December 2, 2025 • 44 mins
Hour 2 begins with Ben Goessling and La Velle E Neal III joining the show to talk about the Vikings and Justin Jefferson.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
A couple of dear friends, not only to nine to noon,
but f M one hundred point three kfa N. They
both work for the Star Tribune and you can follow
their work at Star Tribune dot com. One covers the
Minnesota Vikings as a beat writer. The other writes about
myriad things as a columnist. Can we get a witness
in a raucous round of applause? Please for betting Geslin
(00:26):
and lovell E Neil Bob Third at Shiels and Toys
for Tots. What's going on? Star Tribune Covenant?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Nothing much? Good morning everyone, Good to see you here,
great cause here Ben, good seeing you. Good to see
you guys too. Thanks everybody for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And Ben's appearance is courtesy of Standard Heating and Air
Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Those appearances sponsored by What's that mean? Sheals Amy? Amy
with you? You find him? I need that cricket sounder.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
He needs a new bike like you gave those children
two years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
All right, three? Two? Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Then let's begin with you and then level you after him.
What is the For those who don't know, what is
the difference between a beat writer and a columnist.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, this is actually an important question, I think because
a lot of times people don't understand the difference. A
lot of it is so my job on a daily
basis is to cover the news of what happens with
the team. My job is to tell you why things happened,
how they happened, and what it all means. The difference
between a beat ri a columnist is a columnist is
free to express their opinions in what they write. They're
(01:39):
telling you what they think should happen, rather than what
will or what did or why. So my job is
to give you the news and tell you what it means,
and a columnist job is to weigh in with their
opinions more so.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Than a beat writer would be able to do.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
So there is a pretty distinct difference there, and it's
important to have that because you don't want to have news.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Mixed with opinion all the time.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But we want we want to make it clear that
one is news and one is opinions, so you can
trust what you're getting and where it's coming from.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Right, As someone who's done both, it's the transition is
a little tough, and he would fake I think it
took me a year to get that beat writer mode
out of me when I was writing comms, so that
was when Chris Carr was a sports editor. We have
this conversation frequently, so I had to had to get
out of that. So yeah, it doesn't mean you just
have a license to take shots of people, but you
do have greater license to share your perspective and come
(02:30):
up with stories and analogies and things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It's funny because when I was a beat writer, I
would still get emails the next day going to read
your column today.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, oh yeah, all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, so so that hasn't changed. So yeah, there is
definitely a distinct difference. You brought up Mark Craig. I
would say, Mark Craig's kind of like a football calumnist
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, here's the deal. Ben's a beat writer covering the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Lavelle is a columnist for the Star Tribune, like Jim
Sue Hand, Chip Scottigans and so on. And I asked
them off the radio, all right, well, define Mark Craig's role,
you know, how would you define that?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Well, he's his official roles are a national NFL reporter, So.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
His his his range of coverage. If there's national league issues,
this is something he's been doing for a long time.
It's it's more league wide than just Viking stuff. But yeah,
he'll weigh in with probably a little more column type
stuff than the typical beat writers.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And he has a Hall of Fame boat he does, right.
Oh sweet?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So I love how Mark has injected his personality into
what he writes. The bit the other day about come
on people, he's started just only six games and J
J McCarthy he's only started six games.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Books, let's not jump off a deep end. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I love that one. It was just quality entertainment. But
let me ask you guys this.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
So there is a distinction between a reporter, a beat writer,
and a columnist. But what's interesting is with social media,
and we've all we've all gone down this road over
the last fifteen years or so, is I think those
lines from a consumption standpoint have been blurred, if not
completely eliminated where you know, and maybe this is part
of the industry at large, but I think about, like, okay,
(04:13):
just the facts, ma'am has evolved into I need a
social media following, so just the facts maybe aren't necessarily
all you're going to get. So in some ways, like
if I'm just a fan, which I am, I'm a
forty one year old fan, maybe I want a little
bit of both. And I feel like those lines, at
least again from my end as a user standpoint, how
(04:33):
do you maintain that line in the building, because I
think it's completely lost on x and other social media
platform No.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Doubt it is a lot blurrier than it used to
be because people get a lot thrown at them from
beat writers columnists. At the same time, on social media,
there's not necessarily the distinction that's very obvious to people there.
So I think for me, it's trying to stay on
the side of analysis and not opinion. I'm typically trying
to tell you here's what team is thinking, as best
(05:01):
as I can discern it. So, and I'm well aware
that I probably stay on that side of the line.
I probably take that line pretty seriously of saying I'm
on this side of it. I'm not on the columnist
side of it. And I aware that's not always a
great content strategy. I could probably be a lot more
interesting and entertaining on social media than I am. Well,
(05:22):
that's why you got Tuesday at ten o'clock. Well that's
yeah exactly. It allows me to but my hair down
a little bit. But yeah, there is I think a
line that's important there, and it probably makes me a
little more boring than I could be, but I still
think it's important to have the line. So it's trying
to figure out how to provide something lively, some context
without kind of stepping over and saying this is what
(05:44):
I think there should be doing. And it doesn't matter
that I'm not a columnist. I have a social media account.
Who so, who cares? I don't really think about it
that way.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
But then when we are, we have opportunities to do
radio and television. They don't want the nuts and bolts.
You want a little bit more than that where it
gets a little dicey there. Yeah, I've sat in the
studio with pa Is come on, Lavell, Mark Piz sucks.
When this guy comes off to DL, he's gotta be Jennison, right,
you know, And you have to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I have questions all the time. So and then then
you say something and somebody aggregates it. It becomes a big
thing and you go from there.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, and because I've had institutional knowledge about the twist
of so many years. I come on and start explaining
their thinking, and that's how the pull up pocket protector
got born.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right, that's right, like fifteen twenty years ago, right, yeah, exactly.
Lavell Neil the third columnist Star Tribune at Lavell Neil
via X, Ben Guestling, beat writer for the Star Tribune.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It covers the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I have been guestling via X if you'd like to
follow him, And it's a great having both of them
here at Shields. It's toys for tots. How you can help.
We will share again momentarily and Ben's appearance is courtesy
of Standard Heating and Air. All right, So this is
this is a difficult question, and I don't think I've
ever asked either one of you, but just want to
hear what you have to say. Will there come a
(06:54):
day there won't be an actual newspaper and everything will
be on line.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's going to happen sooner than later. Yeah, wow, Yeah,
it's coming. How do you feel about that? Our projections
show that, like our circulation is going to be down
with twenty thousand to twenty thousand a day within the
next five years, somebody.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
The print circulation, well, the online circulation is certainly growing
and it's shifting.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
For those you followed Star Tribute, if you're online, you
see the content we have online is much more vast
and voluminous than it is in the newspaper. Now, we're
basically occurating stuff during the week to put out a
paper every day. And starting in late December going into January,
we sold our printing press and our paper. I wish
it wasn't across the state line, but we're printing a
(07:37):
paper in Iowa now starting in December, and like any
sporting event that begins like after five pm will not
be in the paper the next day. Everything will be online.
Weird in Minnesota, Yeah, Minnesota, Yeah crazy, And I mean
it's happening in some other papers. I think the Atlanta
Journal Constitution is ending is print edition. Other papers are
(07:58):
doing it as well, rest the Soul of Firm and Bisher, So,
you know, maybe to entice people to get an online subscription,
we give them a free iPad so they can read
the paper that way, you know. So that's why we've
had to adapt to the market forces, and this is
what's driving everything.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
But here's the other thing I'd say on this, because
there is this sort of narrative of the newspaper is dying,
the newspaper is morphing, that the company is shifting. We
are heading towards an online being an online company in
the print method of delivery is certainly dying. But the company,
by no means is dying. And this art Tribune still
has more beat writers, more columnists, more expansive coverage of
(08:40):
what happens in Minnesota, especially in Minnesota sports, than anybody else.
So there's sometimes I see this thing about the dying
old newspaper. It's like, that's not the case. It's just
changing form into something new.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But when you say morphine, we got the two kids
there in the back row YEP, leaning over to mom
or dad, going what's the newspapers?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
What's an album? And it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's the reality of twenty twenty five. And morphine was
the perfect way to describe how we get our music changes,
how we get our news changes. It's just the medium,
it's not the message the changes.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, and if you wanted a good example of beat
writer versus columnists, you just heard the columnists breaking it
down and then the beat writer has to roll in, No,
the newspaper is not dying.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Hearts a little annoyed by that narrative sometimes when it's
not true. Well, the still Beat writer is one of
four Beat writers who covers the Vikings, and there is
no other outlet in the country that covers one team
as much as the Start to Beat does the Vikings,
the Beatrite.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's all annoyed.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And our high school coverage is basically second to none.
Now our high school staff is every high school in
the state has its own website available on Struve Varsity.
