December 9, 2025 • 44 mins
Dan Barreiro opens the show wondering what the Wolves are doing with the season so far after another puzzling loss to the Suns before Kevin Seifert makes his weekly appearance for Vikings talk.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
And this is your what are we doing leader fan
Fan Radio Network? The hell's going on out here? That's right,
Vince and kfan dot Com. Two minutes forty seconds past
three o'clock Central Standard Time on a very Snownami like
(00:24):
Tuesday afternoon here in the twin cities of Minneapolis and
Saint Paul. My name is Dan Barrero. I'm joined as
always by Justin Gard. We will be with you six thirty,
all the way, all the way tonight, all the way
again tonight till six thirty this very evening. We're delighted
that you're along for the ride today that will include
the return for the first time this season. I believe
(00:47):
of Sam Mitchell. Sam Mitchell's going to join us at
four point thirty today. I'm very curious to hear what
Sam has to say about your favorite basketball team and
perhaps some other NBA related issues. So checking with Sam
at about ninety minutes from now. Thirty minutes from now
or so. Kevin Seffert will join I'm told by telephone today.
(01:09):
Is that correct? He is hungring down. Yeah, the blizzard
the tsunami nominations will be accepted. Keep those coming into
the bratchew on Brian Kafan text line, which will be
up presently at six four six eight six. Louis is
a Tuesday regular, but he had some scheduling issues, so
he will join tomorrow. Lou or Goose, Intrepid Carolevin reporter
(01:33):
lou Regoose will join today at five point fifteen. There's
much to get caught up on with him. Lougoose at
five fifteen. Is that I never asked him? Is that
his real name? Or is that a TV name? That's
a great question because it's a great TV names, an
absolutely credible name. Lougose authoritative, Yes, easy to say, trips
(01:59):
off the tongue. We should ask him. I think he's
got a new book coming out too. He does. He's
all over the place. He's you know what he is?
He's is it in? I can never say the word indefatigable.
Is that the word is indefatigable? I thought it was fatigable. Yeah,
I can't say it, but dynat it's the right word
(02:22):
that it know that that would work in his case
for sure. Uh So that's the guest lineup today. I
what are we doing? What is the professional basketball team
known as Minnesota Timber was doing right now. I, for
the life of me don't know they lose last night.
(02:44):
What was the final? I think it was one O
eight to one O five. And I'm gonna say this.
I'm gonna try to say this as nicely as I can.
And by the way, the Sons did not have their
number one score correct. Devin Booker did not Booker did
not play, which might have come as a surprise to
Anthony Edwards because apparently on Insta he had on his
(03:05):
to do list, you know, box up book book. In fact,
that's exactly what we called him. Book That's what they
call him, so they didn't have to box up book. No,
but what we're what they now know. I think what
the rest of the league does the Phoenix These aren't
your daddy's Phoenix Sons. You can't name five guys, probably
(03:25):
if you're a casual fan, I believe, and even number twelve.
He did that twelve nice. But they have a coach
who has them playing with a purpose and with conviction.
I mean, it's I'd hate to say it, but it's
it's fun to watch when a team seems to come
(03:46):
together that way and they have their limitations. I'm not
suggesting they're headed for the NBA Finals after dethroning Oklahoma
City in the Conference finals. But in any case, uh,
we let another one get away. We play with our food.
To a certain extent, Rudy Gobert goes dufus factor on
the bit. No one will be able to explain to
(04:06):
me exactly what he thought he was accomplishing by getting
thrown out of the ballgame. And here's the part where
I'm going to try to be as nice as possible.
The big move that the head coach made last night
was introducing or reintroducing Bones Highland, and by the way
he responded, he played well. He scored effectively for the Wolves.
(04:31):
But I'm here to tell you again, all due respect
to Bones, if we are counting on Bones Highland being
the X factor to save us for the rest of
this season, we ain't making it back to the conference finals.
We're just not He Bones Hyland is what he is.
He's a guy who occasionally come in and do some things. Now,
(04:52):
I'll apologize to him if he becomes a sixth Man
of the Year candidate at some point, because this was
just the first game of him emerging. But what last
night's decision by Finchy basically suggests is he is exasperated
with the kids, especially Dillingham who did not play, who
(05:14):
did not play, and he said I think the quote
from him was where like, you know, twenty four to
twenty five games in, I thought we, you know, had
to try something different and we're back to We all
wondered how patient Finchy would be with young players, because
he's tended to be more like I'm going to call
him TIBs light in that regard, but more like Tibbs
(05:35):
than a lot of coaches. And part of what I
think many of us said was you're gonna have to
be patient. If you believe these players have the talent,
you might have to be patient. Has he already running
out of patience? Is it too soon for him to
be running out of patience? I don't know. I just
know that I don't want to hear any more about
(05:56):
how bored we are and how you know, we just
don't seem to we keep In fact, I think Randall
had a quote saying, well kind of finally caught up
with us. The way we play, we tend to come
out not very force full, not very engaged, and we've
been able to get away with it, but this time
we couldn't get away from it or wait with it,
(06:16):
and we paid for it. It's like, you know you're
on the team, you got I just they're going to
have to come up with a better excuse or just
don't bother. I'd say with the excuses at some point,
because I'm sorry, getting to the conference finals two straight
years should not be enough to get you bored. I
get it. Your final four. That's rarefied air. That's good,
(06:40):
that's unprecedented. It's been fun organization, except for, of course
the one Garnett year. But I just it's not it's
not working for me. And I think you've heard and
we'll run it by Mitchell. You've heard the latest point
guard rumor haven't you not name James Harden not named
John Moran, who, by the way, apparently Miami, which shocks me,
(07:05):
is sniffing around John Moran.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Man.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I just that doesn't seem like a Ryles move to me.
But that might be the old we bring him in
here and heat culture will bring him along. Maybe you
believe in that stuff. Maybe that would be the difference.
But this is another guard whose name I had not
heard before you cared to hazard against and it's probably
preposterous like the others, but it is being raised. I
(07:28):
feel like I've seen it. It's not one of the balls,
is it. It is not one of the balls, And
I've turned. I was a big LaMelo Lamello guy coming
out of college. Yeah, because I'm like Ricky Rubio. You know,
a basket what's the quote from him? A basket makes
one person happy, an assist makes two. Yes, I mean
(07:50):
I believe. I just love players who have a natural
ability to share the ball and galvanize an offense. But
he's I don't think he's serious enough of a player.
He doesn't seem all that bothered that all he's done
is lose. I'm not putting that all on him. And
Puzzy doesn't stay healthy. No, it's not either of the balls.
(08:12):
I'm not sure it's the name I could have come
up with. Who is it? Kyrie Irving? Oh I did
see that, Yeah, I knew, Yeah, I saw that yesterday. Again. Yes,
it's all based on has It's not anybody reporting that
there have been a light conversations. It would make sense
for the Wolves if Dallas is ready to blow the
(08:35):
thing up and Kyrie well, and the other thing would
be contractually, I think it'd be one of those deals.
You'd have to have a third team involved, you'd have
to move mountains to get it done. So there's a
million permutations. Leaving aside the fact that there hasn't been
any serious as far as we know, any serious conversation
in that regard. Well, maybe, again it's recency buyas I
(08:59):
don't want to over react to the current conditions of
the club. That just does seem to be And again,
we're not under five hundred. I think we're in the
sixth spot right now, right ahead of Phoenix. But we've
played like the either the third or fourth softest schedule
through how many games do we played twenty five twenty four.
I think we're fifteen to nine twenty four. Yeah that
in fact, yeah, that was the quote from the head
(09:19):
coach last night. So you know that's enough games. I
guess you have to start with the due diligence on
what the injury is coming off of. But if are
you asking me would I would I consider it? The
answer is yes. Now, the old Kyrie I wouldn't have
considered it. The Kyrie who's played in Dallas, I think
(09:43):
has been a pretty good soldier. Agree, I think that
cooked us, and he absolutely cooked us. But you know,
and I don't even know his age at this point,
but he's got to be getting a little longer in
the team. He's thirty three. Yeah, thirty three, that's that
ain't young man? Yeah he's thirty three. Be a guard.
He's got a knee injury right now. Yeah, he's out.
(10:03):
He's still out with significant I mean, he's expected back
late this season unless Dallas just decides if they're in
such a bad shape that they're going to tank responsibly.
I don't know. I just don't. I don't like the
feel of it of the club right now. I don't.
And I'm more bothered this year than I would have
(10:24):
been other years where we made major changes, right like
last year, right before was it day before training camp
we made the big cat deal and he said, well,
you got to let this thing play out, and if
you were a call, I think we finished this regular
season like twenty and five. Yep, But we haven't even
come close to picking up where we left off. And
it's basically the same team, So there's less excuse I
(10:48):
think to say, well, you know it's going to take
time to figure this out. And and you know it's
okay if they're they're just going to meander their way
into it. We've had to such exam camp. He said,
continuity only helps you the beginning of the Season's that's
what it's good for. Yeah, that's a direct quote from
the head coach. Continuity gives you it should It should
in theory, but I don't think it has not really.
