Latest / The Skol Hop / Is Evan even a Vikings fan? Austin can be petty, and some early offseason talkers | TSH Ep. 123

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Is Evan even a Vikings fan? Austin can be petty, and some early offseason talkers | TSH Ep. 123 · The Skol Hop

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome in to another episode
0:03
Speaker 1: of this Goalhob. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. Where's a
0:05
Speaker 1: couple of dudes from Iowa. We like drinking beer and
0:07
Speaker 1: talking about the Viking Heck, yes we do.
0:10
Speaker 2: And you know what, tonight we tried on some comfy
0:13
Speaker 2: pants from lion Bridge Brewing out of We're they out
0:17
Speaker 2: of Cedar Raptis.
0:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you might think that we aren't fully Vikings
0:22
Speaker 1: fans because we spent a lot of time talking about
0:25
Speaker 1: other teams, but rest asshirt, we really are Vikings fans.
0:28
Speaker 1: We also may have been slightly distracted by the college
0:32
Speaker 1: football National Championship game that was happening. Congratulations to the
0:35
Speaker 1: Indian Howsers.
0:36
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And we only talked about those other teams
0:39
Speaker 2: because those other teams are actually in the playoffs right
0:41
Speaker 2: now and the Vikings missed the playoffs this year, but
0:44
Speaker 2: wait until next year. And before then, we also spent
0:47
Speaker 2: some some good time talking about some of the big
0:50
Speaker 2: decisions the Vikings are going to have to make at
0:52
Speaker 2: some of the positions this offseason before next season starts.
0:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I have a feeling we're gonna be talking
0:57
Speaker 1: about those for a long long time miss many months
1:01
Speaker 1: until next season starts. But wherever you're at right now,
1:05
Speaker 1: grab a cold one and join us for episode one
1:08
Speaker 1: twenty three of the school Lot School.
1:10
Speaker 2: Let's cool, all right, we want to say thanks to
1:45
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1:50
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1:53
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2:18
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2:29
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3:15
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3:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got to move this now, not because it's
3:19
Speaker 1: not worth looking at, but we got to pour some
3:22
Speaker 1: beer and glasses here in a little bit. So but
3:27
Speaker 1: before we do that, we do not have to take
3:29
Speaker 1: a shot of the Lord. We don't because the Bear's lost.
3:32
Speaker 2: Ah shucks.
3:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well I told you this earlier. I'll say it again.
3:37
Speaker 1: I'm kind of rooting for the Bears.
3:39
Speaker 2: You true fan, you really are.
3:40
Speaker 1: I was kind of rooting for it. Well, who would
3:43
Speaker 1: you rather root for? Would you rather root for the
3:44
Speaker 1: Bears or the Packers?
3:46
Speaker 2: Nobody? I wanted them both to lose in wild Card weekend.
3:50
Speaker 1: Well, one of them won. It was the Bears. We
3:53
Speaker 1: were all happy the Packers lost.
3:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's always good.
3:56
Speaker 1: I think you can root for the Bears. They are
3:58
Speaker 1: not evil like the Packers are. The Packers are terrible.
4:02
Speaker 1: I hate the Packers.
4:03
Speaker 2: We hate the Packers. I don't know if I'd go
4:05
Speaker 2: as far as say evil, because there's a lot of
4:07
Speaker 2: good people on the team and in the organization, same
4:09
Speaker 2: with the Bears and everything. I mean, if we want
4:11
Speaker 2: to talk evil, we could bring up Lions fans, but
4:14
Speaker 2: we don't need to go there. Last night, I kind
4:16
Speaker 2: of went there. You came just short of yelling at me,
4:19
Speaker 2: even though the Lions fans are the worst fans in
4:22
Speaker 2: the history of sports fan.
4:25
Speaker 1: You got your one. That's it. You can't do that.
4:28
Speaker 2: I probably won't say it again.
4:29
Speaker 1: But all that to say, the Bears lost. It was
4:32
Speaker 1: actually kind of a heartbreaking loss for the Bears. We'll
4:34
Speaker 1: get into that later because I believe your game ball
4:37
Speaker 1: involves that game. Maybe probably not for the Bears, but
4:43
Speaker 1: no milort. Because the Bears lost. We should be done
4:46
Speaker 1: with that until next season, so hopefully longer.
4:50
Speaker 2: But yeah, because the Malort rule for listeners that just
4:53
Speaker 2: jumped onto the school hot bandwagon. Here, every time the
4:57
Speaker 2: Vikings lose to the Bears, we take a shot of Milert.
5:00
Speaker 2: And then we also kind of made another rule where
5:03
Speaker 2: if the Bears ever win a playoff game, we will
5:05
Speaker 2: take a shot of Alert. So we had to take
5:06
Speaker 2: a shot last night last week. I gotta I think
5:10
Speaker 2: I'm coming around to Alert, man.
5:11
Speaker 1: I don't. I can do a shot of it, be
5:14
Speaker 1: done with it and move on. But I'm not going
5:16
Speaker 1: to sit there and I'm not going to go somewhere
5:18
Speaker 1: and say, hey, give me a double of my Alort.
5:21
Speaker 1: I need.
5:21
Speaker 2: I might. I might just to try it, just to see,
5:24
Speaker 2: all right, is that really?
5:26
Speaker 1: Is?
5:26
Speaker 2: Am I really a fan of it? Or am I
5:28
Speaker 2: just crazy in the head.
5:29
Speaker 1: Here's what I think of Milort. I think the creator
5:33
Speaker 1: of Milort was bullied, and while he was being bullied
5:37
Speaker 1: in elementary school, he ate a lot of dandelions because
5:40
Speaker 1: kids on the playground would just shove his face in
5:42
Speaker 1: the dirt.
5:43
Speaker 2: Geez.
5:44
Speaker 1: And that inspired him to make Malort because that's what
5:46
Speaker 1: it tastes like. And that's how I think we got
5:49
Speaker 1: the Malort that we have.
5:50
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, that's one theory. Listeners, if you know
5:53
Speaker 2: how malort came about, go ahead and comment and let
5:55
Speaker 2: us know. I'm interested in learning about that. You might
5:58
Speaker 2: be right, though there's you might be right. Maybe it
6:01
Speaker 2: was some kid that got bullied in eight Dandelions and
6:05
Speaker 2: liked it. Apparently he had to have liked it. If
6:08
Speaker 2: that's if that's what happened.
6:09
Speaker 1: That's that's just my theory. Okay, let's get into drinking
6:12
Speaker 1: some good stuff. Though. Yes, we've had lion Bridge before,
6:16
Speaker 1: we've been to lion Bridge before.
6:18
Speaker 2: We need to go back.
6:18
Speaker 1: Honestly, yes, I would enjoy going back. It's not that far,
6:21
Speaker 1: only a probably a long hour in Cedar Rapids. But
6:25
Speaker 1: I saw this. I've seen this on the shelf before
6:28
Speaker 1: at High V and I saw it and I'm like,
6:30
Speaker 1: we should try that. It's called comfy Pants Winter Warmer.
6:34
Speaker 1: It's described as being cozy, multi crisp and embrace, which
6:39
Speaker 1: I didn't know embrace could be an adjective. It seems
6:42
Speaker 1: more like a noun. But that's just the English teacher
6:46
Speaker 1: and me coming out.
6:48
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find the ABV and I just searched
6:50
Speaker 2: lion Bridge. Comfy pants. Apparently you can buy your school
6:54
Speaker 2: thought I was looking for actual comfy pants. I might
6:58
Speaker 2: have just found it, though. According to this website, which
7:02
Speaker 2: is not the the lion Bridge website, it says the
7:06
Speaker 2: ABV is seven point two.
7:08
Speaker 1: All right, Well I didn't know that.
7:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all right, that's all right.
7:13
Speaker 1: But anyways, it's it's been really cold here. That's why
7:17
Speaker 1: I picked it up. It's it's been uh, I think
7:20
Speaker 1: it's probably what like zero degrees outside right now.
7:23
Speaker 2: It is bitterly cold. It's it's a kind of cold
7:26
Speaker 2: that you could get frostbied if.
7:28
Speaker 1: You have a windshill of one degree as of right now,
7:31
Speaker 1: eight forty five on Monday night. So with that, I
7:35
Speaker 1: figured it'd be nice to put on some comfy pants.
7:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did double check on lion Bridge's website.
7:41
Speaker 2: They do list the ABV for comfy pants at a
7:44
Speaker 2: whopping six point eight.
7:46
Speaker 1: Okay, so seven point two is a little uh.
7:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, but in the grand scheme of things, it's that's
7:51
Speaker 2: not that different. True, if you drink enough of these,
7:55
Speaker 2: you're gonna wake up with a headache. But we're not
7:59
Speaker 2: going to drink too many of these. I'm excited. I
8:02
Speaker 2: am kind of doing a modified dry January. It's only
8:06
Speaker 2: modified because the podcast is the only time I'm having
8:10
Speaker 2: alcoholic beverages. I think I alluded to that last week
8:13
Speaker 2: when we drank the zero eddies from Big Grove. So
8:18
Speaker 2: since we attended the Vikings Packers game, the last game
8:21
Speaker 2: of the regular season. Since then, I've only had three beverages,
8:25
Speaker 2: which I'm pretty proud of. But I'm wondering if that's
8:28
Speaker 2: enough time for my tolerance to kind of go down
8:30
Speaker 2: a little bit. We'll see, I guess, because I'm trying
8:32
Speaker 2: to have I guess three of these.
8:34
Speaker 1: You don't have to have all three.
8:35
Speaker 2: Oh, I know I don't have to, but this is
8:39
Speaker 2: kind of getting me through dry January, which doesn't make
8:42
Speaker 2: any sense at all.
8:42
Speaker 1: By the way, it's a mostly dry January, mostly dry January.
8:47
Speaker 2: All right, we're porting these things. Did it say what
8:50
Speaker 2: kind of beer it was?
8:52
Speaker 1: No, it says a comfy pants winter warmer cozy multi
8:55
Speaker 1: crisp embrace.
8:58
Speaker 2: On the website it does say it's a rich or
9:01
Speaker 2: a full body, full bodied English strong ale apparently, whatever
9:06
Speaker 2: that is.
9:07
Speaker 1: I'm getting some like banana vibes, which some beers can
9:11
Speaker 1: kind of give off that banana e isn't that kind
9:13
Speaker 1: of like it's more like a half of vice wheat.
9:16
Speaker 1: But I can smell it.
9:17
Speaker 2: A oh, yeah, you're absolutely right, there's some it's definitely
9:20
Speaker 2: a banana e. I was gonna say mostly fruity, but yeah,
9:23
Speaker 2: kind of a banana e smell. I don't expect it
9:25
Speaker 2: to taste like I.
9:26
Speaker 1: Can smell the malt. It's definitely dark. It's not completely dark,
9:30
Speaker 1: like it's not black, but it's layered, but it's brown. Yeah,
9:34
Speaker 1: it does like it's lighter on the bottom, and then
9:36
Speaker 1: the closer you get to the top, it's a little darker.
9:38
Speaker 2: That could be our glasses too, which are shaped like football.
9:42
Speaker 1: Either way, I'm excited to try this. I think it's
9:44
Speaker 1: gonna taste really good.
9:45
Speaker 2: Let's go go.
9:52
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's complex. There's like that.
9:56
Speaker 2: There's a boozy aspect to it, a little bit kind
9:58
Speaker 2: of like what you get when you when you drink
10:01
Speaker 2: like a barrel aged just just in flavor.
10:06
Speaker 1: It's not barrel aged, to clarify, but it does. I
10:10
Speaker 1: would agree with that, and I like a good barrel
10:12
Speaker 1: aged beer.
10:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, English strong ale is what they say it is,
10:15
Speaker 2: so that's that's probably pretty accurate. I don't think I've
10:19
Speaker 2: had this before. I'm actually, you know, I haven't.
10:22
Speaker 1: I looked on our list. We've not had this on
10:24
Speaker 1: the podcast.
10:25
Speaker 2: I do enjoy everything. I haven't you know, not enjoyed
10:29
Speaker 2: anything I've tried from Lionbridge. Or is Lionbridge the one
10:32
Speaker 2: that makes the cap'n crunch crunch berry or whatever. I
10:37
Speaker 2: just had that on purpose recently out you know, before
10:40
Speaker 2: Dry January. But yeah, it's a it's a good one
10:43
Speaker 2: that goes to show lion Bridge. I'm not a sour guy,
10:46
Speaker 2: but lion Bridge they make some good stuff. Add this
10:48
Speaker 2: to the list of good things they make. I like
10:50
Speaker 2: it a lot. And it's not even my style of
10:52
Speaker 2: beer that I like.
10:53
Speaker 1: This is. This is me, Yeah, this is And it's
10:55
Speaker 1: probably why I was drawn to it on the shelf.
10:57
Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, that sounds especially right now when
11:00
Speaker 1: it's we're, you know, in the thick of the cold
11:02
Speaker 1: part of winter and it's one degree outside, Like, yeah,
11:07
Speaker 1: this sounds good. This will warm you up nice quick.
11:09
Speaker 2: It's definitely the beer version of comfy pants. I think
11:12
Speaker 2: the name is very apt.
11:14
Speaker 1: I like it.
11:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thank you Evan for bringing it. It's delicious.
11:17
Speaker 2: We'll give a better, a more well rounded review here
11:20
Speaker 2: after a couple more towards the end of the episode.
11:22
Speaker 2: But yeah, until then, lion Bridge, thank you for making
11:25
Speaker 2: yet another great beer.
11:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks, guys. I have to be honest. We're watching
11:31
Speaker 1: the National championship game as we're talking right now. So
11:35
Speaker 1: actually Miami just scored their first touchdown a little bit
11:38
Speaker 1: more than eleven minutes left in the third quarter. So
11:41
Speaker 1: Michael Irvin is somewhere on the sideline going absolutely nuts
11:45
Speaker 1: right now. Hopefully he hasn't taken his belt off yet.
11:49
Speaker 2: It's that something he normally does.
11:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you not see that a few weeks ago?
