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Speaker 1: Lifetime, the official athletic country Club of the Minnesota Vikings,

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Speaker 1: has something for every member of your family. Get your

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Speaker 1: family going today at Lifetime, Dot Life, Forward, Slash Kids.

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Speaker 2: You know, I do think that with every competitive game,

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Speaker 2: everybody's looking to find an edge. Is it truly legal?

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Speaker 2: Are they just like stretching a rule? Are they finding

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Speaker 2: a loophole? I feel like that's always been a part

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Speaker 2: of it, and I kind of hope to see it.

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Speaker 2: I think that's going to lead a lot more chaos.

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Speaker 2: There's going to be a lot more of the returners

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Speaker 2: having a hard time taking up these scripts because you

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Speaker 2: see it all the time, like you guys can't take

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Speaker 2: up this hot.

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Speaker 3: Potato, Yo yo.

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Speaker 4: Welcome to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Vikings Off Season edition

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Speaker 4: of the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. My name is Gabe Henderson.

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Speaker 4: I'm alongside Jay Nottson, Tatum Ever and Eric Davison are

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Speaker 4: out today, so Jay, we will have some fun and

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Speaker 4: talk all things Vikings off season, starting with the NFL

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Speaker 4: Owners Meetings. Part two is in Minneapolis right now as

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Speaker 4: we speak, and as I'm speaking, there have been four

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Speaker 4: game changing rules that have been passed. One owners have

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Speaker 4: approved the emergency third quarterback proposal, yeah, which means if

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Speaker 4: a quarterback is only fifty three man roster, they can

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Speaker 4: be the emergency quarterback in case the first two quarterbacks

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Speaker 4: going on. This is kind of like the Brock party

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Speaker 4: type thing last year when he went down in the

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Speaker 4: NFC Championship, and that was very interesting to me because

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Speaker 4: it passed so quick.

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Speaker 5: For sure, that was one of those to me, I've

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Speaker 5: always felt like it was kind of a no brainer,

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Speaker 5: and I was always kind of curious as to why

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Speaker 5: there was an issue. I mean, think about how incredibly

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Speaker 5: important a quarterback plays, and I know they can basically say, well,

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Speaker 5: if it's that important to you, hold that roster spot.

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Speaker 5: But as you go from a fifty three man roster

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Speaker 5: down to what forty six on game day? They even

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Speaker 5: reduced that on game day, how many people are actually

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Speaker 5: dressed and able to play.

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Speaker 3: It's always been.

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Speaker 5: Kind of weird to me that, you know, quarterback is

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Speaker 5: the one position that you wouldn't want to have the

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Speaker 5: ability to grab somebody in an emergency. I mean, if

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Speaker 5: your first two quarterbacks go down, that third quarterback standing

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Speaker 5: on the sidelines where in street clothes, yeah, does nothing

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Speaker 5: for you. So it always felt weird to me that

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Speaker 5: that wasn't already in place, and it reminds me of

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Speaker 5: kind of like the NHL has the ebug role, which

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Speaker 5: is the emergency backup goalie. That's a little bit different,

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Speaker 5: where it's you know, somebody that in house for the

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Speaker 5: home team, they have to have some sort of a person.

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Speaker 5: They can be a trainer, they can be club level

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Speaker 5: type player, but somebody in house that if there's a

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Speaker 5: huge emergency, nine times out of ten, they're even more

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Speaker 5: than that, they're just sitting on the bench dressed in

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Speaker 5: case something happens. But in for instances actually in the NHL,

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Speaker 5: those people have actually got to play, which has got

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Speaker 5: to be crazy. But for me, this rule just it

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Speaker 5: makes complete sense and that at minimum you have a

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Speaker 5: quarterback instead of, you know, trying to think about what

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Speaker 5: the Niners did last year going Christian Mission McCaffrey being

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Speaker 5: our quarterbacks in an NFC championship game. So it just

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Speaker 5: makes sense to me.

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Speaker 4: I get it, and that I think it takes a

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Speaker 4: lot of pressure off of, you know, some roocky quarterbacks.

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Speaker 4: I'm just thinking of when I saw the article yesterday

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Speaker 4: on ESPN, the first picture that popped up was Malik

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Speaker 4: Willis from the Tennessee Titans. Yeah, so you know, Ryan

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Speaker 4: Tannehill was the starting quarterback. Will Levis was the second

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Speaker 4: round quarterback that was drafted but literally less than a

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Speaker 4: month ago. And now Malik Willis, who is arguably the

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Speaker 4: third string quarterback, Now he's kind of securing his job, sure,

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Speaker 4: simply because of this rule chain. So you move over

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Speaker 4: to the Viking side of the ball, you got Kirk Cousins,

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Speaker 4: Nick Mullins, and now Jaren Hall. However, with this rule

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Speaker 4: you look at it and say, okay, well, Jaren Hall

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Speaker 4: is on the practice squad, he still can't be elevated

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Speaker 4: to a third string quarterback on game day, So he

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Speaker 4: has to be activated on the act of fifty three

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Speaker 4: man rostrate in order to be an emergency quarterback on

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Speaker 4: game day.

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Speaker 5: And then there's also a bunch of rules that come

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Speaker 5: in as far as salary and everything else that comes.

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Speaker 3: Up with that.

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Speaker 5: So, yeah, it is going to be a bit of

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Speaker 5: a thing because there is always kind of that cat

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Speaker 5: and shell game that that teams will play where they're

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Speaker 5: elevating people on Saturdays and demoting them on Mondays and

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Speaker 5: just trying to figure out, you know what those rosters

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Speaker 5: are going to be I do think that the interesting

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Speaker 5: caveat here is that it has to be the active

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Speaker 5: fifty three and you can only do, as of now

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Speaker 5: with the rule, so many moves in order to you know,

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Speaker 5: let elevate a guy and bring them back, elevate him

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Speaker 5: and bring him BA until you either have to, you know,

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Speaker 5: make it permanent or there's another whole other realm of

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Speaker 5: things that have to happen as far as you know,

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Speaker 5: releasing them or making them available. But this is a

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Speaker 5: huge deal, and I just if the NFL, as they

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Speaker 5: typically are, are so engrossed in making sure they have

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Speaker 5: the best product possible, it just makes sense to me

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Speaker 5: that you would make this a rule at this point.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.

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Speaker 4: Just moving on to the next topic. We talked about

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Speaker 4: this right when the schedule released that Cincinnati Bengals game.

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Speaker 4: I believe it is week later into your week fifteen,

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Speaker 4: a week sixteen. That game is still TBD, and it's

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Speaker 4: TBD because the NFL was trying to figure out if

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Speaker 4: they were going to have let teams have two Thursday

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Speaker 4: night games. Now, I'm not saying that you know that

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Speaker 4: Cincinnati big was gameing'ld be a Thursday night game.

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Speaker 3: But now the.

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Speaker 4: NFL owners have approved a modified proposal for flexing Thursday

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Speaker 4: night football games, so a maximum of two flexes per year,

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Speaker 4: but teams have to have a twenty eight day notice,

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Speaker 4: so you pretty much got a month notice in advance

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Speaker 4: to know if you're Week thirteen to Week seventeen game

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Speaker 4: will be flex to a Thursday night football game.

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Speaker 5: I know that there were other people. There are certain

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Speaker 5: owners as well, including Davis out at the Raiders, who're

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Speaker 5: kind of criticizing this, saying, you know, the idea of somebody,

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Speaker 5: you know, scheduling their life around it and buying tickets

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Speaker 5: early and everything, and then all of a sudden it

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Speaker 5: gets changed on a month notice, and the headaches that

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Speaker 5: can come from that kind of stuff. Like I understand

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Speaker 5: that I think this is again trying to make sure

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Speaker 5: that there is premium product. As far as the showcase

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Speaker 5: game on a Thursday night, I know that that whole

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Speaker 5: thing can kind of throw everyone's schedules into chaos. I

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Speaker 5: was more curious about what the timeframe was for notice.

