July 8, 2020 • 46 mins
Sometimes NFL games are so famous they get a name. Hence why the 2016 playoff classic between the Seahawks and the Vikings is known as the Blair Walsh Game. The stunning miss on the short field goal gave an unexpected win to Seattle, and began an epic odyssey for Minnesota. The game featured a boss move by an 88-year old former head coach, a broken nose, an Odell Beckham-like catch and one jaw-dropping sequence you could point to and say “That’s Russell Wilson’s career in one play.” As direct and indirect results of this game, the Seahawks changed the focus of their team, and the Vikings cleaned house. Oh, and Blair Walsh ended up kicking for the Seahawks after. It’s Special Teams: The Blair Walsh Game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
(00:20):
Greetings and Welcome inside the Special Teams podcast with Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon, where every week we look back
at some special team specific year in sports in the
middle of our run right now, as we look back
at some special teams who took place and took part
in some of the biggest games the NFL, major League Baseball,
(00:41):
college football, the NBA have seen in the past few years.
And today we're gonna look back at a game that
changed the fortunes of two teams following it. And it's
so good. It has a name, because look, when any
time a playoff game has a name, you know it's good.
Sometimes it's fourth and six, which is the title of
a previous podcast has Sometimes the Music City Miracle. Sometimes
(01:02):
it's named after a player because you say the name
and everybody understands. So today we're gonna break down the
Blair Walsh game. Oh you say that and everybody knows. Yep,
Blair Walsh missing the field goal. Oh boy ten nine, Yep,
I get it, I get it. So the Blair Walsh
game from January two thousand and sixteen, the most recent
(01:22):
NFL game I think we've broke down, but still so
much has changed for both of these teams as a
result of that game. That's why we're doing it here today.
Our bosses aren't gonna scrub it though, right based on
their own personal fandom. Well, let's see our boss, Scott
Shapiro at Fox is a huge Minnesota Vikings fan. But look,
the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, So I
think anytime we talk about the Vikings he'll be okay
(01:43):
with it. Yeah, they had their shots. Maybe we'll go
back in the long illustrious history of Near Mrs from
fran Tarkington. Well, it would give us an excuse to
do twenty minutes on That's Incredible. Sure, Well I met
Kathy Lee Crosby John John. Remember that was on the
same time as Real People. It was like the same show. Yeah,
but it was great. About the That's incredible is about
(02:05):
every month they'd have a random dude on with a cobra.
It's like he gets ratings, people get excited. Yeah, it's
a guy with a sneak let's have him sneak ahead.
Who was the guy that was in the box right
to breathe in the box for an hour? And that
was the big one for that's incredible. He he folded
himself up into this tiny you know. Uh and and
and he was he was able to be in a
(02:27):
box where he breathed for an hour that was completely closed.
Oh I still remember that. And that was like forty
years ago. I remember watching that well, I mean, I
know it was the amazing Yen in Notions eleven. Yeah,
this guy was on the Reunion special too. You know,
I actually saw Yen at the l A County Fair
last year because he performs with with a group that
(02:48):
does incredible acrobatics. And we're watching this group and it's
amazing to see l A County Fair. This is where
you could just walk right up to the stage and
just you know, sit down. And he's with a group
of of acrobat performers and I'm going, oh my god.
And I go, Pam, that looks like the dude from
Oceans eleven. She was, no, no, it's not a but
it doesn't it look just like you, ye know where
the you And so we looked it up and we said,
(03:12):
oh my god, it is and and he was performing
on stage County Fair. It was fantastic. I was like,
and he told Zoe Zoe, this is the guy, and
now she's just watched The Ocean's eleven movies. My daughter
in the past, coup loves that. Yeah, she just like me,
loves eleven, loves thirteen, hates twelve. Well, twelve was clearly
(03:32):
just a cash grab. They enjoyed playing and hanging out together.
They knew it would make money, so why not do
it again on the whole, Like if you didn't know,
it was part of a trilogy that was really really good. Otherwise, uh,
twelve twelves okay standalone. You you have to compartmentalize your brain, right,
you gotta do a little meditation and remember that the
(03:53):
first one wasn't so great. Yeah, well, and it's also
you gotta get Oh, Julia Roberts is gonna play herself,
but she's not Julia Roberts since ye uh you know, okay,
you know what X, I'm out, I'm out of that. Well,
that's when you have an extra drink and you forget
any of it. Well, she also liked the bad guy.
Al Pacino was a much better bad guy in Oceans thirteen,
so that's true. She likes him. And what is this
a Billy Martin I get a chance to make amends,
(04:15):
I'm not gonna do it, but anyway, today's podcast is
the Blair Walsh game before we get to the NFL
Wildcard Game, the NFC game that took place in the
second week of two thousand and sixteen. How did these
teams get to a game that has become identifiable with
both franchises. Well, for the Seahawks, you gotta remember, they're
(04:36):
coming off that big Super Bowl lost New England in
which they could have given the ball to Marshawn Lynch
on the goal line. They didn't, and they were living
with that. So now they've been playing that game over
and over in their head all off season into this season,
in which they decide, we're gonna make our team better.
So going into this year, Pete Carroll decides, we gotta
do better and we need more offense. They trade for
(04:57):
Jimmy Graham, they have a couple of great draft picks
and Frank Clark and Tyler Lockett. Cam Chancellor held out
didn't report until Week three. Turns out they didn't need him,
and during the season they make the big trade of
Percy Harvin to the Jets when the Jets had won
two games, and it's like, what are you doing. We're
not We're not going anywhere with person. Why are making
a trade for Percy Harvin? John is sick? What are
(05:18):
you doing? You are insane? But this is the ups
and downs that the Seahawks had to deal with during
the regular season, and you think that would be enough. Look,
you bring in a couple of impact players and Graham
and lock it. You draft Frank Clark, who turns into
a star. You trade Percy Harvin and for this season.
The most famous play that the Seahawks had was the
(05:38):
bat play. It was on Monday Night football against the Lions.
You probably remember this, uh you and I were on
air knowing about it on Fox Sports or any Calvin
Johnson is trying to stretch what would be the game
winning touchdown on Monday Night, except he gets stripped by
Cam Chancellor. K J. Wright bats the ball out of
the end zone and after the game we find out
(05:58):
it should have been ruled in a lead eagle bat
and Detroit keeping the football at the one yard line.
Very famous play, one of the many plays the Seahawks
have had in that core of the end zone which
has gone their way. Full of much controversy. It's like
a sacred burial ground or something. Man, there's some strange
stuff happening now, so you want to stay away from
that part of the end zone in big games against
(06:19):
Fred Gwyn at look Out, a boy needs a father. Um.
So this was the backdrop of the Seahawks, who had
a very interesting season looking with with the new additions,
with this big play, Uh, they lose Jimmy Graham for
the season in Week twelve he tears Pateller tendon and really,
Jimmy Graham was It's such a missed opportunity because his
(06:41):
entire time he spent with the Seahawks, they never figured
out how to use and they never figured out how
to turn him into the weapon he was in New
Orleans and it was one of those times where you say, boy,
this should have been a lot better for the Seahawks,
and it just wasn't. Let me do eleven games during
the years he said, so seventy four targets. You know,
he was on track to get to at least the
(07:02):
target number that we've seen in the years prior working
with Breeze and Company. But the red zone opportunities certainly
weren't there, and you know. You look at the way
the Seahawks operated Dunk Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, some of the
smaller receivers, Percy Harvin before he became a jet and
well had nowhere to go. Um look, I gotta call it.
(07:23):
What is uh? Those guys knew how to do the
little scrape route and find just enough space in the
end zone. Here. For Graham, he didn't become the same
level of performer. He ended up being more a decoy,
except for his final year, when then he was grossly
overpaid by the Packers. Seattle actually beats Minnesota in the
(07:44):
regular season. In Week thirteen, they crushed them thirty eight
seven without Jimmy Graham, without Marshawn Lynch. Thomas Rawls played well,
but he got hurt the following week. He was out
for the season. So the Seahawks were a banged up
team all year. They started out slow. They make the
playoffs by winning eight out of their last ten. Russell
Wilson becomes the focal point of the offense. And remember
(08:06):
you mentioned him. This was the Doug Baldwin year. I mean,
this is the year where Doug Baldwin something was catching
three touchdowns a week and you're going, oh my god,
look at Doug bald and he had fourteen for the season.
That's like what Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones having their
best years. Yeah, and he wasn't the guy that was
generally a deep ball guy, right, you had some of that,
That's why Lockett came on board. But Doug Baldwin was
(08:28):
a guy that would create space right and find openings,
and Russell Wilson just knew to put it in the
general vicinity. And certainly over the course of this game
he he got qued a couple of times, but I
had the opportunity, and you you recognize just what an
impactful player Baldwin was for a stretch. I don't know
(08:48):
that he gets his just due on the NFL as
a whole for how reliable he'd been. But you know,
not to gloss over. You know how they got on
a roll that second half That became kind of a
hallmark of this team, right because the offensive line was
always in shambles, or so it would seem. So about
mid season they're like, all right, are we ready? You
guys got it together? Okay, let's go on a run.
(09:09):
Because they were four and four at the midpoint, right
and they and they on this crazy run. They they
you know, Marshawn Lynch got hurt at the end of November.
He had abdominal surgery and he was done. You know,
Rawls comes in and plays well, but now he's done.
This is a team Dune durn Don durn done. And
this is a team that has always as as good
as Russell Wilson is shown to be, he's always been
(09:32):
part of He was basically the head of the snake
up until this year. It was well, Russell Wilson's good,
but it's the running game that's carrying us through. And
of course, coming off such a highly publicized interception, when
had you given the ball to Marshawn Lynch, you would
have won the Super Bowl. It's a it's a different
world for the Seahawks coming into this playoff going, Okay,
we're now Russell Wilson driven, Doug Baldwin's turning in. I mean,
(09:55):
like I said, it's the Doug Baldwin year. So this
is where we're at as they finished and in six
and head into the playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings. Now
for the Vikings, things are much different in the off season.
It was their last season at TCF Bank Stadium. They
drafted Stefon Diggs, who turned into a phenomenal player for
them until they trained him. Uh, this was Adrian Peterson
(10:17):
coming back to the team after he missed nearly all
of fourteen due to child abuse allegations. I mean, this
was the NFL. I mean, now, I can't believe that
he'd stay in the league. I mean, you're coming up.