(11:09):
I mean, again, here's the truth. We've kidded about nikiel.
I know they couldn't keep everybody. Yeah, I don't think
that was financially feasible. But they haven't replaced him. They
haven't replaced what he represents at his best. That's true
and good in Atlanta. He's been unleashed a little bit
in Atlanta. And again, I look, I was a big
(11:32):
dilly Ham guy. I love the move, just like with
JJ McCarthy. I don't want to give up on it.
But it's not looked very good lately, has it. It's
not looked very good and not been very promising so far. See.
I'm gonna ask Sam Mitchell about this. See what he thinks.
He often thinks I've lost my basketball. Mind. But I've
(11:54):
suggested before, are we right now? Are we looking at
Dilly wrong with the would the Wolves be better off
saying to Dilly when you play him off the bench,
don't worry about running it score. Just go play exactly
like McCarthy. You'll play, get some baskets. Jamal Crawford light. Now,
(12:18):
Jamal Crawford's a lot bigger and a lot better. But
my point is just go heat it up, Go heat
it up, and then eventually we're going to try to
work you back into what you long term need to
be as a point guard. But we're gonna just try
it that way. Take the shackles off in terms of
you're supposed to go from point A to point B.
Get everybody involved. I tried that on Tom Crean once
and he said no, he didn't agree. He didn't think
it would work. But I'm just wondering. That's all because
(12:42):
part of what Finchy told p again this morning is
we got scoring issues off the bench, and he could
change that if you got going. So what are what's
the We need our audience to help us, per usual,
We need the base balanced body. Brozemberg Bahamas for Dilly,
Dilly what's he thinking about, because it's the orchestrate guard. Yes,
(13:04):
take care of the ball. Like, there's not a snappy
way to sum all of that up. That's what we're
gonna need some help. We need something snappier than that.
You're right, because right now it's just d NP. Those
are his things d NP CD coach's decision, which is
not great for a top ten pick. And I trust
I trusted Conley Tim Yes, like I. I mean, that's
(13:25):
that's why this is so surprising that it appears to
be such a bad fit at the moment. I don't
want to cut him. No, I don't either. You'd like
to think he took a big swing and it has
not worked out. No, in year two, you gotta believe
he should be further along if it was, if it
was what was envisioned. I think at the time, I
(13:46):
think you got to be a little bit further along.
No bonus bucks today, No bonus bucks today. Let's get
our first break in. As I mentioned, we've got a
first guest coming up at the bottom of this hour.
We'll talk plenty of vikings with Kevin Seffert. Reaction via
the text line and uh, maybe you even in a
little history, lesson only come, forget, orchestrate, elevate and eviscerate
(14:21):
Dillion five Dillingham play fierce, free and fast. How about dribble, drive, dish, defend, dominate. Yeah,
I got distribute, defend, dominate, defer, don't turn the ball over,
and you they'd come through, so the Yeah, that's pretty
(14:42):
good alliteration. Actually right, that's what they're asking him to do. Distribute, defend, defer,
don't turn it over. It's no. And then there's this
from the always reliable flim Flam Poke the bear, choke
go Bear. Dillingham's chair wasn't five he had he felt
(15:07):
needed it was necessarily to explain by cherry means, because
he's on the bench. Get it, we get it. I
think that was I don't think he needed to add
that you give the audience a little credit exactly, and
the hosts and producer. Yeah. Most notably he could say
that too, Dillingham's chair. That would be a good Well,
here's silent auction item for the wolves. I gotta run
this by you, and I'm gona run by Sam at
three thirty now the Morning Boys on Serious XMNBA channel.
(15:32):
That would be of course, Frank Isola and Rascalabrini. They
were savaging the wolves not getting the ball more often
down the stretch. To Anthony Edwards on a night where
he scored forty and was fifteen for twenty one from
the floor, he was saying, come on, man, we like
Julius Randall, but what what come on? You got to
(15:52):
get the ball to your star before you answer that question.
Jayden McDaniels won for seven, right who we just pray yesterday?
I did. Johnny de Vincenzo won for seven, NAS two
for twelve, Mike Conley zero five. That's I mean, you
can do that math four for thirty one from the field.
And by the way, I agree with Finchy. I thought
(16:13):
some of them were pretty good looks. Yes, I didn't
think they were awful looks where they're just you know,
jerking up shots in the final seconds. But to the
complaint that Aunt didn't get the ball enough down the stretch,
I I'm not as offended by that, to be honest,
because I didn't think they were. I mean, I think
you gotta let things happen in the flow a little bit,
(16:35):
and everything's you know, focused on him. All the defense
is obviously concentrating on him. I understand you still have
to make the other team stop you, but I I
didn't wasn't bothered. I was much more bothered last night
by the Gobert decision. I think it was a flagrant,
too easily anderous. It was extremely dangerous. And I know
(16:57):
he's bitter because he had just been flagrant to that, right, yep.
But he's the pro, he's supposed to be the pros pro.
He's to be the adult in the room. And that
was not that was a dumb and he was playing well,
I know, yeah, even offensively. So to me, I have
much more anger with that than because my inclination sometimes
(17:18):
as Edwards gets the ball too much of late in games,
despite the fact that he's obviously the alpha. But what
do you think that it did not that particular night.
It didn't bother me last night. There's nights where he
has it, for sure, like last night. But how many
nights have we seen it where I think this just
happened against the Clippers on Saturday, where the other guys
were going a little bit ant, comes back into the game. Yeah,
(17:39):
that's true, and it's like three straight ISO shots and
I get it. He's aunt, so you do have to
live and die with that. Sometimes they're doing that with
Julius Alto too right, Basically get the ball and go,
and they're the two most gifted scorers on the team.
So I understand why. However, this team is at its best.
The strength of this team is in its numbers for sure.
Now is one of the game. The other night, Jaden
(17:59):
was spectacular. The other night. Jaden's been good all year.
I'm going to give him a mulligan on his shooting
last night. For me, it's always when when those guys
aren't hitting at that level, then you are going to
be in trouble a little bit. Maybe the argument is
nobody else had it going and you need to just
give it to your guy, because Ant was really the
one that had it last night. Yes, so I could
see it in that regard. I think that's your answer
(18:21):
in general. In games where no one else is going
and he is, he's shooting at high percentage, he's very efficient.
I think those are nights maybe you do force feed
him a little bit more. I wasn't offended down the stretch,
but on nights where he's out of the game and
it's go and go without him. He should not be
afraid to blend in a little bit and say, Okay,
(18:42):
I'll keep being facilitator for a while until it becomes
obvious that we're going to We're gonna need me to
do what I'm supposed to do best, which is to
start scoring again. Right and on Saturday, that's what he
ended up eventually getting back to. Yes, he made the
extra pass to Nas for the game clinching three. I
think it was the game winning three in the corner.
That particular thing didn't bother me too much last night.
(19:04):
It was more just Ant said it too once Go
Bear went out. They don't have another guy like Rudy
that can discourage guys. Just the kid is not ready yet.
Obviously I can't remember how to pronounce his name. He's
going down to Iowa to get some minutes what he
should do, but that means they don't think he's ready
to show him in there as a backup to. Because again,
(19:25):
the defensive numbers don't lie. They're they're an awful defensive
team as a rule. I don't know what the analytics
showed last night, but in general, the numbers are dramatic,
and I get it. On the offensive end. There's Knights
when he can be a liability, and there's Knights where
they don't even they keep him off the floor, even
down the stretch. But defensively everything changes there. And I look,
(19:47):
you know again, Finch, he's protecting his players, he told PA.
The other part I heard with Pa to day was
that he thought the the the Rudy play was a
in which he got thrown out, was a flagrant one.
I couldn't disagree more. Said Airborne guy. You push him
like that, and that's that's especially in today's NBA. I
(20:09):
think that's an automatic flagrant too, and it's a dangerous play.
Let's be honest, it's not. And Rudy tried to do
the old angelic almost like oh, you know, kind of
mind my business afterwards, Like I just kind of just
nudged him a little bit. But that was I think
that was the correct call. I I don't I don't
agree with Thinchy on that coaches tend to defend their players,
as I guess I understand as well. Rudy already has
a bunch of flagrant points. But guys, he's on his
(20:31):
way to being suspended. He's got five flagrant points this season,
and if you get seven, you're suspended. I learned that
last night. I didn't think we'd have to worry about that.
With our fifties. You don't even know there were such
a thing as flagrant. I guess I should have assumed it,
but I didn't remember it. But usually be a factor
for us. We're just on Anthony Edwards technical watch. That's
what we have to play down that, right, Yeah, he's
(20:51):
been good in that regard, I think. So all right,
let's talk some vikings. We'll talk that, maybe broaden it
out and talk National Football League. An interesting Monday night
game last night involving the NFC, well the Super Bowl
champion Philadelphia Eagles. But we'll get to a seaffort on
a number of issues. If you have questions for him.
