October 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Kevin Seifert stays in-studio for more Vikings quarterback discussion and more discussion about the defensive struggles.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
He sustained the initial injury to his left shoulder against
the Browns.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It was really a matter of you.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Know, getting the medical uh you know interpretations where you know,
once Carson was told, You're you're gonna have to get
this fixed, but you really.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Can't make it worse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I believe, I believe his his his phrase to me was,
I I want to take advantage of this opportunity. I
get to play, I get to play with this coaching
staff and these players for the Minnesota Vikings. I want
to exhaust this every possible way, uh that I can.
And and I know JJ will be back at some
point here as he gets healthy. But this is a
genuine opportunity where I can help this team win. And
(00:40):
the way he you know, consistently demonstrated such physical toughness
to go along with mental toughness, knowing uh that ultimately
I'm gonna have to get this fixed. And and you
know a lot of guys play with uh torn Labrahams
throughout the season. A lot of guys wear that harness,
but not everybody's a quarterback. And and although it was
not his throwing shoulder, you're still gonna take kids and
have to kind of weather the storm.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I just shake my head in wonderment. That's the head
coach today, right Koc Barry from Blaine. I'm a doctor,
have done team medicine here, horrific. Some kind of additional
indictment on the judgment of the regime that they asked
a competitor whether he's whether you want to go back in?
Did not assess the totality the situation till the quarterback
you're done and put in the healthy backup to run
a limited offense. Assume and short passing. Here's the cheap shot,
(01:30):
assuming there are short rhythm passing pages in the playbook,
that's well played. From Barry and doctor I work an
orthopedics rights ortho guy. I knew when I saw Wentz's
brace the first series that the game was over. That brace,
in essence, kept his arm attached to his shoulder. Without it,
it would have flopped around like a rag doll. With
(01:51):
the very first exact. This whole thing is bizarre to me.
But maybe we're missing the force for the trees who
because the defense looks troubled, the defense looks perhaps exposed,
and among you ball guys, it seems that the debate
that's breaking out now is whether whatever creativity that bflow represents,
(02:18):
whatever series of wrinkles that his defense represents, that the
rest of the league is figuring out, at least if
good quarterbacks, that that's what's happening and that we're going
to have to readjust or he is, or that it's
more about the personnel, that he has miscalculations about some
of the moves that this team made and they're just
not good enough to execute whatever he is happening to
(02:41):
be whatever he has called in a given game. Where
are you on how you would evaluate the defense, which
now I think in terms of points allowed is down
to like twenty second or twenty third in the league.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, I mean, and just two weeks ago we were
talking about how we basically we thought that the Vikings
formula for winning was having their defense go from being
pretty good I guess, to like being lights out and
supporting an offense that was going through a quarterback transition.
And the past two weeks they've been one of the
most seed like defenses in the NFL. Like literally, I
(03:15):
think they're they're averaging over thirty points you know, allowed
per game, and so that puts them in the bottom
five or so in the league over those two weeks,
and so you know, you depending who you talk to,
you here so many different explanations. One thing that I
think makes some sense is that you know they're there.
It's always predicated on this scheme is always predicated on
(03:36):
creating confusion at the line of scrimmage and allowing, you know,
even if you're not blitzing, allowing people to get through
because of that confusion, or forcing the quarterback to look
somewhere where he shouldn't really be looking, but he thought
he was supposed to, and that can work. It's certainly
you have a better chance of that working with some
(03:56):
of the young quarterbacks like a Caleb Williams or Dylan
Gabriel from the Browns or Jake Browning from the Bengals,
when they have played good quarterbacks they've gotten just especially
these past two weeks. I mean Jalen Hurts and and
and Justin Herbert have had two of the top eight
games by a quarterback all season, and so.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And Golf twice last year, QB twice last year, Stafford
yep and so. Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's that's certainly a concern. You know, there's from a
schematic standpoint one thing that's interesting to me is you
see a lot of teams the Steelers, I think we're
one of the first teams to do it where they're
really and this has become a little bit more popular
in the NFL this year anyway for some reason. But
they're going extra big against the Vikings defense, like you'll
see unbalanced lines and extra offensive lineman or two tight
(04:46):
ends and two fullbacks or two you know, to an
offensive lineman as a fullback and the I wouldn't say
that the Vikings defensive front is huge, and there's no
like three hundred and thirty pound like vi Via type guys,
and so I think that they are probably being a
(05:07):
little overpowered there in the running game and the passing game.
The pass rush has not created the confusion in the
past two weeks that they wanted to, and there was
always going to be in those situations guys running open.
I don't think they've ever prioritized or I shouldn't say
ever prioritized, but I don't think we've ever thought that.
One of the strengths is like the downfield coverage per se,
(05:29):
there's gonna be holes in the middle, and there's going
to be some matchups that you can get with guys
who are maybe aren't great like man to man defenders,
is the way they've operated here in the past few years.
So that's kind of a nutshell of what we've seen.
And it doesn't you know, and it's incumbent on them
to find schemes that are It's not like they have
(05:50):
bad players. There's plenty of good players on the defense.
And we know Andrew van Kingkle has been hurt and
I don't know that he's coming back this week.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But there's a coach doesn't make it like his imminence,
no it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It certainly didn't on Friday, which the day after the
game when he was asked about that. I'm not sure
if he's talked about it since then. But there's certainly
enough good players in the defense, and just there just
needs to be a better match of what these guys
are good at and what they you know, and what
they're being asked to do. And and then you have
(06:21):
to also remember that some of these better quarterbacks are
definitely like seeming to find the right spots, you know,
whether it's Hurts, whether it's Herbert and whether it's Jared Goff,
And so that that's a big challenge for this week,
but they don't haven't really given themselves a chance in
the in those scenarios.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Do you did you get any sense this is like
way down the list of the angles, I believe, and
I don't know if it was played big at all
out there, but did you get much of a sense
that it mattered very much to Harbaugh to flatten the
Vikings if he could, and to do it, you could say,
in a very physical fashion, as the Chargers finally did,
(07:03):
and they because they've not been able to play that well.
You think Harbaugh is wired in such a way that
he doesn't you know, he's still thinking about even if
he doesn't declare it in his quotes after a game,
if there's a part of Harbaugh says, yeah, I love
sticking it to those guys who basically, you know, let
me leave the place without hiring me. Yeah, and there.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I mean, it's an interesting because I didn't really think
about that angle heading in the sort of The general
consensus has been that the Vikings made out just fine
in terms of letting Harball leave and hiring Kevin O'Connell instead.
The Charger has been good with Harbaugh, no doubt, and
they definitely were the better team the other night. You know,
I wouldn't be surprised if I don't think anyone asked
(07:44):
Harbaugh about it, But I wouldn't be surprised if part
of him just being the kind of crazy competitor that
he is, got a little bit of extra pleasure out
of it, even if it's just sticking to the people
in the front office, because there's really nobody on the
field that had any imp packed on him not getting
that job, and so, uh, it's possible. But and it'll
(08:04):
and it'll be fun to look at, you know, ten
years from now and see like where, you know, did
they you know, how did the O'Connell era turn out,
you know, or if it was, maybe it's still going
at that point, I don't know, But what or how
did the harbad did he do another like super nova
situation where he comes in and turns it around quick
but then it blows up pretty fast as well?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, they well they had you know, they didn't do
well at all in the postseason postseason, but they did
make the postseason. And obviously Harbaugh has already got a
pretty good name established, notwithstanding the cheating that guards he
still despises of college level. Pretty good pro coach. In
a previous spot, I think one Super Bowl, he got
to the he got to the NFC title game. I
(08:46):
think his first year, did he not? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And he was good at Stamfor I mean he's he's
one everywhere. Question, he was one everywhere?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What was the wasn't he If somebody had asked Harbor
about that after the game? Would he have gone with
that's a jive? Was a jive turkey question by gob
gobble gobble gobble gobble turkey turkey? Yeah. I think he
was mad about a question being asked, wasn't it? Yes?
Kind of yeah. I don't know if he was mad,
but he was giving it back to the guy, giving
(09:13):
it back to the I wonder ifeed, yeah, because I
don't think it was asked after the Michigan this was
I think it was in college. I don't think. I
think it was college in pre Michigan. Yeah, I don't remember.