This is team where all the allegations and and and
basically Adrian Peterson admitting that he would hit his child
(10:38):
for disciplining him. If that happened, now he'd be gone
and he'd not be coming back into the league. But
he was still playing at a high level. And I
am stunned at this point that he got back in
the league that easy. You know, In fact, it was
so it was it was. It was such a fatal
company that Minnesota restructured his deal prior to the season.
Can you imagine the flat that the Kings would get
(11:00):
now if they kept him? If this was two thousand
and twenty. Yeah, here's a guy who admitted to to
beating his kid that way. Oh my goodness, and you're
gonna keep me and not only that restructure is deal
going into this year, people would stop going to Vikings games.
It would be it would be the story of look
at an organization, how they're doing it? With this story
(11:20):
still so fresh in everybody's mind. Yeah, I mean, there's
there's so many of those moments for the NFL where
if you put it in the current climate, you eradicate
a lot of it. There's outraged Doune and certainly in
the NFL perhaps in a different state of listening to
the players, listening to fans, listening to where culture is.
(11:42):
And Goodell is always going to be crushed for the
early attempts in terms of conduct policy decisions because he
was going without a net right and there was nothing
from tag Liabou. Right, if as long as you were
available to play, you were good to go. And then
you try to institute policy, well, how do you do that?
(12:03):
Because no two cases are going to be the same.
And then you have the star power of an Adrian Peterson.
That's a whole other thing, because he's gone on to
have a couple of really nice seasons in Washington, still
playing as we get ready for the twenty campaign, and
you look what he did in, he comes back and
he rushes for almost fift yards. He's still a beast souls,
(12:27):
a pro again, star rules right. And the thing is
for Peterson is that he has this all pro year
and he carries the Vikings offense. And I don't think
there was any question after go well we need him
needed to come back. It's it's just it baffles you
and you shake your head and you go, man, this
was just you know, this is just four years ago.
This is not very longal but but things change in
(12:48):
an instant and put it in perspective as you go
into this playoff matchup. The Vikings were thirty first in
passing yards. Oh, they were terror And that's the thing
is that they needed every yard to be because Teddy
Bridgewater just wasn't very good. And I loved Teddy Bridgewater
coming out of school, and it looked like he was
gonna take the path of Okay, he's gonna be a
(13:09):
winning quarterback. He's not gonna throw a lot of touchdowns,
is not gonna win passing titles, but he's gonna win games.
But he struggled all year long. He had nine touchdown
passes through the first fourteen weeks. Nine he had four
touchdowns in against the Bear. Sorry buddy Week fifteen. Yet
I mean for a season to throw fourteen touchdowns and
(13:30):
throw for three thousand yards. Again, this is in the
era of the quarterback where four thousand yards seasons are
becoming the norm. Uh. It's amazing to think how Minnesota
went through this year playing as well as they have
getting into the playoffs. Besides getting nothing at quarterback. I mean,
like I said, I love Teddy Bridgewater, but the bottom
line is he was just never very good, you know,
(13:51):
I mean and and and they they got by with
him and got this far with getting basically nothing at quarterback.
They had one player finished with more than five hundred
receiving yards that was Digs. Then you had three between
four hundred five hundred Jerry is right, Mike Wallace and
Kyle Rudolph Peterson. Then your fifth leading receiver two hundred
(14:14):
twenty two yards, but on the strength of his legs,
fourth most rushing yards as a unit uh in the league.
And somehow they scored at least twenty six points six
different times during the regular season, including the thirty eight
point barrage against the Bears. That is just the outlier.
(14:35):
Everything he had to as a team. They had two
multi touchdown throwing games. That's it. So the Vikings also
finished ten and six, and we get set for the
NFC wild Card Game, in which we have a big
broken nose catch every bit as good as Odell Beckham's
one of the most insane plays you'll see in the playoffs.
(14:57):
And oh, by the way, yes, Blair Walsh and his
missed twenty seven yard field goal. It's all coming up
next right here. Special teams Jason Smith and Mike Harmon.
(15:22):
So we arrive at the NFC wild Card playoff game
between the Seahawks and the Vikings, the third coldest game
in NFL history, with the windshill factor minus twenty five degrees.
And one of the best parts of this game is
that Bud Grant, long time Vikings head coach, legend Super Bowls,
he comes out for the coin toss in a hat
(15:44):
and a polo shirt and he's eighty eight years old
and he comes out going this is what it was
like in Minnesota because when he was the coach in
the seventies and the eighties, they played outdoors and they
used the snow and the and the elements to their advantage.
He comes out, he's eighty eight and he's just kind
of hatting a polo shirt like, Hey, I just got
done playing golf. I'm here for the coin toss. All
(16:04):
the montages of all the shirtless people in the crowds,
and then as the captains go out, there's Bud Gray.
What a boss? What a boss? Bud Grant what I
want to move right? So here's the game, and obviously
with this weather, you know, scoring is gonna be at
a minimum. Again, no Marshawn Lynch for the Seahawks, who
(16:25):
hadn't played in a while after abdominal surgery. So this
was gonna be done on the strength of the Seahawks
defense and Russell Wilson. It's a zero zero first half.
Nobody is surprised at this. The first big play of
the game turns on a bobble snap on a punt.
John Ryan bobbles the snap, doesn't think he can get
the ball off the punt off, so he tries to
(16:48):
run for the first down. He kind of gets up
ended and because you know punters, they have face masks
that don't cover their whole face, he lands on his
face short of the first down. With the broken nose.
I mean that that's the big play of the first half,
is that he bobbles a snap, runs falls on his face,
breaks his nose. It turns into a field goal of
(17:09):
the three nothing lead from Minnesota, all because of a
bobble snap, and you know, John Ryan's going, man, wish
I had that better face mask. That so bad every
time I've watched that replay. Not only does he have
the opportunity to get the punt off right because the
the last man coming in gets knocked to the ground,
(17:31):
so Ryan's got plenty of time to reset. Then he
suddenly decides he's Superman. What does he think He's got
a somersault and still be land on his feet and
finish off the first down run like it's it's one
of the worst decisions. This guy had a nice, long career,
a lot of a lot of positivity. As they always
say with an interception, man, he'd like to have that
(17:52):
one back, and if you want to, if you want
a great before he was a star moment. You know
who was rushing the punter on that play, him feeling yeah,
he's the guy that gets knocked down. It's like, okay,
you would never even think Adam. Why is Adam feeling
rushing the putter? The guys were the best receivers in
the NFL. But this is before he was a star.
He was on the punt team. He was rushing the punter.
(18:13):
But if you watch the like it's classic because well
he gets knocked down, which we would have been the
thing to give Ryan his edge to to actually get
a punted off, rushed, but at least get it out
of the territory and hope for a role. Instead, he's
the guy coming up behind and pumping his fist like
he made a huge play. It's like, no, No, trust
(18:35):
Nick trucked him. He tried to jump him, and he
gave him the w W E stound back body drop,
although he didn't complete the rotation and landed on his face.
Jason trust Nick from Ohio Northern University. There you go.
I say this because my cousin went to Ohio Northern
and was there at the same time he was. We
might hear some more about him a little later. Uh So,
(18:56):
it's a three nothing game at halftime. Again, it's the cold,
it's teams not being able to move to football. It's
a really good Seahawks defense. It's a really good Vikings defense,
and the big highlight of the third quarter, Doug Baldwin
makes a one handed catch every bit as good as
Odell Beckham Jr. And the famous catch that turned him
into a superstar. He did use his other hand at
(19:18):
the very end to hold on to the football, but
this was also in the middle of the field where
he's got to worry about getting killed if he goes
up for the ball like this. I mean, Odell Beckham
caught the ball on the sideline. He knew nobody else
is gonna hit him. Doug Baldwin is thinking, I go
up for this ball like this, I'm gonna get crunched.
So he does use his other hand. But this is
some kind of catch by Doug Baldwin. And you know,
(19:38):
if the Seahawks had a longer run in the playoffs
because of this, then you look back at this play
is almost like a fourth and twenty six type play
for the Eagles, you know, as we talked about in
podcast a few weeks ago. But you know, this play
gets lost history. But this is some kind of catch
by Doug Baldwin. Yeah, he goes up with one arm
and he's trying to make sure he knows where Harrison
Smith is because he's coming over one more step and
(20:01):
he's blowing them up right, not only probably separating the ball,
but probably a shoulder or the face mask or many
other things. But this was also another play and indicative
of what happened over the course of the game, is
that Russell Wilson was high, right, there were there were
a couple other that throwing the throw said that throwing
(20:24):
the football. Make sure you say it that. I was
immediately waiting for a laugh from our normal technical producer
on the show going no. So that's that definitely, like
he was just high and overthrowing receivers and putting them
in harm's way. Right. One of the things for Russell
Wilson as his careers developed is, you know, he's a
(20:46):
guy that's operational efficiency at its finest, and on this
day there were just a number of balls where he
almost got Baldwin and the other receivers killed. So this
play right here is the first of what's going to
wind up being a couple of big highlights for the Seahawks,
but they couldn't turn it into points. And we go
to the fourth quarter, the Vikings shutting out the Seahawks
(21:08):
nine to nothing on the strength of what three Blair
Walsh field goals. People forget about that he was three
for three going into the fourth quarter. He was responsible
for the only points in the game. So the Vikings
had shut the Seahawks out nine nothing going to the
fourth quarter. And then the play of the game comes
and it's a typical and quintessential Russell Wilson play. In fact,
(21:32):
if you say to me at the end of his career,
someone said to me, listen, I don't know anything about
Russell Wilson, tell me what he was like, I would say,
watch this play right here. This is Russell Wilson nine nothing,
Minnesota leading, and the Seahawks are driving. Now there's still
ways away from the end zone. And you know, look
they've been driving okay in between the forties, but you
(21:52):
know the Vikings have not broken on defense. The snap
goes through Russell Wilson's hands, all right, and he's not
ready for it. He kind of loses it trying to
grab it on his shoulder pad. He gets it back
sixteen yards behind the line of scrimmage, right, And how
many times you've seen this play with Russell Wilson now
over the years, but this is the quintessential play. Five
(22:13):
Vikings defenders go after him because they're all able to
get by their blockers because they see the ball all
the way down. They can take a wide run around
and and get to the ball. Meanwhile, the blockers, you know,
don't know they're gonna let them get around because they
don't know why they're running around. It's oh man, the
ball got way by Russell Wilson scrambled. He's got five
defenders closing in on him, and Wilson does kind of
(22:35):
a quick step and he scrambles right. And what happens
on plays like this is if you can't get to
that ball a guy like Russell Wilson, when you're talking
about five defenders who are now chasing him, that's only
six guys in the field, and a couple of them
aren't the line of scrimmage. So there's gonna be somebody
who's gonna be wide open, and it's Tyler Lockett. Lockett
catches the ball for a first down middle of the field,
(22:57):
makes a nice move and runs all the way down
to the four yard line. This play changed the game
because the Seahawks would go in for a touchdown and
cut it to nine to seven, and suddenly the Seahawks
have life. This one play did it. And this is
the deep play that you can look at it and say,
this is Russell Wilson's career in a nutshell. This play
(23:18):
right here. Yeah, the quick slide to corral the ball, Uh,
extend the play and you could see as Locket turns
up field to run. You got lin Voald Joseph with
his hands on his hips like, we did everything right. Yeah,
what are you gonna do? We did everything right. We pursued,
we chased, Wilson took a hitt as he got rid
(23:38):
of the ball, and there's Lockett's standing all by himself.
