Levi Drake Rodriguez! Kevin Seifert! - Bumper to Bumper 12/2/25 Hour One

Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jess your is this who deep down we really want
to be leader fan Fan Radio Network sp N kate
f an dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Two minutes, two seconds past the hour, three o'clock.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. We didn't
even hold up a sign. No sign necessary, no hype person,
bumper to bumpers the name of the program on an
absolute brisk. I think you'd say, Tuesday afternoon here in
the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul are on location. Location,
as most of you know by now, is the impossible
to leave without buying something Shields in Eden Prairie Mall.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I swore to myself.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I deliberately got here later than I usually do, smart,
saying I'm not gonna give myself a chance. Smart, but
just walk just like three minutes, walking by several areas,
and I go, I'm not gonna leave here without getting something.
I know it's impossible. It's the most dangerous store, I think,
for me, for you, for a lot of people, no question.
I walked around for about forty five minutes and did

(01:06):
you buy anything yet?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
But I think I've got seven things that I want.
It's ridiculous. At least it's impossible, things for my kids,
mostly things for me. Guargie is back. My name is
Dan Barrero. I'm the occasional host of the program. Bumper
to Bumper is the name of the show. We will
be here till six thirty, that's the plan. Three until
six thirty, maybe six fifteen. There's a wild game. Oh,
forgot about that, so we'll work that through Toys for tots.

(01:30):
The reason we're here. Help us out as often and
as early as you can. In fact, do you want
to talk about some enticements early? Yeah, Well, like every show,
the first fifty donations during each show, so basically, starting
right now, the first fifty donations each will secure your
very own kfan and unreal beanie hat. Is that the
hat right front row here that looks like a hat?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Is that the new hat?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Nice, Viking's horn in there. We don't even see the hats, like,
that's how exclusive they are. That's really nice, very nice.
Is there any any any Bears Chicago Bears gear available,
Not that we're giving away. You can buy it at Shields. Well,
I look, they're they're they're either extremely popular right now,
the Bears because they're fashionable again, yeah, or they don't
have much. It seemed like they had more Eagle stuff,

(02:15):
they had more packers stuff, they had more Seattle Seahawks stuff.
Come on, is not right, it's the monster's the midway.
Maybe though off the head, off your head, coach. They
realize people don't have shirts because Ben Johnson's going tarps off? Now,
So why why buy a bear shirt? You're just gonna
what's that expression, tarps off? You take the tarp off? Oh,
tarp off? Okay, yeah, how long has that been. It's

(02:35):
been a while in a while, Yeah, tarp off. It's
probably old now, which means it's not cool that I
said it. But all he does is come f out.
It's the Christmas elf. It's unbelievable. Thanks you got me
me got an actual food food one for me, Thank
you so much. Is there a black coffee? Yeah, I'll
do the black cop I want this one.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
We'll take it. I don't know. Let's see this one
says Latte thing. Yeah, this is the light.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, that says okay, perfect, This says like Morena expected.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I thought, Wow, I'm just gonna get a coffee that's
even better. Good chance.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Now I won't doze off between now and six thirty
or six fifteen, whenever we are indeed done so again
a really nice giveaway. Those are nice hats, they are Yeah,
I do remember getting one a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Unreal.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Stuff's awesome. We're both wearing one of their new elevation hoodies. Yes, well,
there's bitterness apparently because I there are other people on
the fan who think we got the nicest hoodies. That's
bumper to bumper. Yeah, I mean sorry, sorry, we not
our problem. Not gonna apologize. It's Hall of Famer. It's
Dan Berrero, it's side Peece gets a nice hoodie, it's
prime time. Yeah, what do you want us to do?

(03:39):
It's not our problem. Sorry, I'm not gonna apologize. Didn't
have to do mid Days verse fifty. Yes, and so
what do you have to bring? Just a toy, any toy,
any toy, or if you make a financial donation, you
can even do.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
It that way here.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I know somebody dropped off one thousand dollars during the
Common Man Program, literally dropped a thousand.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
There was a chat chat. Okay, yeah, so you can.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
They can take money, but gifts are obvious, oh that's
note and obviously it shields the beauty of it is
you don't have to come prepared, that's true.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
You just walk in. You can get some stuff here.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
They've got the toy land over here to the right,
and they've got a lot of stuff right next to
us as well that you can buy.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And then you're good.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
You can put the stopper on there too. It's gonna
stay warm the whole show. Unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Good point.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I probably should leave it there until I actually drink it.
Guess wise, here's what we have planned today. This is
not going to be a shock to anybody who listens
to the show much. But originally our Viking on location
was supposed to be Josh Mattelis, who had been with
us last year here straight years or just no, just
last year, last year JJ a couple of years ago.

(04:37):
I predicted yesterday that there's a good chance that Mattelis
would back out when he learned about the Bumper to
Bumper curse, yes, involving no fewer than five former Viking
players and two former Viking head coaches who, once it
became regulars on our show, were either fired.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Or cut of chances.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
They're all out of football, So I knew I the
word would get back to him, and apparently it did
because mattell Us is a late no show.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Is that correct? That is correct?

