Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome inside the latest Special Teams with Jason
Speaker 1: Smith and Mike Harmon podcast. We take a look back
Speaker 1: at a very special year in sports, very special team
Speaker 1: in that special year. This week we look at the
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine Minnesota Vikings. No, they didn't win
Speaker 1: at all, but my goodness, did they give us a
Speaker 1: year to remember. It was Brett Farve his best year
Speaker 1: post post Green Bay rather and we'll get into the
Speaker 1: Jets in a little bit, because you know, I got
Speaker 1: Jets a little bit away station. This is one of
Speaker 1: those memorable teams that did not win a championship. And look,
Speaker 1: as we do things on special teams, that's kind of
Speaker 1: where we go. Sometimes it teams that win it all.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it teams that don't win but are incredibly memorable.
Speaker 1: And we saw an NFL rule change because of the
Speaker 1: two thousand nine Minnesota Vikings that we still have today
Speaker 1: rule changes. The craziness of Brett Farve, which is the
Speaker 1: overriding topic for the season, The way this roster was assembled,
Speaker 1: some stars that as you and I sit and talk
Speaker 1: about this, uh, this team looking back a decade, you
Speaker 1: still had many guys still traversing the sidelines of NFL rosters.
Speaker 1: I mean, pretty pretty exciting stuff that, you know. I
Speaker 1: just remember the Brett farrv himming and hawing really infuriated
Speaker 1: a lot of people, including me. So and and since
Speaker 1: it's all about me, that's really what it comes down.
Speaker 1: Because he couldn't get out of the bleeping NFC North.
Speaker 1: You know, Well, here's the thing he goes through before
Speaker 1: the two thousand and eight season, yet another I think
Speaker 1: I want to retire. And the Packers had had it
Speaker 1: with him, and we talked about Brett Farve because it's
Speaker 1: back when I was doing All Night on ESPN Radio,
Speaker 1: and we had talked about Brett Farve every day and
Speaker 1: it was great because it was about something on the field.
Speaker 1: It was a controversy on the field. Should the Packers
Speaker 1: let Brett Farve play, should they let him go, should
Speaker 1: they trade him? And it was different, which what's what
Speaker 1: made it fun. They finally decided to move on. They
Speaker 1: trade him to the Jets in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: He plays two thousand and eight, He has a great
Speaker 1: year until he tears his bicep. The Jets can't win
Speaker 1: in December and he moves on, he quote retires again
Speaker 1: and you think this is it for Brett Farve. But
Speaker 1: then again, it's never it for Brett Farve. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I think in two thousand twenty one, he's gonna come
Speaker 1: back at fifty three years old. He looks like he
Speaker 1: yoked up Santa Clause running around. I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: But Farv decides in two thousand and nine after he
Speaker 1: retires from the Jets at the end of two thousand eight.
Speaker 1: I mean, phase were great. For when he was a
Speaker 1: quarterback with the Jet was phenomenal. He beat the Patriots
Speaker 1: in a big Thursday night game in New England. He
Speaker 1: beat the Titans when they were undefeated. The Jets were
Speaker 1: eight and three, and I thought, they're gonna win the division.
Speaker 1: We're going to the playoff. It's far far, far far
Speaker 1: of my whole life was Bred Farve. I was doing
Speaker 1: things in fours just because his number was four. It
Speaker 1: was incredible. And then he tears his bicep and he
Speaker 1: can't throw the football anymore. The Jets don't win, and
Speaker 1: then okay, Bred Farve has done. The Jets realize we
Speaker 1: have to move on, we have to get to somebody else.
Speaker 1: But then slowly you start to hear the rumors as
Speaker 1: the winter turns into spring bred Farv, who had wanted
Speaker 1: to go to the Minnesota Vikings when he first was
Speaker 1: let go from the Packers, but the Packers weren't gonna
Speaker 1: let him go to an NFC North foe. He decides
Speaker 1: to come out of retirement and sign with the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: With ten years to look back at this, you can
Speaker 1: easily see bread Farve and the long game he played,
Speaker 1: whereas I want you to let me go with the Packers,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to let me go to the Vikings.
Speaker 1: Packers said we're not gonna do that because it came
Speaker 1: down to trade to him to either Tampa Bay or
Speaker 1: the Jets, and they picked the Jets. But I guarantee
Speaker 1: you the long play with Farv was, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'll go play someplace else for a year, I'll retire again,
Speaker 1: then I'll get to Minnesota because I can't get to
Speaker 1: Minnesota now, but I want to go play for Brad
Speaker 1: Children's we had a relationship with before Brad Children's was
Speaker 1: the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, and you knew
Speaker 1: that's what he was gonna do. He comes out of
Speaker 1: retirement and suddenly he gets where he wanted to be.
Speaker 1: He went somewhere else for a year, and then he
Speaker 1: gets the Minnesota Vikings and he wants to exact revenge
Speaker 1: on the Green Bay Packers, and it becomes the story again.
Speaker 1: Far for the Jets was a huge story, and now hey,
Speaker 1: it's continuing his first year with the Vikings. I just
Speaker 1: don't know that he's ever gotten the proper credit for
Speaker 1: the mcinvelian genius and being able to come right back
Speaker 1: into the division, or enough blame for something that right now,
Speaker 1: players get absolutely brutalized on social media and throughout all
Speaker 1: media when they orchestrate a power play of getting out
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis wanting to go to the Lakers, Lebron James
Speaker 1: holding everybody how much everybody universally loved bread Farm outside
Speaker 1: of Tames in the NFC North, everybody loved bread But
Speaker 1: see that he was always the funny scenario of you
Speaker 1: know that guy that you respect, right and see all right,
Speaker 1: he keeps beating us a man. He's fun to watch
Speaker 1: because it's so unconventional and the arm strength and the
Speaker 1: gambler style throws whatever. As a guy growing up in
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears fan, you just watch and you'd marvel at
Speaker 1: what he'd do. And then of course he passes the
Speaker 1: baton to Aaron Rodgers, and it's more of the same.
Speaker 1: What is its seventeen and four in the last twenty
Speaker 1: one games against the Bears. But it's it's just the
Speaker 1: idea that you know, you're you're terrorized by this guy.
Speaker 1: You kept waiting from to maybe put your uniform on,
Speaker 1: and and and the cycle, but instead you you appreciated
Speaker 1: the talent. But I don't think he ever got one
Speaker 1: or the other right. Even elway from not not coming
Speaker 1: into the Colts or Eli Manning for forcing the trade
Speaker 1: out of San Diego, they at least there's blips on
Speaker 1: there and stains on the it was are you gonna retire?
Speaker 1: And that was the whole thing, is that that's where
Speaker 1: the only backlash he had came from was again, you're
Speaker 1: not We don't know if you're gonna retire again. Really,
Speaker 1: you don't know if you want to play again. I
Speaker 1: was trying to punish for fantasy magazines. Man, I needed
Speaker 1: that information. But now, well this is back when fantasy magazines,
Speaker 1: oh we gotta publish in March. Well, I have to
Speaker 1: because that's when the magazine is publishing. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I gotta, I gotta get it in before the draft.