The Bradshaw on bridecamfan text line is accepting questions and
(21:13):
observations for ESPN dot com. Seffert six four six eight six,
that's the number. Wolves have another slow start, Colts bringing
(21:40):
back an old fart, wild Meat, another medical cart, Wolves
and five. The beauty of those is they can cover
the news. They can kind of cover the timely stories
right in very brief, condensed effective facts. It's true, and
they have for us since last April when we played
(22:01):
the Lakers April. Yeah, that's it. All goes back to me.
It was ant after a game, right on the way
to the bus. I think, yes, inspired by then some
man Batman have Lakers in five exactly. Yeah, Shannon Sharp
was the original inspiration back before. Yeah, and he was
on television. Yeah, that's true. Then I think a week
(22:23):
later he wasn't on television on television anymore, but it abides.
You know, it's on television from what every once in
a while still these days for ESPN and ESPN dot Com.
It's our next guest, Kevin Seffert joining us via the
Connectico Water Systems hotline. What would you say you are averaging?
What's your monthly average of TV hits on the Mothership.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Let's Go season. There's been a few this season. I
don't know if there's been a recently, but we're starting
that the mind meld of TV and digital all becoming war.
And I do three digital videos a week that show
up on your friendly vikings page on ESPN dot com
(23:10):
that provide all the insight without having to read a
single word. And so we highly encourage people to watch
me ramble for forty five seconds three times a week
so they don't have to actually read one of the stories.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Well, it's not like the stories you write are that.
They're not athletic lengths by anything.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I mean, I understand that every now and then we'll
go a couple of thousand. We actually have a couple
of thousand coming tomorrow. Real I'll just say this. We
if you can guess what it is, then we can
talk about it. It's the fiftieth anniversary of what coming
up later this.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Month, Oh, fiftieth anniversary of Hail Mary. It's got to
be Hail Mary and the Corby's Bottle to the back
of the referra of Terzian's head.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, we didn't and it's the fiftieth anniversary of the
Hail Mary. We didn't get too much into the the
arm in tersay and whiskey bottle. Yeah, incident. But as
you know, the Vikings are playing the Cowboys this week,
and so we thought this would be a good week.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
For that very serendipitous story. Yeah, that's great. Well, I'll
also give Dan when Asota little credit because he had
reminded me of the anniversary but he'd also said that
he was he tried to get a hold of He
thinks he identified the individual the perpetrator of the bottle throwing,
(24:36):
and that he I believe, you know, if he's listening,
he can text me to correct the record. I thought
what he wrote to me was that he'd actually talked
to someone else in the family, but that he does not.
He's not interested. It's kind of going Bartman on the bid.
He has no interest in reliving that and going through
(24:56):
it today. And I I thought it was intrepid reporting
if a needy found out who it was or found
the person, because I'm not sure I remember anybody locally
getting to the bottom of that and actually pursuing that
individual and seeing if they could get an interview with him.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, that nobody was ever publicly identified. I will say
that I think it was Brian Murphy when he worked
at the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Brian still local at
the game. Yes, Yeah, he did a story and I think,
if I'm remembering this right and hopefully I don't botch it,
he found out who the person was or who was
(25:32):
suspected to be and reached out to that person who
didn't want to talk about it, and the Pioneer Press decided, well,
it's so long ago and the guy was so young
at the time relatively that they would not identify him.
And so I don't think the person I guess it
(25:54):
was to him, I suppose, but I don't think that
person has ever talked publicly about it.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
The whiskey bottle incident. All right, I'm looking at the
Minnesota email he sent me a few days ago. I've
tracked the guy down, but he didn't respond. I still
felt the need to write about it, though, because it's
the fiftieth anniversary in December, and he gave me a
(26:21):
link to what he describes as a preview. He hasn't
published it yet. I'm still tweaking words and phrase is
going to publish it the next day or two, and
I don't think he has yet, but he can chime
in and give me and correct me if I'm I'm
wrong on that. So you're covering more the football side
of what the football implications of that moment in that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Game, right and just and you know, there's there's obviously
a lot of different angles to it. It changed Drew
Pearson's life in a lot of ways. He talked to us,
to our Cowboys reporter about that and how you know,
he's obviously in the Hall of Fame now and that
play in itself didn't make him a Hall of Famer,
but it certainly put him on the map of the superstary.
(27:05):
His connection with Roger Staubuch, especially post career, had, you know,
really took off because of that play, and Roger helped
him get started in business, and lots of lots of
connections there. And of course the people who participated in
it in Minnesota are still not over it. You know,
(27:27):
there's still the reason he's not Drew Pearson's no push
Pearson here and uh, And there's a a very rapid
belief to this day that if uh the officials had
been on top of their game, that they would have
called offensive pass interference and they played never would have counted.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well guards, this reminds you, are we going to have
to redo what we did. I don't remember what year
it was we had Drew Pearson and Suck Foreman on. Yes,
it's one of the best moments in show history, absolutely
one of the It was remarkable because.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
They go after each other.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Well, that's the beauty of us. They started it out
being very what you'd expect a long time ago. We're
all brothers, we love each other. It's all football play
with rivalries. And eventually when we got to the nitty gritty,
it was bad. It deteriorated into you're out of your mind?
How can you say? I mean, they got mad again.
It was beautiful. It was just perfect. I feel like
(28:22):
it started. We were just having Drew Pearson on it,
and I think Chuck called in on his own. Oh
that might be Drew, that might have been in. He
called in on his own, and it is saying they started.
So it started okay. They were kind of joking about it,
and then Chuck was bitter. And then the best part
was when Pearson just went touchdown, Cowboys, touchdown, Cowboys. Enough
(28:44):
said yeah, and we don't have Dan, we don't have
that audio anywhere, which makes me mad because I should
have saved it because it was a long time ago.
It was probably fifteen years ago, at least fifteen.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, you're right, Well, I can tell you fifty years ago,
fifteen years ago, a week or two ago, a lot
of genuine bitterness. I talked to Paul Krause, No doubt
up to Nate Wright. Nate Wright hasn't talked about it
a lot over the years. He was the quarterback, and
he and he and Pearson have had a few like
(29:16):
one cordial conversation and one not very cordial conversation in
the fifty years that have passed. So it's it's pretty
wild that it still strikes the level of emotion that
it does. But it was a huge play in a
playoff game. It arguably the best team that the Vikings
ever had right over that that time, and they didn't
(29:38):
even make the NFC Championship game.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I bet it was nine when the Vikings played the Cowboys.
That had to be the occasion. I will tell you
know right when I when I worked in Dallas, Drew
Pearson was probably my favorite athlete to cover. I had
a great relationship with him. In fact, he had later
many years later, a horrible car accident in which he
(30:01):
was driving, and I want to say it was his nephew.
I don't remember. The relation might have been his brother,
because I wrote a lengthy piece where for the first
time he kind of opened up on it since the accident.
It was a horrific story, and so I've always had
a great relationship with any and from a media standpoint,
I understand why people would dislike him here because it
(30:23):
has to do with that play. But from a media standpoint,
he was about as approachable player as I ever dealt
with on any level in any sport.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, he's he's still he's in his mid seventies, I think,
and still very much out in public and out and
about doing a lot of cowboys stuff and his own
business stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So, yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That accident might have ended his career.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It did, absolutely, he had serious injuries. He's lucky he
didn't wasn't killed, and the passenger was yeah, and and
and it was horrific and it was huge obviously at
at the time. All Right, so we'll look forward to that.
That part's good, I guess real quick before we talk
about the vikings and where we are now. By the way,
(31:06):
this text just came in. I was at the game.
I'm seventy years old now. Pearson got away with it,
so it's still it's still fresh. It will never go
away for anybody who was just either remembered it or
was a fan on either side of it, it will
never go away.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It won't and there's there's so many layers to it.
