October 25, 2022 • 30 mins
Minnesota Vikings WR Adam Thielen talks to Mike Silver about how the Vikings got to their current 5-1 record, and then look back at the many coaches who told Thielen he was not cut out for college and professional football, his atypical path to the NFL, a joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals where Adam "Pacman" Jones punched him in the face, and the moment in the 2018 Playoffs when legendary coach Bill Belichick told him to shut the !@#$ up. He also discusses the trade between the Vikings and Buffalo Bills which saw Stefon Diggs and Justin Jefferson swap teams, Kirk Cousins' pregame speeches, and trying to figure out which player on the Vikings was dating Lizzo. #volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, open mic is fired up for
this guest. It is impossible not to root for Adam
Phelan if you know his story and how improbable it
is that he is playing in the NFL let alone
(00:23):
tearing it up a decade in. But I so, I
was already a fan. But then uh in ten uh,
a legendary coach told him, well, we'll get into it
in the podcast. But he uh, he got sworn at
during a game by a legendary coach and from that
point on to be he was just a living legend. Adam,
(00:45):
how are you, man? I'm great, Thanks for having me
right on. Well, I will get to that celebrated moment
because it's one of my all time favorites. But uh yeah,
I mean you are part of a Vikings team that's
really started out well at five and one, no Kevin
O'Connell for a while. It's really cool what you guys
(01:06):
have going. You know, we always hear the words culture
change pretty much at any time there's a coaching change.
What is it really meant in terms of Kevin and
and quite the dopaments that coming in at how you
guys have experienced it? Yeah, I think just Uh, leadership.
You know, I think, uh, it's not. It's a collaborative leadership.
It's not just one guy being a good leader. It's
(01:29):
multiple people from the top, you know, being really good leaders.
And UM, you know, I think there's different ways you
can lead, UM, but I feel like when when you
really get a bunch of good leaders that collaborate together,
they kind of know their weaknesses, they know their strengths
and kind of feed off one another. It's just, uh,
it's a combination that isn't gonna necessarily make sure make
(01:50):
you win games, UM, but it's gonna set you up
to handle adversity. And I feel like in this league, UM,
that's more important than probably XS and O. It's just
being able to handle adversity because at any point in
the season, you're gonna hit some some tough patches. And
I mean every game, throughout a game, you're gonna have
some rough patches. So being able to handle adversity and
to be able to lean on one another and and
(02:12):
to really look up to your leadership, UM, has really
been the biggest notice are noticeable thing that I've seen,
um these first six weeks. Yeah, and I know, you know,
it's a grind what you guys do. It's not always
you know, we see the touchdowns at all that, but
you guys, you know, it's a long, long process and
you guys are together a lot. Um having an offensive
(02:33):
minded head coach or a head coach with an offensive background,
first of all, is that different from your perspective? It is,
for sure. It's the first time in my career having
an offensive minded head coach. Um. You know, I think
I think though, even though he is definitely offensive minded, UM,
and you know, he's he's calling our plays and he's
in a lot of our most of our offensive meetings obviously. UM,
(02:56):
but I think he does a great job of being
the head coach, you know, not being the offensive coordinator. UM.
I think he does a great job of understanding that
that this is a team game and then we need
every single aspect of this team special teams, defense, offense
to really play together comprom right football. And I think
he just does a great job of of kind of
picking up everybody. Um. There's no point in fingers, Um,
(03:19):
it's just it's just, hey, what do we need to
do this week to to win? And uh, it might
look different each week, and you find a way, But um,
I think he does a great job of of being
the head like head coach, not um just offensive head coach.
So you know your story has been well documented. You
were you know, you've got a I guess we can
call it a scholarship offer out of high school and
(03:42):
you know we're not ticketed for NFL stardom. Um, you
obviously had to overcome a lot and have just an
incredible self belief. Do you remember a couple of moments
where you know you were either told flat out like dude,
you are dreaming, you are not You're not going to
play on that level, or where you were just completely
(04:06):
you know, counted out that you you kind of access
oh yeah, every every step of the way for me,
which has kind of put a little bit of fuel
to in my fire. Um. You know it's something that's
always kind of added that you know, as people say
a chip on your shoulder, you know, I think that's um,
you know, it kind of just stacks on um every
step of the way. You know. I remember coming into
(04:26):
college and I tell the story I very much every
time I talked to a group. But you know, I
I remember coming into the recruiting trips and and going
to Mankato, and I was it was like a walk
on visit Mankato. Um. This is before the the coaching
staff got fired and they had new coaches. But I
sat down with the offensive corter and he kind of
sat my mom and I down and said, you know,
I don't think that your son has cut out for
(04:48):
division to football. He's probably should go play basketball somewhere.
Um and uh, you know, and then and then you know,
going into the even to the NFL, um um part
of my journey, I remember coaches saying, hey, maybe maybe
like Arena ball or or or Canadian football, I can
see that, but um, you know, I don't know if
(05:08):
you should even try for the NFL. So there's there's
always kind of been that, but again, you know that
that kind of just adds field of my fire. And
then and then even looking in the NFL, you know,
people had me kind of, um peg to be just
a special teams guy, just a guy that's gonna go
out there and try hard and and um, you know,
do his job on special teams and just be a
special teamers for his career. But um, again, those those
(05:31):
things are I think for the reason why I'm where
I'm at no doubt. So I I did a book
with Kurt Warner coming off of the Miracle ninety nine season.
You'll see behind me, that's a American underdog signed helmet.
Twenty one years later it turned into a movie, and uh,
(05:52):
you know, so I have a sucker for all the
underdog stories always and his was his was certainly right
up there. Um, you know, did you kind of draw
on inspiration from any and either him or anyone's story
where they were just kind of counted out and told
there's no way? Yeah, definitely. I Mean those are all, um,
(06:15):
you know things that you look up to, Um, you know,
all the motivational things you see, Um, you kind of
just compile those things and you look up to those
people for for handling anniversity, for sticking it out, for
believing in themselves. Um. You know one thing I've always
kind of felt like, Um, I've always kind of never
been like a big motivation guy. It's more so just
(06:35):
just living in the moment um. And you know, even
when I look back to my college days, like I
never thought about playing in the NFL, or or writing
down like I'm gonna be in the NFL someday. I
just focused on each day like I wanted to. I
wanted to win the day, like I truly wanted to
win the day, and whether that be in the weight room,
whether it be on the basketball court and pick up basketball,
(06:55):
like I just wanted to go out there and and
and be the best I could that day. And I
feel like when you just continue to do that over
and over and over, it it adds up. And when
you're not, you're not focused on the future here, you're
not looking into the future, like obviously you have that
in the back of your head, in the back of
your mind, um, but but just kind of just focusing
on on one day at a time and letting that
all kind of just play out. Coming out of Minnesota State,
(07:18):
mat Kato, you had to go to one of those
regional combines that I laughed because I was an NFL
network for a long time and the reporters always had
a joke about who drew the regional combine the side
of it, because you know, it's kind of like the
season's over, and you know, no one wants to travel
as much, and you know some people are high profile,
and then you've got the regional combines. So that's from
(07:41):
a reporter's perspective, from a player's perspective. You know, you're
just trying to make a name for yourself. What do
you remember about that? First of all, well, like I
can totally get where you guys are coming from because
you show up there and it's very underwhelming. Uh you know,
I feel like I look back to that day and
I don't remember. Well, it was a long time ago,
(08:01):
but um, I do remember coming in there and being
like what am I doing? Um? This this was a
waste of money and time. But because you paid, right,
you had to pay your own way there. Yeah, you
paid to go there. It was in Chicago, so you
had to get you find a way to get there.