That's what we're headed too with this.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
So well, I think there's there's some positive I mean,
change can be awful, right because lives are changing as
part of this, and circumstances and things you mentioned moving
operations to Iowa all that that's different in changing habits,
et cetera. But in the end, in the grand scheme
of things, the evolution, this also provides you, guys, maybe
some flexibility in the type of content that you offer
as well in the long term. We've seen in another
(10:08):
digital services and such, where you know, maybe they're not
limited by the space in a physical paper the same
way that you guys would be and therefore you know
whether it's editing. A lot of things change can be good,
I guess, is what I'm going with in this case.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
My Vikings game stories are longer than they ever have been.
The right novella's here.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yep, my coms are too. I'm regularly going over to
prescribe the limits to how many words I'm supposed to write.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Realize that I can't fight City Hall on that one anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
You could put it online if I write twice as long,
you could put it all on the line and then
cut it to half for the Yeah, what's left of
the newspaper.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Let let us land the plane with this, because it's
the Viking. Vikings are foreign eight and the Vikings have
had really good records, and they currently have a bad record.
And there are some things, as we shared earlier, that
I'll get more into detail with tomorrow, that are on
route to becoming historically bad. And Ben covers the team,
(11:03):
and he covers it objectively. And Leavelle covering the Minnesota
Twins for two plus decades.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Some of it was good, some of it was bad.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So Ben, you first, what becomes difficult for your job
covering a team when it's losing game after game after game,
same question for you, Levell, when he's done.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, I can appreciate the baseball side of this because
my first job as a beat writer was covering two
Washington Nationals teams that lost one hundred and two and
one hundred and three. And as Levell knows, there's nothing
worse than covering a baseball team in August that is
out of it. There's just what the heck am I
going to write about today. I don't find that to
be the same problem in the NFL because there are
fewer games and more people. There are more storylines to
(11:45):
write about. But the difficult thing is the people you're
talking to every day get tired of seeing you because
they get tired of talking about the.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Fact that things aren't going well.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
And it becomes the challenge of saying, Okay, I'm in
this room every day, good, bad and different, and I'm
going to cover you objectively no matter what happens. I'm
not going to start railing on you, even if sometimes
fans want that. I'm not going to do it the
same way as you might see online, so you can
trust that I'm not doing this with a stake in
(12:14):
the emotional roller coaster. I'm going to cover you fairly
either way. So you lean on those relationships and the
trust you've built with players over the years, and I
think that's where you have to approach it when you're
covering a season like this and a side or a
verbal sidebar as they will go in the newspaper business
to what you said.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, so you have the nuts and bolts of them,
which is very important to you from a journalistic integrity standpoint.
You write the story, it's online or it's in the newspaper. Well,
there's also social media, yep, and beat writers on social
media all over the place will pontificate would be the
wrong word, but they will take what is happening, inject
(12:53):
their opinion, but maybe not realize or not care that
those that they're covering, well they see it too.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yes they do, and.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
That impacts the other part of the job that you
just described right out, no doubt. When I was younger,
when I was covering beats, when I was twenty five
twenty six years old, I was probably a lot more
unaware of that.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I think I would say things.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I'd be a lot more sarcastic on my social media accounts,
and I realized, like, it's not really my job here,
and people do see it, and so I've kind of
gone pretty far away from that. And yes, it is
because players see it, coaches see it, the people that
in a lot of cases with football, you don't have
all of the information you need to say definitively, this
(13:36):
person should have done X, and they did Why So,
I think I've learned over the years there's a lot
I don't know, and that's always going to be the case.
So the way I go about it always has to
reflect that.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I tend to engage in banner with people on social
media a little bit more than Ben does, which leads
me down some rabbit holes I do. I get irk
when people say stupid stuff on my x feed. I
feel I need to straighten him out, either block them
or just come back at them.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
I saw you lock in comments for a while there, Lavelle,
you had had it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Well, I don't know. My thing set up is that
if you follow me, you can respond to me. I
think that's what ended up there. But funny about the
players reading these things too. There was a game in
which Sergio Romo uh nearly started a brawl with them
with the with the Kancity Royals at targets target.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It was during it was during COVID, so.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Since there's no one in the stands, you can hear
everything that goes on the field. Romo's like fired up
after straking somebody out and it pissed off Sabage or
Perez actually knows those words going back and forth. And
so I tweeted something about Rolmos at it again blah
blah blah blah blah. At two am in the morning,
he jumps into my d MS, goes off of me,
then blocks me. So I respond to him, Yeah, so
(14:52):
I always mindful stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
When hey, I post, were you able to reconcile? Potentially?
Later I met the.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And if you wants to have a conversation, let's have
a conversation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But it never happened, and then the Twins got rid
of him.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So that's Lavell Neal, the third columnist for the Star Tribune.
Ben Gesling, beat writer covers the team for the Star Tribune.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Round up.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Applause for them for coming to Shields and we are
here for toys for tots if you would like to help.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Here's the root Nordo.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Yes, please just show up, hang out, say hi, buy
an unwrapped toy or bring an unwrapped toy and drop
it off right here near where we're broadcasting. And you'll
see the Marines there, you'll see Vikings cheerleaders in the
mix throughout the day, and.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You'll see our pretty faces up here on stage as well.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
But as part of this, of course, the first fifty
donations during each show today, whether it's nine to noon,
into Common at noon and Bumper to bumper at three,
first fifty you're gonna get a KFA in slash Unreal
beanie as part of it. But again, toys for tots,
that's the goal today. We do this once a year,
Shields tremendous hosts and the Vikings and Unreal significant sponsors
as part of this, So come bring some unwrapped toys please.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You're listening to nine to noon at FM one one
hundred point three k f A n you can do, okay,
(17:03):
Welcome back to Shields for Toys for Tots. Paul Allen,
producer Nordo and guestling from the Star Tribune and a
Lavelle Neil the Third also from the Star Tribune. We
talked a lot about the roots of the beat writer,
the scribe and or the columnist executing their toil, and
Star Tribune dot Com is a great place to follow
(17:24):
exactly everything they were talking about it it's the newspaper world,
but their podcasts, there are videos and stuff like that
on YouTube from stadium. So Startribune dot Com love those guys.
Both of them do really really good work. To the
vikings first end up, Ben, how do they pull out
of this? How do they pull out of it?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well? I think a lot of it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I mean, it's it's repetitive, but it's got to start
at the quarterback position. You have to get better quarterback
play than they've had, and the question is are you
going to get that from the young quarterbacks at this point.
I think this has to be about and Kevin O'Connell
talked about it yesterday, figuring out how you can work
this offense with these guys where they're at and they'll
be JJ McCarthy on Sunday, but you have to get
to the point where you can sustain drives and at
(18:10):
least get some momentum that way. I think it has
to start there and protecting him better is going to
be part of it too, especially if they get healthier
on the offensive line. But you just have to get
the quarterback playing at a representative level in the NFL.
There's no way to win in this league if you
don't have that. So I think it's got to start there.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Lavelle Neil the third is from the South side of
Chicago and his favorite football team is the Chicago Bears.
They currently not only are in first place in the
NFC North, they're number one in the NFC same record
as the Rams, but they have a better conference record.
So the question for you, your Bears being my friend,
(18:48):
your Bears being.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Numero huno, and the NFC.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
This is like a Bears fan of pull out of
cigar in December and not February. Did you yeah heard
that eighty five team is good? Though, all of a
sudden is in. Mike Royko of US Mike Royko Radio
as has rolled in.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I've been sending them videos after the last two weeks
and me be smoking a new it's been driving them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Up at the wall. I think I've been handling them. Okay,
you told me.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
To do something with that cigar Sunday night and then I.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Invited you on the radio show, so I mean, yeah,
you're right, it's the topsy turvy nature of your announcer.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Did you see this coming? Did you with nine and three?
Nine and three? Right? Yes? Yeah? Did you? Did you
in any way see this coming? No?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Because I thought it was almost back to square one
with this team, with a brand new coach and a
brand new system, offensive mining coaches, a big drastic change
from Matt Evernflus to Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So I just I thought.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
That Kayler Williams is going to have to be rewired
as a quarterback. And there was a lot of growing
pains during training camp. I mean, you don't having trouble
getting lined up during walkthroughs.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
The reports coming out of there in training camp were
kind of wild.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, like Ben Johnson's screwing at Coomeet because he lined
up two yards the wrong way. You know, pre stat penalties,
false starts, lookal procedures are going on, just what the
Vikers went through for a little bit during the regular season.
All that was going on. So now this has surprised me.
I think the one thing that we expected Ben to
(20:12):
eventually develop kind of an offense that was gonna be
able to attack both ways on the ground in the air.
We didn't see the holes. How strong the run game
was gonna be was going to be. The Bears are
the second best running game in the NFL. And it's
not because Caleb Williams is running wild to Saint Justin fields.
You know, he's trying to make him more of a
(20:32):
pocket quarterback because you have to win from the pocket.
If you're a quarterback in the NFL. Eventually you have to.
I think the work with the offensive line has been underrated.