Speaker 1 (05:05):
How has anybody broken the news to the kid LEVI
Drake Rodriguez.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, because he is going to show up. He is.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
He's I think it's fair to say, in a season
that has not gone the way it was choreographed, one
of the consolation prizes or bright spots. I think he has,
regarding this team and perhaps even its future, a nice find. Absolutely,
because we are drafts. It's no, it's not you know,
a big secret have not been highly successful at the

(05:33):
highest levels lately, but it looks like this guy's got
a chance to stick a defensive lineman, right, yep, And uh,
he's going to join us.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
We think around three point thirty in that range.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Kevin Siefert is going to come to see us at
four o'clock the ESPN regular, ESPN dot Com and regular
for our program, and then lou Nanny will join by phone.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
That correct.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yes, he was in town all weekend Thanksgiving weekend. Okay,
left the morning to go back to the floor. Isn't
that I was very disappointed. I was hoping he'd be
able to come see us on location because he used
to do that.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
He did used to do that in Minnesotan.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
He regularly whenever you did a couple of thea's at
the Mall of Hysteria.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Absolutely he showed up.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
He never went to Fleet Farm in Lakeville, that's where
he drew the lot, now that's true. But Mall of
America he was there. And I'm sure he would have
been here at Shields if he was in town, no
question about that. So let me ask you this question
because I think we've talked about this before and I
don't remember what your view on it was. But I
retweeted a meme that many of you may have seen
NFL memes, and I don't know who's responsible for this,

(06:38):
but here's what they wrote with some accompanying an accompanying
video montage. We might not all be Vikings fans, but
we should be grateful they exist for giving us some
of the most hilarious moments in National Football League history.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh no, so it's a step.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
It goes backwards from the ill fated underhand pick six
by your guy Max Brosmer. It starts there, and then
the montage includes a series of infamous moments in Minnesota
Vikings history. In fact, I think the second one up
there is wide left playoff game Huntington Banks Stadium before

(07:13):
it was called Huntingdon Banks, Blair Walsh and then Blair
Walsh and then the immediate look over to a very flushed,
frozen Mike Zimmer with that bewildered look on his face
like are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (07:26):
We're not going to finish this. And it was a
chip shot field goal.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Whatever it was shot, and it kind of goes from
there and it's all PA, or most of it's PA,
going all the way back to the Cardinals have knocked
the Vikings out of the playoffs. No, no, get back, guys,
it's exactly it. That was back in the day when
force outs were illegal. There's no to this day, not

(07:51):
I think proof that whoever the Cardinal's receiver was when
knocked the Bold playoffs, that's right, Yeah, would have gotten
his feet down in bounds. But the rule then was
if you shove him out and not you don't give
him a chance to do it. The referee rules he's
in because you didn't give him a chance to get his.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Feed in a stupid rule.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
By the way, yes, or as I'm con like a
number of rules that were changed only after Minnesota teams
were impacted by it. But here's my question to you,
and this is, I mean, this is going to take
some deep introspection and honesty and candor because I've been
here now since November of nineteen eighty six, so fourteen,
so coming up on forty years, which is a long time.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
And I got to tell you something, deep down, as much.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
As Vikings fans go all you know, poor, poor, pitiful
me and us, I'm beginning to wonder if that's deep
down what you want to be, Always suffering, always feeling
sorry for yourselves, almost to the point where, well, that's
who we are, and I don't I wouldn't even know

(08:57):
what to do with myself if we had a season
that ended in a Super Bowl victory, because then I
would lose that piece of myself. Do you think there's
any truth to that that people don't want to admit it?

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Maybe, but they would.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
They're very comfortable in their angst and wouldn't know what
to do if they didn't have it as a crutch.
I will say, we are comfortable in our angst, or
extremely comfortable, and that extends to most Minnesota sports and
the weather and everything else. Personally, I'd like to see
the alternative. I'd like to see the other side of
the rainbow or the bridge. You're the perfect test case

(09:31):
because you did this as a Cubs fan. Yeah, how
did it feel in twenty sixteen when they finally got
the World Series? After there could have been a list
of Cub stuff, right, Bartman and the Billy Goats and
the collapse of whatever year that was. Yes, how did
you feel after sixteen? Was your identity rattled in any
meaningful way? It was, Well, here's what I'll say. At
the time, I dismissed that and said it's absurd. No,

(09:54):
this is exactly what I've been waiting for my whole life.
You know, like, at the moment the Cubs win it,
drop down to your knees and just start blubbering uncontrollably.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
You don't, You just don't, And I did.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
I can still remember doing exactly that, you know, in
front of the big screen. But then what's weird is
now that it's almost ten years since they did it. Yeah,
I kind of go, you know, maybe maybe we were
better off that way.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Maybe that really is our personality.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
So I'm I'm just asking because when I when I
retweeted a link to the video to the montage, I
even asked the question too soon, Yeah, and a lot
of people said no, it's truth, cannot be controversial, and
they almost seem to be reveling in it, like that's us,
that's who we are, and we should just accept our fate. Well,

