#92Noon! Nordo in for PA! 9am Hour 11/19 John Hynes, Parker Fox, Florio!

92Noon! Hynes - Fox - Florio

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, what up?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's nine to noon, six five one carpets plus studios.
It's Nordowen for PA nine to noon. I guess a
little mid season vocal maintenance day. You could call it
TimberTech set list on a Wednesday will feature Lavelli Neil
the third Star tribute columnist. Kind of a strip day,

(00:22):
to be honest with you, because at ten we got Leavel.
Prior to him, weekly guest covers the Minnesota Vikings. Courtesy
is standard heating and air. You'll hear from Ben Gesling
weekly Florio and yes, this is where we're at at
this stage. For the host of nine to Noon, when
the team is four and six, you had a double
dip international affair with Dublin in London and nothing is

(00:47):
going according to plan. Maybe you have, especially on a
border battle week. We need the extra rest. The host
will return in full force tomorrow. A team that on
the other side of things is just absolutely handling business
right now, winters six of their last day. Head coach
John Hines of the Minnesota Wild kicks off nine to
noon this morning. How you doing, sir, I'm doing great.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I'm doing well and I appreciate your time this morning.
You know, I'm going backwards to that Vegas game for
a second. Carill kind of making you sweat it out
a little bit. Had to wait until the final ten
seconds of OT. You give them, you give them a
little heck about that after the game.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, you know what, I was just glad he made
the play. So it was it was a big time play.
So we'll take it now.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
You're you're hosting Carolina tonight. They list the game time
is eight thirty, but that's a farce. It'll be puck
drop around eight fifty five. This ain't the playoffs. This
is a Wednesday night game in November. How do these
you know, glaringly different puck drop times. Does that affect
like game day practice, how the guy's prepping such.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, we try to back it up so like normally
we would do some things at say ten thirty in
the morning for a seven o'clock game, so we'll back
it up to a at eleven thirty today. So we
try to keep the players in the same routine that
they would be if it was like a seven o'clock game. Particularly,
you know, once they once they have lunch here and
then they leave and then they start their you know,

(02:12):
their game prep, whether they take a nap or whatever
they do in the afternoon. We try to keep that
timing the same, so that should work out pretty well
for us.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
What you know, I mentioned it as I brought you
in here. Teams won six of eight and just early
stages of the season, but it really feels like there
is some rhythm to be found with your group. What's
what's been going well recently?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, you know, I think we've been I think some
of the some of the adversity and things that we
went through early helped us. I think when you when
you go through some some times where you're not getting
as many wins as you'd like, you know, there's one
or two ways you can go about it. You can
dig in and find solutions and and and put the
required work ethic in and the action steps to get better.

(02:56):
I think our group has done that, and now we're
playing a more consistent game, much more to the identity
that we want to be able to play with. And
I also say that I think that in turn, what
drives that a lot of times is I think there's
more and more players emerging to their own identities and
playing at the level that we know and they know
that they can play.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
How as as the coach, John, how hands on or
hands off do you get have to get? I guess
you can take it however you like. When things are
trending in a certain direction, like good times, you want
to keep it rolling. Bad times you want to stem
the tide. But these are also professionals, right, so there's
some some some personal responsibility like how hands on or

(03:38):
hands off do you get when when? When you know
the grind is a daily one and we need to
either maintain or change direction.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, a lot of it is just a lot of
it's situational based. You know. Sometimes you I think when
you're when you're going through some of the adverse times,
I think it's really important that you increase communication and discussions.
But also it's it's a fine line too. You don't
want to you don't want to overreact either. I think

(04:08):
you have to have, you know, a non biased assessment
of the game and against individual players, and just you know,
get get to the root of things and communicate through
that and work for solutions. And then sometimes when it's
going when it's going really good, sometimes you kind of
you know, it's a little bit like a jockey. Sometimes
you got to whip the horse. Sometimes you have just
the horse is going and you let it ride and

(04:29):
it's on its own a little bit, and you want
to make sure you're just continuing to to to keep
it on the track. So every situation is different, and
you go through many of them over the course of
eighty two games.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Now with the netminders specifically, whether it's yesp' or it's
Gus Buss, what's the evaluation process in determining what we
like and what we don't like. And I'm thinking about
this as a fan, where I know I can complicate
the situation, like who's in front of them, where's the
puck coming from, who's sending it? Kind of getting a
feel for how the goalie is operating. As an outside

(05:00):
I gotta I I admit it doesn't always seem easy coach.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
No, it's obviously a hard, hard position to to to play,
and it's a hard position to judge at times. You know,
the way we do it is we like each goalie
has has a little bit of a unique spot style.
Guts is a little bit different than Wally and and
vice versa. So you want them to what we look
for is are they playing to their strengths as a goaltender,

(05:25):
And then you know it's it's also looking at just
because goals going the net or goaltender doesn't win the
game doesn't necessarily mean he played bad. So it's you know,
it's really like evaluating any other player as you're looking
at are they playing for their strengths, are they consistent?
Are their areas they need to a little be a
little bit better? And you know, maybe they've you know,

(05:46):
they played well and didn't win the game. I think
you have to be objective with those guys as well.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I just think about it like from a football perspective.
You know, whether or not you're you're paying you're you're
clearly paid attention to the hockey team. But like JJ McCarthy,
this rookie QB for the Vikings talking about mechanics and
you know how you know, setting a foundation and kind
of the fundamentals of playing the position, and you got
this rookie you're trying to kind of unlearn or reteach
different things.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I imagine whether it's camp in the offseason, there's a
fair amount of that kind of stuff that can be done.
But once you see a trend happening and in season,
it just seems like it'd be difficult to change course
mid stream.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, absolutely, I think it's uh, you know, even with UH.
You know, I'm obviously a Vikings fan too and watch
the games and know what's going on with JJ and UH.
You know, we all sports are very similar. It's you know,
guys have been have had lots of success, and there
are where they are in professional sports because they've had abilities.
But sometimes when you get to the to the NFL