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Speaker 5: If it was two weeks notice that some people had

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Speaker 5: discussed way back when, which that just seemed like it

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Speaker 5: would be a huge headache a month is a little

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Speaker 5: bit easier to pal it. But I just think what

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Speaker 5: they're looking at here is saying, if we're trying to

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Speaker 5: guestimate as far as what games might be attractive to

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Speaker 5: people for a Thursday night, and then you get into

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Speaker 5: week five, six, seven, and all of a sudden you

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Speaker 5: start to realize there's some primo matchups there during weeks

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Speaker 5: thirteen through seventeen, those are the games that are most

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Speaker 5: likely going to get flexed. To me, the idea of

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Speaker 5: this is again trying to do best product possible, but

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Speaker 5: there is I think probably a little bit of a headache,

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Speaker 5: and I think some teams are probably going to be

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Speaker 5: crossing their fingers hoping they're not going to be the

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Speaker 5: one that has to make that switch. But it is

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Speaker 5: going to be interesting to see who does get that,

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Speaker 5: because think of there's a ton of teams, including Hours,

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Speaker 5: who have a bunch of primetime games already and now

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Speaker 5: you're talking about possibly adding another Thursday night game to that.

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Speaker 5: So well, and the other thing that that I thought

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Speaker 5: was really interesting about this too is that I believe

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Speaker 5: they approve this for one year and then they have

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Speaker 5: to revote on it next year, so this isn't a

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Speaker 5: permanent thing moving forward, but it could be they're just

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Speaker 5: going to kind of see what happens this year and

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Speaker 5: then make a decision for next year.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally understand that. I mean, of course, football fans,

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Speaker 4: your traditional football fans like us who's been around the

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Speaker 4: game for so long, you're just like, man, this is

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Speaker 4: this just doesn't make sense. Yeah, we see the fan

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Speaker 4: viewership increase. Of course, the game is going more to

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Speaker 4: own demand versus Hey, let's watch it now, or let's

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Speaker 4: watch it all. Your your typical ABC's or Fox Now,

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Speaker 4: you can watch it all your favorite app. Of course,

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Speaker 4: NFL Sunday Ticket is on YouTube TV. So we're starting

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Speaker 4: to see a shift in the way the NFL is

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Speaker 4: starting to view how it's fans view their games, and

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Speaker 4: I guess just trying to stay young.

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Speaker 5: I think the idea with that too, though, is that

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Speaker 5: forever it was, whether it was satellite companies or cable companies,

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Speaker 5: those were the meat and potatoes of whatever and had

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Speaker 5: access to There's been a lot of people that have

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Speaker 5: been shifting to kind of the new new world of

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Speaker 5: cord cutting and doing that. I think, you know, the

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Speaker 5: peacock thing at first with the playoff game. That kind

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Speaker 5: of scratched my head a little bit and then realized

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Speaker 5: how NBC product. So you know, if NBC has already

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Speaker 5: got the infrastructure to do their their televised games, it'll

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Speaker 5: make sense to do it on Peacock. You know, again,

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Speaker 5: this will be interesting to see with this experiment just

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Speaker 5: what the viewership is or what you know, NBC ces

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Speaker 5: as a increase in Peacock subscriptions because of just wanting

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Speaker 5: to watch that game. I do know that if local

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Speaker 5: markets with whatever that playoff game is going to be

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Speaker 5: on Peacock, will still have access to it. But the

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Speaker 5: rest of you know, the country and the rest of

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Speaker 5: the world, they're going to have to find an alternate

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Speaker 5: way to see that game. So it's going to be

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Speaker 5: something that's going to be We're in the new era

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Speaker 5: of media, and you know, when you start seeing things specialized.

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Speaker 5: I remember even when it was NFL Network the very

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Speaker 5: first time, when you saw games on NFL Network exclusive,

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Speaker 5: there are a lot of people saying, you know, I

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Speaker 5: don't have access to that. And now I think the

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Speaker 5: idea is that you have access to whatever you are

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Speaker 5: willing to invest in and put your time into. And

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Speaker 5: even just download as an app and do.

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Speaker 3: A free trial.

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Speaker 5: So I think it's going to be really interesting to

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Speaker 5: see at least the NFL is embracing this new idea

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Speaker 5: of what the future is going to be versus kind

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Speaker 5: of sticking with the ways that they were, and we'll

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Speaker 5: see how it pans out.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I remember, just you know, growing up in North Carolina,

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Speaker 4: the only games that you would see on TV on

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Speaker 4: Sundays were Cowboys games, sure, and if the Cowboys weren't

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Speaker 4: playing maybe game exactly, it was a national game. So

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Speaker 4: to see how I know, I'm kind of aged myself here,

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Speaker 4: but to see how the game has changed from then

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Speaker 4: to now where you can literally watch any game that

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Speaker 4: you want on YouTube TV with NFL Sunday Ticket to

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Speaker 4: a playoff game being streamed on Peacock, which is which

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Speaker 4: is an NBC affiliate.

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Speaker 3: I just love the change.

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Speaker 4: But a lot of change has been happening when it

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Speaker 4: comes to the kickoff and pun and special teams rule,

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Speaker 4: and that rule was approved today by NFL owners. So

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Speaker 4: the owners approved the resolution. So I'm thinking we're recording

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Speaker 4: this on Tuesday, and it got approved on Tuesday, May

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Speaker 4: twenty third, that NFL owners approved the resolution putting the

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Speaker 4: ball on the twenty five yard line following a fair

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Speaker 4: catch on a kickoff. Special teams coordinators Matt Daniels Viking

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Speaker 4: special team scoring Nators is one they unanimously opposed the change.

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Speaker 5: But it's happening, Jay, Yeah, I understand why they would

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Speaker 5: oppose that. You know, for them, that is a critical

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Speaker 5: part of the game. That is the time that they

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Speaker 5: get to shine. And I think teams are really going

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Speaker 5: to have to figure out, whether it's their analytics or whatever,

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Speaker 5: if you have somebody who is potentially a home run hitter,

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Speaker 5: are you willing to take the gamble of consistently losing

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Speaker 5: you know what, between five and ten yards per kickoff

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Speaker 5: versus the chance of possibly you know, exceeding the twenty

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Speaker 5: five yard line. I think there's gonna be a lot

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Speaker 5: of teams that are just gonna say, no chance of

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Speaker 5: a turnover, no chance of any of you know, losing

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Speaker 5: yard edge. We're actually gonna net five to seven yards

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Speaker 5: every time we do a kickoff if we just you know,

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Speaker 5: take the fair catch. I think there's gonna be a

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Speaker 5: lot of people are gonna do that. I think the

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Speaker 5: other thing that that's kind of interesting though on it too,

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Speaker 5: is that's fair catch on a kickoff, right, So before

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Speaker 5: the idea was you were just kicking it out the

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Speaker 5: back of the end zone and then just letting them

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Speaker 5: get there. Again, I'm curious, fair.

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Speaker 3: Catch it on line automatic and moves up twenty yards.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, So that that's it. There's gonna be There's gonna

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Speaker 5: be some weird ramifications I think that come from this. Again,

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Speaker 5: I don't I don't fault these special teams coordinators and

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Speaker 5: everybody from from feeling this way. But at the same point,

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Speaker 5: it will be interesting to see this season how that

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Speaker 5: affects the games and the decisions of the coaching team

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Speaker 5: coaching staffs make.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: NFL executive Jeff Miller. He cited the concussion rates on

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Speaker 4: kickoffs and punt returns to other plays and said, with

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Speaker 4: this new model, the return rates, so a punt return

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Speaker 4: and kick return rate will drop down from thirty eight

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Speaker 4: percent to thirty one percent, but the concussion rate will

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Speaker 4: drop down to fifteen percent. So granted, you know, concussions

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Speaker 4: had its highest return last year in over nine years,

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Speaker 4: so the NFL is trying to mitigate that while also

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Speaker 4: keeping the game interesting.

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Speaker 3: I'll never forget this day.

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Speaker 4: Just talking to Matt Daniels this offseason and we talked

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Speaker 4: about would you be opposed to the NFL getting rid

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Speaker 4: of the fair catch or you know, the the Neil rate,

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Speaker 4: and he said absolutely because he's you know, fans get

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Speaker 4: so excited for Week one. Everybody's in their seats cheering,

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Speaker 4: like man, football season is back, and then boom, kick off,

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Speaker 4: fair catch and it's like just this little lull in

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Speaker 4: the game. And rightfully so is coming from a special

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Speaker 4: team's coordinator. He wants to see big plays. But that

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Speaker 4: is another aspect of the game that you have to

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Speaker 4: weigh in as far as the excitement of the game

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Speaker 4: and keeping fans in tune. If you just get rid

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Speaker 4: of the kickoff and fair catch, I'm a kickoff in

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Speaker 4: pun recer.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think with this kind of stuff, if

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Speaker 5: you think about it, you know, the league is really

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Speaker 5: cited safety as something that they've been willing to explore.

