about this movie they're making about him. Right. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I did this and, you know, I got the sack
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  Speaker 3: and I was the last person that was carried off
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  Speaker 3: out of Notre Dame Stadium on the shoulders of my teammates.
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  Speaker 3: And we just looked at him. We're like, yeah, good
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  Speaker 3: luck with that.
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  Speaker 4: Good luck with that, buddy.
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  Speaker 1: One of the most famous sports movies of all time.
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  Speaker 3: And then you see the movie, and you're like, oh,
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: my God, that's Hollywood right there. That's Hollywood.
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  Speaker 1: This is going to be really interesting that I get
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to tell this because you're from Joliet. Because, well, I'll
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  Speaker 1: just do it. Our friend Steve Gillespie, fantastic stand-up comedian, right?
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  Speaker 1: So Steve, I've known him for years, started at the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: exact same time as me. We might have known each
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: other for almost a decade at this point. Yeah. We
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: start talking, and somehow the subject of Rudy comes up.
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  Speaker 1: And you know in the movie Rudy, when they go,
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  Speaker 1: Coach Gillespie thinks you're.
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  Speaker 4: A p * * *?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's Steve's grandpa. Gordy Gillespie.
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  Speaker 3: No, I remember Gordy Gillespie.
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  Speaker 1: That's Steve Gillespie.
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  Speaker 3: I remember, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One of the greatest college baseball coaches of all time.
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  Speaker 1: The all-time Illinois high school football coach.
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  Speaker 3: Winningest of all time.
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  Speaker 1: Coached Rudy.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: He would have so many guys come out for football
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  Speaker 3: that back in the day, they would split you up
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: into linemen and non-linemen, and you would run 100 yards.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: If they had 150 guys on the field and they
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: could only dress 90, the bottom 60 in both groups,
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  Speaker 3: 30 each, 30 each, goodbye. That was it. They would
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: do that.
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  Speaker 1: Day one?
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  Speaker 3: They would cut guys. Yeah, day one.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, boy.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: That was the turnout. I grew up hearing about Cordy
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  Speaker 3: Gillespie and everything that he had done. He was a legend.
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  Speaker 3: He was an absolute legend.
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  Speaker 4: That's very cool.
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  Speaker 1: It's very, very cool.
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  Speaker 4: Because Steve, man, what happened to him?
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  Speaker 1: Not a legend.
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  Speaker 3: So we're talking about.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: about coaches, talking about Notre Dame. I'm not a big
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: stats guy, but do you have any fun Lou Holtz stories?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, here's the thing. Yeah, there are a lot
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: of fun ones, but not that you can share. Lou
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: was interesting because I got recruited by Lou and Lou was,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I also got recruited by Barry Alvarez. And the reason
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: I went to Notre Dame was really because of Barry Alvarez,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: and I wish he would have stayed, but he left
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: and went to Wisconsin. But Lou, you came to the house,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: and you meet him, and he's just, you know, he
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: charms the pants off you and the whole thing, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: then you go to your first training camp, and then about,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, 30 minutes into it, maybe
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: two hours into it, you're like, who is this guy?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: This is not the guy that, you know, that you knew.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: And then the other part of it was he would
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: beat you down You were so beaten down physically, mentally,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: the whole way that once you got to the game,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the game was easy. The game was the easiest part
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  Speaker 3: of the week. Surviving him the rest of the way
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  Speaker 3: was the hard part. It seems a little like Herbie Brooks.
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  Speaker 3: Just all the time. It was relentless every single day.
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  Speaker 3: So you couldn't have soft skin. You couldn't let it
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  Speaker 3: get to you. And there were so many guys that
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: I played with who were unbelievable talents that right? Notre
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Dame at the time was one of the top, I mean,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: five or 10, let's face it, schools to go. So
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: you constantly, every year there would be 30, 25, 30
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: more guys that came in and they were all big, strong, fat.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: They were unbelievable. But a lot of them, I think
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: today it would never work today, but you just had to,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you had to find a way to just like we
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: did when you do with the anger and stuff, you
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: just had to, you had to just swallow it and
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: pack it down. And then and then pull it up
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: at certain parts of the day when you needed it,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: like nine on seven or whatever else.
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  Speaker 1: Stick it away and be like, someday this will be
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the thing that tears my family apart.
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  Speaker 3: My favorite loose story, one of my favorite loose stories,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: me personally, was in practice one day on a punt return.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: We're doing middle punt, right? I'm an inside guy and
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I'm blocking a guard on the punt team and the
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: long snapper snaps the ball and the guard, instead of
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: running a middle return, it's important. Instead of him just
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: running down the field, he picks around the long snapper.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: So he goes this way. And this is practice, by
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: the way. And so I'm like, all right, all I
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: got to do is get him out of the middle
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: of the field. So, you know, I push him out
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: of the middle of the field. And then at the
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: end of the play, he blows the whistle, comes walking out.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: He walks up to me. He's like, son, what return
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: is it?
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: I'm like, middle.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: He's like, which way are you supposed to block your guy?