(06:43):
or the NHL or the NBA, you know, major League baseball,
it's just a different some of the some of the
mechanics and the fundamentals or habits that you've had that
you could get away with at lower levels. You know,
lots of times when you get to this level, whether
the best leagues in the world, and you're playing against
players and guys that you know, great, great coaches, defensive coaches,

(07:04):
whatever it might be, it takes a little bit of
time to learn that and adjust that on the fly, asaid.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Coach John Hines. Minnesota wild Wilder hosting the Canes tonight
Carolina in Town. Pregame around eight thirty PM and puck
drop right around eight point fifty five, just kind of
reading some articles and stuff those who cover the team,
just seeing Danilla year off potentially again due to that
adversity that you've talked about, and you know, each season
providing its own new adventures and challenges, maybe from a

(07:33):
health perspective, et cetera. But Danilla a year off the
concept of him potentially running with the top liners. What's
cool about Danilla? Now that you've gotten a pretty good
sample size of the kid here in Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, you know, I think Danilla is kind of what
we what we just talked about with the other sell
with with JJ or even the goalies, is just that,
you know, he's a he's a young player that's come
over from Russia. It's been a totally different style of
play for him. You know, the NHL is it's a
smaller rink, there's less time in space, there's more you know,

(08:05):
confrontational competitive situations than there are in a KHL game.
So he's learning that and he's adapting to those things.
And I just see a young player that's very very
hockey smart, really coachable, and he's getting he's just finding
his he continues to find his way, so it's going
to be a good opportunity for him. Obviously, we have
a couple of centers out, so that provides an opportunity

(08:27):
to see him in a little bit of a different role,
and you know, I'm excited to see how he plays
with those guys tonight.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, you mentioned that, whether it's it's Rossi, it's Hartman, Tarasenko,
you know, not playing center, but all the same, you know,
whether it's it's Nico Sturm, Like, I'm still really excited
to see him in the mixed coach in terms of that.
But you know, just hanging on here, getting w's and
and knowing, you know, kind of on the backside, whether
it's a week or two, you are starting to get healthier,
and that's obviously a positive thing.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
It is, you know, it's it's always the thing in sports,
I think when you get you know, we've been hit
some injuries, uh, you know, right from right from the
start of training camp. But and it took us a
little bit to find our group, but I think we've
you know, it's about the players that are in the lineup,
you know, versus the guys that are out of the lineup.
You have to find a way to win, and the
guys that are in the lineup have to be able
to get the job done. Now I'm saying that I

(09:16):
think we've done a very good job of that, particularly
in November. But it's always nice when you can get
you know, players back that you expect to be in
your lineup and play certain roles, and I think it
slots everybody, uh you know, in the right places for
them to be able to play and contribute to the team. So,
you know, we'll we'll we'll keep moving forward and we
got a big one tonight and then we'll see see

(09:38):
you know, every day is new. Sometimes you get guys
back and sometimes guys guys come out of the lineup.
It's just the daily endeavor. Every day. You got to
be ready.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
So whether it you got yesper with a couple of
shoutouts in a row, Gus played really well and helped
get the w against Vegas. Who gets the opportunity to
beat on those canes tonight.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Uh lost? That's going to play tonight.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Excellent. Okay, Now, let me let me ask you this
another dumb question as an outsider here, how much can
you take even from a recent matchup with the Kynes
because it was kind of a weird game. You get
seven goals collectively in the first twenty one minutes of
the game and then Crickets, I mean bold he ties
it in the first minute of the second period on
the on the man advantage. Alers takes it back and
that's game like thirty nine minutes of attempting to score

(10:22):
and then sadly you fall on the wrong side of it.
How much can you take, even from like recent matchups
and maybe kind of a wonky back half of a
game like it was before.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah, you know, you take you do take a lot
out of it, particularly because we've played them recently, so
I think the style of game now, that game in particular,
like you there was kind of a lot of goals
early in the game, and there was a ton of
special teams yea, which took away a little bit five
on five. But yeah, you certainly go back to that
game and you know, look at look at the preparation
for that game, what worked, what didn't work, and then

(10:53):
we you know, keep tabs on them from the last
time we played them till now if there's any different trends,
and then you go you go right back in so
we gain a lot of information from last time we played.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well. I'm looking forward to seeing your squad get two
points tonight. I really appreciate all the time you always
give us here nine to new and have an awesome day, sir.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
All right, thanks, always enjoying, have a great day.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Thank you. That's head coach John Hines of the Minnesota
Wild again. Eight thirty pm. It's late, this is a Wednesday.
Why are they doing this? They're torturing us? Is it
because it's the TNT bit Brett?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
That is that?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Why it is? That would be my guest? Yeah, okay,
all right, Well we got to wait a little longer
for the team to well go seven to nine hopefully
and get two points against those Canes after losing a
couple of weeks ago to Carolina. But eight thirty pm
pre game, eight fifty five pm puck drop and who
cares where it's at on TV you can listen to
that right here on your home for a Wild Hockey

