December 2, 2025 • 24 mins
Maxx Fuller is joined by Will Fries for Vikings Country!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know the failure.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's time for Vikings Country, brought to you by Miller Lte.
Now here's your host of Vikings Country from KFAN and
the Vikings Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Must Welcome to Vikings Country, Live back, Carbonies and a
Rosemow makes some noise.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Carbonies. Appreciate y'all coming out here tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
By the way, we are presented by Miller Lte, the
official beer of your Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Tons of lovely people in.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The crowd tonight, make some noise for yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Who I am not one of those beautiful people. I'm
Max Fuller filling in for mus you know.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I'm Max full Ak Max kil O'Neil ak Froby Bryant
and listen.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Fries are usually the side, but.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Tonight it's the main course because I got my man,
my very special guest, the right guard for the Minnesota
Vikings Will fra.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Ah, Thank you, thank you well.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
No, I just I just made some some food references
in your intro.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
You gotta be sick of that, dealing that with that
your whole life, right, did you just roll your eyes
where you're like, God, this guy?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
No, I mean like it's very fitting for the place
that we're in right now, and I think anytime you're
in a bar pub and you know, pizza's rolling the
fries like it's always a good thing. So I'm like
got a little hungry myself. Yeah, I could definitely use
some French fries right about.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Absolutely. What's your French fry ranking?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Uh, French definitely like waffle French frow, Curly is number two,
Curly is underrated.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And then like it was like.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Fin like shoestring like roughly kind of ones that.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Like, yeah, yeah those are pretty good. Those are those?
What are you seasoning? What?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
What kind of what kind of deal you got with
the I'm definitely dip the fry in a Mayo in
ketchup mixture.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, so I kind of like that you.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Got from the crowd. Shout Mayo, Yeah, make some noise
for Mayo, y'all.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Amazing? I love I love Mayo.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
So yeah, listen, we don't talk a whole lot of
exes and house as you can probably tell about the
start of this interview, I have vikings country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But I do you know, I want to get the
hard part over with.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I got to ask you, so I looked it up
before before the game or before the interview, You've played
and or been involved in something like fifty three professional
games in your NFL career. Yep, Sunday had to be
dead last, right ranked fifty third.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That was that was That was tough.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Yeah, that was extremely tough and not fun to play
in it at all. But I think the good thing
is when you go through something that tough, like you
can obviously only go up from there. I think that
we have a really good locker room and team still,
and that anytime you're kind of fitting to pieces of
you know, new guys and a new team, and it
takes a while for those things to come together. And
(02:39):
with the extreme disappointment that you know, we probably all felt,
you know, I think that it becomes a new driving
force of like, Okay, it's time to figure this thing out.
Time to you know, put a little bit extra in,
do a little bit more that you know, it'd be
something we could build on, you know, for the rest
of the season and then the next upcoming years. So
as disappointing as as it was, I think we need
(02:59):
to find the positives and things that we did do
well and you kind of keep building off of it.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
See there you go hardest part of the interview completely done.
We don't even have to we don't just put that away.
We don't even have to talk about that, because we wanted,
we want to get to know you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Mister.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Is it William William Fries William. You're brand new to
the team. It came here over the summer. You grew
up in Jersey, right, that's correct? So a Jets fan
growing up? Yeah, and be honest with this brother from
New Jersey. I was a Jets fan.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Dad and uncles had season tickets, so you know, grow up,
went to the tailgates and watched.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
A lot of losing football in there.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Yeah, So yeah, that was It was fun of being
a just kind of growing up. But I think kind
of when you realize, you know, in college and at
some point you have a chance to maybe play in
the NFL, these feelings kind of go away, and it's
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
I feel like that part of my life is so
long ago. It's like I have no allegiance to any
team but to where you're at right now, right like
you don't. You're not going to watch a Jets game
on your Sundays, No, never, unless we're playing or preparing
for him now never.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Now're you're something like six six, three hundred.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But did you did you grow up? Were you a
big dude growing up?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Are you one of those dudes that was like I
was five to five and then I hit a growth
spurt and grew into a B sixty six in high school.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
No, I've had a growing up. I've had a weird
kind of growth journey. I've always kind of been this
build and then there's gotten progressively wider and wider. I
grew to something like six four when I was in
eighth grade, and I was like a skinny two five
but kind of had the same build. But I was
so uncoordinated. I mean, couldn't shoot a basketball, couldn't hit
a baseball. So I got delegated to, you know, football
(04:31):
being the main priority, but.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You tried out the other sports. I had a multi sports.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I was on the basketball team, mostly playing against other
tall guys, and was good for a hard five fouls
and the rebounds brought you in for the last thirty seconds,
yeah right, file, And uh learned how to throw the
shot puts. So uh, you know, some of the sports
I grew up loving, didn't I being good at them,
but kind of found my path in that way.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So how how growing up in Jersey?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
How accurate is the show Jersey short of how people
are in Jersey? Is that like a documentary?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Basically?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Uh, it's a definitely a poor insight to New Jersey.
I mean there are those people that is certainly, you know,
a small subset, but I would say something more like
The Sopranos is maybe more accurate to the area of
Jersey that I grew up in. A great show. It's
not my favorite show, my favorite show of all time, He's.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
No doubt about it. They don't they don't make him
like that. No, No, absolutely not.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I mean I think there was a time period I
watched it in college and I probably rewatched it every
year for like six years, so I've seen every episode
six or seven times a leak.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, I feel like everybody. The first time you watch
the show, you don't learn any lessons. You just want
to be like Tony Soprano, you know, like I just
I just wanted to be like Tony Soprano. And then
the second time you watch Shody're like, Okay, I don't
want to be like Tony Soprano.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
He's kind of a bad guy. He is a bad guy.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
And you know, I think that when you rewatch the
show multiple times, you kind of get a little more
insight to obviously the struggle that he goes through, and
you're like, oh, this is kind of a cool guy.