Speaker 1: But that was now. Now when in retrospect you look
Speaker 1: back at things a decade ago, a decade in in
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror, and it was okay, this was
Speaker 1: just a strategy to get to the Minnesota Vikings. He
Speaker 1: only retired from the Jets because he had to retire
Speaker 1: so he could then get to the Vikings. And he
Speaker 1: really didn't want to be a Jet. No, he didn't,
Speaker 1: He didn't him. He was a great for a little while,
Speaker 1: but that there are reports out of New York that
Speaker 1: that even the players got a little sick and tired
Speaker 1: of him because he would have like his own office,
Speaker 1: like Eric Mangini, who was a coach, would give him
Speaker 1: his own office. He didn't really hang out with the
Speaker 1: guys as much. He wasn't quite the the guy they
Speaker 1: expected him to be when he joined the team. Well,
Speaker 1: but that's just it. The difference between and and we
Speaker 1: watch it now, the old quarterback, right, the difference between
Speaker 1: how Tom Brady is with his teammates that are half
Speaker 1: his age and what Brad Farve was right because essentially
Speaker 1: you had the same dynamic. But all you ever hear
Speaker 1: is how integrated Brady is with the team and wanting
Speaker 1: to know the guys. Hi, I'm Tom Brady. Is how
Speaker 1: he welcomes them to camp. Right, he goes and finds
Speaker 1: and seeks them out versus Farv and you know, it's
Speaker 1: his world. Here's a pair of wranglers here you go.
Speaker 1: What what what? What? What do you like? A thirty?
Speaker 1: Here you go? Yeah, let let met you those right there.
Speaker 1: You know, if they just cut him off into George,
Speaker 1: they can recreate the top gun volleyball. You know, if
Speaker 1: your beard is getting a little gray, I can give
Speaker 1: you that. You know, you can kind of brush it
Speaker 1: through and then you can kind of look younger. No
Speaker 1: one can tell. So Farve joins the Minnesota Vikings, and
Speaker 1: he joins the head coach. He wanted to join in
Speaker 1: Brad Children's You're a guy. I like this because I
Speaker 1: was one of the few people in the world with
Speaker 1: a Brad Children's impressure. You may be the only guy
Speaker 1: with a Brad Childrens impression. I can't say I've ever
Speaker 1: heard another. Ah. We have to make sure on offense
Speaker 1: that we uh throw the ball down field a little
Speaker 1: bit more and uh put more points on the board. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that's a pretty good Brad Childrens senior offensive assistant
Speaker 1: your Chicago Bears. So Farve joins the team and it
Speaker 1: becomes the story in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings become
Speaker 1: page one news. And this is a team that is
Speaker 1: already loaded and ready to go. This is a team
Speaker 1: with Adrian Peterson in his prime, Sydney Rice who became
Speaker 1: a star receiver with the with the Minnesota Vikings that year.
Speaker 1: That's the guy that five turned into a star receiver.
Speaker 1: Visanthe Shanko, who well had the speaking of big in
Speaker 1: the locker room. He had that, but we won't talk
Speaker 1: about that. Uh, that's a film After Dark. Brian McKinney,
Speaker 1: Steve Hutchinson, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, all Pro Bowlers. This
Speaker 1: was a star studded team who drafted Percy Harvin in
Speaker 1: the same year and then he became a weapon. And
Speaker 1: so this was everything far of ever one. And I
Speaker 1: have the big receivers, I got the fast receivers. I
Speaker 1: have the running back I always wanted. This is it.
Speaker 1: This is everything he ever had in Green Bay and
Speaker 1: now He's got everything all at once, all rolled into one.
Speaker 1: I mean you look at that defensive front, which has
Speaker 1: been the trademark of the Minnesota Vikings for as long
Speaker 1: as I can remember. At this point, it's that same
Speaker 1: build from the inside out. And then this, you know
Speaker 1: they drafted load Hold load Load load Hold. Yes, so
Speaker 1: he becomes a starter and as a rookie top top
Speaker 1: pick alongside Percy Harvin guys, and like Harvin, goes on
Speaker 1: to win the Rookie of the Year award when it's
Speaker 1: all said and done, but for far of orchestrated, perfectly
Speaker 1: finds himself in a beautiful situation. And I always like
Speaker 1: the name load Holt that I would want to be
Speaker 1: Jason Loadholt. Yeah. I mean there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: ways you can go, a lot of careers. The Minnesota
Speaker 1: Vikings are now paid one news. How is Brett Farve
Speaker 1: going to fit in? Is he going to get revenge
Speaker 1: against the Green Bay Packers? Can he bring the Vikings
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl? So while this is happening, what
Speaker 1: else was happening in two thousand and nine? It was
Speaker 1: the Miracle on the Hudson as Sully was able to
Speaker 1: save everybody's life. The plane that was attacked by birds
Speaker 1: and the engine was able to land in the Hudson.
Speaker 1: Everybody gets out. Years later, Tom Hanks plays him in
Speaker 1: a movie. Kind of a surreal kind of experience. I'm
Speaker 1: sure for him. Every time I go to the Universal
Speaker 1: Studios back line, there it is. There's this grade. We
Speaker 1: filled that up with water and Sully, and let me
Speaker 1: show you a picture of Sully. Bernie made Off played guilty.
Speaker 1: Surely after that, I realized, Oh, now I know why
Speaker 1: the Mets can't sign anybody. Oh because they were in
Speaker 1: on the Ponzi scheme with Bernie made Off, never forced
Speaker 1: to sell the team, but going away, you know, you
Speaker 1: know money. Now it's we're still struggling. You know, you
Speaker 1: made you made it to the World Series. I know,
Speaker 1: despite that, It's like, despite all their efforts, the Mets
Speaker 1: made it to the kind of deal on Jacob deGrom
Speaker 1: this offseason. I mean, come on, if you remember, it
Speaker 1: was Thanksgiving weekend when Tiger Woods car hit a fire.
Speaker 1: Hydrinton Allen Nordegren came out with a golf club and
Speaker 1: suddenly tiger Woods world turned upside down. He admitted to
Speaker 1: many affairs and his life has never been the same.
Speaker 1: Ten years ago. Uh, you know, I remember him. He
Speaker 1: was in a onesie posing for a photo with you
Speaker 1: with the international team that you know, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's trying to humanize himself, you know. I remember going
Speaker 1: to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo very shortly after,
Speaker 1: because that's came out. And there's a scene in Girl
Speaker 1: the Dragon Tattoo. Sorry spoiler alert, there's a scene in
Speaker 1: which character is getting chased out of a house, gets
Speaker 1: into a car, and another character grabs a golf club
Speaker 1: on the way out and bashes in the rear window,
Speaker 1: which is the story what happen with Ellen order going
Speaker 1: to talk? So that happens, and it's a very tensely
Speaker 1: like A Girl the Dragon Tattoo is a really great movie,
Speaker 1: and it's very silence of the lamb's escates, and this
Speaker 1: is a really tense scene. And I just laugh in
Speaker 1: the theater. I look at my wife and we laughed
Speaker 1: to each other. Nobody else has left, and look at
Speaker 1: me like, what are you laughing at dude? What's wrong
Speaker 1: with you? I go, this is the Tiger Woods thing? Wait,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Ripped from the headlines Modern Family debut
Speaker 1: that year sweets has did Farmville? I still get requests?