(11:48):
the Fan and that kicks off nine to noon. As
I mentioned earlier, the TimberTech set list. Parker Fox, you
may have stuck around from the Power to your morning show.
You heard him in studio with the boys. He's going
to jump in studio with me. Next talks hoops. I
had Brett find some audio of his continued ascension via
Big Ten Big Ten Plus analyzing Gopher's hoops, so I
want to hear how he looked at Chicago State, Chicago

(12:12):
State at the Barn last evening. Gopher's got the w
spoiler alert, but we'll have Parker in. We'll talk some
NBA hoops. The Minnesota Timberwolves, of course, next up the Wizards,
the awful, awful Washington Wizards, and we're going to talk
about NBA and just kind of the state of things
is really you're talking about a muddy Western conference. Maybe
not so muddy, maybe a little more obvious and straightforward

(12:35):
than we initially thought. I'll explain more on that Mike
Florio Pro Football Talk. He's going to join around nine
forty Ben Gesling thanks to standard heating and air Weekly
guest covers the Vikings for the Star Tribute, and he's
in studio at ten Lavelle Neil Strip Partner in Crime.
He's going to be in studio at eleven. Brett Blake
Moore produces It's Border Battles. So we're going to be

(12:55):
chatting a little Green and Gold versus Purple and Gold
Final hour when wobbles here, but you are listening to
the fan Parker Fox around the corner next.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Yeah, so Wild lenesday here on the fan. We're taking
your talk backs for tickets all day long. Used talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. Tell us you think the most.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
Important player currently on the rosters for your Minnesota Wild.
Sendas your talkbacks to five pm today for your chance
to score tickets tonight's game against Carolina Hurricanes. Full info
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Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right away Chicago State all over the place. Defensively, they're
gonna play hard, they're gonna play top, and they're gonna
try to make things a little dirty out here today.
A mismatch on the bill, you have one. You got
a point guard and you gotta find a way to
move your feet.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Great quickness there from Larvada to the rim, finds Tyson.
I think you want to slam it.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Huld'll take an extra dribble and a nice right handed
finish off glass. Yeah, he certainly did. He had ill
intentions there as he caught the ball. Thought he should
have been fouled. I kind of agree with him. Should
have been at the free throw line shooting one after
that one. Yeah, the free throw line is gonna be
a place that Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Wants to absolutely lived night.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
You got a smaller team, You got the physical you
got the size advantage. Get yourself in the paint. Yes,
threes are good. We need threes. Keep shooting them, but
find ways to get the paint and draw fowls.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
That is analysts, Big ten Network, Big ten plus, Big
ten Network, Parker Fox at Parker Fox two four via x.
That was that was part of last night's festivities at
the barn, the visiting the plucky cougars of Chicago State. Frankly,
I don't even know where that where Chicago State is
somewhere in Chicago. Yeah, I'm grathering. I just was. I

(14:34):
have no idea. Could you tell me where De Paul
is in Chicago? Yeah, I have no idea. Are they
still what is it? The Demon Deacons? That would have
well that was Wake four.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Oh yeah that's true. Demon blue Demons. You can tell
I don't watch a lot of DePaul basketball. Absolutely blue Demons,
Blue Demons. Okay, perfect at any rate? Uh, thank you
for being in studio Parker, How how was it? How
is this process of learning? Like are you listening back

(15:04):
to your own work? Do you have someone that gives
you feedback?

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Because I think about doing my first handful of radio shows,
whether it was on the talk station down the hall
or finding my way working with Pa. You know what
is now what like twelve years ago?

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Needing feedback? Like I'm a person like if I was
an actual athletic player, I'd be a person that appreciates
tough coaching. Yeah, Like I'd be more on the zimmer side,
like I need to kind of be told that that
was awful. Yeah, and I need to get better more so,
like I don't need a shoulder around me and be
hugged and get constant affirmation like Brett Blakemore and the Spurs.

(15:42):
But feedback wise, feedback, feedback wise. Do you have somebody
that's like, Hey, love this, this was super crisp. Hey
have you thought about implementing this? Like how does that
work for you? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
I think obviously it goes back to my sports background, right,
so I always evaluate things. I'm my own hardest critic, right,
So I think there's that. So I've found more success
in coaches that kind of allow me to be my
genuine self, and I think that's a good thing for me.
And I think especially in the analytical side and the

(16:16):
color commentating side of sports, there's too many robots, you know,
And I think personality is what the audience likes. I
think the consumer wants to get to know the person.
And obviously, for me right now, I have this home
base in Minnesota. I have a lot of really great
support from Minnesota fans, which is good. But I learned
at an early age that the attention you want the

(16:38):
attention right, you want to be in the spotlight, but
you have to find ways to take the positivity and
the positive things people are saying about you say thank you,
but also flush it because I know how much work
there is yet to go, Like I mentioned on my
own Hardest Critic, So I think I obviously watched things
back and I listen to myself and even in the moment,
like there was a time last night that I just

(16:58):
didn't bring it to break in the right time. I
was mad at myself and I'm still thinking about it
this morning. But you have to flush those things. But yeah,
there's feedback. So these plus games. They're put on by
the student kind of program, so I get feedback from them.
And then obviously I had my first national one last
week now, which was Saturday night, and I'm still yet
to talk to the producer of that, but it's probably

(17:19):
gonna give him a call in the next couple of
days and kind of just go over that performance. And
there's just you don't know what you don't know, right,
It's like the little things of hey, this cord, it
can't be in front of you. It's got to be
over your shoulder because when you go on camera, you
don't want to see a chord, right, So there's a
different box for the student kind of broadcast versus the
big ten broadcasts. So it's just things you don't know,
and just getting yourself comfortable in those situations have been