I don't. In Michigan, he said that he advised quarterbacks
not to eat chicken because they're an angry bird. I
forgot about that. You don't want to be putting that
(09:34):
kind in your body. I think he may have evolved
his position on that a little bit. I think he
might eat chicken now, but he was more of a
red meat gotta get your protein A very important somehow,
some way. Bonus Bucks time the fan and two men
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I have not reintroduced Kevin Seaford, and if you don't
(09:57):
know his voice right now, we're chatting in studio with
Kevin seferd. It covers the vikings for ESPN dot Com
and joins US Weekly. We will get one more segment
in with mister Seffert when we come Boston. Punk Legends
Dropkick Murphy's are sent to hit the Palace Theater on
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You can get the full details of Cafe dot com
(10:18):
keyword calendar. All right, one more segment with Seaffert, Kevin
Sieffert ESPN and e s p N dot com. Do
(10:42):
we seed the division to the packers yet? Do we
still have to factor in the Lions. Well, how do
you view the NFC North right now?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I mean, there still the most difficult division in the NFL.
We just were in the break we were watching the ESPN.
Dan Orlowski had the Lions is the number one team
in the entire league. Uh, And so I don't know
that we're seeding it to the Packers yet. I know
the Packers did beat them in the first, I think,
the first game of the year. But right I look
(11:11):
forward to that rematch and I think those they're probably
two of the top, you know, maybe the two top
teams in the NFC h for sure, and maybe the
two top teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
You know, both happen to be in the NFC North.
How do Okay, we now know the dis cast McCarthy
is is going to be the guy the rest of
the season. So what's the best approach you think that McCarthy,
I should say O'Connell is going to try to take
to just get him off the ground again, given how
bad the much of the first two weeks went and
(11:43):
how long he's you know, been out and the few
reps he has. What's the quarterback whisperers, what do you
think his approach is going to be moving forward building.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I mean, I think it'll start, you know, it should
probably you probably got to start back from scratch where
you started in week one in terms of you know
a lot and you want to say a lot of
the short timing things, but those can prove to be
more difficult if you're hesitant at all or you're uncomfortable
at all and you don't pull the trigger on those
quick timing passes, they turn out to you know, I
(12:15):
think what O'Connell referred to it as, it's just it's
a drop back pass with worse pass protection. And so
as much as you say, like let's just do let's
just run the ball out and throw these one two
three step throw like those are not.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
As easily executable as they sound like.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So I you know, I think he'll he'll try, they'll
they'll they'll do what they can to keep him out
of third and longs. You know, whether that whatever the
play calling and scheme is, I think that will be
the top priority, is to keep him out of third
and longs where he has to to do something that's
that's you know, the probably the hardest thing a quarterback
does over the course of a of a game is
(12:51):
convert big chunk plays when the defense knows you need
a big chunk play, and so try to avoid that
at all costs, whether that means you know, quarterback runs,
you know, I think that, you know, part of the
point of keeping him out this long was so that
when he does come back, he can have that mobility
and use that to his advantage. And so we did
(13:11):
see the one read option where he scored a touchdown
against the Bears, and so I would think of those
plays as at least being you know, in play and
doing what he can to keep him in manageable situations.
And then when it's you know, a tough situation, not
being afraid to like tell him, like, you know, let's
(13:32):
let it rip, let's see what happens. And so you
don't want to, like, yeah, ignore the fact that you're
still trying to win the game. But there needs to
be some building going on. You know, you started one spot,
but even if it's in the course of a game,
you know, start asking him to do things that are
a little bit more difficult as well.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Are we trading the tight end before the deadline?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
TJ. Hockenson.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I guess you you the fact that Josh All is hurt,
and maybe they just and I know they just claim
to signed a tight end nynt he left, so they
just signed he's underted. Look how good he's doing or
how good Jacksonville is doing. And so they they they
signed Ben Simms, who they had in their in their
(14:20):
camp two years ago and had been claimed by the
Packers and they had Packers had him for two years
and now he's back. But and I'm not saying that
they would they would turn down a really good trade
for t J. Hockinson if just because Josh Oliver got hurt.
But I guess we'll see on that. I think they
still see Hockinson as a very quarterback friendly player who
(14:41):
can really be an outlet for someone like JJ McCarthy,
who is developing in real.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Time texture from the seven sixty three area code. I
saw where Alec Lewis said he believes there's a lot
of tension in the Vikings locker room. What does Seaffert
think he said in the locker room? Is that? Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know if the texture is
properly representing what Alex okay, I don't know what Alex
(15:07):
said and and but I've talked about with you that
the whole building is tense, you know, and it's you know,
and I guess that can include the locker room as well.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
What they're trying to do, you know, the needle they're
trying to thread is one of the most difficult team
building things to do at the same time, which is
win and develop a quarterback in real time. It doesn't
usually happen that way. They've tried to do it by
signing a bunch of free agents. Uh, some of those
free agents are working out, some of them aren't. They
(15:38):
have one of the most expensive rosters in the game,
and the quarterback that they're trying to develop hasn't really
been able to stay on the field, and so there's
just a lot of tension. There's a lot of, frankly,
people in the building whose career epitaphs will include the
outcome of how JJ McCarthy's career turns out. It won't
necessarily be the first thing that's on there, but it's
(16:00):
part of it. Like it's one of the biggest projects
that any of these people will try to to try
to accomplish. And so there is absolutely from the top,
from the top down, and it includes that the adversity
of taking the trip to Europe, which turned out to
be a lot more onerous than maybe they thought it
(16:21):
was going to be or hoped it wouldn't be. And
you know, all the injuries they have encountered. Injuries are
part of the game, but they've had a lot of
injuries to some really key people that's made it extra difficult.
And and just the record, and so whether it's I
don't think that the tension is confined to the locker room.
I think the whole building seems tense to That's fair.
And I understand why.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Man more spam. I'm getting a lot of spam these
I have no idea. This is probably a dangerous one
to open up this late in this segment, but I'll
go ahead and do it. And Guards you again, this
might be another uh, you know burner account from Guards.
He's got several uh But the texture here basically says, look,
(17:07):
I think Brosmer is currently more ready to start an
NFL game than McCarthy. The kid was rehabilitating all last year,
had a very nice team around him in Michigan with
four and five star players. Brosemer looked great with less
surrounding talent. Altho didn't beat Iowa, as I recalled, didn't
we lose Iowa last year? We did? I don't remember
how he played his one year at the U, and
he got himself on the Viking squad much more impressively
(17:28):
than McCarthy. That's solid Blaine, he's clamoring.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Well, the conspiracy theories is that's why the real reason
why they didn't put him on the field. They didn't
want once you put Brozman on the field, you're not
gonna be like get him off the field. And so, uh,
you know, he was impressive, uh, you know, And and
I think O'Connell has actually used I mean, if you
(17:52):
were to put all the words that he said about
Brosmer and all the words he'd said said about JJ
McCarthy and then you've switched the the names, that you
might not be able to tell the difference. I mean,
he really likes him, but there's no doubt who the
priority is. And I don't think that that's the reason
why he didn't put him on the field. But it
(18:13):
speaks to the fact that given his lineage as an
undrafted rookie that you know played, you know, made one
final year at the Big Ten in his college career.
He was pretty impressive this summer.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
As a former ball guy. Yeah, baseball guy, did you
appreciate what took place World Series Game number three last night?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I mean, like part of me was just thinking, like
I'm glad I'm not covering this game, you know, because
it goes you know, not only is it late and
so like there's deadlines and all those kinds of things,
but like so many things happened that you would want
to include in your story and then they eventually become
irrelevant because no score, like it didn't determine the winner.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
They just kept going.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And so like trying to synthesize all the things that
happened in that game into one story.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And but like I put.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
This on Twitter, like the baseball you know, generates great
writing more than any all the other sports great points.
And I don't know why other than it's just you know,
the majesty of the game or whatever. But like, there
was so many things you could write about. Jeff Passing,
our national guy focused on the fact that Sandy Kofax
came into the clubhouse at one am Pacific time last night,
(19:26):
age eighty nine and shook the hand looks and he
looks terrific. Oh yeah, he's living in southern California. And
he shook the hand. It was a climb the pitcher. Yeah,
climber was the hero. And so he pushed the four
innings and he had never pitched anything. It was like
a heroic thing. And he just walked up to him
and said, like, good job, sir, something like that, and
like and and like that's just another you know, like
(19:48):
and that's what Passing built his whole thing off of.