(10:47):
I will say that, because that's who we are. It definitely,
in my opinion, takes our ability to enjoy anything positive
away because we don't ever trust that it's gonna work out.
So even when you have a good season, you're always waiting,
like last year is a good example, you're waiting for
the other shoe to drop, even with a going well.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
So in a way i'd like to By the way,
they did.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Include uh far thrown across his body against the Saint,
I don't remember that one the interception, the PA melt
this is not Detroit, this is not de Troit, this
is the super Bowl. They sped up his voice, which
in him itself is fascinating.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Well, I don't know how, I mean, it can be
any faster than it already is.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
How can Pa be sped up? I've never said PA
is a little mellow. Can we speed him up? I've
never said that that's true, but it takes all of that,
takes away, I think our ability to enjoy a good
season and the possibility that because we're always waiting, we're
always waiting for that. You don't want to around the corner. See,
you don't even realize you don't want it. I mean
I think I do. You wouldn't have what to do

(11:49):
with yourself. It would be weird, it would be very strange.
But what you said, you're in the minority on this though.
You've basically said just I don't even care if we
win the super Bowl. Yeah, just get me back there,
because it's they've never done it in my lifetime. Now
people older than me will say, no, we've had the
super Bowls in the seventies. We want to actually get there.
I'm not trying to be that greedy in this holidays.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I see.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
I'll just take the super Bowl appearance. I'll take the
two week build up to the big game. I'll take
radio row again like we had when it was here
at a super Bowl site. Thinking about the vikings playing
and the game to me is a relevant So if
you had to rank the moments in that montage, if
you had to rank them, like, here's the worst of

(12:32):
the world, here's the most devastating of the devastating. Is
that all based on what age you are, Which one
that's good, which one's going to be in your wheelhouse?
Or are you enough of a Vikings historian to say, no,
that doesn't matter. This is the one that if you,
if you forced me to rank them, is at the
top of the list for pure unadulterated angst and tragedy.

(12:58):
Depending on the day, it's got to be ninety eight
or nine. I think it's ninety eight. Yeah, you think
ninety eight. It's wide less, it's it's it's the Gary
Anderson game. Does didn't have to be that game, probably,
but the far Year was so magical and everything was
coming together that way that that one hits a little
bit different too. I'd probably go ninety eight, just barely.
I was saying, is it Hail Mary, because some people

(13:19):
say that's set It could have Hail Mary set the
tone for what has come in the decades after, and
I wasn't alive for that, So that one doesn't hit
me as well as much. It's ninety eight or two
thousand and nine for sure, depending on the day. Probably
I think the far thing though, because you're driving down
on the road in an epic game. The field goal
of wanted or tied it, I don't remember would have

(13:40):
won it because we went to overtime. Oh that's right, yeah,
we went Yeah, you're right exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
So because and now now I'm annoyed because this is
what you do. And then I start remembering things like
that night. I remember living at our old place twenty
two eleven Indiana Avenue in Golden Valley with my roommate Chadcast,
and we had people at our house and we were
watching the game and Pa said, when the Vikings come back,
there's two minutes left in the game, were tied, and

(14:05):
Brett Farva is our quarterback. You're listing in Minnesota Vikings
football driven by Polaris, and at that point you basically
go Ben Johnson and take your shirt off and start
because you're going to the Super Bowl. So for me,
I think it's that one that Gary Anderson miss. At
the time, they were still up by seven, right, yeah,
So it was weird. We all thought in the arena
that it was good. They played the fireworks or the

(14:26):
cannon or whatever. Yes they did, but I think for me,
I think has been missed in two years. Yeah, we
have that somewhere, Blake Moore, don't we. I think I
might have burned it. I got sick of it. So
I think Farv hits me worse just by the hair
than ninety eight. But they're both bad. I mean they're
both terrible, and I'm really glad. And to be fair
to Brosmer, this one meaning this happens to be the

(14:50):
most recent, that's why. And it was, even by pick
six standards, unbelievable off the charts right, As I said,
I think it's Gary you Premian like the old kicker
who lost control of a kick and then tried to
sort of throw it and it ended up in the air,
being caught in the air. But I think it was
a wash. Was it Washington who? I can't remember the team?

(15:10):
And because it happened in the Super Bowl, it's part
of National Football League lare as well. All right, let's
do this, Let's go to first break in and we'll
come back into some other issues as well. Very good
guest lineup. As I said, love to see it at
our Shields location in lovely Eden Prairie, Minnesota, the Eden
Prairie mall the most of you I think are familiar with.

(15:31):
By this point, we will be here until six thirty tonight,
right here in the fan.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
And the fan welcome some great shows to missic Lake Amphitheater.
Guns n' Roses will be there August eighth. Leonard Skinner
and Forearner will be there August sixteenth, Mitley Crue August
twenty first. To complete details on our upcoming shows on
a concert page cafe on dot com keyword counter.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
We are back from Shields in Eden Prairie Hope. Do
you have a chance to come by and see us?
Donate a toy, donate some cash. The cause is pretty
well established by this point. We always get very very
good support. We are pleased to be joined by a
member of the Minnesota Vikings. How about a route of
applause for Levi Drake Rodriguez kind of join us. Welcome,

(16:22):
Thank you for giving us, giving us a couple of minutes.
Are you a Are you a guy who generally speaking,
works way ahead when it comes to Christmas shopping, holiday shopping?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Or you last minute guy?

Speaker 3 (16:36):
I'm a last minute guy. I say that yeah, I
get that from my dad. My dad's bad about that,
is that right?