11:52
Speaker 2: No, I'm not a huge college football followers. I obviously
11:56
Speaker 2: like it, but.
11:57
Speaker 1: Goldberg probably it. Uh No, that's probably the kid's mom.
12:02
Speaker 2: They just scored.
12:03
Speaker 1: No, Michael Irvin, big Miami Hurricane went there for college,
12:10
Speaker 1: had this whole thing on belt ass uh m. I
12:14
Speaker 1: can't remember if it was the quarterfinals or the semifinals,
12:17
Speaker 1: but he on it was against Oregon. They played Oregon,
12:22
Speaker 1: and on the Miami sideline they had like an Oregon
12:25
Speaker 1: duck head, and he took his belt off and proceeded
12:29
Speaker 1: to bt a the the Oregon Duck and it was.
12:34
Speaker 1: It was a whole spectacle, and honestly, I think kind
12:37
Speaker 1: of controversial, Like, yeah.
12:40
Speaker 2: All right, but Michael Irvin is no longer a relevant
12:44
Speaker 2: football player, so that's one thing. Who are you rooting
12:49
Speaker 2: for in this one?
12:49
Speaker 1: I want Indiana Wind West, Big ten. Fernanda Mendoza is
12:55
Speaker 1: a cool story. Signetti seems like he's a cool coach,
12:58
Speaker 1: like just focused, not letting any of the other stuff
13:03
Speaker 1: get to him. He said after the semifinal win, He's like,
13:07
Speaker 1: I'm ready for a beer or something like that, which
13:10
Speaker 1: just shows he's kind of a down to earth guy
13:12
Speaker 1: and it's not going to get caught up in the
13:14
Speaker 1: big stage. So yeah, yeah, like Indiana, they're up ten
13:17
Speaker 1: to seven, right now, there you go.
13:18
Speaker 2: They could do it, and it definitely goes to show
13:20
Speaker 2: you what happens when you're allowed to buy a team.
13:23
Speaker 2: So Mark Cuban is definitely making his waves there in Indiana.
13:27
Speaker 1: We are in a new era of college sports, for sure.
13:31
Speaker 1: But let's talk about the NFL. Yeah, we had some
13:34
Speaker 1: divisional games, some pretty crazy divisional games. A lot of
13:37
Speaker 1: interesting stuff happened. We had one blowout that I can
13:41
Speaker 1: think of at least.
13:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Seahawks really took it to the forty nine Ers. Yeah,
13:46
Speaker 2: and I actually ended up watching the whole game. I'm
13:48
Speaker 2: not a huge guy that like unless the Vikings are
13:50
Speaker 2: blowing somebody else out. I'm not usually one that is
13:53
Speaker 2: fully engaged on football games when it's just a massive blowout.
13:58
Speaker 2: But I enjoyed why the Seahawks kick the crap out
14:01
Speaker 2: of the forty nine ers for no reason. I mean,
14:03
Speaker 2: I'm not a huge forty nine or hater or anything.
14:05
Speaker 2: I'm definitely not a Seahawks fan, but it was it
14:08
Speaker 2: was an entertaining game. Yeah, most of the playoffs so
14:12
Speaker 2: far have been.
14:13
Speaker 1: They've been good games. Yeah, they've been close. We saw
14:16
Speaker 1: the the Bears and Rams go to overtime, yeah, which
14:22
Speaker 1: was cool. I think that's the only overtime game so far.
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
14:27
Speaker 1: But yeah, let's let's do what we did last week.
14:30
Speaker 1: I don't know that we've done this in the past,
14:31
Speaker 1: but I like this tradition of roses, thorns and game balls.
14:35
Speaker 1: Even though the Vikings aren't playing, we can we can
14:37
Speaker 1: still talk about the good, the bad, and yeahs and
14:41
Speaker 1: routine here who gets the best of the best. So, Evan,
14:45
Speaker 1: what's what was your rose for this divisional round. You
14:49
Speaker 1: alluded to it already, but I liked seeing Sammy D succeed.
14:53
Speaker 1: I almost thought about wearing my Sammi D schoolhop shirt tonight,
14:56
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure one of my kids wore it
14:58
Speaker 1: for pajamas. The there you go, So I don't know
15:01
Speaker 1: that it's clean to wear, but that was.
15:04
Speaker 2: A good We should probably figure out like a way
15:07
Speaker 2: to redesign that to be able to post it up
15:10
Speaker 2: without getting in trouble again.
15:11
Speaker 1: That was a cool shirt.
15:12
Speaker 2: I did like that shirt. Your wife, Your wife, Yeah,
15:14
Speaker 2: did a really good job on that design. Well, we'll
15:17
Speaker 2: post up a picture or something of that design. It
15:19
Speaker 2: was pretty fun for last year.
15:21
Speaker 1: I think a lot of Vikings fans, especially the ones
15:23
Speaker 1: that I've seen on Twitter lately, have been bemoaning the
15:27
Speaker 1: fact that, oh, how could we let the guy go?
15:28
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah, and honestly, like, we can't do anything
15:31
Speaker 1: about it, Like we can sit here and complain all
15:33
Speaker 1: we want, but the fact is Quacy and KOs let
15:37
Speaker 1: him go. And I think Sam Darnold wanted to stay
15:40
Speaker 1: with the Vikings, and the Vikings weren't willing to pay
15:43
Speaker 1: him what he wanted. And I think that was all
15:47
Speaker 1: he needed to hear, Like, Okay, I'll test the water
15:50
Speaker 1: elsewhere and now here he is is gonna go play
15:53
Speaker 1: in the NFC Championship game. And good for that guy. Like, yeah,
15:56
Speaker 1: you know, we got to talk about him a lot
15:58
Speaker 1: last year as Vikings fans. He brought the team to
16:02
Speaker 1: fourteen and three before absolutely crumbling in the final three
16:07
Speaker 1: games of the season, including the first game of the playoffs.
16:11
Speaker 1: But it's it's just good to see him succeed. He's
16:15
Speaker 1: a good guy, he's a good football player, and it's
16:18
Speaker 1: just been a good situation for him. And so I
16:22
Speaker 1: like the Seahawks. They've got a home game against the Rams.
16:28
Speaker 2: I think they'll beat the Rams.
16:29
Speaker 1: I think so too. The Rams showed they're not perfect.
16:32
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I agree Sammy D. I'm I've said
16:39
Speaker 2: this many times. I was a fan of his last year.
16:42
Speaker 2: I will probably always be a fan of his no
16:45
Speaker 2: matter what. I was not one of the people in
16:48
Speaker 2: Vikings fandom that was saying, no, you got to sign
16:51
Speaker 2: him at all costs. I think at the time that
16:56
Speaker 2: at the time the plan was to sign Sammy D
17:00
Speaker 2: as you know, a bridge guy, and if he wins
17:03
Speaker 2: the job, in camp, then he wins and he's the
17:05
Speaker 2: guy at least for the year, and then go on
17:07
Speaker 2: and draft a quarterback, you know, ultimately tenth overall, which
17:11
Speaker 2: ended up being JJ McCarthy, and then after that season
17:14
Speaker 2: then roll with whoever the rocky quarterback had been. And
17:18
Speaker 2: all the Vikings did was highly overachieved with Sam Donald.
17:22
Speaker 2: Not to take anything away from him, but he I mean,
17:25
Speaker 2: nobody expected Sam Donald to perform the way he did
17:28
Speaker 2: for the Vikings in twenty twenty four. I kind of
17:31
Speaker 2: thought it would be okay, but no, even I didn't
17:34
Speaker 2: think it would be as great as it was. But yeah,
17:36
Speaker 2: their plan was to let him, you know, kind of
17:38
Speaker 2: play twenty twenty four and then move on and execute
17:41
Speaker 2: the plan with the rocky quarterback with JJ McCarthy in
17:44
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, and it just didn't work out in
17:46
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five with JJ McCarthy, and hindsight is twenty
17:50
Speaker 2: twenty Yeah, you can say, oh, they should have kept
17:53
Speaker 2: Sam Donald because look how much better he is. But
17:56
Speaker 2: and yes, as of now, that's true, but you couldn't
17:59
Speaker 2: have been age JJ McCarthy having the struggles that he did.
18:03
Speaker 2: Either way, it's a good rose for you. I think
18:07
Speaker 2: we both agree we're Sam Donald fans. Seems like a
18:10
Speaker 2: really good dude. He only ever did good by the Vikings,
18:14
Speaker 2: and the Vikings to a certain point, only ever did
18:16
Speaker 2: good by him. They could have franchised tagged him and
18:20
Speaker 2: kind of screwed up the trajectory of his career. But yeah,
18:24
Speaker 2: I'm unless it hurts the Vikings, which it did at
18:28
Speaker 2: one point this year, I'm always going to be a
18:32
Speaker 2: Sam Donald fan my Rose and it's super petty, and
18:37
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that. I'm just so glad the Bears
18:40
Speaker 2: are lost. I've got a lot of friends who are
18:44
Speaker 2: Bears fans. Friend of the show for us, he's a
18:46
Speaker 2: Bears fan, and had it been Michigan that lost, I
18:51
Speaker 2: probably would have texted him been like, hey man, I'm
18:54
Speaker 2: actually sorry. I hate it when my team loses. I
18:56
Speaker 2: have yet to reach out to front of the show
18:59
Speaker 2: for us to give him any kind of condolences.
19:02
Speaker 1: Let me translate that for the audience. What that actually
19:04
Speaker 1: means is Austin grabbed his phone immediately after that interception said, ah, lost.
19:09
Speaker 2: There's a very small pet even the most petty part
19:12
Speaker 2: of me, that would have loved to do that. But no,
19:14
Speaker 2: I I I'm not one that like tries to obnoxiously
19:18
Speaker 2: shove it in someone's face when their team loses because
19:20
Speaker 2: it sucks.
19:21
Speaker 1: Oh, let let me. Let's rewind really quick, because you
19:25
Speaker 1: sat here. I sat here, and a Packers fan sat
19:27
Speaker 1: right here. A Packers fan that you work with sat
19:30
Speaker 1: right here when we went to that game, and multiple times,
19:33
Speaker 1: ok it's probably on the fan cam. Multiple times, you
19:37
Speaker 1: were like so obnoxious. People thought you were like drunk
19:41
Speaker 1: off the wall or something after and you weren't, but
19:45
Speaker 1: you were. You were like shouting and just throwing it
19:48
Speaker 1: in his face. And there are some other Packer fans
19:51
Speaker 1: near us too, and you you are the epitome of.
19:56
Speaker 2: Okay in the stadium. I got kind of caught up there, Uh, Tim,
20:00
Speaker 2: I am sorry, but yeah, there were times where like
20:03
Speaker 2: the Vikings could have gained a yard and I did
20:05
Speaker 2: kind of lean over and stare him eye to eye
20:07
Speaker 2: and go whoa, like just very loudly. So Tim, Uh
20:11
Speaker 2: sorry about that. And I know Tim's he's been listening
20:15
Speaker 2: to the last couple episodes, so there's a decent chance
20:18
Speaker 2: he's listening right now. But yeah, he's a Packer fan.
20:21
Speaker 2: He's a good dude, and like you said, good sport.
20:23
Speaker 2: We had a lot of fun at that Vikings Packers game.
20:26
Speaker 2: But for the most part, I'm not one that's gonna
20:28
Speaker 2: be obnoxious and shoved in your face, unless maybe we're
20:32
Speaker 2: at the game together and I get a little caught up.
20:35
Speaker 2: But yeah, all that to say, I did not text
20:37
Speaker 2: front of the show Forest, but I am still very,
20:41
Speaker 2: very very excited that an NFC North team is not
20:44
Speaker 2: going to be winning the Super Bowl before the Vikings
20:48
Speaker 2: at least for one more year. So that's that's my
20:51
Speaker 2: roses that the Bears lost.
20:53
Speaker 1: So I texted my sister. I was kind of like
20:55
Speaker 1: dozing towards the end of that game because I was like, well, it.
20:59
Speaker 2: Was pretty poor for a lot of the game.
21:01
Speaker 1: Well it was so cold and neither offense could really
21:03
Speaker 1: get much going. But Caleb Williams throws that amazing dime
21:10
Speaker 1: to Cole Comet in the corner of the end zone
21:12
Speaker 1: after he scrambled like it was like a Fran Tarkenton level,
21:16
Speaker 1: like this way that way, thirty yards back from the
21:18
Speaker 1: original line of scrimmage, and then he just heaved it up.
21:21
Speaker 1: Miraculous catch. I'm sure Chicago went nuts.
21:24
Speaker 2: Oh, well, that's the kind of play that if they
21:27
Speaker 2: end up winning, and even without the win, that's looked
21:29
Speaker 2: at almost at the level of like the Minneapolis Miracle was,
21:33
Speaker 2: like I can't even imagine for Bears fans the level
21:37
Speaker 2: of euphoria because literally that play, it was either wasn't
21:42
Speaker 2: it they score a touchdown or it was fourth down,
21:45
Speaker 2: so I think they could have gotten a first down,
21:47
Speaker 2: but time was running out. It was either get a
21:50
Speaker 2: touchdown or first down, or the game was over. It
21:53
Speaker 2: had had Caleb Williams been tackled, you know, because he
21:56
Speaker 2: was running straight back. He couldn't have even thrown it
21:58
Speaker 2: away because he was still in the tackle. I guess
22:00
Speaker 2: it was fourth down two, but he heaved it and
22:05
Speaker 2: I think he I even saw a quote from him
22:07
Speaker 2: like he wasn't even really sure where it was going,
22:11
Speaker 2: but then it just landed perfectly in cole Comette's hands.
22:14
Speaker 2: And people wanted to say, we were kind of talking
22:16
Speaker 2: about this before we hit record. People wanted to say, like, oh,
22:20
Speaker 2: maybe there was a push off, but no, that it
22:23
Speaker 2: was mutual contact between the defender and cole Comet. And
22:27
Speaker 2: I did not see a penalty there at all really
22:30
Speaker 2: from either team, but yeah, it was just perfect. So
22:33
Speaker 2: I think for Bears fans, that was probably Minneapolis Miracle
22:37
Speaker 2: level type play.