And then, as we alluded to a little bit earlier,
Doug Baldwin doing his thing, scraping at the goal line,
finding the end zone and putting them on the board.
But yeah, for Russell Wilson, one of those This is
the Canton highlight reel with the voiceover guy, booming voice
(24:00):
that's gonna be like, all right, and here was the
beginning of a legend. No, it's more like this, the
booming voice saying, and Russell Wilson, like the chauffeur of
a large limousine, content to let the pounds do the driving,
and then it's the really high Elson. Now he fumbles
a snapp in sixteen years back in the line of
scom game said looking, oh my god, he's found a guy.
Oh it's gonna be a first addic could get in
the end zone water play like, that's what would go.
(24:21):
It would be the whole Can we go back and
find you gotta be Kidney. The ball comes straight back
Wilson and now he's free. But the Vikings still have
the lead here in the fourth quarter. But something happens
that has always dogged Adrian Peterson throughout his career. On
the ensuing possession, camp Chancellor forces up Peterson fumble. He
(24:44):
has always had those issues. Seattle converts it into a
go ahead field goal. So suddenly the Vikings, who had
this game was nine nothing. You're saying, we're playing out
the last fifteen minutes. Wilson has the big play, Peterson fumbles,
and suddenly now the Vikings are chasing down ten none
with just a few minutes left. This is a huge
(25:04):
reversal of fortune, and the fans in the stands are
just stunned and they're looking at each other's hands on
their heads, going what just happened to us? We just
allowed We kept them off the scoreboard the entire first
three quarters. Now they got ten in the fourth quarter.
We're losing. And Adrian Peterson, the man with the strongest
hand shake you'll ever experience in your life, man where
he tries to break your soul and he does. I
(25:26):
I should staring you in the face. You know, before
this all came up with his child endangerment and what
happened like when he was in the midst of his career,
when he was like in his mid twenties, and I
was at espn SP's red carpet. It was always my
gig being on the red carpet of the SPS. And
I get to interview a lot of players and Adrian
Peterson comes by and you know, you shake hands. How
are you doing? He shakes my hand and he tries
(25:47):
to break it and go, oh my god. And I said, dude,
that's a hard shake. He goes, That's how I do.
It's how I do. You know, I gotta shake hands,
Gotta shake hands that way. I'm like, okay. So a
year goes by and the SPS red carpet. Next time
Adrian Peterson comes walking by again, I'm like, I'm gonna
talk to him, and I go, hey, Adrian, come over ESPN.
He goes, yeah, sure, I go, I've been waiting. You
shook my hand last year. But he goes, I've been
waiting all year for this. I go yeah, and he
gives me an extra squeeze, extra hard squeeze, and I go, oh, man, dude,
(26:11):
come on, I was waiting all year for this. He goes,
I'm stronger. I said, I yeah, you're right. Okay. So
that was that was my the hard handshake from Adrian Peterson.
I felt like my knuckles cracking while he was shaking
my hand. Yeah, I remember that from his rookie year.
And then like you, it got stronger every time you'd
run into him. So that's certainly the case. Like still
(26:34):
going but forty eight fumbles in his career on what
about touches uh and here just really well done by Chancellor,
much like we talked about the punch out on Calvin
Johnson Manton Man on the spot. So the Vikings trail
tend nine but Teddy Bridgewater gets the Vikings down the
field pretty easily and all it's needed now. In the
(26:58):
final seconds is a oney seven yard field goal from
Blair Walsh, who had a great college career at Georgia,
but as a senior had his weakest year. He was
twenty one out of thirty five on field goals, which
is not a great percentage. Still though, because of what
he did how strong his leg was, he gets drafted
by the Vikings in the sixth round and two thousand
(27:18):
and twelve. He is terrific from long distance right away
and becomes a pro bowler night in the summer. He
was that good he signed an extension to become one
of the top five highest paid kickers in the NFL
four years and fourteen millions, so he just gets paid.
He comes into the two thousand and fifteen season and
he continued to be good. But the problem with Blair
(27:39):
Walsh it wasn't his length, because he could make field
goals from anywhere. It wasn't kicking in the first three
and a half quarters. It was in the clutch. During
his career, Blair Walsh was never consistent making field goals
in the final minutes. In the final minute, with a
chance to tie the game, give his team the lead,
his field goal percentage was and it didn't matter where
(28:00):
it was from. This wasn't all He couldn't make the loan.
He just couldn't make them in the clutch, and that
was a bugaboo that followed him. Still, you gotta think
twenty seven yard field goal, He's gonna make this and
send the Vikings onto the next round. Yeah, first career.
I mean you look, he's an eighty two percent field
goal kicker. Uh, thirty five from long range? Uh, anything
inside thirty miss one. Uh, and then you got the
(28:24):
mid range what thirty seven of forty nine. All the stats,
including eventually showing up as a member of the Seahawks,
But just the the idea that in those waning moments
and this one and the more you look at it
and go back and watch the game tape, uh, some
things leading to uh, the eventual hook and and what
(28:46):
we're talking about a miss. This was no ordinary miss
Jason Smith. No, no, no, no, no, no. This never
had a chance at this point. Specifically, he's two out
of five on field goals in the final minute to
give his team the lead. And so you know that
this is a guy that has problems in the clutch.
He misses this one. As you said, it doesn't have
a chance. Laces were actually in on this holder Jeff
(29:09):
Locke didn't have the laces where it should have been,
and he misses the kick, which you know you have
to have the laces out because of ace venture a
pet detective in and Ray Finkel, and the laces weren't
out Dan Marino, and so we've known for twenty five years.
You know what, I gotta have the laces out when
you're kicking a field goal. But still head coach Mike
Zimmer says he's gotta make it. Blair Walsh took all
(29:30):
kinds of responsibility for it after the game was over.
But my goodness, this kick just shocked everybody because this
was it's a gimme, He's gonna make it. The vikings
are going on and the Seahawks are going home and
they're gonna rue that Super Bowl even more because of this.
But the kick misses and everybody is stunned. Look, the
announcers were trying to build up all kinds of momentum
(29:53):
towards this by saying, Hey, Richard Sherman could be on
this side here. You gotta watch for him because the
person on the edge has to pick who to block.
Richard Sherman could be the guy coming in from the edge,
and you're watching this saying, Okay, you're just trying to
give me some drama because it's a twenty seven yard
field goal, you know what, trying to kick one from
forty seven yards. You're just trying to give me some
drama on this play. Well, but that's part of the
(30:13):
laces in. It's like, all right, it's twenty seven yards.
Just hammer at home. But the third field goal of
the game, Sherman barely missed it and he stood there
looking at his hand, going how did I miss it? So? Uh,
he'd almost gotten one earlier. Uh, so I gotta think
to some degree there was a bit of a hooking
(30:35):
sensation knowing uh, and strategy, knowing that he had to
get it off because Sherman was getting to jump. So uh.
The announcers, I think we're on top of it. And yes,
part of it is getting there and sell cell cell,
get you to the edge of your seat. But you
know what, we've seen strange things. Seven yard field goal. No,
(30:55):
I get it, and I think you're right about that.
But the thing is that was a forty seven yard
order where Okay, a lot of things have to happen.
You gotta kick it lower, you know, you gotta get
more distance on it. This is an extra point. This
is you're not You're not gonna do it. But hey,
this is what happens to Blair Walsh. Why does he
miss field goals like this in the final minute? Does
he think too much? It's that's what you gotta do
(31:16):
to be a successful field goal kicker in the NFL.
You can't miss kicks like this or you're not going
to have a job. And it's stunned me that he
actually kept him around after this game, because sometimes a
kick is just so devastating that you have to move on.
And you know, hey, I I give the Vikings a
lot of credit by keeping Blair Walsh on the team
(31:36):
for a while, even though you knew the next time
he missed a big field goal he was gonna get
cut and you were postponing the inevitable. So he's just
cat number for the next year if signing that new deal.
They were going through his contract. But we can't can't.
We can't cut him because we gotta eat all that
money for a kicker. No chance in hell. But no,
but that that's a great point you make about look
Sherman got there. But still it's a twenty seven yard
(31:59):
field goal. And this, like I said, he missed one
from that distance in his career. Uh So the game
ends shockingly, The Vikings go home, The Seahawks go on.
What was life like next for Blair Walsh? What was
like like next for the Vikings who actually turned out
to not be the same after this game, Not just
(32:21):
Blair Walsh, All that more coming up next, Keep it
right here. The future is where things get really interesting
for both of these teams. Special Teams Podcast Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon. Blair Walsh misses the twenty seven yard field goal.
(32:50):
Seattle moves on to face the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs.
The Vikings go home. Blair Walsh, who said it took
him three weeks to reconcile the kick with him himself,
you know, staying away from everybody and staying out of
the limelight in the spotlight took him three weeks to
actually be at peace with missing that kick. I remember
he got letters from kids in school who wrote inspirational
(33:12):
letters to him. Hey, I'm so sorry. You missed this
field goal, and he was so touched by it he
went and visited one of the classes that sent him letters.
I mean, I think that's a really cool thing that
he did. But you as sure there were probably some
other letters that came in that weren't so positive. I'm
sure there were. I'm sure. I mean, he was already
out of a job. That's too soon for Ragnar come by.