Bringing in Joe Toney, who's won a Super Bowl with
Kansas City Chiefs, signing Dolman, who may be one of
the top five centers in the league, and trading for
(20:53):
Jackson from the Rams. All three of those guys are
ranked among the top eleven offensive linemen in terms of
a block win percentage, so that has reshaped their line
is fueled the running game. Common down guy, the seventh
round pickatt of Rutgers has been has been useful and
when you're able to run the ball, it takes a
lot of pressure off of Hill. We was to make
(21:14):
plays with his arm, so which is weird because I
thought the Vikings would be similar to that with when
you when you, when you sign Mason you and you
have Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's not that we're not talking part but stopping.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I'm saying, if I'm not here to catch Astray a
shields for the for.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
The vikings that turn this around, I think it's starting.
I don't care what your opinion is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Okay, that's why you get paid to be a columnist,
to write about things like this, not talk about them.
Somebody please ask Ben a question right now that was
not a stray thrown at the one. I'm gonna get
this man of Sauncer.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
I want to continue down the Bears road, but to
the to the beat writer. I want to ask the
beat writer for the road. Okay, well, you've got a
big one this weekend. Well do you think this is sustainable?
I mean that the question I have is earlier in
the season, it was a team that was beating on
bad teams, doing the thing we're supposed to do, and
that record. Now you go to Philly on Black Friday,
you do what you did, and that kind of raises
(22:11):
some eyebrows and hat I guess I'm gonna give my
own team, my favorite team Astray here.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Well, they broke the Ale spirit with that running game.
They did.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
But but this your team kind of feels like the
twenty twenty two Minnesota Vikings. There's an element to it
where you have brought the turnovers down, you're getting takeaways,
opportunistic defense, and the offense. Any coin flip of a moment,
your team is on the right side of that. And
that was similar to my favorite team a few years ago.
But then the freaking rug gets pulled out from under
(22:42):
my favorite team. Sadly that what That's what your team
feels to me right now. I'm just curious what your
level of faith or belief is in sustaining this at
this particular moment atop the NFC.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
For the rest of the season. I think it's gonna
be think it's gonna be tough. The Phillies. Sorry, the
victory over the Eagles was a defining win. That the
defining one I was looking for.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
It was a strong win, yeah, because I.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Was skeptical to just because of strength of schedule.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Twenty twenty two Bills Vikings esque.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, and how some of these games were being won,
you know, in the final seconds. And the Cincinnati game
was just ridiculous. No, so now it's it's open eyes
across the league. And in my mind, if the Bears
get to eleven wins, which means they just need two
more wins out of these last five games, I think
that's maybe enough to win the division. Because you look
at green Bay schedule and Detroit schedule, it's not a walk.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
In the park. In fact, I.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
Believe one of those should be against the Pack though, right,
if you're thinking that way, and you exactly, you guys
got to go to Lambeau and get a w this week.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Does Sunday Lab where the Bear won.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
The Bears won their last year, So we're not gonna
be afraid used to Bees don't count anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
They just lie on the floor till we sweep them away.
And two.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Ben Johnson, the INTRODUC three press conferences. I enjoyed beating
Matt Lafleour twice a year. He's five and one against
law La floor oh J with Jamir Gibbs. No, I'm sorry, No,
I didn't say that. No, it doesn't matter. They're nine
and three with Manungai. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Swift too?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So then we so then we have Cleveland after that,
then Detroit again. Yeah, then forty nine Ers and Lions
get give me two more wins. Give me to eleven.
I think it's gonna win.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He's just trying to give me too more.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I'm just trying to have the Vikings score a touchdown, yeah,
the first time in eight or just give.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Me seven points. I just want to see Reiker out.
It's gonna happen. Minding up for an extra points. I
just need that. I need that against the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I know.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
But this is not about us on the therapeutic davenport
of Block getting emotional. This is about thanking the columnists
for stopping by and opening his hard and sharing.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And also it's an open invitation. Why because it's public?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Senny wants to come in studio.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, Thursday at eleven fifteen after what's the girl's name?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Olivia? What Olivia King? Olivia King?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
So eleven fifteen till I don't know, eleven forty five
Thursday around eleven fifteen, Senny wants the Sultan of Small
wants to stop by, and his his team is hosting.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Don't be account they're chasing your team, yep.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And Nordo and I will probably craft a little game
or a tribute thing. Or something like that. But we're
just gonna sit back and profit. Excuse me, just sit
back and enjoy you guys going at each other.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I don't wouldn't you guys love to hear that if
only one segment. If doesn't evolve us, but a.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Couple of learned football fans will at least Lavell's learned
going at each other eleven fifteen ish on Thursday.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
He wants to stop by, I will knock that smug
off his face. Yeah, and if for this around he's
getting punched in the oh. Yeah, you guys would beat
me in initials too, and for me a four and eight,
two segments handled. Please thank you father to nine Levell.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
God bless you, ma'am. Thanks for coming out. We appreciate you.
Columnist Lavelli Neil the third, Follow him on Twitter, Please
read all of his stories at Star Tribune and Start
Tribune dot com. Ben stage for a segment and we'll
get a little more hardcore with the vikings from Shields
Toys for Tots Day f N one hundred point three KFA,
(26:33):
Ben Gasline Stars Rebume covers the Minnesota vikings for Setscribe
and also you can learn more about him via Twitter
at Ben Gesling acts as Vikings the podcast. We got
a newsletter in the mix. He was in Seattle and
it's always great seeing Ben listen to him on the
Vikings pregame show too, Vikings Football Sunday with Muss Generally,
(26:54):
what is that about twenty minutes before the game, twenty.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Five before the game?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, generally the idea that's Vikings Football Sunday, AFA and
KFA in Audio Network. All right, let's go a little
bit in the weeds on the hardcore side. Why is
Justin Jefferson not speaking after.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
A game a big deal?
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Well, he's I think in six years of covering him,
I was trying to remember if that's ever happened before,
and I can't remember a time where it has.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I think it's.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Notable because he's one of the captains of the team,
and he's a guy that I think takes that role
pretty seriously. We've heard him talk over the last couple
of years a number of times about how important he
sees that as being and being kind of the face
of the franchise. He's referred to himself about in that
role quite a bit. So for him to say I
(27:44):
don't have anything to say it. You know, it happens.
You see players do it when they're frustrated at times.
But it was a window into what he's thinking as
much as anything else. I mean, I'm not going to
be the guy that sits here and says, oh, they
have to do it every single time they're supposed to
do it, like sometimes guys have met some guys. Sometimes
guys think if I say something, it's probably going to
be worse than if I don't, so the old if
(28:06):
I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything
at all. But I think it was a window into
how he's feeling. And we all saw the body language
on the sideline in the second half of that game,
So I think it's notable. I think it's telling based
on the fact that he's not done that it's at
all as far as I can remember, and just the
role that he plays as a team spokesman. For him
to say no, I'm I'm not doing that today, I
(28:28):
think is worth paying attention to.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Isn't in some ways not saying anything saying everything yes,
And I mean, you're not going to be a person
that puts words into his brain or through his mouth
when you cover the team, But there is an element
of justin Jefferson's probably feeling a.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Lot like what we're feeling, even on the outside. Right now.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
This team has tried everything, it's not working, and he
is accustomed to some semblance of success. Yeah, winner lose
statistically getting into the end zone.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We're begging, we're sitting up here nine to do and
begging this team just to score a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
He wants in more than him. Kind of saying nothing
in some ways says a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I think that's right. I think there's a little bit
of a yeah when you when you stay silent, you
allow people to say, boy, that's you. A lot of
people like me to say that's not something we've seen
from him before. He doesn't have to say anything for
people to say, Okay, this is uh, this is different
than it has been. And I certainly think there's frustration there. Obviously,
he has still won more playoff games in college than
(29:27):
he has in the NFL, and that was two seasons
of playoffs at LSU, and he's been at the playoffs
I think probably twice in his time with the Vikings.
But yeah, yeah, that it's obviously a lot longer time.
So I think the fact that they are not having
the success he'd hope to have, both individually for him
and as a team, is starting to wear on him
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Ben Gasoline's art Tribunes dart Tribune dot Com. When when
things are really bad, even I mean for some kind
of bad, but when things are perceived to be really bad, yeah,
fans always want people replaced. Uh that that's that's It's
mostly overreaction, but not always right right.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
I mean you've seen times where people get replaced because
an ownership group has said, hey, this has been enough.
I don't think that's the point we're at here. I mean,
the coach and the general manager were both extended before
this season, and Kevin O'Connell's extension is I think through
twenty twenty nine. So there's a lot of commitment made
(30:25):
to Kevin O'Connell and Quasi Dopomensa, especially in the middle
of this quarterback process, where you're probably going to say,
we need some stability here. But this has been bad,
and I think there's a lot of fans that start
to wonder about it at this point. There's with the
contracts and the fact that they have made those commitments,
and there's a cost to that obviously that goes into
(30:48):
the equation. But they're going to have to, I think,
answer for some things, just as how this has gone.