22:40
Speaker 1: But with the heartbreak that comes afterwards. And like, as
22:43
Speaker 1: Vikings fans, we didn't experience that heartbreak until the following week,
22:49
Speaker 1: and they experienced it, you know, twenty minutes later. But
22:52
Speaker 1: my sister texted me because her husband is a Bears fan.
22:55
Speaker 1: Oh she's a Vikings fan, of course, but they were
22:58
Speaker 1: watching the Bears game with interest, and she texted me
23:00
Speaker 1: after that big play, She's like, did you see that?
23:02
Speaker 1: And I was like half asleep, ready to like fall asleep,
23:06
Speaker 1: And when that play happened, I perked right up and
23:08
Speaker 1: I texted her back and I was like, that was crazy.
23:11
Speaker 1: And then I texted her pretty much as soon as
23:14
Speaker 1: the game ended, and my text to her was and
23:17
Speaker 1: the Bears suffer a very Vikings like defeat.
23:20
Speaker 2: It is funny all season, you know, Vikings fans have
23:24
Speaker 2: been saying, you know, this year's Bears team is just
23:27
Speaker 2: basically the Bears version of the twenty twenty two Vikings,
23:31
Speaker 2: the heart attack Vikings, and they're right. I mean, there's
23:35
Speaker 2: a lot of similarities between those teams in the way
23:38
Speaker 2: that they won games, even down to having a rookie
23:41
Speaker 2: head coach, But yeah, it ended in a similar way. Yes,
23:46
Speaker 2: the Bears did win a playoff game this year, whereas
23:48
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two the Vikings lost to the Giants
23:51
Speaker 2: and their only playoff game. But yeah, I mean these teams,
23:55
Speaker 2: that's kind of why football is so fun because like
23:59
Speaker 2: I'm sure, like we were saying, you know a few
24:01
Speaker 2: years ago, like our watches were yelling at us for
24:04
Speaker 2: our heart rates. They're probably Bears fans. Multiple times this
24:07
Speaker 2: year they were like, man, my watch keeps yelling at
24:09
Speaker 2: me for a heart rate, you know, especially the other night.
24:12
Speaker 2: So it was a really fun game to watch. I
24:14
Speaker 2: would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't, you know,
24:17
Speaker 2: an anti Bears fan. But yeah, give it to him.
24:22
Speaker 2: The plays that they had. That fourth down pass was incredible,
24:25
Speaker 2: but ultimately the pass of Caleb Williams that mattered the
24:29
Speaker 2: most was that final interception, which we may talk about
24:33
Speaker 2: here in a few minutes.
24:34
Speaker 1: Well, let's get to Thorns, and it's gonna seem like
24:37
Speaker 1: I'm just not a Vikings fan at all, and I
24:39
Speaker 1: promise you that that's not the case. I'm not a
24:41
Speaker 1: Bears fan. But I think if the Vikings are out
24:44
Speaker 1: and there's another team that's in, and you're okay with them,
24:46
Speaker 1: like you can, you can be okay with them winning. Sure,
24:49
Speaker 1: that's but.
24:50
Speaker 2: As a Vikings fan, we shouldn't be okay with the Bears.
24:53
Speaker 1: If the Vikings are out of the playoffs and the
24:55
Speaker 1: Bears are in, I can be okay with the Bears.
24:57
Speaker 1: I would be okay with the Bears over the other
24:59
Speaker 1: two teams and division.
25:00
Speaker 2: But that mindset kind of tells me that you'd also
25:03
Speaker 2: be okay with the other two teams. If the Lions
25:06
Speaker 2: were the only NFC North team in the playoffs, you'd
25:08
Speaker 2: root for him?
25:09
Speaker 1: Nope, I wouldn't. And the Packers I absolutely wouldn't.
25:12
Speaker 2: So why are the Bears any different?
25:15
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's just something I love about the
25:16
Speaker 1: Bears because we've been saying it for a long time.
25:19
Speaker 1: The Bears will bear, and the Bears bared. The Bears
25:22
Speaker 1: beared pretty hard, and overtime there.
25:24
Speaker 2: The Bears bared at an alarmingly bearing amount. It was
25:28
Speaker 2: very bard. So I don't know.
25:30
Speaker 1: If I saw that meme, you know, there's like that
25:33
Speaker 1: cycle of like being a fan of your team, and
25:35
Speaker 1: it's like, you suck for five years, then you get
25:36
Speaker 1: the new quarterback, then you get the new coach, then
25:38
Speaker 1: you win a playoff game, and then you suck for
25:41
Speaker 1: five years again. And it was like you are here
25:44
Speaker 1: the Bears, and it's like at the beginning of the
25:46
Speaker 1: you suck for five years, and I don't know that
25:48
Speaker 1: the Bears are there yet, but well do.
25:51
Speaker 2: You remember I mean we've talked about even right before
25:54
Speaker 2: this season started, like the Bears cycle of a quarterback coach,
25:59
Speaker 2: GA GM quarterback coach, Like they have just had a
26:04
Speaker 2: cycle of drafting a quarterback high, the coach getting fired
26:08
Speaker 2: and the quarterback not working out, and the GM sprinkled
26:12
Speaker 2: in there as well, So a new new coach and
26:14
Speaker 2: then that quarterback not working out, and then a new
26:17
Speaker 2: quarterback and then the coach not working out. It's just
26:19
Speaker 2: they've been in a cycle forever.
26:21
Speaker 1: But it seems like they've found they could at least
26:24
Speaker 1: with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, that seems to be
26:27
Speaker 1: a really good match. I still think Ryan Poles is
26:31
Speaker 1: kind of an idiot and he kind of just lucked
26:32
Speaker 1: into these other two guys and they're making him look good.
26:37
Speaker 1: But Yeah, he's still famously quoted for saying we're going
26:41
Speaker 1: to take the North and never give it back.
26:43
Speaker 2: Well, and they just got the North, you know, so
26:45
Speaker 2: for the first hopefully he's first, probably only time. Yeah, yeah,
26:49
Speaker 2: because I think the Vikings and the Packers both they're
26:51
Speaker 2: going to be better next year than they both.
26:55
Speaker 1: I think the Packers are going to be bad next year.
26:57
Speaker 1: That's just my way here for diction.
26:59
Speaker 2: I I want you to be right, and you could
27:02
Speaker 2: be right now.
27:03
Speaker 1: There were all those rumors swirling around about Lafleur leaving
27:05
Speaker 1: and now they're like, now we'll keep him. And Jordan
27:08
Speaker 1: Love isn't a great quarterback. He's decent. He's probably better
27:12
Speaker 1: than JJ McCarthy at this point, but like marginally better. Maybe.
27:17
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know that the Packers are
27:20
Speaker 1: in for like a huge, like successful season.
27:24
Speaker 2: We'll see. And they don't have a first round pick
27:26
Speaker 2: for a couple of years too, so because of the
27:28
Speaker 2: micro market. Parsons, All right, ev I thought we were
27:31
Speaker 2: going to derail in our Roses segment, but I thought
27:34
Speaker 2: it was going to be derailing on the whole, Sam
27:36
Speaker 2: Darnold of it all turns out we started to derail
27:38
Speaker 2: on the Bears, and then we ended up talking about
27:40
Speaker 2: the Packers. So that was all our Roses segment right there.
27:44
Speaker 2: Thorn Zev what's your thorn for the divisional round of
27:47
Speaker 2: the playoffs?
27:48
Speaker 1: Well, I said this and then we kind of got derailed.
27:50
Speaker 1: But it's gonna sound like I'm not a Vikings fan,
27:52
Speaker 1: and obviously I am, because yeah, what the School Vikings podcast,
27:58
Speaker 1: But I was on the AFC side. I was definitely
28:01
Speaker 1: cheering for the Bills. The Bills have kind of become
28:04
Speaker 1: known as the AFC version of the Vikings, and it
28:08
Speaker 1: just it was kind of gut wrenching to watch them lose,
28:11
Speaker 1: and like those players were very emotional at the end
28:15
Speaker 1: of the game. Josh Allen was crying in his postgame interview.
28:19
Speaker 1: And then today this morning, Sean McDermott got fired after
28:24
Speaker 1: a very like he was cussing in his postgame press conference,
28:29
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm going to go to go to
28:31
Speaker 1: bat for my players kind of thing, and I think
28:34
Speaker 1: he felt like he got robbed by the officials. I
28:36
Speaker 1: really think the officiating was kind of sketchy. I don't
28:41
Speaker 1: know that it was like New Orleans Saints. I don't
28:45
Speaker 1: even remember what year that was when they were all
28:47
Speaker 1: there was all that controversy around past appearance where like
28:51
Speaker 1: one of the Saints players just got absolutely blown up
28:54
Speaker 1: and they didn't call anything. I don't know if the
28:56
Speaker 1: officiating was at that level, but it was still bad.
28:59
Speaker 1: There were two p I penalties at the end of
29:03
Speaker 1: the game against the Bills for fifty yards that got
29:07
Speaker 1: uh the Patriots in scoring position. Right, is the Patriots
29:10
Speaker 1: that they played?
29:12
Speaker 2: Excuse me?
29:13
Speaker 1: Or was it the Texan No?
29:14
Speaker 2: No, they played the the Patriots.
29:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm getting my.
29:18
Speaker 2: Or the Texans. Loss of the Patriots, Oh my goodness,
29:21
Speaker 2: I can't think right.
29:23
Speaker 1: Lost to the Broncos. Yes, now we got it. Okay,
29:25
Speaker 1: we're on the right track. Now we were both confused.
29:27
Speaker 1: It's okay. But anyways, those two pass interference penalties to
29:32
Speaker 1: me were questionable.
29:35
Speaker 2: We are We're so wrong, Broncos and Bills. The Broncos
29:39
Speaker 2: beat the Bills, the Patriots beat the Texans. We were
29:42
Speaker 2: somewhat We're just a couple of dudes drinking beer and
29:45
Speaker 2: talking about It's not even the.
29:46
Speaker 1: Vikings right now, it's the AFC. We don't even pay
29:48
Speaker 1: attention to them in time.
29:50
Speaker 2: I'm just glad I caught it now and we didn't
29:51
Speaker 2: get next.
29:52
Speaker 1: Thank thanks for correcting that. Anyways, it doesn't matter who
29:56
Speaker 1: they played. What matters is the officiating with sketch. I'm
30:00
Speaker 1: not going to go to the extreme and say it
30:03
Speaker 1: was awful. It was terrible, fire everybody, but it was
30:06
Speaker 1: questionable for sure. Those two PI penalties late in the
30:10
Speaker 1: game against the Bills I think were borderline PI. And
30:15
Speaker 1: then there was that one catch that was ruled an
30:19
Speaker 1: interception for the Broncos where it was Brandon Cook's he
30:25
Speaker 1: had it, they rolled over and the defender in the
30:28
Speaker 1: process of rolling over, ripped it away from him and
30:31
Speaker 1: came up with the ball and they ruled an interception.
30:33
Speaker 2: I actually agree with the interception call.
30:37
Speaker 1: I don't think that's an interception because I think it's
30:39
Speaker 1: been called the other way so consistently, and I've seen
30:43
Speaker 1: a few instances that couldn't spot them off the top
30:46
Speaker 1: of my head right now, But I've seen a few
30:48
Speaker 1: instances of a very similar play where it's a tie ball,
30:52
Speaker 1: the tie goes to the receiver and they waved that
30:55
Speaker 1: off really quickly and say, nope, not an interception. They
30:57
Speaker 1: blow the whistle, and these refts I did not to
31:00
Speaker 1: blow the whistle to see how the play developed, and
31:03
Speaker 1: then I think what ended up happening was there wasn't
31:06
Speaker 1: conclusive evidence to overturn the call, so they just had
31:09
Speaker 1: to stay with the interception.
31:10
Speaker 2: But so on that one specifically, I'm okay with it
31:14
Speaker 2: being ruled an interception because of the controversy of what
31:18
Speaker 2: a catch is. Anyways, I think one thing we can
31:20
Speaker 2: kind of all agree with is like having full control
31:24
Speaker 2: of the ball, which I don't Did you say it
31:26
Speaker 2: was Brandon Cook's Brandon Cook, I don't think he ever
31:28
Speaker 2: had full control. Yeah you could if you go literally
31:31
Speaker 2: frame by frame, there is one frame where his knee
31:36
Speaker 2: is down on the ground and it looks like he
31:37
Speaker 2: has two hands on the ball. But also in that
31:40
Speaker 2: same frame, whoever the Broncos defender was still also had
31:44
Speaker 2: just as much control. And then we also hear surviving
31:49
Speaker 2: the ground as a catch. The Broncos defender was the
31:54
Speaker 2: only one that survived the ground with the ball. It's
31:57
Speaker 2: not a black and white play. It's definitely one that
31:59
Speaker 2: I could understand, you know, people having different opinions on
32:03
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna argue with you about this one. I
32:04
Speaker 2: don't think you're about to argue with me either.
32:06
Speaker 1: But for.
32:09
Speaker 3: Me, I.
32:11
Speaker 2: Lean towards it, you know, actually making sense as an interception,
32:15
Speaker 2: because it felt like the defender had more control throughout
32:19
Speaker 2: the entire process of the catch than the receiver did
32:22
Speaker 2: at all.