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: And I go, well, to the left. And he's like,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: which way did you block him? And I go, well,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: that way. And before I could explain, because I think
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I did the right thing, he looks at me and
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: he goes– He's like, son, your ass is going to
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: make me take recruiting much more seriously. And then just
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: turned around and then walked away. But it was constant
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: mind games. He would leave your name out of stuff
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: on purpose, right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know how many times, because my parents, I
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: grew up 100 miles away. I don't know how many
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: times I called my mom and dad on a Thursday
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and were like, you know what? You may not want
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: to come out to the game because I don't know
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: if I'm playing. This is my whole time. And I started,
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: I don't know, 40-some games in college. I'm like, I
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: didn't know. You get benched all the time.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Get up.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Get his ass up. Get him up. Can't win with this.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: And then you leave and go to the offense. And
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: you're standing there going, what the hell did I do wrong?
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: You wouldn't get an answer. And here's the thing. My
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: dad played in the NFL. He was on the original
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Dallas Cowboy team. He went to Michigan State. He didn't
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: say much, but he gave me some sage advice. And
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: he goes, just don't ever let that guy get to you.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Just don't let him get to you. Because that's probably
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: the real test if he gets to you. And let
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: him know that. So every time I got benched, I
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: would walk into his office, knock on the door, go, Coach,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: what do I got to do to get back on
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: the field? And then I would just sit back, and
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: I didn't give a rat's ass what he said. I
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: just wanted to waste 15, 20 minutes of his time.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: So every time he knew he benched me, he's like, oh,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: damn it, that kid's going to be sitting in my
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: office again. Right? Every time. Every single time. Just to
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: kind of give him the, you know, I couldn't.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Reverse Pavlov dog him.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: But that's the mental game that you had to play
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: to survive that place, right? To get through him.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: And I don't like, I've known a couple of guys
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: in basketball who, I don't think that's an uncommon story
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: who the guy you get in the recruiting visit is
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: completely different than the guy you get once you, once
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you get there, because once he's won you, I mean,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and I wonder how that's all changing with NIL and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the transfer portal and stuff like that. But back in
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the day is, You're a prestigious program. Get all the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: top people in the door and then use your psychological
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: warfare to make sure you have the toughest one.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: You're probably going to win a lot of games. Back then,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: once you had them, you had them. There was no
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: portal back then. Guys would transfer, and he would always
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: bring up the guys that transferred and how they're not
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: doing anything. But the only guy that did transfer was
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Dorsey Levens because he went to Georgia Tech and actually
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: did well, and Lou would never bring him up. But
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: he would always bring it up. And crash the screener
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: on the other side. But then you start naming names.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, they all disappeared, coach.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: That's great.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: So it's like, I don't know. But he taught, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: it was, you learned a lot, like the Lewis Leo
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Holtz time thing, where if we had a meeting at 2,
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: if you weren't in your seat at 155, you were late.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: You know, that whole thing. Being on time. If you
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: missed a meeting or a practice or were late, you
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: just didn't play.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Like, think about that. I guess the big picture, growing
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: up in Joliet, right, there's a lot. Mike Allstott went there.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: You know, there were plenty of NFL guys that came
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: out of there. And Tom Thayer being one of them, right, Joliet.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: And so I don't know how many people looked at
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: you on your way out and are like, yeah, you're
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: never going to make it, right? You're never going to
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: make it. So you have all this pressure and all
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: this stuff, and then you realize, man, if I get
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: out of bed five minutes late, I could just ruin
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: everything I've worked for.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And they're all going to be right.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: And so it was that, I guess, gets you ready
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: for the real world. You know what I mean about
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: being on time and how important all that stuff is,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: dress code and all those things that Lou was a
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: stickler about that were just an absolute pain in the
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: rear when you were going through it. Once you got out,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you're like, yeah, I appreciate the discipline. I appreciate what
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: he asked out of. out of all of us and
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I passed the test, I made it, right? So I
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: graduated and that's it. It feels very karate kid. Yeah.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Where you're all of a sudden you're like, why am
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: I painting your house?