(33:34):
Ragnar is probably rooting against the Vikings at that point. Well,
didn't he change teams? Wasn't that part of a Fox minute?
Was riding his motorcycle around going hey, we lost donuts
in the end zone? What's going on? At one point,
wal said he didn't remember anything about the game, like
he had blocked it out, And that happens a lot
with people when you have such a bad memory or
something happening, like I gotta block it out. I can't
(33:55):
keep thinking about this, So it's gonna consume me and
ruin my life. What's gonna happen? Uh? But here's where
things change in a way that you wouldn't expect. So
for the Vikings, this is how things got crazy. You
would think that, all right, Bridgewater Peterson is back. They
have a good team and we're gonna move on and
(34:17):
build on this. By the end of twenty sixteen, the
following season, Bridgewater, Peterson, and Walsh were all gone from
the Vikings. They you thought they had a really good
young nucleus they were gonna go, they were all gone.
Teddy Bridgewater tors a c L in the preseason and
an injury that knocked him out for well over a year.
(34:38):
He would never start another game for Minnesota. They had
to trade for Sam Bradford. They got so desperate. Adrian
Peterson gets hurt, tears his meniscus and an l c
L sprain. He tried to come back in December of
twenty six ten, but couldn't. Wasn't the same guy. The
Vikings decide we're gonna get out from under his contract
and the eighteen million dollars we owe him in February,
(35:00):
so they're both gone. Your quarterback, you're running back. You
are now starting over at those two key positions. Meanwhile,
Blair Walsh, he stayed with the team. I don't know
how they did it. As I said, sometimes mistakes you
just have to move on. But it was admirable. But
like I said, it just postponed the future. He made
it to week ten against Washington. He had missed four
(35:20):
extra points and four field goals to that point. He
missed a big extra point against Washington and they waved
him after that and said we got to get off
of this ride. And really it was inevitable. It was okay,
unless he makes every field goal on every extra point,
you're gonna move on from at some point. So this
was where they let him stay to hope that it
worked out. But you know, really, did you see it
(35:43):
ending for Blair Walsh and he differently in Minnesota? No,
this was how it was gonna go. No, and that
was inevitable. You look at the workload split with no
Peterson there. Bradford comes in, a guy who gets to
my thinking, Uh so fairly judged just because he was
the last to cut the huge novelty check before playing
(36:05):
it down in the NFL. That's not his fault, man,
that's the way the rules were. Yeah, he's got aware
that throughout his history. I'm sure he sleeps pretty well
like Hugh from breaking bad on a pile of the money.
But this is one of those dividing lines and bringing
Walsh back again. Other than the money part of things.
In total cash earnings was four point four million sixteen.
(36:31):
We're looking at like one point two when it's all
said done, so not a prohibitive amount of money in
terms of releasing him. And one would have thought that
after the terrible ending to the would be playoff run,
that you would have cut and just said, all right,
we need better karma around here. And then they bring
(36:52):
in Kai for Bath to kick after that. And while
we watched his career as well, that had its ups
and downs along the way. But yeah, the starting of
a new era there in Minnesota, so the Vikings were
starting over. And now it didn't end quite this way
for Blair Wallls. We have one of those you know
at the end of the horror movie, you think the
killer is dead, but oh no, he comes back like
(37:13):
very quickly at the end. Uh. That's kind of what
we have for Blair Walsh. But first, that's what happened
with the Vikings the next season. What about the Seattle Seahawks, Right,
they come off winning this game, they would lose the
next week in the playoffs to Carolina, a very famous
game in which they got down thirty one nothing at
halftime you're thinking, okay, this is over, but they roar
all the way back, nearly find a way to pull
(37:35):
it off, and they lose thirty one four. This turned
out to be Marshawn Lynch's final game at the time
for the Seattle Seahawks before he came out of retirement
years later to come play for them. Uh. He retired
during the Super Bowl and seen with the cleats over
a telephone wire picture on social media, which we all remember.
This was a big change for them because you saw
(37:56):
over the course of this season into two tho in sixteen,
this became Russell Wilson's team. Wilson nearly brought the Seahawks
all the way back in this game against Carolina, and
it was the Seahawks finally realizing, Okay, now we're Russell
Wilson driven. All right. You know, look Lynch marched to
a different drum and and okay, you know, but he's
(38:18):
kind of his own, you know, entity out there. We
needed him, but now we have to turn things over
to Russell Wilson. And it was a change. And what
we've seen now is Wilson become a yearly m VP
candidate and the way the Seahawks pushed their business their
yearly Super Bowl threats because of Russell Wilson. Right, we
went to running back by committee pretty much every year since. Right,
(38:43):
You'll have a guy who's the hot hand for a while,
but they kind of use him up there in Seattle.
All right, all right, he's gonna get hurt, and the
next guy's gonna roll up, and he's gonna get hurt,
and the other guy's gonna come back in because he's
ready to go. And sometimes we've got a third guy
at the ready. Meanwhile, our offensive line is a work
in progress still about mid season, and then we settle
on our five guys. You know, it's much like the
(39:05):
the pyramid that uh, the woman used on Dance Moms, Sorry,
quarantine time hanging out with the girls, Like all right,
these are gonna be our cards, and over here, number
one center, you're still there. The only constant was Russell Wilson, Right.
Even the wide receivers, you'd find new stars. Doug Baldwin
for a while was that guy, but he was never
(39:26):
as good as he was that year. Right, No, that
was the monster year. But you know, at least he
was the reliable and then lock it picks up uh
some more, and then you've had a number of other
receivers and tight ends. You know, as as you started.
We're not gonna do a preview here, uh as you
roll through, but you know, an important cog in the
(39:47):
machine as well. So for Russell Wilson, one of the
game's big names and stars. And yeah, it's all when
Marshawn Lynch and the Skittles checked out, Uh, the ending
of an era there, you know, honestly, you know, look,
he he came back to play after that. I think
he had such a bad season as far as health wise.
He was so banged up mentally physically. He just needed
(40:10):
to get away. And this happens to players where they
get away and then they get their love of the
game back and they want to come back. But it
was such a big run and and the Seahawks were
so good and and Lynch carried the football and had
so much responsibility. And then when you're so hurt and
you can't be healthy and you're coming back and it's difficult,
you just need time away. You get worn out, both
mentally and physically. I think that's what happened to Marshawn
(40:30):
Lynch because clearly he was ready to come back, and
he's come back with a couple of different teams, and
then you know that's where it is. But speaking of comebacks,
this is where things end for Blair Walsh. In two
thousand and seventeen, as a free agent, he is signed
by the Seattle Seahawks, the team he missed the field
(40:51):
goal against, signs him to be their kicker, and Walsh
does well for a bit. He makes two field goals
to be Minnesota and in in a very famous meme
and moment, yelling at his ex teammates on the sideline
for taunting him because they were all yelling stuff about
him missing the field the fiegals he makes two, he
(41:12):
helps Seattle beat Minnesota, and he starts yelling at everybody
on the sideline. That was about as good as it
would get for Blair Walsh, because he would miss a
fifty two yard or to tie the game on Monday
Night Football against Atlanta, and then the biggest one, he
missed a field goal in the final minute that could
have beaten Arizona. Again Blair Walsh and final minute field goals.
(41:33):
As a result, Seattle lost this game six They missed
the playoffs. As a result, because they could have got
in if they won. And then Blair Walsh was waived.
So the Blair Walsh Vikings Seahawks storyline doesn't end where
you thought it would, but it still ends with missed
field goals on both perspectives. And and you know, you
can talk about not being able to pay kickers, and
(41:54):
you shouldn't pay kickers and all these things. No, you
can pay kickers. You gotta pay the right ones. You
gotta pay the ones. You pay the Justin Tuckers that
are gonna make fifty yard field goals in the final minute. Uh,
that's going to win a game. Or you know, the
solid guys that can that can kick the Adam Vinitarry's
that are gonna kick well in the clutch. It it's
some kind of gene that that some players having, some
(42:15):
don't because and I feel awful for Blair Walsh because
the guy was and still is a good kicker, strong
leg makes a lot of them. But boy, those misses
at the end, when you have a percentage that stands
out that way, it's okay, how long you're gonna be around?
That's really what it is. Well, who's your closer? Uh?
This is your punter able to come in and take
in the final minute or do you just have to
(42:37):
go for it? All right? How about little where are
they now from this game? You got something there? You go? Well,
we mentioned truss Nick before out of Ohio Northern real
estate investments of pro sports performance are doing a little
bit of the technique and training as you go. Uh.
You've got Sean Prador graduate assistant under Herm Edwards over
(43:00):
at Arizona State. Also some marketing and sales work at
Exos before that, So kind of dabbling in a couple
of things. If you got Clinton Gresham out of TCU
speaker doing some h two sides, you can either book
him for here's basic motivational stuff or if you want
me to go faith based, we'll get into the Bible
a little bit. So that's two types of the process
(43:21):
to wholeness for him. And then you got Matt Asiata.
Why because he was a fantasy hero for us. Yeah,
I felt like I needed to bring him into the mix. Uh.
He played in the Alliance in twenty nine. He was
one of the high profile players, that's right. Yeah, yeah,
and then he ended on injured reserve. I remember, I
(43:42):
think it was a game where I started him in Fantasy.
It was it was either pick up Asiata or McKinnon,
I think was what it was. And I'm like, all right,
let me pick up Asiata. And for one week the
week I picked him up, he had three touchdowns. It
was great, but it was like three carry three touchdowns.
Then it ran for like a hundred and seventy yards.
I go, I picked the wrong guy. I mean, I'm
not I mean for the long haul, I'm screwed unless
(44:03):
I'm I'm just playing vulture. Yeah, that's why I used
the term vulture. And even more, there's no question yeah
McKinnon being the dual threat back and that was the
other thing they needed to do even more of, uh
as the the offense changed there. But you know, as
we well know, as you and I said, and we
uh we talk about this game and the fallout and
(44:24):
the where are they now? There's a lot of guys
that are still roaming NFL sidelines from these games. Is
pretty amazing because you know, normally we have the turnover
in the league. I think the first fifteen guys that
I kind of went through and I was looking at
the end of roster's guys are still hanging on somewhere.