You know, I think they'll be here, but just in
the accounting of it, when they're meeting with the ownership
group and saying what happened here, there are going to
have to be some hard conversations because this certainly has
not gone anywhere near what they.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Wanted it to be.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
I imagine you do a lot of stiff arming with
those sorts of topics, or have to in some regard. Again,
still meeting with the team every day, we're in the
midst five games remaining.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I've joked about it with you before.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
You know, in October, team loses a bad game, you're
talking about the general manager, you're talking about drafts, you're
talking about free agency and those things, and I would say,
this is freaking October, like we're not gonna have plenty
of time to.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Dissect and go backwards.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
But that heat now with five games left in playoffs
not really being a factor of the conversation that has
exploded where you're trying to balance. Here's what I want
to see out of my squad against the Commanders, and
please can the left tackle play so number nine can
have the best opportunity to find some success on the field. Meanwhile,
what about this guy that came in in March? Did
you see what we drafted in twenty twenty two? Like,
(31:56):
trying to stay in the now can be difficult.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, it can.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, this is an ownership group I think it's
worth pointing out that is not typically very reactionary. They
pride themselves on being stable. They pride themselves on being
monitorial thinkers, and the decisions they have that they certainly
I think want to operate that way. You've heard them
talk about seeing the Rooney family as a model for
what they want in terms of family ownership, but also
(32:20):
the stability of we're not going to react to one
season of things going off the rails or a couple
of months of things going off the rails. That said,
this is a team that I think has the highest
cash spend in the NFL. So there are a lot
of investments made that have not panned out, and I
(32:40):
think that's where it becomes difficult to kind of parse
all of this because there I do think there's going
to be hard discussions of hey, this did not We
thought we were building a team that would contend, even
as we have a quarterback that's developing in the process.
That was always going to be a tough thing to do.
But when it hasn't worked, and it's to the point
where you're not even talking about playoffs, you're talking about,
(33:02):
you know, drafts and where things go from here, there's
a lot of questions that have to be answered, and
specifically with the drafts. They have an expensive roster in
part because the drafts have not delivered the results in
the young the fruit, cheaper labor, which let's be honest,
that's part of what it is that hasn't happened. So
you end up in spots where you pay Adam Thielan
(33:23):
and you have veterans that are getting a little older
and a little more expensive, and you have to work
through all of that when the drafts have not delivered.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Lastly, with the Minnesota Vikings offense, do you sense with
that side of the football that at times they almost
expect bad things to happen? In other words, playing playing
tight ye or it's hard it's hard to frame up
because they've had so much offensive success here. Yeah, that
(33:52):
you know, it's kind of like like when is something
bad gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Well, yeah, I mean I think it was interesting to
hear Kevin O'Connell talk yesterday about out having to separate
what you hope the offense would look like or what
you believe it can look like, from what you're actually
at right now, because what triggered the question. Yeah, yeah,
I think and it'll be interesting to hear what he
says to that. I mean, if you guys get into
it a little bit later today and we go through
the week, Because this is an offense that we've seen
(34:17):
work at a very high level. But it's an offense
that's worked well when it's had quarterbacks that have had
time in the league and time in the offense. So
when you have a quarterback that can make all of
the cans and checks at the line, when you have
a quarterback that trusts themselves. He talked about it yesterday,
the incut screaming through the backside. I mean, Sam Darnold
lived on those last year, the dagger throw to Justin
(34:37):
Jefferson on the backside of a play. They made so
much money off of that last year, and that is
something they want to get to. Often in this offense,
where you have a receiver running vertically to clear the
safety and then Justin Jefferson breaks behind that to get
eighteen yards over the middle of the field, we have
not seen that happen. So when those staples of the
offense aren't there and you're kind of saying, okay, let's
(34:58):
go to screens, let's go to quick game, let's try
to find ways to just minimize the mistakes. It's that
playing not to lose thing, which certainly Kevin O'Connell does
not want to be doing. He wants to push the ball,
he wants to be aggressive, he wants to play to win,
and I think when you're having to operate this way, yeah,
it can lead you to a little bit of this
protectionist mindset. That's very unusual to see from a Kevin
O'Connell coach team. You're fantastic, thanks for coming out. Yeah,
(35:21):
always fun to be out here. Thank you, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Follow his work at Star Tribune and Star Tribune dot com.
That's courtesy of Standard Heating and Air and Standard Heating
dot Com. Now about fifteen minutes from now, Kevin O'Connell,
head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, will join us as
he is wont to do weekly around eleven o'clock. He'll
be at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center in Egan and
(35:44):
we'll be here at Chiels and Eden Prairie. He'll be
able to see us though, and we have secured a
couple of tots. We have secured a couple of kids
to ask Kevin, ask the head coach some questions here
on the stage. You'll see that at Vikings dot com
and hear at nine to noon coming up about eleven
five with Nordo.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I'm Paul Allen back after this.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Welcome back nine to noon here at Shields. Part of
our Toys for Tots push each and every single season,
and thank you all for hanging out with us at
Shields today. Thank you to Shields for being tremendous hosts.
And of course, whether it's the Marine Corps and their
supportive Toys for Tots and all throughout the day to day,
whether it's Vikings players. During the first hour we had T. J. Hawkinson.
(36:54):
I believe Isaiah Rodgers is going to be a Josh
mittellis sighting whether it's the program noon to three and
Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barrero three to six thirty.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
We're gonna be here all day today and just.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Drop them by, say hello and drop off an unwrapped toy.
And that's of course going to be for the Tots
first fifty donations each show today, whether it's Common and
Noon and Barrero at three, you're going to receive a
kfan and unreal beanie. So thanks so much for Shields,
the Vikings, unrel for supporting our efforts today and it
(37:27):
is time for News de Nord truncated edition as we
pad our way to the head coach Kevin O'Connell each
and every week, x's and o's with head coach Kevin O'Connell.
He's going to be joining us at the top of
the hour. He'll be at tco and Egan and we'll
be here at Shields. But excited for that conversation regarding
your favorite football team and it's super cool. We got
(37:47):
a couple of tots with a couple of questions for
the head coach to kick that off. Non Vikings for
a moment. The Minnesota Timberwolves ten and a half point
favorites at the New Orleans Pelicans this evening. Anthony Edwards
I've mentioned to when I talk about prize picks. Five
straight games I believe the longest streak of his career
with thirty plus points.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Let's just say he's on a heater and he's kind of.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
Had to be wonky squad trying to figure out the.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Point guard position.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
But they're finding their way to victories, finally beating teams
with a winning record, as they did over the weekend
versus the Spurs and the Celtics. Let's just say this,
the Pelicans are hideous. The Pelicans are awful. The Pelicans
are the dredge of the NBA. And to go down
to New Orleans and do nothing other than just absolutely
pummel an awful state of affairs that the Pelicans currently are.
(38:35):
That should be the a topic for Finchy's squad tonight,
and that's seven o'clock.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You're going to get to hear that via the.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Course where you're home for Wolf's Hoops the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The answers to the question that you texted me last
evening and I didn't see it till this morning, is
Anthony Edwards in my opinion. The answer is, you know,
he's two fifty to one to become the NBP. So
you got like Shay, Gilgess, Alexander, and Djokis who are
prohibitively favored to win it.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Yeah, it's almost it's like one and a half to
one each of them. They're very close.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
It's it's certainly with Shay the team is heavily favored
to win the championship, and so the teams that the
bet shops believe will garner the most attention and win
the most games. So who's the best player on that team?
Who is the one all of the people who vote
(39:32):
for absolutely know of now, of course they know event
but really until he does things that those two if done,
then they're just like, here, kitty, kitty, you got twenty dollars,
you want to put it on him at twenty five,
two fifty to one, whatever it is, go ahead and
do it.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
He's not going to win it. Totally makes sense.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
We've had this MVP conversation similarly in the NFL before.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Just two fifty was very jarring to me.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Now, NBA awards are so top heavy and maybe pragmatically,
if you we were just gonna say.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Who's the MVP of the NBA.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Yeah, well, people would get bored because Joker would be
the MVP probably the last four or five six seasons
if you were truly looking at it from an actual
most valuable standpoint, Shay is probably the right answer in
this equation with what he did last year. I get it,
But I'm just thinking Aunt at two fifty to one,
especially if he continues to carry this thing on his
(40:22):
back like he has the last week and a half. Yep,
and this is a team fine, maybe for their third
consecutive Western Conference Final series. I'm just thinking, man number
five needs a little bit of love, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
And maybe not.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
This isn't a take for a Todd, but maybe if
I was a Todd, I'd tell my dad, I'd like
you let me maybe throw five on Aunt at two fifty to.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
One and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
We have a minute left before we paused for O'Connell
just to land the plane here. You know, I like
this maybe for tomorrow or moving forward, where if you
look at each team, you know that say has a
winning record, and you take that MVP guy from.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
It, what do you think would happen? You see what I'm.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
Saying, yeah, that'd be fun to look around actually, but
then you get to like the Rockets.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Okay, Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant more important than Amen Thompson.
Is Amen Thompson more important than whomever else? You want
to go to the MBT on that team. I like
that next.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
Well, lastly, as we are indeed about to pause the
Wild and as well as they've been doing. Sadly they
lose that shootout against the Sabers. After that incredibly emotional
w at home on Friday against the Abs, they're out
of Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers and it will
be yesper vaalstet in Net for the Minnesota Wild tonight.