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Blocking kicks. Exactly.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Right. Well, and then you get to the NFL and
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it's Denny Green.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Who also recruited me in high school. I got a
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: great Denny Green story. So we had this big, we
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: had this gigantic Rottweiler, gigantic Rottweiler.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Because my parents, they used to show dogs and all.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: But we had this big rivalry. And Denny Green comes
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: to my house, and the dog's going.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Really buried the show dog family stuff.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: It was him and I can't remember the offensive line
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: coach that got in trouble in Miami for, doesn't matter.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Came to my house, and the dog was just going nuts.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: So we put the dog in a bedroom, and the
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: dog damn near ripped the door down. Right? So we're
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: doing the whole recruiting thing, and the dog is just there.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: And you could tell Denny's like, whatever. Whatever. So I
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: don't know how many, but four, five, six years go by,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I get drafted by the Vikings, and one day, just
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: one day, Denny never really talked to players much, but
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: he came up by me and he goes, hey, you
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: still got that dog? I'm like, no, coach, she died
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: years ago. He goes, good. And then I just turned
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: around and walked away. You know, it's like Denny was
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: just so awesome to play for. Treated you like a man.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: If you were a man, he was fine with you.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: He was the best. He brought back my love of
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: the game. I remember being here in minicamp, right? I
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: show up in minicamp. I mean, you've got Jack Del Rio.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: You've got Chris Carter, Randall McDaniel. After a day of it,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: I remember waking up the next day, and I was like,
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: I really don't care if I get cut. This is
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: why I got a degree. This is a whole other
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: level of everything. and you know I look back and
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: seven years later seven seasons later after playing and I'm
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: like I love the game that's why I got into
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: coaching and all that because Denny really really brought that
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: that back.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Do you think that's because the you know as as
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: as good as it probably made Notre Dame the psychological
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: warfare of turning it into a regimen like that is
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you know that can drain the love out of stuff
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: not saying that that's what happened but To get to Denny.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: It did.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: You didn't love any part of it. You appreciated it.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: Here's the thing. Back in the day with Notre Dame,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: that was a gigantic pile of dudes who were stuck
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: in this school. It's anger, frustration, the whole thing. Being
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: stuck in South Bend, Indiana, where the sun doesn't come
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: out months at a time, and then we would just
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: let it out on game day. It was like, all right,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: here we go. And that's what we did.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But then you get to the NFL and Denny,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: because everything I've heard about Denny was that, you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: he was almost like both really strict and really focused,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: but then also kind of familial. And maybe that's what
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: you mean about the, if you handled your business, you
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: felt respected and you felt like a part of it.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Is that? And Denny was very, he was very, very
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: good about, everybody was a little bit different. So he
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: had to, he had to, Treated Chris Carter a little
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: bit differently. Had to give Chris Carter some– make him
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: feel like he's in control or has a little more
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: responsibility than the rest. Whether or not he did, it's,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: you know, whatever. But how he handled Randy, how he
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: handled a bunch of guys. But I think the secret
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to him was he knew a group of guys and
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: could tell when they could work together. And we had
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: roommates on the road. We'd be in the hotel. You
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: don't get your own room. You had a roommate. You
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: had a roommate for training camp. You had a roommate
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: during the regular season. And so guys, he paid a
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: lot of attention to how a group operates. And I
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: know to this day, I just saw Antonio Banks down
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: in Tampa. He's a security guard at the stadium down there.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: And immediately it was like we go back to everything
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: that we were. Chris Walsh, Harold Morrow, Mo Williams. You know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: we're not a bunch of guys that won games and
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: played a ton. We were special teamers and the whole thing.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: But the group of– that group and the way they
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: stuck together and everybody, there were no problems. There were
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: no jerks. There were a couple guys that whatever, but
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: you just– If you were a problem or if you
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: upset people or just, and I'm trying not to cuss here,
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: but Denny, you would be gone. If you disrespected Dennis
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Ryan or just, you know, was that kind.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Of a person? Yeah, there was a standard for the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: sort of person.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: You had to be. Yeah, 100%. And that came before
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: your playmaking ability because there are a lot of guys
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: out there who can make a lot of plays, but
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: they were, you know, they're not poisonous, but they're not
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: good for, for whatever it was that Denny had going
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: or wanted to get going. So in that regard, I
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: thought he was unbelievable at that.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Well, I would also say that the interesting thing about
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Denny when you study and you learn about him and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you talk to people about him is this, like if
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you're looking for a through line in his story and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: all the way up through 98, it's the finding the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: path and purpose in places that other people couldn't.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Because if you look at Chris, the cut from the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Eagles famously, and Chris turned himself around. But Denny and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the organization were involved in that. Johnny Randall, undrafted. He
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: just had a penchant for finding belief, even through the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Randy Moss pick.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: So to your point, if Denny had a football genius
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: part to him, it was his ability to just watch
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: somebody and then say, that guy needs to play. He
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: did it with Robert Griffith. Robert Griffith was on the
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: couch for a year. It was Gary Zahner that brought
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: him in. So they bring in Griff. Griff goes out
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: there for special teams. And Griff knows. He's like, yeah,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: I mess up this much. I'm gone. I mean, I
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: just got off the couch. I don't have any equity
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: in this league. So he did everything he possibly could,
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: the whole thing. And then Denny just saw something in him,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: or you, or whomever it was. And he would just
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: literally be like, all right, put that guy in. Robert Tate,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: put that guy in. Make Robert Tate from wide receiver,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: make him a corner.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Make him a cornerback and then gets the pick against
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the Saints or whatever, yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And that was kind of his– he had a personnel
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: genius to him in that regard, right, above and beyond
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: all the coaching. But when you talk about the greats,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: the Bud Grants and the Jerry Burnses and the Tony
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Dungys and Monty Kiffins and all these people, they all
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: have their things about them that made them unbelievable. That
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: was Denny's thing. He could just spot talent. And when
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: he did, he just literally made no bones. He'd just
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: look at the position coach and say, put him in.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The other thing I loved about him, because I'll ask
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: one more Denny Green thing, and then what I was
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: getting at earlier with Chad is I'm going to get
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: out of the way so he can ask some Randall
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Cunningham questions. Because that's what won him back over, 98
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and Randall. When the Eagle, when Cunningham came in.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: You didn't like Brad Johnson, did you? No, I did, yeah.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: I did. I was just an Eagles fan.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: But a huge, huge Cunningham fan. I think... That the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: type of coach Denny was, I don't want to say
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it's a lost art a little bit. It is. But
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: he was so interested in developing such a good staff.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: And there were so many good coaches that came out.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And of course, he came under Bill Walsh. So it
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: would make sense why he'd be invested in that. But
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: he seemed so much more interested in, like you said,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: being a CEO. And being the guy up on top
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: who was looking at everything from this thousand foot view,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: then being down in the weeds and having to control
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: this thing. And he seems like one of the best
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: at that.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. And he also had a way of letting,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: the inmates never really ran the asylum and he let
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: us know when it was our problem, right? Like we'd
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: lose a couple of games in a row and he'd
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: throw up the schedule for the week and say, this
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: is the schedule for the week. It's not changing. This
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: isn't what's broken. You know, you just look at all
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: of us and be like, this isn't the problem right here.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Schedule's not the problem. So this is our schedule, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: it's going to be forever, right? It's not changing. And
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: it's just that little, oh, schedule's not the problem. It
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: must be us. You know what I mean?