It's pretty amazing. But coming from to well coached discipline squads,
(44:48):
when you look at it, especially when you go on
the defensive side of the ball, from both those squads,
you know exactly what you're getting. So there is the
Blair Walsh game. The Seahawks win at ten nine, both
teams changed forever, and Blair walsh Is story is as
amazing as it is improbable. Uh. Jason Smith Mike Harmon
Our show has heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday,
(45:09):
ten pm to two am on the East Coast, seven
to eleven on the West Coast. If you have an
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(45:30):
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(45:50):
ever m h Special Teams is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
(46:12):
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
(00:20):
Greetings and Welcome inside the Special Teams podcast with Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon, where every week we look back
at some special team specific year in sports in the
middle of our run right now, as we look back
at some special teams who took place and took part
in some of the biggest games the NFL, major League Baseball,
(00:41):
college football, the NBA have seen in the past few years.
And today we're gonna look back at a game that
changed the fortunes of two teams following it. And it's
so good. It has a name, because look, when any
time a playoff game has a name, you know it's good.
Sometimes it's fourth and six, which is the title of
a previous podcast has Sometimes the Music City Miracle. Sometimes
(01:02):
it's named after a player because you say the name
and everybody understands. So today we're gonna break down the
Blair Walsh game. Oh you say that and everybody knows. Yep,
Blair Walsh missing the field goal. Oh boy ten nine, Yep,
I get it, I get it. So the Blair Walsh
game from January two thousand and sixteen, the most recent
(01:22):
NFL game I think we've broke down, but still so
much has changed for both of these teams as a
result of that game. That's why we're doing it here today.
Our bosses aren't gonna scrub it though, right based on
their own personal fandom. Well, let's see our boss, Scott
Shapiro at Fox is a huge Minnesota Vikings fan. But look,
the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, So I
think anytime we talk about the Vikings he'll be okay
(01:43):
with it. Yeah, they had their shots. Maybe we'll go
back in the long illustrious history of Near Mrs from
fran Tarkington. Well, it would give us an excuse to
do twenty minutes on That's Incredible. Sure, Well I met
Kathy Lee Crosby John John. Remember that was on the
same time as Real People. It was like the same show. Yeah,
but it was great. About the That's incredible is about
(02:05):
every month they'd have a random dude on with a cobra.
It's like he gets ratings, people get excited. Yeah, it's
a guy with a sneak let's have him sneak ahead.
Who was the guy that was in the box right
to breathe in the box for an hour? And that
was the big one for that's incredible. He he folded
himself up into this tiny you know. Uh and and
and he was he was able to be in a
(02:27):
box where he breathed for an hour that was completely closed.
Oh I still remember that. And that was like forty
years ago. I remember watching that well, I mean, I
know it was the amazing Yen in Notions eleven. Yeah,
this guy was on the Reunion special too. You know,
I actually saw Yen at the l A County Fair
last year because he performs with with a group that
(02:48):
does incredible acrobatics. And we're watching this group and it's
amazing to see l A County Fair. This is where
you could just walk right up to the stage and
just you know, sit down. And he's with a group
of of acrobat performers and I'm going, oh my god.
And I go, Pam, that looks like the dude from
Oceans eleven. She was, no, no, it's not a but
it doesn't it look just like you, ye know where
the you And so we looked it up and we said,
(03:12):
oh my god, it is and and he was performing
on stage County Fair. It was fantastic. I was like,
and he told Zoe Zoe, this is the guy, and
now she's just watched The Ocean's eleven movies. My daughter
in the past, coup loves that. Yeah, she just like me,
loves eleven, loves thirteen, hates twelve. Well, twelve was clearly
(03:32):
just a cash grab. They enjoyed playing and hanging out together.
They knew it would make money, so why not do
it again on the whole, Like if you didn't know,
it was part of a trilogy that was really really good. Otherwise, uh,
twelve twelves okay standalone. You you have to compartmentalize your brain, right,
you gotta do a little meditation and remember that the
(03:53):
first one wasn't so great. Yeah, well, and it's also
you gotta get Oh, Julia Roberts is gonna play herself,
but she's not Julia Roberts since ye uh you know, okay,
you know what X, I'm out, I'm out of that. Well,
that's when you have an extra drink and you forget
any of it. Well, she also liked the bad guy.
Al Pacino was a much better bad guy in Oceans thirteen,
so that's true. She likes him. And what is this
a Billy Martin I get a chance to make amends,
(04:15):
I'm not gonna do it, but anyway, today's podcast is
the Blair Walsh game before we get to the NFL
Wildcard Game, the NFC game that took place in the
second week of two thousand and sixteen. How did these
teams get to a game that has become identifiable with
both franchises. Well, for the Seahawks, you gotta remember, they're
(04:36):
coming off that big Super Bowl lost New England in
which they could have given the ball to Marshawn Lynch
on the goal line. They didn't, and they were living
with that. So now they've been playing that game over
and over in their head all off season into this season,
in which they decide, we're gonna make our team better.
So going into this year, Pete Carroll decides, we gotta
do better and we need more offense. They trade for
(04:57):
Jimmy Graham, they have a couple of great draft picks
and Frank Clark and Tyler Lockett. Cam Chancellor held out
didn't report until Week three. Turns out they didn't need him,
and during the season they make the big trade of
Percy Harvin to the Jets when the Jets had won
two games, and it's like, what are you doing. We're
not We're not going anywhere with person. Why are making
a trade for Percy Harvin? John is sick? What are
(05:18):
you doing? You are insane? But this is the ups
and downs that the Seahawks had to deal with during
the regular season, and you think that would be enough. Look,
you bring in a couple of impact players and Graham
and lock it. You draft Frank Clark, who turns into
a star. You trade Percy Harvin and for this season.
The most famous play that the Seahawks had was the
(05:38):
bat play. It was on Monday Night football against the Lions.
You probably remember this, uh you and I were on
air knowing about it on Fox Sports or any Calvin
Johnson is trying to stretch what would be the game
winning touchdown on Monday Night, except he gets stripped by
Cam Chancellor. K J. Wright bats the ball out of
the end zone and after the game we find out
(05:58):
it should have been ruled in a lead eagle bat
and Detroit keeping the football at the one yard line.
Very famous play, one of the many plays the Seahawks
have had in that core of the end zone which
has gone their way. Full of much controversy. It's like
a sacred burial ground or something. Man, there's some strange
stuff happening now, so you want to stay away from
that part of the end zone in big games against
(06:19):
Fred Gwyn at look Out, a boy needs a father. Um.
So this was the backdrop of the Seahawks, who had
a very interesting season looking with with the new additions,
with this big play, Uh, they lose Jimmy Graham for
the season in Week twelve he tears Pateller tendon and really,
Jimmy Graham was It's such a missed opportunity because his
(06:41):
entire time he spent with the Seahawks, they never figured
out how to use and they never figured out how
to turn him into the weapon he was in New
Orleans and it was one of those times where you say, boy,
this should have been a lot better for the Seahawks,
and it just wasn't. Let me do eleven games during
the years he said, so seventy four targets. You know,
he was on track to get to at least the
(07:02):
target number that we've seen in the years prior working
with Breeze and Company. But the red zone opportunities certainly
weren't there, and you know. You look at the way
the Seahawks operated Dunk Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, some of the
smaller receivers, Percy Harvin before he became a jet and
well had nowhere to go. Um look, I gotta call it.
(07:23):
What is uh? Those guys knew how to do the
little scrape route and find just enough space in the
end zone. Here. For Graham, he didn't become the same
level of performer. He ended up being more a decoy,
except for his final year, when then he was grossly
overpaid by the Packers. Seattle actually beats Minnesota in the
(07:44):
regular season. In Week thirteen, they crushed them thirty eight
seven without Jimmy Graham, without Marshawn Lynch. Thomas Rawls played well,
but he got hurt the following week. He was out
for the season. So the Seahawks were a banged up
team all year. They started out slow. They make the
playoffs by winning eight out of their last ten. Russell
Wilson becomes the focal point of the offense. And remember
(08:06):
you mentioned him. This was the Doug Baldwin year. I mean,
this is the year where Doug Baldwin something was catching
three touchdowns a week and you're going, oh my god,
look at Doug bald and he had fourteen for the season.
That's like what Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones having their
best years. Yeah, and he wasn't the guy that was
generally a deep ball guy, right, you had some of that,
That's why Lockett came on board. But Doug Baldwin was
(08:28):
a guy that would create space right and find openings,
and Russell Wilson just knew to put it in the
general vicinity. And certainly over the course of this game
he he got qued a couple of times, but I
had the opportunity, and you you recognize just what an
impactful player Baldwin was for a stretch. I don't know
(08:48):
that he gets his just due on the NFL as
a whole for how reliable he'd been. But you know,
not to gloss over. You know how they got on
a roll that second half That became kind of a
hallmark of this team, right because the offensive line was
always in shambles, or so it would seem. So about
mid season they're like, all right, are we ready? You
guys got it together? Okay, let's go on a run.
(09:09):
Because they were four and four at the midpoint, right
and they and they on this crazy run. They they
you know, Marshawn Lynch got hurt at the end of November.
He had abdominal surgery and he was done. You know,
Rawls comes in and plays well, but now he's done.
This is a team Dune durn Don durn done. And
this is a team that has always as as good
as Russell Wilson is shown to be, he's always been
(09:32):
part of He was basically the head of the snake
up until this year. It was well, Russell Wilson's good,
but it's the running game that's carrying us through. And
of course, coming off such a highly publicized interception, when
had you given the ball to Marshawn Lynch, you would
have won the Super Bowl. It's a it's a different
world for the Seahawks coming into this playoff going, Okay,
we're now Russell Wilson driven, Doug Baldwin's turning in. I mean,
(09:55):
like I said, it's the Doug Baldwin year. So this
is where we're at as they finished and in six
and head into the playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings. Now
for the Vikings, things are much different in the off season.
It was their last season at TCF Bank Stadium. They
drafted Stefon Diggs, who turned into a phenomenal player for
them until they trained him. Uh, this was Adrian Peterson
(10:17):
coming back to the team after he missed nearly all
of fourteen due to child abuse allegations. I mean, this
was the NFL. I mean, now, I can't believe that
he'd stay in the league. I mean, you're coming up.
This is team where all the allegations and and and
basically Adrian Peterson admitting that he would hit his child
(10:38):
for disciplining him. If that happened, now he'd be gone
and he'd not be coming back into the league. But
he was still playing at a high level. And I
am stunned at this point that he got back in
the league that easy. You know, In fact, it was
so it was it was. It was such a fatal
company that Minnesota restructured his deal prior to the season.