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
That's not all bad though, I think if you I mean,
I guess there's a run in your attitude when you
get to that place. If you can then just say
I'm not going to be mad about the rush. I'm
not going to be mad about any of it. This
is just part of my route. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, you just got to embrace that. Yeah, for sure,
no doubt. Yeah, that's he's always been a procrastinator. Yeah
that's okay.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
How about as a football player you can't procrastinate and
being the National Football League?

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah it's true. No, I'm I'm an early bird whatever
that right?

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Yep, yes, sir, So wake up probably four to forty
five in morning, get there five point fifteen and then
get to work sony.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Or forty five? Are you do you need an alarm clock?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Man, that pillow is comfy sometimes,
so yeah, I understand that for sure. That's got to
be tough, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
What do you what about the professional football experience to
this point, would you say surprises you the most?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
As much as I'm sure you try to.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Prepare, what when you look back and say, God, I
didn't know about this or I didn't realize about that.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Thing in particular, I think just people don't understand how
hard we work, you know, day in and day out,
and of course, you know, we want to give them
a show on Sundays. But I wish that people could,
you know, be a little fly on the wall and
see the hours and hours that we put in, uh daily,
you know, for our bodies, for our minds, for you know,

(18:08):
our hearts.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Just to be great at what we do.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Are you a you know, we tend to when we
talk about watching tape, we tend to talk more about quarterbacks,
I think, and maybe even the dot guy and the
defense right, but not just but I mean, if you
if you're going to be the best you could be
along the defensive line, do you have to be a
big time tape guy too?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Of course, of course, you know, just no informations, no
in backfields, their scheme, their past scheme, how they're trying
to block that up. Yeah, yeah, you gotta. You gotta
be engulfed in film and watch it, see tendencies and
you know, and then those come to life in the
film or on the field.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, so you know, it's interesting when you're a player
who's drafted late. There's some players I've talked to over
the years who didn't take that personally, and then there's
other people, other players who did and who basically said, Okay, okay,
that's fine. You know, maybe you don't think I have
the pedigree or I didn't test the right way. I'm

(19:06):
going to show you. I am going to use this.
This is going to be part of my fuel. What's what?
How much of that has gone into a really good
encouraging I think most people agree, and I would think
you would agree.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
First season for.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
You, Yeah, Man, Going in my second season, I think
it's it's so cool just to see everybody going to
these Oklahoma's, Texas, Alabama's and me come from little TEXTA
A and M Commerce.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Is it's insane, you know, Like I'm.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
In this Where is Texas A and M Commerce and
Commerce Commerce Texas?

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Got a hunch? We have got two stop flights? And
how did you end up there? By the way, Yeah,
tell me about where you were before that?

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, I was at an NAI named SAGU Southwestern Assemblies
of God University, uh Man. We had people in our
dorms the other sex for one day the out of
the month.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Is that right? That was? That was what that was.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
And then we had a we had a chapel dorm DeVos.
I was there for for three years and I transferred
out of there. Man, I prayed about it, fasted about it,
and yeah, I just went Lord said go, I said
why he said go again? Yes, sir, So I was
there for transferred played all five years total, UH three

(20:24):
at Sagoo and then UH two had texted and m
Commerce and uh man changed my life.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
So how did it change it?

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Just first three years at sagu man just spiritually so much,
and then at Commerce just wanting to get more exposure.
I thought that was the biggest school, you know, and
it's not so just working my butt off to get
that exposure. It helped, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Did you as you are improving as a college football player,
so are you allowing yourself.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
To think about a professional career? Do you? Did you
go down that road a lot?

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah? Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
That was always a dream of mind that well, ever
since I was a little boy, ever since I started
playing football.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know when did you start? I was four four
years old? It was four yep, so tackle football at four.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yep, seriously tackle and then we moved on to uh select,
So that's okay.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
And that was in Texas as well, correct RCT?

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, whereabouts in Texas, central Texas, close to Austin, Okay, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
And that was the only sport for you? Or did
you play baseball? Baseball?

Speaker 3 (21:30):
I actually went to Sagoo on a baseball scholarship, on
a baseball visit, and then the coach saw me Duncan
and my cowboy boots, and it was a hey, let's
talk to you quick, so talk to them. And then
I got a dual, dual sports scholarship for both baseball
and football.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
And would you say one was your first? Football? Always
been your love? Or was baseball? Man?

Speaker 3 (21:54):
I wanted to go to the league for baseball as well.
You did, Yeah, but then I and what what did
you play?

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Were you?

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Position player? My whole life and that picture? Yeah? Yeah,
but man, I started eating too good a way.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
So that at some point you start thinking about the
possibility of a of a of a pro football career.
When when does that go through your mind in a
serious way? Yeah, in a serious way. I've been practicing
my signature for since third grade, you know, I was like, Mom,
this is gonna be worth something one day, you know.

(22:27):
So ever since I can remember, I've always loved this,
this profession. Now that I'm in it, it's oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Was it always defensive line? No?

Speaker 3 (22:37):
I played old line in high school? High school? I
played old line. That's it interesting? And how did you
like that? Did you like I embraced it?

Speaker 2 (22:46):
You did?