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: He had just a subtle way of doing that. And
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: then if things kept going wrong, then you'd show up
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: for work one day and a guy would be gone.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Nothing to be said. No, no big deal. But it'd
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: be like, ooh, where did so-and-so go? And they're like, ooh,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I think he was late for a lift or something.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: And next thing you know, it's— Have we.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: Heard from them since, though?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: That's the big question. I mean, that's— They didn't disappear fully. No.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, not fully.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be great. I don't have too many Randall
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Cunningham questions. I skipped hairball with my buddies in Vegas
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: on Saturday night to go see him preach one time.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: And I thought it was.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: How was it? How do you do that when you're.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: How do you skip hairball?
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Well, no, no, no, no. Well, I mean, hairball is fantastic.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Listen to me. If I can see him in Fergus Falls,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not seeing him in Vegas.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Can't see hairball in Fergus Falls.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: At some point you could.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: That's messed up.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: It's Johnny Holmes, dude.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Johnny Holmes, hairball, same thing.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: You can go see Iron Maiden in Shakopee. Did I
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: ever think I'd ever say that sentence and it'd be true? No, never.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: So you don't, don't. Just be careful what you say.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Just be careful what you say. I mean, but watching,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I would have a hard time watching Randall
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: like randall cunningham do the preach thing because i'd be
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: like hey that's my old quarterback my old teammate and
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: now he's talking about god but i want to hear
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: about the god stuff i want to hear about the
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: football stuff.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: I was kind of hoping he would bring it in yeah.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah you gotta you gotta throw a metaphor in there
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: or something yeah a little fly randall fly.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: And that's the hardest part because i guarantee for him
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: he's like i do not want any longer to be
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: known as the quarterback i want to be this is
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: my life now and this is what i want to
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: be known as so It's got to be tough.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't, like, approach him or anything after because
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: I just, you know.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Good for you.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: They're just a watch.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: I would assume, like, in your business, that's what it's
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: like being typecast, right?
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: You land one big role. I mean, we wouldn't know.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: And then you've never been typecast?
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, he always gets roles on sitcoms of
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: guys that can't lift stuff. Otherwise, it's fine. Now, there's
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: rumblings of a story maybe of Jerry Burns.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: That's all we got.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Jay, well, I was going to say, Jay asked me about.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I'm requesting this. Jay doing his producing things because he
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: loves doing it. I was talking about funny stories, and
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I've got 30-some years of stories. I've been
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: here for 30 years now, so it's like I got.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: But my favorite was one Dennis Ryan told me about
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: back in the day. You guys ever been to Mankato
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: for training camp?
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: You know, they had Gage Hall, which is right next
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: to one. There was three practice fields or four. Jerry
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Burns late in camp one time. decided he was going
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: to do something, right? And throughout training camp, he had
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: an issue with Keith Millard and Monty Kiffin, Monty Kiffin
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: being the defensive coordinator whose name's in the ring of
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: honor in Tampa Bay. I didn't know that with the Buccaneers.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: But the two of them would always be jawing and
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: fighting with each other one day. So Dennis Ryan's in
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: the equipment room, and Jerry Burns comes off of practice
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: field and goes, hey, I need you to go down
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: and get me a mannequin. I want you to go
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: to the mall. Go to the mall and get a mannequin.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: And Dennis Ryan, being young at the time, is like,
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: all right, okay. I mean, what's he going to tell
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: the coach? No. So he drops everything, gets in his car,
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: drives to the mall, which is about 10 miles away,
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: gets his mannequin, brings it back. And he's like, all right, coach,
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: you got your mannequin. What do you want to do?
