January 15, 2025 • 24 mins
Welcome to Skol Stories presented by 3M - The official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings. Tonight, Mark Rosen and Pete Bercich catch up with one of the '50 Greatest Vikings' Ahmad Rashad. Ahmad looks back on the blessing of being traded to Minnesota, starting his media career alongside Mark Rosen, the special talent of Jerry Burns, and his close relationships with both Bud Grant and Fran Tarkenton. All of this and more is in this edition of Skol Stories presented by 3M - The official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings. Thanks again for listening all season long!
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Skulls Stories, presented by three M, the official
science partner in the Minnesota Vikings. Tonight we're joined by
one of the fifty greatest Vikings, a Madrashot.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of school Stories.
Tonight's guest is one of our favorite Viking legends. He's
the wide receiver with the knack for the big play.
He was a four time pro bowler, a Ring of
Honor member, and my old co host on Rosen Sports Sunday.
Please enjoy tonight's conversation with the one and only A Madrashod. Well, mom,
(00:38):
thanks so much for joining the show. How in the
world are we both in our early seventies When it
was just yesterday we were hanging out at the Loon
Cafe and Sunday nights after doing we shot a Rosen
Report and we were in our early thirties. When did
that happen? My god?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, I stopped counting up to thirty nine. Okay, here
in your seventies. I'm thirty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'd like to hear that. So it's all attitude.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But man, that the years half flown by, haven't they? They?
Feel is it to feel that way to you?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, you know, but you know, Mark, you and I
it was the beginning, you know, it was the beginning
of something else. I mean, we we really, I really
when I look back on and I appreciate the time
that you took with me to try to get me
into the same broadcasting thing and a chance to do
all the things that we did every single week. And
when I look back at we had a lot of fun, man,
(01:30):
a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Of fun, did we. Ever? You didn't know how to
type though, either, so that was always a challenge.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's right, that's right. You had to type the type
of script that I couldn't type at all. And then
we went on the air.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
We never used it, no, of course, not didn't even
have printers back.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Then, all god, no, no, it was all manual typewriters basically.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, we had we had a printer. It was him.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It was rosy. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So, mide, is that kind of the what's the kind
of the secret to daying young?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Then? Right?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I mean with you had career in the football and
then you know going in the media, what's kept you
what's kept you young over this time? Or what do
you think to see.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I think the way you approach life, you know, I
don't feel any change, and it's not like it's like yeah,
back then down a change and then it went through this.
Every day is a wonderful day, and every day was
a wonderful day. And I try to just live every day.
And you know, it's about living today and tomorrow and
not yesterday. But you know, when I look back, what
a wonderful, blessed time that I had, just with the
(02:33):
chance of playing in Minnesota, because Minnesota is where everything
came together for me.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well how did that happen? It just refresh the fans'
memory about coming to the Vikings in seventy six. You
were with the Seattle Seahawks. Was Bob Lertzima involved in
that trade?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
He likes to say that, but I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Didn't either.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, he likes to say that, But I don't think
that it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Was a trick the trade.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
No. No, I didn't even know who he was. First
of all.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Most people still don't know. You remind you, Yeah, what
were your first impressions of coming to the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Well, you know, I remember it, I remember very very well.
I had I had torn up my knee in Minnesota,
my I mean in Buffalo my second year and then
signed with Seattle. And when I got to Seattle, I
never got to play. I never you know, they didn't
really put me in or anything. And it was also
during the name change when I had changed my name,
(03:34):
and it was all kind of weird kind of stuff
like that. And I remember they had a preseason game
and I remember the coach came over and told me
that I wasn't going to the game. You know, I
could stay at training camp or wherever it was, but
I wasn't going to the game. So when he came back,
he called me in and he goes, I got some
good news and some bad news. So I said, so
(03:56):
give me the bad news. He said, well, the bad
news is that we just traded you to Minnesota. And
I said, Minnesota with Fran talking and the Minnesota Vikings.
You're trading me from Seattle to Minnesota with Fran Tarking
and the quarterback and the Minnesota Vikings that win all
the time. So I said, so, then, what the hell
(04:16):
is the bad news? Like, I'll never forget that, and
I just got up and walked out. I was so excited.
I was so excited about going to Minnesota because I
had Frand and I had become friend. We were at
some sort of event when I was playing for Buffalo
and we ended up sitting outside of it for a
couple of hours just talking back and forth about all
(04:37):
kinds of stuff, you know, a different kinds of thing.
We really had a wonderful relationship that we built. And
then I think that when I played for Saint Louis,
we played Minnesota and I had a really good game
up there. Ed Mayer and Narrow was a good friend
of mine coming out of college, and you know, when
he went to Minnesota, which was great because he went
to straight the Super Bowls, you know, and I went
(04:58):
to Saint Louis. But now I had played against him
at that time in Minnesota. And then as it kept
going around, is when Fran and I were talking and
it was just kind of like, yeah, one day, I
hope maybe we'll get a chance to play with each other.
And then that just went on and the biggest day
in my whole football career was when I got traded
to Minnesota, and Bud Grant was happy to have me.
(05:23):
Uh you know, uh, Fran was just but you know,
what so, so wait a minute, here's the other part.
So I go to Minnesota and it was, uh, it
was my first day there and I got lost driving
to the practice field and so I was late coming there.