Luckily had a good friend, um who who said, hey,
I'll drive you there a little make a little weekend
(08:22):
out of it. So three of us jumped in a
vehicle and and drove to Chicago, stayed in the hotel
and and I did the did the combine. But um,
but yeah, it definitely you show up and there's guys
that maybe I've never played football before. I remember they
sent a quarterback home like after him throwing like five
balls or like just just leave because he couldn't throw
(08:42):
the football, so you're kind of thinking like, oh boy,
what am I doing? But um, at the end of
the day, it was an opportunity to put numbers out there.
You know, I had no other opportunity. There wasn't scouts
coming to Mankato to get numbers, to get times and
things like that. And I never had ran a forty
before that in my life. Uh So it was an
opportunity and and thankfully I did it um and got
invited to the Super Regional, which which was much better.
(09:04):
You know, there was actually guys there that that were
that got drafted, um that were there were big college
players that just just missed out on the on the
you know, the real NFL combine. That's crazy. So and
then uh, in May, you ended up going to a
Vikings rookie midicamp, you know, trying one of many people
just trying to land a spot. I did a little
(09:27):
recon on this because I know big Bill bus Grave
very well covered up as a player and he was
the Vikings offensive coordinator at the time. I joked to
him that he had discovered you, and he texted back
more like he discovered us. What was that? What was that?
Little rookie minticamp. Like, yeah, I mean honestly, I was.
(09:51):
I was honestly at that time. Looking back at it,
I obviously understand it, but I was a little a little,
um you know, frustrated honestly that I didn't get an
opportunit need to go somewhere, UM just signed, you know,
like there's ninety guys on a roster spot. I felt
like I put together numbers that stood up with anybody.
And then, um, you know, I just felt like I
had the tangibles with uh, you know, my ability to
(10:13):
catch the football and and and I had film, I
had numbers in college. So I just felt like like
almost like I, uh again I was getting overlooked and
added some field of the fire. But then, yeah, you know,
going to that camp, you know, it's obviously an opportunity.
I was super excited my hometown team to be able
to just go out there and play football again. Um,
you know, I never know if I I know, at
(10:33):
that point, I didn't know if I had taken my
last snap of football in my in my life. So
um to get another opportunity to just go out and
play football, Um, I joke around. I look back at
that moment. And I'm more nervous right now thinking about
that moment than I was in the moment. I just
was out there playing football. I felt like a kid
in in uh you know, elementary school is going on
(10:53):
in the backyard and playing football again. So, um, what
a what a great moment. And then I was able
to have a little success in a short short time
and was able to stay stay around a little longer.
That's awesome. And you know, and for people who don't know,
it was a year of the practice squad, it was
special teams. You know, this was even when you made
the team, it took a while before you finally, you know,
(11:15):
got a chance to really to shout as a receiver.
Weren't there some joint workouts against the Bengals where like
Pacbad Jones and Drake Kirkpatrick didn't want to line up
against you. Oh yeah, that was That's a true story.
They would I would get up in line and and
they would kind of look around the huddle and be like, no,
(11:35):
I'm not going against him someone else. Um, and uh,
you know that was another you know, you talk about
adding a chip on your show. They're staggering and on
top of each other, that was another one of those moments. Um,
I'll never forget. North Turner came up to me before
that practice and he kind of said, like, Hey, this
is your maker break, like you go out there and
prove that you belong in this league and this is
kind of your last opportunity to show that you can
(11:58):
play in this league. And and I'll never forget that moment. Um.
It definitely pushed my butt a little bit um and
was able to have a good week of practice and
and probably some of the hardest um circumstances I've ever
been around. It was it was blessed hot and uh humid,
and it was just insane um practice physical. I'll never
(12:20):
forget those practices with them. But uh, but made it
through and then was able to perform and played well
in that game that preseason game, and um really gave
me an opportunity to play receiver moving forward. So to clarify,
they weren't saying they didn't want to go against you
because you were gonna embarrass them. They were like, this
guy's not on my level, right, it was it was
(12:41):
a waste of time for them. Uh and then uh,
and then I ended up getting actually getting punched in
the face. Um. Later in that in that joint practice,
bipac man um Uh, he actually ripped my helmet off.
I was going to block him when I was blocking him,
and he didn't like that, and he ripped my helmet
off and I got into space and then he end
up punched and in the face and create a little scuffle,
(13:02):
which every joint practice. I feel like there's something like that.
But uh, um, kind of a wild week for me.
That's amazing. So did you impact man ever, like chopping
up and work it out or does that just remain
kind of you know, that was that was so long ago.
He probably has no idea who I am or what
you know, he probably doesn't even remember that that was me.
(13:22):
So uh, someday I'll connect with them and we'll laugh
about it. I love it all right. Well, since we're
talking about confrontation. So by December, you're already uh tearing
up the league and you know, one of the one
of the best receivers of the league. You're playing the
Patriots late in the season. It's a tense game and
(13:44):
if I remember right, uh Belichick, it's what he's trying
to pull his challenge flag out of his sock and
you were kind of talking to the ref and Belichick
told you STF you essentially take take me through that moment. Yeah,
you know, a little little heated moment. It was a
tense game, like you said, and uh, we weren't performing
(14:06):
wearing very well, and it was it was a big
game for us, and it was a little frustrated. Um,
you know the old Belichick defense. They're doubling, you know,
they're they're they're getting hands on you and they're frustrating you. Um.
So they definitely did their job and then it got
to me a little bit. But uh, yeah, I remember
there was we got the first down. It was like
(14:26):
a fourth and one maybe or a third inches maybe,
and we got the first down. They gave us the
first down, and um, um, so they could see the replay.
We were going right back on the ball. Uh you
could see a guy looked to the sideline and then
kind of shake his head and then go down and
fake like he was injured. So I saw that whole
thing happening. Then they end up challenging it and that
(14:46):
was when he was when he was talking to ref,
he was challenging and he was actually picking up this
challenge leg and I kind of lost a little bit,
lost my cool and I was talking to the ref
and then and then you know, saying how that's that's
kind of bs, that's cheating and uh and then he
came over and told me to you know, shut up
with some choice words, and uh, I kind of just
went at him and said you're a cheater and uh.