But so I just I love the way it's spurs
great writing. I love the dramatics that creates such awesome storylines. Uh,
and I just would have been I know, I would
have walked out of there thinking, like, more stuff happened
that I didn't include than I didn't go.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Another another element that, again you could have built the
whole thing around. Kershaw comes into twelfth inning to say that, yeah,
he gets one guy out and and you know he's
about to retire. He's been a disaster through much of
his career. In the postseason and it's another moment. Then
you could build an entire column around just that. Given
(20:27):
how you know important Kershaw has been there's a great
shot during the game of his the reaction from his wife,
from the family. It was a terrific part of the story.
There were so many of those elements.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, and like and you'll and it's just that they
it creates so many moments where like everyone will remember
where they were when, Yes, if they stayed up that
late and uh and and and watched the conclusion.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Will kleinb went I think four. Yeah, he had he
had a career as a rookie reliever. Yeah, a career
are of over five, had never pitched more than two
in any Major league baseball.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Through like seventy six pitches, and I think I saw
where he had never thrown, Like all of his outings
were less than thirty Yeah, and so like it. And
it's just that's what's one of the many things that's
so awesome about playoff baseball is like how many often
times you see things that you never would have, like
even considered a possibility in a regular season game. But
it's the playoffs and it's just different.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And this we've never seen. There is no precedent for it.
I guess since Babe ruth Otani reaches base nine times,
how many where those were intentional, well, four intentional, one
semi intentional, after four extra base hits in his first
four at bats. And he's the starting pitcher tonight. Yeah, yeah,
and unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
And he there was a video of him in the
clubhouse and he's like when they the manager is talking
to the players right after the game, and he's like
warming almost like warming up as a pitcher. He's like
already moved on to the next thing, right, and like
just a legendary, like he's on his own. Has produced
so many unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Moment Well, we've had, you know, the anniversaries of it
happens every year. This time you're obviously the eighty seven twins,
but even probably winning Game seven and more importantly ninety
one with Jack Morris, the ten innings and so forth.
And that's another game you could almost write a book, Yeah,
on the entire you know, just just on that single game,
forget you know, anything else. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
And I was Atlanta Braves fan growing up, and so
I remember where I was when kent Herbeck, Oh that
pushed Ron Gant off first base.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
When no, when he pushed him or pulled him or
or he's like sga, he just doesn't have great balance.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, he he just unfortunately falls in And I
remember like the the like I view the Kirby Puckett
home run as the Charlie lee Brandt pitches. I'm a
Braves fan, and I remember feeling so bad for him
cause it looked like he was bawling walking off the field,
and so like it. It's funny how you remember these
things from different perspectives.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But there's many.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You know, the Cid bream, you know, because that I
can still hear Skip Carry, who was the longtime Braves
announcer who you know, who had called so many terrible
one hundred loss seasons and then suddenly they're they're winning
the pennant. And five times he said, the Braves win
the pennant. The Braves win the Pennant. And I'll just
(23:15):
hear that for the rest of your life. Yeah, stays
with you for sure. All Right, we'll have fun with
the lads in Detroit. You're going to Detroit, could get ugly,
who knows, well, we'll be there to a funny game.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
It is we know there.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And you cannot predict the way it bounces you going
in Saturday Saturday night, have to kind of right. There
used to be a flight that you could take out
late Sunday night, but it doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You still stay at the Isn't there a Marriott right
at the airport? It's Western in the airport and that's
what I mean. Yeah, that's where we stay. And that's
a nice one. That's perfect GPS location. You get to
walk right to the gate, right dedicated security here as
good as I come. I love that airport so much.
(24:03):
When I remember saying there was a Marriott, did it
become a Western? Maybe it was always a Western. I
don't remember I started saying it was Western. Same Bonvoyd points, yeah, exactly.
All right, Yeah, you're good they I'll transfer, Thanks, okay.
Kevin seffert E s p N dot Com. Luigi will
join in the five o'clock hour. Lots more to get to,
including perhaps a done as item and a couple of
(24:26):
other things related to the baseball game statement.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Time now for the Vikings report on the Van presented
by Miller lte Yike's wide receiver Adam Thielen joins danbur
Rairoad next.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Guardie. They're playing that game again on uh Cornheiser and
the Wilbon show, what's it called part in the Interruption
p t I where the headline reads more about the
Commanders or the Chiefs they played in the Monday night
game last night. In other words, it's it more that
the Chiefs won it or the Commanders lost it. I
don't recall them offering that same headline after vikings charagures
(25:11):
I said, well, was it which which was? Which had
more to do with it? It seemed, I think a
little bit clear. I watched very little of that game
because I wanted to watch some Wolves, and then I
did get into the World Series madness as well as
it went on. Here's the stat that's gaining a lot
of traction in the wake of Game three show, hey
(25:34):
Otani's last two home games in the postseason seven for seven,
five home runs, six walks, and ten strikeouts in six
innings pitched. It's this last two home games tonight. Of
course he's starting. I don't know how long he's expected
to go. But again, there's analytics for everything in the
(26:00):
street of baseball. Has any player in the postseason ever
had back to back home games that can match seven
for seven officially as a hitter, five home runs, six
walks ten strikeouts in six innings, pitched absurdity. Pretty good,
as Joe Maher would say, it's pretty good, no question
(26:21):
about that. Bratchean Brian Kafe in text line is open
and that number, of course is six for six eight
six on air production meeting. Yeah, can you see into
the score? Is Kevin in the score right now? Can
you see? I don't think anybody's in there new intern Kevin. No,
and he's pretty tall, so I think i'd see him.
I know, because Luigi's here, so I'm trying to see
(26:43):
if somebody call role. I see No, I don't see
him in the room. Unfortunately. Also Luigi he gets I
don't know if you know this or not. He can
be impatient. Louis can be a little on the impatient side.
Were you aware of that. I've learned some things about
Louis over the years. That might be one of them.
Let me get to a couple of texts. Guard. You
(27:06):
just expressed his love for the Detroit Airport. I hope
MSP is not listening. That's true. You did like I did.
Conflict of interest. I do love that Weston though, well, yeah,
I think that has more to do with the hotel
and location than loving the airport exactly. You still like
this airport better? Well, for sure, it's obvious. I think
most of us do. I actually I was just telling
Seafort I watched JJ McCarthy beat Washington in the National
(27:30):
Championship game in that Detroit Airport Western Lobby bar. Yeah,
were we still stealing signals by then? It was that season.
That's all that broke. Yeah, don't recall if we were
or not, to be honest with you, what else do
we have here? I'm not sure how this hasn't been
(27:52):
mentioned here, but Michigan cheating and knowing what defense was
coming could only result in JJ pearing to be better
and he actually is.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Look, we have talked about that often over the years,
and it's it's tricky because I certainly wouldn't have endorsed
the Vikings decision to draft them if I felt it
was all smoke and mirrors. I think you were on
board with that decision, too. But that's all. He's cold
have been hanging over the whole thing. You know, it's
(28:20):
the great unknown. It may well be that it had
a hell of a lot less to do with his
success than anybody wants to project. But that's the door
that gets opened when you have that kind of scandal, right,
is that it opens the door to any sort of
ominous feelings about it? What exactly it it represented? Maybe
(28:41):
we'll find out soon enough. I I don't know. Don't worry.
JJ will get hurt again by halftime this weekend, writes
Willow Mark Rosen's cat guy, and we will see Brozmer
soon enough. Nothing would surprise me now I asked you
this question. I don't know, Seaffert, Yeah, answered it or not?
(29:06):
Is there's a uh, there's a Twitter handle and x
handle called polymarket football. It's got a check mark. But
is it satirical or does it have any reporting chops?