You're rooting for the bad guy and you realize he's actually,
you know, a bad guy, right, But I mean you
also was it's a pretty hilarious show. There's a lot
of funny one liners in the show, funnier than you
think it is when it does not get a credit
(06:02):
for how funny you no it is.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It is basically essentially a comedy.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Now, outside of watching the Sopranos, what do you like
to do for fun outside of football? Because must Musk
told me that the normal host of the show, he said,
offensive linemen are the most interesting people that you could
talk to. He said, also, he added the cab Yet,
you guys are also the grossest that okay that we'll
get to that a little bit later, but he said,
you guys are the most interesting people that you could
that you could interview.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So what do you What do you like to do
outside of football?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
I have a couple of hobbies, number one being Minnesota
is great for these I like love the fish. Oh
heck yeah, yeah, so this is great being here. I've
just got into hunting while i've been here, so that's
kind of been my introduction of Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I got that gotta wou.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
I like to cook a lot, you know, me and
my wife Dang, Yeah, we like to some New Friday's
kind of a tradition, you know, we will cook like
a pasta dish or something like that. She's a much
better cook than I am, but I would like to
have a little bit you Are you a decent cook though?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Where?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What would you rate your skill?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
If you if you had to cook for all these
fine people out here at Carbonies and Roseman, what would
you what would.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You chef up?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
I think I would do some sort of spicy vodka
pepper dish I like to do, and then maybe maybe
like a flash fried fish or something like that to
pair with it, a little squeeze of lemon and capers
on top.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I think it'll be one of my go tos.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That's fancy, doc, It's it's fun. I like you can
get a little creative juices flow when when you're.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Great for sure, because if you would asked me that
I'll just put some chicken nuggets in their frior a
little side of ranch.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That happens a lot too. But so you've gotten a
chance to explore the the outdoors here in Minnesota a lot.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
So yeah, I've been up north a couple of times.
I got to see Trout Lake and did some fishing
up there and kind of hung out. And that was
a cool Labor Day weekend adventure. I got to go
to the north shores of Minnesota. We spent some time
in Duluth, drove up the coast there. You've been all around, Yeah,
it was it was awesome. Got to see Lake Superior
and do all that kind of fun stuff. We did
a sawn up there. We could jump in the lake
(07:44):
after and you'll kind of get frozen in the lakes.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh yeah, it was great. It was super fun.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So I'm kind of gett to see all the sights
and sounds of Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Because I think a lot of guys when you ask him,
like when especially you know athletes, they're like, I don't
really leave the crib, you know, I just stay at home.
I'm playing video games and whatnot. But you you've been
all around Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Like to get out.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yeah, being in a new stating into exports been awesome.
It's super fun and so it's a cool state.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
What do you what do you hunt?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I did pheasant hunting, okay, yeah, shot, No, I was
shooting a lot, but not knocking a lot of birds down.
So I need some more more time on task there
to get better.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
But it's the same thing as fishing, right, It's just
about the vibes.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
It's not the results when you're all about when you're
just out there in the lake and you know, you
just kind of get that peaceful quiet yeah, or maybe
you're just kind of chopping it up with your buddies.
You can't eat it, So it's it's a good, uh
turn off from from reality in life.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Are you going to hit the ice fishing at all
during the during the winter. I would like to try it.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
I've seen, uh, I've seen a lot of these tents
that are pretty warm. It seems like a good, like
you said, vibes time just kicking around. I know this
is a PG show, but looks like you know, there's
some people having some beers and stuff that looks fun.
So yeah, so that's that's really what I It's just
the sky is drinking.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, drinking.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
That makes you feel a little bit more productive. This
is Vikings Country presented by Miller Light Live here at.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Carboni's in Rosemount.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Max Fuller here hanging out with Will Fries, the right
guard for the Minnesota Vikings. That's I was getting ready
for this, for this interview.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I hope that was a woo, not a boo boo woo.
I don't know. I don't know what that was, but
I hope we're gonna We're gonna assume that's a woo.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
I was. I was looking at you Wikipedia, as one
does before doing doing some research. I was asking you
off the air, like, have you ever been to your
own Wikipedia?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Because it has almost nothing dog like.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
It's literally like Will Fries was born, Will Fries was
drafted by the Indianapolis Colts, and Will Fries came to
the Minnesota Vikings during the summer. And the only one
tidbit about your personal life is that it's about you
and your wife.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Is a bell that sounds always suspicious, like maybe she went, she.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Might, we might, we might not get It's a bell
up here to talk about your cooking skills and if
she made the Wikipedia or not.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I would be interested to see if you know, if
the Wikipedia page is so barren, maybe my life is
really boring. Or maybe we can get some people that
know me to kind of fill the apps and put
some interesting tidbits in there.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Well, maybe after this interview, we'll know you a little
bit more. We can fill in that, we can fill
in the gaps there. But as I was reading about you,
you and your wife, you guys got married over the summer.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
How what was that experience? Like, Oh, it was awesome.
You know, we engaged in Ocean City, New Jersey last year.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
How did you do the proposal?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Did you do did you just do the classic just
one day to do the whole romantic thing?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You had planes in the sky, fireworks and all that.
What was the What was the proposal?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
I thought it was extremely romantic, but she'd probably say
it was different.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Uh, easy and tell them the truth after, you know,
Memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
You know, the beach has become very crowd in New Jersey,
and uh when I went to propose, I had lost
my photographer in the crowded people, so we didn't have
any original pictures and there was a lot of people around,
which probably wasn't the preferred method, but uh, you know,
we just did it anyway and end up saying yes anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So it worked out. Spontaneous. That's the real that's the
real love, though it doesn't have to know doubt a condition.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Yeah, I was really trying to, you know, drag it out.
I was looking photographer and I'm walking down the beach
looking at my left, look at my right.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I'm like, I can't find him like this.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
I'm trying to find distractions, like, hey, isn't that beautiful
over there?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And eventually I'm like, I just have to do this.
I gotta do it. I just had to pull the
trigger on. Were you nervous?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I mean, you're a guy that that goes out there
in big spots every single week, playing out there in
the national football legue.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
But that's something that that's a universe. You gotta be
a little nervous, right, Oh definitely.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
I was nervous concerning the fact that I lost my
photographer and I was trying to hide the box in
my you know, front pocket, Yeah, with a pizza box.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, I was a little nervous, but uh, it worked out.
How'd you guys, do the wedding. Was it a big
affair fan you know, just oh we only you got
island destination kind of wedding. What was the wedding?
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, wedding was awesome. I got married back to New Jersey, Pleasantdale,
shut show. Shout out to Fred Fog he do good,
a great job putting that thing together.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
But yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
We both have big families, so you know, we had
to to fifty three hundred people something like that, tons
of great food. I mean, the dancing, the band was great.
