Latest / The Skol Hop / How do you toast a beer? Who will be RB1 in 2024? Is tampering legal? Vikings get an A | TSH Ep. 30

Transcript

How do you toast a beer? Who will be RB1 in 2024? Is tampering legal? Vikings get an A | TSH Ep. 30 · The Skol Hop

0:29
All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into episode thirty of The School
0:33
Hop. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes from
0:36
Iowa. We like drinking beer, We like talking about the Vikings. Yeah,
0:39
we do school school. Oh no, we need to redo that.
0:44
That's a little bit better. We got too much of the like hollow sound
0:47
too. You know what we need to go like down here or not.
0:51
And I think we just both need to go up towards the top. All
0:54
right, one more time. We're live. We'll do live. We'll get
0:59
it this thirty episodes in. We should have this perfected. We have a
1:03
third microphone, so maybe we can put that microphone here capture the sound of
1:07
the clink. If what if we like go unorthodox and go clink from the
1:11
wild on that's gonna like break a glass. Yeah, let's look. No,
1:15
you know what we're doing it. I got really scared there. Beer
1:22
goes everywhere. That's true. All right, Well we've scold about four times.
1:26
If you if you have advice on how to properly toast with beer,
1:32
Yeah, it's specifically beer in a football mug, because that's what we drink
1:36
out of every week? Is it a mug? Sure? Glass glass?
1:40
I don't know it's made of glass. If you have tips, drop them
1:45
in the comments. And if you're still here, because we might have just
1:47
driven off the five listeners that did show up this. I feel like this
1:52
little opening here was perfect for visual enjoyment. So check us out. You
1:57
can watch us on Spotify and YouTube. This might end up being like a
2:04
TikTok clip. I don't know. We'll figure it out, but yeah,
2:07
we need some some sculling tips. That's right, because apparently we're maybe we're
2:13
just in our own heads. Could be well, we did realize that I
2:16
leaned back too far, so I made the concerted effort to go. I
2:21
mean that was our worst whatever, Well, we were just demonstrated I was
2:23
going for it. Man. Should we just do a whole episode of us
2:29
trying to get right? No, because we're going to break a glass.
2:32
Then one of us is going to get a glass shard in our hand.
2:36
And this is too dark of a beer to spill, and a white carpet
2:39
too, So we should talk about the beer though, we should. We've
2:43
had a tradition of only drinking Iowa beer on our episodes. And you brought
2:46
the beer today. So yeah, so this is from No Coast Beer company.
2:53
I believe we've had so this is I'm gonna be a little confused about
2:59
this. This is the third time you and I have enjoyed a No Coast
3:05
beer on the skull Hop. However, one of these times we haven't released
3:09
yet. Yeah. So the first time was the No Coast was it make
3:14
waves? Or was that the second time? I think that's the unreleased episode
3:17
was made. So the first time was the No Coast Van Go, yes,
3:21
which that's with a really cool van go, super cool can with the
3:24
like Volkswagen van Yeah. Yeah, And the second time, which we just
3:30
won't talk about anymore. Just let you guys find out when you find out.
3:35
But we have enjoyed No Coast a second time. Now. This is
3:38
our third time having a No Coast beer, and it's a nitro beer.
3:44
To my knowledge, they have at least three different nitro beers. The the
3:50
s'mores, the what was the other one? The coffee, the coffee,
3:54
and then the one that we're having tonight, the cookies and cream. You
4:00
and I don't think have really ever had nitro beers before. I think the
4:04
only other like nitro drink I've had, is that like nitro pepsi that they
4:10
made. I don't know if it's still out, but they made it a
4:11
couple of years ago. I haven't really had like a Guinness or anything like
4:15
that, Like nothing, nothing like that. So its I mean, I
4:18
don't think I have. I'm sure I have. Yeah, but is that
4:23
a nitro beer? I don't know. That's a good question, that is
4:25
a good let us know. But yeah. So there's even instructions on this
4:29
can on how to pour it because with the nitro it needs like a hard
4:32
poor, so you have to like invert the can three times and then open
4:36
it and then do a hard poor also known as the Austin. The Austin.
4:43
It's patent pending, all right. And what we have is by far
4:48
and above, the darkest looking beer maybe I've ever had, but definitely the
4:54
darkest beer we've had on the school hop. Very dark. If you want
4:59
to get our first ever first sip reactions, check out TikTok. But what
5:03
what was your first reaction of this beer? It was malty, Like we
5:09
could just smell the malty before we even tried it. You could just smell
5:13
it coming off of the top of the glass. It's very strong, and
5:17
you even mentioned after taking your first sip, like it just it sticks with
5:21
you after a while. Yeah, the flavor, but it's nice and the
5:25
nice way like, yeah, yeah, it's It's definitely an experienced beer.
5:29
It's not one that like you're you're just shotgun You're not shotgunning one of these
5:32
beers. I mean you could, but I don't think that's the best way
5:36
to enjoy it. Yeah, it's definitely an enjoyable beer, something that you
5:42
want to take your time with a little bit. It's smooth, It has
5:45
some sweeter tasting notes, which would be the cream, but then it's also
5:48
got the more maultier chocolate or vibe, which would be the cookies. We
5:55
both kind of noted that even though this isn't the s'morest beer that No Coast
6:00
also makes, which we might have to try. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah,
6:03
we get some like roasted marshmallow vibes, and I think that's the malt
6:09
that you're talking about. It's definitely got like a toasted, roasted flavor to
6:13
it. Overall, this beer has surprised me a lot. I wouldn't normally
6:18
ever grab a beverage or a beer or anything that said cookies and cream.
6:24
Just because I'm not a huge sweet tooth guy. I'm not any anyone that
6:28
if you give me a beer that said, you know, sugary doughnut filled
6:32
with pudding, like, I'm not gonna be super excited open that beer up.
6:36
So I don't know. I like this beer a lot. I feel
6:41
like cookies and cream. It's not the initial thought that I have when I
6:45
taste this beer. Yeah, I don't either. But the more I've had
6:48
of it now, which has only been about that much, I'm starting to
6:55
pick up on it a little bit. Like it's smooth. I can taste
6:58
the sweetness and then I can also taste the chocolate ess of it. Yeah,
7:00
so I think all of that combined is what they were going for.
7:04
Overall. It's good. I want to I'm a good I'm a big campfire
7:09
guy. I love sitting by the fire, and like if I could spend
7:12
every Friday night by a fire like that'd be awesome. I feel like this
7:15
is the perfect like light a fire, sit back, clear stars, starry
7:20
sky, have one of these beers like that. Just that's where I'm picturing
7:25
the perfect place. To have one of those. So I like it a
7:28
lot. You like it a lot? I do, Yeah, And I'm
7:31
with you too for the record, like, this isn't one that I would
7:34
reach for. In fact, I told you when you walked into my house
7:39
that I've seen these before. I've seen all three of the No Coast Nitro
7:44
series, at least the three that were on the shelf at our grocery store.
7:47
Perhaps there are more. I don't know, but I thought about grabbing
7:50
them, and I go, well, it just seems a little bit off
7:56
the beaten path for what we typically like to enjoy on the school hops.
7:59
So maybe I'll save that for another time. Yeah, but if we're going
8:01
to go through all the Iowa beers that we can possibly eventually, we're gonna
8:05
have to try them all. We tried the is It Reunion that made the
8:09
Cobbler Gobbler, and that surprised both of us. I think we can hands
8:13
on that. Yeah. I had some not too long actually with my wife.