32:23
Speaker 1: And I would disagree with two things you said. Number One,
32:27
Speaker 1: if in a frame on replay, it shows that he
32:31
Speaker 1: had a shoulder on the ground, was being touched by
32:35
Speaker 1: a defender, and had two hands on the ball aka
32:39
Speaker 1: control of the ball, wouldn't that be enough to rule
32:42
Speaker 1: it a catch and he's down by contact. That's the
32:45
Speaker 1: first thing I disagree with that you said. And then
32:47
Speaker 1: the second thing I disagree with is doesn't the tie
32:52
Speaker 1: go to the receiver anyways? Doesn't the tie always go
32:56
Speaker 1: to the offensive player? And so I don't know. I
32:59
Speaker 1: looked at that and just like I was kind of
33:02
Speaker 1: baffled that they made that call. And I would also say,
33:05
Speaker 1: if you start to break it down frame by frame,
33:09
Speaker 1: like you just alluded to, then that has to become
33:12
Speaker 1: the precedent and it has to literally be Okay, the
33:15
Speaker 1: video guys in this frame to this frame, here's the
33:19
Speaker 1: discrepancy in this frame. It's a catch in this frame
33:22
Speaker 1: it's not we're going with this frame or we're not
33:25
Speaker 1: going with that one and we're going with this one instead,
33:27
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, oh yeah, And I
33:30
Speaker 1: don't know that there's a precedent for that right now
33:33
Speaker 1: in NFL replay, but we may need to get down
33:35
Speaker 1: to like the the micro level of it all. And
33:39
Speaker 1: now you're looking at it, yeah, I am. You're trying
33:42
Speaker 1: to be New York right now. You're trying to be.
33:44
Speaker 2: Uh well, the thing is that one is a tiki tach.
33:46
Speaker 2: It is such a a this way that way.
33:49
Speaker 1: Kind of play and right there he's down here.
33:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then they hit the ground and it bounces out.
33:55
Speaker 2: I think in this kind of play whatsoever, without the
33:58
Speaker 2: defender defender there at all, he's going to hit the
34:00
Speaker 2: ground and lose control of the ball. That's what I'm saying.
34:04
Speaker 2: I'm not saying, you're absolutely it's.
34:06
Speaker 1: Such a tough thing and it makes me appreciate officiating
34:10
Speaker 1: even more. I'm not trying to rip apart the officials
34:13
Speaker 1: necessarily because it's such a tough job. Even the video replay,
34:18
Speaker 1: like it's it's so hard to see what actually happened
34:23
Speaker 1: and who was the defender there like McMillan. McMillan, he
34:27
Speaker 1: did a heck of a job. Like he tracked the ball,
34:30
Speaker 1: he didn't interfere. There was no pass interference and I'm
34:32
Speaker 1: not claiming that. Yeah, and he he had his what
34:36
Speaker 1: wouldn't that be his right hand up to defend the pass,
34:40
Speaker 1: and the other hand was on Brandon Cooks and they
34:44
Speaker 1: rolled over and he came up with the ball. Good
34:46
Speaker 1: for him, But.
34:47
Speaker 2: I just think the defender finished the catch for himself
34:52
Speaker 2: at the same time, Brandon Cooks didn't finish the catch.
34:56
Speaker 2: It was it was stolen away. Literally, I think, you know,
35:00
Speaker 2: I think it's a tail of two.
35:03
Speaker 1: Right. As soon as Brandon Cook's shoulder hit the ball
35:06
Speaker 1: or shoulder hit the ground, the ball was squarely in
35:08
Speaker 1: his hand. Then when McMillan rolls over him, the ball
35:13
Speaker 1: rolls into McMillan's hand and he comes up with you
35:15
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. Then that's where I it's a taiale
35:19
Speaker 1: of two halves of the play, right, Like, Okay, before
35:22
Speaker 1: they roll over, Cooks has the ball. After they roll over,
35:25
Speaker 1: McMillan has the ball, right, and but.
35:28
Speaker 2: The ball doesn't touch the ground at any point. That's
35:30
Speaker 2: where I go back to surviving the ground, you know,
35:33
Speaker 2: quote unquote surviving the ground, and.
35:35
Speaker 1: And and maybe maybe the better call in that situation
35:39
Speaker 1: for the Bills anyways, is to rule it a no catch.
35:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was clearly a catch by somebody I know,
35:46
Speaker 2: but they caught it together and then McMillan ultimately caught
35:50
Speaker 2: it more that. Again, this is not a black and
35:53
Speaker 2: white call, right.
35:55
Speaker 1: Well, so all of this is why this is a
35:57
Speaker 1: thorn for me. The Bills lost the game, and I
36:01
Speaker 1: felt like this call and then those two other PI
36:03
Speaker 1: calls I referenced had a big factor in them losing
36:08
Speaker 1: that game. And ultimately it got a really good coach
36:11
Speaker 1: who has a lot of wins in the playoffs and
36:13
Speaker 1: unfortunately no Super Bowls, got him fired today. And that
36:18
Speaker 1: was the burning news in all of sports media today
36:22
Speaker 1: was the fact that Sean McDermott got fired. And a
36:24
Speaker 1: lot of people, even Steven A. Smith, who has always
36:29
Speaker 1: got the hot opinion, he was like, I don't think
36:31
Speaker 1: he should have been fired.
36:32
Speaker 2: No, I don't agree with him being fired. I can
36:35
Speaker 2: see the mindset. It's a similar mindset of firing Jim Harbaugh,
36:39
Speaker 2: of not fighting every ounce you can to keep Mike
36:43
Speaker 2: Tomlin in the room. I mean, no more is it
36:46
Speaker 2: okay just to make the playoffs or even win one
36:49
Speaker 2: game in the playoffs. I mean, if you're McDermott, who
36:53
Speaker 2: is a really good coach, and I wouldn't have fired him.
36:56
Speaker 2: But the thing is like, he couldn't get over the
36:59
Speaker 2: hump and for whatever reason, make excuses here, make excuses there.
37:04
Speaker 2: Whether they are good excuses or not, it's still like, hey,
37:07
Speaker 2: you can't get over the hump. So again, I wouldn't
37:10
Speaker 2: have fired him. If I was a Bills fan, I
37:13
Speaker 2: would probably be upset about him being fired because once
37:16
Speaker 2: you start over with a new coach, I get they're
37:20
Speaker 2: trying to elevate the level. The Bills are trying to
37:22
Speaker 2: elevate the level they're at and get to that next step.
37:24
Speaker 2: But when you start with a new coach, I mean,
37:28
Speaker 2: it's such a crapshoot on if it's gonna be a
37:30
Speaker 2: good situation or not. Yeah, there's a pretty big hit
37:34
Speaker 2: on a Miami receiver from Indiana that could have been
37:37
Speaker 2: borderline targeting or I don't know, but anyways, Yeah, and
37:42
Speaker 2: mc tournament being fired could be bad news for Kevin
37:45
Speaker 2: O'Connell it's one of those like, if Kevin O'Connell makes
37:48
Speaker 2: the playoffs next year, is his job safe? I don't know.
37:51
Speaker 2: If he wins a playoff game next year, is his
37:53
Speaker 2: job safe, I don't know. I can tell you if
37:55
Speaker 2: he doesn't win a playoff game next year, things might
38:00
Speaker 2: be dicey for him. Whether I like Kevin O'Connell, but
38:04
Speaker 2: he's at the point now he's about to enter his
38:06
Speaker 2: fifth year without a playoff win, and that's dangerous territory.
38:11
Speaker 1: So we spent a lot of time talking about this
38:13
Speaker 1: one thing, and obviously there's a lot to unpack there.
38:17
Speaker 1: But I don't know. The Bills losing is a thorn,
38:22
Speaker 1: and it's more than just them losing. I think it's
38:25
Speaker 1: all the ramifications of them losing. And it's not that
38:29
Speaker 1: I'm this diehard Bills fan. If I had to pick
38:32
Speaker 1: an AFC team before the playoffs even started, once we
38:35
Speaker 1: knew who the playoff teams were, I would have said, yeah,
38:38
Speaker 1: I would have loved to see the Bills go all
38:39
Speaker 1: the way. Josh Allen has nobody in his way, No
38:43
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, no Patrick Mahomes. Like the road is wide open.
38:47
Speaker 1: Just go do your thing. Lamar Jackson's gone like, just
38:51
Speaker 1: go do it, go in it, man. And to see
38:54
Speaker 1: it come down to more officiating than just play on
38:57
Speaker 1: the field, that's what got really fresh straight for me.
39:00
Speaker 1: And I feel bad for the Bills and for Bill's fans.
39:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with I would.
39:04
Speaker 1: I would. I would jump off of a truck bed
39:07
Speaker 1: onto a table in frustration, just in honor of Bill's fans.
39:12
Speaker 2: All Right, tune in next week. We'll have a footage
39:15
Speaker 2: of no, I'm just kidding, all right, my thorn, and
39:19
Speaker 2: then we can quickly go through game balls to get
39:21
Speaker 2: through our meaty subject this week, my thorn, is it
39:26
Speaker 2: seems like Flores, Brian Flores, was getting some head coaching interest.
39:30
Speaker 2: I haven't seen that he's interviewed for all ten openings,
39:34
Speaker 2: but with McDermott being fired, there's just one more head
39:37
Speaker 2: coaching opening. But it does seem like he's He's scheduled
39:42
Speaker 2: for a second interview with the Steelers, who are There's
39:47
Speaker 2: only been two teams since the lawsuit. Since Brian Flora
39:52
Speaker 2: has opened up this lawsuit against the NFL, there's only
39:55
Speaker 2: been two teams that have hired Brian Flores, and the
39:58
Speaker 2: Steelers were the first want to hire him Mike Tomlin,
40:02
Speaker 2: he was like a linebackers coach, and then he came
40:05
Speaker 2: after one season there to be the Vikings defensive coordinator.
40:08
Speaker 2: So obviously, the Steelers are an organization who have proven
40:12
Speaker 2: that they're okay with hiring Brian Flores, and I'd be
40:18
Speaker 2: happy for him as a person if he got another
40:21
Speaker 2: head coaching job. It's gonna happen eventually, But with the
40:25
Speaker 2: way the Vikings defense finished out the season, the way
40:29
Speaker 2: players seem to be developing out of nowhere, I'm putting
40:33
Speaker 2: a lot of credit for that into Brian Flores, and
40:37
Speaker 2: I selfishly want one more season with him at least.
40:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good thorn and has nothing to do
40:44
Speaker 1: with the playoffs, but has everything to do with our
40:47
Speaker 1: team and the development of like kind of an unprecedented
40:52
Speaker 1: level of head coaching openings, Like the market has never
40:56
Speaker 1: been better for Brian Flores to go out and get
40:59
Speaker 1: a head coaching job.
41:00
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I saw this year as tied with
41:03
Speaker 2: like two or three other years for the most head
41:05
Speaker 2: coaching openings in NFL history, and an off.
41:09
Speaker 1: Season, I also saw a really funny meme I don't
41:12
Speaker 1: even remember what the meme was or what the reference was,
41:15
Speaker 1: but it was something along the lines of Stefanski and
41:20
Speaker 1: Harbaugh gone like ah man because they already accepted their
41:24
Speaker 1: head coaching jobs before the Bill's job came up, and
41:27
Speaker 1: so I thought that was kind of funny, but it is.
41:30
Speaker 1: It's been such an interesting coaching cycle and it got
41:35
Speaker 1: kicked off by Harbaugh like he was the first one
41:37
Speaker 1: to go.
41:38
Speaker 2: I mean, there was well, I guess they were in season.
41:41
Speaker 1: Some of the Likings and the Giants both fired, but
41:44
Speaker 1: neither of those were like you know, headline news. It
41:48
Speaker 1: was kind of like they got on ESPN and it
41:52
Speaker 1: was like, you know, way down the list on your
41:53
Speaker 1: feet is like, oh yeah, by the way, what's his
41:55
Speaker 1: name got fired from Tennessee, Like we don't even remember
41:58
Speaker 1: who it was, Callahan something like that, maybe Callahan. All right, anyways,
42:04
Speaker 1: who gets your game ball for this weekend game ball?
42:08
Speaker 1: It's pretty easy for me to look at all the
42:11
Speaker 1: stats from the games watching the games, the Seahawks were dominant.
42:15
Speaker 1: Kenneth Walker three touchdowns. That's an easy game ball for
42:19
Speaker 1: me to give.
42:20
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, I mean I think he was the
42:22
Speaker 2: highest sigal touchdown score in all of the divisional round.
42:29
Speaker 2: For me, again, it's continuing my theme of being a
42:33
Speaker 2: petty Vikings fan. But Rams defensive back was he a
42:39
Speaker 2: safety cornerback? Cam Curl? With that, it wasn't the game
42:44
Speaker 2: winning interception, but it was the was it in the
42:48
Speaker 2: overtime in overtime overtime? Yeah, as the Bears were driving
42:51
Speaker 2: down the Rams had gotten the opening kick of overtime
42:56
Speaker 2: and it was a three and out or either way,
42:58
Speaker 2: they punted back to the Bears and then it was
43:00
Speaker 2: sudden death. The Bears looked like they were going to
43:03
Speaker 2: march down the field or and at least get into
43:05
Speaker 2: field goal range. But out of nowhere, Cam Curl gets
43:10
Speaker 2: an interception and totally alters the game. Gives the ball
43:13
Speaker 2: back to the Rams, who go down and they kick
43:15
Speaker 2: a field goal with the thicker kicker. But yeah, so
43:21
Speaker 2: my game ball in that clutch moment getting that interception.
43:24
Speaker 2: Cam Curl never heard his name before that game. Probably
43:28
Speaker 2: we'll forget his name after tonight, but there you go.
43:31
Speaker 1: He actually led the team in tackles on the box score,
43:34
Speaker 1: which is interesting, and that was the most important interception
43:37
Speaker 1: of the night for the Rams. But they intercepted Caleb
43:41
Speaker 1: Williams three total times in that game.
43:43
Speaker 2: Who was the and it was only Curl got one
43:45
Speaker 2: and then Kobe Durant. Yeah, he got the other two.
43:49
Speaker 2: The other two, and I think he had a chance
43:51
Speaker 2: for at least one more at one point too. So yeah,
43:55
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams was putting the ball in Harm's way a
43:58
Speaker 2: few times. He overall played really well, especially that he
44:01
Speaker 2: did that career making fourth down pass there too. So
44:05
Speaker 2: take nothing from Caleb Williams, it was just, you know,
44:08
Speaker 2: he threw one interception too many.
44:12
Speaker 1: I think the Bears are going to be back. I
44:14
Speaker 1: think they've got a lot of stability now.