Speaker 3 (22:46):
I embraced it. I've always been a defensive player. Go
hit some seatball, get bright, but you know, just being
a team player, embracing that and you know, protecting our quarterback.
I got actually got All State for right tackle, offensive tackle.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
So who made the decision to move you to defense
in your second college stop? Then?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
That was my first first college stop playing playing d N.
But who does that?

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Does a coach that, hey, will you belong on defense?
Or is that you pushing it? I was like, thank
you lord?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
You like that? Yes? Completely? Yep? And what's I mean
the in terms of playing where you play?

Speaker 5 (23:23):
Now?

Speaker 1 (23:24):
What are the challenges and what do you think you've
done well? I mean, because you've obviously gotten a lot
of people's attention.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Right yeah, this year, man, I would say, just growing,
growing daily, Uh, just being a sponge in the building, listening,
taking coaching, and applying it on the field. Uh, first
in practice, then you know daily in the practice meetings
walked through and then going out there and executing it.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
You know.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
So just being a coachable person, coachable coachable player, and uh,
just applying what I'm being taught is major. But getting
here is it's very mental. You know. We don't draw
stuff up on the whiteboard often, we just we know
formations in our head, the talk about them, and then
you just have to visualize them to do them.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
It's hard. It's difficult, especially my first year.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
What is going on, Yeah, no doubt, but learning ball
and just getting engulfed in it.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Were you at the combine?

Speaker 1 (24:21):
No, no, sir, no, not invited. Okay, so is that
another thing you file away and say, fine, okay.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Well yeah, I hear people saying that it was tough.
It was, you know, the one of the hardest weekends,
right like a cool you know that that's good for you.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
So where in your position? Where do you go to
get noticed by scouts? The vikings?

Speaker 6 (24:41):
Man?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
I have to have a great agent. Everett Levy. He did,
he did his thing. He didn't very well but I
went to a.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Tropical Bowl, that's what.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, I remember that, the tropical Where the hell is
the tropical tropical?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, it was in Florida. It was beautiful too, It's gorgeous, but.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Not too many, not too any coaches out there, but
that that definitely gave me exposure. I went to two
bowl games and same things, okay, just similar playing. You
know talent from Alabama, Clemson, Tennessee, you know, Iowa, Illinois,
some big schools, right, and I dominated there. I had
like three sacks and tackles. Yeah, and that that's what

(25:21):
put my name on the map.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
So when you see that, you could hold not on
hold your own, but but play maybe even better to
some of some of those players. Is that the point
where you go, I can do this or did you
always feel that?

Speaker 2 (25:32):
In my mind?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
I knew I was gonna play. I didn't know what
day or who what team you win, but I knew
I was gonna play.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
And you have what do you what are you happiest
with this?

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Individually We're gonna get to the team in a minute,
but individually, in terms of your growth, where do you
think you have improved the most to the point where
you're getting people's attention.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Right, Just techniques and fundamentals, you know, just learning daily,
applying them on the field, off the field, just trying
to be the complete pro that I can be.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, and are you a guy you know, obviously the
most complete lineman.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Want to be very good at both. They want to
be very good at handling the run.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
They want to be able to be good at occasionally,
you know, causing wreaking some havoc when the quarterback's going
back to.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Past, no doubt, no doubt. Yeah, And I'm trying to
be great at both of those. So just stacking days, man,
waking up early, figuring out my routine, conquering my routine daily,
being that pillow, being that warm, blank and every.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Day is It's tough, but I love it. I love it.
Best job in the world. What do you every day?
Do you can you learn from more veteran players.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
On this team, of course, of course, Man, I asked
them questions about their routine, their habits, their eating habits, everything,
how much they spend on their body.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Can't do that yet, but my goodness, it's insane. Yeah, yeah,
you're not quite there yet.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
How much they they were into their body, how much is.
It's an investment, no doubt. You're a sponge on picking
up whatever you can pick up.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
SpongeBob square pants, baby, yeah that is me. So on
I mentioned the team.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Obviously, you guys are not in the position you wanted
to be at twelve games in So how.

Speaker 5 (27:14):
Do you.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Know, how do you finesse that?

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean, you're obviously paid to work, your continue to
go forward, you got to keep playing. But how difficult
has that been within the locker room?

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:29):
I don't think there's finessing any of that, you know,
Like like I said earlier, we go to work every
single day in the classroom, on the field. Whatever we're doing,
we're doing it with with our all, you know, So
there's no finessing hard work. And that's you know, one
thing we pride ourselves on. We work hard in the building,
in the classroom, so doing that daily to see the produce.