8:16
It was good. So I like this a lot. This will not
8:20
be the last two or three Cookies and Cream or any of the Nitro No
8:24
Coast beers that I have. Definitely not one that you're gonna have six,
8:28
seven, eight, nine of them, probably just because it is a very
8:33
defining flavor in a good way. But I think eventually it might just be
8:37
like I need to have something less flavorful. Yeah, for sure, two
8:43
or three apps of freaking loutely this is a this is a fantastic beer.
8:46
Yeah, good stuff, and once we've gotten through a few, we can
8:50
maybe give a more fully formed opinion. Yeah, and this maybe the longest
8:54
we've talked about a beer so far. Could be we've talked for a while,
8:58
but I mean, when you try something new, you gotta you gotta
9:01
process that. Yeah, And so it's been good. There's lots of process
9:05
in Vikings world. The news is really starting to pick up. We kind
9:09
of hit that like post Super Bowl lull. Everything was kind of quiet for
9:16
a week or two, and now we're really ramping up towards free agency,
9:20
which starts in a week. Yeah, and the combine will do that.
9:24
That's when the NFL world, for the most part, I guess there was
9:26
a couple of head coaches that didn't go this year, but for the most
9:30
part of the NFL world, NFL media, they all converge on excuse me,
9:35
Indianapolis. A lot of stories come out, a lot of fluff and
9:39
bs come out hashtag Mike Florio and a lot of details are you know,
9:48
flushed out too, So like when Quasi Dafa Mensa pretty much he's asked the
9:54
question about like the trading justin Jefferson scenario, and Quacy by all per says
10:00
like no, like no, I've never even thought about that, like which
10:05
felt different than when Rick Spielman twice said like I have no intent to trade
10:11
Percy Harvin or whatever. Like that felt like, you know, coach speak.
10:16
It felt like the legal eese of saying something without saying it. When
10:20
Quaycy said like I couldn't even imagine that or whatever the exact quote was,
10:26
it felt genuine to me. I honestly, anytime Craycy speaks, I feel
10:30
like he's not one to blow smoke or fluff things up. If he says
10:33
something, you can take it. He's he's very careful with his words,
10:39
very conservative. You can tell he's calculated. He has prepared for pretty much
10:46
any situation that he's going to encounter in any sort of interview, and he's
10:50
got a response ready to go. And he's he's not going to sit there
10:54
and blubber away about stuff that previous gms may have blow smoke or whatever.
11:01
I feel like gms and coaches are notoriously good, kind of like politicians are
11:05
really good at, like giving long answers that sound like they're detailed, but
11:13
ultimately when you analyze what they say, it's like they didn't really even say
11:16
anything, like nothing substantial. And sure, we could probably go and find
11:22
ten quotes from Quac where he didn't really say anything. But like, every
11:28
time I hear him speak, whether you're a fan of him or not,
11:31
my jury's still out on him a little bit. I skew towards he gets
11:33
a passing grade for me. I'm still okay with what he's doing. He's
11:39
still kind of got that grace period for me at least, But anytime I
11:43
hear him speak, I skew a little more towards like, Okay, I
11:46
like this guy, Like he's not just the kid holding the PlayStation control playing
11:52
Madden. Like there's some thought to what he's doing. It's just gonna be
11:56
different than what normal NFL fan or even gms and stuff would think that you
12:01
should do. So yeah, I think he's well spoken. And well thought
12:07
out, and I'm excited to see how he handles his third offseason. It'll
12:13
be a defining off season for him. Oh yeah, sure one that I
12:16
mean. I keep hearing the people talk about that quote from the Bills GM
12:20
bean that's his name, I should know, but where he basically said,
12:26
like ya, A lot of people were upset when we traded all that,
12:30
when we gave up so much to draft Josh Allen. But my thought process
12:35
was like, if it works, awesome, I'm a hero, and if
12:37
it doesn't, who cares. I'm not gonna be employed here anyway. So
12:39
like gott to swing for the fences. And I'd like that mindset from a
12:46
GM, although it's scary because if he gets fired, like he will just
12:50
have been the Vikings GM for a few years, whereas us like, yeah,
12:54
we're just a couple of dudes, but like we're fans, Like if
12:58
we're still alive fifty years from now, we're still going to be Vikings fans
13:01
and we're still going to reap the benefits or you know, the the negativities
13:05
from people that have control of our favorite team that we ultimately have no control
13:09
over. So true, Well, there were some things that happened. Yeah,
13:15
since our last episode, a few a few movements, and again things
13:20
are starting to pick up. We're going from like a slow trickle to a
13:26
little bit more of a steady flow of Vikings news coming out. So Alexander
13:31
Madison was the first domino to fall, yeah, so to speak, in
13:37
terms of the Vikings moves this offseason. He was released, and I was
13:39
a little surprised by that move initially, especially when the news first came out
13:46
and people were reporting that like, ooh, if they really must not have
13:50
wanted him, because they ate like two or three million dollars of dead cap
13:54
just to get rid of him. But apparently that's not the case. I
13:58
guess they did save two or three million dollars of cap space ultimately by getting
14:03
rid of him. And Dustin Baker said a few days ago, within the
14:07
last few days, like, oh yeah, if we had known that,
14:09
like cutting him would have saved any money, let alone two to three million
14:15
dollars, like we would have all been saying, oh, yeah, Madison's
14:16
a goner for sure. We would have been saying that as early as like
14:20
December, you know, like so, but initially, when I saw they
14:24
had officially. Well, when it was announced that they were gonna release him,
14:28
I was a little surprised, and I think everything I've heard about him,
14:33
he's a really great dude, good teammate, good community member, great
14:39
all the way around, and a pretty decent running back number two. It's
14:45
just the Vikings. I feel like everyone in their running back room is either
14:50
garbage or running back two. They need a running back one, and maybe
14:54
ty Chandler can be that guy. Maybe they're planning on going after one of
14:58
the big name free agent running backs that will be available, and maybe they're
15:03
trying to draft somebody. It's that will be one position that I'm interested in
15:07
seeing how they go about it. Yeah, that's definitely an important position to
15:11
fill this season. I don't know that I have complete confidence in ty Chandler
15:18
to be that guy. I think he showed flashes and I think he proved
15:20
that he's better fit for that RB one role than Madison was. So I
15:26
wasn't super surprised by the fact that they released him. I was maybe surprised
15:33
by the timing of it. It seemed early and it seemed sudden. Maybe
15:39
I don't know, but yeah, not surprised that he's gone, and I
15:46
think it opens up some possibilities to bring in a free agent, or to
15:48
draft a guy, or to develop the guys that you have in that room,
15:54
and hopefully somebody, whether it's Ty Chandler or somebody else, can to
16:00
the surface and become that guy. Yeah, and I really liked Madison as
16:03
the running back too. Yeah, the guy that would come in for a
16:07
few carries a game and when the running back one inevitably gets injured for a
16:15
few weeks. He showed throughout his what four years as a Viking four or
16:19
five that he did well in spots starts. And I mean there was a
16:25
time where when Dalvin would go down it wasn't even much of a concern because
16:30
the general consensus am on Vikings fans is like, oh, Madison is almost
16:34
as good, So like, this isn't a huge deal. I mean,
16:37
it's not like we wanted Dalvin gone for that reason, but like it wasn't
16:41
a huge deal because Dalvin always missed a couple of games here and there every
16:44
season, So yep, I'll stand by it. A running back two is
16:48
a legitimate position, and I think Alex Madison did and will do good for
16:53
the rest of his career in that position. I don't think he's done.
