December 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Anthony Harris joins Muss for this week's Vikings Country.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's time for Vikings Country. Get to know your favorite
Vikings players and legends. Vikings Country is brought to you
by Miller Lte, the official beer sponsor of your Minnesota Vikings.
Here's your host from the fan Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Must McCarthy play action to Jordan Mason rolls off to
the lapt prows to the end zone and touch down.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Shade Jane McCarthy hound's single coverage and he made the
Dallas Cowboys pay two in the backfield.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Mason and Ham corson goal from the one. McCarthy under
center snap Mason handoff.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh no, McCarthy keeps it beautiful hands.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Potters into the end zone for off.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Vikings touch down, second and goal from the two.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Trying to get a touchdown and an extra point.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Take the lead offs that I write McCarthy, what's Addison emotional.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right hand off cj Ham pop the middle touchdown.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Oh nobody's not coming.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To the party with an empty back heel puts Hotkinson
in motion first in golf, JJ looking right running right,
hot touch down.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Shilon Miller with a two touchdown game and the Minnesota
Vikings have taking up thirty to twenty three lead.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Welcome to Vikings Country. Everybody, how are we doing here?
We're at the Lookouse. We're having a great time here
in Able Grove, one of my favorite places. Mike, thank
you so much for hosting us once again to love
it with the Minnesota Vikings and Miller Lighte, the official
beer sponsor of the Minnesota Vikings, were giving away tickets
to sit in the Miller Lite Lounge to go watch
your Minnesota Vikings absolutely spoil opportunities in the playoffs for
(01:49):
the Lions. That's the tickets we're giving away on Christmas.
And our very special guest, ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Harris
is here with us. Man, how are you, buddy, man?
I'm doing good man. It's nice, nice and pacing here tonight. Yeah,
it's very nice. It's very nice. The holiday season. Are
you a very festive kind of shorts? Are you? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Now I've got a little bit more time. I've been
getting into it a little bit more. Pissed some Christmas
lights up, got a Christmas tree outside and stuff like that,
so it's been a little bit faster.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
You're not climbing ladders, though, are you. Oh No, I'm
not climbing ladder. Yeah, stand away, from that. Yeah, yeah,
I won't do it anymore. I have a rule nowadays
because I'm older, that it's basically nipples down. That's I
decorate from that point and nothing other after that. Right,
So I told you this show is dumb. Yeah, you
(02:39):
have a good time. You gotta have a good time.
Six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings here number forty one
for your Minnesota Vikings. Uh played safety of course? Where
are you living nowadays? Where I'm out of Minnetauka, out
of Minnetaka. Nice. See you decided in Minnesota is the home? Yeah,
Minnesota's the home. Did you decide that? Oh? Yeah, we
decided that. You know.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
We came back being around family, being in the state,
going to games and stuff like that, basketball with the Wolves.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And the Vikings.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
So it's been a good attraction for me to stay here.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah. Well we're going early today because the Minnesota while
they're playing tonight taking on the Capitols, which is awesome.
They're playing fantastic, But we have to go early because
Falness has to do its pregame or whatever whatever. Kevin Falness,
get over yourself. Have you heard of the naked Naked
Christmas Tree?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
No?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
I haven't. Okay, it's apparently it's a new trend. Okay,
and don't mistake it because otherwise you get that balsam.
Those needles are really sharp and there's a lot of staff. See.
But people are putting up Christmas trees with no lights,
no ornaments. That's like kind of the hot trend right now. Okay, okay,
nothing wrong.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
With keeping us up and every now and then, you know,
taking them trees down, pitting them up. At least you can,
you know, cut it a little bit short. You don't
have to put all the ornaments out and put them
in the storage.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Yeah right right, Yeah, just throw it on the curb
at the end of the season. Yeah, that's sad Christmas
tree just sitting there.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Let you know, whether you got to throw it in
the back of the truck or you know, if you
have to throw it in the garage, whatever you have
to do, you get it gone and save you some time.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Now, now do you have how many
trees do you have in your house? As far as
because we used to have my kids are out of
the house for the most part, we used to have
the Varsity tree, which was the main tree that was upstairs.
In the living room, and then the basement we had
the JV tree, and now it was all the kids
ornaments and the stuff that they made in school and
stuff like that that goes down there.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
We have two, so we have one down in the
living room and you have a blow up one on
the front porch.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
So that's more decorative. Oh.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
But I've come to realize that the more trees I have,
and that's the more boxes I got to look lug
up and move back in and out the house. So
I'll try to, you know, save a little bit of
time there.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
You get a neighbor. We have a neighbor that has
so many inflatables. I mean it's crazy how many. I
don't think that there's a piece of snow on his
yard because he has so many of those inflatables.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Yeah, I mean I could see an expansion, you know,
somewhere in my future, maybe next Christmas, but not this one.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Not this one at all. So you're thirty four, right, Okay,
so a big storyline of course with this week forty
four year old the Rivers. Yeah, I mean, let's just
say Minnesota is like, hey, and what do you think
I want to come back?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Well, I'm gonna have to go pull my cleates out
again if they call me to say asks for that one.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right, you're right, right? Would you be ready to go
and do that? Oh yeah, I'll be ready to go.