I mean, the whole thing was just amazing. It was
dream come true for for me, I'm sure for her.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Like it was. It was the best, you know, night
of our lives. It was. It was amazing. Shout out
to it.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Well, she's in shout out tonight here at Carboni's en Bros.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Mount. We love that.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I'm curious. I was reading an interview with with some
of your teammates. It was kind of like your introductory
thing on Vikings dot com and and one of your
teammates said that you postponed the honeymoon just because you
were so locked in on the NFL season. Is that
is that true? Yeah, it is true. You looked down
as you say that the temple, and I looked down
(12:38):
as you say that.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
You know, she's probably not too happy about it. But uh,
you know, credit to my wife. She uh, you know,
sucked it up and we're gonna do something fun this year.
But uh, last year, you know, through free agency, that
was coming off of a fracture tibia and wasn't fully healed.
You know, obviously, you know, things didn't really go as
playing in the off season. You know, you have a
big wedding and all this stuff, and you're kind of
(12:59):
trying to navigate coming back from you know, a pretty
significant injury.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You want to get back to the start of the
year even think about that. So you we weren't down
there when you were down the aisle with the Okay
you did that.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It was pretty close to crushes, but you know, we
found a way to get healed up enough to walk
down the aisle.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's a goal, right, I don't want to go down
on the crutches.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
But at that point, there was still a lot of
work to do to get back for the year. So yeah,
we just ended up going to avalon New Jersey for
a couple of weeks, and you know, trained down there,
did some pet down there what I could, But it
was all worth it because I was able to go
back for the year and start the year off healthy.
And uh so, yeah, she shout out to my wife
for putting up with me. For that shout out to
(13:38):
and yeah, you mentioned it. You you went through a
broken like.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I got it.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
When people when you hear the phrase go out there
and break like you WinCE a little bit now and
you're like.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
As I was coming up here, my wife told me
to go up there and break a lot guys, So
that's not that funny.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
But not again with that healing process.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
That had to have been the most significant injury of
your Yeah, it was kind of one of the most
significant injuries you can have, period.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
No doubt.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Had never really had a long term injury before, so
it was kind of new to me. And when you
break your leg in that time go into the freegency,
you don't really know what's gonna happen. Yeah, but it's
kind of weird, how you know, just the kind of
I guess my personality whatever. It's like you find this
new goal of like, Okay, all I have to do
is rehab this leg and right, so it becomes kind
of your new mission in life. And you know, for
nine months to a year, that's all it could was
(14:21):
focused on was rehabbing the leg the best I could do,
multiple treatments a day, multiple rehabs, doing everything I could could,
reaching out to different resources to figure out how to
help as fast as possible. And you know, the Vikings
training staff here, you know, Matt dew Hammill and Tyler
Williams and those guys did a great job of, you know,
help me get back on the field, so that you know,
they're the real kind of you know, m vps of.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
This year.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
And it's kind of it's been your hard work has
paid off because you've been you've been like the face
of stability for this Minnesota Vikings team so far. I
saw your teammates and your coaches referred to as a rock.
Not the rock that's Dwayne Johnson, but a rock on
the team. And because of your ability to stay on
the field kind of consistently for the team to played
every game so far the season, I believe do you
find yourself even though you're a new guy, do you
(15:03):
find yourself in kind of more of like a leadership
role because of that consistency being on the field when
there's been so much shuffling with the offensive line this season.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Yeah, I'll say, first thing, if you're gonna start calling
me the rock, I'm not gonna stop you there. That's
I think Wes Phillips called me a tree stump at
one point, so that was funny.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, But all jokes aside.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Like, you know, I do take a lot of pride
in being on the field and playing as you know,
as much as I can. You know, obviously I don't
take it for granted basically everything that's happened to me. Yeah,
and I take a lot of party in being a
leader on the team, like I you know, like you said,
new guy to the team and still learning the guys,
and but like it's important that you know, no matter
who's out there, you know, you're always encouraging your teammates,
and you know, I think offensive linemen are no one's
(15:44):
harder on ourselves than us. And obviously at the position
you face a lot of criticism and no one really ever,
you know, cheers you on.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It's kind of right a good and nobody anything.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Yeah, but that's okay, that's what we sign up for Yeah,
but you know, I think we they're just within the
community of guys like, Okay, we know what we're up
against and we just try to do our best every
week to help the team and no matter who's out there,
and we've had a lot of different line combinations and
it's it's been tough. But I think every time that
you go through those tough things, you get a little
bit better, a little bit better. And those guys that
are you know, playing maybe for the first time and
(16:15):
they get their chance again, like, they just get a
little bit better every time. So right, Yeah, we have
a good group and it's just, you know, like I said,
kind of where it's still coming together and gelling together
as a whole cohesive thing.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Right because there's all these different guys in and now
and like you said, there's a lot of new guys.
You're getting to know each other and stuff like who
when you when you first came to the Vikings, who
is your first friend on the team?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah, I had a kind of a built in friend,
Ryan Kelly, also covered with cold though, you know, coming
in with him was was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You know, it was kind of a cheat.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Code, right, Yeah, Right, at least you have one, like
when you're in that one class and you don't know
anybody who was, like, at least I.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Got my one. That's exactly what it was like.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
But the good thing about this team is there's so
many good guys, like it becomes you've become integrated really fast,
like between Brian O'Neill and Blake Brandle, you know, Christian
Deisol like all those guys. They bring you in so quick,
but you know there they've been the main stays here
and been here for a while, and you know, they
brought me in like one of their own. So it's
become pretty fun, like becoming friends with them and playing
with them and oh, you know all those kind of things.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I think so far you've lived up to what the
usual host Mike Musman says. You're a pretty interesting guy.
Will he said, offensive Lineman, some of the most interesting
guys you can talk.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
To, but also the grossest. What's the grossest thing about you?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'm definitely a heavy sweater, pretty gross, I think, you know.
Brian would say the same thing. Playing next to me
isn't always the most fun because of how sweaty I
I could get in the huddle, So I would say
that's probably the number one grossest thing about me is
it's just a profusively heavy sweater.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What's like one of the grossest things about one of
your one of your offensive line.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mates that that's really tough.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
I think just as being big, sweaty guys during the
summer and like the training camp, like just the stench
of gloves and elbow pads. Like, I don't want to
ruin anyone else's meal here while they're eating. It's like
there's a lot of really pizza being had. But that's
probably as far as we'll go with it. Yeah, that's
probably That's probably where we're today.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
We've got people eating all types of good food here
at Carboni's in rose Mount. Once again, this is Vikings
Country presented by Miller Lite.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
We got the five.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Typically stupid Vikings Country questions. Don't say that five times fast.