16:56
Somebody's gonna sign him. Like he's good enough to hit seven hundred yards rushing,
17:00
Like you don't, you don't just scraight by with that much. Sure
17:04
it's not a Pro Bowl amount of rushing yards, but like that's still decent,
17:08
you know, like especially for a guy that's not the starter, Like
17:12
he's capable of that, and he'll latch on somewhere. I hope he does
17:15
well. Yeah, So that was the first move I think, maybe the
17:21
first official move of the off season. I think so so to speak,
17:26
therell be THEO Jackson signed a couple of weeks. Yeah, there are a
17:29
few other ones. Yeah, but this was definitely a big move. Yeah,
17:32
I mean the biggest splash, so big name, he was the guy
17:37
the whole season couldn't really make it happen on the field, and so he
17:42
hit the chopping block and he's gone. Another move on the positive side of
17:48
things, Nick Muse was signed. Yeah, so we record, we're recording
17:52
on Tuesday and he was signed today. Just to add a handful hours ago.
17:56
I think he was originally draft did in twenty two by the Vikings in
18:02
I think that like the seventh round, and he has yet to really get
18:06
a bunch of opportunities on the field in the regular season. But I mean
18:11
he always you know, the preseason, and I think he had like one
18:15
or two catches in the year. He seemed like a guy that could develop
18:19
into something. And he also seems like a good dude too, so like
18:26
a funny guy. They've had him miked up a couple of times. And
18:29
when you have some uncertainty around TJ. Hockinson, who's coming off torn almost
18:37
everything important in your knee, and I've heard he may miss anywhere from the
18:44
first couple of games to like the full first half of the season. I'm
18:47
not an expert on any of that, but he's going to miss some time
18:49
to begin the season. So if you have a guy like Nick Muse who
18:55
you have some confidence in, it's nice to get him signed for probably what
18:59
is a minimum deal. I think I saw it was like nine hundred and
19:03
eighty thousand for this coming year. If it works and they're happy with it,
19:07
go for it. Yeah, that that whole tight end position will be
19:11
interesting this coming season because you still have Josh Oliver, who I've almost forgotten
19:18
about, which is kind of crazy, Like he was the first big free
19:21
agent signing for the Vikings last year and it's like, where is that guy?
19:26
Like, what's he doing? Well? He go, I mean,
19:27
I think his season was kind of forgettable, honestly. I mean had a
19:32
couple of key turnovers. Well, one big one. I forget which first
19:36
play of the game Wasn't it like a big catch for a big chunky yards
19:40
and then boom balls on the ground and yeah, but he I mean,
19:45
not to crap on him too much. He is more well known as being
19:48
one of the best blocking tight ends in the league, so of course he's
19:53
not. He he didn't come in and they didn't tout him as this huge
19:59
Travis Kelce received TJ Hockinson like receiving threat. So maybe he did have a
20:04
fantastic season. It's just you and I sitting on our couches aren't gonna see
20:08
every amazing impact he has. So I don't know. I don't know enough
20:12
to say yay or nay on if he's great, but he's probably gonna head
20:18
into the season as tight end one. Yeah, you're probably right as far
20:22
as healthy guys. So the biggest question that has dominated the off season,
20:26
and I mean it, it even started before the off season, and we
20:30
just keep coming back to it. I mean, we're kind of like deranged
20:34
almost how much we've talked about this, and I mean we talked about it
20:38
last week with Dustin Baker and Wes Johnson, and here we are again,
20:44
just right back at it. H Kirk Cousins, Kirky Kirk fantastic human being
20:51
yep, at most times, a fantastic quarterback, a very savvy businessman,
21:00
and potentially an Atlanta Falcon within a week or so. So Mike Florio has
21:07
I think been living and breathing the Kirk Cousins drama. I read something and
21:12
I don't know if this is legit or not, but something on Twitter or
21:18
something kind of seems to imply that Missus Florio was talking with missus Cousins interesting
21:26
and Mike Florio happened to be standing there, and Julie Cousins expressed frustration towards
21:33
the Vikings organization for how slow they were moving and the fact that there wasn't
21:38
a deal available for her husband yet, and I think Florio took that and
21:44
ran with it and is maybe inflating some of these storylines a little bit to
21:51
generate a narrative that she's unhappy and she wants to go to Atlanta. That
21:57
she's from Alpharetta, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta. I don't
22:03
know what are your thoughts on all that. Well, okay, so let's
22:06
let's pretend we can one hundred percent assume all of that is the God's honest
22:11
truth. Like, let's just live in a world where we know that that's
22:15
the truth, even though we can't know that. I mean, if Kirk
22:19
Cousins were to be in family or whatever, were to be frustrated by what
22:26
the public has seen, a lack of communication or negotiation, maybe a lack
22:33
of overwhelming love from you know, Quacy and front office whatever, I could
22:41
believe that I could if I was Kirk Cousins and played, you know,
22:45
was an employee that performed that well in any position and it came time to
22:52
like re up my agreement with my employer and was not getting much. Now,
22:57
granted we're not in those rooms, so maybe they've been spending many sleepless
23:02
nights negotiating as much as humanly possible, or maybe they just haven't returned a
23:07
phone call. We'll never know. But I mean, as far as the
23:11
public has seen, there hasn't been really any movement. And if that were
23:15
me, a really good employee for a highly touted organization and they were kind
23:21
of ghosting me a little bit or trying to get me for less than my
23:27
perceived value, I'd be a little frustrated. So I could see a world
23:32
where frustration exists. I could also see a company trying to get the best
23:38
price, give the most competitive for them salary to the best talent that they
23:47
can get at any position. And if you're quasy we just talked, I
23:51
mean you're at a time where you need to define your position as the GM,
23:57
make your mark, make sure sure that everybody knows, like, oh,
24:02
this guy is a good savvy GM. Look at all these movies he's
24:04
made. The biggest thing you can do as a GM is hit your horse
24:11
to a franchise quarterback Pat Mahomes. What seems like a guy like C.
24:19
J. Stroud is on the first steps of becoming a Tom Brady, you
24:25
know, like the these kinds of playmaking a Josh Allen, you know,
24:30
like these specifically great players that you can ride that wave for as long as
24:36
possible, whereas I could see maybe signing Kirk for one to two to three
24:41
years and if that fizzles out, Like, how could you not see that?
24:45
Why would you make that move? Why would you spend the Wilf's money
24:48
that way? Like I could see that being a scary thing to do,
24:52
especially if you're not one hundred percent sure. I mean Tom Brady at thirty
24:56
six, you're signing that to get that guy all day. I mean Kirk
25:00
Cousins, who was playing at an MVP level is coming off a pretty significant
25:06
injury. Even if he is one hundred percent him at thirty six is not
25:10
Tom Brady at thirty six. So I can see both sides. And for
25:15
all we know, the Vikings have tried everything, and Kirk's like, no,
25:18
I'm good. We again. We'll never know. So you showed me,
25:22
and I'd read snippets of this interview, but we watched quickly before we
25:27
started recording tonight. Kevin O'Connell was sitting with uh Richison Richison there it was.