Can you imagine the flat that the Kings would get
(11:00):
now if they kept him? If this was two thousand
and twenty. Yeah, here's a guy who admitted to to
beating his kid that way. Oh my goodness, and you're
gonna keep me and not only that restructure is deal
going into this year, people would stop going to Vikings games.
It would be it would be the story of look
at an organization, how they're doing it? With this story
(11:20):
still so fresh in everybody's mind. Yeah, I mean, there's
there's so many of those moments for the NFL where
if you put it in the current climate, you eradicate
a lot of it. There's outraged Doune and certainly in
the NFL perhaps in a different state of listening to
the players, listening to fans, listening to where culture is.
(11:42):
And Goodell is always going to be crushed for the
early attempts in terms of conduct policy decisions because he
was going without a net right and there was nothing
from tag Liabou. Right, if as long as you were
available to play, you were good to go. And then
you try to institute policy, well, how do you do that?
(12:03):
Because no two cases are going to be the same.
And then you have the star power of an Adrian Peterson.
That's a whole other thing, because he's gone on to
have a couple of really nice seasons in Washington, still
playing as we get ready for the twenty campaign, and
you look what he did in, he comes back and
he rushes for almost fift yards. He's still a beast souls,
(12:27):
a pro again, star rules right. And the thing is
for Peterson is that he has this all pro year
and he carries the Vikings offense. And I don't think
there was any question after go well we need him
needed to come back. It's it's just it baffles you
and you shake your head and you go, man, this
was just you know, this is just four years ago.
This is not very longal but but things change in
(12:48):
an instant and put it in perspective as you go
into this playoff matchup. The Vikings were thirty first in
passing yards. Oh, they were terror And that's the thing
is that they needed every yard to be because Teddy
Bridgewater just wasn't very good. And I loved Teddy Bridgewater
coming out of school, and it looked like he was
gonna take the path of Okay, he's gonna be a
(13:09):
winning quarterback. He's not gonna throw a lot of touchdowns,
is not gonna win passing titles, but he's gonna win games.
But he struggled all year long. He had nine touchdown
passes through the first fourteen weeks. Nine he had four
touchdowns in against the Bear. Sorry buddy Week fifteen. Yet
I mean for a season to throw fourteen touchdowns and
(13:30):
throw for three thousand yards. Again, this is in the
era of the quarterback where four thousand yards seasons are
becoming the norm. Uh. It's amazing to think how Minnesota
went through this year playing as well as they have
getting into the playoffs. Besides getting nothing at quarterback. I mean,
like I said, I love Teddy Bridgewater, but the bottom
line is he was just never very good, you know,
(13:51):
I mean and and and they they got by with
him and got this far with getting basically nothing at quarterback.
They had one player finished with more than five hundred
receiving yards that was Digs. Then you had three between
four hundred five hundred Jerry is right, Mike Wallace and
Kyle Rudolph Peterson. Then your fifth leading receiver two hundred
(14:14):
twenty two yards, but on the strength of his legs,
fourth most rushing yards as a unit uh in the league.
And somehow they scored at least twenty six points six
different times during the regular season, including the thirty eight
point barrage against the Bears. That is just the outlier.
(14:35):
Everything he had to as a team. They had two
multi touchdown throwing games. That's it. So the Vikings also
finished ten and six, and we get set for the
NFC wild Card Game, in which we have a big
broken nose catch every bit as good as Odell Beckham's
one of the most insane plays you'll see in the playoffs.
(14:57):
And oh, by the way, yes, Blair Walsh and his
missed twenty seven yard field goal. It's all coming up
next right here. Special teams Jason Smith and Mike Harmon.
(15:22):
So we arrive at the NFC wild Card playoff game
between the Seahawks and the Vikings, the third coldest game
in NFL history, with the windshill factor minus twenty five degrees.
And one of the best parts of this game is
that Bud Grant, long time Vikings head coach, legend Super Bowls,
he comes out for the coin toss in a hat
(15:44):
and a polo shirt and he's eighty eight years old
and he comes out going this is what it was
like in Minnesota because when he was the coach in
the seventies and the eighties, they played outdoors and they
used the snow and the and the elements to their advantage.
He comes out, he's eighty eight and he's just kind
of hatting a polo shirt like, Hey, I just got
done playing golf. I'm here for the coin toss. All
(16:04):
the montages of all the shirtless people in the crowds,
and then as the captains go out, there's Bud Gray.
What a boss? What a boss? Bud Grant what I
want to move right? So here's the game, and obviously
with this weather, you know, scoring is gonna be at
a minimum. Again, no Marshawn Lynch for the Seahawks, who
(16:25):
hadn't played in a while after abdominal surgery. So this
was gonna be done on the strength of the Seahawks
defense and Russell Wilson. It's a zero zero first half.
Nobody is surprised at this. The first big play of
the game turns on a bobble snap on a punt.
John Ryan bobbles the snap, doesn't think he can get
the ball off the punt off, so he tries to
(16:48):
run for the first down. He kind of gets up
ended and because you know punters, they have face masks
that don't cover their whole face, he lands on his
face short of the first down. With the broken nose.
I mean that that's the big play of the first half,
is that he bobbles a snap, runs falls on his face,
breaks his nose. It turns into a field goal of
(17:09):
the three nothing lead from Minnesota, all because of a
bobble snap, and you know, John Ryan's going, man, wish
I had that better face mask. That so bad every
time I've watched that replay. Not only does he have
the opportunity to get the punt off right because the
the last man coming in gets knocked to the ground,
(17:31):
so Ryan's got plenty of time to reset. Then he
suddenly decides he's Superman. What does he think He's got
a somersault and still be land on his feet and
finish off the first down run like it's it's one
of the worst decisions. This guy had a nice, long career,
a lot of a lot of positivity. As they always
say with an interception, man, he'd like to have that
(17:52):
one back, and if you want to, if you want
a great before he was a star moment. You know
who was rushing the punter on that play, him feeling yeah,
he's the guy that gets knocked down. It's like, okay,
you would never even think Adam. Why is Adam feeling
rushing the putter? The guys were the best receivers in
the NFL. But this is before he was a star.
He was on the punt team. He was rushing the punter.
(18:13):
But if you watch the like it's classic because well
he gets knocked down, which we would have been the
thing to give Ryan his edge to to actually get
a punted off, rushed, but at least get it out
of the territory and hope for a role. Instead, he's
the guy coming up behind and pumping his fist like
he made a huge play. It's like, no, No, trust
(18:35):
Nick trucked him. He tried to jump him, and he
gave him the w W E stound back body drop,
although he didn't complete the rotation and landed on his face.
Jason trust Nick from Ohio Northern University. There you go.
I say this because my cousin went to Ohio Northern
and was there at the same time he was. We
might hear some more about him a little later. Uh So,
(18:56):
it's a three nothing game at halftime. Again, it's the cold,
it's teams not being able to move to football. It's
a really good Seahawks defense. It's a really good Vikings defense,
and the big highlight of the third quarter, Doug Baldwin
makes a one handed catch every bit as good as
Odell Beckham Jr. And the famous catch that turned him
into a superstar. He did use his other hand at
(19:18):
the very end to hold on to the football, but
this was also in the middle of the field where
he's got to worry about getting killed if he goes
up for the ball like this. I mean, Odell Beckham
caught the ball on the sideline. He knew nobody else
is gonna hit him. Doug Baldwin is thinking, I go
up for this ball like this, I'm gonna get crunched.
So he does use his other hand. But this is
some kind of catch by Doug Baldwin. And you know,
(19:38):
if the Seahawks had a longer run in the playoffs
because of this, then you look back at this play
is almost like a fourth and twenty six type play
for the Eagles, you know, as we talked about in
podcast a few weeks ago. But you know, this play
gets lost history. But this is some kind of catch
by Doug Baldwin. Yeah, he goes up with one arm
and he's trying to make sure he knows where Harrison
Smith is because he's coming over one more step and
(20:01):
he's blowing them up right, not only probably separating the ball,
but probably a shoulder or the face mask or many
other things. But this was also another play and indicative
of what happened over the course of the game, is
that Russell Wilson was high, right, there were there were
a couple other that throwing the throw said that throwing
(20:24):
the football. Make sure you say it that. I was
immediately waiting for a laugh from our normal technical producer
on the show going no. So that's that definitely, like
he was just high and overthrowing receivers and putting them
in harm's way. Right. One of the things for Russell
Wilson as his careers developed is, you know, he's a
(20:46):
guy that's operational efficiency at its finest, and on this
day there were just a number of balls where he
almost got Baldwin and the other receivers killed. So this
play right here is the first of what's going to
wind up being a couple of big highlights for the Seahawks,
but they couldn't turn it into points. And we go
to the fourth quarter, the Vikings shutting out the Seahawks
(21:08):
nine to nothing on the strength of what three Blair
Walsh field goals. People forget about that he was three
for three going into the fourth quarter. He was responsible
for the only points in the game. So the Vikings
had shut the Seahawks out nine nothing going to the
fourth quarter. And then the play of the game comes
and it's a typical and quintessential Russell Wilson play. In fact,
(21:32):
if you say to me at the end of his career,
someone said to me, listen, I don't know anything about
Russell Wilson, tell me what he was like, I would say,
watch this play right here. This is Russell Wilson nine nothing,
Minnesota leading, and the Seahawks are driving. Now there's still
ways away from the end zone. And you know, look
they've been driving okay in between the forties, but you
(21:52):
know the Vikings have not broken on defense. The snap
goes through Russell Wilson's hands, all right, and he's not
ready for it. He kind of loses it trying to
grab it on his shoulder pad. He gets it back
sixteen yards behind the line of scrimmage, right, And how
many times you've seen this play with Russell Wilson now
over the years, but this is the quintessential play. Five
(22:13):
Vikings defenders go after him because they're all able to
get by their blockers because they see the ball all
the way down. They can take a wide run around
and and get to the ball. Meanwhile, the blockers, you know,
don't know they're gonna let them get around because they
don't know why they're running around. It's oh man, the
ball got way by Russell Wilson scrambled. He's got five
defenders closing in on him, and Wilson does kind of
(22:35):
a quick step and he scrambles right. And what happens
on plays like this is if you can't get to
that ball a guy like Russell Wilson, when you're talking
about five defenders who are now chasing him, that's only
six guys in the field, and a couple of them
aren't the line of scrimmage. So there's gonna be somebody
who's gonna be wide open, and it's Tyler Lockett. Lockett
catches the ball for a first down middle of the field,
(22:57):
makes a nice move and runs all the way down
to the four yard line. This play changed the game
because the Seahawks would go in for a touchdown and
cut it to nine to seven, and suddenly the Seahawks
have life. This one play did it. And this is
the deep play that you can look at it and say,
this is Russell Wilson's career in a nutshell. This play
(23:18):
right here. Yeah, the quick slide to corral the ball, Uh,
extend the play and you could see as Locket turns
up field to run. You got lin Voald Joseph with
his hands on his hips like, we did everything right. Yeah,
what are you gonna do? We did everything right. We pursued,
we chased, Wilson took a hitt as he got rid
(23:38):
of the ball, and there's Lockett's standing all by himself.