(41:38):
That's at eight pm on your home for a while,
the hockey the fan looking for them to continue their
their winning ways as they create a nice little gap
six points clear. I believe the Blackhawks are the next
team in the division. They are four points clear where
the wild card teams are at. So this, you know,
it's tough to build that kind of momentum with the
three point game and how everything works out scoring wise
(41:58):
in the NHLAH. Impressive turnaround from some ugly and meager
beginnings to this season, looking forward to Heinze's team getting
another two out West tonight, Well, this time last.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Week, or actually like Thursday or Friday last week when
we were laying out Hey, they have twenty eight points.
Twenty eight points puts you x amount behind the Abs
in the best division in hockey. But if you're in
something called the Metropolitan, you'd be leading it. If you're
in the Atlantic, you'd be in a tie for first.
It kind of a perspective as they go around the
league Central strong right now. It's just crazy how things
(42:30):
change in a short amount of time. Where the Wild
have thirty three points, Okay, so they beat Colorado, there's
still nine behind Colorado, still five behind Dallas. Like Nordo said,
the Central was crazy. But you go to the Pacific
and we'd be tied for first with Anaheim first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
How in the heck is Anaheim in first? That's up
with the Ducks and.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Secondly Edmonton with Connor McDavid Dreiseidel, Evan Bouchard and some
of those other high enders. Well, they're in the spot
we're in last week, yep, they have twenty seven points,
So that's very intriguing and we'll see all it works
out tonight.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
News Denord brought to you by Canterbury Canterbury Parkcanterbury Park
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
We sell Christmas trees at Canterbury by the way, if
you would like to stop by the they're outside on
the west side of the parking lot.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
And you've talked about it before. Oh it's sweet. What
goes into this, Well, it's just Canterbury offers everything. Whether
you're feeling the felt or you're doing the NFL Pro
Pick Them challenge, you're getting Christmas trees if you don't
want to be like me climbing up a freaking hill
because your kids picked the Christmas tree a half mile
away from the jeep and you got the little orange
saw that's down to a dull. You go to Canterbury Park,
(43:40):
you find Johnny the Mouse, Mickelson or some of the
great staff that are actually out there selling trees. By
yourself a tree, pull up the truckster, they'll strap it
on top and you're headed your way to a beautiful
Christmas tree centerpiece in your house.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Cover your ears.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Okay, all right, this right here is a great husband
and an even better father. Round up applause for the
producer of nine to Now you I told you to
cover your ears, speaking of great husbands, elite coaches, and
fantastic fathers. Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings,
joins us next on nine to noon
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
A couple of dear friends, not only to nine to noon,
but f M one hundred point three kfa N. They
both work for the Star Tribune and you can follow
their work at Star Tribune dot com. One covers the
Minnesota Vikings as a beat writer. The other writes about
myriad things as a columnist. Can we get a witness
in a raucous round of applause? Please for betting Geslin
(00:26):
and lovell E Neil Bob Third at Shiels and Toys
for Tots. What's going on? Star Tribune Covenant?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Nothing much? Good morning everyone, Good to see you here,
great cause here Ben, good seeing you. Good to see
you guys too. Thanks everybody for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And Ben's appearance is courtesy of Standard Heating and Air
Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Those appearances sponsored by What's that mean? Sheals Amy? Amy
with you? You find him? I need that cricket sounder.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
He needs a new bike like you gave those children
two years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
All right, three? Two? Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Then let's begin with you and then level you after him.
What is the For those who don't know, what is
the difference between a beat writer and a columnist.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, this is actually an important question, I think because
a lot of times people don't understand the difference. A
lot of it is so my job on a daily
basis is to cover the news of what happens with
the team. My job is to tell you why things happened,
how they happened, and what it all means. The difference
between a beat ri a columnist is a columnist is
free to express their opinions in what they write. They're
(01:39):
telling you what they think should happen, rather than what
will or what did or why. So my job is
to give you the news and tell you what it means,
and a columnist job is to weigh in with their
opinions more so.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Than a beat writer would be able to do.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
So there is a pretty distinct difference there, and it's
important to have that because you don't want to have news.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Mixed with opinion all the time.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But we want we want to make it clear that
one is news and one is opinions, so you can
trust what you're getting and where it's coming from.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Right, As someone who's done both, it's the transition is
a little tough, and he would fake I think it
took me a year to get that beat writer mode
out of me when I was writing comms, so that
was when Chris Carr was a sports editor. We have
this conversation frequently, so I had to had to get
out of that. So yeah, it doesn't mean you just
have a license to take shots of people, but you
do have greater license to share your perspective and come
(02:30):
up with stories and analogies and things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It's funny because when I was a beat writer, I
would still get emails the next day going to read
your column today.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, oh yeah, all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, so so that hasn't changed. So yeah, there is
definitely a distinct difference. You brought up Mark Craig. I
would say, Mark Craig's kind of like a football calumnist
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, here's the deal. Ben's a beat writer covering the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Lavelle is a columnist for the Star Tribune, like Jim
Sue Hand, Chip Scottigans and so on. And I asked
them off the radio, all right, well, define Mark Craig's role,
you know, how would you define that?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Well, he's his official roles are a national NFL reporter, So.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
His his his range of coverage. If there's national league issues,
this is something he's been doing for a long time.
It's it's more league wide than just Viking stuff. But yeah,
he'll weigh in with probably a little more column type
stuff than the typical beat writers.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And he has a Hall of Fame boat he does, right.
Oh sweet?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So I love how Mark has injected his personality into
what he writes. The bit the other day about come
on people, he's started just only six games and J
J McCarthy he's only started six games.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Books, let's not jump off a deep end. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I love that one. It was just quality entertainment. But
let me ask you guys this.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
So there is a distinction between a reporter, a beat writer,
and a columnist. But what's interesting is with social media,
and we've all we've all gone down this road over
the last fifteen years or so, is I think those
lines from a consumption standpoint have been blurred, if not
completely eliminated where you know, and maybe this is part
of the industry at large, but I think about, like, okay,
(04:13):
just the facts, ma'am has evolved into I need a
social media following, so just the facts maybe aren't necessarily
all you're going to get. So in some ways, like
if I'm just a fan, which I am, I'm a
forty one year old fan, maybe I want a little
bit of both. And I feel like those lines, at
least again from my end as a user standpoint, how
(04:33):
do you maintain that line in the building, because I
think it's completely lost on x and other social media
platform No.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Doubt it is a lot blurrier than it used to
be because people get a lot thrown at them from
beat writers columnists. At the same time, on social media,
there's not necessarily the distinction that's very obvious to people there.
So I think for me, it's trying to stay on
the side of analysis and not opinion. I'm typically trying
to tell you here's what team is thinking, as best
(05:01):
as I can discern it. So, and I'm well aware
that I probably stay on that side of the line.
I probably take that line pretty seriously of saying I'm
on this side of it. I'm not on the columnist
side of it. And I aware that's not always a
great content strategy. I could probably be a lot more
interesting and entertaining on social media than I am. Well,
(05:22):
that's why you got Tuesday at ten o'clock. Well that's
yeah exactly. It allows me to but my hair down
a little bit. But yeah, there is I think a
line that's important there, and it probably makes me a
little more boring than I could be, but I still
think it's important to have the line. So it's trying
to figure out how to provide something lively, some context
without kind of stepping over and saying this is what
(05:44):
I think there should be doing. And it doesn't matter
that I'm not a columnist. I have a social media account.
Who so, who cares? I don't really think about it
that way.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
But then when we are, we have opportunities to do
radio and television. They don't want the nuts and bolts.
You want a little bit more than that where it
gets a little dicey there. Yeah, I've sat in the
studio with pa Is come on, Lavell, Mark Piz sucks.
When this guy comes off to DL, he's gotta be Jennison, right,
you know, And you have to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I have questions all the time. So and then then
you say something and somebody aggregates it. It becomes a big
thing and you go from there.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, and because I've had institutional knowledge about the twist
of so many years. I come on and start explaining
their thinking, and that's how the pull up pocket protector
got born.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right, that's right, like fifteen twenty years ago, right, yeah, exactly.
Lavell Neil the third columnist Star Tribune at Lavell Neil
via X, Ben Guestling, beat writer for the Star Tribune.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It covers the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I have been guestling via X if you'd like to
follow him, And it's a great having both of them
here at Shields. It's toys for tots. How you can help.
We will share again momentarily and Ben's appearance is courtesy
of Standard Heating and Air. All right, So this is
this is a difficult question, and I don't think I've
ever asked either one of you, but just want to
hear what you have to say. Will there come a
(06:54):
day there won't be an actual newspaper and everything will
be on line.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's going to happen sooner than later. Yeah, wow, Yeah,
it's coming. How do you feel about that? Our projections
show that, like our circulation is going to be down
with twenty thousand to twenty thousand a day within the
next five years, somebody.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
The print circulation, well, the online circulation is certainly growing
and it's shifting.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
For those you followed Star Tribute, if you're online, you
see the content we have online is much more vast
and voluminous than it is in the newspaper. Now, we're
basically occurating stuff during the week to put out a
paper every day. And starting in late December going into January,
we sold our printing press and our paper. I wish
it wasn't across the state line, but we're printing a
(07:37):
paper in Iowa now starting in December, and like any
sporting event that begins like after five pm will not
be in the paper the next day. Everything will be online.