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Speaker 5: There's already been a ton of role changes. I mean,

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Speaker 5: for you know, think about the fact that you have

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Speaker 5: something that used to be just commonplace even when I

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Speaker 5: was playing, wedge busting and all that kind of stuff

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Speaker 5: on those those kickoffs that kind of stuff, you know,

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Speaker 5: is out the window at this point, and now again,

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Speaker 5: I think the league is trying to stay on top

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Speaker 5: of it and trying to find ways to help guys

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Speaker 5: and reduce the amount of injuries that way. There's a

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Speaker 5: certain amount of risk that comes into playing football in

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Speaker 5: the first place. But if they're willing to give this

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Speaker 5: kind of stuff a try and if it seems to

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Speaker 5: work out, I think they'll stick with it. If it doesn't,

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Speaker 5: it just shows they're willing to modify it and try

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Speaker 5: on an annual basis to find other ways to make

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Speaker 5: the game better, not only for the fans, but for

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Speaker 5: the players themselves.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, understand, And I think I feel like the excitement

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Speaker 4: is starting to build around the NFC North simply because

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Speaker 4: we knew at last owners meetings that the Detroit Lions

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Speaker 4: were hosting the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. Well, however,

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Speaker 4: it just got to prove earlier this week that the

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Speaker 4: Green Bay Packers are hosting the twenty twenty five in

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Speaker 4: FFL Draft. It makes sense for the Vikings to host

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty six. Of course, that hasn't been confirmed, but

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Speaker 4: when you hear of the NFL Draft coming to the

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Speaker 4: Frozen tender. What does that mean to you being a

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Speaker 4: fan of the NFC North for so long.

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Speaker 5: One, we're finally getting our due and that people are

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Speaker 5: recognizing that the NFC North is a fun place to be.

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Speaker 5: But I got to say this, if you're somebody who

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Speaker 5: does cover the NFL Draft on an annual basis the

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Speaker 5: idea that you're going to be in Detroit in twenty

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Speaker 5: twenty four and then Green Bay after that, there's gonna

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Speaker 5: be a lot of questions going on, and like, what's

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Speaker 5: that weather going to look like? You know, I think

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Speaker 5: being in Vegas and other places at Kansas City or

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Speaker 5: or in Nashville, that those kind of places, the warm

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Speaker 5: weather and stuff, it's just a lot of excitement. It

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Speaker 5: did show in Kansas City. It wasn't necessarily the warmest

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Speaker 5: at the time, but at the same point there was

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Speaker 5: just hundreds of thousands of people that showed up for

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Speaker 5: that weekend. So I think the idea of being in

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Speaker 5: Green Bay, I mean Green Bay is somebody that's been

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Speaker 5: lobbying to try to get a Super Bowl right or

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Speaker 5: something along these lines.

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Speaker 3: Never get that.

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Speaker 5: But the thing that you know, I literally the very

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Speaker 5: first thing that I saw listed by somebody who covers

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Speaker 5: the NFL is I'm very curious to see where they're

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Speaker 5: going to put everybody for the Draft weekend. So it's

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Speaker 5: going to be and maybe this is a thing for

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Speaker 5: green Bay. This is kind of a test bed for

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Speaker 5: them to show, like with all the hotel rooms and

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Speaker 5: all of the logistics and everything else that's got to

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Speaker 5: go on, that they can handle something on this level,

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Speaker 5: almost on a mini level from a Super Bowl. But

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Speaker 5: I will be curious to see just kind of what

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Speaker 5: those preparations are. Detroit's a larger city, they can handle it.

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Speaker 5: They have a ton of the hotel space and convention space.

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Speaker 5: Green Bay is is not a small city, but it

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Speaker 5: has had issues in the past, and I know, like

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Speaker 5: super Bowls in the past, for ours, believe there was

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Speaker 5: a requirement of over thirty thousand hotel rooms that had

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Speaker 5: to be held. I do not see that being that

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Speaker 5: way for the Draft, but it's a lot and I

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Speaker 5: will be curious to see how Green Bay and the

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Speaker 5: surrounding community supports an event like this. But I'm sure

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Speaker 5: they got to be very excited, Yeah, very excited. I mean,

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Speaker 5: it is title taln.

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Speaker 4: You have all the history there, and granted IF's end

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Speaker 4: of April, it's a little bit moud or weather or

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Speaker 4: a little bit more comfortable weather for fans that are

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Speaker 4: coming up from Florida or California. It's just when you

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Speaker 4: start talking super Bowl, it's like, tell me how that

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Speaker 4: makes sense to be a deemable place for an actual

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Speaker 4: super Bowl in February. I mean, Minnesota is code itself,

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Speaker 4: I mean rebased code. In December, we saw it with

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Speaker 4: our stuff, just how cold it was, and that was

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Speaker 4: an indoor stadium, So that's the whole thing. You know,

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Speaker 4: Football Americana. They're at Landbeufield in Green Bay. The idea

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Speaker 4: of it is amazing. I think the idea of what

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Speaker 4: the Super Bowl has turned into with all of the

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Speaker 4: other concerts and all of the dignitaries and everybody else

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Speaker 4: coming in the primo seats, like that idea there with

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Speaker 4: Green Bay. I think it's harder to stomach for a

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Speaker 4: lot of people, the idea of a cold weather super

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Speaker 4: Bowl outdoors. But it is a unique thing, and they're

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Speaker 4: always looking for unique experiences. So I wouldn't say it's

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Speaker 4: never going to happen, but I think that the odds

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Speaker 4: are against them and this is going to be something

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Speaker 4: that they would probably be able to put their best

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Speaker 4: foot forward and just show that they can handle something

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Speaker 4: on that level and they can start having bigger negotiations

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Speaker 4: about doing something like that in the future. Yeah, I

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Speaker 4: love it. I mean makes for good talking points. And

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Speaker 4: while owners meetings are still happening here in the Twin Cities,

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Speaker 4: I'm sure there'll be more news, more things coming up

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Speaker 4: between now we're recording a podcast next week. Well, I'm

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Speaker 4: sure we will have more updates on vikings dot com

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Speaker 4: as owners meetings still are taking place here in the

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Speaker 4: Twin Cities, but we move from one thing to another.

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Speaker 4: Our friend mister Ben Leeber is on the line, and Ben,

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Speaker 4: we were just talking about just some of the rule

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Speaker 4: changes and everything that's taking place that's being approved from

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Speaker 4: the owners meetings right now.

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Speaker 3: One thing that really stood out to.

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Speaker 4: Me that I want to get your thoughts on is

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Speaker 4: the third quarterback, I guess, the emergency third quarterback proposal

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Speaker 4: that has now been approved by the NFL owners. What

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Speaker 4: were your thoughts on that?

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Speaker 2: You know, I actually think it makes it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: You know, I know that there's probably ways that you know,

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Speaker 2: like Bill Belichick is going to sort of manipulate what

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Speaker 2: the third quarterback is going to be, and you know

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Speaker 2: it'll be It'll be interesting if there is another sort

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Speaker 2: of you know, Taysom Hill type quarterback situation that you

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Speaker 2: know you could use maybe in a in a different capacity.

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Speaker 2: And I don't look, I don't know the creative ways

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Speaker 2: that it's going to get manipulated, but out some way

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Speaker 2: it will. It'll be an issue. But for the most part,

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Speaker 2: I'm I think it's a good for the competitive spirit

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Speaker 2: of the game. You know, nobody wants to be in

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Speaker 2: a situation like everybody talks about with the forty nine

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Speaker 2: ers last year and then it's like it's just it's

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Speaker 2: a terrible game. It's terrible for the fans. You know,

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Speaker 2: have some sort of ability to actually have a quarterback

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Speaker 2: in that situation, you know, do a little bit something

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Speaker 2: more and make it more fun. So I'm I'm totally

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Speaker 2: on board with you know, this kind of emergency use

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Speaker 2: third quarterback.

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Speaker 5: Are you a little surprised that it hadn't happened prior

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Speaker 5: to this just knowing that, you know, kind of the

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Speaker 5: shell game at times that teams play with their rosters

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Speaker 5: on game day and activations, deactivations, et cetera. This always

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Speaker 5: felt like one to me that you were kind of

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Speaker 5: flirting with disaster for a lot of years, just in

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Speaker 5: case some sort of you know, multiple injuries happened.