(17:40):
the biggest thing for me.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I can't remember. Maybe it was Ron and like Ron
Johnson on it like a Fox broadcast, like he had
his headphone outside, like you gotta know, it's cilly. It's
the little things because you're on TV, things we don't
have to worry about in radio. As part of those
highlights that again I'm gonna get my money's worth out

(18:02):
of it. Okay, I spent fourteen dollars on a on
a big ten plus membership. You're gonna hear your own
voice on highlights for the next six months because of
that fourteen dollars.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Well, and you can watch you can watch Washington versus
incarnate word exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
So I mean look at the value in that. The
breadth of opportunity and entertainment and content is really endless
for the fourteen dollars I spent. But in that you
mentioned the free throw line is where this team wants
to live. Well, the other night against Green Bay, they
looked like me in the red gym at the main
kid a ymca from the stripe. Oh it was bad.

(18:40):
It wasn't that bad last night, though, it wasn't. No,
it was good last night. Oh yeah, It's kind of
a funny thing.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Free throws is everybody, you know from an audience perspective is.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Like, you're at that level for a reason. You should
be able to make free throws.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yes, if you put us in a gym with you,
we will go one hundred for one hundred and five,
will make every single free throw. I've done it throughout
my career as a fifty free throw shooter. They were
better last night seventy eight percent twenty one for twenty seven,
but that game that was brutal. They went twenty for
thirty nine at the free throw line against Green Bay,
which is just north of fifty percent if you're a mathematician,
and it allowed Green Bay to stay in the game.

(19:13):
That game went to overtime. Kate Tyson their best free
throw shooter. I think he was nine for ten going
into the last minute of play and then goes one
for four it down the stretch, just.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Any of those in the games over exactly, and you're taking.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Some of these mid major guys that haven't played at
this level, and that puts a little unadded pressure. I'm
not trying to have that be the scapegoat in any
any way, shape or form, but at the end of
the day, you got to go up there and make
the free throw. And I think for me, it's just
one thing I always did was just trying to clear
my mind and forget about results and say this is
the form, this is how I shoot a free throw.

(19:45):
I'm gonna shoot it. If it goes in, great, If
it doesn't go in, whatever, you know, well.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
It's one of those things now that you mention it,
because I'd go five to ten in the red gym
and no one else was there. Yeah, so you have
me going down a road now where it's like you're
impressed with the athleticism, but there is something like you
think about as much like the average roube, like me,
what do I expect out of my kid QB in
the Purple this weekend at Lambo? What do I expect

(20:12):
out of these high enders? What do I expect Anthony
Edwards tonight? There's the first aspect, like to belong in
the NBA, to be in the association, you are truly
the point oh one percent of all high end athletes
that can actually get there. But the other end of
it is still just the base level. There's a mental component,
like you have eighteen thousand people watching you every single game,

(20:36):
and again how different it is. You know, whether I'm
armchair quarterbacking or again I'll give myself I'm six to
ten in the red gym. We'll say I touched the
net once and that it was never going to be
an option for me. But the ability to do it
in front of groups, so maybe that builds through the
AAU times and such. You get used to having people
around watching you play and blocking it out. It's just

(20:58):
really impressive to me now that you think. I think
about that, the athleticism with the mental component of some roub,
you know, like Draymond Green somebody times he shoots like
Angel Reese or something like that back on the best.
Having to deal with that in itself, it seems just
kind of a near impossibility for most of us to fathom. Yeah,
I think too.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Free throws are, Like I said, we have had teams
that have had free throw struggles, so we spend so
much time in practice shooting free throws, and you literally
see guys go one hundred for one hundred and one,
or I've seen guys make a hundred free throws in
a row type of situation. So it's like, it's not
it's not a physical thing that they're struggling to do.
Free throws are all confidence. And the other thing about
free throws is if you're trying to will it in

(21:39):
the hoop, if you're putting too much pressure on it,
you're never gonna make it because then you shoot it
too flat. You shooting is such a unique thing. You
have to have the arc right if you don't have
the arc, doesn't have the chance of there's the whole
analytics of you know, shooting whatever it is, Ricky Rubio though, exactly,
you just got to shoot it right. And so many
guys try to aim free throws and they aim not
to miss versus to just shoot. So I think that's

(22:00):
where it comes from. I'm definitely guilty of it, dude.
I used to see a freaking therapist for free throw shooting,
like zoom calls with somebody, because I was trying to
be too perfect the whole deal. Really, this is just
me my perfectionism a little bit.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
That's fine.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, free throws are It's something that's haunted me throughout
my career, and it's funny to see it kind of
coming back into this Gopher's roster again.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
I wonder how many athletes do that. That must be
a nice little cottage industry of sports therapy. Oh dude,
what like we're all nutcases somehow.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
But the ability to sell the idea that I could
put you, I can make you better on the court
or on the field.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Well, and then you add professionally add that into the
social media era nowadays, and it's just like there's too
many guys that judge their performance on what people say
about them on social media, and then you have you're
down a whole nother rabbit hole that we don't need
to discuss from.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
No, you're one hundred percent right, Okay, Well thanks for
entertaining me on that. To the Howl. So the Howl
have the awful Wizards in table oh so bad. They
should win tonight heavily favored. I'm imagining double digits, and
they'll handle business and improve. You know. The one thing
though with this team just kind of within the construct
of the West. I mentioned to you off air and

(23:05):
ended the previous segment with it. The West started out
to me just thinking about like how lopsided East versus
West if we're going to go that route. And the
Sun's dealing with some injuries like Jalen Green's going to
be out a month. I mean, they still have a
winning record. The Dubs trying to find their way. We
know how bad the Jazz are, We've seen him in person.