25:36
I was going to say a different name, and another guy I forget
25:38
who it was on NFL Network during the combine. But they're at the they're
25:41
at the combine this week, and the Combine is still happening, right,
25:45
I think it over. I think it's wrapped up at this point. Anyways,
25:48
it was it was a hotbed of uh conversation in the NFL. Most
25:55
coaches were there, GM's were there, the media was there. Indy was
26:00
just hopping with with NFL buzz. It was. It was kind of the
26:04
place to be. And one of the things that's kind of for me bubbled
26:12
to the surface is this issue of tampering. And I was listening. I
26:19
think it was Luke Brown on the Lockdown Vikings podcast. I think he This
26:26
was yesterday, Monday, March fourth. On his episode there, he talked
26:32
about his feelings about tampering and he basically just said, like it's fine,
26:37
like coaches, players, agents, whoever should be able to have conversations at
26:45
an event like the scouting Combine. Everybody's in the same place, Like,
26:49
how are they going to mandate what you can and can't talk about? And
26:55
you know, if Kirk Kirk's agent happens to run into Arthur Blank from the
27:00
Falcons in the you know, convention center near the stadium, you know's what's
27:07
going to prevent them from talking about Kirk And how's Roger Goodell in his office
27:15
and any league compliance people, how are they going to know what was spoken
27:18
about and that sort of thing. That's that's not necessarily where Luke Brown went,
27:22
but he was implying some of those things. And I got to thinking
27:26
about that, like, well, yeah, like it kind of seems to
27:30
make sense, Like as long as that player is no longer actively playing for
27:36
that team, other teams should have the opportunity to have a conversation at the
27:42
very least with their agent or with that player directly. Yeah, do you
27:45
think that'd be in the best interest of the player and even the team overall
27:52
what the team trying to sign said player. Yeah, And for a long
27:57
time it was like you can't legally talk to or even about other players on
28:04
other teams, otherwise you could get gigged for it and lose draft picks and
28:10
get fine. And there's still those rules, but a handful of years ago,
28:12
I forget when is when they implemented this quote unquote legal tampering period,
28:18
which they just need to rename that, like it should be just a negotiation
28:22
period or whatever. Like well, and as far as I know, the
28:26
Dolphins are the only team to be dinged or that right because of their tampering
28:30
with Tom Brady that Oh yeah, I mean it ultimately ended up not that
28:36
nothing happened. I mean tom Brady went to Tampa Bay. Yeah, but
28:41
there was something about that. I forget the details of that story, but
28:44
I didn't. Didn't they lose a draft pick? Didn't the Dolphins? Like
28:48
yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the first round pick in last year's draft,
28:51
Like, yeah, it was. They don't take it lightly, however,
28:56
I think, So let's just use cur situation earlier. And I'm not
29:03
holding you to this verbiage, but you said, as long as that player
29:04
is no longer actively playing for that team. Kirk was no longer actively playing
29:11
for the Vikings as of October whatever eighth, or whatever it was. And
29:15
if you don't have a clear cut rules or dates, like you could say,
29:21
yeah, there's a gray area. I was not going to play for
29:23
that team again, like I physically couldn't, So why couldn't I legally talk
29:27
to any other team? So that would be an extreme example of why you
29:32
need to have some rules. And I agree if if there's like the reason
29:40
you can't tamper is like, Okay, let's say you're in the playoffs and
29:45
you're going to be a free agent and you're a quarterback, and you know,
29:48
like you're Kirk Custins, you know your team's not going to sign you
29:51
to a huge deal, but maybe another team can legally call you up and
29:55
say like, hey, Kirk or insert player here, if you lose to
30:00
our team this week in the playoffs, we will guarantee you X amount of
30:07
money in your next contract. Like that's where you get this whole like sketchy
30:11
stuff going on following games. And yeah, you could, and if there's
30:15
no rules against like communicating with other players, Like that's an extreme, extreme,
30:21
extreme example, but stuff like that could theoretically happen. Like, so
30:25
I agree that there should be a time where you can negotiate with people when
30:32
it's just clear as day you're not going to be able to sign another guy
30:36
or the Vikings have put the cards on the table that this is what they're
30:40
going to offer you, so go ahead and see if you can get something
30:41
better. But also I think it is what it is because like the I
30:48
think today or yesterday was the day that teams had to franchise tag people and
30:52
you could get pretty hairy if you already have something negotiated with with another team
30:57
and then your current team franchise tag you, and then you can't negotiate with
31:02
anybody. That's another year contract that you didn't have control over. So that's
31:04
a moot point. But yeah, they're just trying to avoid the whole.
31:08
Hey, it's twelve oh one am on the day free agency starts, and
31:12
all of a sudden there's huge reports of this guy signing one hundred million dollars
31:17
deal. Like that didn't just get negotiated in the last minute. They need
31:22
to figure it out perfectly. I don't think it's perfect yet, but I
31:26
think there should be rules. You shouldn't just willly nearly be able to talk
31:30
to any player anytime. Yeah, for sure, And I agree with you
31:33
on that too. I think, like, and maybe it's just like the
31:37
Super Bowl, Like when when when the entire NFL season is over for good,
31:42
no teams are playing anymore. Maybe that's it, like or maybe there's
31:47
a week or yeah, two weeks or something where teams do have the opportunity
31:51
to place the franchise tag have those conversations, like you got to know at
31:56
that point whether you're you've been done since eighteen or your team just played in
32:01
the Super Bowl, you gotta know who you're tagging, Like I think I
32:06
just saw today. Excuse me, the Chiefs tagged Lagarious Need. Like they
32:12
had to have known even before playing in the Super Bowl that they were gonna
32:15
do that, like gmh Yeah, like they maybe had a list of players
32:20
like these are the guys that we would potentially tag, but he was on
32:24
that list well for sure, And a part of that is too, I'm
32:28
sure there was hope to be able to negotiate a different kind of a deal
32:32
because the tag isn't really great for anybody. Yeah, the teams get to
32:37
hold on to you for another year, but there's no long term stability for
32:42
the player. Yeah, it's always a good chunk of change. The player
32:45
has that nice that backing of like Okay, I'm tagged, I'm getting this
32:49
much money regardless if I, you know, sign a long term deal before
32:52
the season, or if I break my leg on the first play, if
32:55
I pull on Aaron Rodgers, Like, there is some financial stability, but
33:00
it's also if you're I don't know how old sneat is for the Chiefs.
33:05
I would imagine he's not a thirty five year old player. If you're a
33:08
young player and it's just you have ten more years of playing ability, because
33:14
if you get tagged, you're good enough to play long long time. Long
33:16
term players want the longer term deals. Teams want control over the players.
33:23
I don't think the tag is the best option, but at least it does
33:28
kind of scratch everybody's back a little bit. But yeah, back to the
33:32
old tampering idea, there should be I don't think it's perfect yet. You
33:37
should be able to scratch everybody's back in this scenario. Teams should be able
33:43
to feel good about it. Players should be able to feel good about it.
33:45
So I don't know, I don't know what the perfect scenario is.
33:47
Yeah, it has been really interesting, and obviously with Kirk basically being the
33:53
biggest free agent story in the league currently, Yeah, he's the biggest free
33:59
agent. I mean, of course everybody's gonna want to know at this Gouden
34:06
combine what's happening with Kirk and to circle all the way back to the first
34:10
part of this conversation we're having. It sounds like Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings
34:17
are aware that other teams have been able to communicate their intentions to Kirk and
34:25
his agents and whoever. And it sounds like the Vikings have seen the writing
34:30
on the walls, and we've all seen the writing on the walls, Like
34:35
we all know Kirk is good. It just doesn't make a ton of sense
34:39
for the Vikings to pay forty to fifty however much a year for Kirk.
34:46
And now is the time for the Vikings to move on Kirk. I've said
34:52
it a million times on this podcast. Every player should get every dime they
34:55
can while they're able to. So if Kirk signs a fifty million a year,
35:00
good for him, Like that's legitimately awesome, and he might do just
35:05
that. It's just probably not gonna be with the Vikings. And I think
35:07
that's kind of what koc was kind of implying. And he too, similar
35:13
to Koasi, is very controlled and calculated most of the time in his interview
35:19
situations, and he seems like he's got some locked and loaded responses ready to
35:22
go. But he said something to the tune of Kirk Kirk has earned the
35:30
right to be a free agent, and I kind of balked at that a
35:32
little bit like, well, he didn't earned the right to be a free
35:37
agent because his contract expired. That's just the natural consequence of signing a contract
35:44
that expires on whatever date twenty twenty four. That's just what's going to happen.