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Speaker 3: In the game.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that that's always a part of it.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I do think that, you know, with

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Speaker 2: with every competitive game, there's everybody's looking to find an edge,

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Speaker 2: you know, whether that is you know, is it legally,

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Speaker 2: is it truly legal, or are they just like stretching a

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Speaker 2: rule are they finding a loophole. I feel like that's

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Speaker 2: always been a part of it, and you know, I

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Speaker 2: think that's why it's important to have these competition committee

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Speaker 2: meetings where you know, things you know, come up, things arise,

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Speaker 2: and is it really a problem? Is it something has

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Speaker 2: to be addressed? I think just having awareness in these

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Speaker 2: situations that like, okay, we know that this goes on,

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Speaker 2: now is it something that we need actually enforced with

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Speaker 2: rules or we enforce different regulations and different rules, and

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Speaker 2: that's what can be discussed. And so, you know, same

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Speaker 2: sort of thing with all of this is I'm glad

437
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,280
Speaker 2: they addressed it. It's discussed. Now we're going to sit

438
00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:21,439
Speaker 2: back and see how it's implemented and see, you know

439
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,720
Speaker 2: what else can come from it. I mean, it seems

440
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:25,679
Speaker 2: like to me like a good deal. But you know,

441
00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,440
Speaker 2: in the end it may prove to be another loophole

442
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,520
Speaker 2: or another way. Soon some team can take advantage of another.

443
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, you made a good point there.

444
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,560
Speaker 4: I can see Bill Belichick, the Bill Belichick's of the

445
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:40,280
Speaker 4: world trying to manipulate it. Or yeah, that Taysom Hill

446
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,880
Speaker 4: comparison like that, that's the perfect way to try to

447
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:47,440
Speaker 4: manipulate this third emergency quarterback type rule, but also get

448
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,000
Speaker 4: an extra guy on that forty six man roster own

449
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:54,240
Speaker 4: game day. But man, just just understanding that you played

450
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,359
Speaker 4: linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, but you also play special teams.

451
00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 4: When you look at just the NFL own is approving

452
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 4: putting the ball in the twenty five yard line following

453
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:07,520
Speaker 4: a fair catch on kickoff, what fillings arise for you?

454
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:09,800
Speaker 2: You know? I I know that we're talking about players

455
00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:11,680
Speaker 2: safety and all this other stuff, and the NFL is

456
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 2: going to have They're gonna have metrics and these these

457
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 2: numbers to back up everything that they're doing. But you know,

458
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,560
Speaker 2: I I personally don't agree with it. I think that

459
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:27,159
Speaker 2: you are taking the livelihood away from guys that you know,

460
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,560
Speaker 2: maybe aren't going to be starters and maybe they're not

461
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 2: going to be even a second in rotation, but they

462
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:34,840
Speaker 2: have a spot, you know, they found a way on

463
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 2: an NFL roster, and and it's because of special teams.

464
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 2: And I think this this castration of special teams is

465
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 2: going to have it's gonna hurt a lot of guys'

466
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 2: livelihoods and it's going to hurt their jobs. And I

467
00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 2: think that there's gonna be more manipulation now with player rosters.

468
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,600
Speaker 2: When we talk about roster manipulation with the type of

469
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,720
Speaker 2: guys that you want on your team now, because no

470
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:01,440
Speaker 2: longer or do you really do you really have to

471
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,280
Speaker 2: value a guy that's just going to go out there

472
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 2: and you know, you know, run run one hundred miles

473
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaker 2: an hour and and throw his body around and be

474
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 2: an asset on special teams. Now that's really not the case.

475
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 2: And so look that the game is, the game is brutal,

476
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,880
Speaker 2: the game is tough, it's physical, and and we're sort

477
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,719
Speaker 2: of we're taking that element of football out of it.

478
00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,680
Speaker 2: And I do think long term, I think this game,

479
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 2: you know, keeps suffering from from the rule change that

480
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,080
Speaker 2: we keep making in the name of player safety.

481
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,199
Speaker 5: I think a guy like Kanae wang Wu, who is

482
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 5: you know, been a home run hitter for us, is

483
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 5: going to look at something like this. We were talking

484
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,160
Speaker 5: a little bit earlier, just the idea of coaches having

485
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 5: to make a decision. Do you want to take the

486
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 5: gamble of you know, possibly losing yardage if you don't

487
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 5: fair catch versus letting home run hitters, you know, take

488
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,800
Speaker 5: a swing and see what they can do. Do you

489
00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:56,320
Speaker 5: see something like that being, you know, something that this

490
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:58,280
Speaker 5: team is really going to have to contend with, knowing

491
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,639
Speaker 5: that we have a guy who has been a difference

492
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 5: maker on special teams when he's gotten his shot, where

493
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 5: in the past everyone then has just tried to kick

494
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,160
Speaker 5: away from him and kick him out of the end zone.

495
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 5: If you're somebody for us, you know, we look at

496
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,640
Speaker 5: a guy like Canay that that can be a difference maker.

497
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 5: Do you think this is really going to affect him?

498
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,840
Speaker 2: I think I think it may because there's always going

499
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:19,119
Speaker 2: to be strategy. You know, there's many times where especially

500
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 2: when we have a we have a staff that's that

501
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 2: is about analytics, and you know, analytics can change every

502
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 2: week depending on who the who the kickoff specialist is

503
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,399
Speaker 2: for the opposing team, But you know there might be

504
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,920
Speaker 2: some weeks so they absolutely tell Canay like, look, man,

505
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 2: don't even worry about taking it out. We're just gonna

506
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,680
Speaker 2: We're just gonna play the odds and just take a

507
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:39,520
Speaker 2: nil down fair catch it. We'll take the ball in the

508
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 2: twenty five. But there might be other kickers that that

509
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,439
Speaker 2: don't do a great job of driving the ball through

510
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 2: the end zone or they aren't very consistent with the

511
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,399
Speaker 2: skykicks in the corner. And that's what we saw a

512
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,640
Speaker 2: lot of teams do in the last couple of years

513
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,920
Speaker 2: with the with the new rules, is like, Okay, let's

514
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 2: skykick it. Let's not even let's not punch it through

515
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 2: the back of the end zone. Let's skycake it. Force

516
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,440
Speaker 2: them to return it, knowing that with the extra hangtime

517
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:05,400
Speaker 2: our coverage teams can get down there and we can

518
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,280
Speaker 2: pin them back a little bit. You know, if you

519
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 2: if you're a team that can't do that, you're a

520
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 2: player and a kicker that can't do that, then you

521
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 2: know you still have I think I think Canay will

522
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 2: still have some opportunities. It just won't be as much.

523
00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kind of makes me think about if teams

524
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 4: will start going with the squib kick right, like, that's

525
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:24,040
Speaker 4: it's hard.

526
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:25,480
Speaker 3: You can't fair catch a squibkig.

527
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 4: But if you place it in a in a good spot, like,

528
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 4: it's still returnable and it's advantageous for either your kickoff

529
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 4: team or your kick return team, depends on how well

530
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 4: prepared you are. Do you see that the squib kick

531
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 4: kind of making a I guess a resurgence in the

532
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 4: game of football.

533
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, for sure. I mean they're always gonna we're

534
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,919
Speaker 2: gonna take this opportunity, all these special teams coordinators and

535
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 2: figure out ways that all right, we don't want to

536
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 2: put our defense automatically on the twenty five to defend,

537
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 2: So what's the way that we can pin a team

538
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,040
Speaker 2: back behind the fifteen or the ten yard line? And

539
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,919
Speaker 2: if if using the ball in the air is going

540
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 2: to be advantageous for the return team, well, if your

541
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 2: kicker is good enough to find a spot that obviously

542
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 2: you that it wasn't, it doesn't get squibbed and take

543
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 2: a weird bounce and go out of bounds and then

544
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 2: you really get penalized. But if you can find a

545
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 2: spot in the middle part of between the hashes to

546
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 2: squib that ball and get it down there to where

547
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:25,400
Speaker 2: you you've got time for your covers team to get

548
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 2: down there, and then it limits the return I think

549
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 2: that's absolutely a weapon they should be using and I

550
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:32,200
Speaker 2: and I kind of hope to see it. I think

551
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,400
Speaker 2: that's going to lead to a lot more chaos. It's

552
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 2: going to be a lot more a lot more of

553
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 2: the returners having a hard time picking up these squibs

554
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 2: because you see it all the time, like a squib

555
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,360
Speaker 2: happens in a game and it's like these guys can't

556
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 2: pick up this hot potato, you know. So yeah, I

557
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 2: think that's a that's an option that will be used

558
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 2: and hopefully we see a lot more of it.