Do we know? I have no knowledge of polymarkets? Too
delicious to not at least address it. Because here's what
they wrote. The Vikings have reportedly reached out to the
(29:27):
Giants and the availability of Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
They prefer Winston, but the Giants have no plans to
trade him currently. So is this a satirical site to
get Nacho liber going because of his well stated opinions
on on Russell Wilson on Russ Is there I would
(29:48):
be see. I would be skeptical to me, those names
are both too big because I don't think we're bringing
anybody into be a two. Bring somebody in as a
body to be a three. Probably you're gonna bring Russell
Wilson into be a three. No, are you gonna bring
Jamis Jamis into be a three? I don't believe so
(30:09):
at this point. So you're back to you got to
actually get somebody less distinguished just as a body to
have somebody there. No names have surfaced from the Jackals
right locally. I don't believe nothing I've seen, which surprises
me because I brought this up yesterday. So well, they
got to get another quarterback, even if it's a you know,
(30:30):
just for an emergency purpose and just for the sake
of having a third body. But we've seen weirder things
happen then two quarterbacks getting hurt the same week. It's
it's rare, but this is a rare offensive line. You
would think today would be the day to get that
done too, while the team is off before they come
back to practice tomorrow. Right, get him in the building
today or at least tomorrow morning and have already at
(30:50):
least that's true, scan the iPad a few times A
way of the land, Yeah, a little bit. I don't know,
and I are we is pastor not available? I don't
think so. No, he's on a team. Is on a team? Yeah,
I can't remember what it was New England, wasn't it
this we might have? Who was the QB we had
who could throw for four hundred yards but also throw
(31:11):
five picks? Shan Manyon, No, not Manion. There's Mullins. Mullins.
Is Mullins still in the league. Probably, see it would
be more of that color Manion or those kind of guys.
Don't you think we have had some guys? Man? Could
it be? Could we elevate our quarterbacks? Coach McCown? McCown,
(31:32):
he looks still to be in great shape, by the
way we'd ever addressed this. There was some consternation and
frustration about Yes. The smiling and laughing between Yes Carson
Wentz and the QB coach misconstrued fair game. They got
to understand, it's as visual. It doesn't look good. You're
getting your asses handed to and you guys are chuckling
about some inside jokes, even if it's gallows humor. I
(31:55):
thought it was absurd. I thought it was absurd, and
I I caught it a couple of times because didn't
Al Michael say something on the way into half? I
think I did hear that. I think on the Amazon
Prime broadcast he meant Prime video he mentioned kind of
an odd look here after what just happened? You're laughing
on the way in. I don't remember what the score
was intern guys back in studious. Oh good, I might
(32:17):
have to pop over and just tell him to go
get Louis. I told him. I tweeted out like it
was happening the whole game, like Carson's getting ragged alled
and then they come back to the side, It's like,
what's so far? Are we looking at Nate Bargetzi oels
or something? Those were rueful grins. Those were gallows humor grins.
What could possibly be funny? What could possibly be funny
(32:38):
about going into the half the way that you did?
There was nothing fun way that they were fine at all, Offense, defense,
special teams, the whole bit. It was not funny. And
I hated it, and I it was like it was
troubling at the very least. Yeah, like do I think
they should fire him? Friday morning. No, but what the season?
He al's but county. He might be fifty, Oh is he? Yeah?
(33:00):
Probably starting to the ground. Your fans are in agony,
many of them in the stadium, and you're laughing like
you're at a Seinfeld show. Yeah, it was not It
was not a helpful. Look, I'm just gonna tell Kevin
to go get And what was weird? That's fine? And
what was weird about it is, on the other hand,
you got, you know, the quarterback himself grimacing like he's
about to die. And obviously he didn't think anything was
(33:21):
particularly funny about that. So it was a strange juxtaposition.
It's not the story, but I can understand how Vikings
fans are going, what are we doing here? What exactly
is the is the deal? This?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Are you familiar with?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
George will George Will, Yes, the show ancient quarterback, quarterback.
I've got it on the brain right now. Columnist ye
who's still writing. He's eighty four. He's a ball guy,
he's and he's a big time ball guy. There's no
question about that. I put this under the clay. This
is a done as, This is a we doing in
(34:01):
all seriousness, What are we doing? He had a column
the other day that was just unsparing in its criticism
regarding let's just get anybody we can who looks suspicious
on the streets in the name of getting all the
illegal immigrants out of the country. If you read about
the ordeal of twenty six year old George, I believe
(34:24):
it's pronounced retests, it's our etes detained by ICE agents
despite being a US citizen and a US Army veteran
served in Iraq. By the way, did not move to
the US from another country. Born in Ventura, California, grew
up on the West Coast. His mother born in Ventura
as well. Here's what George will wrote. One Immigration and
(34:47):
Customs enforcement agent's knee was on his neck. Another was
grinding his back, drenched with tear gas and pepper spray.
George Urettis might have wished that his one hundred and
thirty seven pounds were back in Kirkuk, Iraq, one of
his Army deployments. Here with a glimpse of your tax
dollars at work. ICE agents wearing gas max masks indicated
(35:12):
this was at the plant where he works. Indicators of
their dispositions were blocking entry. He recounts saying the plant
was not operating. This was not the last ice lie
the iceman, presumably looking for illegal immigrants, amid a torrent
of shouted and contradictory iceman commands, and after he asked
for an agent's badge number, he says that Will says
(35:35):
Retest was dragged from his car. His wrists were zip
tied behind his back, and he was seated on the
roadside ground for four hours, then taken to a Navy
base where he was strip searched, then onto incarceration in
Los Angeles, handcuffs having replaced the zip ties. No charges
had been made against him, but a mouth swap collected
(35:55):
his DNA without his consent. He says, His request for
a lawyer and for a shower to ease at his
comforts of tear gas and pepper spray residues were ignored
after three days, during which he missed his daughter's third birthday,
and agent told him the charges against him had been dropped.
What charges, he recalls, asking silence. Two months later, he
(36:17):
publishes a newspaper ibed about his experience. I suddenly claims
Rettis had been resisting its agents. Video from a Los
Angeles television station's helicopter monitoring ICE's operations seems to refute
Will writes the agency's fabrication. Three months later, after being detained,
Will notes Dwettess is still speaking out about his experience
(36:38):
and his working with an Institute for Justice attorney. A
nineteen seventy one Supreme Court ruling open the door for
holding abusive federal agents accountable for constitutional violations. Subsequent cases, however,
have almost closed the door. This might explain the ICE's
ICE agent's aura of impunity when abusing him for days.
How many appalling incidents are occurring during today tsunami of
(37:01):
sometimes lawless law enforcement. ICE might not know, and if
it does, might not speak truthfully. Even like I said
to the hardcore Trump fans, are you seriously behind this?
Are you endorsing this nonsense? We talked about this before
at the border. He's done the job, he won, But
(37:24):
when he opened the door as why as he has,
the longer this has gone on, the braver and more reckless.
We're learning that these ICE agents have become why because
there's nothing stopping them. So none of these stories are
particularly surprising, and they have nothing nothing to do with
(37:46):
actually taking care of the quote unquote I legal immigration issue.
When American citizens are treated like this, whether you're a
right a sharker a jet, shouldn't you be disgusted? Who
wins in that environment? This from George Will, by the way,
not exactly a George McGovern liberal. Louis Will be with
(38:08):
us top of the hour. I'm assuming top five at five.
We gonna do that with him or with or without it.
It never works with there. We got a lot to
discuss in the hockey world, by the way, including a
pretty interesting piece from Russo regarding allegedly one of our issues.
We've already had the captain's meeting with the general manager,
so I don't know what's left following at I've got
(38:30):
an idea up my sleeve that I think Luigi regarding
saving the wild, and I'm guessing Luigi will dismiss it
as being unrealistic. Interesting, but I would like to see
us find out whether it actually is as unrealistic as
as I'm assuming many people, including Louis Will will suggest.
(38:50):
We'll find out what he thinks is going on with
the gold I know, well, we talked a little bit
about the government's hockey team, but that was before we
got swept by d Luth. We're now is it two
five and one? That's what you said yesterday? Since we're
two five and one at this point, I know we
lost a bunch of people, but aren't there limits to
I mean, how far this this thing can go? And
who knows what else we'll get into. If you have
(39:11):
questions for Louis, the Bratcheaw Brian Kiffin text line is
wide open for you at six four, six, eight six.
What do we have for top five anything in particular?