We might get in trouble and have to bleep something out.
We got that coming up next. I know that's a
fan favorite. Must usually does that. I don't want to
change anything up. That's our next segment. It may be
our last, but you still got time to come out
here to Carbonis in Rosemont.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Stop on out here and try to win a little
some some.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
We got all types of prizes, including tickets to this
weekend's game I believe against the Washington Commanders. So come
on out here. We're here until eight thirty. You can
come and hang out with us at Carboni's in rosemount
So there's plenty of stuff happening here in rose Mountain.
Before I go to break, I just want to say
Minnesota needed a go to source for everything high school sports.
(18:48):
That's why the Minnesota Starts Tribune created Strib Varsity. Sign
up now at startribune dot com slash strib Varsity.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
This is Vikings Country.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
We got plenty more where that came from right here
on the fence, and.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
It's time for Vikings Country, brought to you by Miller Lite.
Now here's your host of Vikings Country from KFAN and
the Vikings Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
MUSS Welcome back to Vikings Country, presented by Miller Light,
the official beer of your Minnesota Vikings Max Full here
live at Carboni's in a rows mound. Bunch of beautiful
people in the crowd tonight, including my good friend I.
I think we're good friends. Now it's not first right
(19:34):
become good friends.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think so. Yeah, right guard for the Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Vikings, Will FRI's number seventy six, and there's no there's
no meaning behind the number. Some guys, you know, it's
like that this is my number from from high school
and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
But you were, you were seventy five with Indianapolis. There's
no special meaning behind the number.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah, so they just gave that to me. It was
a seventh rounder. I think you kind of get where
you can take it right when when I got here,
I picked seventy six. Was close seventy five. But also,
you know, really great guard for the Vikings, Steve Hutchinson,
you know, try to make the number proud and play
the best I can. So hopefully, you know, I can
try to live on that legacy of good guard play
from him. So yeah, that was kind of the thought
(20:12):
process behind picking seventy six when I got here.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Heck, yeah, and I want I want to ask you
about about getting picked late in the NFL draft, But
real quick before I say that, I just want to say,
join a pa in Alex Lewis this Friday, December fifth
at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Savage for the Friday
Football Fees presented by cores light. Visit Vikings dot com
slash b w W for full schedule and details. Now
(20:37):
will before we get into the five typically stupid Vikings
Country questions, what was that? What was that experience? Like
getting picked so late in the draft. Was there a
point where you're kind of like it's awkward?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I don't know if I did you ever worry that
you weren't going to get that call? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (20:52):
So, I mean I watched the entire draft start to
finish with my wife. You know, I was like, I
knew I wasn't going in the first or second round,
but I watched it anyway. Yeah, and the third day
was extremely long.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And did you have like a food on at the
crib just in case? Did you have like a good
outfit ready to go?
Speaker 5 (21:07):
We had a small draft party with my family, uh,
you know, my wife, my couple of my friends, and
you know, you're kind of watching, you have an idea
of what teams might pick you, and then starts going
to fifth and the sixth round like maybe I got
a chance here, and then the call start coming in
of like oh this maybe you're getting drafted. They're trying to,
you know, recruit you to to sign free. So at
(21:31):
that point, you know, I was getting kind of sick
and I was like, dang, this might not happen, but
it was obviously lucky enough. I think it was picked
two thirty something pretty far towards the end there. I
was the last lineman picked in our draft, and I
will never forget that because when I was finished up
my first year with Indy, I was talking to Chris
Ballard and kind of our end of the year meetings,
(21:53):
and he said to me, you know, you were the
last line and picked, but I think you have a
real shot out beating the best.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And wow, that kind of had to go a long way.
It did.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
It was kind of one of those things where I
feel like the way I'm motivated is I like to
prove people wrong that didn't believe me along the way,
and I would also like to believe, you know, kind
of proved people the right that did believe in me.
And he was somebody that you know, obviously drafted me
and had my back, and I really wanted to prove
him right and become the best lineman that I possibly
could for not only the team, my teammates, but to
kind of prove him right so well, You've proved the.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Doubters wrong, all the all the haters are wrong, and
we're happy that you're here, Will, but you might not
be happy that year after these five typically stupid vikings
country questions, and we only got a couple of minutes left.
Brett Blake Moore's probably laughing back in the studio. I'm
notorious for this type of stuff, So I'm gonna try
to get to I'm gonna try to get to the
most interesting one quick.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
The Oxford Dictionary they revealed recently that their word of
twenty twenty five is rage bait.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Now, for the old people out there, that's not anything dirty.
It just means.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
It just means to intentionally anger somebody, teasing, you know,
purposely saying something controversial that you know is going to
get people mad, or maybe even trash talking, which leads
me to my question, who is the best trash talker
that you've experience in your NFL career so far?
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Oh, that one's pretty easy. I think it's Jeffrey Simmons.
Really yeah, Jeffrey Simmons, the d tackle Fornes for the
Tennessee Titans, is a very good trash talker. So anytime
anyone's preparing to play him, No, he will talk to you.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's in the profile. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Brandon Graham was also a very good trash talker. We
put the Eagles in twenty twenty two. He talked NonStop,
so that was pretty funny. I usually don't trash talk
or say how's your trash talking about? Does it?
Speaker 4 (23:26):
It's gotta come out every now and then, though, right
pancake a guy, it's like yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And sometimes it can.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
I think it drives the lineman workers when you don't
say anything back to that and then you just good
point give them a dead stare.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Who's the best trash talker on the team on.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
The team, man, I think Donovan Jackson got going pretty good,
you know, for a rookie to have that kind of
much fire and energy.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know we're playing Detroit and get a big win.
There he was.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
He was talking some good trash so he was used
pretty funny. I'll give it to Donna the Donnie there.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
We only got through one of the five typically stupid
Bikings country Quest, but we appreciate you either way for
joining us out here. Right card for the Minnesota Vikings
Will Fries.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Everybody give it up for Will Fries.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Thank you, it's nice to meet you, dog NICs for
coming out here tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
How's your dat game? You gotta have a good DAP game, right, oh?
You and that you gotta have a good dap game.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Dog. Thank you for joining us for this week's edition
of Vikings Country, presented by Miller Lite, the official beer
of your Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I'm sure Mike must will be.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Back in action wherever Vikings Country is at next week,
but for now you'll be listening to the Minnesota Wild
on k f A and peace out, y'all.