(27:53):
So the locker room, the locker rooms holding tight right now,
we are being together stronger than ever. So I just
got to keep doing that. Find for one another.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I thought, you guys again, I know the result wasn't
what you were looking for, but I thought defensively recently
as this last game, you guys played well, I don't
they really did not get all that much going offensively.
This is of course Seattle with you know, your ex
quarterback Maam Darnold has been very good this year. But
it looked to me like you guys had them a

(28:24):
little bit flustered.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
I mean, you know, we're on our techniques and fundamentals
all all week and you know, just working those daily
so that we can produce on the field.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
And you know, it showed.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
It showed on the field, and you know, it was
so much fun playing playing with our dogs.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
The block field goal game was that it Dray can correct.
So tell me about I know you talked about it
a lot, but now we have you here, tell me
about that. That's got to be an extremely satisfying play. Oh.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
It hurt a little bit, hurt on the floor, hurt.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah, but man, uh, you know, just like I said,
doing the techniques and fundamentals and you know where in
there once a week for the for the field goal
field goal block team. Yeah, and uh, just like focusing
on that and just a one place series can change
the game, change the momentum of a game, and just
giving your all on that phase so.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well, you know, I don't know how well you know
Vikings history if you go back far enough to the
you know, the the hallowed Bud Grant days. One of
the strengths of the I mean they were I I
grew up in Chicago, so I grew up a Bears fan,
and I I'm sorry, but I tell the story as
a compliment to the Vikings is that there were I
felt like there were so many games where throughout the

(29:35):
game the Bears would dominate and then with like four
minutes to goo, Matt Blair would block a punt or
a field goal and it would change the whole damn game.
So that's part of the tradition of this team going
way way back and and and those plays are they
happened so rarely, but that's why I think they stand up.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, it's so much fun, especially once you yeah, yeah, yeah,
it gets everybody fun.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
What is the art of Is it about timing a job?

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Takea We know the we know the procedure time that
the offenses use, and we know the fight pattern, their angle,
how long it takes to yeah, get the ball off
the foot, and then we just have to execute. So
it's uh, it's either four of us on one side
doing one job and then or two of us. So
that time was was two of us hip to hip

(30:26):
and you know, taking five steps getting their hands up.
So and we did just that and we heard that
that was good.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
That's very good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Are you how many cold weather games have you over
the course of your career, because you know, again, historically
the Vikings kind of pride of themselves on outdoor football.
That's all changed now with the building they're in now.
Uh you would you do you think you would thrive
if the Vikings were outdoors for home games all the time?

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Would you thrive in that? Or you say no? I
kind of like right now, I'm in Texas boys, look cool.
I was wondering, Man, I would.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Embrace that's football, you know, that's that's the history of football.
And uh man, that's that's hard nos right there. So
I love that stuff. I haven't played in a real
cold game yet, negative temperatures or snow of right, man.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
I want to do that though. That's that's gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, it'll probably help happen eventually, for sure, no question
about that. A late game in the over the years,
maybe in Chicago New York.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, that's true. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
We'll see what that looks. That could be it too,
for sure. Sure, Audio, Well.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I know you're here.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
You're going to be involved with a kind of a
shopping spree right with a kid.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
You're gonna be set up at the game. I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Hopefully I can get something to Oh, I'm sure. Yeah,
it's I was telling justin uh that earlier.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
This is a store that's kind of it's almost impossible
to walk around this store and not leave with something.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I go straight upstairs to the to that hunting. Oh
is that right? You a big hunter? Yeah? What did
you What kind of hunting? Did you grow up doing?
All of it? Yeah? Deer hunting, hogs, you know, a
whole bit. Yeah. Tell me a little about your family background.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, man, I grew up with a brother, sister or
just a sister, my goodness, sorry, mom, dad, and then
a whole bunch of cousins. I grew up in a
nine hundred square foot home. You know, my pops has
always said that we're sports poor, and what that looks
like is, man, we just spent so much on sports
that we don't have a lot for you know, nicest house,
nicest car, gloves or bats or cleats, things like that.

(32:28):
But man, we were always pouring into sports. So yeah,
I'm just grateful for that. That's just my family. There's
a whole bunch of love in that house. That's great. Yeah,
I wouldn't trade it, went and trade my story or
for someone else's any day.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Any other athletes in the family.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, my sister, we actually played college at the same school,
different eras, but the same school.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, what does she play? She played basketball, basketball.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
And she was going to be a dual sport too
with volleyball, but yeah, she played basketball for all five years.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Outstanding. Well, congratulations on emerging. You know one of the
I think emerging stories for this team. And I guess
proof again when we all get hung up all these
shows we do. You get hung up on high draft
picks and highly toutored names. You know, big names, but
we see it over and over again, especially I think
in football, where you have free agent players, you have

(33:18):
lower draft pick players who maybe takes them.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
A little bit of time. We're hungry though, Yeah, that's true.
We are hungry. We want it, we want to go
get it.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So yeah, well, thanks again for coming to see it.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Thank you, Levi, Drake Rodriguez, thank you for the time man,
much appreciate it. We'll take a quick pause here and
then don't forget. Kevin Sieffer's going to join us from
our location eaton Prarie Shiels at about probably about four
o'clock or so. Louis lu Nanni will join by telephone
Tuesday Regular. We'll get to a couple of other stories.
Thanks again, Leevi, I appreciate you. Back in just a

(33:50):
minute here in the fan.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
Join the fans Corey Cove Tonight, Willie McCoy's and over
course light Hockey Night drop by starting an eight pm
and catch Minnesota take on Edmonton, Joy Ice, Cold Corse
Lights specials played trivia for chance win great prizes, including
sweet tickets to a game in January. Pull details now
kf an dot com.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
Can you recount.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Well, not really all.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
That different than Levi Drake Rodriguez, our next guest, really
not highly touted at all coming out of college, should
not get drafted, kind of a free agent, kind of
a guy who said, fine, doubt me. If you'd like,
I'll show you and look where he ends up. Kevin
Seaffert ESPN. There's been like twenty five ESPN purges and

(34:44):
you've survived all of them thus far.