Really yeah, I'll be ready to go. Oh man, would
you want to do that?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I mean, I still have a love for the game,
you know, yea intellectual part. You can never really replace
the locker room and the caaraderie and things like that.
But just being out there making plays, helping communicate with
guys and ultimately help them with the success of the
team is something that's always there.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
One thing that you're not as good as Philip Rivers
is how many kids he has, but you are dad,
the husband and that.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
So yeah, this time of year is kind of fun. Yeah,
it is. It is. You know, there's a lot of moments.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
You know, I'm still getting that sleigh out there, so
we're going to take a sled and stuff like that,
but you know, we're taking it to the different parks,
we're bundling her up when we're going outside, we're hitting
a few indoor playgrounds and stuff like that. So it's
been fun for me to be able to watch that
journey day by day death.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
There's cool. It's always so much fun until you have
to drag them back up while they're still in the
sled walk up the hill. Well that's you know, that's
part of the process. It's all part of the process.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So just leaning into it, I like to, you know,
getting that mindset that I'm pulling the slig like I
want to fill again. So you know, I'll just try
to adapt and fall into it and have a good time.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You come here to the Minnesota Vikings undrafted, right, Yeah
that was twenty fifteen. Yep, I believe twenty nineteen. Man
a season that you had where you recorded six interceptions
playing for the Vikings and that was like matched with
just two other guys in the league. And I mean
what I mean that had to feel so amazing, Like,
(06:51):
oh my god, Yeah, that was that happened, Like I mean,
because there's a lot of times where you're just like
the ball comes your way and sometimes it don't. But
that's interceptions in the season. That's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
You know, for me, it was just about you know,
controlling what I can control, you know, studying who we
are as a defense, what my assignment is, and then
just really getting to know where all the other guys
on the field and then also taking the time to
study the offenses. So for me, it was just about
trying to put myself in the right position, be there,
and sometimes you're just in the right spot at the
right time, so they just happen to throw them to you.
(07:23):
And in some plays, you know, it might take a
little bit more effort in terms of field study and
practicing the technique to be able to execute some plays.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Obviously, while you're still living here in Minnesota, you have
to be watching these Vikings games playing with Brian Flores.
How much fun do you think you would have playing
in Flora's defense, especially at safety, because he likes playing
at least three and there's just you have to have versatility. Yeah,
and the whole works. You never know exactly what you're
(07:51):
going to be playing. Yeah, the Flora's.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Defense, Yeah, I mean I love it. You know, I've
been following his defense for a while now. I've watched
him a lot last two seasons, watched him a lot
this year. And so the versatility that requires from the
players in terms of disguising, being able to execute different assignments,
whether it's coverage, blitzing. It's a really mental game that
he requires a lot, and so I see guys out
(08:15):
there making plays and it's excited to kind of, you know,
pick his brain a little bit and kind of see
what he's doing on the field.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Anthony Harrison is our guest here Vikings Country. We're head
hanging out here in Maple Grove at the Lookout with Miller,
like the official beer sponsor of the Minnesota Vikings. As
we talked about that Harrison Smith, he's played two hundred
plus games now, Harrison Smith still going strong. You got
a chance to play with Harry, hang out with that guy.
(08:40):
He was in the same room as you. Give me
some stories about Harrison Smith and playing with that man. Man,
it was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You know, we would have fun in practice, you know,
compete incredibly hard versus our own offense. And then on
the side, you know, we get ready for games. We're texting,
we're sending videos from the film that we're watching, and
we're communicating you know, how we see it and how.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
We play it.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
And so it was great to play with a guy
like that who really thinks at a deep level in
terms of the x's and o's and disguising and where
to be and how to manipulate plays, and so for
to being able to play with him and get on
the same page with that, we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Harrison just recorded his thirty eighth interception versus Washington and
now he's in sole possession of fourth place for the
most career interceptions in team history, passing Joey Browner, which
is just absolutely amazing. But as we're looking at the
Minnesota vikings here and we know that we're not going
to be in the playoffs, we're already out of that
(09:36):
thanks the Bears and the forty nine ers win before
we even had kickoff for the Sunday night game. What
is it like to play on a team where you
know you're out of the playoffs? What is the mindset
that you have to have as a player.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Well, I think I think it starts with the leadership
and I think, you know, watching the last game, I
saw Harry speak on it basically about you know, having
an opportunity to play a game, whether you have the
path to the playoffs or not, whether that's still alive,
you have to then refocus and just remember, like you
get the opportunity to go out in front of thousands
of fans, you know, prepare each week, get compensated well
for and really just play a child's game. So I
(10:13):
think he kind of set the tunnel as far as
moving forward, as far as.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Mindset with the team.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
But when you go out there, it's about having fun,
remembering that you know, you get the opportunity to do
this and we can't do it forever, so it's taking
advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Anthony. We've talked a lot of football actually on this one,
you know, and normally during Vikings Country we don't. But
I do want to touch on one more thing before
we get into our next segment, which will be coming up,
and that's where we get, of course, the five typically
stupid Vikings Country questions. They go over there, here's the deal.