35:50
However, I think what he was trying to articulate was Kirk has earned
35:54
the right to garner the interest of all these other teams when his contract with
36:00
the Vikings expires, which it's doing in a week or so. And to
36:06
that, I would say, yes, he has played well enough to garner
36:09
that interest from other teams. And there are some quarterback needy teams out there
36:15
that are in the running in this Kirk Cousin sweepstakes. So it'll be pretty
36:20
interesting to see, you know, who comes forth with the best offer or
36:24
if he decides to stick it out with the Vikings, probably taking a discount
36:30
of some sort. And yeah, if I had to guess things going,
36:35
if I had to guess, I'm sure at this point the Vikings have expressed
36:40
their top dollar offer. At this point, like, you don't get to
36:45
a week before free agency in this scenario without saying like, okay, Kirk,
36:50
cards on the table. This is what we're going to do as of
36:53
right now. So if in this this won't happen. But if Kirk goes
36:58
out hits free agency and for whatever reason doesn't get that kind of a deal,
37:04
a huge deal, which I'd be shocked at if he then I'm sure
37:08
the Vikings will always be interested in signing him. But if it's like a
37:13
couple of days in a free agency and Kirk is still available, the Vikings
37:17
number has gone a little bit lower. Just like if there's a bunch of
37:22
suitors and you know, everybody's interested in the Viking's number, if they were
37:27
steadfast on signing him would have to go higher. You know, it's a
37:29
supply and demand type deal. If there's demand, you gotta pay a little
37:32
bit more for it. But I don't think Kirk is going to get screwed
37:37
out of the situation. I think he's going to whether it's the Falcons or
37:42
the Steelers or some dark horse team. I mean, shoot, you could
37:46
even look at the Buccaneers, who it seems like. I mean, Baker
37:50
Mayfield did not get franchise tagged, and yeah, there's still a few days
37:52
until free agency, so he could sign a longer term deal. But I
37:57
mean he's still at this moment to be a free agent. Maybe the Buccaneers
38:00
are interested in Kirk Cousins. I don't know Kirk's going to get get paid,
38:06
and good for him, and I for want him excited to see the
38:10
potential storylines of what the Vikings do in the draft and maybe even in free
38:15
agency at quarterback. I don't think if the plan is to do something of
38:22
the draft, then you need to get get up. You need to move
38:24
up. You can't stay at eleven. But also you can't spend money on
38:31
guys in free You can't go out and get Baker and say, oh,
38:34
we're also gonna draft a guy because you already have not saying Nick Mullens is
38:38
as good as Baker Mayfield, but you have Nick Mullens under contract, like
38:43
he's your QB two. Go get your drafted QB one. You said something
38:49
interesting to me before we started recording. We were just kind of shooting the
38:53
breeze about Russell Wilson, and now he was released by the Broncos this week,
38:58
and you seemed to be warming to the idea of mister unlimited coming to
39:06
Minnesota, at least as a bridge quarterback. It's not a vet minimum contract.
39:09
That's the thing. That's the thing right there. If I mean Russell
39:15
Wilson is a dumpster fire, like, it would be a circus, it
39:22
would be crazy, Like I'd almost rather sign Tim Tebow right now than Russell
39:27
Wilson, which yes, I mean, I don't know. But if you
39:32
get a Russell Wilson who had some bright spots last season a little bit with
39:37
the Broncos, it just ultimately didn't work out more more dark spots than bright
39:42
spots. But theoretically he could be had to the Vikings a veteran minimum deal,
39:50
like less than a million and a half, Like at that point you
39:54
could sign him and still trade the house and get up to pick number three
40:00
or whatever and still draft your quarterback of the future and then you got Russell.
40:04
However, you'd need to have Russell Wilson be able to sign on for
40:07
this. It could be a scenario like what we had with Donovan McNabb and
40:12
a Christian ponder is just hopefully it would work out way better than that.
40:16
But yeah, an older guy who again he would have to be okay with
40:22
coming in as a starter probably, but given the reins over whenever he was
40:27
told to because he's getting something like thirty nine to forty million dollars. No
40:31
matter what this did, I read correctly that that's the highest cap hit for
40:37
a released player, maybe in NFL history. I'm not sure, so I
40:40
didn't read anything, So if you did, I'll defer to you I wouldn't
40:45
be surprised. I can't speak confidently on that, but I feel like I
40:47
saw something you know what that makes me think of You've only seen this movie
40:52
once, but I've seen it far more than you have. Funoetyball, Moneyball.
40:54
There's a scene where Billy Bean was talking to David Justice in the Batting
40:59
Kid and they're kind of having a little heart to heart and Billy Bean is
41:07
trying to convince David Justice to, you know, be a leader in the
41:10
clubhouse and whatever. He's billy Bean's kind of like, well, you kind
41:15
of think you're a big deal. And David Justice is like, well,
41:19
yeah, you're paying me, you know this, many millions of dollars to
41:22
play for you, so yeah, I'm kind of a big deal. And
41:24
Billy Bean Fire's back and he goes, no, the Yankees are paying ten
41:29
million, that's what they think of you. You're worth more to them,
41:35
not on their team, than you are on their team. And so I'm
41:37
totally butchering the quote, but that was the gist of the scene. And
41:40
yeah, so that's kind of the way it is with Russell Wilson. Like
41:44
those they're paying Russell something like thirty nine million dollars worth more away from them
41:49
than he is with them, which I can get that, Like if you
41:52
make a mistake that the Broncos did former Vikings assistant GM George Peyton, I
41:59
mean, he made a mistake. I don't know how that guy has a
42:01
job sending all those picks and spending all that money and then sending more picks
42:07
to because they had to trade a first and maybe even a second as well
42:12
to get Sean Payton from the Saints because he's still they still held his rights,
42:17
sending all those picks to try to fix the situation, and then ultimately
42:21
get into the point that it's like Russell, it's gonna be worse with him
42:25
on the field than with somebody else, Like to spend all that capital and
42:30
then ultimately owning it and being like you know what, that money's already spent,
42:35
Like we need to go in a different direction. That's that's tough.
42:42
I don't think George Peyton is long for the league. I'm surprised he is
42:46
still a GM after this whole flop of a quarterback situation. If Russell Wilson
42:52
ends up a Viking for however long? If if, what are the odds
43:00
that he gets in office? Oh, I don't know, TC, I
43:04
don't know. But I saw somebody on Twitter a long time ago say,
43:07
when the whole like Russell Wilson stuff was starting to first be almost joked about,
43:12
somebody was like, oh, if he comes here, he's totally gonna
43:15
ruin skull for us. Like it's like all I think is like mister unlimited.
43:20
And then when he says like Broncos Country, Let's ride, Like,
43:23
if I was a Broncos fan and I know a couple, I should ask
43:27
them, like, how do they feel about the whole Let's ride the thing?
43:30
Now? Like does that just that had to have been a huge marketing
43:32
ploy that some like some team marketing staff members like, oh, we got
43:38
Russell Wilson. Now we're totally it's gonna take off and it's gonna revolutionize everything.