I also talked to Dick john Kowski who reminded.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, he was the one. He doesn't mind being on
the record because we talked. We had him on to
talk about his little move kicking Pearson earlier on that
drive in the sideline.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I believe the well the play before. They're bitter about too,
because it was fourth and seventh.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
If they don't convert fourth and seventeen, it's over. There
ain't had like their twenty five yard lives. So he
throws it to the fifty on the sideline and Drew
Pearson makes this unbelievable so taping catch on the sideline,
but the Vikings say he was out of bounce and
Paul Kraus is like, there was a snowbank ten feet high,
how did you tell where the sideline was? And obviously
(32:05):
I'm exaggerating, but that and then Dick xon Kowski is
a usher on the sideline, a celebrity usher on the
sideline while he is on the ground.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Video film, Yeah, it's it's it's we we talked about
it back then. The film is utterly I mean we're
talking about he's rolling or you know, towards the sidelines
and he just walks over and kicks him like you
said in the leg.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well, he didn't like he thought he should have been
out of bed apparently.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So yeah, I mean, here's another one that just came
in regarding that that game. My dad was a taxi
driver in the eighties, had Drew Pearson in his cab
and he recognized who it was, he pulled over and
made him get out of the cab. That's an absolute
true story. Oh it is.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
It is true because Drew Pearson told us that story.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He confirmed me. It's in the story.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, he said, he said he took him like he
went through five guys.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But let's get a cap that's outstanding. That'll be fun,
that'll be fun to read. There are people suggesting that
I should maybe like mock you while you're down regarding
your Virginia football team. How hard did you? I mean,
because Virginia, by the way, Virginia wins like they were
supposed to. All this other nonsense. There is not the
same controversy, right if Virginia just does what it's supposed
(33:23):
to do and wins, that they're in the tournament.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, I mean, it was a classic. I mean that
you don't have games like that, Oh, you only have
games like that in Virginia history. No other school has
this kind of heartbreaking, right, But they had this dream
season where they didn't have to play SMU, they didn't
have to play Miami, and they didn't have to play
most of the good teams in the a SEC. And
(33:46):
they win like three overtime games and two other games
at the very end, and it's this totally charmed season.
And all they have to do is be Duke, who's
like six and five or seven or five, and they
had just they had throttled a few weeks ago, and
they Duke, just take the two of them. And so
we're playing in the Gator Bowl against the the Missouri
(34:08):
squad and so not a terrible consolation, but like there'll
never be like there'd be so few chances for them
ever to be in the playoffs again. But of course
they were unable to any experience, Virginia fan would have
fully expected it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
By the way, what exactly did Wes Phillips say today
that had all of you Jackals swooning? What was the conversation?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It was just super inside footballie and I had been
wanting to ask about this for a while, so Kurt,
I think we you and I talked about its. Kurt
Warner had has had some videos on his YouTube channel
this year about the Vikings the way they sort of
teach how to the quarterbacks who to throw to basically,
(35:00):
and so it's less about reading defenses and more about
what's called pure progression. Yeah, okay, on this play, justin
Jefferson's the first read. If he's not open, I go
to the next read, and I go to the next
read and go to the next read until somebody is open.
Then I throw it to him. And and Kurt Warner
hates that and it's been kind of ripping them for
it because it's it basically takes away a smart quarterbacks
(35:22):
ability to cut to the chase and throw immediately to
whoever's going to be open. And he doesn't necessarily think
it's great for a young quarterback. And so it came
up and passing today and so we asked. We really
drilled down with Wes about what it means and why
they like it and what are the advantages of it,
and he went through a lot of the details. I
(35:44):
have no idea how I'm ever going to use this
in a story, but it was really fascinating to talk
to him about it and get the offensive coordinator, you know,
straight from the horse's mouth, why they do it the
way they do it.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Who defeats the Vikings new offense first opposing defensive coordinators
or koc.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Game the offensive they used in the game that they
have thirty one points the other day. You know, I
I I probably didn't do a good enough job of
previewing and reviewing the extent to which Washington's defense has
just been really bad this year and they and not
and and mostly because it it would have sounded like
(36:27):
exactly like I'm sounding now, where I'm not giving any
credit to the Vikings for performing well. It's just the
old roycey Berrero angle of the other team must be terrible.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
That's the only way.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That the Vikings could be good. Yeah, and so, but
they definitely invited Washington definitely invited exactly what the Vikings
wanted to do, which was let JJ McCarthy, you know,
for the most part, be protected in the pocket and
(37:00):
throw to underneath receivers who the defenders were playing way
off of. And so they didn't get a ton of
like really long downfield throws, and Justin Jefferson was open
a few times, and they didn't really make those attempts.
But they gave a guy who has struggled when he
gets blitzed, when he gets blitzed, who struggled when guys
look like they're covered or close to being covered, and
(37:24):
gave him a great landscape to really just you know, one, two,
three steps and throw to the first guy. And so, I,
assuming no other team plays at that level of soft defense,
then it's going to be difficult.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I think.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I think O'Connell has a pretty good idea of what
works and what doesn't work with JJ right now. I
think he still wants to push him in certain spots,
and I don't think that's the wrong approach, But I
don't know that they'll get the advantage of facing a
defense that's quite at the level of what Washington was
on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
The what do you say to those of us who
said as recently as yesterday that now and I will,
in fact, you have to you do, in fairness, have
to factor in the state of the Washington defense somewhere
in there, but leaving him out aside for a moment
or trying to. It did strike me, especially the first drive,
(38:23):
that it's exactly, in least in principle, the sort of
offense that he should have been starting with with j
AJ at the beginning of the season. And I tend
to think that's part of where he has failed here,
that he's he's he's got such grand design and he's
(38:44):
so good at designing stuff that he still couldn't help
himself and he miscalculated what JJ McCarthy was prepared was was,
you know, I guess good enough to sort of run
early in the season. So I think it's hard for
me to to even with the defense they're playing, to
say we should have been seeing a lot more of
(39:05):
that a lot sooner. And it's not going to solve
all your problems because some teams will start sitting on
down on that stuff. We get that, but then maybe
that's when you start adding wrinkles and you and you compensate.
But to me, that's what I came out of that
game with. It's it's and is I think you'll agree,
a completely different offense than the one he's used generally
with with Kirk Cousins among others.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I don't know if he was I'm not sure where
he would agree with that, but he did say last
week in public at a press conference that, you know,
he basically implied that he'd been to an ambitious He
said that, you know, what he has to what he's
had to realize and on transparency, is that some of
the things that he sees that are out there that
are gettable, you know, in theory, on paper, based on
(39:52):
the vikings personnel against what other defenses they are trying
to do, has to take a back seat to what
is best for the team. And what was best for
the team was to have you know, CJ. Hamm on
the field a lot more than he's you know, more
than he's ever been in the entire O'Connell era, to
run a lot you know, I don't know if they
(40:12):
ran a lot more three tight ends, but they ran
a fair bit of three tight ends. Every throw to
the tight end was not necessarily the first read, but
they got JJ to move to it very quickly. A
lot of I think Justin Jefferson was probably the first
read on a lot of occasions, and he was the
one thing that Washington did a good job of was
(40:35):
cover him with schemes that would move JJ quickly off
of him, which he did, and that's why you saw
the tight ends catch a lot of passes. But they
have to be on the field to be able to
do that, and they have to be out in the
routes and not necessarily shipping or blocking. And so I
don't I think that I wouldn't say like they ran
a new offense or a different offense, but the things
(40:56):
they emphasized are what we kind of like just the
way they played as an overall team, not just offensively.
Like and we talked about this at the beginning of the year,
what's the theory for how the Vikings can win games,
especially early with JJ McCarthy, and it was defense playing
lights out, running game being very strong and productive, not
(41:16):
just not just them using it, but being productive as well.
And and then JJ McCarthy making throws that are that
he's good at and moving quickly to checkdowns when necessary
and occasionally picking up first downs by scrambling. So like,
(41:37):
not just the offense, but like that was and again
Washington had something to do with that. We can't totally
remove that context, but that was what I walked away thinking,
is that you know what you know whatever, like specifics
about the offensive scheme, like this was the kind of
football they had to play throughout the course of the
season in all likelihood for them to have a playoff
(42:01):
caliber record.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
How worried do you think the head coach is on
the requirement of finding a way even in victory potentially
a loss, but somewhere along the way getting JJ jending
Justin Jefferson back into the mix, you know, I he.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
It has to be something that they're thinking about and
not just to keep JJ happy, like against especially against
the Dallas, Like a team like Dallas that has so
much offensive firepower, and you go in and as saying
like you're, yeah, like maybe it's great if you can
if you can get another nineteen play twelve minute drive,
But for the most part, you're gonna have to score
(42:48):
a significant amount of points probably to keep up with Dallas.
That and the only and the still the best way
for them to score a good amount of points over
the course of a game is to involve Justin j downfield.
So I don't think it will be solely motivated to
make sure he gets to like a thousand yards at
(43:08):
the by the end of the year, which is not amazingly,
it's not like a slam dunk. I think he still
needs I mean, he needs to average more than what
he's been averaging the past month and a half or so,
if you get there in terms of receiving yards and so.