Speaker 1: Blank blank blank do you invite you to play Farmville? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I never got I never went down that dude, just
Speaker 1: maybe want to get off Facebook. It was also the
Speaker 1: year that Kanye West told Taylor Swift, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you finish but Beyonce and one of the best videos
Speaker 1: of all time, which is still a surreal moment. You
Speaker 1: got a lot of run for Kanye West. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say in his life that's one of the three
Speaker 1: biggest things they'll ever be known for. That's probably true.
Speaker 1: He got gold Digger was one of the best hip
Speaker 1: hop songs ever, and then you have them I'm Gonna
Speaker 1: let you finish well. I like the fact that at
Speaker 1: the end of twenty nine he's running around like painted
Speaker 1: like the silver guy you would pose for a picture
Speaker 1: with Hollywood. Tell me I'm wrong. So that's the magical
Speaker 1: year of two thousand and nine ahead for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: Two games that had the world's attention. A playoff game
Speaker 1: that has ramifications even ten years out. That's coming up
Speaker 1: more right here on Special Teams Week one of the
Speaker 1: NFL Season one thing was on the minds of every
Speaker 1: football fan. How is my local team going to do?
Speaker 1: And how was Brett Farve going to play his first
Speaker 1: game with the Minnesota Vikings. All kinds of hype on
Speaker 1: the team he's wanted to. He looked looser, he was happier.
Speaker 1: His first game against Cleveland, he just threw for a
Speaker 1: hundred and ten yards, I mean, very underwhelming, but did
Speaker 1: throw for a touchdown. They win. Week two, just a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five yards, two touchdowns, but they're two
Speaker 1: and oh so far. Brett Farve is a little underwhelming
Speaker 1: throw in the football, but they win a couple of games. However,
Speaker 1: Week three, things changed for Farv and the Vikings. Immediately
Speaker 1: he launches a thirty two yard touchdown pass with two
Speaker 1: seconds left to play to Greg Lewis to win and
Speaker 1: really launch the Vikings legend to beat the San Francisco
Speaker 1: forty nine and wind up winning the sp for Best
Speaker 1: Football Play. Far jumping around in everybody's arms after it
Speaker 1: was one of those passes that you see far throwing.
Speaker 1: You go no, no, no, no, no, oh yes, wow,
Speaker 1: what a great play. Because Greg Lewis is running along
Speaker 1: the back of the end zone. There's players there you
Speaker 1: know that you still want to make sure there's enough
Speaker 1: time because maybe you can get one more play, but instead,
Speaker 1: thirty two yards out, Farve completes it. Now he's a
Speaker 1: legend in Minnesota after just three weeks. But said, it's
Speaker 1: it always takes that one big play to get your
Speaker 1: role in and and because you do have Adrian Peterson,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be the forty passes the game
Speaker 1: Brett Farve that you were towards the end of the
Speaker 1: run in Green Bay, right, you can move on and
Speaker 1: change the structure. And you're still learning these young receivers
Speaker 1: because he didn't sign with them still fairly late, right
Speaker 1: right as camp began, so you didn't have the offseason workouts.
Speaker 1: So you build from there. But for for Brett Farve,
Speaker 1: it's it became one of the signatures because you knew
Speaker 1: he was gonna keep gunning. Right. We celebrate guys like
Speaker 1: at least you know you and I, as as we
Speaker 1: do our show on Fox Sports Radio, we celebrate guys
Speaker 1: like Jamis Winston. You don't know what the next pass
Speaker 1: is gonna look like, And that was Brett Farve, Right,
Speaker 1: that was Brett Farve. He's gonna win or he's gonna
Speaker 1: lose because he's gotta try to find that guy and
Speaker 1: needle in the haystack and and try to gun it
Speaker 1: through two defenders. He'd make for a good video game
Speaker 1: or horror film, I think, or maybe like an action
Speaker 1: film where he's like throwing footballs through guys. But I
Speaker 1: still remember what was the the NFC championship game he
Speaker 1: threw seven picks against against the Was it the falcon
Speaker 1: taking through seven interceptions? Yeah, that's dude. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: stop trying to throw a football over that mountain, Uncle Rico.
Speaker 1: Stop doing it. No time to rest for Bret fog, however,
Speaker 1: as the next week was his rematch or first game
Speaker 1: against the Green Bay Packers. When he joined the Jets,
Speaker 1: the Jets did not play the Packers. But now he
Speaker 1: gets the Packers. He gets his old team. But this
Speaker 1: is at home. Things are going to be okay, And
Speaker 1: things were okay. Packers win the game thirty to twenty three.
Speaker 1: Bret Farve has a good game. He gets booed by
Speaker 1: fans in Green Bay that traveled all the way up
Speaker 1: to see the game. He winds up throwing for two
Speaker 1: yards and three touched sounds and now far of his
Speaker 1: four and oh he wins his first game against the Packers.
Speaker 1: It's like he's winning the divorce. He's winning the breakup.
Speaker 1: He had a very fun interview after the game was
Speaker 1: over on National TV. Was a Sunday night game and
Speaker 1: it was all right, Packers, you thought they were gonna
Speaker 1: come through. They couldn't they win the game and now
Speaker 1: far of his winning the breakup, and Packers fans are
Speaker 1: just incensed, well because the thing about it was, you know,
Speaker 1: owing to the competitor, and what he meant to that
Speaker 1: city and that franchise is how he'd go and celebrate
Speaker 1: after a touchdown. Right, He's slapping the offensive lineman upside
Speaker 1: the head, he's sprinting down the field and pointing at
Speaker 1: the wide receiver, all those things that if they're the opponent,
Speaker 1: normally you're you're ticked off, and now if you're the Packers,
Speaker 1: you're really ticked off, because not only did he go
Speaker 1: away and even if he said all right, he finally
Speaker 1: got where he wanted to, but he had a torn bicep,
Speaker 1: and then he comes in and he shreds you like
Speaker 1: he did to the efficiency of seventies seven completion rate,
Speaker 1: which he never touched uh and three touchdowns. So for
Speaker 1: the path for the for the Packers, for the Vikings,
Speaker 1: it's three and oh four and oh five and oh
Speaker 1: and it's boy, they could go undefeated, they could challenge
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. Market was it was all Brett Farv all
Speaker 1: the time. And this is you know, in the middle
Speaker 1: of my run at all night and at ESPN, and
Speaker 1: it really was far of overload. Look, we're talking about
Speaker 1: the Vikings so far. We talked about some of the
Speaker 1: players on the team and how well they played, and
Speaker 1: I get that, but I want people to remember that
Speaker 1: it was about one person. This this season and this
Speaker 1: entire incarnation of the Minnesota Vikings was about Brett Farve.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about Adrian Peterson, but we didn't talk
Speaker 1: about other players. Peterson in two thousand and nine ran
Speaker 1: for yards. He had a big season eighteen touchdowns, which
Speaker 1: is his career high. And it was oh ye had
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson. Yeah, he's pretty good. He was. He was
Speaker 1: coming off a great rookie year. Zoia's second year in
Speaker 1: the league too, so it's like, what's he gonna do
Speaker 1: for an end care that doesn't matter old number. Their
Speaker 1: third year in the league, form where Pin during the
Speaker 1: rookie card. He was coming off the sevred yard season,
Speaker 1: which was his best one up until that point, and
Speaker 1: it was we've never been talked about it because it
Speaker 1: was all about Brett Farve. Far far far. So the
Speaker 1: Vikings wind up dropping one to the Pittsburgh Steelers, maybe
Speaker 1: in a look ahead game because Week eight was the
Speaker 1: big show down when they played at Green Bay and
Speaker 1: this was all the hate for Brett Farve out in spades.