You know the failure.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's time for Vikings Country, brought to you by Miller Lte.
Now here's your host of Vikings Country from KFAN and
the Vikings Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Must Welcome to Vikings Country, Live back, Carbonies and a
Rosemow makes some noise.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Carbonies. Appreciate y'all coming out here tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
By the way, we are presented by Miller Lte, the
official beer of your Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Tons of lovely people in.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The crowd tonight, make some noise for yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Who I am not one of those beautiful people. I'm
Max Fuller filling in for mus you know.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I'm Max full Ak Max kil O'Neil ak Froby Bryant
and listen.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Fries are usually the side, but.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Tonight it's the main course because I got my man,
my very special guest, the right guard for the Minnesota
Vikings Will fra.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Ah, Thank you, thank you well.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
No, I just I just made some some food references
in your intro.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
You gotta be sick of that, dealing that with that
your whole life, right, did you just roll your eyes
where you're like, God, this guy?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
No, I mean like it's very fitting for the place
that we're in right now, and I think anytime you're
in a bar pub and you know, pizza's rolling the
fries like it's always a good thing. So I'm like
got a little hungry myself. Yeah, I could definitely use
some French fries right about.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Absolutely. What's your French fry ranking?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Uh, French definitely like waffle French frow, Curly is number two,
Curly is underrated.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And then like it was like.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Fin like shoestring like roughly kind of ones that.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Like, yeah, yeah those are pretty good. Those are those?
What are you seasoning? What?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
What kind of what kind of deal you got with
the I'm definitely dip the fry in a Mayo in
ketchup mixture.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, so I kind of like that you.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Got from the crowd. Shout Mayo, Yeah, make some noise
for Mayo, y'all.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Amazing? I love I love Mayo.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
So yeah, listen, we don't talk a whole lot of
exes and house as you can probably tell about the
start of this interview, I have vikings country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But I do you know, I want to get the
hard part over with.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I got to ask you, so I looked it up
before before the game or before the interview, You've played
and or been involved in something like fifty three professional
games in your NFL career. Yep, Sunday had to be
dead last, right ranked fifty third.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That was that was That was tough.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Yeah, that was extremely tough and not fun to play
in it at all. But I think the good thing
is when you go through something that tough, like you
can obviously only go up from there. I think that
we have a really good locker room and team still,
and that anytime you're kind of fitting to pieces of
you know, new guys and a new team, and it
takes a while for those things to come together. And
(02:39):
with the extreme disappointment that you know, we probably all felt,
you know, I think that it becomes a new driving
force of like, Okay, it's time to figure this thing out.
Time to you know, put a little bit extra in,
do a little bit more that you know, it'd be
something we could build on, you know, for the rest
of the season and then the next upcoming years. So
as disappointing as as it was, I think we need
(02:59):
to find the positives and things that we did do
well and you kind of keep building off of it.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
See there you go hardest part of the interview completely done.
We don't even have to we don't just put that away.
We don't even have to talk about that, because we wanted,
we want to get to know you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Mister.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Is it William William Fries William. You're brand new to
the team. It came here over the summer. You grew
up in Jersey, right, that's correct? So a Jets fan
growing up? Yeah, and be honest with this brother from
New Jersey. I was a Jets fan.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Dad and uncles had season tickets, so you know, grow up,
went to the tailgates and watched.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
A lot of losing football in there.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Yeah, So yeah, that was It was fun of being
a just kind of growing up. But I think kind
of when you realize, you know, in college and at
some point you have a chance to maybe play in
the NFL, these feelings kind of go away, and it's
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
I feel like that part of my life is so
long ago. It's like I have no allegiance to any
team but to where you're at right now, right like
you don't. You're not going to watch a Jets game
on your Sundays, No, never, unless we're playing or preparing
for him now never.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Now're you're something like six six, three hundred.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But did you did you grow up? Were you a
big dude growing up?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Are you one of those dudes that was like I
was five to five and then I hit a growth
spurt and grew into a B sixty six in high school.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
No, I've had a growing up. I've had a weird
kind of growth journey. I've always kind of been this
build and then there's gotten progressively wider and wider. I
grew to something like six four when I was in
eighth grade, and I was like a skinny two five
but kind of had the same build. But I was
so uncoordinated. I mean, couldn't shoot a basketball, couldn't hit
a baseball. So I got delegated to, you know, football
(04:31):
being the main priority, but.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You tried out the other sports. I had a multi sports.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I was on the basketball team, mostly playing against other
tall guys, and was good for a hard five fouls
and the rebounds brought you in for the last thirty seconds,
yeah right, file, And uh learned how to throw the
shot puts. So uh, you know, some of the sports
I grew up loving, didn't I being good at them,
but kind of found my path in that way.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So how how growing up in Jersey?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
How accurate is the show Jersey short of how people
are in Jersey? Is that like a documentary?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Basically?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Uh, it's a definitely a poor insight to New Jersey.
I mean there are those people that is certainly, you know,
a small subset, but I would say something more like
The Sopranos is maybe more accurate to the area of
Jersey that I grew up in. A great show. It's
not my favorite show, my favorite show of all time, He's.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
No doubt about it. They don't they don't make him
like that. No, No, absolutely not.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I mean I think there was a time period I
watched it in college and I probably rewatched it every
year for like six years, so I've seen every episode
six or seven times a leak.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, I feel like everybody. The first time you watch
the show, you don't learn any lessons. You just want
to be like Tony Soprano, you know, like I just
I just wanted to be like Tony Soprano. And then
the second time you watch Shody're like, Okay, I don't
want to be like Tony Soprano.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
He's kind of a bad guy. He is a bad guy.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
And you know, I think that when you rewatch the
show multiple times, you kind of get a little more
insight to obviously the struggle that he goes through, and
you're like, oh, this is kind of a cool guy.