559
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 4: Ben, I know we're talking owners meetings right now, but

560
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,959
Speaker 4: less we got to switch to just the obvious elephant

561
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,120
Speaker 4: in the room, this Vikings defense. My initial thought process

562
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 4: is understanding that, you know, Zadarius isn't back, but we

563
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 4: do blitz a lot. That kind of mitigates having that

564
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 4: elite pass rusher because it still puts pressure on the defense.

565
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,720
Speaker 4: But when you look at this Vikings defense as a whole,

566
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 4: where do you want to see the improvement start.

567
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 2: Well, I've long said that I just think that we

568
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 2: have to be rock stars against the run, and that,

569
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 2: to me has been our biggest thing. And you know,

570
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 2: maybe there might be some games where statistically it's like, oh,

571
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:33,440
Speaker 2: we did a good job hold them under one hundred

572
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 2: yards or just limited right around a hundred yards. But

573
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 2: I think that you have to look at the effectiveness

574
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 2: of the runs and kind of when the runs happened

575
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 2: and where it sort of broke your back as a defense,

576
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 2: and I just think that overall, we weren't consist in

577
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 2: the area we need to be great at something. You know,

578
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 2: I don't think that you know, a lot of defenses,

579
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 2: you know, at the end of the season can hang

580
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,439
Speaker 2: their hat. If your top ten, top fifteen defense, you

581
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 2: can hang your hat at least one area where you're like,

582
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 2: you know what, we are elite at this area, Like

583
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:09,359
Speaker 2: we're we're superb at pass rushing, we are superb in

584
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 2: the run game. In the last three years, you couldn't

585
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 2: say one good thing about this defense that says, well,

586
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,119
Speaker 2: they are excellent at that. You know, if you're going

587
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 2: to beat them, well, good luck beat them in this area.

588
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 2: You're going to have to find other ways. And you know,

589
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:27,879
Speaker 2: when you're just kind of poor a lot of things,

590
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,880
Speaker 2: I mean, you can't get a handle on it. You're

591
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 2: constantly playing on your heels. You can't be the aggressor.

592
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 2: And so I think to use this Brian Flora's disguise

593
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 2: package and this blitz package, it's a lot more effective

594
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 2: when you're you're facing long yard situations. So stop the

595
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: run for second and third and long and then we

596
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 2: can use everything that we think Brian Flores is.

597
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:50,560
Speaker 5: Who do you think as a guy that is going

598
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 5: to benefit the most from this kind of revamped Brian

599
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 5: Flora's defense, given what you just talked about, I think,

600
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 5: you know, that's something I've been raising my hand ever

601
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 5: so since we lost Dalvin Tomlinson, feeling like he's going

602
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 5: to be a big loss and somebody really needs to

603
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 5: step up to kind of fill those shoes to help,

604
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 5: you know, with the trenches. Is there anyone else here,

605
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 5: you know defensively you think that really needs to step

606
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,479
Speaker 5: up to cement that so that we can see the

607
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 5: best benefits from this Brian floraz defense.

608
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 2: Well, first, you know, I think you know, we talk

609
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 2: about a guy that Harrison Smith. He's going to be

610
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 2: the catalyst. He'll be the trigger man for this defense

611
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 2: like we've seen in the past. I'm not saying it's

612
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 2: going to beneficial for him and it comes to numbers,

613
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:31,439
Speaker 2: because I think he's going to be the one that

614
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 2: manipulates what happens offensively, So he might not be the

615
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 2: one getting the interceptions, whatever, but he might be the

616
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 2: one that causes everything and causes all the chaos. Of course,

617
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:44,679
Speaker 2: you guys think about the guys up front, you know,

618
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:46,400
Speaker 2: they may I think we're going to see a lot

619
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 2: more free rushers. You're going to see you know, free

620
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 2: quarterback hits, some free sacks just because of miscounts and

621
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 2: misimmuication on the offensive line. But I really think the

622
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 2: guys in the middle part of the defense are going

623
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 2: to have the biggest jumped from last year when it

624
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 2: comes to statistics. I think if Murphy ends up playing

625
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,159
Speaker 2: that that nickel spot, whoever plays at nickel spot, I

626
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 2: think it's gonna be a big year for that person.

627
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:10,920
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a big year for the

628
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 2: linebackers getting getting tit balls, free interceptions, things of that nature,

629
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: free sacks because a lot of times, and you guys

630
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 2: have seen it when when a quarterback feels pressured and threatened,

631
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 2: you know they're gonna throw hot. They're gonna throw to

632
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 2: the day to where they think that they can get

633
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,400
Speaker 2: the ball off the easiest with without interruption. That's usually

634
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,640
Speaker 2: a checkdown or that's a tight end or something right

635
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,439
Speaker 2: in that five to eight yards where they can get

636
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 2: the ball off quick when they see blitz. And if

637
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 2: we disguise well enough and we can get guys dropping

638
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 2: on the right zones at the right time, I think

639
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 2: you're gonna see a lot more linebackers with hands on

640
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,480
Speaker 2: the ball, and hopefully are our nickel cornerback as well.

641
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that would be great. Ben Over.

642
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 4: This past weekend, Pro Football Focus put out an interesting tweet.

643
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 4: They added a legend to every current NFC North team

644
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 4: that they believed could help the vik right now, and

645
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 4: they put Dante Colepepper as the one for the Vikings.

646
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 4: I'm gonna switch it out and go defense with you.

647
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 4: If you could add any legend to miss Karen Vikings

648
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 4: team for the defenses out.

649
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 3: Of the ball, who would it be? And why?

650
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 2: John Randall lands down, I mean, yeah, me too, And

651
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 2: I would even say John Randall from offense and defense.

652
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 2: I mean, I know Pro Football Focus are going to

653
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: say Dante Culpepper. You know, for whatever reasons I didn't,

654
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 2: I didn't necessarily read the article. I guess I saw

655
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 2: the tweet, but I didn't read why. But I again

656
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 2: going back to this defense, This defense needs an intimidator,

657
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 2: like they need somebody that can walk the walk and

658
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 2: talk the talk. And then John Randall's one of those

659
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 2: guys from the time that he played and now as

660
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 2: we added up historically against all the other you know,

661
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 2: all the other Hall of famers, like he's at the

662
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 2: tippy top of the spear. You know, he's not just

663
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 2: a Hall of Famer, he's like one of the top

664
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 2: one hundred players to ever play the game of football ever,

665
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 2: regardless of position. So to me, I think that he

666
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 2: would make a difference, a huge difference, not only in

667
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 2: the locker room, but you know, every offensive lineman in

668
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 2: the NFC North would be shaking in their boots when

669
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 2: they get John Randall lineup in front of them, talking

670
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 2: about you know, talking about their their mamas and how

671
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 2: they're going to come after him, how they're gonna embarrass

672
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 2: you embarrass him on national TV, and you know he's

673
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 2: just barking and cheering and hollering the whole game, and

674
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 2: and you know, handslapping he had running past you. I mean,

675
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 2: the guy was a monster and I'd love to see him.

676
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 2: I think he could. I think he could be one

677
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 2: of the generational players that could compete right now.

678
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 5: Yeah, two things for me. I wrote down two names initially,

679
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 5: which was John Randall or Kevin Williams, just to help

680
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 5: with that defensive line. But the thing about John, I

681
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 5: was just thinking as you were saying that John did

682
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,520
Speaker 5: all of that either with a phone book or a

683
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 5: PR guide. Now imagine John Randall with the Internet being

684
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 5: able to do some digging on people. There'd be some

685
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 5: incredible stuff that would come out.

686
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 2: Oh my god, can you imagine. It's like he's just

687
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 2: gonna be overflowing this information.

688
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 5: He'd be he'd be pulling out like Instagram from someone's

689
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 5: college back in the day and just going, really, you

690
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 5: wore that shirt and stuff like that. I mean, I

691
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 5: think John Randall would be incredible, And I really did

692
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 5: think about it going you know, everyone talks about Purple

693
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 5: people leaders and they were amazing, but John's physicality as

694
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 5: well as kind of the mental toughness that he had

695
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 5: is what separated him. And that's why I felt like

696
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:17,160
Speaker 5: either he or somebody that was a leader like Kevin

697
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 5: Williams defensively, you know, line wise, would be just a

698
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 5: huge help on this defense.