44:17
Speaker 2: In Yeah, I think they're set up. Although you could
44:21
Speaker 2: if we're gonna make comparisons between them and the twenty
44:24
Speaker 2: twenty two Vikings, people seemed in twenty twenty three to
44:28
Speaker 2: kind of figure out the Vikings plus then Kirk Cousins, Well,
44:32
Speaker 2: they started off really slow, but once Kirk Cousins started
44:34
Speaker 2: warming up, then he tore his achilles and that totally
44:37
Speaker 2: derailed the twenty twenty three season. But yeah, I mean
44:41
Speaker 2: there's a lot of similarities between the twenty two Vikings
44:44
Speaker 2: and the twenty five Bears, and hopefully this season after
44:50
Speaker 2: is another similarity, and Ben Johnson has a down year.
44:54
Speaker 2: But I do agree with you. I think the Bears
44:56
Speaker 2: are probably set up to be pretty good for at
44:58
Speaker 2: least a few years here.
45:00
Speaker 1: I think they've got decent cap space if I'm not mistaken.
45:04
Speaker 1: I'm trying to look that up quick. Okay.
45:06
Speaker 2: Well, and my mindset too is always the cap is
45:08
Speaker 2: a myth. They can make any They're.
45:12
Speaker 1: Four million in the hole, I don't come so maybe
45:15
Speaker 1: not as good as I thought, but they're still not
45:17
Speaker 1: anywhere close to where the Vikings are at.
45:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, being four million in the hole on January nineteenth
45:23
Speaker 2: could quickly turn into having thirty million dollars in cap
45:26
Speaker 2: space with like two or three moves. So that's why
45:29
Speaker 2: I know I'm not smart enough to know everything about
45:32
Speaker 2: the cap for every team, but I always think, you
45:34
Speaker 2: know that if they want to make a move, they
45:36
Speaker 2: can figure out how to make the move. But yeah, again,
45:39
Speaker 2: the Bears are probably set up to be decent for
45:41
Speaker 2: a few years, and hopefully they squander those opportunities away
45:44
Speaker 2: like Caleb Williams squandered that that final game pass or
45:48
Speaker 2: the final pass of the game last night.
45:52
Speaker 1: Well let's get into our team. We've spent a whole
45:55
Speaker 1: heck of a lot of time we are a Viking.
45:57
Speaker 1: Spot tasks me about other teams, but our team isn't
46:00
Speaker 1: playing anymore, so it's kind of hard to talk about anything.
46:03
Speaker 1: And there really haven't been a whole lot of moves.
46:07
Speaker 1: Other than Brian Flora's getting interviews, nothing really has happened.
46:11
Speaker 2: They did. It came out they're not going to retain
46:15
Speaker 2: their offensive line coach.
46:18
Speaker 1: Yep.
46:18
Speaker 2: If you know, if the coach is every gets all
46:23
Speaker 2: the credit for the position group's success or failures. That's
46:28
Speaker 2: one position group coach that I'm okay with letting him
46:31
Speaker 2: walk and trying to upgrade at that position. But yeah,
46:34
Speaker 2: other than interest for Brian Flores and that offensive line
46:38
Speaker 2: coach not being retained, there hasn't been anything else that
46:41
Speaker 2: I've noticed.
46:43
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some possible things that could happen.
46:50
Speaker 1: You've got this Viking's Territory article here, summarize it, give
46:55
Speaker 1: us the quick overview, and then let's dig into it
46:57
Speaker 1: a little bit.
46:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as always I'm perusing Front of the Show,
47:02
Speaker 2: Friend of the Show, Dustin Baker's website Vikings Territory dot com.
47:08
Speaker 2: I think it was him that wrote this article. Let
47:11
Speaker 2: me just see you really quick. Yeah, Dustin Baker wrote
47:15
Speaker 2: this article titled Vikings twenty twenty six off Season Priorities.
47:21
Speaker 2: So we'll kind of roughly use this article as like
47:24
Speaker 2: an outline of what this segment's going to be. Basically,
47:28
Speaker 2: he Dustin lists out some of the moves or non
47:32
Speaker 2: moves or decisions that the Vikings should or could make
47:37
Speaker 2: this off season, and some of them they have to
47:39
Speaker 2: make decisions on either way real quick. The article touches
47:44
Speaker 2: on TJ. Hockinson, the quarterback position, the running back position,
47:51
Speaker 2: and it doesn't touch on it, but I think it
47:53
Speaker 2: kind of runs with the theme of the article even
47:55
Speaker 2: though it's not in there. But I threw in Jordan
47:58
Speaker 2: Addison as well. Evan. One of the first things is
48:03
Speaker 2: Dustin says they got to make the right call at
48:05
Speaker 2: tight end, and then he talks about TJ. Hockinson in
48:08
Speaker 2: the situation with that cap wise, performance wise, and a
48:12
Speaker 2: little bit of the tight end room other than him,
48:16
Speaker 2: but I think the big question is what should the
48:19
Speaker 2: Vikings do at tight end. We've talked about this a
48:21
Speaker 2: little bit, but Evan, what's your official opinion? Should they
48:25
Speaker 2: totally cut him for pure cap space. In the article,
48:30
Speaker 2: Dustin says, if they just let him go, then they
48:33
Speaker 2: still need a tight end. So I think even you
48:37
Speaker 2: know TJ. Hockinson, who is his career has been diminished
48:43
Speaker 2: because of a cheap shot from the Lions. Even at
48:48
Speaker 2: his stage right now, he's still better tight end than
48:51
Speaker 2: a lot of tight ends in the league. Evan, what
48:52
Speaker 2: do you think you You wanted to.
48:55
Speaker 1: Do it right there, and you restrained yourself. I'm proud.
48:57
Speaker 2: I just want to be nice to the terrors in sports.
49:04
Speaker 1: I let one get away. I shouldn't have. I shouldn't
49:06
Speaker 1: have brought it up. That was my fault.
49:07
Speaker 2: That's on you, as TJ.
49:09
Speaker 1: Hawkinson. Uh, here's my take on TJ. I said this
49:14
Speaker 1: last week. I'm pretty sure I said it last week.
49:16
Speaker 1: I'll stick with it. I think you gotta cut the guy.
49:20
Speaker 1: I think he's going to open up a little bit
49:23
Speaker 1: of cap space that you don't have right now. And
49:28
Speaker 1: he's just simply not been performing the same way that
49:32
Speaker 1: he has since his injury.
49:34
Speaker 3: Now.
49:34
Speaker 1: Of course we said that at the beginning of the season,
49:38
Speaker 1: and then this year was such a roller coaster of
49:42
Speaker 1: ups and downs, but it really felt like once JJ
49:45
Speaker 1: McCarthy got going, TJ was his favorite target.
49:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, he got a lot more opportunities. That's and even
49:51
Speaker 2: Brosmer when he was playing.
49:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's purely anecdotal, and I don't know that there's
49:54
Speaker 1: a ton of like hard data to back that up.
49:58
Speaker 1: But just as a pretty dedicated fan watching every game
50:02
Speaker 1: with like very very dedicated focus, you know, it seemed
50:08
Speaker 1: like once those quarterbacks kind of got their stuff figured out,
50:12
Speaker 1: TJ became that target because Justin Jefferson was draped in coverage,
50:17
Speaker 1: Jordan Addison was draped in coverage, or if those two
50:20
Speaker 1: weren't being covered like, you know, like a blanket. Yeah,
50:28
Speaker 1: for lack of a better metaphor, those young quarterbacks, basically
50:34
Speaker 1: rookie quarterbacks couldn't find them, couldn't make the reads to
50:38
Speaker 1: get the ball to them. So I get that there
50:42
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a flash there. I get
50:44
Speaker 1: that TJ is still a good player, and I like
50:47
Speaker 1: the guy. I think he's a good player. He seems
50:50
Speaker 1: to keep a pretty low profile. He's not like, you know,
50:54
Speaker 1: in your face all over the media, you know, doing
50:58
Speaker 1: crazy stuff. He's obviously not getting arrested, which we'll talk
51:01
Speaker 1: about that here. In a little bit. But I think
51:04
Speaker 1: he's he's a luxury the Vikings can't afford, and truthfully,
51:08
Speaker 1: I think he can. He can still perform at a
51:10
Speaker 1: high level, and some other team might pay good money
51:13
Speaker 1: for him. And so at that point, like, let's get
51:16
Speaker 1: him out of here, not because I don't want to
51:18
Speaker 1: see him play for us anymore, but because I think
51:21
Speaker 1: he's too expensive to keep and it would be really
51:24
Speaker 1: good for his career to maybe find I think he
51:27
Speaker 1: has one more stop on his journey. Unless he's he
51:31
Speaker 1: becomes like one of those one year guys that just
51:34
Speaker 1: I'll sign a year deal here, I'll sign a year
51:36
Speaker 1: deal here, and just you know, pile up a bunch
51:39
Speaker 1: of year long deals until the end of time. But
51:44
Speaker 1: I think the Vikings can find a tight end. Josh
51:46
Speaker 1: Oliver is a good tight end and I think he's
51:49
Speaker 1: good enough to be a tight end one. And he
51:51
Speaker 1: proved that when TJ has been hurt. So I'm fine
51:57
Speaker 1: rolling with Oliver in that tight end one position. And
51:59
Speaker 1: then maybe you draft a guy. Maybe you bring in,
52:04
Speaker 1: you know, some random guy from somewhere else and he
52:07
Speaker 1: turns out to be okay to be your second. I
52:10
Speaker 1: don't know but I think a post June first cut
52:13
Speaker 1: is the most advantageous for the Vikings.
52:16
Speaker 2: You're looking at idea, Yeah, if you're looking just to
52:18
Speaker 2: get rid of him for financial reasons, yeah, that post
52:21
Speaker 2: June one, because then you can spread it out between
52:23
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. Yep, the cap hit. Yeah,
52:27
Speaker 2: if that's the route they're looking to go. Fully, I
52:32
Speaker 2: realize that I'm looking through this situation with biased lenses.
52:38
Speaker 2: I'm a TJ. Hockinson fan. I'm an Iowa Hawkeyes fan.
52:42
Speaker 2: It's really cool to have TJ. Hockinson, who at one
52:45
Speaker 2: point was on the trajectory of being considered, you know,
52:48
Speaker 2: one of the NFL's best tight ends. I recognize that
52:54
Speaker 2: I want the Vikings to keep him. I think that
52:57
Speaker 2: there is a route unless and good for him if
53:01
Speaker 2: he chooses this, Unless they approach him with a restructure
53:03
Speaker 2: and he's like, no, I can get more money if
53:06
Speaker 2: you cut me and I go to another team. If
53:08
Speaker 2: that's what he were to choose, and what his representatives were,
53:11
Speaker 2: you know, advising him to do good for that, you know, honestly,
53:14
Speaker 2: I want I'm okay with every player advocating for as
53:18
Speaker 2: much money as they humanly can get while they're playing,
53:21
Speaker 2: because it's a short time for them to earn that money.
53:24
Speaker 1: TJ.
53:25
Speaker 2: Hockinson seems like a good dude, and when he's at
53:27
Speaker 2: his best, he truthfully plays like one of the better
53:32
Speaker 2: tight ends in the league. His best statistical year was
53:36
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three with the Vikings. Five touchdowns, nine hundred
53:40
Speaker 2: and sixty yards, receiving ninety five receptions and twenty three
53:45
Speaker 2: and then he got injured, and that was twenty twenty four.
53:50
Speaker 2: He got injured. This past year, twenty twenty five, he
53:52
Speaker 2: had about half that three touchdowns, four hundred and thirty
53:55
Speaker 2: eight yards, fifty one receptions, and a lot of his
53:57
Speaker 2: catches kind of came towards, you know, the later part
54:01
Speaker 2: of the year when he wasn't being relied on as
54:06
Speaker 2: a Christian Dari saw crutch almost or a Brian O'Neill crutch,
54:11
Speaker 2: you know, like he was really asked to do a
54:13
Speaker 2: lot more blocking. And we talked about this, you know,
54:17
Speaker 2: last week, and you know prior weeks too. But I
54:20
Speaker 2: think it's both scheme and health that he is receiving.
54:28
Speaker 2: Production has really diminished. But if they can, if that
54:33
Speaker 2: offensive line can keep getting healthier excuse me, which it
54:38
Speaker 2: seems like it will. Christian Darisaw seems to be getting
54:41
Speaker 2: better and better and he should be okay next year.
54:45
Speaker 2: And if the scheme will open up more for him
54:48
Speaker 2: to be allowed to be a pass catching tight end,
54:50
Speaker 2: which is what he is at heart, I think we
54:54
Speaker 2: could see that production come back up. He's only twenty
54:57
Speaker 2: eight years old right now. I think he might be
55:00
Speaker 2: twenty nine by the time the season kicks off. Oh,
55:03
Speaker 2: July third is his birthday apparently, so he'll be twenty
55:06
Speaker 2: nine when the season kicks off. That's still pretty young
55:09
Speaker 2: for a football player. There's a lot of time left
55:13
Speaker 2: for him to make huge impact. If the Vikings and
55:17
Speaker 2: him can agree on a more realistic contract based on
55:22
Speaker 2: the last couple of seasons and what we could expect
55:24
Speaker 2: for the next few seasons, I'm all for a restructure
55:28
Speaker 2: to keep him around now. If it is they keep
55:31
Speaker 2: him at his current price tag or they let him go.
55:34
Speaker 2: I think that's where, you know, they gotta be real
55:37
Speaker 2: and let him go because he isn't what they signed,
55:41
Speaker 2: you know, a few years ago. But I'm a fan
55:43
Speaker 2: of his I want them to keep him and hopefully
55:45
Speaker 2: that's with a restructure, and ultimately it's not like it's
55:48
Speaker 2: our money. Keep him for the full price for all
55:51
Speaker 2: I care. I don't know, but yeah, he is a
55:54
Speaker 2: better The Vikings are a better team when he's on it.