Weird in Minnesota, Yeah, Minnesota, Yeah crazy, And I mean
it's happening in some other papers. I think the Atlanta
Journal Constitution is ending is print edition. Other papers are
(07:58):
doing it as well, rest the Soul of Firm and Bisher, So,
you know, maybe to entice people to get an online subscription,
we give them a free iPad so they can read
the paper that way, you know. So that's why we've
had to adapt to the market forces, and this is
what's driving everything.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
But here's the other thing I'd say on this, because
there is this sort of narrative of the newspaper is dying,
the newspaper is morphing, that the company is shifting. We
are heading towards an online being an online company in
the print method of delivery is certainly dying. But the company,
by no means is dying. And this art Tribune still
has more beat writers, more columnists, more expansive coverage of
(08:40):
what happens in Minnesota, especially in Minnesota sports, than anybody else.
So there's sometimes I see this thing about the dying
old newspaper. It's like, that's not the case. It's just
changing form into something new.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But when you say morphine, we got the two kids
there in the back row YEP, leaning over to mom
or dad, going what's the newspapers?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
What's an album? And it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's the reality of twenty twenty five. And morphine was
the perfect way to describe how we get our music changes,
how we get our news changes. It's just the medium,
it's not the message the changes.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, and if you wanted a good example of beat
writer versus columnists, you just heard the columnists breaking it
down and then the beat writer has to roll in, No,
the newspaper is not dying.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Hearts a little annoyed by that narrative sometimes when it's
not true. Well, the still Beat writer is one of
four Beat writers who covers the Vikings, and there is
no other outlet in the country that covers one team
as much as the Start to Beat does the Vikings,
the Beatrite.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's all annoyed.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And our high school coverage is basically second to none.
Now our high school staff is every high school in
the state has its own website available on Struve Varsity.
That's what we're headed too with this.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
So well, I think there's there's some positive I mean,
change can be awful, right because lives are changing as
part of this, and circumstances and things you mentioned moving
operations to Iowa all that that's different in changing habits,
et cetera. But in the end, in the grand scheme
of things, the evolution, this also provides you, guys, maybe
some flexibility in the type of content that you offer
as well in the long term. We've seen in another
(10:08):
digital services and such, where you know, maybe they're not
limited by the space in a physical paper the same
way that you guys would be and therefore you know
whether it's editing. A lot of things change can be good,
I guess, is what I'm going with in this case.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
My Vikings game stories are longer than they ever have been.
The right novella's here.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yep, my coms are too. I'm regularly going over to
prescribe the limits to how many words I'm supposed to write.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Realize that I can't fight City Hall on that one anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
You could put it online if I write twice as long,
you could put it all on the line and then
cut it to half for the Yeah, what's left of
the newspaper.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Let let us land the plane with this, because it's
the Viking. Vikings are foreign eight and the Vikings have
had really good records, and they currently have a bad record.
And there are some things, as we shared earlier, that
I'll get more into detail with tomorrow, that are on
route to becoming historically bad. And Ben covers the team,
(11:03):
and he covers it objectively. And Leavelle covering the Minnesota
Twins for two plus decades.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Some of it was good, some of it was bad.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So Ben, you first, what becomes difficult for your job
covering a team when it's losing game after game after game,
same question for you, Levell, when he's done.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, I can appreciate the baseball side of this because
my first job as a beat writer was covering two
Washington Nationals teams that lost one hundred and two and
one hundred and three. And as Levell knows, there's nothing
worse than covering a baseball team in August that is
out of it. There's just what the heck am I
going to write about today. I don't find that to
be the same problem in the NFL because there are
fewer games and more people. There are more storylines to
(11:45):
write about. But the difficult thing is the people you're
talking to every day get tired of seeing you because
they get tired of talking about the.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Fact that things aren't going well.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
And it becomes the challenge of saying, Okay, I'm in
this room every day, good, bad and different, and I'm
going to cover you objectively no matter what happens. I'm
not going to start railing on you, even if sometimes
fans want that. I'm not going to do it the
same way as you might see online, so you can
trust that I'm not doing this with a stake in
(12:14):
the emotional roller coaster. I'm going to cover you fairly
either way. So you lean on those relationships and the
trust you've built with players over the years, and I
think that's where you have to approach it when you're
covering a season like this and a side or a
verbal sidebar as they will go in the newspaper business
to what you said.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, so you have the nuts and bolts of them,
which is very important to you from a journalistic integrity standpoint.
You write the story, it's online or it's in the newspaper. Well,
there's also social media, yep, and beat writers on social
media all over the place will pontificate would be the
wrong word, but they will take what is happening, inject
(12:53):
their opinion, but maybe not realize or not care that
those that they're covering, well they see it too.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yes they do, and.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
That impacts the other part of the job that you
just described right out, no doubt. When I was younger,
when I was covering beats, when I was twenty five
twenty six years old, I was probably a lot more
unaware of that.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I think I would say things.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I'd be a lot more sarcastic on my social media accounts,
and I realized, like, it's not really my job here,
and people do see it, and so I've kind of
gone pretty far away from that. And yes, it is
because players see it, coaches see it, the people that
in a lot of cases with football, you don't have
all of the information you need to say definitively, this
(13:36):
person should have done X, and they did Why So,
I think I've learned over the years there's a lot
I don't know, and that's always going to be the case.
So the way I go about it always has to
reflect that.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I tend to engage in banner with people on social
media a little bit more than Ben does, which leads
me down some rabbit holes I do. I get irk
when people say stupid stuff on my x feed. I
feel I need to straighten him out, either block them
or just come back at them.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
I saw you lock in comments for a while there, Lavelle,
you had had it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Well, I don't know. My thing set up is that
if you follow me, you can respond to me. I
think that's what ended up there. But funny about the
players reading these things too. There was a game in
which Sergio Romo uh nearly started a brawl with them
with the with the Kancity Royals at targets target.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It was during it was during COVID, so.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Since there's no one in the stands, you can hear
everything that goes on the field. Romo's like fired up
after straking somebody out and it pissed off Sabage or
Perez actually knows those words going back and forth. And
so I tweeted something about Rolmos at it again blah
blah blah blah blah. At two am in the morning,
he jumps into my d MS, goes off of me,
then blocks me. So I respond to him, Yeah, so
(14:52):
I always mindful stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
When hey, I post, were you able to reconcile? Potentially?
Later I met the.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And if you wants to have a conversation, let's have
a conversation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But it never happened, and then the Twins got rid
of him.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So that's Lavell Neal, the third columnist for the Star Tribune.
Ben Gesling, beat writer covers the team for the Star Tribune.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Round up.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Applause for them for coming to Shields and we are
here for toys for tots if you would like to help.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Here's the root Nordo.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Yes, please just show up, hang out, say hi, buy
an unwrapped toy or bring an unwrapped toy and drop
it off right here near where we're broadcasting. And you'll
see the Marines there, you'll see Vikings cheerleaders in the
mix throughout the day, and.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You'll see our pretty faces up here on stage as well.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
But as part of this, of course, the first fifty
donations during each show today, whether it's nine to noon,
into Common at noon and Bumper to bumper at three,
first fifty you're gonna get a KFA in slash Unreal
beanie as part of it. But again, toys for tots,
that's the goal today. We do this once a year,
Shields tremendous hosts and the Vikings and Unreal significant sponsors
as part of this, So come bring some unwrapped toys please.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You're listening to nine to noon at FM one one
hundred point three k f A n you can do, okay,
(17:03):
Welcome back to Shields for Toys for Tots. Paul Allen,
producer Nordo and guestling from the Star Tribune and a
Lavelle Neil the Third also from the Star Tribune. We
talked a lot about the roots of the beat writer,
the scribe and or the columnist executing their toil, and
Star Tribune dot Com is a great place to follow
(17:24):
exactly everything they were talking about it it's the newspaper world,
but their podcasts, there are videos and stuff like that
on YouTube from stadium. So Startribune dot Com love those guys.
Both of them do really really good work. To the
vikings first end up, Ben, how do they pull out
of this? How do they pull out of it?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well? I think a lot of it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I mean, it's it's repetitive, but it's got to start
at the quarterback position. You have to get better quarterback
play than they've had, and the question is are you
going to get that from the young quarterbacks at this point.
I think this has to be about and Kevin O'Connell
talked about it yesterday, figuring out how you can work
this offense with these guys where they're at and they'll
be JJ McCarthy on Sunday, but you have to get
to the point where you can sustain drives and at
(18:10):
least get some momentum that way. I think it has
to start there and protecting him better is going to
be part of it too, especially if they get healthier
on the offensive line. But you just have to get
the quarterback playing at a representative level in the NFL.