You got Grenard out in the rest of the season.
(10:46):
Now with the shoulders, gonna have surgery, Mahomes is out,
Michael Parsons is out, they have to Basically everything that
is happening for the Green Bay Packers is kind of
done in a way there. But those are injuries are
just ridiculous. What we've actually seen just this last week
in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yeah, I mean you know, you see the injuries popping up,
that's gonna affect some teams obviously.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
You know you spoke about Michael.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Parsons and his injury, and we talk a bit about
how he manipulates the past protection and things like that.
So when you miss a player like Mahomes and Michael Parsons,
they affect the game in a number of ways that
don't necessarily show up on the stat sheet. And so
the one thing about it though, is somebody has to
step in and replace them. So that's gonna be opportunity
for somebody else to really come up and show their
(11:33):
ability and really, you know, set the tone whether you
know you're making the postseason, showing that you can be
a reliable guy for them in the postseason leading into
next year as well.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Anthony Harris is our guest, and by the way, he
told me coming up in this next segment, he's gonna
absolutely tell us how Justin Jefferson can get involved in
this offense a little bit more than he has been.
We'll get into that and so much more. Hey, Minnesota
needed a go to source for everything high school sports,
and that's why the Minnesota's Star Tribune created Strib Varsity.
(12:02):
You can sign up now at startribune dot com slash
strib Varsity. Anthony Harris, the five typically stupid Vikings Country questions,
and also what's gonna happen with Justin Jefferson and he
knows exactly how they got to get him involved. That's
coming up next on the.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Fan, It's time for Vikings Country. Get to know your
favorite Vikings players and legends. Vikings Country is brought to
you by Miller Lte, the official beer sponsor of your
Minnesota Vikings. Here's your host from the Fan Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Must McCarthy play action to Jordan Mason rolls off to
the lamp, pros to the end.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Zone and touched up.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Jage.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Jane McCarthy found single coverage and he made the Dallas
Cowboys pay two in the backfield Mason and ham corpinhole
from the one. McCarthy under center, snap Mason handoff, Oh no,
McCarthy keeps it beautifully, hands.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Counters into the end zone for up Vikings.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Touchdown, second and goal from the tube, trying to get
a touchdown and an extra point.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Take the lead off, said I write. McCarthy puts Addison
in motion to the right hand.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Off stj Ham pump the middle touchdown, Nobody's not coming.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
To McCarthy with an empty backfield.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Puts Hopkins in emotion first and goal JJ looking right,
running right, caught touch down.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Shalen Miller with a two touchdown game and the Minnesota
Vikings have taking up thirty to twenty three lead.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Welcome back Vikings Catchery. We're hanging out here at the lookout,
ladies and gentlemen with Miller like the official beer sponsor
of the Minnesota Vikings. Anthony Harris is our special guest
that we have going on here. Kara's working hard back
in our studios. We got j dub over here. Jared
working so well as always makes everything sounds so damn good.
(14:08):
It's it's actually irritating. He makes it look so easy. Hey.
Coming up on Friday, December nineteenth, you don't want to
miss out in Buffalo Wild Wings and the Friday Football
Feast is gonna be at an Apple Valley with Alec Lewis,
Nordo and PA Friday Football Feast presented by Coors Light.
You can visit Vikings dot com slash bww for a
(14:29):
full schedule and details. All right, Anthony, First, you hear
all those highlights with JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy in the
last couple of weeks has played pretty damn well. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
I saw, I saw he was able to you know,
run a take a run in earlier you know, I
saw his energy before he crossed the goal line.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
So that's that was great.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
You know, anytime you know you're a player, you want
to continue to have fun out there, obviously when things
are going well, but you also just want to keep
your minds out of your energy positive, you know, and
maybe in some down moments as well. So to continue
to see him have that, continue to see he found
ways to try to win games, you know, that's encouraging.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah. Absolutely, And if you look at the Vikings defense,
obviously you a safety for our Minnesota Vikings. They have
not given up a passing touchdown in five straight games.
I heard that stat and I would I didn't believe it.
I had to go look it up. That is amazing
what that defense is doing, right.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think that's part you know, that's
part of it. You know, Flores he does a great
job with not only just sending pressure, but giving a
lot of disguises and so a lot of times that
can deter offenses from trying to drive the ball downfield
and often you know, checking the ball down and taking
a lot of things underneath and playing a little bit
more safe, not to put the quarterback of Ham's way
during blizzes.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
You were telling me, and know you weren't, but justin Jefferson,
how they can get him involved? I kept saying that
you had all of this worked out, but as a
defenseman and you're playing there and you could see what's
going on on the field, how can the Minnesota Vikings
get Jets a little more involved?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
I mean, I think the number one thing is anytime
you have like a player who's who's really great, who's explosive,
who has a lot of talent, you know, defenses are
going to make them a primary focus and so a
lot of times they might not show up in the
stat sheet on how they're really influencing the game, whether
they're dictating coverages and things of the sort. But it
also opens up other players, so you're able to take
advantage of that. But you know, sometimes you just want
(16:21):
to try to get that ball, get the ball to
the player as quick as possible, whether that's you know,
screens some shorter passes where they can get some catch
and run to force the defense to trying to play
things a little bit tighter, and then you can maybe
get behind them.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
All Right, you ready for the five typically stupid Vikings
Country questions. Yeah, I think we're all right. Number one
today is chocolate cover anything? Day? Right? Anything? And America's
favorite thing to cover chocolate in. It's not a body part,
because that's what I thought it was going to be.