699
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 3: Yeah.

700
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, not only just from his

701
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 2: physical stature and what he can do with production, but

702
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 2: like I said, I think I think there's you know,

703
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 2: the intimidation has been lost from this game, and there

704
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 2: are a few guys that still command that, and you know,

705
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 2: certainly I don't. I just think it's fewer and far between.

706
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 2: When we have these players that that teams just absolutely fear,

707
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 2: and Aaron Donald's probably one of them on the defensive

708
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 2: front that you can name, And I can't really think

709
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,959
Speaker 2: of anybody else that you'd be like, well, I wouldn't

710
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:54,720
Speaker 2: want to see that guy every every single week, and

711
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 2: John Randall would do that for us.

712
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that. I want to transition to legends,

713
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 4: starting with with one. We'll end it with Bud, but

714
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 4: I want to talk about Bob Hagen, just recently retired.

715
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 4: I know you work with him. He had a thirty

716
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 4: two year career here with this Minnesota Vikings team. Just

717
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 4: just what were your just initial impressions or just any

718
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 4: stories that you have on Bob Hagen.

719
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 2: Well, Bob, you know, when I was a player, you

720
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 2: always felt like you always felt like Bob, you know,

721
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 2: wasn't wasn't working for like management or the upper manager

722
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 2: or the owners like that. Like you really felt like

723
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 2: Bob was like he's one of the guys. You know,

724
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 2: he was going to protect you. He and his staff

725
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 2: were going to protect you. As a player. You trust him,

726
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 2: you could you could talk to him like a man

727
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 2: and trust that information was going to stay just between

728
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 2: you know yourselves. You know, immediately there is this this

729
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 2: just trust factor, And I think that's huge. I mean,

730
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 2: I think that's really it's a really hard thing to

731
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 2: get in this business, especially now when you know the

732
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 2: leaked information happens everywhere. It's become a little bit a

733
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 2: little bit of a a celebrity game with the with

734
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 2: professional sports, where people just want dirt, people want information,

735
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 2: and they're going to coherse people and try to get

736
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 2: information out of people. And you know, it's hard to

737
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 2: it's hard to know who to trust in any building.

738
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 2: And he was a guy that you can trust, you know,

739
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 2: when I got done playing. You know, there are multiple

740
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 2: times where I think he had to he had to

741
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 2: talk to people within the building, you know, when it

742
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 2: came to me being a broadcaster now and you know

743
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 2: whether or not they could trust me. And you know,

744
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 2: he went to bat for me a lot, you know,

745
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 2: and I own I own that because I don't think

746
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 2: that I would be in this position right now without him,

747
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 2: you know, going to bat for me and saying like, no,

748
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 2: guys like he's not going to be, you know, saying X,

749
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 2: Y and Z that you think you know he's he's

750
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 2: going to be. He's just going to say the right

751
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 2: things and all this other stuff. And so you know,

752
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 2: for that, I'm like forever grateful. He's He's been a

753
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 2: great friend and a guy that I've always trusted ever

754
00:33:57,960 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 2: since I got here in two thousand and six.

755
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,520
Speaker 5: He's also a guy that has a hell of a

756
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 5: lot of recommendations for pizza's places for stuff.

757
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,319
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you need if you need restaurants and

758
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 2: concert information, you know he's got you doubt it. And

759
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,680
Speaker 2: the great thing about it too is, you know, when

760
00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 2: I was doing you know, some more college football stuff

761
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,360
Speaker 2: or I'm doing something else that's not Vikings related. I'm not.

762
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,280
Speaker 2: I'm not lying it is. I'm not putting hot sauce

763
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 2: on this. Everybody asks how's Hagen and how's his staff?

764
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 2: That's awesome, everybody, everybody knows Bob Hagan like he He

765
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,399
Speaker 2: truly was an institution in the NFL speaking institutions.

766
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 5: You know, this past weekend at the US Bank Stadium,

767
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 5: there was a celebration of Bud Grant's life, and there

768
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 5: was a really well done program. They had, you know,

769
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 5: three to four thousand people that actually were there, and

770
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 5: I think between Bud Grant's family, friends, former players, everyone

771
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 5: was just kind of gushing of what he meant to

772
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,240
Speaker 5: not only the family, but the organization and the state.

773
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,279
Speaker 5: And you know, he's just a guy that's always been

774
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 5: larger than life ever since growing up in the state

775
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,719
Speaker 5: of Minnesota here and I'm sure for you playing and

776
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,320
Speaker 5: just see him around the building, you know, but is

777
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 5: one of those guys that's always been an institution. Do

778
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 5: you have anything that really stands out as far as

779
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 5: what Bud Grant meant to you or at least to

780
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 5: this organization while you were here.

781
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 2: Well, obviously didn't didn't play with him, didn't play with him,

782
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 2: didn't have any experiences one on one. But the one

783
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 2: thing that that everybody always told me was, you know,

784
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 2: when he was a coach, he was a tremendous leader

785
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,280
Speaker 2: in the way that he allowed his coaches to coach,

786
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 2: he allowed the players to play, and he he had

787
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 2: this level of expectation that every single player knew that

788
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 2: they had to live up to, and they felt so

789
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 2: disappointed if they did not meet that expectation. And I

790
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 2: know that can be done in a variety of different ways,

791
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 2: but they said, you know, the way that he did it,

792
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 2: you know, in this sort of stoic nature. You know,

793
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 2: I think some people come in with this megaphone of

794
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 2: a personality and they say, you got to you know,

795
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 2: I'm demanding respect, like you have to respect me because

796
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 2: of the nature of the position that that person's in.

797
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 2: But everything that I heard about Bud was, you know,

798
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 2: he wasn't going to talk about, you know, how good

799
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,239
Speaker 2: of a coach he thought he was. He just came

800
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 2: in with this this this inner confidence of this is

801
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 2: who I am, this is how our coach, and these

802
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 2: are my expectations. And if you don't uphold those, then

803
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 2: we're going to find somebody else. And I think that

804
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 2: that just sort of that nuts and bolts mentality and

805
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,479
Speaker 2: expectation is what made him in the teams that he

806
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 2: commanded so successful. They knew the job that they had

807
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:36,840
Speaker 2: to do, and they knew exactly how they're going to

808
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 2: go about it to do it. And you know, I

809
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 2: think there's a there's a lot, there's a lot to

810
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 2: be said for that. I mean, I think in some

811
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 2: ways we you know, we could go back to that

812
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 2: where it says less about the pomp and circumstance and

813
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 2: just get the job done.

814
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 3: Yeah.

815
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 2: Yeah.

816
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 5: Two things that really stood out for me at the

817
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 5: event was, you know, the how many of the former

818
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 5: coaches like Paul Wiggan, or players or everyone just kind

819
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,120
Speaker 5: of said, like you just talked about he didn't He

820
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,839
Speaker 5: wasn't a yeller, he wasn't a screamer. He was just

821
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 5: he'd give you a look or just calmly talk to

822
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:06,879
Speaker 5: you and tell you what he wanted. If he got

823
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 5: it done, great and if you didn't, you knew it

824
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 5: was going to be a problem. And one of the

825
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 5: stories that they talked about too was they said, you know,

826
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,279
Speaker 5: Pete Carroll was a secondary coach, and they were out

827
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 5: there at training camp and they went out to do

828
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 5: practice and Pete just comes up to him. He's like, hey, coach,

829
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 5: you know what's the plan? Like, you know, there wasn't

830
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 5: any kind of notes or a script or anything like that.

831
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 5: And Bud just looked at him and he said, hey, Pete,

832
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:30,759
Speaker 5: you know why did I hire you? And he's like,

833
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 5: you know, I hired you just coach secondary, So go

834
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:37,919
Speaker 5: coach secondary. He let everyone kind of figure out their

835
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 5: methodology and their ability to be able to coach at

836
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:42,800
Speaker 5: the best level that they could. And I'm sure it

837
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 5: wasn't just always go out there and just coach, but

838
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,239
Speaker 5: it was something where there were those moments where I

839
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 5: think for a lot of those coaches that worked for him,

840
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 5: that they found a little bit more confidence in being

841
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 5: a coach, that they could be a leader, that he

842
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 5: wasn't going to just jump on you immediately if you

843
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 5: weren't doing things right. It was more of a let

844
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 5: you play out, but then we can talk about, you know,

845
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 5: what your methodology is. If he didn't agree with it,

846
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,400
Speaker 5: it just it felt like there were expectations there and

847
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 5: you didn't want to disappoint Dad. You know, in those

848
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 5: kind of moments, and so I just felt like, as

849
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 5: a coach, there's leadership and then there's coaching, and it

850
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:15,840
Speaker 5: felt like he had both.