43:44
But think about skull. That's kind of like a huge joke. School
43:47
kind of came up when the new stadium opened, Like it's people haven't been
43:52
saying skull since the seventies, you know, like maybe, but it hasn't
43:55
been a huge thing. But it's it's our mantra now, like skull,
44:00
we skull every episode where the skull hop if I just know if he comes
44:05
in and I agree with whoever tweeted that, I couldn't tell you who said
44:08
it. If he came in, he would just he would just ruin it
44:13
for Vikings, Let's skull like he would just he would ruin it so bad
44:19
and we would have to abandon it. Like if he signs get ready to
44:23
not say school ever again, it would be sad. We would have to
44:28
rename the podcast. Well yeah, we'll figure that out. But the skull
44:31
clap the school chant at the stadium like that, that's a cool tradition.
44:38
I think it's kind of cheesy. Well you can think it's cheesy. It's
44:43
super cool in the stadium. I'm the world's biggest skull chant fan. I'll
44:49
do it. I'll make my hands blister from skull chanting so hard. I
44:53
also recognize it's kind of cheesy, but like I would never do it at
44:58
home, like I'm not. I teach my kids how to do it.
45:01
That's that's so awesome. That's that's the best. I Yeah, I don't
45:08
know. You get to do whatever you want. I think it's kind of
45:10
cheesy outside of kind of like wearing a jersey outside of the stadium, which
45:16
I'm realizing you've done that as well. Uh you have. You've never actually
45:21
worn a jersey in the stadium. You've only ever worn a jersey when I
45:23
was a kid. I think I wore a jersey, but not that one.
45:28
I'm been in that case since I got it. Yeah, I'm alienating
45:31
all two of our fans here. Yeah, but I just know Russell Wilson
45:37
he's going to ruin that for us and gonna Why did I just say it
45:40
like that is that's if he's about to sign. I don't think he's gonna
45:44
sign. I just that would be I mean, I wouldn't immediately like punch
45:47
a hole through a door if he signed with the Vikings at this point,
45:51
and it's it's it's a pretty like outside possibility like that. It doesn't seem
45:55
like that's going to happen. No, the reality of Kirk leaving the Vikings.
46:00
That seems seems like it's gonna happen, seems like it's already happened.
46:04
Yeah, I still I'm still holding out hope, and obviously there's a ton
46:10
to know between now and whenever that happens. But for another one, here
46:16
I am. We each had three, I will say, just to go
46:20
off on a way different tangent, I'm about to open my third beer here.
46:23
I'll go with you here because I've got one more nice and uh as
46:29
as I'm getting down lower in my first first two, I guess the temperature
46:34
of the beer. It's not as ice cold as it was when it first
46:38
got poured, and a little bit warmer. I'm more noticing the like oreo
46:45
type flavor of it. Yeah, the cookies and cream type flavor of it.
46:50
And I would also say the like the like smoothness of it maybe dropped
46:58
off a little bit. Yeah, as it's warmed up. Not that it's
47:01
bad, it's not bad, no, but because like I mean, truth
47:06
be told, there are some beers when they get warm, they're just bad.
47:08
Oh yeah, A lot of beers are almost undrinkable once you get warmer.
47:14
But this one for me, I like it ice cold, but I
47:19
think I get it. I think I get the bit a little bit more
47:22
when it's just again not these beers are not warm and are slightly less than
47:29
not even as warm as lukewarm, but like, yeah, slightly less than
47:32
ice cold. Yeah, so I think I might enjoy it a little bit
47:36
more. So, like let's just say ice cold is thirty five degrees,
47:39
maybe at forty five degrees, I like it more. I'm not an expert,
47:44
so I'm just talking out of my butt here, but like, yeah,
47:46
I think I get the flavors a little bit more. The couple of
47:51
a couple of degrees warmer it gets. I once had a friend who theorized
47:54
that the better the beer is, like the higher quality it is, the
48:00
better it tastes when it's warm. I can see that. So like your
48:05
cheap domestics, you know, pickes care take your poison, and I feel
48:08
the same way. It's got to be cold, like you cannot have a
48:13
warm Cores light or a warm Bud light or a warm warm Miller light or
48:17
whatever. It's got to be. The mountains have to be blue. They're
48:22
not. I'm probably not drinking it and would be like slightly blue. But
48:30
anyways, this like, yeah, you could drink this, not like we
48:35
wouldn't want it like that temperature no, no, yeah, like you'd want
48:40
it cold, but it doesn't have to be. I just got this out
48:45
of the fridge cold. Yeah, a little mid episode review here, So
48:53
yeah, I guess Vikings Talkers. Another thing that happened since our last episode
48:58
is those nfl p A report cards came out. Yep. I think it
49:01
came out the day after we spoke with Dustin and Wes, and I'm pretty
49:06
sure Dustin made a note like he even like commented like, oh, yeah,
49:09
the Vikings are a good place to play, and he said like I
49:13
expect the report cards to come out soon, and they may have even come
49:16
out between us talking to him and us releasing the episode. Yeah, they're
49:22
out, and the Vikings are ranked number two. If you remember last year
49:25
twenty three, they were ranked number one, so they technically went down a
49:30
spot. But I feel like in those types of rankings, like once you're
49:35
in the top whatever it is, the top five or whatever, like they're
49:39
just they're all good places to be. And I think I saw something maybe
49:45
an article or something where it said like the Dolphins, who were ranked number
49:47
one this year over the Vikings, and then the Vikings and then there was
49:52
a pretty sizable gap and then number three And I don't remember who number three
49:55
was, but that just tells you everything you need to know about the Dolphins
50:00
organizations as far as being a player within those organizations overall, sounds like a
50:05
great place or places to be. M'd imagine the Dolphins. A lot of
50:08
that is the income tax type deal. But we've talked about McDaniel and how
50:15
we think he seems like a cool dude, their coach for Miami. Yeah,
50:21
I think it's pretty pretty interesting with the new stadium, newer I guess
50:24
it's almost six seventy eight years old at this point, the newer facility at
50:30
TCO, the coaching everything, as far as players go, they seem to
50:36
like Minnesota. And I think that's interesting because of what Dustin said last week
50:39
on our episode two that and I didn't even really realize this, but the
50:44
roster turnover, I mean there are a few players, very few players that
50:50
are still around. Yeah, from Quasy's first season to now Quaycy and Kevin's
50:57
first season, even from when they were first hired that day they were first
51:00
hired. The roster has turned over pretty much one hundred percent. Yeah,
51:04
and that's crazy to think one that that's happened, and then two to think
51:08
that the the overall culture of the organization has maintained this high level despite all
51:15
of the constant ins and outs, trades and releases and cuts and you know
51:22
whatever acquisitions, you know, new guys coming in, guys leaving. The
51:28
culture has remained very, very strong despite those things. And yeah, that
51:34
definitely says something about the leadership for sure. Yeah, and it seems that
51:37
way out on the outside as well. So it's nice to see the videos
51:43
of Koc given us PEP talk after the after the games and give them out
51:46
the game balls, and to see all these the media things, everything on
51:51
Twitter and like YouTube, everything that the Vikings put out seems like a positive
51:54
thing. I think of the like Friday Challenge videos they put out where they
51:59
have like a whole almost like a scape room that they put out for these
52:02
players to walk in every week. It's nice as a fan to see that
52:07
and feel good about that, and I think it's fun and exciting. And
52:10
then to have actual like report cards put out with feedback from the people that
52:16
are in that building saying like, yeah, this is it is nice to
52:21
be here. The game ball speeches after the game, it is nice.
52:24
The facility it is nice, Like it's it's nice to know that your favorite
52:29
team, the people that are there like to be there. Unlike I'm sure
52:34
for a lot of years being a Detroit Lion was probably not the most fun
52:37
thing to do. Like I'm sure even for a lot of years being a
52:40
Viking when they were still at Winter Park with like red McCombs and like those
52:45
types of times, and maybe it wasn't the most fun place to be.