We have Wolves, we have World series and more. Kevin
O'Connell explaining himself,
He sustained the initial injury to his left shoulder against
the Browns.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It was really a matter of you.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Know, getting the medical uh you know interpretations where you know,
once Carson was told, You're you're gonna have to get
this fixed, but you really.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Can't make it worse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I believe, I believe his his his phrase to me was,
I I want to take advantage of this opportunity. I
get to play, I get to play with this coaching
staff and these players for the Minnesota Vikings. I want
to exhaust this every possible way, uh that I can.
And and I know JJ will be back at some
point here as he gets healthy. But this is a
genuine opportunity where I can help this team win. And
(00:40):
the way he you know, consistently demonstrated such physical toughness
to go along with mental toughness, knowing uh that ultimately
I'm gonna have to get this fixed. And and you
know a lot of guys play with uh torn Labrahams
throughout the season. A lot of guys wear that harness,
but not everybody's a quarterback. And and although it was
not his throwing shoulder, you're still gonna take kids and
have to kind of weather the storm.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I just shake my head in wonderment. That's the head
coach today, right Koc Barry from Blaine. I'm a doctor,
have done team medicine here, horrific. Some kind of additional
indictment on the judgment of the regime that they asked
a competitor whether he's whether you want to go back in?
Did not assess the totality the situation till the quarterback
you're done and put in the healthy backup to run
a limited offense. Assume and short passing. Here's the cheap shot,
(01:30):
assuming there are short rhythm passing pages in the playbook,
that's well played. From Barry and doctor I work an
orthopedics rights ortho guy. I knew when I saw Wentz's
brace the first series that the game was over. That brace,
in essence, kept his arm attached to his shoulder. Without it,
it would have flopped around like a rag doll. With
(01:51):
the very first exact. This whole thing is bizarre to me.
But maybe we're missing the force for the trees who
because the defense looks troubled, the defense looks perhaps exposed,
and among you ball guys, it seems that the debate
that's breaking out now is whether whatever creativity that bflow represents,
(02:18):
whatever series of wrinkles that his defense represents, that the
rest of the league is figuring out, at least if
good quarterbacks, that that's what's happening and that we're going
to have to readjust or he is, or that it's
more about the personnel, that he has miscalculations about some
of the moves that this team made and they're just
not good enough to execute whatever he is happening to
(02:41):
be whatever he has called in a given game. Where
are you on how you would evaluate the defense, which
now I think in terms of points allowed is down
to like twenty second or twenty third in the league.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, I mean, and just two weeks ago we were
talking about how we basically we thought that the Vikings
formula for winning was having their defense go from being
pretty good I guess, to like being lights out and
supporting an offense that was going through a quarterback transition.
And the past two weeks they've been one of the
most seed like defenses in the NFL. Like literally, I
(03:15):
think they're they're averaging over thirty points you know, allowed
per game, and so that puts them in the bottom
five or so in the league over those two weeks,
and so you know, you depending who you talk to,
you here so many different explanations. One thing that I
think makes some sense is that you know they're there.
It's always predicated on this scheme is always predicated on
(03:36):
creating confusion at the line of scrimmage and allowing, you know,
even if you're not blitzing, allowing people to get through
because of that confusion, or forcing the quarterback to look
somewhere where he shouldn't really be looking, but he thought
he was supposed to, and that can work. It's certainly
you have a better chance of that working with some
(03:56):
of the young quarterbacks like a Caleb Williams or Dylan
Gabriel from the Browns or Jake Browning from the Bengals,
when they have played good quarterbacks they've gotten just especially
these past two weeks. I mean Jalen Hurts and and
and Justin Herbert have had two of the top eight
games by a quarterback all season, and so.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And Golf twice last year, QB twice last year, Stafford
yep and so. Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's that's certainly a concern. You know, there's from a
schematic standpoint one thing that's interesting to me is you
see a lot of teams the Steelers, I think we're
one of the first teams to do it where they're
really and this has become a little bit more popular
in the NFL this year anyway for some reason. But
they're going extra big against the Vikings defense, like you'll
see unbalanced lines and extra offensive lineman or two tight
(04:46):
ends and two fullbacks or two you know, to an
offensive lineman as a fullback and the I wouldn't say
that the Vikings defensive front is huge, and there's no
like three hundred and thirty pound like vi Via type guys,
and so I think that they are probably being a
(05:07):
little overpowered there in the running game and the passing game.
The pass rush has not created the confusion in the
past two weeks that they wanted to, and there was
always going to be in those situations guys running open.
I don't think they've ever prioritized or I shouldn't say
ever prioritized, but I don't think we've ever thought that.
One of the strengths is like the downfield coverage per se,
(05:29):
there's gonna be holes in the middle, and there's going
to be some matchups that you can get with guys
who are maybe aren't great like man to man defenders,
is the way they've operated here in the past few years.
So that's kind of a nutshell of what we've seen.
And it doesn't you know, and it's incumbent on them
to find schemes that are It's not like they have
(05:50):
bad players. There's plenty of good players on the defense.
And we know Andrew van Kingkle has been hurt and
I don't know that he's coming back this week.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But there's a coach doesn't make it like his imminence,
no it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It certainly didn't on Friday, which the day after the
game when he was asked about that. I'm not sure
if he's talked about it since then. But there's certainly
enough good players in the defense, and just there just
needs to be a better match of what these guys
are good at and what they you know, and what
they're being asked to do. And and then you have
(06:21):
to also remember that some of these better quarterbacks are
definitely like seeming to find the right spots, you know,
whether it's Hurts, whether it's Herbert and whether it's Jared Goff,
And so that that's a big challenge for this week,
but they don't haven't really given themselves a chance in
the in those scenarios.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Do you did you get any sense this is like
way down the list of the angles, I believe, and
I don't know if it was played big at all
out there, but did you get much of a sense
that it mattered very much to Harbaugh to flatten the
Vikings if he could, and to do it, you could say,
in a very physical fashion, as the Chargers finally did,
(07:03):
and they because they've not been able to play that well.
You think Harbaugh is wired in such a way that
he doesn't you know, he's still thinking about even if
he doesn't declare it in his quotes after a game,
if there's a part of Harbaugh says, yeah, I love
sticking it to those guys who basically, you know, let
me leave the place without hiring me. Yeah, and there.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I mean, it's an interesting because I didn't really think
about that angle heading in the sort of The general
consensus has been that the Vikings made out just fine
in terms of letting Harball leave and hiring Kevin O'Connell instead.
The Charger has been good with Harbaugh, no doubt, and
they definitely were the better team the other night. You know,
I wouldn't be surprised if I don't think anyone asked
(07:44):
Harbaugh about it, But I wouldn't be surprised if part
of him just being the kind of crazy competitor that
he is, got a little bit of extra pleasure out
of it, even if it's just sticking to the people
in the front office, because there's really nobody on the
field that had any imp packed on him not getting
that job, and so, uh, it's possible. But and it'll
(08:04):
and it'll be fun to look at, you know, ten
years from now and see like where, you know, did
they you know, how did the O'Connell era turn out,
you know, or if it was, maybe it's still going
at that point, I don't know, But what or how
did the harbad did he do another like super nova
situation where he comes in and turns it around quick
but then it blows up pretty fast as well?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, they well they had you know, they didn't do
well at all in the postseason postseason, but they did
make the postseason. And obviously Harbaugh has already got a
pretty good name established, notwithstanding the cheating that guards he
still despises of college level. Pretty good pro coach. In
a previous spot, I think one Super Bowl, he got
to the he got to the NFC title game. I
(08:46):
think his first year, did he not? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And he was good at Stamfor I mean he's he's
one everywhere. Question, he was one everywhere?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What was the wasn't he If somebody had asked Harbor
about that after the game? Would he have gone with
that's a jive? Was a jive turkey question by gob
gobble gobble gobble gobble turkey turkey? Yeah. I think he
was mad about a question being asked, wasn't it? Yes?
Kind of yeah. I don't know if he was mad,
but he was giving it back to the guy, giving
(09:13):
it back to the I wonder ifeed, yeah, because I
don't think it was asked after the Michigan this was
I think it was in college. I don't think. I
think it was college in pre Michigan. Yeah, I don't remember.