(15:09):
And it was a little bit of a confrontation, but uh, again,
you know, the heat of the moment and uh, probably
probably shouldn't have done that, but uh. But yeah, definitely
a good story. Were you just were you like hanging
out with your wife that night and just going, oh,
I just got into it with one of the greatest
coaches of all time. Yeah. I think it's one of
(15:29):
those things again like when when I'm in the on
the field and and when I'm playing, you know, I'm
still you know, obviously playing I'm not really thinking about
it being the NFL or playing against these legendary people,
guys that have won multiple Super Bowls. You know, it
just feels like a football game to me. So I'm
not really thinking about any of that. I'm just out
there playing and letting it fly. And and I have.
(15:50):
I'm an emotional football player and emotional person, so um,
just kind of let it. Let I let my full
colors show. And and uh, I've had a tame that
back as I've gotten older and I've learned, and um,
I'm made a vow to my wife I won't throw
my helmet again, and I haven't done that in a
few years. So trying to trying to keep that going.
But uh, um, but yeah, let let my emotions get
the best of me that day. I guarantee there are
(16:12):
a lot of people in the NFL community though, who
were like, thank you dude. Anyway, So all right, well
you teamed with another very emotional guys to find Digs.
You guys were probably the best tandem in football when
you were together. And you know, I know he got
to the point where he was very frustrated with the
(16:34):
you know, the offensive approach at that time, and you know,
and and I agreed with him. I thought, you know,
I would love to see the Vikings be more aggressive,
you know, knowing knowing what little I know. Um, how
was that for you going through that? I mean, was
he kind of speaking for both of you? Or was
he just more was he just kind of in a
different place with things when he started to voice that. No, yeah,
(16:58):
he definitely was. He was the one willing to voice
his opinion. Um. And uh but yeah, I mean I
totally got where he's coming from. We had hours and
hours and hours of conversation. Um, you know, he's he's
he's such a a good person and uh you know,
obviously got got a bad rap from that a little bit,
(17:18):
but um, um, and I know he's in a great
place now and and uh feeling very good. And I
know he's a leader and a captain over there in Buffalo,
and um, that's the type of person he was here too. Um.
You know, it's just uh um, you know, us as competitor,
as an athletes, like we want we want to have opportunity,
We want the ball in our hands to go show
what you can do. And and and we've all seen
(17:39):
what he can do when he gets the ball in
his hands and when he gets targets and opportunities. So um,
you know, it is one of those things where we're
trying to just win games as a team. Um. But
at the same time, like it is our livelihood and
and we have to go out there and and and
we have to have opportunity to show what we can do,
and and uh, I totally get it. But it'll be
(17:59):
good to see him here in a couple of weeks.
Can't wait to see him and and hopefully get a
jersey swap because I'd love to love to put his
jersey up on the wall. Obviously got a ton of
respect for him, and we had such a great relationship
and spend so much time together, so it would be
good to see him. That's awesome. You know. Normally, if
a team like the Vikings let a guy like that
out of the building, I'd be I'd crushed them. But
then I saw Justin Jefferson and I was like, I
(18:22):
feel like it helped. You know, it helped the Bills,
but the Vikings are gonna be just five. Do you
how how early on did you look at Jefferson and
just go, oh, I think he might be pretty good. Yeah.
I mean, it's kind of fun to look back on. Honestly. Um,
I remember the night we drafted him and just watching
the draft, and as soon as we drafted him, you
(18:44):
know the show the Highlights from College, and I remember
watching those highlights and be like, all right, this this
guy is this guy is really good. Um. And at
that point I had i'd known a little bit about him,
you know, watching their run into the NMC or the
National Championship game and just watching them through the laoff
college playoffs and being like, man, that those guys over there,
those receivers are doing some some crazy things and and
(19:06):
they really helped them win win football games. And then
and then we it was the COVID year, so we
didn't have HD a s and so I had him
come up, invited some guys up in the summer just
to kind of work out together and and be around
each other a little bit that summer. And I just
remember the first kind of workout session we had throwing
the football around the field and just some of the
(19:27):
his his ability to catch the football away from his body, um,
was was something I hadn't really seen before. You know,
he's not he's not an overly big guy, but his
range on the football field is is much bigger than
uh than he looks um. And you can see that
from day one. So just his ability to his body control, um,
you know, his his movement ability, everything is so easy
(19:50):
and smooth. UM. So I kind of figured there was
an opportunity for him to have have a big career.
And and then when you see what kind of person
he is, you're you're around him every single day, and
you see how he treats his teammates and his coaches,
and um, even as he had a ton of success,
game after game and year after year, UM, he's the
same guy every single day he walks in the building,
(20:11):
he's got a smile on his face. He's a great teammate,
he's a great leader, he's super fun to be around. So, UM,
I couldn't ask for a better partner to be out
there and playing together with. That's awesome. So you brought
up the pandemic so early on in the pandemic, my daughter,
who had graduated from college, was stuck in my house,
so we started a podcast. I just exploited her labor basically,
(20:34):
and uh. One of our early guests on Passed it
Down was Kyle Rudolph, your then teammate, and my daughter
got right in with him and was like, who's lizzos
man on the Minnesota Vikings And he had a long
answer like, there's been a lot of detective work, you know,
inside the locker room on it and all that so
(20:56):
I gotta ask you, do we know at this point
who Lizzos but a sort of Vikings boyfriend is reference
did truth hurts? Kyle was real a that he We
had a whole long investigation. I think it was the
Linebacker group that kind of led the investigation, and they
had some serious leads, and they had all these different
(21:16):
theories of of who it was, and I think they
came down to, um, it was Eric Wilson, but he
completely denies it and definitely says it was not him.
So the verdict is sell out there. But that was
that was who they thought it was. And and no, no,
I don't think anyone will ever find out, but I
think it could have been him. I mean, there must
(21:39):
have been some unlikely suspects. You probably were okay being married,
but like I'm sure there were a couple of unlikely
suspects who who got investigated. There. There were let's just say,
there were some great theories out there, and it was
it was kind of fun. It was good team bonding
gonna go on around the locker room. And in doing
that investigation, I think Eric Kendricks was and uh any
(22:00):
bar they were kind of leading the investigation. So that
was was pretty good. So was Zim ever ruled out
as a candidator. That's a good that's a good point.
I don't even know if we if we went down
that road, but he definitely could have been a candidate
that would it would have been one of the all
type great NFL stories. Did anyone, by the way, did
(22:21):
anyone do a good zim impersonation? That's a good question.