52:50
But I mean, it's nice to know that the Vikings players like being Vikings
52:53
players. Yeah, for sure. Is it just players I don't even know.
52:58
Is it just players that are I don't know enough about it to know
53:00
for sure, but I think it is. I don't think it's every single
53:04
player, but I think it's a majority of or a good selection of the
53:08
players on every team that fill out whatever survey it is. And the other
53:14
question I would have is how long have they been doing this and could we
53:16
go back and look at like past results. I feel like this is a
53:22
relatively newish thing. It seems like it's to me. I don't think I
53:25
ever heard of it before last year when the Vikings were ranked number one,
53:30
And maybe that's because the Vikings have never been that high and it just never
53:32
really got talked about. But like it feels like something within the last few
53:37
years that they started doing. Yeah, definitely something worth researching. Yeah,
53:40
we should check that out. It could be kind of interesting to follow the
53:43
trends and definitely something to follow in the future if they continue to do that.
53:47
Yeah. Well, I guess other things we can talk about that we
53:52
checked out, or at least I checked out. We don't have to go
53:54
through in depth of these articles that I've listed out, but for our listeners,
54:00
I kind of want to point them if you're looking for things out there
54:04
to read or check out before free agency or to kind of figure out what's
54:09
going on. I've just found three different articles from around the Internet that maybe
54:15
Vikings fans would be interested in checking out. Did you read really any of
54:20
them? I kind of sent them to you this afternoon, so yeah,
54:22
I was able to kind of skim each one. So the first one was
54:27
the Vikings Territory article by d Baker. First one by Dustin Baker own Vikings
54:31
Territory dot Com. I'll let you guys for all three of these, I'll
54:35
let you guys check them out on your own. But the first one is
54:38
Vikings current roster with free agency one week away, and Dustin does a good
54:44
job of kind of listing out every upcoming free agent the Vikings have because they're
54:50
all technically under contract right now with the Vikings unless they've been released like Alex
54:53
Madison. And then he takes those guys out of the list and gives a
55:00
good depth chart based on who's still there and who where they were on the
55:05
depth chart last season to right before the free agency starts, right before the
55:09
draft. If you're a Vikings fan, you're not really too sure where they're
55:14
sitting on any position. Dustin did a good job of breaking down what the
55:17
roster looks like before any major offseason moves, and I think he put that
55:22
out before or after the Alex Madison move, so it already takes him off.
55:29
Something I found interesting from that article because I don't think this has happened
55:34
yet. Correct me if I'm wrong. I could be wrong, but I
55:37
don't think Greg Joseph has been released yet. So he is one of those.
55:40
His contract is expiring. Oh is it officially expired? Well, I
55:46
don't think any of them officially expire until March thirteenth, when the league year
55:52
ends, So when free agency starts, I think that's like midnight on the
55:55
league year. So at this very moment, he is under contract with the
56:02
Vikings, but he only has a week left of his contract. So I
56:07
found it interesting, and I guess I didn't like go through that article with
56:10
a fine tooth comb. But for Kicker on his depth chart, on Dustin's
56:15
depth chart, he listed none. Yeah. Yeah, because he took out
56:20
all the guys that will expire. Oh okay, yep, so it was
56:22
even on quarterback his depth chart list Nick Mullins as QB one at this moment
56:28
because Kirk's contract will expire, that makes more sense. But yeah, that's
56:30
right, And we tweeted that out that like, hey, this is kind
56:35
of an underrated thing, but kicker can make or break a game sometimes,
56:38
and the Vikings, as of the start of free agency, do not have
56:43
a kicker on the roster and they probably shouldn't sign Greg Joseph. Yeah,
56:47
probably a good guy. But you pointed out a handful episodes ago. A
56:52
lower league, bottom of the league kicker, he was one of my first
56:57
to go yep. I mean I think he was in my top three in
57:00
terms of free agents to let walk yep, because of his just inconsistency.
57:05
Is he a bad kicker, No, he's not the worst in the league.
57:07
I think he's maybe top twenty five. Yeah he's not thirty's not top
57:14
tier. No, he's not even top half. He's a lower tier kicker
57:20
that is serviceable most of the time but struggles. He's a guy that we
57:27
may never hear from again, and if we do, it might be because
57:30
some team had multiple injuries at their kicker position. I don't think he's latching
57:36
on anywhere else. Just every year there's a whole new batch of college kids
57:39
coming out that can at least kick a field goal, and they're going to
57:44
get an opportunity before a guy that has proven to be a bottom tier NFL
57:49
kicker. So the Vikings will find either a rookie or a free agent.
57:53
I don't even know who's available, but it's not like Justin Tucker. So
57:59
yeah, there they're a handful of free agents, I think, but none
58:01
that are I think worth paying a bunch of money for. Yeah, so
58:06
it might be worth picking somebody up in a later round in the draft,
58:08
yeah, absolutely, or undrafted free agent. So another article I had listed
58:15
out was from Matthew Coller on Purple Insider, And I don't know. We
58:22
can either tweet these articles out or put them in the show notes or something.
58:25
We'll figure out if you're interested, we'll figure out a way to easily
58:30
get them in front of you guys. But this one from Matthew Coller is
58:34
all the indie buzz surrounding the Vikings, and this specific article is kind of
58:39
just a conglomeration of different paragraphs of certain stories that have come up the Vikings
58:45
related throughout Combine week. So it can be a little bit of a longer
58:51
read if you do choose to read the whole thing. But if you have
58:57
kind of not really paid too much attention to the Vikings since the end of
59:00
the season, or if you've been really busy at work or something, you
59:05
just haven't really followed Twitter every second of every day about the Vikings, like
59:08
this could be a good read to be like, oh, I guess this
59:12
is where the Vikings stand as of now, Right before a free agency could
59:16
be a good wake up or collection of information for those that are not fully
59:22
up to date. Yeah, and maybe don't read the headlines too closely,
59:28
but actually read the paragraphs, because I think the first headline had something to
59:31
do with Justin Fields coming to the Vikings. Yeah, but then it was,
59:36
you know, he went on to describe the hypothetical situation of what could
59:40
happen, and I don't know, it was maybe not the most I should
59:47
say this differently, is a little more of a click baity headline the headline,
59:52
Yeah, but Matthew did a pretty good job in his explanation of like
59:57
kind of explaining what the headline was than what you should really think about it
1:00:02
or what the actual story is. But yeah, overall, I think that's
1:00:07
a good one. And then just the last one I had listed out was
1:00:12
from CBS Sports written by Cody Benjamin, and it's Kevin O'Connell hints at Kirk
1:00:17
Cousins tampering. It's just basically an article form of what we talked about earlier,
1:00:25
the Kirk Cousins situation, Kevin O'Connell's comments on NFL Network during the combine,
1:00:32
and how maybe there might have been a little bit of tampering going on,
1:00:36
But either way, it's still a good, really short but really concise
1:00:38
and good read from Cody Benjamin over there. And that article kind of made
1:00:44
me think, And some of this came out already when we were talking about
1:00:46
tampering, but like made me think, like, was Kevin O'Connell maybe implying
1:00:53
that there was some tampering going on and is he uncomfortable with that or is
1:00:58
he trying to call that out? Is he trying to bring attention to that
1:01:01
too, you know, possibly Levy some sort of yeah, I mean,
1:01:07
punishment are fine or whatever. I think if in that situation, I don't
1:01:13
think it's it would be like, let's just pretend that the Falcons are fully,
1:01:19
without a doubt, you know, guilty of tampering, Like well,
1:01:22
they certainly seem like they're fully focused on Kirk Cousins. But let's fast forward
1:01:29
and pretend there's a world where the NFL is like, yeah, you broke
1:01:31
the rules. If they were punished, it's not like if they lose a
1:01:37
draft pick that the Vikings would get that draft pick. I think it would
1:01:39
just be that whatever team that tampers is punished and not necessarily, any other
1:01:45
team reaps the rewards of that team being punished. Justice will be served,
1:01:50
but there's not any sort of like, Yeah, just like when bounty Gate
1:01:54
was proven to be true and Sean Payton was suspended for a year, they
1:01:58
didn't rip that that Lombardi Trophy away from the Saints. Even though they cheated,
1:02:04
the Vikings didn't benefit. If anything, the whole league was altered because
1:02:08
they changed some rules and like overtime and stuff, and yeah, the Vikings
1:02:13
didn't get anything for being totally cheated on. But yeah, so it would
1:02:19
just be against whoever broke the rules. Yeah, well, it is interesting,
1:02:23
and I don't know, maybe maybe there will be a headline soon maybe
1:02:30
about some of that because it's interesting. The other thought I had not to
1:02:34
cut you off, but the other thought I had was maybe the NFL wants
1:02:37
this. Maybe they they're lacking other storylines and they're just like, yeah,
1:02:43
sure, fine, if you guys want to talk about Kirk Cousins during combine
1:02:49
whatever, yeah, go for it. I mean, anytime you're talking about
1:02:52
the Vikings, well I'm kind of rethinking what I'm about to say, but
1:02:57
anyways, anytime you're talking about the Vikings potentially being on the list of teams
1:03:01
interested in Justin Fields. You know, the information well has run dry.