851
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 3: Yeah.

852
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I think a lot of you know,

853
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 2: we we get sometimes caught up in the in the

854
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,879
Speaker 2: in the word and the definitions and and oh, what's

855
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 2: the right word I'm thinking about. But the semantics of

856
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 2: the situation that you know, coach is this teacher, you know,

857
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 2: and I can just I can just picture but in

858
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,880
Speaker 2: that situation you're talking about with Pete Carroll and be like,

859
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 2: go teach, Yeah, go to a teacher like here. Just

860
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 2: take your guys and go work on the things you

861
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:43,319
Speaker 2: need to work on.

862
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 3: You know.

863
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 2: That's that's it, Like, just go teach you guys up.

864
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 5: And as I said at the event, you know, it

865
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:48,839
Speaker 5: seemed to have worked out for Pete at this point.

866
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, love it. Ben. Appreciate you, my man.

867
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate you guys too.

868
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 5: Man.

869
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,239
Speaker 2: Always always love talking to you guys and talking ball

870
00:38:58,360 --> 00:38:59,799
Speaker 2: and all this stuff. And it's funny that I was

871
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,120
Speaker 2: just mentioned the other day on the radio, and I'm like,

872
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:03,719
Speaker 2: I know that we're we're going to enjoy the off

873
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 2: season and the seasons can be upon us pretty quickly.

874
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 2: But there was like a moment there where like I

875
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:09,799
Speaker 2: kind of wish that training camp was starting, like I

876
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 2: miss I miss football already.

877
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's it's weird, like I think just being at

878
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 4: TCO and not seeing you or Pete or Paul, like

879
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 4: it's like, man.

880
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 3: Like it really is off season.

881
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 4: And you started to get the butterflies once the players

882
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 4: started to get back and it's like, okay, like now

883
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 4: we finally get to start talking football. So that's that's

884
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 4: why I'm so happy to have you on, just just

885
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 4: to get the juices flown a little bit.

886
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, love it guys. Thanks man, Thanks you have

887
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 2: a great day.

888
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:39,399
Speaker 4: Just amazing words that Ben Lieber shared about Bud grantson Jay.

889
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 4: You were you were at the celebration of life for

890
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 4: Bud Grant at US Bank Stadium, and I know you

891
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 4: tweeted out a little bit about it. You just shared

892
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 4: some of your your thoughts and just you know, kind

893
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 4: words that that came from that ceremony. But what where

894
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,360
Speaker 4: were some other things that stood out to you just

895
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:54,839
Speaker 4: just being there and filling.

896
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,760
Speaker 3: The energy of Bud Grant's presence.

897
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 5: I think part of it for me is I this

898
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:00,319
Speaker 5: was one of those moments when they now that they

899
00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 5: were going to do it. I wanted to be there,

900
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 5: whether I was helping or not. Given kind of what

901
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,440
Speaker 5: he's meant to the state, and as a fan of

902
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 5: the team and just having seen him around all those years,

903
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 5: the thing that I would probably characterize that was the

904
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 5: theme of the whole thing was authenticity. He's a guy

905
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:22,080
Speaker 5: that you know, they were talking about Saturdays before games

906
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:23,920
Speaker 5: and everyone's stressing out. You're thinking a coach is going

907
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 5: to be sitting in his office trying to figure out

908
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,399
Speaker 5: more game plans. Nine times out of ten, he's sitting

909
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 5: in a duck blind or on a lake fishing somewhere,

910
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 5: trying to clear his head. And you know, with the

911
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 5: attitude of listen, if we haven't put in the work

912
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:37,919
Speaker 5: and everyone knows what's going on by now, like we're

913
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,880
Speaker 5: in trouble. So he was a guy that had outside interests.

914
00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 5: He tried to have his priorities in order. He was

915
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:47,839
Speaker 5: not a guy that everyone cited as being constantly here

916
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:49,719
Speaker 5: until you know, wee hours in the morning and then

917
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 5: getting here, you know, sleeping on his couch or something.

918
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 5: It was more of a put your work in, go home,

919
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 5: spend time with your friends and family, have a priority

920
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,720
Speaker 5: to life, and find outside things that you're interested in doing.

921
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 5: And you really saw it as even the amount of

922
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 5: people that they had on the dais. You had a

923
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 5: group of people that were the local sports reporters, including

924
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 5: Chad Hartman talking about Sit and Bud's relationship, which was

925
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 5: just incredible. You also had a group of players that

926
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 5: were there with Chuck Foreman, Stu Void, Scott Studwell and

927
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:22,680
Speaker 5: Carl Eller and just that group talking about what it

928
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 5: meant to work with him and to kind of that

929
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 5: respect factor of it. You had video messages coming in

930
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:34,360
Speaker 5: from fran Tarkington, Amad Rashad, Jim Marshall again, guys that

931
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 5: all felt important enough to take their time to do

932
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 5: that and wanted to be there and just had to

933
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,480
Speaker 5: give their take on it. And then outside of that,

934
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,319
Speaker 5: you had the family with Mike Grant being the representative.

935
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,359
Speaker 5: You had Senator Amy Klobasher who had known him since

936
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,000
Speaker 5: she was a little girl with her dad being a

937
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 5: local sports reporter, told some incredible stories between the two

938
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 5: of them as well, and even the US Senate was

939
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 5: able to basically create a decree that everyone had voted

940
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,520
Speaker 5: on recognizing Bud Grant for his contributions not only as

941
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 5: a you know, NFL coach kind of a thing, but

942
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:07,640
Speaker 5: as an American. And so for someone like Bud who

943
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 5: crossed all platforms. He played in the NBA, played in

944
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:14,640
Speaker 5: the NFL, played in the CFL, coached in the NFL,

945
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:16,760
Speaker 5: coached in the CFL to a bunch of great cups,

946
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:21,480
Speaker 5: like he was kind of the prototypical definition of what

947
00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 5: it meant to, you know, be a winner and to

948
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 5: kind of have your priority straight on that kind of stuff.

949
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 5: And it was just an amazing, amazing program. And you

950
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 5: can definitely go online and find that stuff Vikings dot com.

951
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 5: And I know that there's going to be some broadcasts

952
00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 5: as well coming through Fox nine, And so just if

953
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,560
Speaker 5: you weren't able to catch it as it happened on

954
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 5: Sunday at noon, please please please go back and watch

955
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 5: that because there's some incredible stories and I think they

956
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,359
Speaker 5: did a really great job of creating a program that

957
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 5: really just kind of showed who this man was and

958
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 5: why he was important to so many people.

959
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 4: That's well said, and we'll wrap up the podcast with this.

960
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 4: You sent me a funny tweet early this week talking

961
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 4: about a guy and Josh Johnson, Yes, who is getting

962
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 4: ready to play for his twenty fourth different team. Like

963
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 4: granted he's played for a few of those teams more

964
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,239
Speaker 4: than once, but right now, he just got signed by

965
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 4: the Baltimore Ravens and this is his third stints with

966
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 4: the Baltimore Ravens and.

967
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:20,760
Speaker 5: Hopefully he didn't sell his apartment.

968
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, like he's the true definition of a journeyman, oh

969
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,840
Speaker 4: for sure. But I just remember telling you that story

970
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 4: of you know, it was the same year twenty eighteen

971
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 4: where Alex Smith broke his leg. Washington Commanders went through

972
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 4: four different quarterbacks and Josh Johnson was in the locker

973
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 4: room with EJ. Manuel, Mark Sanchez, not Jacoby Brissett, j C.

974
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:40,839
Speaker 3: Bart.

975
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 4: There were so many college just phenops in that one

976
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 4: locker room and Josh Johnson actually got the call and.

977
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 3: He won a game for the Commanders that year.

978
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 4: But just seeing how his career has evolved, Jay, I

979
00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 4: don't think we will ever see anything else like it.