(23:27):
But a couple of teams that I did not envision
being in complete dire straits right now. More than a couple.
In fact, the Clippers are just completely cooked the Grizzlies
just new coach, and I wonder, I wonder how much
job and I'm totally losing it was a tailor. I
forget who the former coach was. Yes, that was fired,
but I wonder if that has a problem with jaw Well.

(23:50):
I mean, Morant has had several problems over the course
of his career.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Definitely.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
But the Mavericks have gone. You know, you hated Nico Harrison,
then you then you loved him. They get the first pick,
they pick Cooper Flagg. Now I can kind of see
what this could look like, and now he's been fired.
Like the West is kind of back to the usual suspects, right, like, okay,
see the Nugs, Houston, the Lakers, and the Howl. It's
kind of interesting.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, you go into the year and you're like, how
tough is the West going to be? Just like you said,
and I thought the Clippers were going to be a
better team. They've They've dealt with a little bit of
injuries as well. But yeah, Memphis, like you mentioned, there's
just a whole lot of nothing going on. They're trying
to figure out, hey, can we get something really good
for Jah?

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Where would Jah like to go?

Speaker 1 (24:33):
The Kings are terrible, the Pelicans are terrible, The Mavericks
can't stay healthy. So then you kind of get into
that playoff and you're looking at the Jazz, who are
a five wing team. Portland who's kind of a gritty team,
but they had the whole bit with their coach and
Chauncey Billups and gambling and stuff. So it's trouble in
paradise there at Portland. You go to Golden State, they
have their usual thing going on. But if you're a

(24:53):
Timberlves fan, you've got to be happy about what's going on.
The only team in front of you that you're really
worried about is truly the Thunder and the nugg. It's
obviously this Rock teams has a lot with Kevin Durant,
but there's no there's no reason why we can't kind
of skip the Spurs there. Wemby's out for the next
couple of weeks, so I imagine the Wolves kind of find
a way to find.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
That five spot.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
But we got to beat teams that are ahead of
us right where h and five against teams with a
winning record, something that's not acceptable if you're trying to
be a playoff caliber and a Western Conference kind of team.
So we've had a pretty light schedule too throughout the
start of this thing.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
But well, and it's going to continue to be light, man.
I mean, it's so the Wizards tonight. We talked a
bit about this yesterday, like in a in a Western Conference.
What it was just this last year, one win separated
like five teams in standings. So dropping a game to
the Wizards in November sounds meaningless. Actually it could mean
everything six months from now. But you got Sacramento in

(25:52):
a few days. Okay, See in Boston will be tough.
Boston kind of they're trying to figure things out with Jalen.
I think they're just okay right now, to be honest,
But san Antoni are gonna get him, probably without Wemby yep.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
And then you get two against Hell's two free ones,
and then the Clippers have quit.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
There's Memphis in the mix there. Who knows if Jyle
be on the team or plane. Yeah, feast on these
bad teams and run it up right.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, if you look through December, there's really only four
games that make me nervous. Milwaukee, You're always going to
be nervous with jansant Tokumpo. But you get Oklahoma City twice,
one home, one away, you get Phoenix one home, one away.
They could steal one.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
But Cat two days before Christmas, the Nicks in town.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
That's an interesting one, that's for sure. That's a that's
a that's that homecoming type for Cat. I'm sure he's
gonna have a forty ball. It's just obvious.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
But yeah, if you look at the some Joker, where's
a Santa Cap on Christmas? I'd love to see Joker
at a Santa Cap. We'll playing them on Christmas. Oh
he really? Yeah, it's a night there, right, It's a
nine to thirty game, mile high, Yeah, wall Arena.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
I wonder what he's doing after the game. He's going
to celebrate. I think he goes and he's probably like
open some presents. He's got. He's got a couple of
little kids, now, doesn't Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
And he's got he's got the family life is his
brother and dad are seemingly at every game, and they
sat right next to us at one of the playoff
games in a suite when we were up in the
media seats. The size of his brother, just the shoulders,
it's like that that Eddie Hall guy, the Strong World
strong Man or whatever.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
It's just different.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
When you look at their shoulders, it's like, there's five
of my shoulders in one of your shoulders.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
It's great. Do we know what his parents look like?
Because I picture almost that's like teenage mutant ninja turtle stuff,
Like they're growing up in Serbia or wherever, and they
just stumbled upon some weird ooze and now they're just
freaking giants. I don't know what's going on. Who knows,
I don't know, but wolves tonight gonna get the w
I last thing, and I guess maybe this bears more
conversation in the future. I had I had seen this

(27:46):
podcast and it was it was a doctor named Daniel
Ahman and he apparently had treated or done a podcast
with Julius Randall and he had and they were talking
about marijuana and basically kind of the idea Randall's like,
marijuana was affecting my family life. I thought I was

(28:06):
playing marijuana, but but he's He's out and I don't
know how recent that is. Maybe I'm just late to
the party on that, but but how rampant is marijuana
use in hoops? Oh? It's huge. Is it just ubiquitous
like that because the NBA allows you you can use it,
they don't no testing for it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I've played with a handful of guys throughout college that
love their love their marijuana. Julius Randall was one of
the guys known for being very pro cannabis. I think
it was just like September that he that he cut
it out. I think this is the first season he
hasn't played underneath it. I doubt that you can go
find specific stats that say, all he's playing so.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Much better on or off. We probably not.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
But like Kevin Durant, best player in the world, he's
high all the all the time.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
So, I've had enough teammates in the NBA that that
tell me that their their wing of the hotel when
they're on the road smells hungent, smells pretty good. Have
you ever seen the picture of It's like Jada McDaniel's
nasried and Rudy Gobert and they're like, oh yeah, they're
like just taking a team picture or a group picture
and it's just in a cannabis shop. But it's like