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: He goes, I want you to dress it like Monty Kiffin.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: Dress it like Monty Kiffin and give it back to me.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: He's like, okay.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Because Monty would wear a hat and then he had
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: his rubber top and these shorts and these high socks
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: and the shoes, so it looked like Monty. So they
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: go on practice one day, and he pulls Millard and
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Monty aside, and he goes, all right, guys, we're going
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: to do something. All right, you guys need to get
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: in a fight like you normally do right before practice starts.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: So he's like, okay, we'll do that. And then what's
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: going to happen is I'm going to kick both you
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: guys out, and then you guys are going to go
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: over and finish this somewhere else. So I guess the
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: best way to end it would just be what the
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: players saw, which was Bernsie– Gets practice started. He's like,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: all right, we're stretching on field three over there. So
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: it's right next to Gage Hall. It's literally, there's a fence,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: there's the field, a fence, a street, and then there's, what,
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: 12 stories of Gage Hall. And he's like, all right,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: we're stretching over here. So they start stretching, and then
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Monty and Millard start getting into it again, right? Again,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: just start going back and forth. So Bernsie's finally like,
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: all right, I'm done with you two. I'm kicking you out.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: You're done. Get out of practice. So the two of
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: them leave, and then they both go toward Gage Hall
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: and disappear. Well, next thing you know, they're on the
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: roof of Gage Hall. And you hear them MFing each other.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: You know, F you, Monty, this, and you, Monty, you're
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: in a, you know, you a-hole that, blah, blah, blah.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: And then they start getting physical. Like grabbing each other, right?
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: So they start grabbing and wrestling, and then they kind
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: of disappear where you can't see them. Millard picks up
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: the mannequin dressed up like Monty, comes to the side,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: and throws it over. And The players are looking up going, oh,
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: my God, he just murdered Monty Kiffin. And then, you know, bam.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: And obviously, when it hits the ground, it busts into
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: 100 pieces. But that's how they broke camp up back then.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: That was like comic relief.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: That's so great. After weeks of breaking your heads together,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: you can't do that now.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Fake a murder.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: Exactly. I mean, I would just love to be in
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Jerry Burns' head for a day. He's sitting there going,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: all right, who's the one guy on this team that
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: would throw a coach off of a roof?
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: If I was Kiffin, I would have not showed up
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: for a week just to make everybody think about it.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, those that's Dennis. I mean, Dennis Ryan had
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: been here for forever. It's seen everything. That was probably
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: his favorite story. And I heard it from him like
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: three or four times. I'd hear him telling it and
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I just walk over and listen one more time just
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: because it's my like my one of my favorites. It's
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: so great. It's incredible.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Normally, we close this show where Chad and I have
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to preview the game, but we're going to take advantage
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of the situation. We're going to do that with you.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: We each got a question for you about the game,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: and then we do a little prediction. We don't do
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: a score, but we do what player to look out for.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Last week, Chad kind of made it sound like you
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: predicted a return. You did predict a big day from
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the special teams. So you're on one.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: In week one, I said Hitman was going to get
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: a pick. He tipped a pick.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: And then I said— You're on a hot streak. And
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: I said Dallas was going to go crazy two sacks,
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: and he ended the Bears game with a second sack.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: So Chad's— He might be sacrificing the right animal.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I think the guys I keep predicting end up getting
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: ruled out before the game starts.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're the John Madden curse.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: You're cursed, and then you're.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: So we need somebody to break the tiebreaker. But before
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: we do that, we'll each ask you a question or
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: so here about the game, because you're going to be
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: better at talking about it than we are. Lost in
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: all this is you're 3-0 with maybe the best defense
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: in the league and one of the best special teams
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and an offensive coach and a quarterback who's just like,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of potential here.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Which is exactly what you want of a 3-0 team.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Yes. You don't want to be 3-0 and peaking. It's
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: August or September. 3-0 and feel like the ceiling is
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: way up there.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Right? But you go into Miami, who's 0-3, they.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Just lost A-chan. Where does your brain go? Because you
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: always hear, stay away from the, oh, we're going to
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: beat them, we're going to roll them, don't overlook anyone.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: But the other side of that, is there an amount
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: of pressure to this? Because almost nothing can happen here
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: except for the Vikings could win by 35 points and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: everybody goes, correct. But if you don't, it's almost nothing
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: but consequences.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: I think the one thing we assume is that players
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: see week to week or games like we do.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, sure.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Because we as fans see big picture.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Right. The Dolphins are 0-3. Well, they just lost to
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: the Chiefs.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: They lost to the 49ers.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: And they lost to the Raiders, which– Everybody's undefeated. Raiders
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: might be pretty good. So they haven't– every team they've
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: played has been undefeated. But all you do as a player,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: you see the guy you're going to block or work against.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: You're going to see the offense that you're going to play.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: The guard I'm going to go up against is the center.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: That's the running back. And that's your world right there.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: I don't know if they're 2-0 or 5-6. It doesn't matter.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: All I know is that guard is really good or