980
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,160
Speaker 5: It's incredibly impressive to me because if you think about

981
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:01,080
Speaker 5: the average lifespan of a football player period in the NFL,

982
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:03,120
Speaker 5: you're looking at kind of that three and a half

983
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,120
Speaker 5: to four year range is the typical NFL experience, which

984
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 5: is incredible to think about. For a guy like this

985
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 5: to be able to go to different organizations and then

986
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,120
Speaker 5: have multiple stints at those organizations and not only was

987
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 5: an NFL, but he was in the UFL, the AAF

988
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 5: and the XFL. Like this guy has done whatever it's

989
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 5: taken to find his place and stuck around as long

990
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 5: as he has. I mean, it's undeniable the fact that

991
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,280
Speaker 5: this guy has talent. This guy know what he's talking about.

992
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 5: The best part to me is that you look at

993
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 5: a team like the forty nine ers, who had brought

994
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 5: him in four different times. You have the Ravens three

995
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,880
Speaker 5: different times. There's just there's a whole host of teams

996
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:41,919
Speaker 5: here within this list, and you look at a guy

997
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:44,799
Speaker 5: like that and you think about even a couple weeks ago,

998
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,359
Speaker 5: there was the guy for the Pittsburgh Pirates who had

999
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 5: been in the minor leagues for eleven seasons and he

1000
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 5: finally got the call up. You look at a guy

1001
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,879
Speaker 5: like this, after seeing Field Yates tweet out his list

1002
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 5: of teams that he's played for, and you just look

1003
00:44:57,520 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 5: at it and say this is a guy who is

1004
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:02,919
Speaker 5: doing everything he can to try to you know, live

1005
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 5: his dream and to keep doing that. And you know,

1006
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:07,440
Speaker 5: if he wants to, I'm sure after all of this

1007
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 5: experience in all these different places, he could definitely find

1008
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:11,920
Speaker 5: a way for coaching too when he's done, if he

1009
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,919
Speaker 5: wanted to say. But to me, the best part about

1010
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 5: it is it just shows this guy's willing, willingness and

1011
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 5: determination to you know, push everything forward, push all his

1012
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,480
Speaker 5: chips in and say no, no, no, this is what

1013
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 5: it is. And if this is what it's going to

1014
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,319
Speaker 5: mean for me to keep living this dream and keep

1015
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 5: experiencing it this way, you know, I'm going to do

1016
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 5: everything I can to make it happen. So kudos to

1017
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,320
Speaker 5: Josh Johnson for all of his efforts over all the

1018
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 5: years with all of these different teams.

1019
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 4: Fifteen years playing football for twenty four different teams. Good golly, hey,

1020
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 4: I mean, whatever works. But at the same time, he

1021
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 4: understands how to make a locker room better, and I

1022
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:49,520
Speaker 4: think that that goes into signing a guy in Josh Johnson.

1023
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 4: And speaking of signing a guy, will end it here.

1024
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 4: The Vikings just signed wide receiver from the DC Defenders

1025
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:59,400
Speaker 4: Lucky Jackson. Of course, we know the DC Defenders were

1026
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:02,319
Speaker 4: in the XFOL Championship against the Renegades, in which they

1027
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 4: lost a few weeks ago. But it is very interesting

1028
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 4: because in order to sign Lucky Jackson, the Vikings get

1029
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 4: rid of their twenty twenty seventh round draft pick, mister

1030
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:16,880
Speaker 4: Kenny Willikiss from Michigan State. So we know this Vikings

1031
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,399
Speaker 4: team wants to throw the ball, and why not get

1032
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,759
Speaker 4: another wide receiver someone who is literally just got done

1033
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,320
Speaker 4: playing football a couple of weeks ago, so he's already

1034
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:29,239
Speaker 4: in football condition, and he gets an opportunity to come

1035
00:46:29,239 --> 00:46:31,720
Speaker 4: in and compete with some guys that are willingly ready

1036
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:33,719
Speaker 4: to make that fifty three man.

1037
00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 3: Roster this year.

1038
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,840
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was really interesting to me. I've been curious

1039
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:39,879
Speaker 5: to see how many guys from the XFL or these

1040
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 5: other leagues are going to get a shot, and the

1041
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:44,279
Speaker 5: fact that Lucky is getting one here with us is

1042
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 5: pretty good. One of the things that was interesting when

1043
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 5: I was looking through all of his different teams. Started

1044
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:50,759
Speaker 5: at Western Kentucky for school, and then went to the

1045
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:54,319
Speaker 5: TSL Blues Edmonton Elks in the CFL, and then has

1046
00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 5: been here with the DC defenders had ten games, thirty

1047
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 5: six receptions, five hundred sevent two yards five touchdowns, so

1048
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:03,880
Speaker 5: basically scored it a half a touchdown per game in

1049
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:06,359
Speaker 5: their ten game season. And one of the things that

1050
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 5: was that's great about it to me is you just

1051
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 5: see a guy who has been grinding and trying to

1052
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 5: do it the right way getting a shot here at

1053
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,879
Speaker 5: the NFL again, kind of like Josh, you know, doing

1054
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:18,320
Speaker 5: what he can to get a chance in the NFL.

1055
00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 5: I am curious to see since we've had how many

1056
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 5: discussions about the wide receiver room again going back to

1057
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 5: the special team side of it as well, I'm really

1058
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,400
Speaker 5: curious to see what kind of a run he gets

1059
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:31,720
Speaker 5: here with us. Yeah, and try out, But like you said,

1060
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 5: you know, he's already in football shape.

1061
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 3: He's already been in go mode.

1062
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:35,959
Speaker 5: And I think a guy like him, if he finally

1063
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 5: gets this crackier with the NFL, is going to do

1064
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,040
Speaker 5: everything you can to stick on a roster.

1065
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 4: I'm excited for I'm excited for the competition for a

1066
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 4: training camp. I know we got a few more weeks

1067
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,360
Speaker 4: of OTAs and then mandatory mini camp in June, but

1068
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 4: football is heating up. Jay, I'm excited just to be

1069
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:52,360
Speaker 4: able to be a part of it again. Like Ben said,

1070
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 4: there was a little bit of a lull as far

1071
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 4: as you know.

1072
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 3: There's no football going on.

1073
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 4: You're trying to figure out it's like, man like, is

1074
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 4: it just me or I missed the actual game. So

1075
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,120
Speaker 4: the fact that we're getting closer and closer schedule release

1076
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 4: just came out. We just got done with the NFL Draft,

1077
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,600
Speaker 4: and now NFL owners meetings are wrapping up. This is

1078
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 4: going to be an exciting football season, and I'm sure

1079
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:13,840
Speaker 4: it's going to be a learning experience for all of

1080
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 4: us that either best involved with the team or in

1081
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 4: some shape or capacity.

1082
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 5: For me, the best part is all of the speculation

1083
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:24,919
Speaker 5: season is essentially over. You're now at OTA's and mini

1084
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:27,399
Speaker 5: camp like you just talked about, and then you get

1085
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 5: that little bit of a lull where the next thing

1086
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:32,879
Speaker 5: is training camp. Everyone keeps citing that. You know, time

1087
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 5: seems like it just accelerates quicker and quicker and quicker.

1088
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,359
Speaker 5: We are at that point in the season where it

1089
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:40,440
Speaker 5: can't come fast enough, but then it comes too.

1090
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 3: Fast and type.

1091
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 5: So that's the thing for me is this is the

1092
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,160
Speaker 5: time of year that you really get excited knowing that

1093
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 5: how many people are getting their shot in the NFL,

1094
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,799
Speaker 5: and as we've seen even today, the idea that this

1095
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 5: roster is not complete. There's still going to be moves

1096
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:57,120
Speaker 5: and stuff that are going to happen. So make sure

1097
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 5: to stick around Vikings dot com, social media, the podcast,

1098
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 5: anywhere else for all the latest information and just keep

1099
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,040
Speaker 5: your ears to everything that's happening because this is going

1100
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:09,880
Speaker 5: to be a very very fun off season and season.

1101
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:13,319
Speaker 4: Stay tuned, guys, Vikings dot com, Vikings social Media, and

1102
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,320
Speaker 4: we'll wrap the show with that. For j Nelson, mister Vanlieber,

1103
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:18,239
Speaker 4: who is our special guest for today. My name is

1104
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 4: Gabe Henderson. We'll see you guys next week on the

1105
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 4: Minnesota Vikings Podcast.