(29:13):
they don't care. It's just is what it is. So
very prevalent thing. But I think you hear a lot
of guys spins on it to the fact that you're
thinking so much, right, like you throw out a basketball
and there's so many things to think about, and then
all these guys are perfectionists. So you take it to
your home and now you your you know, your personal
life with your wife and your kids isn't as good

(29:34):
because you're only focused on basketball. And they say they
use it to just kind of relax and forget about
everything going on.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
And I don't know it's it's legal, so yeah, no,
I'm not testing for it. So for me, it wasn't.
For me, it wasn't as much a judgment thing. People
they do what they want to do. It was just
it was kind of an interesting because all I've seen
in recent years is the momentum of pro weed. Yeah,
and it was just interesting, you know, kind of the
self reflecting nature of a Julius Randall who's like, well, actually,

(30:03):
I mean, I just I wanted to be a better husband.
I wanted to be credit to him. Yeah, I thought
I was playing better with it. Actually I don't think
I was, And now we're just not going to do it.
I just thought that that was kind of cool, and
you said it was September. I guess I was late
to it, but I stumbled upon it yesterday. But yeah,
credit to him to identify that.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
That takes a lot of courage because regardless if you
think it's an addictive substance or not, like you're, you're
probably addicted to the high, you know what I mean,
You're probably addicted to getting high. So the fact that
he can say, hey, I'm not the man, the husband,
the player I want to be. Let's cut that out
like that takes. That takes some toughness.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
It does when you're on TV.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Next next game isn't for a while. I think December
fourteenth is our next game. They got some Peacock games
and some Prime games. You know how it is now
to try to watch a college basketball game.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Get it now? Big ten plus is going to get
another fourteen dollars out of me.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
No more Big ten plus games, all national broadcasts from
here on.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's so music to my Cancel that subscription, baby, you're
the best man. Have an awesome day, Sita. Good to
see you, guys, Good to see you. That's Parker Fox
at Parker Fox two four via x kind of a weekly,
not just weekly on Mondays, but but Wednesdays as well
with the Power Trip and here nine to Noon Mike
Florio ProFootball Talk dot Com is next. Welcome back nine
to noon, weekly guest Longtime nine to Noon. The host

(31:18):
is out, the producer is in, but Mike Florio remains
the constant pro football talk via xprofootball talk dot com.
You hear Father of Mine, whether it's the book Father
of Mine, Son of Mine, Big Shield. They have links
right there on the website, but you can go to
Amazon find those books. The author, the TV host, the
radio guy, Mike Floria with me. Now, how you doing, Mike?

Speaker 6 (31:39):
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Man?

Speaker 6 (31:39):
How are you?

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Well?

Speaker 2 (31:40):
It's a beautiful day and I'm trying to figure out
how to handle JJ McCarthyism within the state of Minnesota.
You know, I'm just curious as you get the opportunity.
I know there's an affinity for the Vikings, but you
still have a pragmatic view of things. You know, through
five games, it's been interesting at times, clutch at times, disastrous, inconsistent, inaccurate, frustrating,

(32:04):
insert adjective here. What is your kind of unvarnished opinion
now through a handful of games, the trials and tribulations
of JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 6 (32:14):
I like the JJ McCarthy as I guess that would
make the operative question are you now or have you ever?

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Been?

Speaker 6 (32:20):
A franchise quarterback? And for now the matter continued to
be up in the air. There are mechanical issues. Kevin,
Kevin O'Connell, no, Kevin McCarthy. See, it's very easy to
mix the two up. Kevin McCarthy's, JJ McCarthy's, Kevin O'Connell's,
Neil O'Donnell, have your pick. But the reality is there
are far too many instances where he's just not accurate.

(32:43):
And the problem is when he turns it around late
in the game, it takes off the front burner, this
question of where is this thing heading? And that has
to end. You have to take that whatever it is
that planet's aligning when the game is on the line

(33:04):
and move that performance deeper into the game. It's got
to start sooner when he falls into that mindset of
quit thinking and just go out and do it. And
I think that's what happens late in the game. He
stops thinking about it and he just reverts to instinct
and We've got the rest of the season to evaluate,

(33:24):
to examine, to see what improvements they can make on
the fly, one week at a time, and then I
think after the season they really do have to make
a decision, and they already should be evaluating. I wrote
about this earlier today. All options that are out there
for next year, the problem is there won't be an
abundance of veteran quarterbacks with starting experience who could be
brought in to have a legitimate competition, not a rigged

(33:47):
competition where we're just bringing a guy in to go
through the hollow motion of creating the impression that there's competition.
There needs to be real competition. There needs to be
playing time consequences for not developing that the way the
Vikings are trying to get into develop and look, the
biggest mistake any organization can ever make is when a

(34:11):
mistake has been made, to double down on it and
not admit it and act accordingly. And I think the
right way to act, based upon what we've seen so
far this season, is to bring in real competition and
see how it plays out, and also have a viable
backup who can come out and get the job done
on a weekend and week out basis. If JJ McCarthy
gets injured again, and the injuries are part of the problem.