There's no way to win in this league if you
don't have that. So I think it's got to start there.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Lavelle Neil the third is from the South side of
Chicago and his favorite football team is the Chicago Bears.
They currently not only are in first place in the
NFC North, they're number one in the NFC same record
as the Rams, but they have a better conference record.
So the question for you, your Bears being my friend,
(18:48):
your Bears being.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Numero huno, and the NFC.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
This is like a Bears fan of pull out of
cigar in December and not February. Did you yeah heard
that eighty five team is good? Though, all of a
sudden is in. Mike Royko of US Mike Royko Radio
as has rolled in.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I've been sending them videos after the last two weeks
and me be smoking a new it's been driving them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Up at the wall. I think I've been handling them. Okay,
you told me.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
To do something with that cigar Sunday night and then I.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Invited you on the radio show, so I mean, yeah,
you're right, it's the topsy turvy nature of your announcer.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Did you see this coming? Did you with nine and three?
Nine and three? Right? Yes? Yeah? Did you? Did you
in any way see this coming? No?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Because I thought it was almost back to square one
with this team, with a brand new coach and a
brand new system, offensive mining coaches, a big drastic change
from Matt Evernflus to Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So I just I thought.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
That Kayler Williams is going to have to be rewired
as a quarterback. And there was a lot of growing
pains during training camp. I mean, you don't having trouble
getting lined up during walkthroughs.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
The reports coming out of there in training camp were
kind of wild.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, like Ben Johnson's screwing at Coomeet because he lined
up two yards the wrong way. You know, pre stat penalties,
false starts, lookal procedures are going on, just what the
Vikers went through for a little bit during the regular season.
All that was going on. So now this has surprised me.
I think the one thing that we expected Ben to
(20:12):
eventually develop kind of an offense that was gonna be
able to attack both ways on the ground in the air.
We didn't see the holes. How strong the run game
was gonna be was going to be. The Bears are
the second best running game in the NFL. And it's
not because Caleb Williams is running wild to Saint Justin fields.
You know, he's trying to make him more of a
(20:32):
pocket quarterback because you have to win from the pocket.
If you're a quarterback in the NFL. Eventually you have to.
I think the work with the offensive line has been underrated.
Bringing in Joe Toney, who's won a Super Bowl with
Kansas City Chiefs, signing Dolman, who may be one of
the top five centers in the league, and trading for
(20:53):
Jackson from the Rams. All three of those guys are
ranked among the top eleven offensive linemen in terms of
a block win percentage, so that has reshaped their line
is fueled the running game. Common down guy, the seventh
round pickatt of Rutgers has been has been useful and
when you're able to run the ball, it takes a
lot of pressure off of Hill. We was to make
(21:14):
plays with his arm, so which is weird because I
thought the Vikings would be similar to that with when
you when you, when you sign Mason you and you
have Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's not that we're not talking part but stopping.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I'm saying, if I'm not here to catch Astray a
shields for the for.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
The vikings that turn this around, I think it's starting.
I don't care what your opinion is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Okay, that's why you get paid to be a columnist,
to write about things like this, not talk about them.
Somebody please ask Ben a question right now that was
not a stray thrown at the one. I'm gonna get
this man of Sauncer.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
I want to continue down the Bears road, but to
the to the beat writer. I want to ask the
beat writer for the road. Okay, well, you've got a
big one this weekend. Well do you think this is sustainable?
I mean that the question I have is earlier in
the season, it was a team that was beating on
bad teams, doing the thing we're supposed to do, and
that record. Now you go to Philly on Black Friday,
you do what you did, and that kind of raises
(22:11):
some eyebrows and hat I guess I'm gonna give my
own team, my favorite team Astray here.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Well, they broke the Ale spirit with that running game.
They did.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
But but this your team kind of feels like the
twenty twenty two Minnesota Vikings. There's an element to it
where you have brought the turnovers down, you're getting takeaways,
opportunistic defense, and the offense. Any coin flip of a moment,
your team is on the right side of that. And
that was similar to my favorite team a few years ago.
But then the freaking rug gets pulled out from under
(22:42):
my favorite team. Sadly that what That's what your team
feels to me right now. I'm just curious what your
level of faith or belief is in sustaining this at
this particular moment atop the NFC.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
For the rest of the season. I think it's gonna
be think it's gonna be tough. The Phillies. Sorry, the
victory over the Eagles was a defining win. That the
defining one I was looking for.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
It was a strong win, yeah, because I.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Was skeptical to just because of strength of schedule.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Twenty twenty two Bills Vikings esque.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, and how some of these games were being won,
you know, in the final seconds. And the Cincinnati game
was just ridiculous. No, so now it's it's open eyes
across the league. And in my mind, if the Bears
get to eleven wins, which means they just need two
more wins out of these last five games, I think
that's maybe enough to win the division. Because you look
at green Bay schedule and Detroit schedule, it's not a walk.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
In the park. In fact, I.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
Believe one of those should be against the Pack though, right,
if you're thinking that way, and you exactly, you guys
got to go to Lambeau and get a w this week.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Does Sunday Lab where the Bear won.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
The Bears won their last year, So we're not gonna
be afraid used to Bees don't count anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
They just lie on the floor till we sweep them away.
And two.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Ben Johnson, the INTRODUC three press conferences. I enjoyed beating
Matt Lafleour twice a year. He's five and one against
law La floor oh J with Jamir Gibbs. No, I'm sorry, No,
I didn't say that. No, it doesn't matter. They're nine
and three with Manungai. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Swift too?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So then we so then we have Cleveland after that,
then Detroit again. Yeah, then forty nine Ers and Lions
get give me two more wins. Give me to eleven.
I think it's gonna win.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He's just trying to give me too more.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I'm just trying to have the Vikings score a touchdown, yeah,
the first time in eight or just give.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Me seven points. I just want to see Reiker out.
It's gonna happen. Minding up for an extra points. I
just need that. I need that against the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I know.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
But this is not about us on the therapeutic davenport
of Block getting emotional. This is about thanking the columnists
for stopping by and opening his hard and sharing.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And also it's an open invitation. Why because it's public?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Senny wants to come in studio.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, Thursday at eleven fifteen after what's the girl's name?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Olivia? What Olivia King? Olivia King?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
So eleven fifteen till I don't know, eleven forty five
Thursday around eleven fifteen, Senny wants the Sultan of Small
wants to stop by, and his his team is hosting.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Don't be account they're chasing your team, yep.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And Nordo and I will probably craft a little game
or a tribute thing. Or something like that. But we're
just gonna sit back and profit. Excuse me, just sit
back and enjoy you guys going at each other.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I don't wouldn't you guys love to hear that if
only one segment. If doesn't evolve us, but a.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Couple of learned football fans will at least Lavell's learned
going at each other eleven fifteen ish on Thursday.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
He wants to stop by, I will knock that smug
off his face. Yeah, and if for this around he's
getting punched in the oh. Yeah, you guys would beat
me in initials too, and for me a four and eight,
two segments handled. Please thank you father to nine Levell.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
God bless you, ma'am. Thanks for coming out. We appreciate you.
Columnist Lavelli Neil the third, Follow him on Twitter, Please
read all of his stories at Star Tribune and Start
Tribune dot com. Ben stage for a segment and we'll
get a little more hardcore with the vikings from Shields
Toys for Tots Day f N one hundred point three KFA,
(26:33):
Ben Gasline Stars Rebume covers the Minnesota vikings for Setscribe
and also you can learn more about him via Twitter
at Ben Gesling acts as Vikings the podcast. We got
a newsletter in the mix. He was in Seattle and
it's always great seeing Ben listen to him on the
Vikings pregame show too, Vikings Football Sunday with Muss Generally,
(26:54):
what is that about twenty minutes before the game, twenty.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Five before the game?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, generally the idea that's Vikings Football Sunday, AFA and
KFA in Audio Network. All right, let's go a little
bit in the weeds on the hardcore side. Why is
Justin Jefferson not speaking after.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
A game a big deal?
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Well, he's I think in six years of covering him,
I was trying to remember if that's ever happened before,
and I can't remember a time where it has.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I think it's.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Notable because he's one of the captains of the team,
and he's a guy that I think takes that role
pretty seriously. We've heard him talk over the last couple
of years a number of times about how important he
sees that as being and being kind of the face
of the franchise. He's referred to himself about in that
role quite a bit. So for him to say I
(27:44):
don't have anything to say it. You know, it happens.
You see players do it when they're frustrated at times.