He is actually bacon. Oh wow, that's a new one.
(16:57):
That's a new one. I was just instantly thinking strawberry something,
very many strawberries. Yeah, simple, Yeah, I gotta try that.
I'm gonna have to check that out. Chocolate covered bacon
bacon is amazing.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
You never know, you sometimes, you know, you mix those
different flavors and you know it comes together very nicely.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Especially if you're having a Minnesota milligram. I wouldn't know
anything about that, all right. Number two? Did you know,
I mean, what's your favorite Christmas movie? By the way,
Home Alone? Perfect? Run right into this firm here. Home
Alone is fantastic. Did you know that Jimmy Stewart was
up for the part of the neighbor Old neighbor Marley
(17:35):
the shovel guy. I did not know that. Yeah, Jimmy Stewart,
he didn't get the part, but yeah, he was supposed
to be up for that. But I mean Home Alone,
my goodness, fantastic movie. I think is awesome.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
You know, I've watched it a few times in the
past few days. It seems like it's just doing rerun repeat,
and every time I'm still tuning in. I'm not changing
the channel. It's just one of those things is very
heartfelt and it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Did you know that Buzz's girlfriend in the frame right,
you know in that scene where they is, it's his
girlfriend and she's in the picture frame. That actually was
a boy that had a wig on. That's how they
did that. Also, Uh, Chris Farley auditioned for the Santa
Claus role and yeah, oh wow, Yeah you smell like
meat and cheese.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
And he didn't get it. Yeah, there's just so many
different things about that. It's one of my absolute favorite movies.
All right, here's the next one. What is your favorite
like keyword cliche? We've heard this year a lot of
pure progression. We've heard simplifying, streamlining, lightning. What's your favorite one.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
You mentioned progression. I think that's one that's always kind
of been with me. I've always been like the positive progression, yeah,
you know, and so that one has really stuck with
me in terms of, like, even it's a small winds,
the amount over time and so just stacking those up
is really is really what it's all about for me.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Uh you know this sound the year there, you're supposed
to do tip? This is our next one number four here.
I believe that it is, uh, you're supposed to tip,
I didn't do you. Are you like a big tipper
like housekeeper, childcare provider, teacher, landscaper, mail carrier, trash collector.
Are you a good tipper? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:20):
Yeah, extremely, I'm always about you know, just uh, in
those good moments when people do a good job, just
showing them that you appreciate them. And so that's certainly
one way that should I tend to do that. And
even sometimes in experiences where are not so nice, I
still tip, And it might seem.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Like just in case they know who you are.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Well, no, people might seem like, oh, well, why would
you tip if you didn't get great service? And I
often try to just use it as a moment to say, hey,
even though you're having a bad day, you know, you
can still get a positive turned into a positive. So
I'll try to do it more as an encouragement thing, like, hey,
you know, have some have some confidence, have some faith
in that it'll turn out in this experience to be great.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
So often tip, whether it's good service of bad us. Yeah,
I mean here at the lookout, I definitely will timp well,
you know, but I honestly I probably a terrible tip, right,
I didn't know you're supposed to tip, like the garbage
guy and stuff like that. But I won't say I
tipped the garbage guy.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I'm typically not there when he picks it up, but
usually any other service where it's interaction and you know,
or I can like leave it on the table or
different things like that, or just track back inside and say, hey,
you know, I appreciate your hair a little something.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I think it's a good gesture. All right, here we go.
Number five four. You played. You played for the Vikings, obviously,
and you played for the Eagles Vikings versus Giants. What
would you say you would you play in New York?
Would you like playing in New York? I've played in
New York.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
A few times I hear a bit of a no,
I'm not a big city guy. Yeah, now, I'm not
a big city guy.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I do like being close to the city for you know,
food purposes and being able to you know, get in
those good restaurants and get out of there if they're
not in the suburbs. But in terms of like the
travel and the traffic, that's not something that I'm particularly so.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Now. When you played with the Eagles, I have to
know them because Vikings fans we love to hate two teams,
Green Bay Packers and definitely the Philadelphia Eagles and the
Eagles fans they're just mean. I mean they have to
grease poles and everything like that, whether they win or lose,
because they're gonna be climbing up, you know, light poles
and everything else. What is it, What was it like
(21:21):
when you played there? Just extremely extremely passionate. Sometimes it
can bowl
It's time for Vikings Country. Get to know your favorite
Vikings players and legends. Vikings Country is brought to you
by Miller Lte, the official beer sponsor of your Minnesota Vikings.