I don't. In Michigan, he said that he advised quarterbacks
not to eat chicken because they're an angry bird. I
forgot about that. You don't want to be putting that
(09:34):
kind in your body. I think he may have evolved
his position on that a little bit. I think he
might eat chicken now, but he was more of a
red meat gotta get your protein A very important somehow,
some way. Bonus Bucks time the fan and two men
and a junk truck want to give you a shot
to win Bonus Bucks. It is our national cash contest
and the keyword for the four o'clock hour his dollar.
Go to Cafe and dot com and enter the keyword.
I have not reintroduced Kevin Seaford, and if you don't
(09:57):
know his voice right now, we're chatting in studio with
Kevin seferd. It covers the vikings for ESPN dot Com
and joins US Weekly. We will get one more segment
in with mister Seffert when we come Boston. Punk Legends
Dropkick Murphy's are sent to hit the Palace Theater on
March six. Don't miss out. Tickets are on sale now.
You can get the full details of Cafe dot com
(10:18):
keyword calendar. All right, one more segment with Seaffert, Kevin
Sieffert ESPN and e s p N dot com. Do
(10:42):
we seed the division to the packers yet? Do we
still have to factor in the Lions. Well, how do
you view the NFC North right now?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I mean, there still the most difficult division in the NFL.
We just were in the break we were watching the ESPN.
Dan Orlowski had the Lions is the number one team
in the entire league. Uh, And so I don't know
that we're seeding it to the Packers yet. I know
the Packers did beat them in the first, I think,
the first game of the year. But right I look
(11:11):
forward to that rematch and I think those they're probably
two of the top, you know, maybe the two top
teams in the NFC h for sure, and maybe the
two top teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
You know, both happen to be in the NFC North.
How do Okay, we now know the dis cast McCarthy
is is going to be the guy the rest of
the season. So what's the best approach you think that McCarthy,
I should say O'Connell is going to try to take
to just get him off the ground again, given how
bad the much of the first two weeks went and
(11:43):
how long he's you know, been out and the few
reps he has. What's the quarterback whisperers, what do you
think his approach is going to be moving forward building.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I mean, I think it'll start, you know, it should
probably you probably got to start back from scratch where
you started in week one in terms of you know
a lot and you want to say a lot of
the short timing things, but those can prove to be
more difficult if you're hesitant at all or you're uncomfortable
at all and you don't pull the trigger on those
quick timing passes, they turn out to you know, I
(12:15):
think what O'Connell referred to it as, it's just it's
a drop back pass with worse pass protection. And so
as much as you say, like let's just do let's
just run the ball out and throw these one two
three step throw like those are not.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
As easily executable as they sound like.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So I you know, I think he'll he'll try, they'll
they'll they'll do what they can to keep him out
of third and longs. You know, whether that whatever the
play calling and scheme is, I think that will be
the top priority, is to keep him out of third
and longs where he has to to do something that's
that's you know, the probably the hardest thing a quarterback
does over the course of a of a game is
(12:51):
convert big chunk plays when the defense knows you need
a big chunk play, and so try to avoid that
at all costs, whether that means you know, quarterback runs,
you know, I think that, you know, part of the
point of keeping him out this long was so that
when he does come back, he can have that mobility
and use that to his advantage. And so we did
(13:11):
see the one read option where he scored a touchdown
against the Bears, and so I would think of those
plays as at least being you know, in play and
doing what he can to keep him in manageable situations.
And then when it's you know, a tough situation, not
being afraid to like tell him, like, you know, let's
(13:32):
let it rip, let's see what happens. And so you
don't want to, like, yeah, ignore the fact that you're
still trying to win the game. But there needs to
be some building going on. You know, you started one spot,
but even if it's in the course of a game,
you know, start asking him to do things that are
a little bit more difficult as well.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Are we trading the tight end before the deadline?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
TJ. Hockenson.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I guess you you the fact that Josh All is hurt,
and maybe they just and I know they just claim
to signed a tight end nynt he left, so they
just signed he's underted. Look how good he's doing or
how good Jacksonville is doing. And so they they they
signed Ben Simms, who they had in their in their
(14:20):
camp two years ago and had been claimed by the
Packers and they had Packers had him for two years
and now he's back. But and I'm not saying that
they would they would turn down a really good trade
for t J. Hockinson if just because Josh Oliver got hurt.
But I guess we'll see on that. I think they
still see Hockinson as a very quarterback friendly player who
(14:41):
can really be an outlet for someone like JJ McCarthy,
who is developing in real.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Time texture from the seven sixty three area code. I
saw where Alec Lewis said he believes there's a lot
of tension in the Vikings locker room. What does Seaffert
think he said in the locker room? Is that? Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know if the texture is
properly representing what Alex okay, I don't know what Alex
(15:07):
said and and but I've talked about with you that
the whole building is tense, you know, and it's you know,
and I guess that can include the locker room as well.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
What they're trying to do, you know, the needle they're
trying to thread is one of the most difficult team
building things to do at the same time, which is
win and develop a quarterback in real time. It doesn't
usually happen that way. They've tried to do it by
signing a bunch of free agents. Uh, some of those
free agents are working out, some of them aren't. They
(15:38):
have one of the most expensive rosters in the game,
and the quarterback that they're trying to develop hasn't really
been able to stay on the field, and so there's
just a lot of tension. There's a lot of, frankly,
people in the building whose career epitaphs will include the
outcome of how JJ McCarthy's career turns out. It won't
necessarily be the first thing that's on there, but it's
(16:00):
part of it. Like it's one of the biggest projects
that any of these people will try to to try
to accomplish. And so there is absolutely from the top,
from the top down, and it includes that the adversity
of taking the trip to Europe, which turned out to
be a lot more onerous than maybe they thought it
(16:21):
was going to be or hoped it wouldn't be. And
you know, all the injuries they have encountered. Injuries are
part of the game, but they've had a lot of
injuries to some really key people that's made it extra difficult.
And and just the record, and so whether it's I
don't think that the tension is confined to the locker room.
I think the whole building seems tense to That's fair.
And I understand why.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Man more spam. I'm getting a lot of spam these
I have no idea. This is probably a dangerous one
to open up this late in this segment, but I'll
go ahead and do it. And Guards you again, this
might be another uh, you know burner account from Guards.
He's got several uh But the texture here basically says, look,
(17:07):
I think Brosmer is currently more ready to start an
NFL game than McCarthy. The kid was rehabilitating all last year,
had a very nice team around him in Michigan with
four and five star players. Brosemer looked great with less
surrounding talent. Altho didn't beat Iowa, as I recalled, didn't
we lose Iowa last year? We did? I don't remember
how he played his one year at the U, and
he got himself on the Viking squad much more impressively
(17:28):
than McCarthy. That's solid Blaine, he's clamoring.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Well, the conspiracy theories is that's why the real reason
why they didn't put him on the field. They didn't
want once you put Brozman on the field, you're not
gonna be like get him off the field. And so, uh,
you know, he was impressive, uh, you know, And and
I think O'Connell has actually used I mean, if you
(17:52):
were to put all the words that he said about
Brosmer and all the words he'd said said about JJ
McCarthy and then you've switched the the names, that you
might not be able to tell the difference. I mean,
he really likes him, but there's no doubt who the
priority is. And I don't think that that's the reason
why he didn't put him on the field. But it
(18:13):
speaks to the fact that given his lineage as an
undrafted rookie that you know played, you know, made one
final year at the Big Ten in his college career.
He was pretty impressive this summer.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
As a former ball guy. Yeah, baseball guy, did you
appreciate what took place World Series Game number three last night?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I mean, like part of me was just thinking, like
I'm glad I'm not covering this game, you know, because
it goes you know, not only is it late and
so like there's deadlines and all those kinds of things,
but like so many things happened that you would want
to include in your story and then they eventually become
irrelevant because no score, like it didn't determine the winner.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
They just kept going.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And so like trying to synthesize all the things that
happened in that game into one story.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And but like I put.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
This on Twitter, like the baseball you know, generates great
writing more than any all the other sports great points.
And I don't know why other than it's just you know,
the majesty of the game or whatever. But like, there
was so many things you could write about. Jeff Passing,
our national guy focused on the fact that Sandy Kofax
came into the clubhouse at one am Pacific time last night,
(19:26):
age eighty nine and shook the hand looks and he
looks terrific. Oh yeah, he's living in southern California. And
he shook the hand. It was a climb the pitcher. Yeah,
climber was the hero. And so he pushed the four
innings and he had never pitched anything. It was like
a heroic thing. And he just walked up to him
and said, like, good job, sir, something like that, and
like and and like that's just another you know, like
(19:48):
and that's what Passing built his whole thing off of.