Speaker 1: The signs at the game were insane. You saw signs
Speaker 1: that called him trader, that called him Judas. It was
Speaker 1: everybody hating Brett Farve. It was now, we're gonna beat
Speaker 1: this guy. And there's not many times in my life
Speaker 1: where I felt afraid for a player on a football field. Know,
Speaker 1: it's a football game and there's security there and everything else,
Speaker 1: but I said, boy, something could happen to Brett. I
Speaker 1: could see somebody running on the field try to add, Brett,
Speaker 1: you think you're so good that it was that kind
Speaker 1: of atmosphere at Green Bay. Well, we just look at
Speaker 1: in the decades since, how much different in basketball and
Speaker 1: in the NFL, Guys changing teams all the time, right,
Speaker 1: normally it was especially for a quarterback. You didn't last
Speaker 1: that long for one, I mean the whole iron Man things,
Speaker 1: the other legend of farv, but just the idea that
Speaker 1: you'd still be well enough to come back after such
Speaker 1: a long career there and and become the villain. People
Speaker 1: conveniently forget the ownership and general manager's side of things,
Speaker 1: because eventually, you know, you've got Aaron Rodgers and mothballs.
Speaker 1: You've got to do something with it. Oh, they were
Speaker 1: happy at this point because okay, well but they still
Speaker 1: it wasn't that things are bad for us, because they
Speaker 1: had Aaron Rodgers who would go on to have an
Speaker 1: incredible career, win a super Bowl. But it was still
Speaker 1: you wanted to leave us. We loved you for so
Speaker 1: long and we all, oh, all the way back to
Speaker 1: or rookie year or either you're in the mid nineteen
Speaker 1: nineties and now you were sure you wanted to play,
Speaker 1: and then you wanted out and then you wanted away. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: we we we can hate you now. Yeah, the saltiness
Speaker 1: that that rolls up of you still want to be
Speaker 1: viable And for him, he must have felt. I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's documented in a million interviews by now of where
Speaker 1: he was at psychologically, because obviously he'd had some other issues,
Speaker 1: you know, off the field that he was trying to
Speaker 1: work through. But when we we look at the forty niners,
Speaker 1: they've eventually parted ways with Joe Montana and it wasn't
Speaker 1: in the same division. He didn't come back to haunt
Speaker 1: them by becoming a member of the NFC West. But
Speaker 1: you have you know, farv had an opportunity and a plan,
Speaker 1: plan the work, work the plan, and he came back
Speaker 1: and you had Aaron Rodgers. And by that point Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers had already shown himself even in just a year plus.
Speaker 1: All Right, we got a guy that's gonna be able
Speaker 1: to play some football here. Yet you know that natural
Speaker 1: fan reaction short for fanatic, as we talk about all
Speaker 1: the time, you're gonna get salty as the guy comes
Speaker 1: back as long as it's only the one time, right
Speaker 1: is if it's you know, year five on the return going,
Speaker 1: that guy's still it's over. It's over. Let it go.
Speaker 1: And not getting enough credit for the Vikings is the
Speaker 1: offensive line because it was after this game where the
Speaker 1: storylines and how good the Vikings were got to more
Speaker 1: than just Bred Farv. This is the second time they
Speaker 1: played the Packers and they didn't sack bred Farve, not once.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was really something. And the Vikings defense
Speaker 1: is able to get to Aaron Rodgers as many times
Speaker 1: as they could. This lost dropped the Packers to four
Speaker 1: and three, and suddenly their playoff possibilities were up in
Speaker 1: the air, and everything was great for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: You got a big kickoff return by Percy Harvin which
Speaker 1: helped this out. Farve winds up in this game, throwing
Speaker 1: for two forty four yards and four touchdowns, and the
Speaker 1: Vikings win this game thirty eight to twenty six in
Speaker 1: a game that wasn't really that close. They you go
Speaker 1: into the bye week at seven and one, and everything
Speaker 1: looks awesome and you're thinking Super Bowl for the Minnesota Vikings,
Speaker 1: just cruising on because they're putting up big point totals,
Speaker 1: defense is playing well, even giving up the twenty six
Speaker 1: against Green Bay. And you've already run four road games
Speaker 1: in this process, right, You only lost the the one
Speaker 1: game to Pittsburgh on the road, but otherwise you're cruising
Speaker 1: along and just setting it up and knocking it down
Speaker 1: and still learning those wide receivers in the process because
Speaker 1: they were a bunch of young, kind of journeyman guys
Speaker 1: as you talk about I mean Sydney, and he never
Speaker 1: was the player he was after Bret Farvley, so he
Speaker 1: had blipped on the radar, you know. He he had
Speaker 1: a couple of years and then he went to Seattle
Speaker 1: and the same thing with Percy Harvin, and Percy Harvi
Speaker 1: never became the full weapon you expected him and Percy
Speaker 1: have off field. In a prior episode of Special Teams
Speaker 1: talking about the Gators and Percy Harvin and with the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks, he's a frequent contributor to Special teams, but
Speaker 1: I talked about Percy Harvin on Special Teams more than
Speaker 1: any other players so far. On him. Yeah, But I
Speaker 1: mean it shows the impact that he had though, right
Speaker 1: if you when we look at players over the last
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen years in college and pro football, he's
Speaker 1: a guy that stands out of if he had been
Speaker 1: able to just stay right right and between some some
Speaker 1: mental health concerns and his love of the weed that
Speaker 1: he still talks about in his post career. I know
Speaker 1: you like the way I say that I talk about
Speaker 1: the weed like I'm eighty five years old, that you know.
Speaker 1: I get on the internets and then I look up
Speaker 1: the weed and that's what it tells me. Derailed, Yes,
Speaker 1: and now I'm s a for it him like, harmon,
Speaker 1: you want to look up the weed on the interwebs. Hey,
Speaker 1: that's a dangerous search and could get you fired. Don't
Speaker 1: do it at work, don't do it at home. And
Speaker 1: that's one to know. I don't like tell me some
Speaker 1: just trying to come to some kind of old man,
Speaker 1: old man type voice where it's like, hey, let me
Speaker 1: tell you about something, kids, let me tell you I
Speaker 1: got I got almost five decades on this planet. Let
Speaker 1: me But what's helping far of along at this At
Speaker 1: this time, he didn't have the greatest wide receivers. But
Speaker 1: when you can't stack and you can't sell out because
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson is going to kill you, that helps immensely.
Speaker 1: Look far, it had pretty decent running games on and
Speaker 1: off in Green Bay, but he never had a guy
Speaker 1: like Adrian Peterson that teams had to is that what
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta sell out for one guy. We
Speaker 1: either got to sell out to stop Adrian Peterson. We
Speaker 1: gotta sell it to stop Red Farve. We can't stop
Speaker 1: both of them, And with the way the offensive line
Speaker 1: played and the way in Adrian Peterson ran the football,
Speaker 1: you couldn't do it. And even though you don't have
Speaker 1: great wide receivers, well, hey, Fars gonna find the right guy,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna find the right guy in his progression,
Speaker 1: and maybe Sidney Rice and maybe Vasanta Shanko, it could
Speaker 1: be anybody else, but he's gonna fund it because you
Speaker 1: can't just slant your coverage or try to sell out
Speaker 1: like you normally do when a team is one dimensional.