55:57
Speaker 1: And I don't disagree with anything you've said. I just
56:01
Speaker 1: I don't know. He could be one, especially in June
56:04
Speaker 1: where it's like, Okay, we've got to really start looking
56:08
Speaker 1: at how we're going to build this roster for the
56:11
Speaker 1: upcoming season. He could be one that opens up a
56:14
Speaker 1: lot of possibilities if you cut him now, if you
56:18
Speaker 1: can restructure him and spread that money out and make
56:21
Speaker 1: it more of a team friendly deal, and he's willing
56:23
Speaker 1: to do that, then I'm all for that because, like
56:26
Speaker 1: I said, I like the guy. I still think he's
56:29
Speaker 1: a good player, and I still think he's got a
56:31
Speaker 1: future in him. Like I said, I think maybe it
56:34
Speaker 1: could be a good move for both the Vikings and
56:37
Speaker 1: TJ for him to move on, because he might have
56:40
Speaker 1: a little bit of juice left in the tank that
56:42
Speaker 1: he could offer another team, and it would suck to
56:44
Speaker 1: see him do that with somebody else. But you know, yeah, anyways,
56:50
Speaker 1: let's talk quarterback. Yeah, so you've got three, And I
56:53
Speaker 1: guess I didn't really read the article, but I'm assuming
56:57
Speaker 1: Dustin slash you have three kind of paths that the
57:02
Speaker 1: Vikings can take it quarterback.
57:05
Speaker 2: So the main gist of Dustin Baker's Vikings Territory article
57:09
Speaker 2: is really just that there needs to be a plan
57:12
Speaker 2: at JJ McCarthy insurance. It's been a couple of days
57:16
Speaker 2: since I've read the article, but I don't think he
57:18
Speaker 2: was saying, oh, they need to get rid of JJ,
57:20
Speaker 2: or here's how they need to replace him. It's more
57:23
Speaker 2: they just need to have a plan, and that's what
57:25
Speaker 2: he was saying in the article, whether it's you know,
57:27
Speaker 2: all out trade for Joe Burrow and totally replace him,
57:31
Speaker 2: or you know, kind of sign a competition worthy you know,
57:35
Speaker 2: potential QB two or a guy that could beat him out.
57:37
Speaker 2: He was just saying in the article, Dustin was saying,
57:40
Speaker 2: they just need to have a plan, which obviously they will.
57:43
Speaker 2: But so I kind of took that and wrote out
57:45
Speaker 2: the should they sign some QB insurance, did they try
57:50
Speaker 2: to replace him or do they run it back with
57:53
Speaker 2: Max Brosmer and JJ McCarthy. So what do you think
57:55
Speaker 2: from there?
57:56
Speaker 1: Well, I want to know what you think, and then
57:58
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I think. But you have three
58:00
Speaker 1: things there. Sign another quarterback, bring in somebody from the
58:04
Speaker 1: outside as insurance, not necessarily as a replacement, but as
58:08
Speaker 1: somebody to back him up. You know, Brozemer's chopped liver
58:13
Speaker 1: at that point, maybe a practice squad guy at best.
58:17
Speaker 1: Do you replace JJ McCarthy entirely and make him sit
58:21
Speaker 1: he's the two, Or you get rid of him entirely
58:24
Speaker 1: and try to you know, package him together with some
58:27
Speaker 1: draft picks and get somebody else. Or roll with JJ
58:32
Speaker 1: and Max like we did this year and just hope
58:35
Speaker 1: that they improve and get better and the product on
58:38
Speaker 1: the field is better than it was this year. Yeah,
58:41
Speaker 1: to me, there's a pretty clear like absolutely not, and
58:44
Speaker 1: there's some wiggle room for the others. I want to
58:48
Speaker 1: know what you think.
58:49
Speaker 2: So obviously we have no control over this. All we
58:52
Speaker 2: can do is root for the team. But if it
58:55
Speaker 2: were me, I would I saw some things JJ McCarthy
59:00
Speaker 2: towards the end of the season that last what four
59:03
Speaker 2: or five game win streak. Yeah, he took himself out
59:05
Speaker 2: of the game against the Packers, which is pretty pretty rough.
59:09
Speaker 2: That's not something you want to see as a teammate
59:11
Speaker 2: as a fan, but you know what it is, what
59:14
Speaker 2: it is, and we can't change it, so let's move on.
59:17
Speaker 2: I still have hope JJ McCarthy can be a long term,
59:21
Speaker 2: multiple year starter for this team, a Pro Bowl level player,
59:25
Speaker 2: hopefully a guy that can take him deep to the playoffs.
59:28
Speaker 2: And we've seen him make passes. This is a dude
59:31
Speaker 2: that the talent is in there to be able to
59:34
Speaker 2: do big things for the Vikings. So with his opportunities
59:39
Speaker 2: being so few so far in his career, yes, that's
59:42
Speaker 2: I mean, injuries are a part of the equation when
59:44
Speaker 2: you're evaluating a guy. But what I hope is that
59:48
Speaker 2: they keep JJ. I'd even say keep Max Brozmer too,
59:51
Speaker 2: He's a he's a good developmental probably QB three at
59:55
Speaker 2: this point, but as far as QB's won and two,
1:00:01
Speaker 2: you keep JJ, and I hope that they sign a
1:00:04
Speaker 2: guy that could theoretically beat JJ out, but at the
1:00:11
Speaker 2: very least is going to be worthy legitimate competition even
1:00:17
Speaker 2: if you sign the guy. And you're still saying yeah,
1:00:19
Speaker 2: as of right now, depth tart, depth chart is JJ's
1:00:22
Speaker 2: QB one, and you know that's his job until he
1:00:24
Speaker 2: loses it. But if they make a move like go
1:00:29
Speaker 2: for Joe Burrow or even trade a second or first
1:00:31
Speaker 2: round pick for like a mac Jones. There's something crazy
1:00:33
Speaker 2: like that. That's a level where it's like, all right,
1:00:35
Speaker 2: well that's your guy now that you don't you don't
1:00:39
Speaker 2: trade for Joe Burrow without making sure he's the he's
1:00:42
Speaker 2: replacing JJ McCarthy. I want a guy that if he
1:00:46
Speaker 2: ends up beating out JJ McCarthy in training camp, good
1:00:50
Speaker 2: for him, good for the team. Competition breeds the best teams. Ever,
1:00:55
Speaker 2: this is kind of hard to talk about because Mendoza
1:00:57
Speaker 2: just made a career highlight rushing touchdown.
1:01:01
Speaker 1: The National Championship. That was a fourth down.
1:01:04
Speaker 2: I didn't even realize fourth down, and there's ponged his way.
1:01:08
Speaker 1: There's a little bit of context here. There were a
1:01:11
Speaker 1: few controversial plays that happened, and Kurt Signetti took two
1:01:15
Speaker 1: timeouts within like less than a minute of each other,
1:01:18
Speaker 1: with like nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, like
1:01:20
Speaker 1: way early in the fourth wow, and it paid off.
1:01:23
Speaker 1: He went for it on fourth and five they still
1:01:26
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to get a first down, went for it,
1:01:29
Speaker 1: and Mendoza, like you said, ping pongs his way in
1:01:31
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. That was a heck of a play,
1:01:33
Speaker 1: and now Indiana is up by ten with u N
1:01:37
Speaker 1: nine minutes left.
1:01:38
Speaker 2: That's crazy anyway. So I guess that was a long
1:01:42
Speaker 2: winded way for me to say, I hope they they
1:01:45
Speaker 2: keep JJ, keep him in the competition, but that they
1:01:50
Speaker 2: signed somebody to make it a good competition and made
1:01:55
Speaker 2: the best man win the job.
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I'm with you. I think the absolute wrong
1:02:01
Speaker 1: answer is roll with JJ and Max and nobody else.
1:02:06
Speaker 1: That would be like, okay, if that's happening. When we
1:02:09
Speaker 1: hit training camp in August and they've done nothing, We're like, whoa, whoa,
1:02:12
Speaker 1: whoa red flag here, KOC equacy, you you need to
1:02:18
Speaker 1: go yeah, fire everybody now.
1:02:20
Speaker 2: Also, let me add to this because you just kind
1:02:22
Speaker 2: of said something that made me think roll into training camp.
1:02:25
Speaker 2: So if you think, if you remember twenty twenty five,
1:02:28
Speaker 2: there was not really a competition for QB one. It
1:02:31
Speaker 2: was JJ all the way. The competition was for QB two,
1:02:35
Speaker 2: QB three, maybe a practice squad spot, and then out
1:02:39
Speaker 2: of nowhere, they traded away Sam Howell and signed Carson
1:02:43
Speaker 2: Wentz like a week before the regular season started, and
1:02:46
Speaker 2: that was their QB room. I think did they trade
1:02:50
Speaker 2: or I think they just cut Brett Rippon too. So
1:02:53
Speaker 2: like this quarterback room that they had been fostering all
1:02:57
Speaker 2: off season, they totally blew it up and got rid
1:03:01
Speaker 2: of half the room, brought in a new guy that's
1:03:03
Speaker 2: never been in the room, and kept the least experienced rookie.
1:03:09
Speaker 2: I like Max Prosmer, but like to roll in and
1:03:12
Speaker 2: just keep him out of nowhere when you let go
1:03:14
Speaker 2: of rip in and howl. My hope that they bring
1:03:19
Speaker 2: in competition and that it's a true quarterback competition. I
1:03:23
Speaker 2: hope they do that like in the draft or a
1:03:26
Speaker 2: free agency, not a week before the season starts. That's
1:03:30
Speaker 2: not Carson Wentz would have been a much better Minnesota
1:03:33
Speaker 2: Viking had they brought him in during OTAs in May
1:03:36
Speaker 2: or whenever those are, rather than September, right before the
1:03:40
Speaker 2: season starts.
1:03:41
Speaker 1: And let's be fair, Carson Wentz was still the better
1:03:43
Speaker 1: quarterback statistically statistically, and I think just like in general
1:03:48
Speaker 1: and now knowing like all that he was going through
1:03:52
Speaker 1: towards the end of that stint, it's crazy. I'm still torn.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm like fully on board with
1:04:01
Speaker 1: JJ number one Like, honestly, I wouldn't be mad at
1:04:06
Speaker 1: this point if they said JJ, plus these draft picks
1:04:12
Speaker 1: are going here, and Joe Burrow's coming in.
1:04:15
Speaker 2: Or it's a little far fetched that it's.
1:04:17
Speaker 1: Definitely coming in, or you know whoever. Like I wouldn't
1:04:21
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be upset and I wouldn't be super shocked
1:04:25
Speaker 1: if that happened, especially with some of the stuff that
1:04:28
Speaker 1: we saw out of JJ McCarthy the last couple of years.
1:04:31
Speaker 1: The the injury prone kid that he is, the kind
1:04:36
Speaker 1: of the like uh, like hype man, but like the awkward,
1:04:41
Speaker 1: like he's cringey, the nine slash right and uh, and
1:04:49
Speaker 1: then the like uh putting himself in that last game
1:04:55
Speaker 1: and then pulling himself out.
1:04:57
Speaker 3: Uh.
1:04:57
Speaker 1: Like there's just there's a ton of immaturity there. There's
1:05:00
Speaker 1: a ton of stuff, not just on field stuff, but
1:05:04
Speaker 1: there's off the field stuff that like we took for
1:05:07
Speaker 1: granted Kirk Cousins who was just like this like ultra
1:05:11
Speaker 1: polished professional dude and like played well enough to really
1:05:16
Speaker 1: like back up who he was off the field, and
1:05:19
Speaker 1: like not MVP level not like you know, obviously no
1:05:24
Speaker 1: Super Bowls, but like we just I think we took
1:05:27
Speaker 1: that for granted, Like we never had to worry about
1:05:29
Speaker 1: what was going to come out of Kirk's mouth or
1:05:30
Speaker 1: what he was going to do, or is he going
1:05:32
Speaker 1: to pull himself out of this game today because he's
1:05:34
Speaker 1: dealing with Like now, Kirk went home and like hired
1:05:38
Speaker 1: like fifteen people to help recover his body. We saw
1:05:41
Speaker 1: that on that Netflix sea. Yeah, and when he showed
1:05:46
Speaker 1: up to work, he showed up to work, and he
1:05:47
Speaker 1: was ready to play, and he played well. And yes,
1:05:51
Speaker 1: he was a really expensive quarterback to have, and I
1:05:54
Speaker 1: think it was good that we got him off the
1:05:56
Speaker 1: payroll because it opened up a lot of possibilities. But yeah,
1:06:01
Speaker 1: having a rookie slash red shirt rookie kid with very
1:06:06
Speaker 1: low maturity was it was hard at times to deal with.
1:06:12
Speaker 1: So all that to say, move on from him or
1:06:16
Speaker 1: bring in somebody to compete with him, I'm okay with
1:06:19
Speaker 1: either one. At this point. We gotta keep rolling here,
1:06:21
Speaker 1: I think, because we could sit here and talk all night.
1:06:23
Speaker 2: Oh and we will. We have a full off season
1:06:25
Speaker 2: until they do make the splash of trading for Lamar
1:06:29
Speaker 2: Jackson or Joe Burrow or Mac Jones or drafting a quarterback.
1:06:33
Speaker 2: You know in the first round, Like until they do
1:06:35
Speaker 2: something like that, all we're going to do is speculate
1:06:37
Speaker 2: on what we think they should or could do. So
1:06:40
Speaker 2: you're right, let's keep her moving.
1:06:42
Speaker 1: Let's talk about running backs, and let's talk specifically about
1:06:45
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones, because I think he's the biggest talker, and
1:06:48
Speaker 1: I think we talked about him a little bit last week,
1:06:50
Speaker 1: and I think we also kind of decided that Jordan
1:06:53
Speaker 1: Mason is probably a Viking hands down next season. I
1:06:57
Speaker 1: don't think there's really any concern with that, but I
1:07:00
Speaker 1: think Aaron Jones isn't a free agent yet but could
1:07:04
Speaker 1: be within the next two years. And he's also getting
1:07:07
Speaker 1: older and a little bit more expensive. So my opinion
1:07:13
Speaker 1: is just to quit beating around the bush. I think TJ.
1:07:18
Speaker 1: Howkinson you move on from him, and I think you
1:07:20
Speaker 1: move on from Aaron Jones as well. Again, unless he's
1:07:24
Speaker 1: willing to take a really nice, team friendly deal. You
1:07:29
Speaker 1: love the leader that he is in the locker room.