So now all that stuff about here's the guy, he's this,
(05:44):
he traded, changed his name and all this stuff. We
trade for him and he comes to practice about an
hour later. I was you know what it did because
Bud didn't even care. He just came and said, hey,
why are you late? I said, I got lost. He goes,
all right, you'll figure out you and that was it.
That means, say anything else, buy that. And then as
we went to practice, targeting threw me every single pass
(06:07):
you know, when we're practicing everything. I remember Bobby Bryant
tried to beat me up. It was it was just
really some kind of thing like that. So then I
come in after practice and they called me into the
training room and I'm in a training room and they
tell me that the trade did not go through. I
(06:29):
didn't pass the physical. I didn't even take a physical.
We didn't pass the physical and they were going to
send me back. So as I was sitting in the
in the in the training room, Fran Tarkeeting walked in.
He goes, what are you doing in here? I said, well,
they just traded me back, and they told me to
come in here and wait and then they'll clean my
locker out and do this stuff. He said, don't go anywhere,
just stay right there. Now. As Fran went back and
(06:51):
told Bud and the and the general manager I ever
forgot his name, he told the general manager that if
they sent me back, he was quitting. Wow. Wow, that
was it. He said, you send him out here, I'm quitting.
I'm done. So so next thing I know, Fran walks
into the train and goes, hey, man, go put your
stuff back in the in the locker room. You're not
(07:13):
going anywhere. And that's where that started off. Now, no
more negativity at that at all. And Bud was absolutely wonderful.
Him and I hit it off, like you know, we
hit it off really really well, to the point where
you know, guys would would would make fun of me
I by calling me Bud Junior because Bud never said
anything to me. And where do you remember that, Mark? Oh? Yeah,
(07:37):
but was Bud was? Yeah, Bud was my guy and
I was his guide. I don't know how that went,
but that we just hit it off, really hit it off.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Bud wasn't the man with a lot of words, but
he would always every day a practice he called me
over in the corner and he just start talking about
something like hunting, you know, like, hey, I was hunting
and I did this duck hunting or whatever that else.
Meanwhile everybody's practicing, but he was keeping me. He was
keeping me out of it because it was freezing cold outside.
So it was it was just a wonderful thing. And
(08:07):
Fran I can't you know, I can't say enough about him,
how wonderful he was. So it was all it was
was Fran. It was uh, you know, but Grant. And
it was the fan. The Minnesota Vikings have the great
fan back in any place that I've ever fand it's
the best. I enjoyed myself there for all the years
(08:28):
that I was there. It was you know, it was
right at the top of my list, I really And
it was about the people, about the fans and about
the people. It's a really special place to mind.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
What was it that you guys did from a from
a act as an OL standpoint football wise that was
so different You and Fran. You mentioned that relationship, but
that carried over into what you did on the field,
did it not, because the running back was utilized and
it just a different way.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, it was different because Fran and I, you know,
we would practice different things during the course of the week,
you know, we're all watching. He would say, you know,
what do you think you can run on these guys?
Or what can you do? This and that and the
other and then whatever it was. His whole thing was
if you were saying this is what you could do,
then the inspiration came because you already said you could
do this, so let's see you do it, you know.
(09:15):
So he was one of those guys that would call
on you and it would be all you. And it worked,
it absolutely work. And he'd say things to you know,
he'd call a play and it'd be like, you know,
fifty two seventy two and them on, give me something
on the backside. And no matter what I got on
the ball, you know, I can run an in or
out or up or whatever. It was, all I do
when I turn around or here it comes the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, in the midst of all that, Jerry Burns was
the offensive coordinator too, and that must have been quite
the the comedy routine, but a very very bright, offensive
mind that Burnsy was.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
He was the absolute best and he got the best
out of all of us. We got a chance to
do the things that you know that he knew we
could do, and he would all you know. I remember
coming coming off the field sometimes and I'd go, you know,
I have a word with Burns. I said, Burns, if
these guys is doing such and such and that he's
gonna wait, just stop, just get open. And that was
the end of it. Yeah, that was that was just
(10:10):
get open, like okay, Well he was you know, he
was great man. He was. It was such a great Uh.
You don't have budd Dreant. They had Buddy Ryan, Betty Ryan.
Buddy Ryan was my inspiration because no matter what I
did in the game, he'd always kept up with me
and see if you can do that next week, because
you could do it this week. Hey, that guy you
beat up last week on he's gone. But the guy
(10:30):
coming this week he's really good. Let's see what you're
gonna do. He did this every every game, and it
was one of these things where I made a point
to sit next to him on the bus on the
way to the game so that we can I could
get really fired up for him, tell me what I
couldn't do. And he knew it too. You know he
was doing it on further. He would just poke me
everything with time, like he ain't even catch no passes
(10:50):
this week, you know that that was That was Buddy,
that was Buddy running. He didn't even coach offense. He
was a defensive coach.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's it's very h interesting way to motivate doesn't work
much anymore. I don't think, yeah, you did some you
you were involved in some playoff games. As the Vikings
reached the playoffs. You got a quarterback never played in
a playoff game. What advice would you give or did
you give to younger guys when they were just starting
(11:18):
or just getting into their first playoff game.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The game can't be bigger than you. You know, it's
just another game. You'd play the best you can play
in those games. It's not like, you know, it's not
like one of those things where you know you're not
You didn't surprise yourself that you made it to the playoffs.