Speaker 6 (34:46):
Thanks for the for putting me in the curse of
Dan cursive bumper to.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
But you've been on long enough now that I think
you're you're you're curse proof. Don't you think I would
think if it was going to happen, it happened sooner. Yeah, well,
good to have you.

Speaker 6 (34:58):
If you done any shields s yet not yet, just
walked in the door. There's plenty of options. Though hopefully
people are getting ahead on their holiday shopping.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Is it possible that we're going to look back on
the twenty twenty five season and say that ultimately, one
of the biggest stories to emerge the last month of
the season is the marriage between Aaron Rodgers and Adam Thielen.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Your thoughts could have happened here? That was my first thought.
It could have happened here.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
Aaron Rodgers wanted to come here, we all know that,
and Adam Thielen wanted to come here, and he did
so one of the two came.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
Now they will reunite in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 6 (35:37):
It will that'll be a fun one to see you know,
I think that the any offense that Aaron Rodgers in
is just kind of the offense he wants it to be.
So as long as Adam can can get up to
speed on what Aaron wants.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Which might be in his wheelhouse because it tends to
be shorter passes, right.

Speaker 6 (35:54):
Yeah there. I mean, the Steelers been running this quick game, yes,
all year. They did that, you know, to an extreme
in the game again the Vikings, I think he set
a personal record for the fewest amount of the lowest
amount of time before his average throw, So they were
very much throwing right away, and that that caters to
what Adams does best at this point, and so that
that could be a fun matchup. But you know, it's

(36:16):
hard not to think of all the people that the
Jets tried to surround Aaron Rodgers with when he was
there to no avail. But Pittsburgh I think has a
little bit of a better internal culture.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
So we haven't I don't think talked about on this show.
A Rodge has apparently been calling out after the most
recent setback his receivers they're not working hard enough in
the film room, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
Is that correct?

Speaker 6 (36:36):
Yeah, it sounded like he was saying that when they
when they watch a play and they decide what his
hand signals are going to be, they need to remember them.
And so that that's been a theme for a lot
of Aaron Rodgers' career going back to Green Bay. I
know my current colleague Kaylen Kaylor did a story when
she worked at the Athletic talking to a lot of
the receivers who had been through Green Bay who were

(36:57):
flummixed by this intricate signal system that Aaron likes to use.
And so again Adam will have to use his veteran
wiles to make sure he interprets that correct. Well, we
could have had this all here, well, I mean, that
would have been part of one of the many interesting
things is because as you know, there's a pretty tried
and true offensive system in place here and it's not

(37:18):
exactly hand signals and quarterback deciding things on the fly.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
All right.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So ultimately, why did the Adam Thielen experiment go so bad?

Speaker 5 (37:29):
Basically, he was a high price insurance policy. You know.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
When they traded for him, Justin Jefferson had excuse me,
Justin Jefferson had been injured for almost all of the
training camp Jalen Naylor had just had surgery on his hand,
they didn't know when he was going to come back,
and Jordan Addison was they knew was going to be
missing the first three games because of a suspension, and
so they needed depth. And normally in those situations, you

(37:53):
have guys you either drafted or people have been on
your practice squad that in a very short term way
you can lean on for that period until Naylor raft
did you say, yeah, until Naylor's healthy and Jordan Asen's
off suspension, But none of those guys in training camp
showed enough for anybody to count on them, and so
they were in a spot where they felt like they

(38:14):
had to trade for someone just for three games, really true.
And then and he did play a lot in those
three games, and people have talked about he didn't catch
a lot, but they didn't throw a lot because they
didn't have a lot of offensive plays in those in
those games, at least not in the first two in particular.
And so, and of all the injuries this team has
had across the board on both sides of the ball,

(38:35):
the receiver position is the one where everybody's been healthy
all year, So you rarely run more than three receivers
on the field at any given time, and he was
the fourth, and so they didn't They were hardly playing him.
He doesn't play special teams anymore as a veteran, nor
should he, and so they didn't have a use for him,
and so they were just kind of hanging on to
him in case somebody got hurt, and nobody did. And
so finally I think he asked, is there a way

(38:57):
I can play somewhere else? And so, like, I don't
think that they had. I asked O'Connell, like, what was
the plan for him after Addison got back, and he
kind of went into the injury situation. So I don't
know that it like it was an experiment that went wrong.
It was an insurance policy they didn't need, but they paid.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
It have to one part of the team that has
not had injury issues, right, can't make it up right.
Usually there's a couple of nagging, you know, pulled muscle
here here or there, yea, and I mean know what
he did.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
It worked.

Speaker 6 (39:25):
The one time it worked out is when they had
to suspend Addison for the first quarter of the game
against Cleveland in London because he had missed a walk
through so feeling and played that first quarter.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
So you have the unusual confluence of events. Right, he
leaves Carolina, Yeah, a team that's been a mess. He
comes here assuming fourteen to three a year ago. Come on,
what can this be but fun and good? So now
the Vikings sit at four and eight, twelve games in Carolina.
Is one of the talks of the National Football League,
the way they've turned it around so recently. Last week

(39:56):
sid would tell us it's a crazy league. Right, So
he did he come close to going back there? We
know or do they have any need? I haven't paid well.