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: not really good, or this guy's– that's it. And when
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: they run this route, this is what they're getting. They
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: do this out of this formation and that formation, and
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: that's your world. The trap that players fall into is
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: a comfort level, meaning, You walk out there for practice
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: on Wednesday after losing two, three games in a row,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: it's going to be a little bit of a different
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: attitude than it is if you just won three games
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: in a row. It can be. That's kind of the
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: secret to the whole thing. Don't get too high, don't
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: get too low, stay right here. That's what Warren Moon
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: told me. That was the secret to the NFL. You
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: have to be professional about it. That's why guys like
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: Cashman and Eric Wilson have been around a long time.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: They've been up and down this ladder, so every single
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: day you would expect– them to take the same level
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: of concentration, professionalism, right? If you went out for a
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: walkthrough this week and they were jimmy-jacking around and talking
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: and there's a lot of noise and all that going on,
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: whereas three weeks ago for the opening game it was
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: quiet and everyone's listening and paying attention, that's where players–
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: you lose players. It's not, well, we're going to win
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: this game. I mean, you know, we're– They don't look
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: at things that way. They don't see the big picture.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: They don't really pay attention to what the media is saying,
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: what this guy all of a sudden is really good.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: You've got, for example, HN coming in here, and you're like, well,
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: I've got to watch him on film and see if
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: he's any good. I don't know if he's any good. Yeah,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: you're not just trusting the narrative. Or now that he's hurt,
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: you don't just relax because it's the guy behind him. Exactly,
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: and the other thing players love to do is talk
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: about guys that are great that aren't talked about. They're like, hey,
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: this guy here, this guy's unbelievable. That's kind of how
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: players talk, right? So that's their world. It's very siloed.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: It's very short-term, very short-term. You're not looking a week ahead.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: You're not looking two weeks ahead. If it's bye week,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: and you know bye week's next week, like next week
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: when you're getting ready to play New Orleans, They're better
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: not being, you know, it's like you don't want any
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: talk about what you're doing next weekend, right? You cross
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: that bridge when you get there. It's very today, next meeting,
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: next practice. This is my job. And I think that's
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: the difficult part for younger players in their transition into
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: adulthood is just being able to maintain that level of concentration,
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: being able to jimmy jack around before in the locker
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: room before a walkthrough and then all of a sudden
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: as soon as you step on the field for a
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: walkthrough it's like it's go time it's business time yeah
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: it's right and you it's that it's being able to
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: control that's like baseball right where it's so level-headed then
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden one on every pitch you've got
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: to be 100 100 ready to go chase down a
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: ball in a gap if you're a center fielder right
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: so you might stand there for the whole entire damn
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: game and all of a sudden you're needed boom and
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: it's that same ability to turn things on and off
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: when it's needed, that's the trap players fall into.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of one of the cool things about
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the NFL is once there is this level of everything
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: that's at stake in an NFL game, personal through professional,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: through organizational, through community sponsor, everything that's involved, right? It's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: kind of this great equalizer where It doesn't matter if
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: you were the second pick in the NFL draft or
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: if you're Jalen Redmond who was playing in the NFL.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: If you could come in– that's what I really like
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: about this team right now is you have a guy
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: like Jalen Redmond who you're like, is this guy a superstar?
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: You're loving our $ 8 million payroll for our defensive line group. What?
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I like– Pete, I don't even like– I'm not worried
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: about it, but I think everybody, I keep telling people,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: the idea to hold a defense, you tell me how
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: dumb I am, but to hold a defense to this
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: expectations for an entire season would be one of the
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: most unbelievable things in league history.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: In this day and age, yeah, what's wild.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The way the rules are tilted.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: What's crazy is, I don't know if you watched the
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Bears game last night, Yep. But you're starting to see
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: what we do show up everywhere else now. Everywhere.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: People are like, ooh, that's good. I like that. I'm
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: going to start, you know. So when it works, it's copied.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: The problem is you've got to have the right people
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: to execute what they're doing and what they're trying to do.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: And can you maintain this level of play for 17 games?
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: No.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: Right. There's going to be bumps in the road. There's
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: going to be. And that's when you talk about the offense.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: And when you go back and watch the film and
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: you're thinking– you see– You come away from the Tampa
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: game and you're like, oh, God. But then you look
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: at all the meat that was left on the bone
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: and all the possibilities that are there and how much
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: better this product can look, right? And then you start
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: getting balance. You need that. You can't in this league,
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I don't think, get very far in the postseason if
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: you have a top five offensive defense and a 25th
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: ranked offensive defense because at some point, Someone's going to
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: stub their toe, and the other side of the ball
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: is going to have to help them out. So you
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: want to be top ten in kind of both, right?