Speaker 1: Look Far's Packers teams. They won their fair share of games,
Speaker 1: but you could still game plan for them, because in
Speaker 1: the end, it was, well, we're gonna stop Red five.
Speaker 1: If Dorsey Levins beats us, Dorsey Levins beats us, you
Speaker 1: can't say that's well if we at Adrian, well we
Speaker 1: can'didate in Peterson pet us. So it became really really
Speaker 1: hard to defend. And there's no no surprise why the
Speaker 1: Vikings were running through the NFL this way. Why are
Speaker 1: you talking about the balance? Fo sixty seven rushing attempts
Speaker 1: for the team over the course of the year. Peterson
Speaker 1: at three four teen Chester Taylor very effective as the
Speaker 1: number two options both as a runner and receiver. Sydney
Speaker 1: Rice had eighty three receptions, nobody else with more than sixty,
Speaker 1: and obviously in the red zone. Shanko was an absolute
Speaker 1: monster for that year, finishing with eleven touchdowns. But trying
Speaker 1: to pick your poison on it on a given day,
Speaker 1: and even Adrian Peterson a decade later, still gets a
Speaker 1: little bit of daylight can still break away. You know,
Speaker 1: I missed Chester Taylor because I felt like he played
Speaker 1: in the nineties seventies as well. They sounds he played
Speaker 1: for the Colts in the seventies at Chester Taylor, he
Speaker 1: was really good. I just remember when he was brought
Speaker 1: in Chicago, he was going to be a short yardage
Speaker 1: back and then couldn't run short yardage place. That makes
Speaker 1: it tough, struggled miserably, makes it very difficult that multiple
Speaker 1: years trying to bring in a guy to be the
Speaker 1: short yardage man, and they just it's not about the Bears.
Speaker 1: The second half of the season. I'll help you out,
Speaker 1: but here. The second half of the season went very
Speaker 1: well for the Minnesota Vikings. They did lose back to
Speaker 1: back games late in December, but still finished off the
Speaker 1: season with a big thrashing of the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: They go onto the playoffs with a record of twelve
Speaker 1: and four, and Brett Farve turns out having his best
Speaker 1: year that he had had in quite a long time.
Speaker 1: Thirty three touchdowns that year for the Vikings. That's the
Speaker 1: most he had thrown since nineteen. Seven interceptions for Brett
Speaker 1: folk about that number when usually he's at like thirty
Speaker 1: seven interceptions. He did have a twenty ninety seven picks.
Speaker 1: He had never thrown those few interceptions outside of his
Speaker 1: first year in the league with Atlanta when he only
Speaker 1: appeared in two games. Seven interceptions for this full year,
Speaker 1: every other year the best he had ever done thirteen picks.
Speaker 1: But this tells you this type of team he was on.
Speaker 1: He didn't have to be the big gun slinger. He
Speaker 1: was in a big, well balanced offense, and everything looked
Speaker 1: great for them getting out of the regular season and
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Operational efficiency, perfect home record, eight No
Speaker 1: the Bears get lost in in Week sixteen and overtime
Speaker 1: defeat with thirty six thirty is your final. So you
Speaker 1: got some fireworks down the stretch. Jake Cutler led well,
Speaker 1: that's the thing about that game. That Week sixteen game
Speaker 1: we talked. They lost two in a row, and that
Speaker 1: second one was to the Bears and overtime. Uh far'v
Speaker 1: actually forced overtime by throwing a touchdown pass on fourth
Speaker 1: and goal with no time left to Sydney Rice. But
Speaker 1: in overtime Adrian Peterson fumbles, Bears recover. Jake Cutler throws
Speaker 1: a touchdown pass to a guy that I will always
Speaker 1: have good things to say about. Hopefully he stays, you know,
Speaker 1: as devon a Roma Show do, because I won a
Speaker 1: fantasy league that year because he scored a couple of
Speaker 1: big touchdowns late. He had like a good four games
Speaker 1: for the Bears. He did at the end of that year,
Speaker 1: and because of that loss, the New Orleans Saints jumped
Speaker 1: into the lead for home field advantage. So while the
Speaker 1: Vikings go into the playoffs, they go win as the
Speaker 1: number two seed with a date in New Orleans, as
Speaker 1: long as they won that first week. Den he was
Speaker 1: He was great for a couple of guys. I mean
Speaker 1: it four. I started him in my fantasy semifinals and
Speaker 1: and he was great, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love this guy. One of those guys that you watched,
Speaker 1: and he had a decent role in Miami, came to Chicago,
Speaker 1: had a bit of success, and then flamed out as
Speaker 1: quickly as he arrived. So for the Vikings, it was
Speaker 1: now the playoffs that had two games away from the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Coming up. Next, we relive one of the
Speaker 1: biggest games in NFL history. Jason Smith Mike Harmon, Special
Speaker 1: Teams Podcast. We continue on reliving the two thousand nine
Speaker 1: season for the Minnesota Vikings here on the Special Teams
Speaker 1: Podcast Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, your genial hosts. You can
Speaker 1: hear us Monday through Friday on Fox Sports Radio ten
Speaker 1: pm to two am on the East Coast, seven to
Speaker 1: eleven on the West Coast. And as we can tinue
Speaker 1: want here, I'm thinking, Hey, as the playoffs are happening,
Speaker 1: I could see the Jets and the Vikings and the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl against each other. This is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1: The Jets and want a big playoff game in San Diego.
Speaker 1: I was in attendance for that game. They're in the
Speaker 1: a f C Championship game and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, Jets, Vikings,
Speaker 1: it's coming. Jets, Vikings it's coming. You get your revenge
Speaker 1: on Brett far from me. We lost the we lost
Speaker 1: to the cults, and we lost the cults, lost the cults.
Speaker 1: We lost the cults and and we lost the cults.
Speaker 1: We lost. It was very difficult. It was it was
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning, it was you know, you know, it was
Speaker 1: you know what we're talking about the Vikings. This is
Speaker 1: this is not not making about the Jets. This is
Speaker 1: about the have your sad sag the Jets history episode.
Speaker 1: What season can we look back at the Jets besides
Speaker 1: Super What are you talking about? Here's a talk co tight,
Speaker 1: Here's a crappy as season the Jets have had. We're
Speaker 1: gonna relive all of them. We'll give you nine minutes
Speaker 1: on your love Affair of Curtis Martin shaking his hand
Speaker 1: and the Vikings first playoff game, after having a week
Speaker 1: to sit back and kick back, they play the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and this was a high flying Cowboys offense led by
Speaker 1: Tony Romo, and they came into Minnesota and had no chance.
Speaker 1: The Vikings just blow the doors off the Cowboys thirty
Speaker 1: four to three. Romo couldn't do anything. It was very
Speaker 1: difficult to watch the Cowboys just lay a complete egg.
Speaker 1: But this was more about the excellence of the Minnesota Vikings,
Speaker 1: and they win a game we expected and they're in
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship Game and not a lot of drama.