I don't think it'll be solely motivated by that, because
if they want to score enough points to win most
(43:30):
of these games, they're going to have to involve him
downfield more than they have. But I think that's definitely
something of a factor. And you know, if he were
to go through seventeen games and not get to a
thousand yards, I think that would be a very obvious, glaring,
mathematical piece of evidence of how their offense fell short
this year.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
All right, let's get a quick pause, if a carry
over for one more segment, if we can Kevin SIEFERTESPN
dot Com. I've got some more texts I want him
a Kevin to respond to. And I also want to
talk a little bit more about the current condition of
the National Football Conference North, our favorite division. SAMI raging
in the background. Keep your nominations coming, because I think
(44:12):
tomorrow will be the day it's pretty clear we will
name our first SNONAMI of the twenty twenty five twenty
six winters,
And this is your what are we doing leader fan
Fan Radio Network? The hell's going on out here? That's right,
Vince and kfan dot Com. Two minutes forty seconds past
three o'clock Central Standard Time on a very Snownami like
(00:24):
Tuesday afternoon here in the twin cities of Minneapolis and
Saint Paul. My name is Dan Barrero. I'm joined as
always by Justin Gard. We will be with you six thirty,
all the way, all the way tonight, all the way
again tonight till six thirty this very evening. We're delighted
that you're along for the ride today that will include
the return for the first time this season. I believe
(00:47):
of Sam Mitchell. Sam Mitchell's going to join us at
four point thirty today. I'm very curious to hear what
Sam has to say about your favorite basketball team and
perhaps some other NBA related issues. So checking with Sam
at about ninety minutes from now. Thirty minutes from now
or so. Kevin Seffert will join I'm told by telephone today.
(01:09):
Is that correct? He is hungring down. Yeah, the blizzard
the tsunami nominations will be accepted. Keep those coming into
the bratchew on Brian Kafan text line, which will be
up presently at six four six eight six. Louis is
a Tuesday regular, but he had some scheduling issues, so
he will join tomorrow. Lou or Goose, Intrepid Carolevin reporter
(01:33):
lou Regoose will join today at five point fifteen. There's
much to get caught up on with him. Lougoose at
five fifteen. Is that I never asked him? Is that
his real name? Or is that a TV name? That's
a great question because it's a great TV names, an
absolutely credible name. Lougose authoritative, Yes, easy to say, trips
(01:59):
off the tongue. We should ask him. I think he's
got a new book coming out too. He does. He's
all over the place. He's you know what he is?
He's is it in? I can never say the word indefatigable.
Is that the word is indefatigable? I thought it was fatigable. Yeah,
I can't say it, but dynat it's the right word
(02:22):
that it know that that would work in his case
for sure. Uh So that's the guest lineup today. I
what are we doing? What is the professional basketball team
known as Minnesota Timber was doing right now. I, for
the life of me don't know they lose last night.
(02:44):
What was the final? I think it was one O
eight to one O five. And I'm gonna say this.
I'm gonna try to say this as nicely as I can.
And by the way, the Sons did not have their
number one score correct. Devin Booker did not Booker did
not play, which might have come as a surprise to
Anthony Edwards because apparently on Insta he had on his
(03:05):
to do list, you know, box up book book. In fact,
that's exactly what we called him. Book That's what they
call him, so they didn't have to box up book. No,
but what we're what they now know. I think what
the rest of the league does the Phoenix These aren't
your daddy's Phoenix Sons. You can't name five guys, probably
(03:25):
if you're a casual fan, I believe, and even number twelve.
He did that twelve nice. But they have a coach
who has them playing with a purpose and with conviction.
I mean, it's I'd hate to say it, but it's
it's fun to watch when a team seems to come
(03:46):
together that way and they have their limitations. I'm not
suggesting they're headed for the NBA Finals after dethroning Oklahoma
City in the Conference finals. But in any case, uh,
we let another one get away. We play with our food.
To a certain extent, Rudy Gobert goes dufus factor on
the bit. No one will be able to explain to
(04:06):
me exactly what he thought he was accomplishing by getting
thrown out of the ballgame. And here's the part where
I'm going to try to be as nice as possible.
The big move that the head coach made last night
was introducing or reintroducing Bones Highland, and by the way
he responded, he played well. He scored effectively for the Wolves.
(04:31):
But I'm here to tell you again, all due respect
to Bones, if we are counting on Bones Highland being
the X factor to save us for the rest of
this season, we ain't making it back to the conference finals.
We're just not He Bones Hyland is what he is.
He's a guy who occasionally come in and do some things. Now,
(04:52):
I'll apologize to him if he becomes a sixth Man
of the Year candidate at some point, because this was
just the first game of him emerging. But what last
night's decision by Finchy basically suggests is he is exasperated
with the kids, especially Dillingham who did not play, who
(05:14):
did not play, and he said I think the quote
from him was where like, you know, twenty four to
twenty five games in, I thought we, you know, had
to try something different and we're back to We all
wondered how patient Finchy would be with young players, because
he's tended to be more like I'm going to call
him TIBs light in that regard, but more like Tibbs
(05:35):
than a lot of coaches. And part of what I
think many of us said was you're gonna have to
be patient. If you believe these players have the talent,
you might have to be patient. Has he already running
out of patience? Is it too soon for him to
be running out of patience? I don't know. I just
know that I don't want to hear any more about
(05:56):
how bored we are and how you know, we just
don't seem to we keep In fact, I think Randall
had a quote saying, well kind of finally caught up
with us. The way we play, we tend to come
out not very force full, not very engaged, and we've
been able to get away with it, but this time
we couldn't get away from it or wait with it,
(06:16):
and we paid for it. It's like, you know you're
on the team, you got I just they're going to
have to come up with a better excuse or just
don't bother. I'd say with the excuses at some point,
because I'm sorry, getting to the conference finals two straight
years should not be enough to get you bored. I
get it. Your final four. That's rarefied air. That's good,
(06:40):
that's unprecedented. It's been fun organization, except for, of course
the one Garnett year. But I just it's not it's
not working for me. And I think you've heard and
we'll run it by Mitchell. You've heard the latest point
guard rumor haven't you not name James Harden not named
John Moran, who, by the way, apparently Miami, which shocks me,
(07:05):
is sniffing around John Moran.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Man.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I just that doesn't seem like a Ryles move to me.
But that might be the old we bring him in
here and heat culture will bring him along. Maybe you
believe in that stuff. Maybe that would be the difference.
But this is another guard whose name I had not
heard before you cared to hazard against and it's probably
preposterous like the others, but it is being raised. I
(07:28):
feel like I've seen it. It's not one of the balls,
is it. It is not one of the balls, And
I've turned. I was a big LaMelo Lamello guy coming
out of college. Yeah, because I'm like Ricky Rubio. You know,
a basket what's the quote from him? A basket makes
one person happy, an assist makes two. Yes, I mean
(07:50):
I believe. I just love players who have a natural
ability to share the ball and galvanize an offense. But
he's I don't think he's serious enough of a player.
He doesn't seem all that bothered that all he's done
is lose. I'm not putting that all on him. And
Puzzy doesn't stay healthy. No, it's not either of the balls.
(08:12):
I'm not sure it's the name I could have come
up with. Who is it? Kyrie Irving? Oh I did
see that, Yeah, I knew, Yeah, I saw that yesterday. Again. Yes,
it's all based on has It's not anybody reporting that
there have been a light conversations. It would make sense
for the Wolves if Dallas is ready to blow the
(08:35):
thing up and Kyrie well, and the other thing would
be contractually, I think it'd be one of those deals.
You'd have to have a third team involved, you'd have
to move mountains to get it done. So there's a
million permutations. Leaving aside the fact that there hasn't been
any serious as far as we know, any serious conversation
in that regard. Well, maybe, again it's recency buyas I
(08:59):
don't want to over react to the current conditions of
the club. That just does seem to be And again,
we're not under five hundred. I think we're in the
sixth spot right now, right ahead of Phoenix. But we've
played like the either the third or fourth softest schedule
through how many games do we played twenty five twenty four.
I think we're fifteen to nine twenty four. Yeah that
in fact, yeah, that was the quote from the head
(09:19):
coach last night. So you know that's enough games. I
guess you have to start with the due diligence on
what the injury is coming off of. But if are
you asking me would I would I consider it? The
answer is yes. Now, the old Kyrie I wouldn't have
considered it. The Kyrie who's played in Dallas, I think
(09:43):
has been a pretty good soldier. Agree, I think that
cooked us, and he absolutely cooked us. But you know,
and I don't even know his age at this point,
but he's got to be getting a little longer in
the team. He's thirty three. Yeah, thirty three, that's that
ain't young man? Yeah he's thirty three. Be a guard.
He's got a knee injury right now. Yeah, he's out.
(10:03):
He's still out with significant I mean, he's expected back
late this season unless Dallas just decides if they're in
such a bad shape that they're going to tank responsibly.
I don't know. I just don't. I don't like the
feel of it of the club right now. I don't.
And I'm more bothered this year than I would have
(10:24):
been other years where we made major changes, right like
last year, right before was it day before training camp
we made the big cat deal and he said, well,
you got to let this thing play out, and if
you were a call, I think we finished this regular
season like twenty and five. Yep, But we haven't even
come close to picking up where we left off. And
it's basically the same team, So there's less excuse I
(10:48):
think to say, well, you know it's going to take
time to figure this out. And and you know it's
okay if they're they're just going to meander their way
into it. We've had to such exam camp. He said,
continuity only helps you the beginning of the Season's that's
what it's good for. Yeah, that's a direct quote from
the head coach. Continuity gives you it should It should
in theory, but I don't think it has not really.