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Just consistent across the way. Now we have that consistency
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: out of our defense and our special teams so far.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: And our offense has– I mean, there's some opportunity on
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: the table. It's there. You can see it.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: They just have to capitalize on it, and they've got
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: the rest of the season to figure it out. It
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: would be awesome for this offense to be in November, December, rolling.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: which is what you want, right? Which is what you want.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: So we'll see.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Well, and I would say, and where I was going
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: with that is like, I think I was just being
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: fair to the defense in today's NFL, you know, that
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you're going to see, you're not going to see this.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: If you do, you know, they might have to change
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the Lombardi to the Flores. If you put on 17
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: of those, that's just a different thing. But it's the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: top defense EPA, second in the league since the beginning
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of last season, top last 11 games. They seem outrageous.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: But to your point, when they're playing at that level,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's why the energy, you can feel it
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: in town right now. You can feel everybody's both really
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: excited and kind of angsty at the same time. And
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: with the noise from this week, it all kind of
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: piles together because I think if you've been a Viking
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: fan long enough, you recognize something that I don't know
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that everybody, fans, totally understood getting into this season, that
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: wait a second. This is a lot closer. If that
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: offense goes where we know it can go, and like
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: you said, it doesn't have to be top eight, but
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: if all of a sudden there's a top 15 offense,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: top 12 offense, you're competing at a level that puts
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: you in the conversation with a very small group of teams.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: And the funny part about it is we've been playing
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: close games and that sort of thing, but imagine this
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: defense if you had the 98 offense. I mean, I
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: remember that year we actually, the coaches had to sit
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: down and come up with more things to do out
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: of nickel, meaning you had the extra DB because we
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: were ahead so much and teams were playing catch up
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: and throwing the ball so much that we had to
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: enhance all of our third down because our third down
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: coverages and stuff we did with an extra DB on
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: the field to respond to all that that we saw.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: So imagine if we had a two, three score lead,
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: and then you're able with Flores to just turn that
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: thing loose, right?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: You know what would be great, and what would be
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: an interesting longer conversation some other day, but is, I'll
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: be curious, we're in game three, who knows how anything goes,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: but just given the blitz rate, given some of the numbers,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the chaos numbers, you know, this organization has some pretty
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: iconic defenses. You look at that first Super Bowl defense
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: with Joe Capp, right? But... it'd be funny to see
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: where this one lands because if you're picking an offense
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: in the history of the NFL, and I'm sorry, my
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: dad and other guys, his age, but you're picking 98.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: It was the greatest offense in NFL history. It'll be
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: curious where this defense has the potential to land in
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: a storied franchise history full of rich defenses. I don't
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: want to get ahead of ourselves at three games, but
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: it's just been really fun to root for them.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: It has been. And the way, and again, it, it,
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: Flores does an amazing job of getting guys in the
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: right positions, but it's the way that these guys execute.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: It's the way that Cashman and Eric Wilson play off
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: of each other. It's, you know, you don't hear a
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: ton from, you know, you don't hear a ton from
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: Dallas Turner or Van Ginkle in this last game, right?
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: So it's not the same guys every single week that
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: you're depending on that guy and that guy. It's everybody
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: is showing up and doing their thing. And that's, That's
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: the breadth and width of this whole thing, and I
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: love it because offenses are going to one week be like, okay,
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: we've got to take care of Van Ginkle and Turner
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: or else we're done. So we're just going to make
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: sure we've got a big body in it. And then
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: what do you do? You leave the middle of your offense,
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: your center, and your running back all day long with
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: two linebackers that are unbelievably good at stunting and doing
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: their deal. And next thing you know, you give up
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: four sacks to the inside linebackers. Eric Wilson didn't have
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: a sack or an intercept. He had nothing in the
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: splash column going into this game. Still playing. He's playing
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: unbelievably well. But all of a sudden, now it's like, hey,
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: all right, we got a game where they want to
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: use the running back to block the A gap. Well,
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: here we go. We're going to just wear that out, right?
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of the beauty of this defense is
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: that every single week it's somebody else that gets the
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: opportunity to go out there and make big plays, and
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: they're doing it.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: And Minnesota fans, historically, something goes wrong. Oh, here we go, right?
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: Well, last game, right?
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Last game, Metellus, he has a helmet-to-helmet call, which wasn't
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: his fault because he was already head down before he
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: hit the guy. And I would have normally gotten 20
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: text messages from my buddies, like, here we go. But
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: everybody's just like, yeah, walk it off. This is no
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: big deal. We're going to completely finish this game. It's
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: different rooting for defense. It's a different feel. It really,
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: really is.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's– How hard, that's one of the hard,
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, like I said, this is, I've seen every
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: game here, well, pretty much since 94, so there's so
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: much to remember, you know, and you have to just,
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: you have to understand that these guys on the field
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: have no idea. They've got no idea what it, that.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I don't even know how many of them would know
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: that the Vikings have been to four Super Bowls and
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: didn't win one. They probably don't even know that. They
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: know the years that you won the division because the
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: banners are in the practice field. They can look up
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: and say, oh, we were pretty good in the 70s.
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: Holy cow, look at that. They have no idea. They
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: don't know. They don't know about the 2009 NFC Championship
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: game when we fumbled the ball I don't know how
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: many times and then threw a pick at the end.
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: The whole thing. It's like that we do that sticks
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: with us and we carry with us constantly And when
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: you're watching the game, you're like, here we go again.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: That's what the Vikings do. Here we go. They don't know.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: The coaches don't know. Kevin O'Connell didn't grow up a
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: Viking fan. He's not familiar with us in the 70s
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: and the 80s. None of them know.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: They don't have a lineage of pessimistic men barking in
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: their ear.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Generations. Nobody in that part of the building that matters
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: on game day has any clue what we've been through.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: That's like my big, I guess that's my biggest defense
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: in thinking that way is to say, well, that Metellus
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: has no idea. He has no, you know, he has
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: no idea what this, what we've been through. And so
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: I'll give him a break.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Uh, last question. Well, two things. Give me a quick
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: answer on this one. And then I'll give you a
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: last question that I can't not ask you. Who's your
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: guy to watch this week? That's Chad and I always
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: do a player or, or a prediction. Um, Staying away
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: from score, who are you looking at this week that
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: might surprise some people?
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping it's, I mean, offensively, I mean, Jordan Addison. Yeah.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: I think if, depending, I mean, I know the JJ
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: thing is kind of whatever, but him having to move
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: around with the injury and play different positions, which he
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: obviously doesn't do every, but a week of that in practice.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah. He's just such a good route runner. I'm a
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: big Addison fan. And I love him because of the
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: way he can run routes and how he can hang
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: people out to dry, and it's so hard to cover him.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: I think he might have himself. If he comes into
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: this game as the number one receiver, I think he's
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: going to show up and be the guy.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Chad, give me your prediction quick.