Here's your host from the fan Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Must McCarthy play action to Jordan Mason rolls off to
the lapt prows to the end zone and touch down.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Shade Jane McCarthy hound's single coverage and he made the
Dallas Cowboys pay two in the backfield.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Mason and Ham corson goal from the one. McCarthy under
center snap Mason handoff.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh no, McCarthy keeps it beautiful hands.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Potters into the end zone for off.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Vikings touch down, second and goal from the two.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Trying to get a touchdown and an extra point.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Take the lead offs that I write McCarthy, what's Addison emotional.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right hand off cj Ham pop the middle touchdown.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Oh nobody's not coming.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To the party with an empty back heel puts Hotkinson
in motion first in golf, JJ looking right running right,
hot touch down.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Shilon Miller with a two touchdown game and the Minnesota
Vikings have taking up thirty to twenty three lead.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Welcome to Vikings Country. Everybody, how are we doing here?
We're at the Lookouse. We're having a great time here
in Able Grove, one of my favorite places. Mike, thank
you so much for hosting us once again to love
it with the Minnesota Vikings and Miller Lighte, the official
beer sponsor of the Minnesota Vikings, were giving away tickets
to sit in the Miller Lite Lounge to go watch
your Minnesota Vikings absolutely spoil opportunities in the playoffs for
(01:49):
the Lions. That's the tickets we're giving away on Christmas.
And our very special guest, ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Harris
is here with us. Man, how are you, buddy, man?
I'm doing good man. It's nice, nice and pacing here tonight. Yeah,
it's very nice. It's very nice. The holiday season. Are
you a very festive kind of shorts? Are you? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Now I've got a little bit more time. I've been
getting into it a little bit more. Pissed some Christmas
lights up, got a Christmas tree outside and stuff like that,
so it's been a little bit faster.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
You're not climbing ladders, though, are you. Oh No, I'm
not climbing ladder. Yeah, stand away, from that. Yeah, yeah,
I won't do it anymore. I have a rule nowadays
because I'm older, that it's basically nipples down. That's I
decorate from that point and nothing other after that. Right,
So I told you this show is dumb. Yeah, you
(02:39):
have a good time. You gotta have a good time.
Six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings here number forty one
for your Minnesota Vikings. Uh played safety of course? Where
are you living nowadays? Where I'm out of Minnetauka, out
of Minnetaka. Nice. See you decided in Minnesota is the home? Yeah,
Minnesota's the home. Did you decide that? Oh? Yeah, we
decided that. You know.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
We came back being around family, being in the state,
going to games and stuff like that, basketball with the Wolves.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And the Vikings.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
So it's been a good attraction for me to stay here.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah. Well we're going early today because the Minnesota while
they're playing tonight taking on the Capitols, which is awesome.
They're playing fantastic, But we have to go early because
Falness has to do its pregame or whatever whatever. Kevin Falness,
get over yourself. Have you heard of the naked Naked
Christmas Tree?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
No?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
I haven't. Okay, it's apparently it's a new trend. Okay,
and don't mistake it because otherwise you get that balsam.
Those needles are really sharp and there's a lot of staff. See.
But people are putting up Christmas trees with no lights,
no ornaments. That's like kind of the hot trend right now. Okay, okay,
nothing wrong.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
With keeping us up and every now and then, you know,
taking them trees down, pitting them up. At least you can,
you know, cut it a little bit short. You don't
have to put all the ornaments out and put them
in the storage.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Yeah right right, Yeah, just throw it on the curb
at the end of the season. Yeah, that's sad Christmas
tree just sitting there.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Let you know, whether you got to throw it in
the back of the truck or you know, if you
have to throw it in the garage, whatever you have
to do, you get it gone and save you some time.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Now, now do you have how many
trees do you have in your house? As far as
because we used to have my kids are out of
the house for the most part, we used to have
the Varsity tree, which was the main tree that was upstairs.
In the living room, and then the basement we had
the JV tree, and now it was all the kids
ornaments and the stuff that they made in school and
stuff like that that goes down there.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
We have two, so we have one down in the
living room and you have a blow up one on
the front porch.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
So that's more decorative. Oh.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
But I've come to realize that the more trees I have,
and that's the more boxes I got to look lug
up and move back in and out the house. So
I'll try to, you know, save a little bit of
time there.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
You get a neighbor. We have a neighbor that has
so many inflatables. I mean it's crazy how many. I
don't think that there's a piece of snow on his
yard because he has so many of those inflatables.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Yeah, I mean I could see an expansion, you know,
somewhere in my future, maybe next Christmas, but not this one.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Not this one at all. So you're thirty four, right, Okay,
so a big storyline of course with this week forty
four year old the Rivers. Yeah, I mean, let's just
say Minnesota is like, hey, and what do you think
I want to come back?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Well, I'm gonna have to go pull my cleates out
again if they call me to say asks for that one.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right, you're right, right? Would you be ready to go
and do that? Oh yeah, I'll be ready to go.