You're getting ready to show everybody why you make it
made it to the playoffs. So it was more of
a you know, getting yourself prepared. And like I said,
(11:43):
in Minnesota, they had been to the team had been
to the playoffs so many years, you know, in advance
of the time I got there, that they were used
to all that. You know, they had gone to three
Super Bowls, you know, So it was one of those
things that it became a norm to get ready to
play during that time, as opposed to had become.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Overwhelming in the meantime as your career progressed, and I
know you continue to work with us a Channel four
and doing other things besides our sports show and Sunday nights,
But you always had it in your mind. I always
tell people this that you were it was a means
to an end that you had. You know, you knew
what there was going to be life after football and
hardly as lucrative as it is today. But when did
(12:23):
the national kind of broadcasting bug hit you and you
knew you wanted to kind of move on not just
covering football, but to be involved in a different level.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think that it was, you know, I think the
way I always looked at football is something I really
loved to do, but it didn't control my whole life,
you know, and also playing it. I knew that what's
going to happen at the end of six seven years,
you know, you're still thirty two years old. You got
the rest of your life to go. So it was,
you know, when we started doing the things that we
were doing on the football thing, and you remember that
(12:53):
I went on and did everything I did high school
basketball or you know, or track and field or whatever
those things were, because I wanted to be a broadcaster
to do all sports. And then and then having done
that and getting used to doing things like that, and
also having that foundation that you helped me build, you know,
(13:15):
I was pretty much confident coming out of there because
I got all the networks came and wanted to hire me.
And it was at a time where I could have
played five more years probably, but the fact of the matter,
I had everybody giving me an offer, and the only team,
the only network that gave me a chance to do
everything every sport was NBC. ABC asked me if I
(13:39):
would just do football, and CBS wanted me to just
do football, and all these ones that were just doing football.
I knew that that wasn't a career. You know. The
career is to be able to do every single sport
and also sit in that other chair right, you know,
to where you're hosting the thing and they bring in
different athletes and different people to come in, but it's
it's a show that you're putting all the energy in
(14:00):
and making it go past. And you could do that
for a long time. And that's where that came in,
you know, and I, you know, having having worked with
with you, Marky was one of those things where I
watched you. You know, you did every sport, You did
whatever you want to do. So those are the kind
of things that I wanted to do, and NBC gave
me an opportunity to do them immediately. And I think
(14:21):
everybody was shocked when I said I quit, I'm retiring,
because Bud was. Budd just came up and said, hey, look,
you don't even have to come to practice next year,
come back next year, and I just want you to
play in the games. He did all that stuff, and
then one day I came in there and he took
my whole uniform in a bag and handed it to me,
(14:43):
said I just want to give this to you now.
You can put it in a trophy room with something
whatever that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Hell, yeah, that's special. That is special. It's gotta be
hard to walk away from that. Stick around for more
from a mad for shot right here on school Stories
presented by three M. From the field to the roof
and everywhere in between. Three M, the official science partner
of the Minnesota Vikings, is here. Visit Vikings dot com
slash school Science to learn more.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings Shop at
the u NRL dot com for more details. Welcome back
to tonight's edition of school Stories presented by three M.
Now let's get back into our conversation with Vikings legend
a madrashot so mott outside of out with all the
sports that you've covered, outside of outside of football, which
one's your favorite?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And why you.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Know they're all my favorite? Back? You know, well, you
know basketball, I really enjoyed basketball. I always enjoyed basketball.
But you know, when I look back at the whole career,
I enjoyed the Olympics. Yeah, the Olympics was really something.
I was a big track guy too, you know during
that time, So it was I was very fortunate to
(15:51):
be able to be at NBC where I ended up
doing four Olympics, and then also you know the fact
of just going to the NBA and which I really liked.
I had a bunch of friends that were already playing
at during that time, and so to do the NBA
and to be able to cover all their stars that
they have there, and it was a sport that I
really liked. I really enjoyed it. It was indoors and
(16:13):
warm for one, Yeah, very nice. It was just something
that you know, that's the kind of way. That's the
way it went. I've always loved football, you know, but
during the basketball then we had a chance to you
know what, and it was it wasn't so much I
had the when when we did our show, we did
our football show there. That's sort of the stuff that
(16:34):
I took to this show that I created at the
NBA called Inside Stuff. Was just by the way winning
the Hall of Fame this past year, I got a
lot of those ideas and the way those things work
from when you and I worked together, you know, because
we we had such a great time and it was
all about our personalities.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
It was like, you know, we'd laugh at stuff, we'd
come up with stuff, we have nice stories, you know,
and we were like, I think people just like watching
it because it was kind of a tough thing. That's
the same sort of attitude that I took to inside stuff.
But it was on basketball and then that really went.
I mean it was right when basketball was turning around
and becoming a world sport. We were right on that train.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well in your relationship with Michael Jordan obviously became very special,
and your insight into Michael and after all these years,
still arguably the greatest player of all time, and you
got to know him quite well and still are very
very good friends with him, right, And.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
It was I mean not always, but there was a
bunch of It wasn't only Michael Garnett, I mean Charles
bar I mean it was they had a bunch of stars.
If you look on a dream team, right, your dream team,
well all those guys were. I mean anytime I do
is call an you them, they come on the show
or we and we had a chance to show who
they really were. It wasn't just about basketball. It's like
(17:51):
how do you go to the store, how do you
go to the mall, how do you drive? How do
you do these times? So you got to learn who
these guys were. As real people as opposed to just
basketball players. And it was a big group, you know,
when I look at you know, Larry Bird, it was
all these guys that were dying, you know, to get
on that show inside stuff, because everybody was watching that show.