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: I got Rodgers with a pick.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Ooh, I like that. I am abstaining this week because
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: I feel like everyone I've picked so far has gone
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: a negative direction. So unless I could, you know, like
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: predict a coach's outfit or like an equipment manager's shoes
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: or something, I think I should stay away from it.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: This is the last question. So you keep mentioning 30
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: years here with the organization, 20 years of calling games.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: This is my 20th season on the radio.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: So there is an infamous moment in Washington, D.C., where
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the fans got a little out of hand. Can you
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: contextualize that for people who might not know the story
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: and give us your perspective?
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: At certain stadiums, like in Chicago or in Washington, where
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: the booth is, when the fans stand up, they can
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: literally turn and look at you. Their faces are right there.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: And sometimes you get lucky, and there's some Viking fans maybe,
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: but sometimes you don't get lucky, and sometimes you get
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: very unlucky. And you have a belligerent fan that's right
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: in front of you. And that's part of it. It's
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: the way the game went that was the other part
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: of it. Because that was the game that was very close.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: And we had a play where, and I'm trying to
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: remember the names, but our safety might have been Cam Bynum,
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: but was free to make a pick. And the referee
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: ran into him and knocked him down. And the ball
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: was incomplete. It was the referee. And I went absolutely
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: bonkers because... referees are, referees change games, referees change seasons.
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: And when they, I mean, it literally looked like he
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: had took them out. I've never seen, I've never seen
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: a back judge that far in the middle. The whole
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: thing was just, you know, so we're going, I'm going bananas.
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: We're all going bananas. And then, and then the guys
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: in front of us are all like looking at us
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: and smiling and laughing. And then they kept, and then
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: they started with the reaching over and pushing PA's computer closed.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: They started, they started reaching in the booth. And then
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: it just kept going. And then Paul started calling them out.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: And then he started calling them out during the broadcast.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, all right, cool. Let's pile on. Let's
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: make it a bit. All right, let's go. And so
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: we started ripping on the guys in front. They hear it.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: They start saying stuff back. And it got so bad
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: that the first time I almost cussed on the radio
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: because I told the guy to sit the you-know-what down
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: because they were just being so ridiculous. And fortunately for us,
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: next door was the security booth. And they had a
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: bunch of their policemen in there in the full guard.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: I'm talking bulletproof vests and the rifles and the whole thing.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: And so we called them over, and we told them
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: what was going on. And like four or five of them,
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: I have a picture of it, came piling in, AR-15s,
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: the whole thing, came walking in. And they're standing there,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: and they go, which one is it? And you're like,
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: that one right there. And they went out, got down there,
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: picked the guy up, and took him out. Took them out. Removed. Like,
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: when they throw that up on the scoreboard everywhere they do,
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: you know, things that aren't allowed during the game, you know,
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: excessive drinking and rowdiness and all those things that could
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: be a crime, you'll be removed.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: You're going to get removed. AR-15s? I mean, it was– no,
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: I have a picture of it somewhere on my phone,
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: but it was legit.
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: It was– Sounds like Philly more than D.C.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: That's what I was just going to say.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: Say.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: We are both fans of being unhinged at games, which
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: is why it's amazing that we get let on the
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: sidelines every once in a while or on the field.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: The Minnesota level of unhinged I don't think is... The
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: East Coast level of unhinged is, I think, might be
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: another level.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: I agree, but I would ask you not to lump
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: us in with the hot dish and understand that perhaps
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: we have a certain skill set. Yes. But even as
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: crazy as you are, Chad, can you imagine the level
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: of extra, like, I don't care how this goes, to
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: turn around? and shut the play-by-play guy's computer, that's a
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: bananas choice. Reaching into the booth.
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: Reaching into the booth. So funny.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: I know it sucks.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: That's so funny.
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: But in order to get away with it, you have
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: had to already establish a fun back and forth, not
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: a we don't like each other back and forth.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: If it's fun and you shut it, hilarious.
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes the back and forth with the fans
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: can be very fun, like you're saying. This one wasn't fun.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: This one was not fun at all.
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: Well, it ended with AR-15.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: That's very rarely the way fun stories happen. Unless somebody's like,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: and then he brought me a giant gummy AR-15. Well,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: this one was fun, Pete. Thank you for doing this.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: We really appreciate it. You go from like two Hall
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: of Famers and then you got this guy.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Hey, here's the thing. Everybody's a Hall of Famer to someone, Pete.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, boy.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: Here we go.
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, can you believe this? I have two podcasts.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. Listen to me.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: Two podcasts with that?
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: Pete.
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: And a fake friendship.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: If it's mentionable, it's manageable. Someone's in couples therapy.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: Gotta go!
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks again to Pete. And thank you for joining Chad
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: and I on this week's show. And thank you for
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: listening to our podcast feed. While you're here, make sure
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: to give us a good review. It sure helps us
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: out a lot. Finally, a huge shout-out to Ticketmaster, the
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings. for helping make
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: this show happen. Enjoy the game, everybody.