(11:09):
I mean, again, here's the truth. We've kidded about nikiel.
I know they couldn't keep everybody. Yeah, I don't think
that was financially feasible. But they haven't replaced him. They
haven't replaced what he represents at his best. That's true
and good in Atlanta. He's been unleashed a little bit
in Atlanta. And again, I look, I was a big
(11:32):
dilly Ham guy. I love the move, just like with
JJ McCarthy. I don't want to give up on it.
But it's not looked very good lately, has it. It's
not looked very good and not been very promising so far. See.
I'm gonna ask Sam Mitchell about this. See what he thinks.
He often thinks I've lost my basketball. Mind. But I've
(11:54):
suggested before, are we right now? Are we looking at
Dilly wrong with the would the Wolves be better off
saying to Dilly when you play him off the bench,
don't worry about running it score. Just go play exactly
like McCarthy. You'll play, get some baskets. Jamal Crawford light. Now,
(12:18):
Jamal Crawford's a lot bigger and a lot better. But
my point is just go heat it up, Go heat
it up, and then eventually we're going to try to
work you back into what you long term need to
be as a point guard. But we're gonna just try
it that way. Take the shackles off in terms of
you're supposed to go from point A to point B.
Get everybody involved. I tried that on Tom Crean once
and he said no, he didn't agree. He didn't think
it would work. But I'm just wondering. That's all because
(12:42):
part of what Finchy told p again this morning is
we got scoring issues off the bench, and he could
change that if you got going. So what are what's
the We need our audience to help us, per usual,
We need the base balanced body. Brozemberg Bahamas for Dilly,
Dilly what's he thinking about, because it's the orchestrate guard. Yes,
(13:04):
take care of the ball. Like, there's not a snappy
way to sum all of that up. That's what we're
gonna need some help. We need something snappier than that.
You're right, because right now it's just d NP. Those
are his things d NP CD coach's decision, which is
not great for a top ten pick. And I trust
I trusted Conley Tim Yes, like I. I mean, that's
(13:25):
that's why this is so surprising that it appears to
be such a bad fit at the moment. I don't
want to cut him. No, I don't either. You'd like
to think he took a big swing and it has
not worked out. No, in year two, you gotta believe
he should be further along if it was, if it
was what was envisioned. I think at the time, I
(13:46):
think you got to be a little bit further along.
No bonus bucks today, No bonus bucks today. Let's get
our first break in. As I mentioned, we've got a
first guest coming up at the bottom of this hour.
We'll talk plenty of vikings with Kevin Seffert. Reaction via
the text line and uh, maybe you even in a
little history, lesson only come, forget, orchestrate, elevate and eviscerate
(14:21):
Dillion five Dillingham play fierce, free and fast. How about dribble, drive, dish, defend, dominate. Yeah,
I got distribute, defend, dominate, defer, don't turn the ball over,
and you they'd come through, so the Yeah, that's pretty
(14:42):
good alliteration. Actually right, that's what they're asking him to do. Distribute, defend, defer,
don't turn it over. It's no. And then there's this
from the always reliable flim Flam Poke the bear, choke
go Bear. Dillingham's chair wasn't five he had he felt
(15:07):
needed it was necessarily to explain by cherry means, because
he's on the bench. Get it, we get it. I
think that was I don't think he needed to add
that you give the audience a little credit exactly, and
the hosts and producer. Yeah. Most notably he could say
that too, Dillingham's chair. That would be a good Well,
here's silent auction item for the wolves. I gotta run
this by you, and I'm gona run by Sam at
three thirty now the Morning Boys on Serious XMNBA channel.
(15:32):
That would be of course, Frank Isola and Rascalabrini. They
were savaging the wolves not getting the ball more often
down the stretch. To Anthony Edwards on a night where
he scored forty and was fifteen for twenty one from
the floor, he was saying, come on, man, we like
Julius Randall, but what what come on? You got to
(15:52):
get the ball to your star before you answer that question.
Jayden McDaniels won for seven, right who we just pray yesterday?
I did. Johnny de Vincenzo won for seven, NAS two
for twelve, Mike Conley zero five. That's I mean, you
can do that math four for thirty one from the field.
And by the way, I agree with Finchy. I thought
(16:13):
some of them were pretty good looks. Yes, I didn't
think they were awful looks where they're just you know,
jerking up shots in the final seconds. But to the
complaint that Aunt didn't get the ball enough down the stretch,
I I'm not as offended by that, to be honest,
because I didn't think they were. I mean, I think
you gotta let things happen in the flow a little bit,
(16:35):
and everything's you know, focused on him. All the defense
is obviously concentrating on him. I understand you still have
to make the other team stop you, but I I
didn't wasn't bothered. I was much more bothered last night
by the Gobert decision. I think it was a flagrant,
too easily anderous. It was extremely dangerous. And I know
(16:57):
he's bitter because he had just been flagrant to that, right, yep.
But he's the pro, he's supposed to be the pros pro.
He's to be the adult in the room. And that
was not that was a dumb and he was playing well,
I know, yeah, even offensively. So to me, I have
much more anger with that than because my inclination sometimes
(17:18):
as Edwards gets the ball too much of late in games,
despite the fact that he's obviously the alpha. But what
do you think that it did not that particular night.
It didn't bother me last night. There's nights where he
has it, for sure, like last night. But how many
nights have we seen it where I think this just
happened against the Clippers on Saturday, where the other guys
were going a little bit ant, comes back into the game. Yeah,
(17:39):
that's true, and it's like three straight ISO shots and
I get it. He's aunt, so you do have to
live and die with that. Sometimes they're doing that with
Julius Alto too right, Basically get the ball and go,
and they're the two most gifted scorers on the team.
So I understand why. However, this team is at its best.
The strength of this team is in its numbers for sure.
Now is one of the game. The other night, Jaden
(17:59):
was spectacular. The other night. Jaden's been good all year.
I'm going to give him a mulligan on his shooting
last night. For me, it's always when when those guys
aren't hitting at that level, then you are going to
be in trouble a little bit. Maybe the argument is
nobody else had it going and you need to just
give it to your guy, because Ant was really the
one that had it last night. Yes, so I could
see it in that regard. I think that's your answer
(18:21):
in general. In games where no one else is going
and he is, he's shooting at high percentage, he's very efficient.
I think those are nights maybe you do force feed
him a little bit more. I wasn't offended down the stretch,
but on nights where he's out of the game and
it's go and go without him. He should not be
afraid to blend in a little bit and say, Okay,
(18:42):
I'll keep being facilitator for a while until it becomes
obvious that we're going to We're gonna need me to
do what I'm supposed to do best, which is to
start scoring again. Right and on Saturday, that's what he
ended up eventually getting back to. Yes, he made the
extra pass to Nas for the game clinching three. I
think it was the game winning three in the corner.
That particular thing didn't bother me too much last night.
(19:04):
It was more just Ant said it too once Go
Bear went out. They don't have another guy like Rudy
that can discourage guys. Just the kid is not ready yet.
Obviously I can't remember how to pronounce his name. He's
going down to Iowa to get some minutes what he
should do, but that means they don't think he's ready
to show him in there as a backup to. Because again,
(19:25):
the defensive numbers don't lie. They're they're an awful defensive
team as a rule. I don't know what the analytics
showed last night, but in general, the numbers are dramatic,
and I get it. On the offensive end. There's Knights
when he can be a liability, and there's Knights where
they don't even they keep him off the floor, even
down the stretch. But defensively everything changes there. And I look,
(19:47):
you know again, Finch, he's protecting his players, he told PA.
The other part I heard with Pa to day was
that he thought the the the Rudy play was a
in which he got thrown out, was a flagrant one.
I couldn't disagree more. Said Airborne guy. You push him
like that, and that's that's especially in today's NBA. I
(20:09):
think that's an automatic flagrant too, and it's a dangerous play.
Let's be honest, it's not. And Rudy tried to do
the old angelic almost like oh, you know, kind of
mind my business afterwards, Like I just kind of just
nudged him a little bit. But that was I think
that was the correct call. I I don't I don't
agree with Thinchy on that coaches tend to defend their players,
as I guess I understand as well. Rudy already has
a bunch of flagrant points. But guys, he's on his
(20:31):
way to being suspended. He's got five flagrant points this season,
and if you get seven, you're suspended. I learned that
last night. I didn't think we'd have to worry about that.
With our fifties. You don't even know there were such
a thing as flagrant. I guess I should have assumed it,
but I didn't remember it. But usually be a factor
for us. We're just on Anthony Edwards technical watch. That's
what we have to play down that, right, Yeah, he's
(20:51):
been good in that regard, I think. So all right,
let's talk some vikings. We'll talk that, maybe broaden it
out and talk National Football League. An interesting Monday night
game last night involving the NFC, well the Super Bowl
champion Philadelphia Eagles. But we'll get to a seaffort on
a number of issues. If you have questions for him.