(18:12):
So if I went to a game and somebody went
down the court and made a dunk or something like that,
they would run back by me and go put that
on inside stuff. Every game it was the guys were
playing Tom Hey man, I put that dunk on inside stuff,
you know. So it was it was a lot of fun.
And and he also, you know what David Stern gave me.
(18:34):
I could do whatever I wanted to do on that show,
you know, And it was just a lot of lot
of fun. So Michael and I and I had access,
Like you said, to Michaels, he was just becoming the
greatest player, you know, with the first of the six championships,
well that was we were there for every single one
of those, and it just turned out that that was
like my best friend at that point, you know. So
(18:54):
it was it was it was all those things. But
there were all these other guys too, you know, Larry Bird,
you know, all all oh goodness.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah great, I mean great players, but unbelievable personalities and
people as well, right, I mean I don't think you know,
it's like the media still he can't get enough of
Barkley and people from that era who not just played
their rear ends off, but just the personality hard. I
can't even imagine how much fun y'all had sitting around
(19:22):
just talking about that driving to work stuff, like you
know stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The other part is those guys respected me because they
knew how good I was at my sport.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Of course, it wasn't like.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I just popped up. It's like, well, you know, I've
been at this level before in my whole career. Was
that just so? So it was more of a you know,
they all knew about my career, I knew about their career.
So it was a wonderful thing for all of us
to sort of get along.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Again, we're talking with a modelor shot. And because of
the ever changing landscape of sports and whether it's the youth, collegiate,
professional level, would you have wanted to be involved with
the you know, the world of social media and everything
that it happens is is somehow recorded or put out there,
and uh, it's it's a different, much different world than
(20:08):
you you grew up in in sports and the sports landscape.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
There was the worst thing about it is you can
make up a bunch of stuff and put it on
there or whatever your attitude. You can please. You have
a chance to uh say something that you might want
to say, and you don't have any sort of uh
intelligence about what you're talking about, you know, because you
all you got to do is put it on the internet, right,
you know, I think isn't that and the other? But
where do you think that from? You have a background
(20:32):
that you sort of went through. It is just your
it's just what you're thinking. So you have to sort
of cut yourself between that. And it's also changed things
by the players. Players don't have to get interviewed anymore.
They can interview themselves or say what they want to say,
and so it sort of gets out of whack a
little bit. You just have to keep going. I mean,
that's when I realized that I'm not thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Nine, that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, you remember that, because everybody care write their own
story or how well they played, or how good they are,
how good looking there they can put that on to themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Sure, And what do you think of the What do
you think of today's NFL? I mean we have, obviously,
justin Jefferson Jordan Addison, wide receiver positions changed a little bit.
You know, you're not gonna get your head taken off
running across the middle.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Of the field.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
So, uh yeah, what is your What do you think
about today's game in the wide receiver position in particular, Well.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Jefferson could have played at any at any at any level.
I mean, he's that good that it wouldn't have mattered.
He had been great no matter when he played. But
they have changed the rules to the point where they're
not even They don't even go with the rules of
a long time ago. It should be like new stuff,
you know, because if you change the rules where you
(21:44):
can't touch anybody. I think I led the league in
receiving one time when like eighty passes or sixty passes,
and then one time with eighty passes, which back then
was like a thousand. But you look now, the fourth
string receiver catches eighty passes. Yeah, it's like and you
can't touch them. You know, you can't touch them. But
I just I look at it from when you start
(22:07):
talking like that. You come off like, once again, I'm
not thirty nine, I'm old. No, you know you talk
about oh man, when I played, when I played, and
then it reminds me of times when I was playing
and I'd run into some guy that played like thirty
years before me, and he'd be talking like I'm talking now. Man,
when you played, they didn't even have helmets.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Leather helmets. Yeah exactly. Well, it's yeah, Lily, exactly, it's
it's a pleasure catching up with you. We really appreciate
your time, but more importantly, I so appreciate your friendship
over the years. It means the world to me. And uh,
you sell them as youthful as ever, and it inspires
me to keep doing what I'm doing at my young
age and hang your on youngsters like Pete Pursage. So
(22:54):
all the best to you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Hey, I really, I really appreciate that so much. You
know that Minnesota has always been my home. I love
the place. I love everybody there, and they did such
a wonderful I had such a great career being there,
just with the people that I've met, the people that
I met, and how we sort of interacted through him.
It's my favorite place in the world and it's so
(23:16):
nice to talk to you guys. This more ya.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Thanks you man, thank you AMU time well, thanks again
to a mod for Shot for joining the show tonight.
It has been an incredible season of Skull Stories talking
to some of our favorite Viking legends. We would like
to say thanks to a couple of people for helping
make this show happen in twenty twenty four. Legends coordinator
Tom West for booking such great guests, Audio editor Eric Davidson,
(23:42):
producer Jay Nelson, my co host of course, Pete Bursich,
and most certainly you the fans. This has always been
a lot of fun doing each year, and remember if
you missed any of our previous episodes, be sure to
check out our podcast feed on your favorite podcast app
or the podcastab on the Vikings app for our entire catalog.