(34:31):
I saw people making excuses for the inaccuracies on Sunday,
saying his hand was injured. Well, it's just another example
of a quarterback who gets injured and it's not his fault. Look,
every player has a ceiling somewhere between whatever he accomplished
in college and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and
we only find out where the ceiling is by playing.
And if the ceiling isn't high enough, then the team

(34:52):
has to make decisions in the quote unquote best interests
of the organization. And I think that's what this ultimately
comes down to. Instead of being stubborn and continuing to
push forward with something that isn't working, they need to
be thinking about other ways to get to where they
want to be. And that's the great irony here. One
of the reasons Daniel Jones didn't stick around, even though

(35:13):
the Vikings reportedly were offering more money. He just assumed
that Kevin O'Connell's going to get the most out of
JJ McCarthy and Daniel Jones isn't going to get a
chance to play and right now we haven't seen it.
So if we don't see it by the end of
the year, I think that all options need to be
on the table for twenty twenty six. And McCarthy's started
a contract for two more years. I'm not suggesting move on.
I'm just suggesting move forward to a real competition for

(35:36):
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
I like the way you're looking at it, and I
kind of wonder, you know, Coach of the Year a
lot of accolades, team wins fourteen games. There's a resurrection
part of this with what Sam Darnold did a year ago.
I just wonder what the coach is kind of learning
from this process where best of luck to Sam Daniel
Jones off to Indie. Yeah, I think they offered him

(35:58):
like a half million dollars more. In the end, it
was the JJ was the plan and and what he's
learned in terms of think, you know, the raising the
kid while also trying to manage the team. Like I
just feel when we see Kevin O'Connell every Tuesday, Mike
at TCO down An Egan at the facility we do
the show, it's just this guy's climbing a freaking Mountain

(36:19):
here trying to balance the McCarthy side of things and
then the entire rest of the franchise on the other
end of it. I just wonder where the where the
coaches head is at it with this adventure.

Speaker 6 (36:30):
Well, and here's the reality. And this goes back to
March when there was a question as to what they
were going to do with Sam Donald, there was a
question to what they were going to do with Daniel Jones.
And I know from talking to people who were involved
in the overall discussions, there wasn't a clear sense of
who was making the decision as to what was going
to happen. And we just assume that Kevin O'Connell made

(36:54):
the decision. I don't know that he made the decision.
I don't know who made the decision to let Sam
Donald go. I don't know whom man made the decision
to let Daniel Jones go. I don't know who made
the decision to move forward with a guy who was
a work in progress, with a team that was good
enough to get to the brink of the number one
seed last year. But that's the decision that was made,

(37:15):
and O'Connell's the one who's expected to make chicken salad
out of it on the fly, one week at a time,
one game at a time, complicated by the fact that
the quarterback got injured in Week two and has missed
multiple games and continues to get banged around from time
to time, and that continues to be one of the
key ingredients in becoming a franchise quarterback. You've got to
be available far more often than you're not to ever

(37:37):
earn that label. You got to be on the field
to make the kind of throws and win the kind
of games that we'll get people to say, there's a
top ten guy, there's a top five guys. So O'Connell, Hey,
he got his extension. He took his extension. He didn't
have to take the extension. There was a lot of
talk last year, and I don't know how much of
it was leverage or PR, but there was a lot
of talk last year that if I don't get my extension,

(37:58):
I'm just going to finish my contract and become a
coaching free agent, something we rarely ever see. But that
got in the deal. He took the deal. So now
this is the hand that he has accepted. It isn't
the hand he was dealt. He knew what the cards
were when he decided to stick around, so I assume
he has a plan. But at the end of the day,
he's not out there on the field making the plays happen,

(38:19):
and we're never going to be privy to what the
private thoughts and communications are. He's going to protect the
team as all coaches should do, but you have to
wonder what's going on behind the curtain and what the
conversations are about the future. And I think it would
be naive and it would be foolish for the organization
to not be asking themselves the tough question of did

(38:43):
we make a mistake and if we did, what are
we going to do about it? And I think the
first thing they can do about it is protect themselves
against the possibility that the mistake continues if it is
a mistake in the next year, by having the most
viable veteran presence they can who can step in in
play either because of injury or and effectiveness.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
That's Mike Florio, Pro Football Talkprofootballtalk dot Com, books, TV
Radio doing it all. How about these Bears at seven
and three? I mean, I'm down on my four and
six operation. I got to figure out how to, you know,
sell an idea of a victory in the Border battle.
Bears just beat us, but they're seven wins including our
l nineteen forty seven and one from a win loss perspective,

(39:25):
the seven teams they've beaten, so belief makes them dangerous.
But are they a factor? I still think the Lions
are the class of the North.

Speaker 6 (39:31):
What do you think, Well, it's stunning that the Lions
are six and four. It's one of those where when
you see their current record, you have to look at
it and say, wait a minute, that is that a mistake.
They're six and four. They've lost twice as many games
as they lost in twenty twenty four. But it's the reality,
and the Bears have gotten themselves into great positions. Starting

(39:53):
zero to two, getting thumped by the Lions in Detroit
fifty two to twenty one. They've gone seven and one
since then. Now, some of those games rap it out
of the hat. Twenty five to twenty four, identical scores
against the Raiders and the Commanders, games that easily could
have gone either way. The Commanders were getting ready to
ice that game until the wet ball popped off of
Jaden Daniels hands as he was trying to execute a

(40:15):
handoff at a time when it felt like the Commanders
were going to win that game. So the Bears are
in great position, but at the same time, we have
to be cognizant of what's coming up. Steelers coming to
town this weekend. I don't care if it's Aaron Rodgers
or Mason Rudolph or Will Howard or Terry Bradshaw playing quarterback.
The Steelers are going to be a tough team for