I don't. I don't know anybody off the top of
my head that that had a good zim impersonation, but
I'm sure we could. We could uh pull one together
and find somebody. Yeah, I mean towards the end of
probably you guys were probably like, you know, not worth
(22:41):
the risk at getting if he found out, it would
just kind of, you know, board rupt me. But uh,
definitely a character's okay. So we'll go from clowning Zim
to Kirk. Uh. When I watched Kirk's pregame speeches, I mean, listen,
I'm not a high level athlete, and you know, I
don't know what it's like to compete at the highest level,
(23:03):
but I feel like when I see Kirk's pregame speeches
on video, I'm like, that doesn't seem like it would
fire me up. It just seems like a little out there.
Do you guys ever clown him for his his motivational talks, No,
we don't. He he uh, he does a great job.
You know, he's he's a he's a guy that puts
a lot into this game. You know, he takes it
(23:24):
very personally that that he Um, you know, he knows
he's making a lot of money and he knows that, Um,
he's expected to win games in this league because of
just the nature of the business. Right when you're a
quarterback that's a high paid guy, Like that's just the
culture of this league, right the fans they expect you
win games, and he takes that very seriously. Um. I
wish I wish fans had an inside look of of
(23:47):
what it's like to be Kirk Cousins, because, um, it
is pretty impressive the way that he handles his business,
even when um, people are are all over him, you know,
weekend and week out. Um. But but I think when
he does those those speeches, it's coming from the heart.
Like we get to see him every single day and
we get to see how much he puts into and
how much it means to him and how much he
(24:08):
wants it. So when you when you kind of hear
the speech, like I can understand where you're coming from,
but from us, you know, we see him every single day,
so we see that it's coming from a place of guys,
like I'm putting everything I got into this, like just
come with me, you know, let me leave, let me
let me go. Um, you know, put all this work
in to help you guys, and then just come with me.
(24:29):
Let's go. And uh, when you see that like his
the you know, the why behind it, I think it's
it's pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah, So it's interesting. So
Kirk came in in the wake of that seventeen season,
which included the Minnesota Miracle and a trip to the
NFC Championship. Came Um and immediately it was like, Kirk,
(24:50):
if you don't get him with the Super Bowl, you're
a failure. So the standard was already, you know, kind
of impossibly high for him. Um, and yet here we
are in twenty twenty two and I feel like, okay,
right now, you'd be the I think the one and
two seed or maybe the Giants, but like I'm looking
at an Eagles vikings like possible playoff collision, and um,
(25:13):
you know, you guys, it's early, but you guys look
pretty good. Have you thought about how good you guys
could be? And and does this feel at all like
seventeen yet? You know, I think every year is so different.
You just you just handle every single year. You know,
it's new teammates, new new staff, new new schemes. Um,
you're just trying to find a way, right, Um, and again,
(25:35):
every year is so different, you know. It's it is
awesome to have that experience to look back at and say, hey,
like we started the year this way and we ended
this and we started the way this way and we
ended like this. So just kind of like under helping
guys understand it. It doesn't matter where you're at this
point in the season. What matters is weekend and week
out that you literally come and be the most prepared
(25:55):
you can possibly be because each week is tough. It'
stuff to win this league, and so I think, um,
for us, it's just it's just kind of figuring out
a way to to continue get better. We also are
kind of frustrated with with you know, kind of um
how we played, you know, because we know that we
could be so much better. You know. Obviously it's great
to feel that way and be five and one. UM,
my bettermire of teams that you know started out poorly
(26:19):
and felt the same way, right like, hey, like, we
have so much more potential than we're playing right now. Um,
so that is a that is a positive, you know.
I think we're excited to get back to work this week,
you know, having a few days off, which was much needed.
But everyone's kind of back in this billion today to
say like, man, let's go practice, like I'm ready to
go get better because we know that we could play
such uh, you know, better football all around, you know,
(26:41):
And and that's exciting when you're five at one saying that.
So you grew up in Minnesota, you're a longtime Vikings fan,
I'm old. I covered the championship game for Sports Illustrated.
I covered the OH nine championship game in New Orleans
for Yahoo. Um, which one of those, as a kid
(27:04):
or you know growing up was more brutal for you,
I have to say equally, I remember both of them vividly.
I mean I was a hardcore fan for both those games. Um,
living lived and died with the Vikings. I remember it
would again. I remember I'm a I'm an emotional person,
emotional player. So I remember going to going to school
(27:27):
pretty uh, pretty down and defeated after those games, and UM,
disappointed and frustrated, but almost like I I felt like
I was on the team. But UM, but yeah, definitely, Uh,
I definitely understand. Probably the coolest thing is I understand
where the Vikings fans are coming from and how badly
they wanted and UM being able to talk to the
(27:48):
team a few times in my career just about that. UM,
just kind of helping them understand a little bit of
the background of Minnesota Vikings. And UM, I think guys,
you know, they know about you know, some of the
culture of the past, UM, but they don't really know,
you know, what what the fans have been through and
and how badly and and how how great of a
fan base uh this is. You know, it's not a
(28:10):
fan base that's gonna that's gonna throw stuff at you
or or they're not gonna count you out things like that. Um,
they want to win, but UM, they're also very respectful
and UM, and they're gonna show up whether you're undefeated
or having out of win and they're gonna show up
and cheer you on and and uh and motivate you.
So we're very blessed for that. Yeah, you know. And
(28:33):
by the way, I left out the one in New Jersey,
which was I think forty one nothing and or it
just did not go well at all the in the cold.
But uh, yeah, no, I agree. It's great fan base
and now you guys have a state of the art facility.
It's unbelievable and uh you know, uh, stadiums popping and
it's all there for you. Um it is. You know
(28:57):
you talked about that chip on your shoulder at obviously
it's it's got you very very far. Um do you
still carry it? I mean, you know you've done enough
in this league that you could kind of coast a
little bit. Do you carry it into every practice and
in every meeting? I do. I think It's one thing
that's that's pretty cool about this league. And I talked
a lot, talk a lot to the young guys about it,
(29:18):
is there's always something to prove in this league. There's
there's there's always somebody saying always too old, or or
he he did it one time, or um this or that.
There's always somebody uh and and multiple people probably that
are finding a way to to break you down and
to and to say that you know, he can't do
this anymore. Too old, you know. So um, there's always
(29:40):
something that's gonna motivate you and and gonna push you
in it in and you have to because if you don't,
you're not playing ten years in this league. You're you're
gonna they're gonna find a way to replace you with
a younger, um, cheaper um uh you know a guy
that that uh you know has has maybe more potential,
I guess, so they're finding ways to get rid of
off you. Let's just say that. So um that that
(30:02):
definitely puts a chip on my shoulder. You know, I
want to play. I want to play a few more years,
and I want to um give my best foot forward
and and and be able to help this team win games.