1:03:07
And the only reason I kind of stopped there and said, maybe I'm rethinking
1:03:10
it is the Vikings do not currently have a bona fide running back one,
1:03:15
so maybe they do look at Justin Fields. And I'm totally joking. I
1:03:20
know he is not gonna legitimately be a running back, but that's the only
1:03:23
way I'd be happy if they signed Justin Fields. He could be a Taysom
1:03:28
Hill type gadget. I don't want him if he was ever on my team
1:03:31
at this point, and I've said it before Draft night when he was drafted
1:03:36
I wanted the Vikings to get him really bad. I was really excited about
1:03:38
that, and then really mad when the Bears jumped up and drafted him.
1:03:43
But now, having seen him for what four years? Three years? Four
1:03:46
years, I would not want that man throwing the ball at all on my
1:03:53
team. I know he is not a good quarterback. He's an electric athlete
1:03:59
and a really good running back. He is not a good quarterback. Come
1:04:03
happy. So yeah, all that to say, information is low, storylines
1:04:11
are drying up, and free agency is about to begin, which is just
1:04:15
going to ignite the NFL fire yet again. Yes it will, Yes it
1:04:18
will. Well, I guess that's why I said, right, maybe the
1:04:23
NFL is justifying this a little bit and giving whoever might be tampering a little
1:04:28
bit of a pass like, Okay, this is generating some talk. We're
1:04:32
getting the views and the clicks. Yeah, so well, the next week
1:04:36
will definitely be interesting, and I think next week's episode we'll have more to
1:04:42
talk about, yeah, and we'll have more to hash out, and we
1:04:46
might be talking about a new quarterback in Minnesota. We might be talking about
1:04:53
Kirk not in Minnesota. We might be talking about things that we haven't even
1:04:58
really talked about, something like restructured JJ contract or Danielle Hunter getting his money.
1:05:06
You know, like there could be quite a few things that There's a
1:05:11
lot of storylines that are right on the tip of our tongues here that could
1:05:15
happen at any second. Yeap, my watch has buzzed a few times,
1:05:19
and we could already be outdated right now because of a big NFL storyline that
1:05:25
we didn't know about. Hopefully we're not. But maybe by the time you
1:05:28
listen to this, yeah, you know you're you're more in the know than
1:05:33
we were at the time of recording. But that's the way the world works,
1:05:38
and that's the way podcasting works. That's the way the cookie crumbles.
1:05:42
That is the way the cookie crumbles. This cookie. This cookie crumbled nicely.
1:05:47
Yeah, did I almost kind of want to like hold my hands on
1:05:49
it and let it warm up a couple of degrees. It was really good
1:05:53
right out of the cane. But the few SIPs I had when it was
1:05:56
starting to get a little bit warmer, they really hit for me. My
1:06:00
favorite moment right now is just that split second when my nose is right here.
1:06:04
Yeah, you're just enjoying every experience of the beer. You bring in
1:06:10
the aroma and then you get the taste and it just all comes together like
1:06:14
it's good. It's a whole experience and I like it a lot. It
1:06:17
is definitely much different than either of the beers that we would gravitate towards,
1:06:23
and I would agree with you. It is not something that I'm going to
1:06:26
have often. It's not something that I'm gonna, you know, have in
1:06:30
my fridge on any given night. But some nights, yeah, some nights,
1:06:34
yes, and maybe the next handful episodes. We'll keep trying these nitro
1:06:39
beers from no Coasts. We've got a couple more to try, perhaps the
1:06:43
coffee and the s'mores. Yep. So yeah, stay tuned see if we
1:06:46
follow through on that or not. We might. It's definitely an idea that's
1:06:51
in the Hopper, School Hopper, the skull Hopper. All right, if
1:06:59
you have any thoughts or opinions on anything we've said tonight or didn't say,
1:07:02
I don't know where can where can they reach out to us? So pretty
1:07:06
much everywhere we're I mean, the Internet is a vast ocean, but there
1:07:14
are platforms, yeah, and we're on most of the big ones. So
1:07:19
that's where you can find us. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram unless Facebook's down.
1:07:25
Yeah, I didn't. I was a little busy. I didn't know
1:07:29
that that happened until after the fact, but I'd say Twitter's yeah, the
1:07:34
fastest way to get a hold of us, yep. But you can email
1:07:39
us at school Hop at gmail dot com. Yep. Just I mean search
1:07:44
for us anywhere the school Hop or at the school Hop, go to our
1:07:46
website. We have a contact us page yep. So yeah, there's a
1:07:51
lot of places and we want to hear from you. We want to know
1:07:55
what you think about what we've talked about tonight. We want to know your
1:07:59
beer suggestion. Yeah, Iowa beers. If there's a good beer brude in
1:08:03
Iowa that we haven't tried yet, we need to try it. Let us
1:08:06
know. And if our listeners are looking for a good deal on on inclusive
1:08:15
resorts in Mexico or Jamaica, where where can they reach out to? They
1:08:18
should send an email to Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. There
1:08:24
you go. Yeah, we haven't really mentioned them in episode for a couple
1:08:28
couple episodes, but yeah, Big Top Ventures they're still a faithful sponsor.
1:08:31
We love them very much and they really do. I mean, even if
1:08:35
you're halfway interested in seeing prices like, they've got some good, good deals
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for Mexico and Jamaica. So check them out. Yeah yeah, all right,
1:08:46
Well, good beer, great beer, great episode, great beer.
1:08:54
Here's to the twenty twenty four Minnesota Vikings preach. All right, we're gonna
1:09:00
get this right this time. Ready school school Yeah nice, Hey Vikings fans.
1:09:19
Evan here from the School hop and we just wanted to say thank you
1:09:23
again so much for listening to the School Hop, and we also wanted to
1:09:26
take one more opportunity to let you know that this episode of the School Hop
1:09:30
has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking an
1:09:33
all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends at
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Big Top Ventures at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. Once again,
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that's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. You can get the
1:09:47
lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the region. Big Top Ventures
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step right up to your next big adventure and thanks again for listening to the
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School Hop. School a thinking acting at a