(40:35):
the Bears to beat, regardless of where they play that game.
Then they're at the Eagles for the Black Friday game,
They're at the Packers, they play the Packers again, they
have a game against the Lions, they go to the
forty nine Ers week seventeen. They've got some tough games
coming up, and you know, it's one thing to pull
out a late victory against a lesser team. You get
yourself behind late against an elite team, it's a much

(40:59):
tougher teach to pool that victory from the jaws of
the seed. And we could see a correction coming from
the Bears as soon as this Sunday, especially if Rodgers
gets a chance to go back to Soldier field one
last time, and I don't know if he's going to
play or not with the fracture in his wrist, and
Mike Tomlin was non committal about it yesterday, but they
haven't closed the door on Rogers playing. You know, Rogers

(41:20):
is going to want to play that game, and you
know he's going to want to win that game with
the team that he has claimed for years he owns.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Hey, I just refreshed your website and saw that piece
that you put out this morning. You mentioned it mac
Jones could become Minnesota's JJ McCarthy insurance policy in twenty
twenty six. Now people can go to the website and
read it. But Mac Jones in particular is Rock Purdy
returns the NFC West is super fascinating to me from
Shanahan well coached team dealing with QB injury and pushing

(41:50):
forward and they're getting healthier, getting better. Rams. We got
an MVP candidate in Stafford with the defense is even
better than Vikings. Fans felt the brunt of in the
nine sacks last year against them in Arizona, and then
Darnold's doing his thing in Seattle like that division is stacked.

Speaker 6 (42:06):
Man Well and one of the reasons why the division
is thriving is one of the reasons why the NFC
North last year had three playoff teams who kind of
ran rough shot. It's that weird reality of the schedule
where eight of your seventeen games every year are determined
by a rotation through the four divisions of the other

(42:27):
conference and the three other divisions of your own conference.
And that lined up just perfectly this year for the
teams of the AFC West, and they get eight games,
eight winnable games against the teams of the AFC South,
and I think they play the four teams of the
NFC South this year. That's almost half of your schedule,

(42:48):
bad with games that you look at and say, okay,
we can go six and two. So what it does.
It doesn't change the race in the division, but it
does give the forty nine ers an edge because they
got the fourth place, which gives them three easier games
than the Rams are getting at the top of the schedule.
But it gives all those teams a better shot at
stealing one of the wild cards. And I won't be

(43:10):
surprised if we see Ram, Seahawks, forty nine Ers all
in the playoffs, just like we saw Lions, Vikings, Packers
all in the playoffs last year.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, I agree with you there, hey last thing and
it's kind of off NFL though, But Dion Sanders, I
saw you put something out, you know, health issues, the kids,
Star and Travis Hunter are gone. The Buffs record is awful.
They're like three and seven, three and eight, I forget,
but bad record and all. How long do you think
Dion might be getting to a point with all this
health stuff, not having Shaduur and such there that maybe

(43:42):
he just says I got a chill, like I got
to take care of myself and maybe end this. You
think that's imminent or a possibility that Dion just says
I'm getting out of the spotlight for good.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
There's already some talk swirling that he could retire after
the season. Now that's hardly high level dot com acting.
It's fairly obvious that that's got to be on the
table when you consider he's dealt with bladder cancer and
he continues to have other health issues that impact the
ability to go out there and really go all in
as a head coach. But he said yesterday that they've

(44:15):
got the right man for the job, and he's signed
through twenty twenty nine. He got a five year, fifty
four million dollar extension after the twenty twenty four season,
so you know, it could be that after next year,
or maybe during next year the Buffalo's decide to be
the latest program to bite a multi million dollar bullet

(44:35):
and then move on. But yeah, I hey, it all
comes down to players, and college football has been revolutionized
by the transfer portal. You've got to be able to
not just attract potentially highly talented players out of high
school every year, you've got to be able to jump
in there and get kids who want to come play

(44:55):
for you. And I think it's important for any team
that wants to be successful in the transfer to send
a clear message that the coach is going to be here.
Dion's going to be here, and then the challenge becomes,
can you go out and get enough great players to
come play for you. It's disappointing, frankly that the buzz
created by Dion's arrival in twenty twenty three, and look,

(45:19):
they went four and eight, but that buzz, that intensity,
that notion of rebirth between that and last year, that
that hasn't resulted in a sufficiently talented team to be
on the right side of five hundred. That that's a concern,
and so we just see where it goes. But you know,
there's still that weird and I get emails about this
all the time, that this notion that Dion's gonna end

(45:41):
up coaching his son in Cleveland, Like, I don't put
anything past Jimmy Haslam, But at the same time, that
seems extremely far fetched. I think the real question is
whether or not he chooses to walk away after this season.
Based on what he said yesterday, it sounds like he isn't.
But he wouldn't be the first coach who said into
a microphone one thing and then secretly had a different plan.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think you're on the right
track there. Hey, thanks as always for your time, man,
I really appreciate it and terrific work is always. We'll
have you on with PA again next week.

Speaker 6 (46:12):
I hope, all right, see you pal, have good week
you too.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
That's Mike Florio Pro Football talkprofootballtalk dot Com. It's father
of mine, it's son of mine, it's big Shield. He's
got all these books, got the podcast, got the whole thing.
Go to the website Pro footballtalk dot com when we returned.
Speaking of websites, how about Start Tribune, the Minnesota Star
Tribune and Ben Gesling, who covers the vikings for said tribune.
He's going to be in studio thanks to standard heating

(46:37):
and air next second hour Ahead on the fan