1:07:31
Speaker 1: Is he up for another year?
1:07:33
Speaker 2: So both Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones, they're both signed
1:07:37
Speaker 2: through twenty twenty six, so through this coming season, but
1:07:42
Speaker 2: it's also the final season for both of them as
1:07:45
Speaker 2: their contracts sit right now. Jordan Mason is he'll be
1:07:51
Speaker 2: twenty eight years or twenty seven years old when next
1:07:55
Speaker 2: season kicks off. Aaron Jones will be one when the
1:08:01
Speaker 2: season kicks off in here in September.
1:08:05
Speaker 1: So I guess even knowing that like it makes me
1:08:08
Speaker 1: think two things. Number One, Jordan Mason gives you a
1:08:11
Speaker 1: better shot at more stability in the future. Aaron Jones
1:08:17
Speaker 1: tufed it out this season, and I think probably could
1:08:20
Speaker 1: have sat out more than he did, but he chose to,
1:08:24
Speaker 1: you know, be the leader that he is and tufed
1:08:26
Speaker 1: it out despite I think lower production and whatnot. But
1:08:31
Speaker 1: I think Jordan Mason gives you the better chance to
1:08:33
Speaker 1: be successful long term. But knowing how old Jordan Mason is,
1:08:39
Speaker 1: I almost wonder if you just start over and maybe
1:08:43
Speaker 1: you do draft high, maybe you do try to trade
1:08:46
Speaker 1: up for a Jeremiah Love or something similar in the
1:08:49
Speaker 1: draft and see if you can build around him rather
1:08:53
Speaker 1: than try to pay these older guys. Right, because you've
1:08:56
Speaker 1: notoriously said since this podcast started, don't pay running back. Well,
1:09:00
Speaker 1: the best way to not pay a running back is
1:09:02
Speaker 1: to get a really talented rookie from the draft. Get
1:09:06
Speaker 1: him on a rookie deal for four years, maybe offer
1:09:08
Speaker 1: that fifth year extension and then you know, move him,
1:09:13
Speaker 1: move him on, or you know, try to spread his
1:09:18
Speaker 1: second contract out over five or eight years or whatever.
1:09:21
Speaker 1: But then again you're stuck with him unless you decide
1:09:24
Speaker 1: to trade him or cut him and eat that part
1:09:26
Speaker 1: of his contract. So it's a sticky thing. But I
1:09:30
Speaker 1: wouldn't be opposed to a little bit of an overhaul
1:09:34
Speaker 1: in the running back room. I like the two guys
1:09:36
Speaker 1: that are in there a lot. You've got to like
1:09:39
Speaker 1: the leader that Aaron Jones is. He's a great guy
1:09:42
Speaker 1: that way, but I mean, just too expensive and too old.
1:09:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So Aaron Jones has a cap hit of
1:09:49
Speaker 2: twenty or for twenty twenty six of fourteen point eight
1:09:53
Speaker 2: million dollars. And I know I said this a handful
1:09:56
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, but if you remember when it was
1:09:59
Speaker 2: a tough decision for the Vikings to make to cut
1:10:02
Speaker 2: Dalvin Cook a few years ago. They did that because
1:10:05
Speaker 2: he was set to make about fourteen million dollars that
1:10:08
Speaker 2: next coming season. Aaron Jones, I think at you know,
1:10:12
Speaker 2: he'll be his birthdays in December, so later in the
1:10:14
Speaker 2: season he'll be thirty two, but at thirty one, all
1:10:17
Speaker 2: he's done since he's been with the Vikings is impress me.
1:10:22
Speaker 2: When he's been healthy, which has been most of it.
1:10:24
Speaker 2: He didn't miss a single game in twenty twenty four.
1:10:27
Speaker 2: He missed a decent chunk of games in twenty twenty five.
1:10:29
Speaker 2: But when he's been healthy, he has been. There's been
1:10:33
Speaker 2: many a game where we've kind of sat right here
1:10:36
Speaker 2: in the Schoolman Center and said, like, man, Aaron Jones,
1:10:39
Speaker 2: just he quietly like helped the Vikings a ton, Like
1:10:43
Speaker 2: it was noticeable when he got that ten yard run.
1:10:46
Speaker 2: Like I think he is a net positive for the team.
1:10:50
Speaker 2: Very expensive for a thirty one, thirty two year old
1:10:52
Speaker 2: running back at fifteen million dollars almost whereas Jordan Mason
1:10:57
Speaker 2: his cap hit for this coming season is five point
1:10:59
Speaker 2: eight million dollars. That's all if spotrack dot com is
1:11:03
Speaker 2: you know, totally true and accurate. But because of that,
1:11:08
Speaker 2: you know, I almost think, and especially with the the
1:11:12
Speaker 2: way Kevin O'Connell's offense works so much better if they
1:11:16
Speaker 2: can get I'm sure if we look how many games
1:11:20
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell has won when he's had a hundred yard rusher,
1:11:24
Speaker 2: or when the team has rushed collectively for one hundred yards,
1:11:27
Speaker 2: it's probably way more wins than losses when that scenario happens.
1:11:32
Speaker 2: I wish I could very quickly pull up that exact stat,
1:11:36
Speaker 2: but I'd bet Kevin O'Connell is, you know, way more
1:11:39
Speaker 2: successful each game when his team rushes for one hundred yards,
1:11:43
Speaker 2: and that's just you know, in a pass heavy offense,
1:11:46
Speaker 2: if you can supplement and get any yards at all
1:11:49
Speaker 2: to help out in the run game, that that's huge.
1:11:52
Speaker 2: And I think Aaron Jones when he's healthy, only helps that.
1:11:56
Speaker 2: So I'd be okay with keeping both Aaron Jones and
1:11:59
Speaker 2: George Mason. Maybe trying to restructure a little bit with
1:12:02
Speaker 2: Aaron Jones, but don't mess with that too much because
1:12:05
Speaker 2: this could be his last year as an NFL player
1:12:08
Speaker 2: or definitely a starter. But then I'd definitely be okay
1:12:13
Speaker 2: with a first round pick, a second round pick drafting
1:12:16
Speaker 2: a good running back. I've said it a thousand times.
1:12:19
Speaker 2: I'm not a draft expert. I'm not a college football expert.
1:12:22
Speaker 2: I don't even know if there's a there could be
1:12:24
Speaker 2: a thousand running backs this year that our first round
1:12:27
Speaker 2: pick worthy. You know, or one we keep saying Jeremiah
1:12:30
Speaker 2: Love is that the name? Yeah, from Notre Dame. That's
1:12:33
Speaker 2: literally the only running back I know from college football
1:12:37
Speaker 2: that is entering the draft. And obviously there's tons and
1:12:40
Speaker 2: tons more running backs, but I don't know. I just
1:12:44
Speaker 2: knowing the vikings, knowing how the offense runs smooth when
1:12:48
Speaker 2: both Mason and Jones are healthy, I'd be okay with
1:12:51
Speaker 2: keeping both with the caveat of supplementing that running back room.
1:12:57
Speaker 2: I don't think you can run it back with Zabian Scott.
1:13:00
Speaker 2: You definitely can't go back into the season. You know,
1:13:03
Speaker 2: with ty Chandler as your RB three. You need to
1:13:07
Speaker 2: bolster up and maybe a guy that you're signing now
1:13:10
Speaker 2: to replace both of those guys next year or the
1:13:12
Speaker 2: year after, you know, just just get some more talent
1:13:15
Speaker 2: in that room.
1:13:17
Speaker 1: So one guy we haven't talked about yet, and then
1:13:20
Speaker 1: we probably need to wrap this up and talk real
1:13:22
Speaker 1: quickly about the nfc AF.
1:13:25
Speaker 2: There's only two games next week to talk about anyways.
1:13:28
Speaker 1: But Jordan Addison got in trouble again and sounds like
1:13:33
Speaker 1: this one isn't like super egregious. It sounds like you
1:13:36
Speaker 1: was like at a casino and he was asked to
1:13:39
Speaker 1: leave multiple times and he didn't, and I think it
1:13:42
Speaker 1: just sounds like they had to escort him out.
1:13:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he got really got arrested.
1:13:47
Speaker 1: Booked, but then got released, of course, released from jail,
1:13:52
Speaker 1: not from the released from jail, sorry, released from being
1:13:57
Speaker 1: held in behind bars. But this is what third or
1:14:02
Speaker 1: fourth run in now with law enforcement. And he's also
1:14:09
Speaker 1: not been like immaculate in terms of team stuff either,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: Like when they were over in Europe for two games
1:14:17
Speaker 1: this season, he was, you know, in trouble and faced
1:14:20
Speaker 1: team discipline. He sat out at the beginning of one
1:14:23
Speaker 1: of those games.
1:14:23
Speaker 2: It was either the first half or the first quarter
1:14:26
Speaker 2: of I think, yeah, it was one of the games that.
1:14:28
Speaker 1: It was the second game, and it was Koc's decision.
1:14:31
Speaker 1: I think he said it was a coach's decision. I
1:14:33
Speaker 1: kept him out first quarter just kind of as a
1:14:35
Speaker 1: consequence for his actions, which we found.
1:14:37
Speaker 2: Out based a team meeting or whatever, is what they said. Yeah,
1:14:41
Speaker 2: but yeah, like I just interrupted you, he was. It
1:14:43
Speaker 2: sounds like he was out super late in a foreign country.
1:14:46
Speaker 2: It's interesting or hanging out or whatever he was doing.
1:14:49
Speaker 1: It's interesting. You put Chris Carter on here. As as
1:14:53
Speaker 1: like a comparison to Jordan Addison, because Chris Carter cleaned
1:14:57
Speaker 1: his life up like pretty dramatically, and truthfully, that was
1:15:03
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why he was one of my
1:15:05
Speaker 1: favorite players ever growing up as a kid, was just
1:15:08
Speaker 1: because it was like, Wow, he's that rags to riches guy,
1:15:11
Speaker 1: Like he's that like his life was a mess. And
1:15:14
Speaker 1: like when he was with the Eagles Chris Carter got
1:15:16
Speaker 1: drafted by the Eagles, he was like a drunk and
1:15:20
Speaker 1: couldn't like hardly stand upright most of the time.
1:15:23
Speaker 2: And it sounds like it wasn't even just alcohol that
1:15:26
Speaker 2: he was messing around with the other stuff.
1:15:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the Eagles were just like, yeah,
1:15:30
Speaker 1: good riddance, get this guy out of here, like he's
1:15:32
Speaker 1: not gonna last two seconds anywhere else. And Danny Green,
1:15:36
Speaker 1: Danny Green had kind of this like big heart for
1:15:39
Speaker 1: these guys that were struggling, and like Randy Moss was
1:15:42
Speaker 1: another one that he had had his fair share of
1:15:45
Speaker 1: off the field issues even in college before he was drafted,
1:15:48
Speaker 1: and Randy Moss historically fell in the draft until the
1:15:52
Speaker 1: Vikings picked him up. So's it's interesting that you put
1:15:56
Speaker 1: him on there because that definitely piqued my interest, and
1:16:00
Speaker 1: I would just say, honestly, like I would be the
1:16:03
Speaker 1: Eagles in this situation and say, get rid of him,
1:16:06
Speaker 1: move on. I don't know how successful he'll be, and
1:16:09
Speaker 1: sure enough, it would be the most vikings thing ever
1:16:11
Speaker 1: if they got rid of Jordan Addison and he becomes
1:16:14
Speaker 1: the second coming of Jerry Rice or something like that.
1:16:19
Speaker 1: I'm willing to give the kid another another chance, but
1:16:23
Speaker 1: I think it I think he has to develop some
1:16:28
Speaker 1: sort of boundaries. He's got to have some accountability for
1:16:32
Speaker 1: some of these things, and he's got to he's got
1:16:34
Speaker 1: to learn like, yep, you are a successful athlete in
1:16:39
Speaker 1: the biggest league in sports. You're making a lot of money,
1:16:43
Speaker 1: but we're gonna put some good people around you to
1:16:46
Speaker 1: prevent you from getting in your own way. I think
1:16:49
Speaker 1: you even said something like that when I texted you
1:16:51
Speaker 1: that he'd been arrested, Like you said something along the
1:16:54
Speaker 1: lines of like the kid can't just can't get out
1:16:56
Speaker 1: of his own way, and that seems like what's happening here,
1:16:59
Speaker 1: Like he just he's got a little bit of a
1:17:01
Speaker 1: big head, and he's got a lot of money, and
1:17:04
Speaker 1: when he's kind of cut free. It's kind of like
1:17:07
Speaker 1: Dennis Rodman, like like, let's just go, let's go have fun,
1:17:10
Speaker 1: let's just see what happens, and hopefully nothing bad happens.
1:17:12
Speaker 1: And yeah, for him, a lot of bad has happened
1:17:16
Speaker 1: to the point where like he's kind of on the brink.
1:17:18
Speaker 1: He's teetering on the edge of being a Viking next
1:17:21
Speaker 1: year or not.
1:17:22
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I agree. I think for me, at
1:17:26
Speaker 2: this moment, I think it sounds like you'd be okay
1:17:29
Speaker 2: with the Vikings just getting what they can for him.