But so I just I love the way it's spurs
great writing. I love the dramatics that creates such awesome storylines. Uh,
and I just would have been I know, I would
have walked out of there thinking, like, more stuff happened
that I didn't include than I didn't go.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Another another element that, again you could have built the
whole thing around. Kershaw comes into twelfth inning to say that, yeah,
he gets one guy out and and you know he's
about to retire. He's been a disaster through much of
his career. In the postseason and it's another moment. Then
you could build an entire column around just that. Given
(20:27):
how you know important Kershaw has been there's a great
shot during the game of his the reaction from his wife,
from the family. It was a terrific part of the story.
There were so many of those elements.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, and like and you'll and it's just that they
it creates so many moments where like everyone will remember
where they were when, Yes, if they stayed up that
late and uh and and and watched the conclusion.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Will kleinb went I think four. Yeah, he had he
had a career as a rookie reliever. Yeah, a career
are of over five, had never pitched more than two
in any Major league baseball.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Through like seventy six pitches, and I think I saw
where he had never thrown, Like all of his outings
were less than thirty Yeah, and so like it. And
it's just that's what's one of the many things that's
so awesome about playoff baseball is like how many often
times you see things that you never would have, like
even considered a possibility in a regular season game. But
it's the playoffs and it's just different.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And this we've never seen. There is no precedent for it.
I guess since Babe ruth Otani reaches base nine times,
how many where those were intentional, well, four intentional, one
semi intentional, after four extra base hits in his first
four at bats. And he's the starting pitcher tonight. Yeah, yeah,
and unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
And he there was a video of him in the
clubhouse and he's like when they the manager is talking
to the players right after the game, and he's like
warming almost like warming up as a pitcher. He's like
already moved on to the next thing, right, and like
just a legendary, like he's on his own. Has produced
so many unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Moment Well, we've had, you know, the anniversaries of it
happens every year. This time you're obviously the eighty seven twins,
but even probably winning Game seven and more importantly ninety
one with Jack Morris, the ten innings and so forth.
And that's another game you could almost write a book, Yeah,
on the entire you know, just just on that single game,
forget you know, anything else. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
And I was Atlanta Braves fan growing up, and so
I remember where I was when kent Herbeck, Oh that
pushed Ron Gant off first base.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
When no, when he pushed him or pulled him or
or he's like sga, he just doesn't have great balance.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, he he just unfortunately falls in And I
remember like the the like I view the Kirby Puckett
home run as the Charlie lee Brandt pitches. I'm a
Braves fan, and I remember feeling so bad for him
cause it looked like he was bawling walking off the field,
and so like it. It's funny how you remember these
things from different perspectives.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But there's many.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You know, the Cid bream, you know, because that I
can still hear Skip Carry, who was the longtime Braves
announcer who you know, who had called so many terrible
one hundred loss seasons and then suddenly they're they're winning
the pennant. And five times he said, the Braves win
the pennant. The Braves win the Pennant. And I'll just
(23:15):
hear that for the rest of your life. Yeah, stays
with you for sure. All Right, we'll have fun with
the lads in Detroit. You're going to Detroit, could get ugly,
who knows, well, we'll be there to a funny game.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
It is we know there.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And you cannot predict the way it bounces you going
in Saturday Saturday night, have to kind of right. There
used to be a flight that you could take out
late Sunday night, but it doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You still stay at the Isn't there a Marriott right
at the airport? It's Western in the airport and that's
what I mean. Yeah, that's where we stay. And that's
a nice one. That's perfect GPS location. You get to
walk right to the gate, right dedicated security here as
good as I come. I love that airport so much.
(24:03):
When I remember saying there was a Marriott, did it
become a Western? Maybe it was always a Western. I
don't remember I started saying it was Western. Same Bonvoyd points, yeah, exactly.
All right, Yeah, you're good they I'll transfer, Thanks, okay.
Kevin seffert E s p N dot Com. Luigi will
join in the five o'clock hour. Lots more to get to,
including perhaps a done as item and a couple of
(24:26):
other things related to the baseball game statement.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Time now for the Vikings report on the Van presented
by Miller lte Yike's wide receiver Adam Thielen joins danbur
Rairoad next.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Guardie. They're playing that game again on uh Cornheiser and
the Wilbon show, what's it called part in the Interruption
p t I where the headline reads more about the
Commanders or the Chiefs they played in the Monday night
game last night. In other words, it's it more that
the Chiefs won it or the Commanders lost it. I
don't recall them offering that same headline after vikings charagures
(25:11):
I said, well, was it which which was? Which had
more to do with it? It seemed, I think a
little bit clear. I watched very little of that game
because I wanted to watch some Wolves, and then I
did get into the World Series madness as well as
it went on. Here's the stat that's gaining a lot
of traction in the wake of Game three show, hey
(25:34):
Otani's last two home games in the postseason seven for seven,
five home runs, six walks, and ten strikeouts in six
innings pitched. It's this last two home games tonight. Of
course he's starting. I don't know how long he's expected
to go. But again, there's analytics for everything in the
(26:00):
street of baseball. Has any player in the postseason ever
had back to back home games that can match seven
for seven officially as a hitter, five home runs, six
walks ten strikeouts in six innings, pitched absurdity. Pretty good,
as Joe Maher would say, it's pretty good, no question
(26:21):
about that. Bratchean Brian Kafe in text line is open
and that number, of course is six for six eight
six on air production meeting. Yeah, can you see into
the score? Is Kevin in the score right now? Can
you see? I don't think anybody's in there new intern Kevin. No,
and he's pretty tall, so I think i'd see him.
I know, because Luigi's here, so I'm trying to see
(26:43):
if somebody call role. I see No, I don't see
him in the room. Unfortunately. Also Luigi he gets I
don't know if you know this or not. He can
be impatient. Louis can be a little on the impatient side.
Were you aware of that. I've learned some things about
Louis over the years. That might be one of them.
Let me get to a couple of texts. Guard. You
(27:06):
just expressed his love for the Detroit Airport. I hope
MSP is not listening. That's true. You did like I did.
Conflict of interest. I do love that Weston though, well, yeah,
I think that has more to do with the hotel
and location than loving the airport exactly. You still like
this airport better? Well, for sure, it's obvious. I think
most of us do. I actually I was just telling
Seafort I watched JJ McCarthy beat Washington in the National
(27:30):
Championship game in that Detroit Airport Western Lobby bar. Yeah,
were we still stealing signals by then? It was that season.
That's all that broke. Yeah, don't recall if we were
or not, to be honest with you, what else do
we have here? I'm not sure how this hasn't been
(27:52):
mentioned here, but Michigan cheating and knowing what defense was
coming could only result in JJ pearing to be better
and he actually is.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Look, we have talked about that often over the years,
and it's it's tricky because I certainly wouldn't have endorsed
the Vikings decision to draft them if I felt it
was all smoke and mirrors. I think you were on
board with that decision, too. But that's all. He's cold
have been hanging over the whole thing. You know, it's
(28:20):
the great unknown. It may well be that it had
a hell of a lot less to do with his
success than anybody wants to project. But that's the door
that gets opened when you have that kind of scandal, right,
is that it opens the door to any sort of
ominous feelings about it? What exactly it it represented? Maybe
(28:41):
we'll find out soon enough. I I don't know. Don't worry.
JJ will get hurt again by halftime this weekend, writes
Willow Mark Rosen's cat guy, and we will see Brozmer
soon enough. Nothing would surprise me now I asked you
this question. I don't know, Seaffert, Yeah, answered it or not?
(29:06):
Is there's a uh, there's a Twitter handle and x
handle called polymarket football. It's got a check mark. But
is it satirical or does it have any reporting chops?