Speaker 1: Now you look at what that Dallas team was, I mean,
Speaker 1: they scored three hundred sixty one points on the years,
Speaker 1: certainly no slouch. I mean, you've got other teams that
Speaker 1: were rolling up some really ridiculous pinball numbers. But to
Speaker 1: go in and get absolutely decimated. And we talked about
Speaker 1: the front seven and how effective they were earlier. When
Speaker 1: you look at Jared Allen leading the way, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just not a lot of a lot of room
Speaker 1: for Tony Romo, and and it's game was never in doubt,
Speaker 1: and this was not a nice walk in the park.
Speaker 1: Everybody sits down and let's get ready for the next one.
Speaker 1: And the next one was the NFC Championship Game at
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints, a game where the Vikings were
Speaker 1: thinking Super Bowl and a great future, and instead it
Speaker 1: turned out to be the final playoff game of Brett
Speaker 1: Farve's career, a game that in later years were turned
Speaker 1: out to be the beginning of bounty gate. But first
Speaker 1: the game in and of itself, before we get to
Speaker 1: the long lasting ramifications of the NFC Championship game. This
Speaker 1: was a classic back and forth battle, right the Vikings
Speaker 1: would score, the Saints would score. It was far up
Speaker 1: and down the field. It was Drew Brees up and
Speaker 1: down the field. The Vikings should have won this game.
Speaker 1: So many times they commit five turnovers in the game,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing it actually went to overtime. Because you
Speaker 1: commit five turnovers, you're on the road in the NFC
Speaker 1: Championship game. You're not gonna win. But somehow five turnovers,
Speaker 1: three fumbles, two interceptions, one big reception in a minute.
Speaker 1: But that should be enough for that should be you
Speaker 1: know what, we shot ourselves in the foot and still
Speaker 1: they had a chance to go. There's no doubt in
Speaker 1: my mind the Vikings were the better team. But you
Speaker 1: go in and you make that many mistakes, you cut
Speaker 1: those turnovers from five down to two. Let's say you
Speaker 1: turn over a couple of times, you're winning this game
Speaker 1: and the Vikings are in the Super Bowl. Well, it
Speaker 1: goes back to the old predictor of success in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's obvious and common sense, but the math
Speaker 1: bears it out. It's if you win the turnover battle.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's it. Because you look at statistically,
Speaker 1: thirty one first downs toft hundred, sixty five rushing yards
Speaker 1: to sixty eight passing yards to a D seven. Just
Speaker 1: go on down the line. I mean, it's just absolute
Speaker 1: obliteration until you add the turnovers, half, the penalties, win,
Speaker 1: time of possession, everything all the way through. But fumbles
Speaker 1: Percy Harvin, UH and Bernard Burying help with what Farv
Speaker 1: did individually, and down you go. You know, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest turnovers in this game that's not talked about
Speaker 1: because obviously the interception Uh late in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: is that right before the end of the first half.
Speaker 1: Its fourteen fourteen and Reggie Bush back when he was boy,
Speaker 1: Reggie Bush is gonna be a great player in the NFL.
Speaker 1: He's gonna run for yards a year and catch fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred yards and passes. He muffs the punt that the
Speaker 1: Vikings recover on the ten yard line, but two plays later,
Speaker 1: Farv and Peterson screw up the handoff and Scott Fagitta
Speaker 1: recovers the fumble and the game goes into the halftime
Speaker 1: tied when clearly this should have been a field goal
Speaker 1: lead or a touchdown lead for the Minnesota Vikings. And
Speaker 1: I know it's it's hard to say, well, you had
Speaker 1: one turnover, they turned it back over, but this ball
Speaker 1: is on the ten yard line, and you screw up
Speaker 1: a handoff. Little exchanges, I mean, we see it so
Speaker 1: often NFL where you've got a quarterback trying to look
Speaker 1: off a wide receiver, you know, the little nod in
Speaker 1: the wink, and they get the ball snapped because the
Speaker 1: center thought he saw a movement of a hand or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And that's the one thing that you
Speaker 1: want to watch coaches blow a gasket. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what you always want, the picture and picture of the
Speaker 1: replay of the how the head coach or offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: respond to a play like that. And we're talking a
Speaker 1: title game. This isn't Week one, this isn't Week two.
Speaker 1: We're talking big time football and winning time. In the
Speaker 1: second half. You had the turnovers, you said by Bernard Berrying,
Speaker 1: this turns into a game. With two forty two left,
Speaker 1: the Vikings get the football and they drive to the
Speaker 1: Saints thirty three yard line. Now this is in Ryan
Speaker 1: Longwell's range for a field goal. Ryan long was a
Speaker 1: really good field goal kicker. He has been. He's kicking
Speaker 1: in yours by Packer now with the right. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: gotta you want a great story, Ryan Longwell. You want
Speaker 1: a great Ryan Longwell story. So when I was at
Speaker 1: NFL Network, uh, we did a lot of stuff with
Speaker 1: Steve Mariuchi and Ryan Longwell was in the forty Niners
Speaker 1: camp as a rookie and he was great, and mary
Speaker 1: Uchi was Maryuchi is the best. He tells stories that
Speaker 1: are just so entertaining. And he's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this guy's gonna be our kicker. We found him. He's
Speaker 1: a rookie's great, and I forget who he said he
Speaker 1: had on the team already and they went in for
Speaker 1: the final cuts. He was like all right, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to the GM and all right, and we're and
Speaker 1: we're keeping long Well because he's great. They go, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're paying our kicker the X amount of dollars. We're
Speaker 1: not keeping it. We're not We're not gonna cut him.
Speaker 1: And he was like wait, wait what. He was like, no,
Speaker 1: We're we're paying our kicker already. So we had to
Speaker 1: cut Ryan Longwell, who then went on to have a
Speaker 1: huge career with the Green Bay Packers. And he would
Speaker 1: say that was the first time I looked and I said, okay,
Speaker 1: so money is a big deal. He was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I get the money part. He thought talent one out.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no, Well, I mean it's yeah,
Speaker 1: And he's still on the hook for some part of it.
Speaker 1: And you're talking about cap implications a whole other other
Speaker 1: the ball game. So they're on the thirty three yard
Speaker 1: line and they run two running plays and Adrian Peterson
Speaker 1: and Chester Taylor get tackled for no game. Now think
Speaker 1: for a second with the super Bowl on the line,
Speaker 1: Chester Taylor is getting a carry. Okay, I get it.
Speaker 1: But Chester Taylor is getting a carry with the super
Speaker 1: Bowl on the line. Yeah. It's kind of funny because
Speaker 1: as you were earlier in the possession, you had a
Speaker 1: couple of runs from Adrian Peterson, but then you had
Speaker 1: several pass plays before you got back to the Chester
Speaker 1: Taylor and now he did run for fourteen yards to
Speaker 1: play before he got stuffed first. But it's like, oh boy,
Speaker 1: this is the Super bowls coming here. Man, this is
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. So let's start criticizing Adrian Peterson for not
Speaker 1: being able to suck it up. That's it hot take.