For one last time this football season, thanks again for
(24:05):
tuning into another edition of Skull Stories presented by three
M the official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings, and
we will see you all again next year.
Welcome to Skulls Stories, presented by three M, the official
science partner in the Minnesota Vikings. Tonight we're joined by
one of the fifty greatest Vikings, a Madrashot.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of school Stories.
Tonight's guest is one of our favorite Viking legends. He's
the wide receiver with the knack for the big play.
He was a four time pro bowler, a Ring of
Honor member, and my old co host on Rosen Sports Sunday.
Please enjoy tonight's conversation with the one and only A Madrashod. Well, mom,
(00:38):
thanks so much for joining the show. How in the
world are we both in our early seventies When it
was just yesterday we were hanging out at the Loon
Cafe and Sunday nights after doing we shot a Rosen
Report and we were in our early thirties. When did
that happen? My god?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, I stopped counting up to thirty nine. Okay, here
in your seventies. I'm thirty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'd like to hear that. So it's all attitude.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But man, that the years half flown by, haven't they? They?
Feel is it to feel that way to you?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, you know, but you know, Mark, you and I
it was the beginning, you know, it was the beginning
of something else. I mean, we we really, I really
when I look back on and I appreciate the time
that you took with me to try to get me
into the same broadcasting thing and a chance to do
all the things that we did every single week. And
when I look back at we had a lot of fun, man,
(01:30):
a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Of fun, did we. Ever? You didn't know how to
type though, either, so that was always a challenge.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's right, that's right. You had to type the type
of script that I couldn't type at all. And then
we went on the air.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
We never used it, no, of course, not didn't even
have printers back.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Then, all god, no, no, it was all manual typewriters basically.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, we had we had a printer. It was him.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It was rosy. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So, mide, is that kind of the what's the kind
of the secret to daying young?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Then? Right?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I mean with you had career in the football and
then you know going in the media, what's kept you
what's kept you young over this time? Or what do
you think to see.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I think the way you approach life, you know, I
don't feel any change, and it's not like it's like yeah,
back then down a change and then it went through this.
Every day is a wonderful day, and every day was
a wonderful day. And I try to just live every day.
And you know, it's about living today and tomorrow and
not yesterday. But you know, when I look back, what
a wonderful, blessed time that I had, just with the
(02:33):
chance of playing in Minnesota, because Minnesota is where everything
came together for me.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well how did that happen? It just refresh the fans'
memory about coming to the Vikings in seventy six. You
were with the Seattle Seahawks. Was Bob Lertzima involved in
that trade?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
He likes to say that, but I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Didn't either.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, he likes to say that, But I don't think
that it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Was a trick the trade.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
No. No, I didn't even know who he was. First
of all.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Most people still don't know. You remind you, Yeah, what
were your first impressions of coming to the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Well, you know, I remember it, I remember very very well.
I had I had torn up my knee in Minnesota,
my I mean in Buffalo my second year and then
signed with Seattle. And when I got to Seattle, I
never got to play. I never you know, they didn't
really put me in or anything. And it was also
during the name change when I had changed my name,
(03:34):
and it was all kind of weird kind of stuff
like that. And I remember they had a preseason game
and I remember the coach came over and told me
that I wasn't going to the game. You know, I
could stay at training camp or wherever it was, but
I wasn't going to the game. So when he came back,
he called me in and he goes, I got some
good news and some bad news. So I said, so
(03:56):
give me the bad news. He said, well, the bad
news is that we just traded you to Minnesota. And
I said, Minnesota with Fran talking and the Minnesota Vikings.
You're trading me from Seattle to Minnesota with Fran Tarking
and the quarterback and the Minnesota Vikings that win all
the time. So I said, so, then, what the hell
(04:16):
is the bad news? Like, I'll never forget that, and
I just got up and walked out. I was so excited.
I was so excited about going to Minnesota because I
had Frand and I had become friend. We were at
some sort of event when I was playing for Buffalo
and we ended up sitting outside of it for a
couple of hours just talking back and forth about all
(04:37):
kinds of stuff, you know, a different kinds of thing.
We really had a wonderful relationship that we built. And
then I think that when I played for Saint Louis,
we played Minnesota and I had a really good game
up there. Ed Mayer and Narrow was a good friend
of mine coming out of college, and you know, when
he went to Minnesota, which was great because he went
to straight the Super Bowls, you know, and I went
(04:58):
to Saint Louis. But now I had played against him
at that time in Minnesota. And then as it kept
going around, is when Fran and I were talking and
it was just kind of like, yeah, one day, I
hope maybe we'll get a chance to play with each other.
And then that just went on and the biggest day
in my whole football career was when I got traded
to Minnesota, and Bud Grant was happy to have me.
(05:23):
Uh you know, uh, Fran was just but you know,
what so, so wait a minute, here's the other part.
So I go to Minnesota and it was, uh, it
was my first day there and I got lost driving
to the practice field and so I was late coming there.
So now all that stuff about here's the guy, he's this,
(05:44):
he traded, changed his name and all this stuff. We
trade for him and he comes to practice about an
hour later. I was you know what it did because
Bud didn't even care. He just came and said, hey,
why are you late? I said, I got lost. He goes,
all right, you'll figure out you and that was it.