The Bradshaw on bridecamfan text line is accepting questions and
(21:13):
observations for ESPN dot com. Seffert six four six eight six,
that's the number. Wolves have another slow start, Colts bringing
(21:40):
back an old fart, wild Meat, another medical cart, Wolves
and five. The beauty of those is they can cover
the news. They can kind of cover the timely stories
right in very brief, condensed effective facts. It's true, and
they have for us since last April when we played
(22:01):
the Lakers April. Yeah, that's it. All goes back to me.
It was ant after a game, right on the way
to the bus. I think, yes, inspired by then some
man Batman have Lakers in five exactly. Yeah, Shannon Sharp
was the original inspiration back before. Yeah, and he was
on television. Yeah, that's true. Then I think a week
(22:23):
later he wasn't on television on television anymore, but it abides.
You know, it's on television from what every once in
a while still these days for ESPN and ESPN dot Com.
It's our next guest, Kevin Seffert joining us via the
Connectico Water Systems hotline. What would you say you are averaging?
What's your monthly average of TV hits on the Mothership.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Let's Go season. There's been a few this season. I
don't know if there's been a recently, but we're starting
that the mind meld of TV and digital all becoming war.
And I do three digital videos a week that show
up on your friendly vikings page on ESPN dot com
(23:10):
that provide all the insight without having to read a
single word. And so we highly encourage people to watch
me ramble for forty five seconds three times a week
so they don't have to actually read one of the stories.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Well, it's not like the stories you write are that.
They're not athletic lengths by anything.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I mean, I understand that every now and then we'll
go a couple of thousand. We actually have a couple
of thousand coming tomorrow. Real I'll just say this. We
if you can guess what it is, then we can
talk about it. It's the fiftieth anniversary of what coming
up later this.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Month, Oh, fiftieth anniversary of Hail Mary. It's got to
be Hail Mary and the Corby's Bottle to the back
of the referra of Terzian's head.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, we didn't and it's the fiftieth anniversary of the
Hail Mary. We didn't get too much into the the
arm in tersay and whiskey bottle. Yeah, incident. But as
you know, the Vikings are playing the Cowboys this week,
and so we thought this would be a good week.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
For that very serendipitous story. Yeah, that's great. Well, I'll
also give Dan when Asota little credit because he had
reminded me of the anniversary but he'd also said that
he was he tried to get a hold of He
thinks he identified the individual the perpetrator of the bottle throwing,
(24:36):
and that he I believe, you know, if he's listening,
he can text me to correct the record. I thought
what he wrote to me was that he'd actually talked
to someone else in the family, but that he does not.
He's not interested. It's kind of going Bartman on the bid.
He has no interest in reliving that and going through
(24:56):
it today. And I I thought it was intrepid reporting
if a needy found out who it was or found
the person, because I'm not sure I remember anybody locally
getting to the bottom of that and actually pursuing that
individual and seeing if they could get an interview with him.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, that nobody was ever publicly identified. I will say
that I think it was Brian Murphy when he worked
at the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Brian still local at
the game. Yes, Yeah, he did a story and I think,
if I'm remembering this right and hopefully I don't botch it,
he found out who the person was or who was
(25:32):
suspected to be and reached out to that person who
didn't want to talk about it, and the Pioneer Press decided, well,
it's so long ago and the guy was so young
at the time relatively that they would not identify him.
And so I don't think the person I guess it
(25:54):
was to him, I suppose, but I don't think that
person has ever talked publicly about it.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
The whiskey bottle incident. All right, I'm looking at the
Minnesota email he sent me a few days ago. I've
tracked the guy down, but he didn't respond. I still
felt the need to write about it, though, because it's
the fiftieth anniversary in December, and he gave me a
(26:21):
link to what he describes as a preview. He hasn't
published it yet. I'm still tweaking words and phrase is
going to publish it the next day or two, and
I don't think he has yet, but he can chime
in and give me and correct me if I'm I'm
wrong on that. So you're covering more the football side
of what the football implications of that moment in that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Game, right and just and you know, there's there's obviously
a lot of different angles to it. It changed Drew
Pearson's life in a lot of ways. He talked to us,
to our Cowboys reporter about that and how you know,
he's obviously in the Hall of Fame now and that
play in itself didn't make him a Hall of Famer,
but it certainly put him on the map of the superstary.
(27:05):
His connection with Roger Staubuch, especially post career, had, you know,
really took off because of that play, and Roger helped
him get started in business, and lots of lots of
connections there. And of course the people who participated in
it in Minnesota are still not over it. You know,
(27:27):
there's still the reason he's not Drew Pearson's no push
Pearson here and uh, And there's a a very rapid
belief to this day that if uh the officials had
been on top of their game, that they would have
called offensive pass interference and they played never would have counted.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well guards, this reminds you, are we going to have
to redo what we did. I don't remember what year
it was we had Drew Pearson and Suck Foreman on. Yes,
it's one of the best moments in show history, absolutely
one of the It was remarkable because.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
They go after each other.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Well, that's the beauty of us. They started it out
being very what you'd expect a long time ago. We're
all brothers, we love each other. It's all football play
with rivalries. And eventually when we got to the nitty gritty,
it was bad. It deteriorated into you're out of your mind?
How can you say? I mean, they got mad again.
It was beautiful. It was just perfect. I feel like
(28:22):
it started. We were just having Drew Pearson on it,
and I think Chuck called in on his own. Oh
that might be Drew, that might have been in. He
called in on his own, and it is saying they started.
So it started okay. They were kind of joking about it,
and then Chuck was bitter. And then the best part
was when Pearson just went touchdown, Cowboys, touchdown, Cowboys. Enough
(28:44):
said yeah, and we don't have Dan, we don't have
that audio anywhere, which makes me mad because I should
have saved it because it was a long time ago.
It was probably fifteen years ago, at least fifteen.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, you're right, Well, I can tell you fifty years ago,
fifteen years ago, a week or two ago, a lot
of genuine bitterness. I talked to Paul Krause, No doubt
up to Nate Wright. Nate Wright hasn't talked about it
a lot over the years. He was the quarterback, and
he and he and Pearson have had a few like
(29:16):
one cordial conversation and one not very cordial conversation in
the fifty years that have passed. So it's it's pretty
wild that it still strikes the level of emotion that
it does. But it was a huge play in a
playoff game. It arguably the best team that the Vikings
ever had right over that that time, and they didn't
(29:38):
even make the NFC Championship game.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I bet it was nine when the Vikings played the Cowboys.
That had to be the occasion. I will tell you
know right when I when I worked in Dallas, Drew
Pearson was probably my favorite athlete to cover. I had
a great relationship with him. In fact, he had later
many years later, a horrible car accident in which he
(30:01):
was driving, and I want to say it was his nephew.
I don't remember. The relation might have been his brother,
because I wrote a lengthy piece where for the first
time he kind of opened up on it since the accident.
It was a horrific story, and so I've always had
a great relationship with any and from a media standpoint,
I understand why people would dislike him here because it
(30:23):
has to do with that play. But from a media standpoint,
he was about as approachable player as I ever dealt
with on any level in any sport.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, he's he's still he's in his mid seventies, I think,
and still very much out in public and out and
about doing a lot of cowboys stuff and his own
business stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So, yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That accident might have ended his career.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It did, absolutely, he had serious injuries. He's lucky he
didn't wasn't killed, and the passenger was yeah, and and
and it was horrific and it was huge obviously at
at the time. All Right, so we'll look forward to that.
That part's good, I guess real quick before we talk
about the vikings and where we are now. By the way,
(31:06):
this text just came in. I was at the game.
I'm seventy years old now. Pearson got away with it,
so it's still it's still fresh. It will never go
away for anybody who was just either remembered it or
was a fan on either side of it, it will
never go away.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It won't and there's there's so many layers to it.