So um, I take that with me every single every
single time I step on the field with something that
approved to say, Hey, I'm not uh too old or
I've not even lost a step. I'm gonna go out
there and have to prove it, you know every single day. Well,
(30:24):
you barge your way in and you are not going
out easily. It's the best and I totally appreciate your type.
Thanks for joining us, absolutely appreciate it.
The volume. All right, open mic is fired up for
this guest. It is impossible not to root for Adam
Phelan if you know his story and how improbable it
is that he is playing in the NFL let alone
(00:23):
tearing it up a decade in. But I so, I
was already a fan. But then uh in ten uh,
a legendary coach told him, well, we'll get into it
in the podcast. But he uh, he got sworn at
during a game by a legendary coach and from that
point on to be he was just a living legend. Adam,
(00:45):
how are you, man? I'm great, Thanks for having me
right on. Well, I will get to that celebrated moment
because it's one of my all time favorites. But uh yeah,
I mean you are part of a Vikings team that's
really started out well at five and one, no Kevin
O'Connell for a while. It's really cool what you guys
(01:06):
have going. You know, we always hear the words culture
change pretty much at any time there's a coaching change.
What is it really meant in terms of Kevin and
and quite the dopaments that coming in at how you
guys have experienced it? Yeah, I think just Uh, leadership.
You know, I think, uh, it's not. It's a collaborative leadership.
It's not just one guy being a good leader. It's
(01:29):
multiple people from the top, you know, being really good leaders.
And UM, you know, I think there's different ways you
can lead, UM, but I feel like when when you
really get a bunch of good leaders that collaborate together,
they kind of know their weaknesses, they know their strengths
and kind of feed off one another. It's just, uh,
it's a combination that isn't gonna necessarily make sure make
(01:50):
you win games, UM, but it's gonna set you up
to handle adversity. And I feel like in this league, UM,
that's more important than probably XS and O. It's just
being able to handle adversity because at any point in
the season, you're gonna hit some some tough patches. And
I mean every game, throughout a game, you're gonna have
some rough patches. So being able to handle adversity and
to be able to lean on one another and and
(02:12):
to really look up to your leadership, UM, has really
been the biggest notice are noticeable thing that I've seen,
um these first six weeks. Yeah, and I know, you know,
it's a grind what you guys do. It's not always
you know, we see the touchdowns at all that, but
you guys, you know, it's a long, long process and
you guys are together a lot. Um having an offensive
(02:33):
minded head coach or a head coach with an offensive background,
first of all, is that different from your perspective? It is,
for sure. It's the first time in my career having
an offensive minded head coach. Um. You know, I think
I think though, even though he is definitely offensive minded, UM,
and you know, he's he's calling our plays and he's
in a lot of our most of our offensive meetings obviously. UM,
(02:56):
but I think he does a great job of being
the head coach, you know, not being the offensive coordinator. UM.
I think he does a great job of understanding that
that this is a team game and then we need
every single aspect of this team special teams, defense, offense
to really play together comprom right football. And I think
he just does a great job of of kind of
picking up everybody. Um. There's no point in fingers, Um,
(03:19):
it's just it's just, hey, what do we need to
do this week to to win? And uh, it might
look different each week, and you find a way, But um,
I think he does a great job of of being
the head like head coach, not um just offensive head coach.
So you know your story has been well documented. You
were you know, you've got a I guess we can
call it a scholarship offer out of high school and
(03:42):
you know we're not ticketed for NFL stardom. Um, you
obviously had to overcome a lot and have just an
incredible self belief. Do you remember a couple of moments
where you know you were either told flat out like dude,
you are dreaming, you are not You're not going to
play on that level, or where you were just completely
(04:06):
you know, counted out that you you kind of access
oh yeah, every every step of the way for me,
which has kind of put a little bit of fuel
to in my fire. Um. You know it's something that's
always kind of added that you know, as people say
a chip on your shoulder, you know, I think that's um,
you know, it kind of just stacks on um every
step of the way. You know. I remember coming into
(04:26):
college and I tell the story I very much every
time I talked to a group. But you know, I
I remember coming into the recruiting trips and and going
to Mankato, and I was it was like a walk
on visit Mankato. Um. This is before the the coaching
staff got fired and they had new coaches. But I
sat down with the offensive corter and he kind of
sat my mom and I down and said, you know,
I don't think that your son has cut out for
(04:48):
division to football. He's probably should go play basketball somewhere.
Um and uh, you know, and then and then you know,
going into the even to the NFL, um um part
of my journey, I remember coaches saying, hey, maybe maybe
like Arena ball or or or Canadian football, I can
see that, but um, you know, I don't know if
(05:08):
you should even try for the NFL. So there's there's
always kind of been that, but again, you know that
that kind of just adds field of my fire. And
then and then even looking in the NFL, you know,
people had me kind of, um peg to be just
a special teams guy, just a guy that's gonna go
out there and try hard and and um, you know,
do his job on special teams and just be a
special teamers for his career. But um, again, those those
(05:31):
things are I think for the reason why I'm where
I'm at no doubt. So I I did a book
with Kurt Warner coming off of the Miracle ninety nine season.
You'll see behind me, that's a American underdog signed helmet.
Twenty one years later it turned into a movie, and uh,
(05:52):
you know, so I have a sucker for all the
underdog stories always and his was his was certainly right
up there. Um, you know, did you kind of draw
on inspiration from any and either him or anyone's story
where they were just kind of counted out and told
there's no way? Yeah, definitely. I Mean those are all, um,
(06:15):
you know things that you look up to, Um, you know,
all the motivational things you see, Um, you kind of
just compile those things and you look up to those
people for for handling anniversity, for sticking it out, for
believing in themselves. Um. You know one thing I've always
kind of felt like, Um, I've always kind of never
been like a big motivation guy. It's more so just
(06:35):
just living in the moment um. And you know, even
when I look back to my college days, like I
never thought about playing in the NFL, or or writing
down like I'm gonna be in the NFL someday. I
just focused on each day like I wanted to. I
wanted to win the day, like I truly wanted to
win the day, and whether that be in the weight room,
whether it be on the basketball court and pick up basketball,
(06:55):
like I just wanted to go out there and and
and be the best I could that day. And I
feel like when you just continue to do that over
and over and over, it it adds up. And when
you're not, you're not focused on the future here, you're
not looking into the future, like obviously you have that
in the back of your head, in the back of
your mind, um, but but just kind of just focusing
on on one day at a time and letting that
all kind of just play out. Coming out of Minnesota State,
(07:18):
mat Kato, you had to go to one of those
regional combines that I laughed because I was an NFL
network for a long time and the reporters always had
a joke about who drew the regional combine the side
of it, because you know, it's kind of like the
season's over, and you know, no one wants to travel
as much, and you know some people are high profile,
and then you've got the regional combines. So that's from
(07:41):
a reporter's perspective, from a player's perspective. You know, you're
just trying to make a name for yourself. What do
you remember about that? First of all, well, like I
can totally get where you guys are coming from because
you show up there and it's very underwhelming. Uh you know,
I feel like I look back to that day and
I don't remember. Well, it was a long time ago,
(08:01):
but um, I do remember coming in there and being
like what am I doing? Um? This this was a
waste of money and time. But because you paid, right,
you had to pay your own way there. Yeah, you
paid to go there. It was in Chicago, so you
had to get you find a way to get there.