That means, say anything else, buy that. And then as
we went to practice, targeting threw me every single pass
(06:07):
you know, when we're practicing everything. I remember Bobby Bryant
tried to beat me up. It was it was just
really some kind of thing like that. So then I
come in after practice and they called me into the
training room and I'm in a training room and they
tell me that the trade did not go through. I
(06:29):
didn't pass the physical. I didn't even take a physical.
We didn't pass the physical and they were going to
send me back. So as I was sitting in the
in the in the training room, Fran Tarkeeting walked in.
He goes, what are you doing in here? I said, well,
they just traded me back, and they told me to
come in here and wait and then they'll clean my
locker out and do this stuff. He said, don't go anywhere,
just stay right there. Now. As Fran went back and
(06:51):
told Bud and the and the general manager I ever
forgot his name, he told the general manager that if
they sent me back, he was quitting. Wow. Wow, that
was it. He said, you send him out here, I'm quitting.
I'm done. So so next thing I know, Fran walks
into the train and goes, hey, man, go put your
stuff back in the in the locker room. You're not
(07:13):
going anywhere. And that's where that started off. Now, no
more negativity at that at all. And Bud was absolutely wonderful.
Him and I hit it off, like you know, we
hit it off really really well, to the point where
you know, guys would would would make fun of me
I by calling me Bud Junior because Bud never said
anything to me. And where do you remember that, Mark? Oh? Yeah,
(07:37):
but was Bud was? Yeah, Bud was my guy and
I was his guide. I don't know how that went,
but that we just hit it off, really hit it off.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Bud wasn't the man with a lot of words, but
he would always every day a practice he called me
over in the corner and he just start talking about
something like hunting, you know, like, hey, I was hunting
and I did this duck hunting or whatever that else.
Meanwhile everybody's practicing, but he was keeping me. He was
keeping me out of it because it was freezing cold outside.
So it was it was just a wonderful thing. And
(08:07):
Fran I can't you know, I can't say enough about him,
how wonderful he was. So it was all it was
was Fran. It was uh, you know, but Grant. And
it was the fan. The Minnesota Vikings have the great
fan back in any place that I've ever fand it's
the best. I enjoyed myself there for all the years
(08:28):
that I was there. It was you know, it was
right at the top of my list, I really And
it was about the people, about the fans and about
the people. It's a really special place to mind.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
What was it that you guys did from a from
a act as an OL standpoint football wise that was
so different You and Fran. You mentioned that relationship, but
that carried over into what you did on the field,
did it not, because the running back was utilized and
it just a different way.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, it was different because Fran and I, you know,
we would practice different things during the course of the week,
you know, we're all watching. He would say, you know,
what do you think you can run on these guys?
Or what can you do? This and that and the
other and then whatever it was. His whole thing was
if you were saying this is what you could do,
then the inspiration came because you already said you could
do this, so let's see you do it, you know.
(09:15):
So he was one of those guys that would call
on you and it would be all you. And it worked,
it absolutely work. And he'd say things to you know,
he'd call a play and it'd be like, you know,
fifty two seventy two and them on, give me something
on the backside. And no matter what I got on
the ball, you know, I can run an in or
out or up or whatever. It was, all I do
when I turn around or here it comes the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, in the midst of all that, Jerry Burns was
the offensive coordinator too, and that must have been quite
the the comedy routine, but a very very bright, offensive
mind that Burnsy was.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
He was the absolute best and he got the best
out of all of us. We got a chance to
do the things that you know that he knew we
could do, and he would all you know. I remember
coming coming off the field sometimes and I'd go, you know,
I have a word with Burns. I said, Burns, if
these guys is doing such and such and that he's
gonna wait, just stop, just get open. And that was
the end of it. Yeah, that was that was just
(10:10):
get open, like okay, Well he was you know, he
was great man. He was. It was such a great Uh.
You don't have budd Dreant. They had Buddy Ryan, Betty Ryan.
Buddy Ryan was my inspiration because no matter what I
did in the game, he'd always kept up with me
and see if you can do that next week, because
you could do it this week. Hey, that guy you
beat up last week on he's gone. But the guy
(10:30):
coming this week he's really good. Let's see what you're
gonna do. He did this every every game, and it
was one of these things where I made a point
to sit next to him on the bus on the
way to the game so that we can I could
get really fired up for him, tell me what I
couldn't do. And he knew it too. You know he
was doing it on further. He would just poke me
everything with time, like he ain't even catch no passes
(10:50):
this week, you know that that was That was Buddy,
that was Buddy running. He didn't even coach offense. He
was a defensive coach.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's it's very h interesting way to motivate doesn't work
much anymore. I don't think, yeah, you did some you
you were involved in some playoff games. As the Vikings
reached the playoffs. You got a quarterback never played in
a playoff game. What advice would you give or did
you give to younger guys when they were just starting
(11:18):
or just getting into their first playoff game.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The game can't be bigger than you. You know, it's
just another game. You'd play the best you can play
in those games. It's not like, you know, it's not
like one of those things where you know you're not
You didn't surprise yourself that you made it to the playoffs.