Really yeah, I'll be ready to go. Oh man, would
you want to do that?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I mean, I still have a love for the game,
you know, yea intellectual part. You can never really replace
the locker room and the caaraderie and things like that.
But just being out there making plays, helping communicate with
guys and ultimately help them with the success of the
team is something that's always there.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
One thing that you're not as good as Philip Rivers
is how many kids he has, but you are dad,
the husband and that.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
So yeah, this time of year is kind of fun. Yeah,
it is. It is. You know, there's a lot of moments.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
You know, I'm still getting that sleigh out there, so
we're going to take a sled and stuff like that,
but you know, we're taking it to the different parks,
we're bundling her up when we're going outside, we're hitting
a few indoor playgrounds and stuff like that. So it's
been fun for me to be able to watch that
journey day by day death.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
There's cool. It's always so much fun until you have
to drag them back up while they're still in the
sled walk up the hill. Well that's you know, that's
part of the process. It's all part of the process.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So just leaning into it, I like to, you know,
getting that mindset that I'm pulling the slig like I
want to fill again. So you know, I'll just try
to adapt and fall into it and have a good time.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You come here to the Minnesota Vikings undrafted, right, Yeah
that was twenty fifteen. Yep, I believe twenty nineteen. Man
a season that you had where you recorded six interceptions
playing for the Vikings and that was like matched with
just two other guys in the league. And I mean
what I mean that had to feel so amazing, Like,
(06:51):
oh my god, Yeah, that was that happened, Like I mean,
because there's a lot of times where you're just like
the ball comes your way and sometimes it don't. But
that's interceptions in the season. That's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
You know, for me, it was just about you know,
controlling what I can control, you know, studying who we
are as a defense, what my assignment is, and then
just really getting to know where all the other guys
on the field and then also taking the time to
study the offenses. So for me, it was just about
trying to put myself in the right position, be there,
and sometimes you're just in the right spot at the
right time, so they just happen to throw them to you.
(07:23):
And in some plays, you know, it might take a
little bit more effort in terms of field study and
practicing the technique to be able to execute some plays.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Obviously, while you're still living here in Minnesota, you have
to be watching these Vikings games playing with Brian Flores.
How much fun do you think you would have playing
in Flora's defense, especially at safety, because he likes playing
at least three and there's just you have to have versatility. Yeah,
and the whole works. You never know exactly what you're
(07:51):
going to be playing. Yeah, the Flora's.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Defense, Yeah, I mean I love it. You know, I've
been following his defense for a while now. I've watched
him a lot last two seasons, watched him a lot
this year. And so the versatility that requires from the
players in terms of disguising, being able to execute different assignments,
whether it's coverage, blitzing. It's a really mental game that
he requires a lot, and so I see guys out
(08:15):
there making plays and it's excited to kind of, you know,
pick his brain a little bit and kind of see
what he's doing on the field.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Anthony Harrison is our guest here Vikings Country. We're head
hanging out here in Maple Grove at the Lookout with Miller,
like the official beer sponsor of the Minnesota Vikings. As
we talked about that Harrison Smith, he's played two hundred
plus games now, Harrison Smith still going strong. You got
a chance to play with Harry, hang out with that guy.
(08:40):
He was in the same room as you. Give me
some stories about Harrison Smith and playing with that man. Man,
it was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You know, we would have fun in practice, you know,
compete incredibly hard versus our own offense. And then on
the side, you know, we get ready for games. We're texting,
we're sending videos from the film that we're watching, and
we're communicating you know, how we see it and how.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
We play it.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
And so it was great to play with a guy
like that who really thinks at a deep level in
terms of the x's and o's and disguising and where
to be and how to manipulate plays, and so for
to being able to play with him and get on
the same page with that, we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Harrison just recorded his thirty eighth interception versus Washington and
now he's in sole possession of fourth place for the
most career interceptions in team history, passing Joey Browner, which
is just absolutely amazing. But as we're looking at the
Minnesota vikings here and we know that we're not going
to be in the playoffs, we're already out of that
(09:36):
thanks the Bears and the forty nine ers win before
we even had kickoff for the Sunday night game. What
is it like to play on a team where you
know you're out of the playoffs? What is the mindset
that you have to have as a player.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Well, I think I think it starts with the leadership
and I think, you know, watching the last game, I
saw Harry speak on it basically about you know, having
an opportunity to play a game, whether you have the
path to the playoffs or not, whether that's still alive,
you have to then refocus and just remember, like you
get the opportunity to go out in front of thousands
of fans, you know, prepare each week, get compensated well
for and really just play a child's game. So I
(10:13):
think he kind of set the tunnel as far as
moving forward, as far as.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Mindset with the team.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
But when you go out there, it's about having fun,
remembering that you know, you get the opportunity to do
this and we can't do it forever, so it's taking
advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Anthony. We've talked a lot of football actually on this one,
you know, and normally during Vikings Country we don't. But
I do want to touch on one more thing before
we get into our next segment, which will be coming up,
and that's where we get, of course, the five typically
stupid Vikings Country questions. They go over there, here's the deal.