Luckily had a good friend, um who who said, hey,
I'll drive you there a little make a little weekend
(08:22):
out of it. So three of us jumped in a
vehicle and and drove to Chicago, stayed in the hotel
and and I did the did the combine. But um,
but yeah, it definitely you show up and there's guys
that maybe I've never played football before. I remember they
sent a quarterback home like after him throwing like five
balls or like just just leave because he couldn't throw
(08:42):
the football, so you're kind of thinking like, oh boy,
what am I doing? But um, at the end of
the day, it was an opportunity to put numbers out there.
You know, I had no other opportunity. There wasn't scouts
coming to Mankato to get numbers, to get times and
things like that. And I never had ran a forty
before that in my life. Uh So it was an
opportunity and and thankfully I did it um and got
invited to the Super Regional, which which was much better.
(09:04):
You know, there was actually guys there that that were
that got drafted, um that were there were big college
players that just just missed out on the on the
you know, the real NFL combine. That's crazy. So and
then uh, in May, you ended up going to a
Vikings rookie midicamp, you know, trying one of many people
just trying to land a spot. I did a little
(09:27):
recon on this because I know big Bill bus Grave
very well covered up as a player and he was
the Vikings offensive coordinator at the time. I joked to
him that he had discovered you, and he texted back
more like he discovered us. What was that? What was that?
Little rookie minticamp. Like, yeah, I mean honestly, I was.
(09:51):
I was honestly at that time. Looking back at it,
I obviously understand it, but I was a little a little,
um you know, frustrated honestly that I didn't get an
opportunit need to go somewhere, UM just signed, you know,
like there's ninety guys on a roster spot. I felt
like I put together numbers that stood up with anybody.
And then, um, you know, I just felt like I
had the tangibles with uh, you know, my ability to
(10:13):
catch the football and and and I had film, I
had numbers in college. So I just felt like like
almost like I, uh again I was getting overlooked and
added some field of the fire. But then, yeah, you know,
going to that camp, you know, it's obviously an opportunity.
I was super excited my hometown team to be able
to just go out there and play football again. Um,
you know, I never know if I I know, at
(10:33):
that point, I didn't know if I had taken my
last snap of football in my in my life. So
um to get another opportunity to just go out and
play football, Um, I joke around. I look back at
that moment. And I'm more nervous right now thinking about
that moment than I was in the moment. I just
was out there playing football. I felt like a kid
in in uh you know, elementary school is going on
(10:53):
in the backyard and playing football again. So, um, what
a what a great moment. And then I was able
to have a little success in a short short time
and was able to stay stay around a little longer.
That's awesome. And you know, and for people who don't know,
it was a year of the practice squad, it was
special teams. You know, this was even when you made
the team, it took a while before you finally, you know,
(11:15):
got a chance to really to shout as a receiver.
Weren't there some joint workouts against the Bengals where like
Pacbad Jones and Drake Kirkpatrick didn't want to line up
against you. Oh yeah, that was That's a true story.
They would I would get up in line and and
they would kind of look around the huddle and be like, no,
(11:35):
I'm not going against him someone else. Um, and uh,
you know that was another you know, you talk about
adding a chip on your show. They're staggering and on
top of each other, that was another one of those moments. Um,
I'll never forget. North Turner came up to me before
that practice and he kind of said, like, Hey, this
is your maker break, like you go out there and
prove that you belong in this league and this is
kind of your last opportunity to show that you can
(11:58):
play in this league. And and I'll never forget that moment. Um.
It definitely pushed my butt a little bit um and
was able to have a good week of practice and
and probably some of the hardest um circumstances I've ever
been around. It was it was blessed hot and uh humid,
and it was just insane um practice physical. I'll never
(12:20):
forget those practices with them. But uh, but made it
through and then was able to perform and played well
in that game that preseason game, and um really gave
me an opportunity to play receiver moving forward. So to clarify,
they weren't saying they didn't want to go against you
because you were gonna embarrass them. They were like, this
guy's not on my level, right, it was it was
(12:41):
a waste of time for them. Uh and then uh,
and then I ended up getting actually getting punched in
the face. Um. Later in that in that joint practice,
bipac man um Uh, he actually ripped my helmet off.
I was going to block him when I was blocking him,
and he didn't like that, and he ripped my helmet
off and I got into space and then he end
up punched and in the face and create a little scuffle,
(13:02):
which every joint practice. I feel like there's something like that.
But uh, um, kind of a wild week for me.
That's amazing. So did you impact man ever, like chopping
up and work it out or does that just remain
kind of you know, that was that was so long ago.
He probably has no idea who I am or what
you know, he probably doesn't even remember that that was me.
(13:22):
So uh, someday I'll connect with them and we'll laugh
about it. I love it all right. Well, since we're
talking about confrontation. So by December, you're already uh tearing
up the league and you know, one of the one
of the best receivers of the league. You're playing the
Patriots late in the season. It's a tense game and
(13:44):
if I remember right, uh Belichick, it's what he's trying
to pull his challenge flag out of his sock and
you were kind of talking to the ref and Belichick
told you STF you essentially take take me through that moment. Yeah,
you know, a little little heated moment. It was a
tense game, like you said, and uh, we weren't performing
(14:06):
wearing very well, and it was it was a big
game for us, and it was a little frustrated. Um,
you know the old Belichick defense. They're doubling, you know,
they're they're they're getting hands on you and they're frustrating you. Um.
So they definitely did their job and then it got
to me a little bit. But uh, yeah, I remember
there was we got the first down. It was like
(14:26):
a fourth and one maybe or a third inches maybe,
and we got the first down. They gave us the
first down, and um, um, so they could see the replay.
We were going right back on the ball. Uh you
could see a guy looked to the sideline and then
kind of shake his head and then go down and
fake like he was injured. So I saw that whole
thing happening. Then they end up challenging it and that
(14:46):
was when he was when he was talking to ref,
he was challenging and he was actually picking up this
challenge leg and I kind of lost a little bit,
lost my cool and I was talking to the ref
and then and then you know, saying how that's that's
kind of bs, that's cheating and uh and then he
came over and told me to you know, shut up
with some choice words, and uh, I kind of just
went at him and said you're a cheater and uh.