You're rooting for the bad guy and you realize he's actually,
you know, a bad guy, right, But I mean you
also was it's a pretty hilarious show. There's a lot
of funny one liners in the show, funnier than you
think it is when it does not get a credit
(06:02):
for how funny you no it is.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It is basically essentially a comedy.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Now, outside of watching the Sopranos, what do you like
to do for fun outside of football? Because must Musk
told me that the normal host of the show, he said,
offensive linemen are the most interesting people that you could
talk to. He said, also, he added the cab Yet,
you guys are also the grossest that okay that we'll
get to that a little bit later, but he said,
you guys are the most interesting people that you could
that you could interview.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So what do you What do you like to do
outside of football?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
I have a couple of hobbies, number one being Minnesota
is great for these I like love the fish. Oh
heck yeah, yeah, so this is great being here. I've
just got into hunting while i've been here, so that's
kind of been my introduction of Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I got that gotta wou.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
I like to cook a lot, you know, me and
my wife Dang, Yeah, we like to some New Friday's
kind of a tradition, you know, we will cook like
a pasta dish or something like that. She's a much
better cook than I am, but I would like to
have a little bit you Are you a decent cook though?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Where?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What would you rate your skill?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
If you if you had to cook for all these
fine people out here at Carbonies and Roseman, what would
you what would.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You chef up?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
I think I would do some sort of spicy vodka
pepper dish I like to do, and then maybe maybe
like a flash fried fish or something like that to
pair with it, a little squeeze of lemon and capers
on top.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I think it'll be one of my go tos.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That's fancy, doc, It's it's fun. I like you can
get a little creative juices flow when when you're.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Great for sure, because if you would asked me that
I'll just put some chicken nuggets in their frior a
little side of ranch.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That happens a lot too. But so you've gotten a
chance to explore the the outdoors here in Minnesota a lot.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
So yeah, I've been up north a couple of times.
I got to see Trout Lake and did some fishing
up there and kind of hung out. And that was
a cool Labor Day weekend adventure. I got to go
to the north shores of Minnesota. We spent some time
in Duluth, drove up the coast there. You've been all around, Yeah,
it was it was awesome. Got to see Lake Superior
and do all that kind of fun stuff. We did
a sawn up there. We could jump in the lake
(07:44):
after and you'll kind of get frozen in the lakes.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh yeah, it was great. It was super fun.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So I'm kind of gett to see all the sights
and sounds of Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Because I think a lot of guys when you ask him,
like when especially you know athletes, they're like, I don't
really leave the crib, you know, I just stay at home.
I'm playing video games and whatnot. But you you've been
all around Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Like to get out.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yeah, being in a new stating into exports been awesome.
It's super fun and so it's a cool state.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
What do you what do you hunt?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I did pheasant hunting, okay, yeah, shot, No, I was
shooting a lot, but not knocking a lot of birds down.
So I need some more more time on task there
to get better.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
But it's the same thing as fishing, right, It's just
about the vibes.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
It's not the results when you're all about when you're
just out there in the lake and you know, you
just kind of get that peaceful quiet yeah, or maybe
you're just kind of chopping it up with your buddies.
You can't eat it, So it's it's a good, uh
turn off from from reality in life.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Are you going to hit the ice fishing at all
during the during the winter. I would like to try it.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
I've seen, uh, I've seen a lot of these tents
that are pretty warm. It seems like a good, like
you said, vibes time just kicking around. I know this
is a PG show, but looks like you know, there's
some people having some beers and stuff that looks fun.
So yeah, so that's that's really what I It's just
the sky is drinking.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, drinking.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
That makes you feel a little bit more productive. This
is Vikings Country presented by Miller Light Live here at.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Carboni's in Rosemount.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Max Fuller here hanging out with Will Fries, the right
guard for the Minnesota Vikings. That's I was getting ready
for this, for this interview.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I hope that was a woo, not a boo boo woo.
I don't know. I don't know what that was, but
I hope we're gonna We're gonna assume that's a woo.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
I was. I was looking at you Wikipedia, as one
does before doing doing some research. I was asking you
off the air, like, have you ever been to your
own Wikipedia?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Because it has almost nothing dog like.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
It's literally like Will Fries was born, Will Fries was
drafted by the Indianapolis Colts, and Will Fries came to
the Minnesota Vikings during the summer. And the only one
tidbit about your personal life is that it's about you
and your wife.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Is a bell that sounds always suspicious, like maybe she went, she.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Might, we might, we might not get It's a bell
up here to talk about your cooking skills and if
she made the Wikipedia or not.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I would be interested to see if you know, if
the Wikipedia page is so barren, maybe my life is
really boring. Or maybe we can get some people that
know me to kind of fill the apps and put
some interesting tidbits in there.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Well, maybe after this interview, we'll know you a little
bit more. We can fill in that, we can fill
in the gaps there. But as I was reading about you,
you and your wife, you guys got married over the summer.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
How what was that experience? Like, Oh, it was awesome.
You know, we engaged in Ocean City, New Jersey last year.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
How did you do the proposal?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Did you do did you just do the classic just
one day to do the whole romantic thing?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You had planes in the sky, fireworks and all that.
What was the What was the proposal?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
I thought it was extremely romantic, but she'd probably say
it was different.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Uh, easy and tell them the truth after, you know,
Memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
You know, the beach has become very crowd in New Jersey,
and uh when I went to propose, I had lost
my photographer in the crowded people, so we didn't have
any original pictures and there was a lot of people around,
which probably wasn't the preferred method, but uh, you know,
we just did it anyway and end up saying yes anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So it worked out. Spontaneous. That's the real that's the
real love, though it doesn't have to know doubt a condition.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Yeah, I was really trying to, you know, drag it out.
I was looking photographer and I'm walking down the beach
looking at my left, look at my right.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I'm like, I can't find him like this.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
I'm trying to find distractions, like, hey, isn't that beautiful
over there?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And eventually I'm like, I just have to do this.
I gotta do it. I just had to pull the
trigger on. Were you nervous?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I mean, you're a guy that that goes out there
in big spots every single week, playing out there in
the national football legue.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
But that's something that that's a universe. You gotta be
a little nervous, right, Oh definitely.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
I was nervous concerning the fact that I lost my
photographer and I was trying to hide the box in
my you know, front pocket, Yeah, with a pizza box.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, I was a little nervous, but uh, it worked out.
How'd you guys, do the wedding. Was it a big
affair fan you know, just oh we only you got
island destination kind of wedding. What was the wedding?
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, wedding was awesome. I got married back to New Jersey, Pleasantdale,
shut show. Shout out to Fred Fog he do good,
a great job putting that thing together.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
But yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
We both have big families, so you know, we had
to to fifty three hundred people something like that, tons
of great food. I mean, the dancing, the band was great.