And then, as we alluded to a little bit earlier,
Doug Baldwin doing his thing, scraping at the goal line,
finding the end zone and putting them on the board.
But yeah, for Russell Wilson, one of those This is
the Canton highlight reel with the voiceover guy, booming voice
(24:00):
that's gonna be like, all right, and here was the
beginning of a legend. No, it's more like this, the
booming voice saying, and Russell Wilson, like the chauffeur of
a large limousine, content to let the pounds do the driving,
and then it's the really high Elson. Now he fumbles
a snapp in sixteen years back in the line of
scom game said looking, oh my god, he's found a guy.
Oh it's gonna be a first addic could get in
the end zone water play like, that's what would go.
(24:21):
It would be the whole Can we go back and
find you gotta be Kidney. The ball comes straight back
Wilson and now he's free. But the Vikings still have
the lead here in the fourth quarter. But something happens
that has always dogged Adrian Peterson throughout his career. On
the ensuing possession, camp Chancellor forces up Peterson fumble. He
(24:44):
has always had those issues. Seattle converts it into a
go ahead field goal. So suddenly the Vikings, who had
this game was nine nothing. You're saying, we're playing out
the last fifteen minutes. Wilson has the big play, Peterson fumbles,
and suddenly now the Vikings are chasing down ten none
with just a few minutes left. This is a huge
(25:04):
reversal of fortune, and the fans in the stands are
just stunned and they're looking at each other's hands on
their heads, going what just happened to us? We just
allowed We kept them off the scoreboard the entire first
three quarters. Now they got ten in the fourth quarter.
We're losing. And Adrian Peterson, the man with the strongest
hand shake you'll ever experience in your life, man where
he tries to break your soul and he does. I
(25:26):
I should staring you in the face. You know, before
this all came up with his child endangerment and what
happened like when he was in the midst of his career,
when he was like in his mid twenties, and I
was at espn SP's red carpet. It was always my
gig being on the red carpet of the SPS. And
I get to interview a lot of players and Adrian
Peterson comes by and you know, you shake hands. How
are you doing? He shakes my hand and he tries
(25:47):
to break it and go, oh my god. And I said, dude,
that's a hard shake. He goes, That's how I do.
It's how I do. You know, I gotta shake hands,
Gotta shake hands that way. I'm like, okay. So a
year goes by and the SPS red carpet. Next time
Adrian Peterson comes walking by again, I'm like, I'm gonna
talk to him, and I go, hey, Adrian, come over ESPN.
He goes, yeah, sure, I go, I've been waiting. You
shook my hand last year. But he goes, I've been
waiting all year for this. I go yeah, and he
gives me an extra squeeze, extra hard squeeze, and I go, oh, man, dude,
(26:11):
come on, I was waiting all year for this. He goes,
I'm stronger. I said, I yeah, you're right. Okay. So
that was that was my the hard handshake from Adrian Peterson.
I felt like my knuckles cracking while he was shaking
my hand. Yeah, I remember that from his rookie year.
And then like you, it got stronger every time you'd
run into him. So that's certainly the case. Like still
(26:34):
going but forty eight fumbles in his career on what
about touches uh and here just really well done by Chancellor,
much like we talked about the punch out on Calvin
Johnson Manton Man on the spot. So the Vikings trail
tend nine but Teddy Bridgewater gets the Vikings down the
field pretty easily and all it's needed now. In the
(26:58):
final seconds is a oney seven yard field goal from
Blair Walsh, who had a great college career at Georgia,
but as a senior had his weakest year. He was
twenty one out of thirty five on field goals, which
is not a great percentage. Still though, because of what
he did how strong his leg was, he gets drafted
by the Vikings in the sixth round and two thousand
(27:18):
and twelve. He is terrific from long distance right away
and becomes a pro bowler night in the summer. He
was that good he signed an extension to become one
of the top five highest paid kickers in the NFL
four years and fourteen millions, so he just gets paid.
He comes into the two thousand and fifteen season and
he continued to be good. But the problem with Blair
(27:39):
Walsh it wasn't his length, because he could make field
goals from anywhere. It wasn't kicking in the first three
and a half quarters. It was in the clutch. During
his career, Blair Walsh was never consistent making field goals
in the final minutes. In the final minute, with a
chance to tie the game, give his team the lead,
his field goal percentage was and it didn't matter where
(28:00):
it was from. This wasn't all He couldn't make the loan.
He just couldn't make them in the clutch, and that
was a bugaboo that followed him. Still, you gotta think
twenty seven yard field goal, He's gonna make this and
send the Vikings onto the next round. Yeah, first career.
I mean you look, he's an eighty two percent field
goal kicker. Uh, thirty five from long range? Uh, anything
inside thirty miss one. Uh, and then you got the
(28:24):
mid range what thirty seven of forty nine. All the stats,
including eventually showing up as a member of the Seahawks,
But just the the idea that in those waning moments
and this one and the more you look at it
and go back and watch the game tape, uh, some
things leading to uh, the eventual hook and and what
(28:46):
we're talking about a miss. This was no ordinary miss
Jason Smith. No, no, no, no, no, no. This never
had a chance at this point. Specifically, he's two out
of five on field goals in the final minute to
give his team the lead. And so you know that
this is a guy that has problems in the clutch.
He misses this one. As you said, it doesn't have
a chance. Laces were actually in on this holder Jeff
(29:09):
Locke didn't have the laces where it should have been,
and he misses the kick, which you know you have
to have the laces out because of ace venture a
pet detective in and Ray Finkel, and the laces weren't
out Dan Marino, and so we've known for twenty five years.
You know what, I gotta have the laces out when
you're kicking a field goal. But still head coach Mike
Zimmer says he's gotta make it. Blair Walsh took all
(29:30):
kinds of responsibility for it after the game was over.
But my goodness, this kick just shocked everybody because this
was it's a gimme, He's gonna make it. The vikings
are going on and the Seahawks are going home and
they're gonna rue that Super Bowl even more because of this.
But the kick misses and everybody is stunned. Look, the
announcers were trying to build up all kinds of momentum
(29:53):
towards this by saying, Hey, Richard Sherman could be on
this side here. You gotta watch for him because the
person on the edge has to pick who to block.
Richard Sherman could be the guy coming in from the edge,
and you're watching this saying, Okay, you're just trying to
give me some drama because it's a twenty seven yard
field goal, you know what, trying to kick one from
forty seven yards. You're just trying to give me some
drama on this play. Well, but that's part of the
(30:13):
laces in. It's like, all right, it's twenty seven yards.
Just hammer at home. But the third field goal of
the game, Sherman barely missed it and he stood there
looking at his hand, going how did I miss it? So? Uh,
he'd almost gotten one earlier. Uh, so I gotta think
to some degree there was a bit of a hooking
(30:35):
sensation knowing uh, and strategy, knowing that he had to
get it off because Sherman was getting to jump. So uh.
The announcers, I think we're on top of it. And yes,
part of it is getting there and sell cell cell,
get you to the edge of your seat. But you
know what, we've seen strange things. Seven yard field goal. No,
(30:55):
I get it, and I think you're right about that.
But the thing is that was a forty seven yard
order where Okay, a lot of things have to happen.
You gotta kick it lower, you know, you gotta get
more distance on it. This is an extra point. This
is you're not You're not gonna do it. But hey,
this is what happens to Blair Walsh. Why does he
miss field goals like this in the final minute? Does
he think too much? It's that's what you gotta do
(31:16):
to be a successful field goal kicker in the NFL.
You can't miss kicks like this or you're not going
to have a job. And it's stunned me that he
actually kept him around after this game, because sometimes a
kick is just so devastating that you have to move on.
And you know, hey, I I give the Vikings a
lot of credit by keeping Blair Walsh on the team
(31:36):
for a while, even though you knew the next time
he missed a big field goal he was gonna get
cut and you were postponing the inevitable. So he's just
cat number for the next year if signing that new deal.
They were going through his contract. But we can't can't.
We can't cut him because we gotta eat all that
money for a kicker. No chance in hell. But no,
but that that's a great point you make about look
Sherman got there. But still it's a twenty seven yard
(31:59):
field goal. And this, like I said, he missed one
from that distance in his career. Uh So the game
ends shockingly, The Vikings go home, The Seahawks go on.
What was life like next for Blair Walsh? What was
like like next for the Vikings who actually turned out
to not be the same after this game, Not just
(32:21):
Blair Walsh, All that more coming up next, Keep it
right here. The future is where things get really interesting
for both of these teams. Special Teams Podcast Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon. Blair Walsh misses the twenty seven yard field goal.
(32:50):
Seattle moves on to face the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs.
The Vikings go home. Blair Walsh, who said it took
him three weeks to reconcile the kick with him himself,
you know, staying away from everybody and staying out of
the limelight in the spotlight took him three weeks to
actually be at peace with missing that kick. I remember
he got letters from kids in school who wrote inspirational
(33:12):
letters to him. Hey, I'm so sorry. You missed this
field goal, and he was so touched by it he
went and visited one of the classes that sent him letters.
I mean, I think that's a really cool thing that
he did. But you as sure there were probably some
other letters that came in that weren't so positive. I'm
sure there were. I'm sure. I mean, he was already
out of a job. That's too soon for Ragnar come by.
(33:34):
Ragnar is probably rooting against the Vikings at that point. Well,
didn't he change teams? Wasn't that part of a Fox minute?