You got Grenard out in the rest of the season.
(10:46):
Now with the shoulders, gonna have surgery, Mahomes is out,
Michael Parsons is out, they have to Basically everything that
is happening for the Green Bay Packers is kind of
done in a way there. But those are injuries are
just ridiculous. What we've actually seen just this last week
in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yeah, I mean you know, you see the injuries popping up,
that's gonna affect some teams obviously.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
You know you spoke about Michael.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Parsons and his injury, and we talk a bit about
how he manipulates the past protection and things like that.
So when you miss a player like Mahomes and Michael Parsons,
they affect the game in a number of ways that
don't necessarily show up on the stat sheet. And so
the one thing about it though, is somebody has to
step in and replace them. So that's gonna be opportunity
for somebody else to really come up and show their
(11:33):
ability and really, you know, set the tone whether you
know you're making the postseason, showing that you can be
a reliable guy for them in the postseason leading into
next year as well.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Anthony Harris is our guest, and by the way, he
told me coming up in this next segment, he's gonna
absolutely tell us how Justin Jefferson can get involved in
this offense a little bit more than he has been.
We'll get into that and so much more. Hey, Minnesota
needed a go to source for everything high school sports,
and that's why the Minnesota's Star Tribune created Strib Varsity.
(12:02):
You can sign up now at startribune dot com slash
strib Varsity. Anthony Harris, the five typically stupid Vikings Country questions,
and also what's gonna happen with Justin Jefferson and he
knows exactly how they got to get him involved. That's
coming up next on the.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Fan, It's time for Vikings Country. Get to know your
favorite Vikings players and legends. Vikings Country is brought to
you by Miller Lte, the official beer sponsor of your
Minnesota Vikings. Here's your host from the Fan Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Must McCarthy play action to Jordan Mason rolls off to
the lamp, pros to the end.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Zone and touched up.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Jage.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Jane McCarthy found single coverage and he made the Dallas
Cowboys pay two in the backfield Mason and ham corpinhole
from the one. McCarthy under center, snap Mason handoff, Oh no,
McCarthy keeps it beautifully, hands.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Counters into the end zone for up Vikings.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Touchdown, second and goal from the tube, trying to get
a touchdown and an extra point.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Take the lead off, said I write. McCarthy puts Addison
in motion to the right hand.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Off stj Ham pump the middle touchdown, Nobody's not coming.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
To McCarthy with an empty backfield.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Puts Hopkins in emotion first and goal JJ looking right,
running right, caught touch down.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Shalen Miller with a two touchdown game and the Minnesota
Vikings have taking up thirty to twenty three lead.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Welcome back Vikings Catchery. We're hanging out here at the lookout,
ladies and gentlemen with Miller like the official beer sponsor
of the Minnesota Vikings. Anthony Harris is our special guest
that we have going on here. Kara's working hard back
in our studios. We got j dub over here. Jared
working so well as always makes everything sounds so damn good.
(14:08):
It's it's actually irritating. He makes it look so easy. Hey.
Coming up on Friday, December nineteenth, you don't want to
miss out in Buffalo Wild Wings and the Friday Football
Feast is gonna be at an Apple Valley with Alec Lewis,
Nordo and PA Friday Football Feast presented by Coors Light.
You can visit Vikings dot com slash bww for a
(14:29):
full schedule and details. All right, Anthony, First, you hear
all those highlights with JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy in the
last couple of weeks has played pretty damn well. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
I saw, I saw he was able to you know,
run a take a run in earlier you know, I
saw his energy before he crossed the goal line.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
So that's that was great.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
You know, anytime you know you're a player, you want
to continue to have fun out there, obviously when things
are going well, but you also just want to keep
your minds out of your energy positive, you know, and
maybe in some down moments as well. So to continue
to see him have that, continue to see he found
ways to try to win games, you know, that's encouraging.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah. Absolutely, And if you look at the Vikings defense,
obviously you a safety for our Minnesota Vikings. They have
not given up a passing touchdown in five straight games.
I heard that stat and I would I didn't believe it.
I had to go look it up. That is amazing
what that defense is doing, right.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think that's part you know, that's
part of it. You know, Flores he does a great
job with not only just sending pressure, but giving a
lot of disguises and so a lot of times that
can deter offenses from trying to drive the ball downfield
and often you know, checking the ball down and taking
a lot of things underneath and playing a little bit
more safe, not to put the quarterback of Ham's way
during blizzes.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
You were telling me, and know you weren't, but justin Jefferson,
how they can get him involved? I kept saying that
you had all of this worked out, but as a
defenseman and you're playing there and you could see what's
going on on the field, how can the Minnesota Vikings
get Jets a little more involved?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
I mean, I think the number one thing is anytime
you have like a player who's who's really great, who's explosive,
who has a lot of talent, you know, defenses are
going to make them a primary focus and so a
lot of times they might not show up in the
stat sheet on how they're really influencing the game, whether
they're dictating coverages and things of the sort. But it
also opens up other players, so you're able to take
advantage of that. But you know, sometimes you just want
(16:21):
to try to get that ball, get the ball to
the player as quick as possible, whether that's you know,
screens some shorter passes where they can get some catch
and run to force the defense to trying to play
things a little bit tighter, and then you can maybe
get behind them.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
All Right, you ready for the five typically stupid Vikings
Country questions. Yeah, I think we're all right. Number one
today is chocolate cover anything? Day? Right? Anything? And America's
favorite thing to cover chocolate in. It's not a body part,
because that's what I thought it was going to be.