I mean, the whole thing was just amazing. It was
dream come true for for me, I'm sure for her.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Like it was. It was the best, you know, night
of our lives. It was. It was amazing. Shout out
to it.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Well, she's in shout out tonight here at Carboni's en Bros.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Mount. We love that.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I'm curious. I was reading an interview with with some
of your teammates. It was kind of like your introductory
thing on Vikings dot com and and one of your
teammates said that you postponed the honeymoon just because you
were so locked in on the NFL season. Is that
is that true? Yeah, it is true. You looked down
as you say that the temple, and I looked down
(12:38):
as you say that.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
You know, she's probably not too happy about it. But uh,
you know, credit to my wife. She uh, you know,
sucked it up and we're gonna do something fun this year.
But uh, last year, you know, through free agency, that
was coming off of a fracture tibia and wasn't fully healed.
You know, obviously, you know, things didn't really go as
playing in the off season. You know, you have a
big wedding and all this stuff, and you're kind of
(12:59):
trying to navigate coming back from you know, a pretty
significant injury.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You want to get back to the start of the
year even think about that. So you we weren't down
there when you were down the aisle with the Okay
you did that.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It was pretty close to crushes, but you know, we
found a way to get healed up enough to walk
down the aisle.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's a goal, right, I don't want to go down
on the crutches.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
But at that point, there was still a lot of
work to do to get back for the year. So yeah,
we just ended up going to avalon New Jersey for
a couple of weeks, and you know, trained down there,
did some pet down there what I could, But it
was all worth it because I was able to go
back for the year and start the year off healthy.
And uh so, yeah, she shout out to my wife
for putting up with me. For that shout out to
(13:38):
and yeah, you mentioned it. You you went through a
broken like.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I got it.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
When people when you hear the phrase go out there
and break like you WinCE a little bit now and
you're like.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
As I was coming up here, my wife told me
to go up there and break a lot guys, So
that's not that funny.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
But not again with that healing process.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
That had to have been the most significant injury of
your Yeah, it was kind of one of the most
significant injuries you can have, period.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
No doubt.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Had never really had a long term injury before, so
it was kind of new to me. And when you
break your leg in that time go into the freegency,
you don't really know what's gonna happen. Yeah, but it's
kind of weird, how you know, just the kind of
I guess my personality whatever. It's like you find this
new goal of like, Okay, all I have to do
is rehab this leg and right, so it becomes kind
of your new mission in life. And you know, for
nine months to a year, that's all it could was
(14:21):
focused on was rehabbing the leg the best I could do,
multiple treatments a day, multiple rehabs, doing everything I could could,
reaching out to different resources to figure out how to
help as fast as possible. And you know, the Vikings
training staff here, you know, Matt dew Hammill and Tyler
Williams and those guys did a great job of, you know,
help me get back on the field, so that you know,
they're the real kind of you know, m vps of.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
This year.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
And it's kind of it's been your hard work has
paid off because you've been you've been like the face
of stability for this Minnesota Vikings team so far. I
saw your teammates and your coaches referred to as a rock.
Not the rock that's Dwayne Johnson, but a rock on
the team. And because of your ability to stay on
the field kind of consistently for the team to played
every game so far the season, I believe do you
find yourself even though you're a new guy, do you
(15:03):
find yourself in kind of more of like a leadership
role because of that consistency being on the field when
there's been so much shuffling with the offensive line this season.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Yeah, I'll say, first thing, if you're gonna start calling
me the rock, I'm not gonna stop you there. That's
I think Wes Phillips called me a tree stump at
one point, so that was funny.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, But all jokes aside.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Like, you know, I do take a lot of pride
in being on the field and playing as you know,
as much as I can. You know, obviously I don't
take it for granted basically everything that's happened to me. Yeah,
and I take a lot of party in being a
leader on the team, like I you know, like you said,
new guy to the team and still learning the guys,
and but like it's important that you know, no matter
who's out there, you know, you're always encouraging your teammates,
and you know, I think offensive linemen are no one's
(15:44):
harder on ourselves than us. And obviously at the position
you face a lot of criticism and no one really ever,
you know, cheers you on.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It's kind of right a good and nobody anything.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Yeah, but that's okay, that's what we sign up for Yeah,
but you know, I think we they're just within the
community of guys like, Okay, we know what we're up
against and we just try to do our best every
week to help the team and no matter who's out there,
and we've had a lot of different line combinations and
it's it's been tough. But I think every time that
you go through those tough things, you get a little
bit better, a little bit better. And those guys that
are you know, playing maybe for the first time and
(16:15):
they get their chance again, like, they just get a
little bit better every time. So right, Yeah, we have
a good group and it's just, you know, like I said,
kind of where it's still coming together and gelling together
as a whole cohesive thing.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Right because there's all these different guys in and now
and like you said, there's a lot of new guys.
You're getting to know each other and stuff like who
when you when you first came to the Vikings, who
is your first friend on the team?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah, I had a kind of a built in friend,
Ryan Kelly, also covered with cold though, you know, coming
in with him was was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You know, it was kind of a cheat.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Code, right, Yeah, Right, at least you have one, like
when you're in that one class and you don't know
anybody who was, like, at least I.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Got my one. That's exactly what it was like.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
But the good thing about this team is there's so
many good guys, like it becomes you've become integrated really fast,
like between Brian O'Neill and Blake Brandle, you know, Christian
Deisol like all those guys. They bring you in so quick,
but you know there they've been the main stays here
and been here for a while, and you know, they
brought me in like one of their own. So it's
become pretty fun, like becoming friends with them and playing
with them and oh, you know all those kind of things.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I think so far you've lived up to what the
usual host Mike Musman says. You're a pretty interesting guy.
Will he said, offensive Lineman, some of the most interesting
guys you can talk.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
To, but also the grossest. What's the grossest thing about you?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'm definitely a heavy sweater, pretty gross, I think, you know.
Brian would say the same thing. Playing next to me
isn't always the most fun because of how sweaty I
I could get in the huddle, So I would say
that's probably the number one grossest thing about me is
it's just a profusively heavy sweater.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What's like one of the grossest things about one of
your one of your offensive line.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mates that that's really tough.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
I think just as being big, sweaty guys during the
summer and like the training camp, like just the stench
of gloves and elbow pads. Like, I don't want to
ruin anyone else's meal here while they're eating. It's like
there's a lot of really pizza being had. But that's
probably as far as we'll go with it. Yeah, that's
probably That's probably where we're today.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
We've got people eating all types of good food here
at Carboni's in rose Mount. Once again, this is Vikings
Country presented by Miller Lite.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
We got the five.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Typically stupid Vikings Country questions. Don't say that five times fast.