(15:09):
And it was a little bit of a confrontation, but uh, again,
you know, the heat of the moment and uh, probably
probably shouldn't have done that, but uh. But yeah, definitely
a good story. Were you just were you like hanging
out with your wife that night and just going, oh,
I just got into it with one of the greatest
coaches of all time. Yeah. I think it's one of
(15:29):
those things again like when when I'm in the on
the field and and when I'm playing, you know, I'm
still you know, obviously playing I'm not really thinking about
it being the NFL or playing against these legendary people,
guys that have won multiple Super Bowls. You know, it
just feels like a football game to me. So I'm
not really thinking about any of that. I'm just out
there playing and letting it fly. And and I have.
(15:50):
I'm an emotional football player and emotional person, so um,
just kind of let it. Let I let my full
colors show. And and uh, I've had a tame that
back as I've gotten older and I've learned, and um,
I'm made a vow to my wife I won't throw
my helmet again, and I haven't done that in a
few years. So trying to trying to keep that going.
But uh, um, but yeah, let let my emotions get
the best of me that day. I guarantee there are
(16:12):
a lot of people in the NFL community though, who
were like, thank you dude. Anyway, So all right, well
you teamed with another very emotional guys to find Digs.
You guys were probably the best tandem in football when
you were together. And you know, I know he got
to the point where he was very frustrated with the
(16:34):
you know, the offensive approach at that time, and you know,
and and I agreed with him. I thought, you know,
I would love to see the Vikings be more aggressive,
you know, knowing knowing what little I know. Um, how
was that for you going through that? I mean, was
he kind of speaking for both of you? Or was
he just more was he just kind of in a
different place with things when he started to voice that. No, yeah,
(16:58):
he definitely was. He was the one willing to voice
his opinion. Um. And uh but yeah, I mean I
totally got where he's coming from. We had hours and
hours and hours of conversation. Um, you know, he's he's
he's such a a good person and uh you know,
obviously got got a bad rap from that a little bit,
(17:18):
but um, um, and I know he's in a great
place now and and uh feeling very good. And I
know he's a leader and a captain over there in Buffalo,
and um, that's the type of person he was here too. Um.
You know, it's just uh um, you know, us as competitor,
as an athletes, like we want we want to have opportunity,
We want the ball in our hands to go show
what you can do. And and and we've all seen
(17:39):
what he can do when he gets the ball in
his hands and when he gets targets and opportunities. So um,
you know, it is one of those things where we're
trying to just win games as a team. Um. But
at the same time, like it is our livelihood and
and we have to go out there and and and
we have to have opportunity to show what we can do,
and and uh, I totally get it. But it'll be
(17:59):
good to see him here in a couple of weeks.
Can't wait to see him and and hopefully get a
jersey swap because I'd love to love to put his
jersey up on the wall. Obviously got a ton of
respect for him, and we had such a great relationship
and spend so much time together, so it would be
good to see him. That's awesome. You know. Normally, if
a team like the Vikings let a guy like that
out of the building, I'd be I'd crushed them. But
then I saw Justin Jefferson and I was like, I
(18:22):
feel like it helped. You know, it helped the Bills,
but the Vikings are gonna be just five. Do you
how how early on did you look at Jefferson and
just go, oh, I think he might be pretty good. Yeah.
I mean, it's kind of fun to look back on. Honestly. Um,
I remember the night we drafted him and just watching
the draft, and as soon as we drafted him, you
(18:44):
know the show the Highlights from College, and I remember
watching those highlights and be like, all right, this this
guy is this guy is really good. Um. And at
that point I had i'd known a little bit about him,
you know, watching their run into the NMC or the
National Championship game and just watching them through the laoff
college playoffs and being like, man, that those guys over there,
those receivers are doing some some crazy things and and
(19:06):
they really helped them win win football games. And then
and then we it was the COVID year, so we
didn't have HD a s and so I had him
come up, invited some guys up in the summer just
to kind of work out together and and be around
each other a little bit that summer. And I just
remember the first kind of workout session we had throwing
the football around the field and just some of the
(19:27):
his his ability to catch the football away from his body, um,
was was something I hadn't really seen before. You know,
he's not he's not an overly big guy, but his
range on the football field is is much bigger than
uh than he looks um. And you can see that
from day one. So just his ability to his body control, um,
you know, his his movement ability, everything is so easy
(19:50):
and smooth. UM. So I kind of figured there was
an opportunity for him to have have a big career.
And and then when you see what kind of person
he is, you're you're around him every single day, and
you see how he treats his teammates and his coaches,
and um, even as he had a ton of success,
game after game and year after year, UM, he's the
same guy every single day he walks in the building,
(20:11):
he's got a smile on his face. He's a great teammate,
he's a great leader, he's super fun to be around. So, UM,
I couldn't ask for a better partner to be out
there and playing together with. That's awesome. So you brought
up the pandemic so early on in the pandemic, my daughter,
who had graduated from college, was stuck in my house,
so we started a podcast. I just exploited her labor basically,
(20:34):
and uh. One of our early guests on Passed it
Down was Kyle Rudolph, your then teammate, and my daughter
got right in with him and was like, who's lizzos
man on the Minnesota Vikings And he had a long
answer like, there's been a lot of detective work, you know,
inside the locker room on it and all that so
(20:56):
I gotta ask you, do we know at this point
who Lizzos but a sort of Vikings boyfriend is reference
did truth hurts? Kyle was real a that he We
had a whole long investigation. I think it was the
Linebacker group that kind of led the investigation, and they
had some serious leads, and they had all these different
(21:16):
theories of of who it was, and I think they
came down to, um, it was Eric Wilson, but he
completely denies it and definitely says it was not him.
So the verdict is sell out there. But that was
that was who they thought it was. And and no, no,
I don't think anyone will ever find out, but I
think it could have been him. I mean, there must
(21:39):
have been some unlikely suspects. You probably were okay being married,
but like I'm sure there were a couple of unlikely
suspects who who got investigated. There. There were let's just say,
there were some great theories out there, and it was
it was kind of fun. It was good team bonding
gonna go on around the locker room. And in doing
that investigation, I think Eric Kendricks was and uh any
(22:00):
bar they were kind of leading the investigation. So that
was was pretty good. So was Zim ever ruled out
as a candidator. That's a good that's a good point.
I don't even know if we if we went down
that road, but he definitely could have been a candidate
that would it would have been one of the all
type great NFL stories. Did anyone, by the way, did
(22:21):
anyone do a good zim impersonation? That's a good question.
I don't. I don't know anybody off the top of
my head that that had a good zim impersonation, but
I'm sure we could. We could uh pull one together
and find somebody. Yeah, I mean towards the end of
probably you guys were probably like, you know, not worth
(22:41):
the risk at getting if he found out, it would
just kind of, you know, board rupt me. But uh,
definitely a character's okay. So we'll go from clowning Zim
to Kirk. Uh. When I watched Kirk's pregame speeches, I mean, listen,
I'm not a high level athlete, and you know, I
don't know what it's like to compete at the highest level,
(23:03):
but I feel like when I see Kirk's pregame speeches
on video, I'm like, that doesn't seem like it would
fire me up. It just seems like a little out there.