I also talked to Dick john Kowski who reminded.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, he was the one. He doesn't mind being on
the record because we talked. We had him on to
talk about his little move kicking Pearson earlier on that
drive in the sideline.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I believe the well the play before. They're bitter about too,
because it was fourth and seventh.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
If they don't convert fourth and seventeen, it's over. There
ain't had like their twenty five yard lives. So he
throws it to the fifty on the sideline and Drew
Pearson makes this unbelievable so taping catch on the sideline,
but the Vikings say he was out of bounce and
Paul Kraus is like, there was a snowbank ten feet high,
how did you tell where the sideline was? And obviously
(32:05):
I'm exaggerating, but that and then Dick xon Kowski is
a usher on the sideline, a celebrity usher on the
sideline while he is on the ground.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Video film, Yeah, it's it's it's we we talked about
it back then. The film is utterly I mean we're
talking about he's rolling or you know, towards the sidelines
and he just walks over and kicks him like you
said in the leg.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well, he didn't like he thought he should have been
out of bed apparently.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So yeah, I mean, here's another one that just came
in regarding that that game. My dad was a taxi
driver in the eighties, had Drew Pearson in his cab
and he recognized who it was, he pulled over and
made him get out of the cab. That's an absolute
true story. Oh it is.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
It is true because Drew Pearson told us that story.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He confirmed me. It's in the story.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, he said, he said he took him like he
went through five guys.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But let's get a cap that's outstanding. That'll be fun,
that'll be fun to read. There are people suggesting that
I should maybe like mock you while you're down regarding
your Virginia football team. How hard did you? I mean,
because Virginia, by the way, Virginia wins like they were
supposed to. All this other nonsense. There is not the
same controversy, right if Virginia just does what it's supposed
(33:23):
to do and wins, that they're in the tournament.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, I mean, it was a classic. I mean that
you don't have games like that, Oh, you only have
games like that in Virginia history. No other school has
this kind of heartbreaking, right, But they had this dream
season where they didn't have to play SMU, they didn't
have to play Miami, and they didn't have to play
most of the good teams in the a SEC. And
(33:46):
they win like three overtime games and two other games
at the very end, and it's this totally charmed season.
And all they have to do is be Duke, who's
like six and five or seven or five, and they
had just they had throttled a few weeks ago, and
they Duke, just take the two of them. And so
we're playing in the Gator Bowl against the the Missouri
(34:08):
squad and so not a terrible consolation, but like there'll
never be like there'd be so few chances for them
ever to be in the playoffs again. But of course
they were unable to any experience, Virginia fan would have
fully expected it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
By the way, what exactly did Wes Phillips say today
that had all of you Jackals swooning? What was the conversation?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It was just super inside footballie and I had been
wanting to ask about this for a while, so Kurt,
I think we you and I talked about its. Kurt
Warner had has had some videos on his YouTube channel
this year about the Vikings the way they sort of
teach how to the quarterbacks who to throw to basically,
(35:00):
and so it's less about reading defenses and more about
what's called pure progression. Yeah, okay, on this play, justin
Jefferson's the first read. If he's not open, I go
to the next read, and I go to the next
read and go to the next read until somebody is open.
Then I throw it to him. And and Kurt Warner
hates that and it's been kind of ripping them for
it because it's it basically takes away a smart quarterbacks
(35:22):
ability to cut to the chase and throw immediately to
whoever's going to be open. And he doesn't necessarily think
it's great for a young quarterback. And so it came
up and passing today and so we asked. We really
drilled down with Wes about what it means and why
they like it and what are the advantages of it,
and he went through a lot of the details. I
(35:44):
have no idea how I'm ever going to use this
in a story, but it was really fascinating to talk
to him about it and get the offensive coordinator, you know,
straight from the horse's mouth, why they do it the
way they do it.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Who defeats the Vikings new offense first opposing defensive coordinators
or koc.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Game the offensive they used in the game that they
have thirty one points the other day. You know, I
I I probably didn't do a good enough job of
previewing and reviewing the extent to which Washington's defense has
just been really bad this year and they and not
and and mostly because it it would have sounded like
(36:27):
exactly like I'm sounding now, where I'm not giving any
credit to the Vikings for performing well. It's just the
old roycey Berrero angle of the other team must be terrible.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
That's the only way.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That the Vikings could be good. Yeah, and so, but
they definitely invited Washington definitely invited exactly what the Vikings
wanted to do, which was let JJ McCarthy, you know,
for the most part, be protected in the pocket and
(37:00):
throw to underneath receivers who the defenders were playing way
off of. And so they didn't get a ton of
like really long downfield throws, and Justin Jefferson was open
a few times, and they didn't really make those attempts.
But they gave a guy who has struggled when he
gets blitzed, when he gets blitzed, who struggled when guys
look like they're covered or close to being covered, and
(37:24):
gave him a great landscape to really just you know, one, two,
three steps and throw to the first guy. And so, I,
assuming no other team plays at that level of soft defense,
then it's going to be difficult.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I think.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I think O'Connell has a pretty good idea of what
works and what doesn't work with JJ right now. I
think he still wants to push him in certain spots,
and I don't think that's the wrong approach, But I
don't know that they'll get the advantage of facing a
defense that's quite at the level of what Washington was
on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
The what do you say to those of us who
said as recently as yesterday that now and I will,
in fact, you have to you do, in fairness, have
to factor in the state of the Washington defense somewhere
in there, but leaving him out aside for a moment
or trying to. It did strike me, especially the first drive,
(38:23):
that it's exactly, in least in principle, the sort of
offense that he should have been starting with with j
AJ at the beginning of the season. And I tend
to think that's part of where he has failed here,
that he's he's he's got such grand design and he's
(38:44):
so good at designing stuff that he still couldn't help
himself and he miscalculated what JJ McCarthy was prepared was was,
you know, I guess good enough to sort of run
early in the season. So I think it's hard for
me to to even with the defense they're playing, to
say we should have been seeing a lot more of
(39:05):
that a lot sooner. And it's not going to solve
all your problems because some teams will start sitting on
down on that stuff. We get that, but then maybe
that's when you start adding wrinkles and you and you compensate.
But to me, that's what I came out of that
game with. It's it's and is I think you'll agree,
a completely different offense than the one he's used generally
with with Kirk Cousins among others.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I don't know if he was I'm not sure where
he would agree with that, but he did say last
week in public at a press conference that, you know,
he basically implied that he'd been to an ambitious He
said that, you know, what he has to what he's
had to realize and on transparency, is that some of
the things that he sees that are out there that
are gettable, you know, in theory, on paper, based on
(39:52):
the vikings personnel against what other defenses they are trying
to do, has to take a back seat to what
is best for the team. And what was best for
the team was to have you know, CJ. Hamm on
the field a lot more than he's you know, more
than he's ever been in the entire O'Connell era, to
run a lot you know, I don't know if they
(40:12):
ran a lot more three tight ends, but they ran
a fair bit of three tight ends. Every throw to
the tight end was not necessarily the first read, but
they got JJ to move to it very quickly. A
lot of I think Justin Jefferson was probably the first
read on a lot of occasions, and he was the
one thing that Washington did a good job of was
(40:35):
cover him with schemes that would move JJ quickly off
of him, which he did, and that's why you saw
the tight ends catch a lot of passes. But they
have to be on the field to be able to
do that, and they have to be out in the
routes and not necessarily shipping or blocking. And so I
don't I think that I wouldn't say like they ran
a new offense or a different offense, but the things
(40:56):
they emphasized are what we kind of like just the
way they played as an overall team, not just offensively.
Like and we talked about this at the beginning of the year,
what's the theory for how the Vikings can win games,
especially early with JJ McCarthy, and it was defense playing
lights out, running game being very strong and productive, not
(41:16):
just not just them using it, but being productive as well.
And and then JJ McCarthy making throws that are that
he's good at and moving quickly to checkdowns when necessary
and occasionally picking up first downs by scrambling. So like,
(41:37):
not just the offense, but like that was and again
Washington had something to do with that. We can't totally
remove that context, but that was what I walked away thinking,
is that you know what you know whatever, like specifics
about the offensive scheme, like this was the kind of
football they had to play throughout the course of the
season in all likelihood for them to have a playoff
(42:01):
caliber record.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
How worried do you think the head coach is on
the requirement of finding a way even in victory potentially
a loss, but somewhere along the way getting JJ jending
Justin Jefferson back into the mix, you know, I he.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
It has to be something that they're thinking about and
not just to keep JJ happy, like against especially against
the Dallas, Like a team like Dallas that has so
much offensive firepower, and you go in and as saying
like you're, yeah, like maybe it's great if you can
if you can get another nineteen play twelve minute drive,
But for the most part, you're gonna have to score
(42:48):
a significant amount of points probably to keep up with Dallas.
That and the only and the still the best way
for them to score a good amount of points over
the course of a game is to involve Justin j downfield.
So I don't think it will be solely motivated to
make sure he gets to like a thousand yards at
(43:08):
the by the end of the year, which is not amazingly,
it's not like a slam dunk. I think he still
needs I mean, he needs to average more than what
he's been averaging the past month and a half or so,
if you get there in terms of receiving yards and so.
I don't think it'll be solely motivated by that, because
if they want to score enough points to win most
(43:30):
of these games, they're going to have to involve him
downfield more than they have. But I think that's definitely
something of a factor. And you know, if he were
to go through seventeen games and not get to a
thousand yards, I think that would be a very obvious, glaring,
mathematical piece of evidence of how their offense fell short
this year.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
All right, let's get a quick pause, if a carry
over for one more segment, if we can Kevin SIEFERTESPN
dot Com. I've got some more texts I want him
a Kevin to respond to. And I also want to
talk a little bit more about the current condition of
the National Football Conference North, our favorite division. SAMI raging
in the background. Keep your nominations coming, because I think
(44:12):
tomorrow will be the day it's pretty clear we will
name our first SNONAMI of the twenty twenty five twenty
six winters,
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