We might get in trouble and have to bleep something out.
We got that coming up next. I know that's a
fan favorite. Must usually does that. I don't want to
change anything up. That's our next segment. It may be
our last, but you still got time to come out
here to Carbonis in Rosemont.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Stop on out here and try to win a little
some some.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
We got all types of prizes, including tickets to this
weekend's game I believe against the Washington Commanders. So come
on out here. We're here until eight thirty. You can
come and hang out with us at Carboni's in rosemount
So there's plenty of stuff happening here in rose Mountain.
Before I go to break, I just want to say
Minnesota needed a go to source for everything high school sports.
(18:48):
That's why the Minnesota Starts Tribune created Strib Varsity. Sign
up now at startribune dot com slash strib Varsity.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
This is Vikings Country.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
We got plenty more where that came from right here
on the fence, and.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
It's time for Vikings Country, brought to you by Miller Lite.
Now here's your host of Vikings Country from KFAN and
the Vikings Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
MUSS Welcome back to Vikings Country, presented by Miller Light,
the official beer of your Minnesota Vikings Max Full here
live at Carboni's in a rows mound. Bunch of beautiful
people in the crowd tonight, including my good friend I.
I think we're good friends. Now it's not first right
(19:34):
become good friends.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think so. Yeah, right guard for the Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Vikings, Will FRI's number seventy six, and there's no there's
no meaning behind the number. Some guys, you know, it's
like that this is my number from from high school
and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
But you were, you were seventy five with Indianapolis. There's
no special meaning behind the number.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah, so they just gave that to me. It was
a seventh rounder. I think you kind of get where
you can take it right when when I got here,
I picked seventy six. Was close seventy five. But also,
you know, really great guard for the Vikings, Steve Hutchinson,
you know, try to make the number proud and play
the best I can. So hopefully, you know, I can
try to live on that legacy of good guard play
from him. So yeah, that was kind of the thought
(20:12):
process behind picking seventy six when I got here.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Heck, yeah, and I want I want to ask you
about about getting picked late in the NFL draft, But
real quick before I say that, I just want to say,
join a pa in Alex Lewis this Friday, December fifth
at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Savage for the Friday
Football Fees presented by cores light. Visit Vikings dot com
slash b w W for full schedule and details. Now
(20:37):
will before we get into the five typically stupid Vikings
Country questions, what was that? What was that experience? Like
getting picked so late in the draft. Was there a
point where you're kind of like it's awkward?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I don't know if I did you ever worry that
you weren't going to get that call? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (20:52):
So, I mean I watched the entire draft start to
finish with my wife. You know, I was like, I
knew I wasn't going in the first or second round,
but I watched it anyway. Yeah, and the third day
was extremely long.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And did you have like a food on at the
crib just in case? Did you have like a good
outfit ready to go?
Speaker 5 (21:07):
We had a small draft party with my family, uh,
you know, my wife, my couple of my friends, and
you know, you're kind of watching, you have an idea
of what teams might pick you, and then starts going
to fifth and the sixth round like maybe I got
a chance here, and then the call start coming in
of like oh this maybe you're getting drafted. They're trying to,
you know, recruit you to to sign free. So at
(21:31):
that point, you know, I was getting kind of sick
and I was like, dang, this might not happen, but
it was obviously lucky enough. I think it was picked
two thirty something pretty far towards the end there. I
was the last lineman picked in our draft, and I
will never forget that because when I was finished up
my first year with Indy, I was talking to Chris
Ballard and kind of our end of the year meetings,
(21:53):
and he said to me, you know, you were the
last line and picked, but I think you have a
real shot out beating the best.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And wow, that kind of had to go a long way.
It did.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
It was kind of one of those things where I
feel like the way I'm motivated is I like to
prove people wrong that didn't believe me along the way,
and I would also like to believe, you know, kind
of proved people the right that did believe in me.
And he was somebody that you know, obviously drafted me
and had my back, and I really wanted to prove
him right and become the best lineman that I possibly
could for not only the team, my teammates, but to
kind of prove him right so well, You've proved the.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Doubters wrong, all the all the haters are wrong, and
we're happy that you're here, Will, but you might not
be happy that year after these five typically stupid vikings
country questions, and we only got a couple of minutes left.
Brett Blake Moore's probably laughing back in the studio. I'm
notorious for this type of stuff, So I'm gonna try
to get to I'm gonna try to get to the
most interesting one quick.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
The Oxford Dictionary they revealed recently that their word of
twenty twenty five is rage bait.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Now, for the old people out there, that's not anything dirty.
It just means.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
It just means to intentionally anger somebody, teasing, you know,
purposely saying something controversial that you know is going to
get people mad, or maybe even trash talking, which leads
me to my question, who is the best trash talker
that you've experience in your NFL career so far?
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Oh, that one's pretty easy. I think it's Jeffrey Simmons.
Really yeah, Jeffrey Simmons, the d tackle Fornes for the
Tennessee Titans, is a very good trash talker. So anytime
anyone's preparing to play him, No, he will talk to you.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's in the profile. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Brandon Graham was also a very good trash talker. We
put the Eagles in twenty twenty two. He talked NonStop,
so that was pretty funny. I usually don't trash talk
or say how's your trash talking about? Does it?
Speaker 4 (23:26):
It's gotta come out every now and then, though, right
pancake a guy, it's like yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And sometimes it can.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
I think it drives the lineman workers when you don't
say anything back to that and then you just good
point give them a dead stare.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Who's the best trash talker on the team on.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
The team, man, I think Donovan Jackson got going pretty good,
you know, for a rookie to have that kind of
much fire and energy.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know we're playing Detroit and get a big win.
There he was.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
He was talking some good trash so he was used
pretty funny. I'll give it to Donna the Donnie there.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
We only got through one of the five typically stupid
Bikings country Quest, but we appreciate you either way for
joining us out here. Right card for the Minnesota Vikings
Will Fries.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Everybody give it up for Will Fries.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Thank you, it's nice to meet you, dog NICs for
coming out here tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
How's your dat game? You gotta have a good DAP game, right, oh?
You and that you gotta have a good dap game.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Dog. Thank you for joining us for this week's edition
of Vikings Country, presented by Miller Lite, the official beer
of your Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I'm sure Mike must will be.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Back in action wherever Vikings Country is at next week,
but for now you'll be listening to the Minnesota Wild
on k f A and peace out, y'all.
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