Do you guys ever clown him for his his motivational talks, No,
we don't. He he uh, he does a great job.
You know, he's he's a he's a guy that puts
a lot into this game. You know, he takes it
(23:24):
very personally that that he Um, you know, he knows
he's making a lot of money and he knows that, Um,
he's expected to win games in this league because of
just the nature of the business. Right when you're a
quarterback that's a high paid guy, Like that's just the
culture of this league, right the fans they expect you
win games, and he takes that very seriously. Um. I
wish I wish fans had an inside look of of
(23:47):
what it's like to be Kirk Cousins, because, um, it
is pretty impressive the way that he handles his business,
even when um, people are are all over him, you know,
weekend and week out. Um. But but I think when
he does those those speeches, it's coming from the heart.
Like we get to see him every single day and
we get to see how much he puts into and
how much it means to him and how much he
(24:08):
wants it. So when you when you kind of hear
the speech, like I can understand where you're coming from,
but from us, you know, we see him every single day,
so we see that it's coming from a place of guys,
like I'm putting everything I got into this, like just
come with me, you know, let me leave, let me
let me go. Um, you know, put all this work
in to help you guys, and then just come with me.
(24:29):
Let's go. And uh, when you see that like his
the you know, the why behind it, I think it's
it's pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah, So it's interesting. So
Kirk came in in the wake of that seventeen season,
which included the Minnesota Miracle and a trip to the
NFC Championship. Came Um and immediately it was like, Kirk,
(24:50):
if you don't get him with the Super Bowl, you're
a failure. So the standard was already, you know, kind
of impossibly high for him. Um, and yet here we
are in twenty twenty two and I feel like, okay,
right now, you'd be the I think the one and
two seed or maybe the Giants, but like I'm looking
at an Eagles vikings like possible playoff collision, and um,
(25:13):
you know, you guys, it's early, but you guys look
pretty good. Have you thought about how good you guys
could be? And and does this feel at all like
seventeen yet? You know, I think every year is so different.
You just you just handle every single year. You know,
it's new teammates, new new staff, new new schemes. Um,
you're just trying to find a way, right, Um, and again,
(25:35):
every year is so different, you know. It's it is
awesome to have that experience to look back at and say, hey,
like we started the year this way and we ended
this and we started the way this way and we
ended like this. So just kind of like under helping
guys understand it. It doesn't matter where you're at this
point in the season. What matters is weekend and week
out that you literally come and be the most prepared
(25:55):
you can possibly be because each week is tough. It'
stuff to win this league, and so I think, um,
for us, it's just it's just kind of figuring out
a way to to continue get better. We also are
kind of frustrated with with you know, kind of um
how we played, you know, because we know that we
could be so much better. You know. Obviously it's great
to feel that way and be five and one. UM,
my bettermire of teams that you know started out poorly
(26:19):
and felt the same way, right like, hey, like, we
have so much more potential than we're playing right now. Um,
so that is a that is a positive, you know.
I think we're excited to get back to work this week,
you know, having a few days off, which was much needed.
But everyone's kind of back in this billion today to
say like, man, let's go practice, like I'm ready to
go get better because we know that we could play
such uh, you know, better football all around, you know,
(26:41):
And and that's exciting when you're five at one saying that.
So you grew up in Minnesota, you're a longtime Vikings fan,
I'm old. I covered the championship game for Sports Illustrated.
I covered the OH nine championship game in New Orleans
for Yahoo. Um, which one of those, as a kid
(27:04):
or you know growing up was more brutal for you,
I have to say equally, I remember both of them vividly.
I mean I was a hardcore fan for both those games. Um,
living lived and died with the Vikings. I remember it
would again. I remember I'm a I'm an emotional person,
emotional player. So I remember going to going to school
(27:27):
pretty uh, pretty down and defeated after those games, and UM,
disappointed and frustrated, but almost like I I felt like
I was on the team. But UM, but yeah, definitely, Uh,
I definitely understand. Probably the coolest thing is I understand
where the Vikings fans are coming from and how badly
they wanted and UM being able to talk to the
(27:48):
team a few times in my career just about that. UM,
just kind of helping them understand a little bit of
the background of Minnesota Vikings. And UM, I think guys,
you know, they know about you know, some of the
culture of the past, UM, but they don't really know,
you know, what what the fans have been through and
and how badly and and how how great of a
fan base uh this is. You know, it's not a
(28:10):
fan base that's gonna that's gonna throw stuff at you
or or they're not gonna count you out things like that. Um,
they want to win, but UM, they're also very respectful
and UM, and they're gonna show up whether you're undefeated
or having out of win and they're gonna show up
and cheer you on and and uh and motivate you.
So we're very blessed for that. Yeah, you know. And
(28:33):
by the way, I left out the one in New Jersey,
which was I think forty one nothing and or it
just did not go well at all the in the cold.
But uh, yeah, no, I agree. It's great fan base
and now you guys have a state of the art facility.
It's unbelievable and uh you know, uh, stadiums popping and
it's all there for you. Um it is. You know
(28:57):
you talked about that chip on your shoulder at obviously
it's it's got you very very far. Um do you
still carry it? I mean, you know you've done enough
in this league that you could kind of coast a
little bit. Do you carry it into every practice and
in every meeting? I do. I think It's one thing
that's that's pretty cool about this league. And I talked
a lot, talk a lot to the young guys about it,
(29:18):
is there's always something to prove in this league. There's
there's there's always somebody saying always too old, or or
he he did it one time, or um this or that.
There's always somebody uh and and multiple people probably that
are finding a way to to break you down and
to and to say that you know, he can't do
this anymore. Too old, you know. So um, there's always
(29:40):
something that's gonna motivate you and and gonna push you
in it in and you have to because if you don't,
you're not playing ten years in this league. You're you're
gonna they're gonna find a way to replace you with
a younger, um, cheaper um uh you know a guy
that that uh you know has has maybe more potential,
I guess, so they're finding ways to get rid of
off you. Let's just say that. So um that that
(30:02):
definitely puts a chip on my shoulder. You know, I
want to play. I want to play a few more years,
and I want to um give my best foot forward
and and and be able to help this team win games.
So um, I take that with me every single every
single time I step on the field with something that
approved to say, Hey, I'm not uh too old or
I've not even lost a step. I'm gonna go out
there and have to prove it, you know every single day. Well,
(30:24):
you barge your way in and you are not going
out easily. It's the best and I totally appreciate your type.
Thanks for joining us, absolutely appreciate it.
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