You're getting ready to show everybody why you make it
made it to the playoffs. So it was more of
a you know, getting yourself prepared. And like I said,
(11:43):
in Minnesota, they had been to the team had been
to the playoffs so many years, you know, in advance
of the time I got there, that they were used
to all that. You know, they had gone to three
Super Bowls, you know, So it was one of those
things that it became a norm to get ready to
play during that time, as opposed to had become.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Overwhelming in the meantime as your career progressed, and I
know you continue to work with us a Channel four
and doing other things besides our sports show and Sunday nights,
But you always had it in your mind. I always
tell people this that you were it was a means
to an end that you had. You know, you knew
what there was going to be life after football and
hardly as lucrative as it is today. But when did
(12:23):
the national kind of broadcasting bug hit you and you
knew you wanted to kind of move on not just
covering football, but to be involved in a different level.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think that it was, you know, I think the
way I always looked at football is something I really
loved to do, but it didn't control my whole life,
you know, and also playing it. I knew that what's
going to happen at the end of six seven years,
you know, you're still thirty two years old. You got
the rest of your life to go. So it was,
you know, when we started doing the things that we
were doing on the football thing, and you remember that
(12:53):
I went on and did everything I did high school
basketball or you know, or track and field or whatever
those things were, because I wanted to be a broadcaster
to do all sports. And then and then having done
that and getting used to doing things like that, and
also having that foundation that you helped me build, you know,
(13:15):
I was pretty much confident coming out of there because
I got all the networks came and wanted to hire me.
And it was at a time where I could have
played five more years probably, but the fact of the matter,
I had everybody giving me an offer, and the only team,
the only network that gave me a chance to do
everything every sport was NBC. ABC asked me if I
(13:39):
would just do football, and CBS wanted me to just
do football, and all these ones that were just doing football.
I knew that that wasn't a career. You know. The
career is to be able to do every single sport
and also sit in that other chair right, you know,
to where you're hosting the thing and they bring in
different athletes and different people to come in, but it's
it's a show that you're putting all the energy in
(14:00):
and making it go past. And you could do that
for a long time. And that's where that came in,
you know, and I, you know, having having worked with
with you, Marky was one of those things where I
watched you. You know, you did every sport, You did
whatever you want to do. So those are the kind
of things that I wanted to do, and NBC gave
me an opportunity to do them immediately. And I think
(14:21):
everybody was shocked when I said I quit, I'm retiring,
because Bud was. Budd just came up and said, hey, look,
you don't even have to come to practice next year,
come back next year, and I just want you to
play in the games. He did all that stuff, and
then one day I came in there and he took
my whole uniform in a bag and handed it to me,
(14:43):
said I just want to give this to you now.
You can put it in a trophy room with something
whatever that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Hell, yeah, that's special. That is special. It's gotta be
hard to walk away from that. Stick around for more
from a mad for shot right here on school Stories
presented by three M. From the field to the roof
and everywhere in between. Three M, the official science partner
of the Minnesota Vikings, is here. Visit Vikings dot com
slash school Science to learn more.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings Shop at
the u NRL dot com for more details. Welcome back
to tonight's edition of school Stories presented by three M.
Now let's get back into our conversation with Vikings legend
a madrashot so mott outside of out with all the
sports that you've covered, outside of outside of football, which
one's your favorite?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And why you.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Know they're all my favorite? Back? You know, well, you
know basketball, I really enjoyed basketball. I always enjoyed basketball.
But you know, when I look back at the whole career,
I enjoyed the Olympics. Yeah, the Olympics was really something.
I was a big track guy too, you know during
that time, So it was I was very fortunate to
(15:51):
be able to be at NBC where I ended up
doing four Olympics, and then also you know the fact
of just going to the NBA and which I really liked.
I had a bunch of friends that were already playing
at during that time, and so to do the NBA
and to be able to cover all their stars that
they have there, and it was a sport that I
really liked. I really enjoyed it. It was indoors and
(16:13):
warm for one, Yeah, very nice. It was just something
that you know, that's the kind of way. That's the
way it went. I've always loved football, you know, but
during the basketball then we had a chance to you
know what, and it was it wasn't so much I
had the when when we did our show, we did
our football show there. That's sort of the stuff that
(16:34):
I took to this show that I created at the
NBA called Inside Stuff. Was just by the way winning
the Hall of Fame this past year, I got a
lot of those ideas and the way those things work
from when you and I worked together, you know, because
we we had such a great time and it was
all about our personalities.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
It was like, you know, we'd laugh at stuff, we'd
come up with stuff, we have nice stories, you know,
and we were like, I think people just like watching
it because it was kind of a tough thing. That's
the same sort of attitude that I took to inside stuff.
But it was on basketball and then that really went.
I mean it was right when basketball was turning around
and becoming a world sport. We were right on that train.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well in your relationship with Michael Jordan obviously became very special,
and your insight into Michael and after all these years,
still arguably the greatest player of all time, and you
got to know him quite well and still are very
very good friends with him, right, And.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
It was I mean not always, but there was a
bunch of It wasn't only Michael Garnett, I mean Charles
bar I mean it was they had a bunch of stars.
If you look on a dream team, right, your dream team,
well all those guys were. I mean anytime I do
is call an you them, they come on the show
or we and we had a chance to show who
they really were. It wasn't just about basketball. It's like
(17:51):
how do you go to the store, how do you
go to the mall, how do you drive? How do
you do these times? So you got to learn who
these guys were. As real people as opposed to just
basketball players. And it was a big group, you know,
when I look at you know, Larry Bird, it was
all these guys that were dying, you know, to get
on that show inside stuff, because everybody was watching that show.
(18:12):
So if I went to a game and somebody went
down the court and made a dunk or something like that,
they would run back by me and go put that
on inside stuff. Every game it was the guys were
playing Tom Hey man, I put that dunk on inside stuff,
you know. So it was it was a lot of fun.