He is actually bacon. Oh wow, that's a new one.
(16:57):
That's a new one. I was just instantly thinking strawberry something,
very many strawberries. Yeah, simple, Yeah, I gotta try that.
I'm gonna have to check that out. Chocolate covered bacon
bacon is amazing.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
You never know, you sometimes, you know, you mix those
different flavors and you know it comes together very nicely.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Especially if you're having a Minnesota milligram. I wouldn't know
anything about that, all right. Number two? Did you know,
I mean, what's your favorite Christmas movie? By the way,
Home Alone? Perfect? Run right into this firm here. Home
Alone is fantastic. Did you know that Jimmy Stewart was
up for the part of the neighbor Old neighbor Marley
(17:35):
the shovel guy. I did not know that. Yeah, Jimmy Stewart,
he didn't get the part, but yeah, he was supposed
to be up for that. But I mean Home Alone,
my goodness, fantastic movie. I think is awesome.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
You know, I've watched it a few times in the
past few days. It seems like it's just doing rerun repeat,
and every time I'm still tuning in. I'm not changing
the channel. It's just one of those things is very
heartfelt and it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Did you know that Buzz's girlfriend in the frame right,
you know in that scene where they is, it's his
girlfriend and she's in the picture frame. That actually was
a boy that had a wig on. That's how they
did that. Also, Uh, Chris Farley auditioned for the Santa
Claus role and yeah, oh wow, Yeah you smell like
meat and cheese.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
And he didn't get it. Yeah, there's just so many
different things about that. It's one of my absolute favorite movies.
All right, here's the next one. What is your favorite
like keyword cliche? We've heard this year a lot of
pure progression. We've heard simplifying, streamlining, lightning. What's your favorite one.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
You mentioned progression. I think that's one that's always kind
of been with me. I've always been like the positive progression, yeah,
you know, and so that one has really stuck with
me in terms of, like, even it's a small winds,
the amount over time and so just stacking those up
is really is really what it's all about for me.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Uh you know this sound the year there, you're supposed
to do tip? This is our next one number four here.
I believe that it is, uh, you're supposed to tip,
I didn't do you. Are you like a big tipper
like housekeeper, childcare provider, teacher, landscaper, mail carrier, trash collector.
Are you a good tipper? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:20):
Yeah, extremely, I'm always about you know, just uh, in
those good moments when people do a good job, just
showing them that you appreciate them. And so that's certainly
one way that should I tend to do that. And
even sometimes in experiences where are not so nice, I
still tip, And it might seem.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Like just in case they know who you are.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Well, no, people might seem like, oh, well, why would
you tip if you didn't get great service? And I
often try to just use it as a moment to say, hey,
even though you're having a bad day, you know, you
can still get a positive turned into a positive. So
I'll try to do it more as an encouragement thing, like, hey,
you know, have some have some confidence, have some faith
in that it'll turn out in this experience to be great.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
So often tip, whether it's good service of bad us. Yeah,
I mean here at the lookout, I definitely will timp well,
you know, but I honestly I probably a terrible tip, right,
I didn't know you're supposed to tip, like the garbage
guy and stuff like that. But I won't say I
tipped the garbage guy.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I'm typically not there when he picks it up, but
usually any other service where it's interaction and you know,
or I can like leave it on the table or
different things like that, or just track back inside and say, hey,
you know, I appreciate your hair a little something.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I think it's a good gesture. All right, here we go.
Number five four. You played. You played for the Vikings, obviously,
and you played for the Eagles Vikings versus Giants. What
would you say you would you play in New York?
Would you like playing in New York? I've played in
New York.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
A few times I hear a bit of a no,
I'm not a big city guy. Yeah, now, I'm not
a big city guy.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I do like being close to the city for you know,
food purposes and being able to you know, get in
those good restaurants and get out of there if they're
not in the suburbs. But in terms of like the
travel and the traffic, that's not something that I'm particularly so.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Now. When you played with the Eagles, I have to
know them because Vikings fans we love to hate two teams,
Green Bay Packers and definitely the Philadelphia Eagles and the
Eagles fans they're just mean. I mean they have to
grease poles and everything like that, whether they win or lose,
because they're gonna be climbing up, you know, light poles
and everything else. What is it, What was it like
(21:21):
when you played there? Just extremely extremely passionate. Sometimes it
can bowl
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