Do we know? I have no knowledge of polymarkets? Too
delicious to not at least address it. Because here's what
they wrote. The Vikings have reportedly reached out to the
(29:27):
Giants and the availability of Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
They prefer Winston, but the Giants have no plans to
trade him currently. So is this a satirical site to
get Nacho liber going because of his well stated opinions
on on Russell Wilson on Russ Is there I would
(29:48):
be see. I would be skeptical to me, those names
are both too big because I don't think we're bringing
anybody into be a two. Bring somebody in as a
body to be a three. Probably you're gonna bring Russell
Wilson into be a three. No, are you gonna bring
Jamis Jamis into be a three? I don't believe so
(30:09):
at this point. So you're back to you got to
actually get somebody less distinguished just as a body to
have somebody there. No names have surfaced from the Jackals
right locally. I don't believe nothing I've seen, which surprises
me because I brought this up yesterday. So well, they
got to get another quarterback, even if it's a you know,
(30:30):
just for an emergency purpose and just for the sake
of having a third body. But we've seen weirder things
happen then two quarterbacks getting hurt the same week. It's
it's rare, but this is a rare offensive line. You
would think today would be the day to get that
done too, while the team is off before they come
back to practice tomorrow. Right, get him in the building
today or at least tomorrow morning and have already at
(30:50):
least that's true, scan the iPad a few times A
way of the land, Yeah, a little bit. I don't know,
and I are we is pastor not available? I don't
think so. No, he's on a team. Is on a team? Yeah,
I can't remember what it was New England, wasn't it
this we might have? Who was the QB we had
who could throw for four hundred yards but also throw
(31:11):
five picks? Shan Manyon, No, not Manion. There's Mullins. Mullins.
Is Mullins still in the league. Probably, see it would
be more of that color Manion or those kind of guys.
Don't you think we have had some guys? Man? Could
it be? Could we elevate our quarterbacks? Coach McCown? McCown,
(31:32):
he looks still to be in great shape, by the
way we'd ever addressed this. There was some consternation and
frustration about Yes. The smiling and laughing between Yes Carson
Wentz and the QB coach misconstrued fair game. They got
to understand, it's as visual. It doesn't look good. You're
getting your asses handed to and you guys are chuckling
about some inside jokes, even if it's gallows humor. I
(31:55):
thought it was absurd. I thought it was absurd, and
I I caught it a couple of times because didn't
Al Michael say something on the way into half? I
think I did hear that. I think on the Amazon
Prime broadcast he meant Prime video he mentioned kind of
an odd look here after what just happened? You're laughing
on the way in. I don't remember what the score
was intern guys back in studious. Oh good, I might
(32:17):
have to pop over and just tell him to go
get Louis. I told him. I tweeted out like it
was happening the whole game, like Carson's getting ragged alled
and then they come back to the side, It's like,
what's so far? Are we looking at Nate Bargetzi oels
or something? Those were rueful grins. Those were gallows humor grins.
What could possibly be funny? What could possibly be funny
(32:38):
about going into the half the way that you did?
There was nothing fun way that they were fine at all, Offense, defense,
special teams, the whole bit. It was not funny. And
I hated it, and I it was like it was
troubling at the very least. Yeah, like do I think
they should fire him? Friday morning. No, but what the season?
He al's but county. He might be fifty, Oh is he? Yeah?
(33:00):
Probably starting to the ground. Your fans are in agony,
many of them in the stadium, and you're laughing like
you're at a Seinfeld show. Yeah, it was not It
was not a helpful. Look, I'm just gonna tell Kevin
to go get And what was weird? That's fine? And
what was weird about it is, on the other hand,
you got, you know, the quarterback himself grimacing like he's
about to die. And obviously he didn't think anything was
(33:21):
particularly funny about that. So it was a strange juxtaposition.
It's not the story, but I can understand how Vikings
fans are going, what are we doing here? What exactly
is the is the deal? This?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Are you familiar with?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
George will George Will, Yes, the show ancient quarterback, quarterback.
I've got it on the brain right now. Columnist ye
who's still writing. He's eighty four. He's a ball guy,
he's and he's a big time ball guy. There's no
question about that. I put this under the clay. This
is a done as, This is a we doing in
(34:01):
all seriousness, What are we doing? He had a column
the other day that was just unsparing in its criticism
regarding let's just get anybody we can who looks suspicious
on the streets in the name of getting all the
illegal immigrants out of the country. If you read about
the ordeal of twenty six year old George, I believe
(34:24):
it's pronounced retests, it's our etes detained by ICE agents
despite being a US citizen and a US Army veteran
served in Iraq. By the way, did not move to
the US from another country. Born in Ventura, California, grew
up on the West Coast. His mother born in Ventura
as well. Here's what George will wrote. One Immigration and
(34:47):
Customs enforcement agent's knee was on his neck. Another was
grinding his back, drenched with tear gas and pepper spray.
George Urettis might have wished that his one hundred and
thirty seven pounds were back in Kirkuk, Iraq, one of
his Army deployments. Here with a glimpse of your tax
dollars at work. ICE agents wearing gas max masks indicated
(35:12):
this was at the plant where he works. Indicators of
their dispositions were blocking entry. He recounts saying the plant
was not operating. This was not the last ice lie
the iceman, presumably looking for illegal immigrants, amid a torrent
of shouted and contradictory iceman commands, and after he asked
for an agent's badge number, he says that Will says
(35:35):
Retest was dragged from his car. His wrists were zip
tied behind his back, and he was seated on the
roadside ground for four hours, then taken to a Navy
base where he was strip searched, then onto incarceration in
Los Angeles, handcuffs having replaced the zip ties. No charges
had been made against him, but a mouth swap collected
(35:55):
his DNA without his consent. He says, His request for
a lawyer and for a shower to ease at his
comforts of tear gas and pepper spray residues were ignored
after three days, during which he missed his daughter's third birthday,
and agent told him the charges against him had been dropped.
What charges, he recalls, asking silence. Two months later, he
(36:17):
publishes a newspaper ibed about his experience. I suddenly claims
Rettis had been resisting its agents. Video from a Los
Angeles television station's helicopter monitoring ICE's operations seems to refute
Will writes the agency's fabrication. Three months later, after being detained,
Will notes Dwettess is still speaking out about his experience
(36:38):
and his working with an Institute for Justice attorney. A
nineteen seventy one Supreme Court ruling open the door for
holding abusive federal agents accountable for constitutional violations. Subsequent cases, however,
have almost closed the door. This might explain the ICE's
ICE agent's aura of impunity when abusing him for days.
How many appalling incidents are occurring during today tsunami of
(37:01):
sometimes lawless law enforcement. ICE might not know, and if
it does, might not speak truthfully. Even like I said
to the hardcore Trump fans, are you seriously behind this?
Are you endorsing this nonsense? We talked about this before
at the border. He's done the job, he won, But
(37:24):
when he opened the door as why as he has,
the longer this has gone on, the braver and more reckless.
We're learning that these ICE agents have become why because
there's nothing stopping them. So none of these stories are
particularly surprising, and they have nothing nothing to do with
(37:46):
actually taking care of the quote unquote I legal immigration issue.
When American citizens are treated like this, whether you're a
right a sharker a jet, shouldn't you be disgusted? Who
wins in that environment? This from George Will, by the way,
not exactly a George McGovern liberal. Louis Will be with
(38:08):
us top of the hour. I'm assuming top five at five.
We gonna do that with him or with or without it.
It never works with there. We got a lot to
discuss in the hockey world, by the way, including a
pretty interesting piece from Russo regarding allegedly one of our issues.
We've already had the captain's meeting with the general manager,
so I don't know what's left following at I've got
(38:30):
an idea up my sleeve that I think Luigi regarding
saving the wild, and I'm guessing Luigi will dismiss it
as being unrealistic. Interesting, but I would like to see
us find out whether it actually is as unrealistic as
as I'm assuming many people, including Louis Will will suggest.
(38:50):
We'll find out what he thinks is going on with
the gold I know, well, we talked a little bit
about the government's hockey team, but that was before we
got swept by d Luth. We're now is it two
five and one? That's what you said yesterday? Since we're
two five and one at this point, I know we
lost a bunch of people, but aren't there limits to
I mean, how far this this thing can go? And
who knows what else we'll get into. If you have
(39:11):
questions for Louis, the Bratcheaw Brian Kiffin text line is
wide open for you at six four, six, eight six.
What do we have for top five anything in particular?
We have Wolves, we have World series and more. Kevin
O'Connell explaining himself,
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