1:17:32
Speaker 2: The Eagles actually, if you remember, and I just looked
1:17:35
Speaker 2: this up today, when Chris Carter, when they were done
1:17:38
Speaker 2: with him, they just cut him. They're like, all right,
1:17:40
Speaker 2: you're out. And the Vikings picked him up on waivers,
1:17:43
Speaker 2: like they didn't even have to trade for him or anything,
1:17:45
Speaker 2: which hindsight, you know, they picked up on waivers the
1:17:48
Speaker 2: guy that would end up being the best wide receiver
1:17:50
Speaker 2: in Vikings history on the field, you know, which is
1:17:53
Speaker 2: kind of crazy. But it seems like at this moment,
1:17:57
Speaker 2: Jordan Addison is kind of facing you know, looking himself
1:18:02
Speaker 2: in the mirror and in a similar situation that Chris
1:18:04
Speaker 2: Carter must have been in as the Eagles were deciding
1:18:08
Speaker 2: to cut him. Now. Granted, it sounds like Chris Carter,
1:18:11
Speaker 2: you know, if we can believe the internet, which you
1:18:13
Speaker 2: can never really believe, he was dealing with, you know,
1:18:17
Speaker 2: drugs and alcohol and some pretty serious stuff, and it
1:18:21
Speaker 2: seems like, you know, turned his life around. Jordan Addison,
1:18:25
Speaker 2: He's done some pretty dangerous things, you know, driving under
1:18:30
Speaker 2: the influence and you know, some stuff you don't ever
1:18:34
Speaker 2: want your player on your favorite football team or let
1:18:37
Speaker 2: alone like your friend or child or anything to be
1:18:41
Speaker 2: putting themselves in. But overall has gotten out of these
1:18:45
Speaker 2: situations thankfully without hurting himself or anybody else. And hopefully
1:18:51
Speaker 2: he can get the help he needs to get this
1:18:54
Speaker 2: stuff figured out and kind of get out of these
1:18:57
Speaker 2: this habit of making bad decisions. He's going to be
1:19:01
Speaker 2: twenty four years old this month. That's still pretty young.
1:19:05
Speaker 2: At twenty four years old, I was not making the
1:19:08
Speaker 2: best decisions in the world. So I not that it
1:19:12
Speaker 2: makes it okay, but it makes it a little bit
1:19:14
Speaker 2: more understandable when you kind of have that aspect. Plus,
1:19:18
Speaker 2: this kid is something you and I have never been.
1:19:21
Speaker 2: He's a multi millionaire, he's young, he's celebrated. He's got
1:19:26
Speaker 2: more money than you know, a twenty four year old
1:19:29
Speaker 2: usually ever has to think about. But he's at a
1:19:32
Speaker 2: crossroads right now, like the Vikings very well, maybe thinking
1:19:35
Speaker 2: all right, he's used up all his chances, one more
1:19:39
Speaker 2: thing and he's gone. And will that be at the
1:19:43
Speaker 2: end of his football career. Probably not unless that one
1:19:45
Speaker 2: more thing is like, you know, legal, prison worthy. But yeah,
1:19:51
Speaker 2: I hope for him, no matter what, he gets these
1:19:54
Speaker 2: things figured out and turns it around. As far as
1:19:57
Speaker 2: being a Vikings fan, I mean could see it and
1:20:01
Speaker 2: I'd be okay if they're like, yeah, we've had enough,
1:20:03
Speaker 2: we're gonna try to get you know, a draft pick
1:20:07
Speaker 2: out of him and move on from there. But also
1:20:10
Speaker 2: I am seeing similarities between him and Chris Carter and
1:20:13
Speaker 2: Chris Carter it seems. And I'm not an expert on
1:20:17
Speaker 2: Chris Carter's life and his biography. I really just look
1:20:20
Speaker 2: at stats and I've seen him, you know, on shows
1:20:23
Speaker 2: and podcasts and stuff. And I was just starting to
1:20:25
Speaker 2: wake up as a football fan when Chris Carter was
1:20:29
Speaker 2: retiring from the league.
1:20:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much.
1:20:31
Speaker 2: But it really seems like once Chris Carter got released
1:20:35
Speaker 2: from the Eagles and got picked up with the Vikings.
1:20:37
Speaker 2: He had like three years with the Vikings where he
1:20:39
Speaker 2: had mediocre stats four one hundred yards a season, five
1:20:43
Speaker 2: six hundred yards a season. After being with the Vikings
1:20:46
Speaker 2: for like three years, is finally when he boom exploded
1:20:50
Speaker 2: and then he had like nine years straight up over
1:20:52
Speaker 2: a thousand yards and he became a pro bowler each
1:20:55
Speaker 2: of those years and ultimately the best receiver in Vikings history.
1:21:00
Speaker 2: So Jordan Addison, he's still young, that's still possible for
1:21:04
Speaker 2: him to figure it out and get it going. But
1:21:07
Speaker 2: also the Vikings have to make a decision here in
1:21:10
Speaker 2: a matter of weeks, I think before March or sometime
1:21:14
Speaker 2: in March, if they're gonna pick up his fifth year option.
1:21:17
Speaker 2: And if if they were making that decision right this second,
1:21:21
Speaker 2: I don't know if they would because that's that's a
1:21:23
Speaker 2: lot of money, that's a lot of commitment for again
1:21:26
Speaker 2: that makee in trouble.
1:21:27
Speaker 1: The incident at the casino in Florida is a little
1:21:29
Speaker 1: too recent where it's like, men like that just happened
1:21:33
Speaker 1: like two weeks ago.
1:21:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I was gonna say, you're right, the
1:21:37
Speaker 2: incident in Florida, getting trespassed, Like, yeah, you don't want
1:21:41
Speaker 2: it to happen, but ultimately, like it wasn't an ow
1:21:45
Speaker 2: I like, was he being a drunk idiot? Maybe or
1:21:48
Speaker 2: and maybe that's unfair. I don't know if he was intoxicated,
1:21:51
Speaker 2: but was he being an idiot and not leaving when
1:21:53
Speaker 2: he was supposed to? Yeah? Was he out at three
1:21:55
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning. That's so dumb. What does Ted
1:21:58
Speaker 2: Mosby say? Nothing happened? Nothing good happens after two am.
1:22:03
Speaker 2: But yeah, this most recent incident is a low level one.
1:22:07
Speaker 2: Nobody got hurt, but it's just another blip. It's like,
1:22:09
Speaker 2: why do you keep.
1:22:10
Speaker 1: Doing this stuff? Well, and I think you've said it before.
1:22:14
Speaker 1: I think I've said it before. I'm sure other people
1:22:16
Speaker 1: have said it before. The kid could be a one
1:22:19
Speaker 1: receiver on another team. Yeah, Like there's a market out there,
1:22:23
Speaker 1: just like there was for Chris Carter. Not that he
1:22:26
Speaker 1: was on the market. The Vikings literally picked him up
1:22:29
Speaker 1: off the streets. But I don't think the Vikings are
1:22:32
Speaker 1: gonna cut Jordan Addison like and even if they did,
1:22:38
Speaker 1: I think he'd be scooped up just like Chris Carter was.
1:22:41
Speaker 1: Within a matter of hours. Like I don't even think
1:22:44
Speaker 1: it would take a full twenty four hours for him
1:22:46
Speaker 1: to find another spot.
1:22:47
Speaker 2: No, he'd be picked up on waivers, like he wouldn't
1:22:50
Speaker 2: even fully hit free agency unless the thing he did
1:22:53
Speaker 2: that was the final straw again, was like a horrendous thing,
1:22:57
Speaker 2: like he did kill somebody in a car accident or
1:23:01
Speaker 2: something something crazy like that.
1:23:02
Speaker 1: You know, I don't laugh because I wanted to see
1:23:05
Speaker 1: that happen. I laughed because it just would be so prepositious.
1:23:08
Speaker 1: But anyways, hopefully he can figure it out and hoping
1:23:13
Speaker 1: hopefully the Vikings make the right decision with him, whether
1:23:16
Speaker 1: that's keeping him or letting him walk. Let's talk super
1:23:20
Speaker 1: fast AFC NFC Championship games. Who do you got in
1:23:25
Speaker 1: the AFC Patriots or Broncos?
1:23:27
Speaker 2: So it's in mile high. The Broncos just lost their
1:23:32
Speaker 2: starting quarterback. Which whatever your opinion was about bo Nicks before,
1:23:36
Speaker 2: if he was the real deal or if he was
1:23:38
Speaker 2: just a good game manager or whatever, it doesn't matter
1:23:41
Speaker 2: because he's not playing. I think you gotta go Patriots
1:23:45
Speaker 2: in this one. Even if the Broncos have all the
1:23:48
Speaker 2: confidence in the world and Jared Stidham, former Patriot by
1:23:52
Speaker 2: the way, even if he plays admirably. I think just
1:23:55
Speaker 2: the Patriots, even if bo Knicks were playing, I think
1:23:57
Speaker 2: the Patriots have just been playing at a level where
1:24:00
Speaker 2: that they they might not be beat this year. They
1:24:03
Speaker 2: seem like they're back to the old Patriots form, which
1:24:05
Speaker 2: is really annoying.
1:24:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. I think Patriots win this one.
1:24:09
Speaker 1: Vrabel seems to have figured it out pretty quickly, and
1:24:15
Speaker 1: man Drake may will forever be one of those like
1:24:18
Speaker 1: what could have been for the Vikings.
1:24:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it sounds like and that's a whole nother
1:24:24
Speaker 2: derailing podcast or yeah, derailing full episode of a podcast.
1:24:28
Speaker 2: Sounds like the Vikings tried and it wasn't for lack
1:24:30
Speaker 2: of the Vikings.
1:24:31
Speaker 1: It wasn't for lack of trying.
1:24:32
Speaker 2: I don't think the Patriots even if the Vikings were
1:24:35
Speaker 2: allowed to and did offer like the next twenty first
1:24:38
Speaker 2: round pick, well maybe twenty, the next five first round picks,
1:24:42
Speaker 2: there's I don't think that would have been enough. I
1:24:43
Speaker 2: think the Patriots were they were sending pat and they
1:24:46
Speaker 2: well they're being proven right.
1:24:48
Speaker 1: They got the better quarterback out of the deal so far,
1:24:50
Speaker 1: so far, and I think it's gonna result in a
1:24:54
Speaker 1: Super Bowl trip for them NFC side Rams and Seahawks
1:24:59
Speaker 1: at Sea. Sammy d I.
1:25:01
Speaker 2: Think, as as things sit right now, I think the
1:25:04
Speaker 2: Seahawks are the better overall team. I mean, they blew
1:25:09
Speaker 2: out who do they beat? My goodness, I already forgot.
1:25:13
Speaker 2: They destroy the forty nine ers. Yeah, the Niners had
1:25:18
Speaker 2: their own list of injuries, but they still destroyed them
1:25:22
Speaker 2: in the playoffs. Sam Darnold didn't even have to do much,
1:25:25
Speaker 2: Like he had one hundred something yards passing, Like he
1:25:28
Speaker 2: didn't even have an impressive stat line because he didn't
1:25:30
Speaker 2: need to. I just think the Seahawks are the much
1:25:35
Speaker 2: better team. They're gonna win. The Rims almost lost to
1:25:37
Speaker 2: the Bears like they needed a lot of fluky things
1:25:40
Speaker 2: to happen. And granted the Bears also needed a lot
1:25:43
Speaker 2: of fluky things to happen too, But I just think
1:25:46
Speaker 2: the Seahawks, especially in Seattle this year, are the much
1:25:50
Speaker 2: better team. I think it's gonna be Patriots Seahawks again.
1:25:53
Speaker 1: Well, there you have it, Patriots Seahawks the school hot
1:25:55
Speaker 1: prediction for Super Bowl sixty, which is crazy to believe.
1:26:00
Speaker 1: That's wild and we're already at Super Bowl sixty. My
1:26:02
Speaker 1: dad is the same age as the Super Bowl. That's
1:26:05
Speaker 1: why we keep track. So he turned sixty this year
1:26:07
Speaker 1: and it's Super Bowl sixty.
1:26:09
Speaker 2: There you go, here you go. All right? How could
1:26:12
Speaker 2: people find us if they want to reach out, Just
1:26:14
Speaker 2: google us.
1:26:15
Speaker 1: The school Hop. That's It's as simple as it is.
1:26:17
Speaker 1: I'm wearing our sweatshirt today, the School Hop s k
1:26:20
Speaker 1: O L H O P. You know you're gonna find us.
1:26:23
Speaker 1: We're out there. The major social media platforms are probably
1:26:28
Speaker 1: the best place to find us. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you
1:26:31
Speaker 1: know those normal places. YouTube and Spotify are where we
1:26:35
Speaker 1: post all of our episodes, and Spotify does its magic thing,
1:26:40
Speaker 1: and you can listen to our podcasts pretty much anywhere.
1:26:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, check us out wherever you get your podcasts
1:26:46
Speaker 1: and drop us alike a comment, a subscribe. Yeah it
1:26:49
Speaker 1: would be awesome. And yeah, let us know maybe maybe
1:26:54
Speaker 1: you've had the Comfy Pants by Lion Bridge before. If
1:26:59
Speaker 1: you've had it, let us know. I liked this beer,
1:27:02
Speaker 1: but I did too. It was it was really good.
1:27:04
Speaker 2: The initial like really boozy flavor kind of went away
1:27:08
Speaker 2: after the first couple of SIPs, and I don't think
1:27:11
Speaker 2: that's because oh man, it's hitting me, so I'm not
1:27:13
Speaker 2: tasted as well. I think it's just I'm getting used
1:27:16
Speaker 2: to it, and even with that boozy flavor, it's still
1:27:18
Speaker 2: a really good beer. I've enjoyed every sip of it
1:27:21
Speaker 2: and I can't wait to get it again.
1:27:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, good episode. I had a lot of fun,
1:27:28
Speaker 1: and I think we probably could have sat here for
1:27:30
Speaker 1: a whole another, like hour and a half. We almost did,
1:27:32
Speaker 1: and a couple of times if we had more beer
1:27:35
Speaker 1: and we had more time, we might have done it. Yeah,
1:27:38
Speaker 1: but this is a good This is a good place
1:27:40
Speaker 1: for us to wrap things up. And you said it earlier.
1:27:42
Speaker 1: We've got all off season to talk about all of
1:27:46
Speaker 1: these moves that the Vikings could make or should make.
1:27:49
Speaker 2: And will make. This will be a fun off season.
1:27:51
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a good one. So all right, man,
1:27:54
Speaker 2: great beer.
1:27:55
Speaker 1: Maybe that's an episode yet, So James, I.
1:28:03
Speaker 3: Think I think, I I think, I think, I think
1:28:17
Speaker 3: I think I think I think I think, I think,
1:28:32
Speaker 3: I think I think I think I think I think,
1:28:49
Speaker 3: I thin