Speaker 6 (40:02):
Since this time of year, everyone goes through waivers, and
so Steelers claimed and the Panthers my understanding was that they,
you know, were okay with where they were at and
they were not planning to claim him on waivers unless
he was still available in a week or two when
they had injuries. And so the Steelers put in the
claim on and and had the highest priority of people
who were claiming him.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Is it, uh?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Do you have We talk a lot with you about
conspiracy theories, because, as it turns out, when you have
a season that goes as Paara shape as this one has,
they're gonna be They're gonna multiply the conspiracy theories. They're
gonna be conspiracy theories to the conspiracy theories. In fact,
so one of the more recent that's been advanced is
that secretly KOs played Max Brosmer, not simply out of necessity,

(40:50):
but out of desire to shut all the Max Brosmer fans,
including guards the up, because if he plays the way
he did this last game, there's not gonna be a
lot of Brozemer fans who were I think, with a
straight face going to go. Got to put it right
back out there two weeks in a row. Your thoughts
tell Addison to drop that ball over the middle too,
Is that part of the conspiracy.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
I was surprised you didn't go with that yesterday.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Well, I heard driving to Williams Arena, I heard you
talking about it. I wish I would have said it
yes to your face. So I had to squeeze it
into Shields.

Speaker 6 (41:18):
Well, I think O'Connell was one of the biggest Brozemer
fans out there, and so I don't I don't know
that he would wait with a wink yet that he'd
have any personal motivation to do that. But no, I
has it shut the the Brosmer people up or do
they still want more?

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Well, here's the way I would look at it. I
think the day of and Monday they were pretty were
shut up pretty good. But now is the week's going
on and go wait a minute.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
You know he's a quick learner. It takes time.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Get him back out to break the first game and
give him a chance to respond. Everybody said that about JJ.
Why can't we give our guy a chance?

Speaker 5 (41:48):
And then?

Speaker 6 (41:48):
I don't know if it's possible, but it would be
nice for him to get another chance to wipe that
that play off of the Social House bad.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
I can't defend that that.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Was a bad big of you.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
It may mistake. It may never I mean it might
I feel bad.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
It might always be associated with him in ways. Yeah,
you could play another ten years and do a lot
of good things that still be there, which the want.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
To say, No, this is not that play was not
his fault.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
There's a it was a ridiculous call by your head
coach who. I don't care how many times he says
now I get it. He's never going to get it. Oh,
you're talking about the Brozemer play.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah. Now about the browser play, forget.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's the old can you have Could any coach had
predicted that Broseman would.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Throw a pass in that panic underhanded?

Speaker 5 (42:36):
No?

Speaker 1 (42:36):
No, But nevertheless there's no getting out of not that
that call was made at given the circumstance, given the quarterback,
that call made absolutely no sense.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
No, and he did admit that.

Speaker 6 (42:48):
But you know, the proof will be in the pudding
and you know what's what will they do the next
time it's third and one or the same time it's
fourth and one?

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Will they?

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (42:55):
You?

Speaker 6 (42:56):
And and to be fair, like a bootleg is one
of the safest things. You know, at worst you're taking
a sack, or you know, at worst you're you're trying
to run and you don't you don't.

Speaker 5 (43:04):
Get it yourself.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (43:06):
But he admitted it's a bad call, Like I don't
think there's any dispute about it. But again, the proof
will be will you know, what will they do the
next time? And he was asked about, you know, his
third down and fourth down Guessling asked him after the
game about his third down and fourth down calls over
a long period of time. It's been well documented by everybody,
and he was didn't didn't take it very well.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
He got a little snippy with Ben and so.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Like that I missed that. What did he say?

Speaker 6 (43:29):
He just said, like he just said, like Ben, we've
talked about that and and it's been you know, we
do run into those situations and you know.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Kind of yes, more successful.

Speaker 6 (43:38):
He's not throw Yeah, he's definitely tired of that, of that,
of that narrative. But it's but it's not an irrelevant
it's irrelevant narrative.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah, and yeah, it's extremely relevant. All right, let's break
for the top of the hour. I'll follow up on
a couple of things off of that answer. Kevin Seffert
is with US Shields Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where I remember
I see a pooch over here.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
I forget.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
This is one of those places you can you can
bring your dog right there, everywhere, there, everywhere. Yeah, the
beautiful thing is what I got barked at in the
hunting section.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Did you seriously?

Speaker 5 (44:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:06):
I did. Was it a Saint Bernard or was it
was one of those little yip dog?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
No, it was a bigger dog. But I think the
dog knew that I had no business being in the
hunting section. So it was just trying to clear me out. Interesting, yeah, interesting,
all right, Well come back if we'd love to have
your help, if you want to come to see us
and donate a toy for the uh our Big Toys
for Tots yearly event right around the holiday season. We
will be here until six thirty tonight. Louis will join
by telephone at about five thirty, but a lot more

(44:31):
with Seafert when we come back.