Speaker 1: So they call a time out with nineteen seconds left,
Speaker 1: and this is a very often overlooked development. Minnesota gets
Speaker 1: flagged for having twelve men in the huddle. So now
Speaker 1: they're penalized five yards. So now it's the thirty eight
Speaker 1: yard line and it's third and fifteen. Now maybe you're
Speaker 1: out of Ryan Longwell's range, and maybe you change things
Speaker 1: up and say, well, now we've got to get some yards.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't want to trot Ryan Longwell out
Speaker 1: there for ds out. That's a long one. So they
Speaker 1: decided to throw the football, a pass which will forever
Speaker 1: live in Minnesota Vikings infamy. Brett Farve rolls out to
Speaker 1: one side, tries to turn back against his body and
Speaker 1: throw it all the way back across the side of
Speaker 1: the field, which we've seen Brett Farve do hundreds of
Speaker 1: times during his career. Throw it over the mountains. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it results in a in a catch and oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: look at the vision Brett Farve. As sometimes it results
Speaker 1: in a bad play. It is picked off by Tracy
Speaker 1: Porter and instead of a game winning field goal, attempt.
Speaker 1: We wind up going to overtime and you get the
Speaker 1: famous call by Vikings play by play man Paul Allen,
Speaker 1: you could take a knee and try to kick a
Speaker 1: fifty five yard field goal. He was hot on the air.
Speaker 1: He's the play by play guy and he is so
Speaker 1: pissed that Brett Farve does a typical Brett Farve play
Speaker 1: and throws it back across his body, which is you
Speaker 1: never turned back and throw across the middle to the
Speaker 1: other side of the field, because that gives so many
Speaker 1: players on the back side. They're already looking at the
Speaker 1: football and they can get to it. And that's what happened.
Speaker 1: Tracy Porter got to it, and now we wind up
Speaker 1: going to overtime and Paul Allen is incense and Vikings
Speaker 1: fans are going that's life with Brett Farve. Yet now
Speaker 1: and now I get it. It was a great magic
Speaker 1: carpet ride. But now we're getting the Brett Farve. You
Speaker 1: got him on that play, which is what Packers fans
Speaker 1: and the Jets for one year had for him. Since
Speaker 1: this was Brett Farve, where you live with him. But boys,
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta die with those passes and they wind
Speaker 1: up dying with that pass. Now you still had football
Speaker 1: to play at the moment. But if you're a Vikings fan,
Speaker 1: that was everything you'd ever seen, right, because you've been
Speaker 1: to the Promised Land a few times and then the
Speaker 1: door got slammed in your face. Right, No no entry here, right.
Speaker 1: And the past Super Bowl appearances, past championship games, there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of occasions for the opportunity, uh. And
Speaker 1: sorry to our boss as this is UH, is that
Speaker 1: you had a lot of opportunities to get your big
Speaker 1: signature win and and etch name on the side of
Speaker 1: the trophy, and and everybody gets a ticker tape raid instead.
Speaker 1: It's all falling apart, and in that moment, like shades
Speaker 1: of every bit of anguish for Vikings fans, for their lives.
Speaker 1: The coin toss goes the way of the New Orleans
Speaker 1: Saints in overtime, and this incredibly great game, dripping with drama,
Speaker 1: ends pretty quick. The Saints go down the field without
Speaker 1: too much difficulty, a big pass interference call against Ben
Speaker 1: Lieber helping the Saints, and Garrett Hartley comes out kicks
Speaker 1: the game winning field goal. The Saints win. They go
Speaker 1: on to the Super Bowl and for the Vikings, it's
Speaker 1: what just happened to us? What just happened? And the
Speaker 1: Saints go on they beat the Indianapolis Colts to win
Speaker 1: it all. Sean Payton Drew Brees finally get to the
Speaker 1: top of the mountain, and the Vikings are left asking
Speaker 1: what if? But this didn't and the drama for the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. In the immediate
Speaker 1: aftermath after the game was over, a couple of things happened.
Speaker 1: The first thing was this game because of the way
Speaker 1: it ended. Right, you get to overtime, the Saints get
Speaker 1: the football, they drive down the field and kick a
Speaker 1: field goal. The NFL changed its rules the following off
Speaker 1: season about overtime. It allowed the team who got the
Speaker 1: ball first and overtime if they kicked the field goal.
Speaker 1: The opposing team then got a possession to try to
Speaker 1: score as well. And this is morphed into the NFL
Speaker 1: overtime rule that we have now. And make no mistake
Speaker 1: about it, this change was made clearly because everybody felt
Speaker 1: bad Brett Farve didn't get the football in overtime. How
Speaker 1: unfair was it that a legend like Brett Farve didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to go down the field and win
Speaker 1: a football game. We've seen so many overtime games decided
Speaker 1: in playoffs, regular season, but it didn't matter because Brett Farve,
Speaker 1: who was it in the NFL this time, didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to go down the field. The nflus, well,
Speaker 1: we want to change the rule now. Crazy thing is
Speaker 1: the Vikings voted against this rule change in the off season,
Speaker 1: but still it passed. And now we have the overtime
Speaker 1: rule we have because of this game, because of that development,
Speaker 1: all about the Saints. All we do is change rules
Speaker 1: because of the Saints time and time again. We have
Speaker 1: the bounty gate that flows out of it, but we
Speaker 1: have multiple rule changes now impacted by Sean Payton, his
Speaker 1: position on the Competition Committee picking up for longtime Competition
Speaker 1: Committee hero Jeff Fisher, our friend here in Los Angeles. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's just crazy that the backlash was so swift
Speaker 1: and severe to that it's like you played over time.
Speaker 1: It's like, sorry, Brett fav didn't get a chance to
Speaker 1: have the ball. Defense didn't do their job period, give
Speaker 1: up a long kickoff return to Pierre Thomas and what
Speaker 1: twelve plays later, let's it get off the field too. Bad.
Speaker 1: After this game, I remember thinking, going, boy, they just
Speaker 1: beat the crap out of Farv in this game. The
Speaker 1: Saints gave him hit, twisting his ankle, hitting him, hitting
Speaker 1: him late. There was excessive roughness calls throughout the game,
Speaker 1: and it was just boy or either this is their
Speaker 1: game plan was to come and hit Bred Farve or
Speaker 1: something else is going on. It was just a game, though. Boy.
Speaker 1: Farv got hit and I still think he's feeling some
Speaker 1: of those hits from this game. And then in two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve, this game took on a different light
Speaker 1: when bounty Gate was put into the American consciousness when
Speaker 1: a filmmaker shooting a documentary on Steve Gleason of the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints took video of the meeting that Greg
Speaker 1: Williams had with his defense the night before a playoff game,
Speaker 1: and he talked about hitting guys, making them realized that
Speaker 1: they were gonna get hit, gonna get hit hard. That
Speaker 1: Kyle Williams, let's see what happens when you hit him
Speaker 1: in the chin. And we find out about bounty gate,
Speaker 1: and bounty Gate became the biggest story in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Albeit now it's three years later and we find out
Speaker 1: the Saints were paying out bonuses or bounties for injuring
Speaker 1: opposing team players. It was an operation from two thousand
Speaker 1: nine all the way to two thousand eleven. Greg Williams
Speaker 1: got suspended, Sean Payton was suspended for the entire two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve season. But this was the game where
Speaker 1: people look back and said, Okay, I get it. This
Speaker 1: this is really the beginning of bounty gate. The way
Speaker 1: they hit bred far, everything they did to him, this
Speaker 1: started bounty gate. Go back and look Ray Edwards, Um,
Speaker 1: you know for the vikings was having himself a game.