Was riding his motorcycle around going hey, we lost donuts
in the end zone? What's going on? At one point,
wal said he didn't remember anything about the game, like
he had blocked it out, And that happens a lot
with people when you have such a bad memory or
something happening, like I gotta block it out. I can't
(33:55):
keep thinking about this, So it's gonna consume me and
ruin my life. What's gonna happen? Uh? But here's where
things change in a way that you wouldn't expect. So
for the Vikings, this is how things got crazy. You
would think that, all right, Bridgewater Peterson is back. They
have a good team and we're gonna move on and
(34:17):
build on this. By the end of twenty sixteen, the
following season, Bridgewater, Peterson, and Walsh were all gone from
the Vikings. They you thought they had a really good
young nucleus they were gonna go, they were all gone.
Teddy Bridgewater tors a c L in the preseason and
an injury that knocked him out for well over a year.
(34:38):
He would never start another game for Minnesota. They had
to trade for Sam Bradford. They got so desperate. Adrian
Peterson gets hurt, tears his meniscus and an l c
L sprain. He tried to come back in December of
twenty six ten, but couldn't. Wasn't the same guy. The
Vikings decide we're gonna get out from under his contract
and the eighteen million dollars we owe him in February,
(35:00):
so they're both gone. Your quarterback, you're running back. You
are now starting over at those two key positions. Meanwhile,
Blair Walsh, he stayed with the team. I don't know
how they did it. As I said, sometimes mistakes you
just have to move on. But it was admirable. But
like I said, it just postponed the future. He made
it to week ten against Washington. He had missed four
(35:20):
extra points and four field goals to that point. He
missed a big extra point against Washington and they waved
him after that and said we got to get off
of this ride. And really it was inevitable. It was okay,
unless he makes every field goal on every extra point,
you're gonna move on from at some point. So this
was where they let him stay to hope that it
worked out. But you know, really, did you see it
(35:43):
ending for Blair Walsh and he differently in Minnesota? No,
this was how it was gonna go. No, and that
was inevitable. You look at the workload split with no
Peterson there. Bradford comes in, a guy who gets to
my thinking, Uh so fairly judged just because he was
the last to cut the huge novelty check before playing
(36:05):
it down in the NFL. That's not his fault, man,
that's the way the rules were. Yeah, he's got aware
that throughout his history. I'm sure he sleeps pretty well
like Hugh from breaking bad on a pile of the money.
But this is one of those dividing lines and bringing
Walsh back again. Other than the money part of things.
In total cash earnings was four point four million sixteen.
(36:31):
We're looking at like one point two when it's all
said done, so not a prohibitive amount of money in
terms of releasing him. And one would have thought that
after the terrible ending to the would be playoff run,
that you would have cut and just said, all right,
we need better karma around here. And then they bring
(36:52):
in Kai for Bath to kick after that. And while
we watched his career as well, that had its ups
and downs along the way. But yeah, the starting of
a new era there in Minnesota, so the Vikings were
starting over. And now it didn't end quite this way
for Blair Wallls. We have one of those you know
at the end of the horror movie, you think the
killer is dead, but oh no, he comes back like
(37:13):
very quickly at the end. Uh. That's kind of what
we have for Blair Walsh. But first, that's what happened
with the Vikings the next season. What about the Seattle Seahawks, Right,
they come off winning this game, they would lose the
next week in the playoffs to Carolina, a very famous
game in which they got down thirty one nothing at
halftime you're thinking, okay, this is over, but they roar
all the way back, nearly find a way to pull
(37:35):
it off, and they lose thirty one four. This turned
out to be Marshawn Lynch's final game at the time
for the Seattle Seahawks before he came out of retirement
years later to come play for them. Uh. He retired
during the Super Bowl and seen with the cleats over
a telephone wire picture on social media, which we all remember.
This was a big change for them because you saw
(37:56):
over the course of this season into two tho in sixteen,
this became Russell Wilson's team. Wilson nearly brought the Seahawks
all the way back in this game against Carolina, and
it was the Seahawks finally realizing, Okay, now we're Russell
Wilson driven. All right. You know, look Lynch marched to
a different drum and and okay, you know, but he's
(38:18):
kind of his own, you know, entity out there. We
needed him, but now we have to turn things over
to Russell Wilson. And it was a change. And what
we've seen now is Wilson become a yearly m VP
candidate and the way the Seahawks pushed their business their
yearly Super Bowl threats because of Russell Wilson. Right, we
went to running back by committee pretty much every year since. Right,
(38:43):
You'll have a guy who's the hot hand for a while,
but they kind of use him up there in Seattle.
All right, all right, he's gonna get hurt, and the
next guy's gonna roll up, and he's gonna get hurt,
and the other guy's gonna come back in because he's
ready to go. And sometimes we've got a third guy
at the ready. Meanwhile, our offensive line is a work
in progress still about mid season, and then we settle
on our five guys. You know, it's much like the
(39:05):
the pyramid that uh, the woman used on Dance Moms, Sorry,
quarantine time hanging out with the girls, Like all right,
these are gonna be our cards, and over here, number
one center, you're still there. The only constant was Russell Wilson, Right.
Even the wide receivers, you'd find new stars. Doug Baldwin
for a while was that guy, but he was never
(39:26):
as good as he was that year. Right, No, that
was the monster year. But you know, at least he
was the reliable and then lock it picks up uh
some more, and then you've had a number of other
receivers and tight ends. You know, as as you started.
We're not gonna do a preview here, uh as you
roll through, but you know, an important cog in the
(39:47):
machine as well. So for Russell Wilson, one of the
game's big names and stars. And yeah, it's all when
Marshawn Lynch and the Skittles checked out, Uh, the ending
of an era there, you know, honestly, you know, look,
he he came back to play after that. I think
he had such a bad season as far as health wise.
He was so banged up mentally physically. He just needed
(40:10):
to get away. And this happens to players where they
get away and then they get their love of the
game back and they want to come back. But it
was such a big run and and the Seahawks were
so good and and Lynch carried the football and had
so much responsibility. And then when you're so hurt and
you can't be healthy and you're coming back and it's difficult,
you just need time away. You get worn out, both
mentally and physically. I think that's what happened to Marshawn
(40:30):
Lynch because clearly he was ready to come back, and
he's come back with a couple of different teams, and
then you know that's where it is. But speaking of comebacks,
this is where things end for Blair Walsh. In two
thousand and seventeen, as a free agent, he is signed
by the Seattle Seahawks, the team he missed the field
(40:51):
goal against, signs him to be their kicker, and Walsh
does well for a bit. He makes two field goals
to be Minnesota and in in a very famous meme
and moment, yelling at his ex teammates on the sideline
for taunting him because they were all yelling stuff about
him missing the field the fiegals he makes two, he
(41:12):
helps Seattle beat Minnesota, and he starts yelling at everybody
on the sideline. That was about as good as it
would get for Blair Walsh, because he would miss a
fifty two yard or to tie the game on Monday
Night Football against Atlanta, and then the biggest one, he
missed a field goal in the final minute that could
have beaten Arizona. Again Blair Walsh and final minute field goals.
(41:33):
As a result, Seattle lost this game six They missed
the playoffs. As a result, because they could have got
in if they won. And then Blair Walsh was waived.
So the Blair Walsh Vikings Seahawks storyline doesn't end where
you thought it would, but it still ends with missed
field goals on both perspectives. And and you know, you
can talk about not being able to pay kickers, and
(41:54):
you shouldn't pay kickers and all these things. No, you
can pay kickers. You gotta pay the right ones. You
gotta pay the ones. You pay the Justin Tuckers that
are gonna make fifty yard field goals in the final minute. Uh,
that's going to win a game. Or you know, the
solid guys that can that can kick the Adam Vinitarry's
that are gonna kick well in the clutch. It it's
some kind of gene that that some players having, some
(42:15):
don't because and I feel awful for Blair Walsh because
the guy was and still is a good kicker, strong
leg makes a lot of them. But boy, those misses
at the end, when you have a percentage that stands
out that way, it's okay, how long you're gonna be around?
That's really what it is. Well, who's your closer? Uh?
This is your punter able to come in and take
in the final minute or do you just have to
(42:37):
go for it? All right? How about little where are
they now from this game? You got something there? You go? Well,
we mentioned truss Nick before out of Ohio Northern real
estate investments of pro sports performance are doing a little
bit of the technique and training as you go. Uh.
You've got Sean Prador graduate assistant under Herm Edwards over
(43:00):
at Arizona State. Also some marketing and sales work at
Exos before that, So kind of dabbling in a couple
of things. If you got Clinton Gresham out of TCU
speaker doing some h two sides, you can either book
him for here's basic motivational stuff or if you want
me to go faith based, we'll get into the Bible
a little bit. So that's two types of the process
(43:21):
to wholeness for him. And then you got Matt Asiata.
Why because he was a fantasy hero for us. Yeah,
I felt like I needed to bring him into the mix. Uh.
He played in the Alliance in twenty nine. He was
one of the high profile players, that's right. Yeah, yeah,
and then he ended on injured reserve. I remember, I
(43:42):
think it was a game where I started him in Fantasy.
It was it was either pick up Asiata or McKinnon,
I think was what it was. And I'm like, all right,
let me pick up Asiata. And for one week the
week I picked him up, he had three touchdowns. It
was great, but it was like three carry three touchdowns.
Then it ran for like a hundred and seventy yards.
I go, I picked the wrong guy. I mean, I'm
not I mean for the long haul, I'm screwed unless
(44:03):
I'm I'm just playing vulture. Yeah, that's why I used
the term vulture. And even more, there's no question yeah
McKinnon being the dual threat back and that was the
other thing they needed to do even more of, uh
as the the offense changed there. But you know, as
we well know, as you and I said, and we
uh we talk about this game and the fallout and
(44:24):
the where are they now? There's a lot of guys
that are still roaming NFL sidelines from these games. Is
pretty amazing because you know, normally we have the turnover
in the league. I think the first fifteen guys that
I kind of went through and I was looking at
the end of roster's guys are still hanging on somewhere.
It's pretty amazing. But coming from to well coached discipline squads,
(44:48):
when you look at it, especially when you go on
the defensive side of the ball, from both those squads,
you know exactly what you're getting. So there is the
Blair Walsh game. The Seahawks win at ten nine, both
teams changed forever, and Blair walsh Is story is as
amazing as it is improbable. Uh. Jason Smith Mike Harmon
Our show has heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday,
(45:09):
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