And and he also, you know what David Stern gave me.
(18:34):
I could do whatever I wanted to do on that show,
you know, And it was just a lot of lot
of fun. So Michael and I and I had access,
Like you said, to Michaels, he was just becoming the
greatest player, you know, with the first of the six championships,
well that was we were there for every single one
of those, and it just turned out that that was
like my best friend at that point, you know. So
(18:54):
it was it was it was all those things. But
there were all these other guys too, you know, Larry Bird,
you know, all all oh goodness.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah great, I mean great players, but unbelievable personalities and
people as well, right, I mean I don't think you know,
it's like the media still he can't get enough of
Barkley and people from that era who not just played
their rear ends off, but just the personality hard. I
can't even imagine how much fun y'all had sitting around
(19:22):
just talking about that driving to work stuff, like you
know stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The other part is those guys respected me because they
knew how good I was at my sport.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Of course, it wasn't like.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I just popped up. It's like, well, you know, I've
been at this level before in my whole career. Was
that just so? So it was more of a you know,
they all knew about my career, I knew about their career.
So it was a wonderful thing for all of us
to sort of get along.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Again, we're talking with a modelor shot. And because of
the ever changing landscape of sports and whether it's the youth, collegiate,
professional level, would you have wanted to be involved with
the you know, the world of social media and everything
that it happens is is somehow recorded or put out there,
and uh, it's it's a different, much different world than
(20:08):
you you grew up in in sports and the sports landscape.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
There was the worst thing about it is you can
make up a bunch of stuff and put it on
there or whatever your attitude. You can please. You have
a chance to uh say something that you might want
to say, and you don't have any sort of uh
intelligence about what you're talking about, you know, because you
all you got to do is put it on the internet, right,
you know, I think isn't that and the other? But
where do you think that from? You have a background
(20:32):
that you sort of went through. It is just your
it's just what you're thinking. So you have to sort
of cut yourself between that. And it's also changed things
by the players. Players don't have to get interviewed anymore.
They can interview themselves or say what they want to say,
and so it sort of gets out of whack a
little bit. You just have to keep going. I mean,
that's when I realized that I'm not thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Nine, that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, you remember that, because everybody care write their own
story or how well they played, or how good they are,
how good looking there they can put that on to themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Sure, And what do you think of the What do
you think of today's NFL? I mean we have, obviously,
justin Jefferson Jordan Addison, wide receiver positions changed a little bit.
You know, you're not gonna get your head taken off
running across the middle.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Of the field.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
So, uh yeah, what is your What do you think
about today's game in the wide receiver position in particular, Well.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Jefferson could have played at any at any at any level.
I mean, he's that good that it wouldn't have mattered.
He had been great no matter when he played. But
they have changed the rules to the point where they're
not even They don't even go with the rules of
a long time ago. It should be like new stuff,
you know, because if you change the rules where you
(21:44):
can't touch anybody. I think I led the league in
receiving one time when like eighty passes or sixty passes,
and then one time with eighty passes, which back then
was like a thousand. But you look now, the fourth
string receiver catches eighty passes. Yeah, it's like and you
can't touch them. You know, you can't touch them. But
I just I look at it from when you start
(22:07):
talking like that. You come off like, once again, I'm
not thirty nine, I'm old. No, you know you talk
about oh man, when I played, when I played, and
then it reminds me of times when I was playing
and I'd run into some guy that played like thirty
years before me, and he'd be talking like I'm talking now. Man,
when you played, they didn't even have helmets.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Leather helmets. Yeah exactly. Well, it's yeah, Lily, exactly, it's
it's a pleasure catching up with you. We really appreciate
your time, but more importantly, I so appreciate your friendship
over the years. It means the world to me. And uh,
you sell them as youthful as ever, and it inspires
me to keep doing what I'm doing at my young
age and hang your on youngsters like Pete Pursage. So
(22:54):
all the best to you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Hey, I really, I really appreciate that so much. You
know that Minnesota has always been my home. I love
the place. I love everybody there, and they did such
a wonderful I had such a great career being there,
just with the people that I've met, the people that
I met, and how we sort of interacted through him.
It's my favorite place in the world and it's so
(23:16):
nice to talk to you guys. This more ya.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Thanks you man, thank you AMU time well, thanks again
to a mod for Shot for joining the show tonight.
It has been an incredible season of Skull Stories talking
to some of our favorite Viking legends. We would like
to say thanks to a couple of people for helping
make this show happen in twenty twenty four. Legends coordinator
Tom West for booking such great guests, Audio editor Eric Davidson,
(23:42):
producer Jay Nelson, my co host of course, Pete Bursich,
and most certainly you the fans. This has always been
a lot of fun doing each year, and remember if
you missed any of our previous episodes, be sure to
check out our podcast feed on your favorite podcast app
or the podcastab on the Vikings app for our entire catalog.
For one last time this football season, thanks again for
(24:05):
tuning into another edition of Skull Stories presented by three
M the official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings, and
we will see you all again next year.
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Come hang with Amy Poehler. Each week on her podcast, she'll welcome celebrities and fun people to her studio. They'll share stories about their careers, mutual friends, shared enthusiasms, and most importantly, what's been making them laugh. This podcast is not about trying to make you better or giving advice. Amy just wants to have a good time.