Speaker 1: But well we go through and look at the quarterback
Speaker 1: hits on the other side. They were innumerable. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you watch some of the video highlights, like
Speaker 1: you know, the play through the whistle, No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: the reverberation of the whistle was really where we got
Speaker 1: to for for Greg Williams and that defense. And you know,
Speaker 1: the the idea of a defense is to punish opposed buddy.
Speaker 1: And we've seen rule changes. Now if you breathe on
Speaker 1: a quarterback after the balls out, it's different. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: bounty scandal would never happened now. But but lea's a
Speaker 1: look at all these penalties. Okay, we gotta stop like
Speaker 1: the fact that five kept popping up like whack a mole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that becomes a difficult proposition, right right if
Speaker 1: he if he stays down, then maybe the officials are
Speaker 1: looking at each other going all right, do we miss something?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Not that you could have gone to
Speaker 1: review booth at that point to say, hey, please take
Speaker 1: a look at what's going on here, but you know,
Speaker 1: you look at the way the game's officiated. Now, I mean,
Speaker 1: he'd be in bubble wrap compared to the way they
Speaker 1: have two hits. Somebody would get thrown out of the game,
Speaker 1: and there would be all right, we can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: It's a new NFL look. But because of that game, really,
Speaker 1: in retrospect, two big rule change, two things happen. Not
Speaker 1: granted for the Saints, it was all the way through,
Speaker 1: But that was the game people look back to and said, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's the game I can really see starting because of
Speaker 1: bred Farve. Now, normally at this time we do the
Speaker 1: where are they now? The segment of the podcast. However,
Speaker 1: I want to throw this head because I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you something I don't think you've known about me in
Speaker 1: the seven years nearly that we've been together. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the filmmaker who shot this video of bounty Gate
Speaker 1: right that started bounty Gate whole thing with the vic
Speaker 1: alright filmmaker was my roommate at ESPN for about two years,
Speaker 1: Sean Pamphalon. He was doing the Steve Gleason documentary. He
Speaker 1: got video of this and he said, listen, this is news.
Speaker 1: I have to come out with it. Many people were
Speaker 1: upset that that he decided to do this. The NFL
Speaker 1: tried to buy this video and everything. And I'll never
Speaker 1: forget this because when I found that it was Sean,
Speaker 1: I go, oh my god, Oh my god, Shawn's got this.
Speaker 1: And because Sean was a really fun dude, um big
Speaker 1: Yankee fan, so he and I always would go at
Speaker 1: it with the Yankees and the Mets. But this was
Speaker 1: like his moment, and I go, what is he going
Speaker 1: to do? What's he gonna do? He's got this video?
Speaker 1: And so at this time, I'm an NFL network and
Speaker 1: I'm hosting NFL Fantasy Live and I wind up seeing
Speaker 1: that it's Shawnago. What's he gonna do? And I go,
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's gonna do, but he's very unpredictable.
Speaker 1: Sure and off. Right after this story gets out, the
Speaker 1: NFL wants the video from him. He puts out this
Speaker 1: long missive on his own personal website about football and
Speaker 1: the NFL, and Goodell should meet with him before he
Speaker 1: turns over the video, and I go, oh my god, Sean,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Dude? What are you doing? So
Speaker 1: the day after it comes out that Sean is the
Speaker 1: guy with the video, I go into my boss's NFL network.
Speaker 1: Now that this story gets really really cool, I shouldn't
Speaker 1: stay cool. It gets funny, and I I get a
Speaker 1: sense of retribution, right, so retributions of strong word. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well so so here. So here's what happens. So I
Speaker 1: come in and they're trying to get in touch with Sean.
Speaker 1: So I come in and I tell my managers, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know this guy who has the video? I go,
Speaker 1: I know him really well. I mean we were roommates
Speaker 1: in ESPN for two years. I could get in touch
Speaker 1: with him and see if you'll give the video up.
Speaker 1: And my managers like, oh my god, yes, yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah yeah. Go talk to David Eaton, who
Speaker 1: was an executive at NFL Network, and he was because
Speaker 1: he was like the guy in charge of the news room,
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, the guy you would talk to.
Speaker 1: He was the one, you know, in charge of the
Speaker 1: daily shows. So I walk up to him and this
Speaker 1: is not the first time he didn't treat me the
Speaker 1: best when I was when I was at n i
Speaker 1: FOL Network. And we walk up and it's me and
Speaker 1: my manager and him, and we walk up and my managers, Hey, uh,
Speaker 1: Jason wanted to tell you something. I said, Hey, um,
Speaker 1: so Sean Pamphalon who has this video? I know him
Speaker 1: and I can and he interested me. He goes, we
Speaker 1: were on it, we're on it. I said, yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: I get it. But I'm saying I know him and
Speaker 1: I can get in contact. Was yeah, I know. We've
Speaker 1: we've reached out. We were reached out, were we we
Speaker 1: we got it. So I just said, okay, I said,
Speaker 1: all right, that's fine, and I backed away. I saidt
Speaker 1: you know what, you've blown me off right here twice
Speaker 1: now and this happened. Okay, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Now you know a little bit
Speaker 1: more about me. And I had a whole thing and
Speaker 1: where are they now? All right, you know what, give
Speaker 1: me your best one, give me your best one? Form right, well,
Speaker 1: you know what. I don't have any further information, but
Speaker 1: there was a great article about Chester Taylor watching the
Speaker 1: World Series of Poker and uh deciding, hey, I could
Speaker 1: do that. So by the late you know, two thousand sixteen,
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen, he was actually entering big time steaks pokers.
Speaker 1: I decided I could learn how to do this. So
Speaker 1: he was involved in that. I used to think I
Speaker 1: could learn how to do that and be a professional
Speaker 1: poker player. A couple of times I won when you know,
Speaker 1: friends would have a night and I'm going, hey, I
Speaker 1: could do this professionally. Yeah, I was good enough to
Speaker 1: play in a in a home game that I did. Okay,
Speaker 1: Phil loadhold, I mean I had to pull. He actually
Speaker 1: is back with the Vikings and he was helping with
Speaker 1: as an intern in the nun Wooten Scouting Fellowship program.
Speaker 1: How about that? All like guys to come and give back. Hey,
Speaker 1: you the former second round pick got himself and there
Speaker 1: but are burying? Um? Is this development mentoring and management
Speaker 1: for athletes and entertain it not bad. Eric Frampton, financial
Speaker 1: consultant for Fidelity, how about that? And he walks around
Speaker 1: and says, dude, you you have your representative, okay, teaching
Speaker 1: people how I should come? What else am I gonna say?
Speaker 1: Do you do you feel? Do you feel? You? Do
Speaker 1: you feel? Come on? The boy spots has always been
Speaker 1: the coolest thing. I mean we wait. I took my
Speaker 1: kids to go see Aerosmith, and as soon as they
Speaker 1: started doing that for sweet emotion, both my kids started
Speaker 1: cheering wildly. Do you do you have insurance? Do you
Speaker 1: have insurance? All right? I think that's a good place
Speaker 1: to stop. So there it is our look back at
Speaker 1: the crazy season that involved the two thousand nine Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: If you have any ideas you want to pitch us
Speaker 1: some teams you think we should spotlight here on special teams,
Speaker 1: hit us up on Twitter at how about a fresca
Speaker 1: Mike Swollen doubt. We'll see what we can do. Have
Speaker 1: a great week and we'll talk to you in a
Speaker 1: few days. Before you go, rate and review the show.
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