But it was a window into what he's thinking as
much as anything else. I mean, I'm not going to
be the guy that sits here and says, oh, they
have to do it every single time they're supposed to
do it, like sometimes guys have met some guys. Sometimes
guys think if I say something, it's probably going to
be worse than if I don't, so the old if
(28:06):
I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything
at all. But I think it was a window into
how he's feeling. And we all saw the body language
on the sideline in the second half of that game,
So I think it's notable. I think it's telling based
on the fact that he's not done that it's at
all as far as I can remember, and just the
role that he plays as a team spokesman. For him
to say no, I'm I'm not doing that today, I
(28:28):
think is worth paying attention to.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Isn't in some ways not saying anything saying everything yes,
And I mean, you're not going to be a person
that puts words into his brain or through his mouth
when you cover the team, But there is an element
of justin Jefferson's probably feeling a.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Lot like what we're feeling, even on the outside. Right now.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
This team has tried everything, it's not working, and he
is accustomed to some semblance of success. Yeah, winner lose
statistically getting into the end zone.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We're begging, we're sitting up here nine to do and
begging this team just to score a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
He wants in more than him. Kind of saying nothing
in some ways says a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I think that's right. I think there's a little bit
of a yeah when you when you stay silent, you
allow people to say, boy, that's you. A lot of
people like me to say that's not something we've seen
from him before. He doesn't have to say anything for
people to say, Okay, this is uh, this is different
than it has been. And I certainly think there's frustration there. Obviously,
he has still won more playoff games in college than
(29:27):
he has in the NFL, and that was two seasons
of playoffs at LSU, and he's been at the playoffs
I think probably twice in his time with the Vikings.
But yeah, yeah, that it's obviously a lot longer time.
So I think the fact that they are not having
the success he'd hope to have, both individually for him
and as a team, is starting to wear on him
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Ben Gasoline's art Tribunes dart Tribune dot Com. When when
things are really bad, even I mean for some kind
of bad, but when things are perceived to be really bad, yeah,
fans always want people replaced. Uh that that's that's It's
mostly overreaction, but not always right right.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
I mean you've seen times where people get replaced because
an ownership group has said, hey, this has been enough.
I don't think that's the point we're at here. I mean,
the coach and the general manager were both extended before
this season, and Kevin O'Connell's extension is I think through
twenty twenty nine. So there's a lot of commitment made
(30:25):
to Kevin O'Connell and Quasi Dopomensa, especially in the middle
of this quarterback process, where you're probably going to say,
we need some stability here. But this has been bad,
and I think there's a lot of fans that start
to wonder about it at this point. There's with the
contracts and the fact that they have made those commitments,
and there's a cost to that obviously that goes into
(30:48):
the equation. But they're going to have to, I think,
answer for some things, just as how this has gone.
You know, I think they'll be here, but just in
the accounting of it, when they're meeting with the ownership
group and saying what happened here, there are going to
have to be some hard conversations because this certainly has
not gone anywhere near what they.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Wanted it to be.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
I imagine you do a lot of stiff arming with
those sorts of topics, or have to in some regard. Again,
still meeting with the team every day, we're in the
midst five games remaining.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I've joked about it with you before.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
You know, in October, team loses a bad game, you're
talking about the general manager, you're talking about drafts, you're
talking about free agency and those things, and I would say,
this is freaking October, like we're not gonna have plenty
of time to.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Dissect and go backwards.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
But that heat now with five games left in playoffs
not really being a factor of the conversation that has
exploded where you're trying to balance. Here's what I want
to see out of my squad against the Commanders, and
please can the left tackle play so number nine can
have the best opportunity to find some success on the field. Meanwhile,
what about this guy that came in in March? Did
you see what we drafted in twenty twenty two? Like,
(31:56):
trying to stay in the now can be difficult.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, it can.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, this is an ownership group I think it's
worth pointing out that is not typically very reactionary. They
pride themselves on being stable. They pride themselves on being
monitorial thinkers, and the decisions they have that they certainly
I think want to operate that way. You've heard them
talk about seeing the Rooney family as a model for
what they want in terms of family ownership, but also
(32:20):
the stability of we're not going to react to one
season of things going off the rails or a couple
of months of things going off the rails. That said,
this is a team that I think has the highest
cash spend in the NFL. So there are a lot
of investments made that have not panned out, and I
(32:40):
think that's where it becomes difficult to kind of parse
all of this because there I do think there's going
to be hard discussions of hey, this did not We
thought we were building a team that would contend, even
as we have a quarterback that's developing in the process.
That was always going to be a tough thing to do.
But when it hasn't worked, and it's to the point
where you're not even talking about playoffs, you're talking about,
(33:02):
you know, drafts and where things go from here, there's
a lot of questions that have to be answered, and
specifically with the drafts. They have an expensive roster in
part because the drafts have not delivered the results in
the young the fruit, cheaper labor, which let's be honest,
that's part of what it is that hasn't happened. So
you end up in spots where you pay Adam Thielan
(33:23):
and you have veterans that are getting a little older
and a little more expensive, and you have to work
through all of that when the drafts have not delivered.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Lastly, with the Minnesota Vikings offense, do you sense with
that side of the football that at times they almost
expect bad things to happen? In other words, playing playing
tight ye or it's hard it's hard to frame up
because they've had so much offensive success here. Yeah, that
(33:52):
you know, it's kind of like like when is something
bad gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Well, yeah, I mean I think it was interesting to
hear Kevin O'Connell talk yesterday about out having to separate
what you hope the offense would look like or what
you believe it can look like, from what you're actually
at right now, because what triggered the question. Yeah, yeah,
I think and it'll be interesting to hear what he
says to that. I mean, if you guys get into
it a little bit later today and we go through
the week, Because this is an offense that we've seen
(34:17):
work at a very high level. But it's an offense
that's worked well when it's had quarterbacks that have had
time in the league and time in the offense. So
when you have a quarterback that can make all of
the cans and checks at the line, when you have
a quarterback that trusts themselves. He talked about it yesterday,
the incut screaming through the backside. I mean, Sam Darnold
lived on those last year, the dagger throw to Justin
(34:37):
Jefferson on the backside of a play. They made so
much money off of that last year, and that is
something they want to get to. Often in this offense,
where you have a receiver running vertically to clear the
safety and then Justin Jefferson breaks behind that to get
eighteen yards over the middle of the field, we have
not seen that happen. So when those staples of the
offense aren't there and you're kind of saying, okay, let's
(34:58):
go to screens, let's go to quick game, let's try
to find ways to just minimize the mistakes. It's that
playing not to lose thing, which certainly Kevin O'Connell does
not want to be doing. He wants to push the ball,
he wants to be aggressive, he wants to play to win,
and I think when you're having to operate this way, yeah,
it can lead you to a little bit of this
protectionist mindset. That's very unusual to see from a Kevin
O'Connell coach team. You're fantastic, thanks for coming out. Yeah,
(35:21):
always fun to be out here. Thank you, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Follow his work at Star Tribune and Star Tribune dot com.
That's courtesy of Standard Heating and Air and Standard Heating
dot Com. Now about fifteen minutes from now, Kevin O'Connell,
head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, will join us as
he is wont to do weekly around eleven o'clock. He'll
be at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center in Egan and
(35:44):
we'll be here at Chiels and Eden Prairie. He'll be
able to see us though, and we have secured a
couple of tots. We have secured a couple of kids
to ask Kevin, ask the head coach some questions here
on the stage. You'll see that at Vikings dot com
and hear at nine to noon coming up about eleven
five with Nordo.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I'm Paul Allen back after this.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Welcome back nine to noon here at Shields. Part of
our Toys for Tots push each and every single season,
and thank you all for hanging out with us at
Shields today. Thank you to Shields for being tremendous hosts.
And of course, whether it's the Marine Corps and their
supportive Toys for Tots and all throughout the day to day,
whether it's Vikings players. During the first hour we had T. J. Hawkinson.
(36:54):
I believe Isaiah Rodgers is going to be a Josh
mittellis sighting whether it's the program noon to three and
Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barrero three to six thirty.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
We're gonna be here all day today and just.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Drop them by, say hello and drop off an unwrapped toy.
And that's of course going to be for the Tots
first fifty donations each show today, whether it's Common and
Noon and Barrero at three, you're going to receive a
kfan and unreal beanie. So thanks so much for Shields,
the Vikings, unrel for supporting our efforts today and it
(37:27):
is time for News de Nord truncated edition as we
pad our way to the head coach Kevin O'Connell each
and every week, x's and o's with head coach Kevin O'Connell.
He's going to be joining us at the top of
the hour. He'll be at tco and Egan and we'll
be here at Shields. But excited for that conversation regarding
your favorite football team and it's super cool. We got
(37:47):
a couple of tots with a couple of questions for
the head coach to kick that off. Non Vikings for
a moment. The Minnesota Timberwolves ten and a half point
favorites at the New Orleans Pelicans this evening. Anthony Edwards
I've mentioned to when I talk about prize picks. Five
straight games I believe the longest streak of his career
with thirty plus points.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Let's just say he's on a heater and he's kind of.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
Had to be wonky squad trying to figure out the.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Point guard position.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
But they're finding their way to victories, finally beating teams
with a winning record, as they did over the weekend
versus the Spurs and the Celtics. Let's just say this,
the Pelicans are hideous. The Pelicans are awful. The Pelicans
are the dredge of the NBA. And to go down
to New Orleans and do nothing other than just absolutely
pummel an awful state of affairs that the Pelicans currently are.
(38:35):
That should be the a topic for Finchy's squad tonight,
and that's seven o'clock.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You're going to get to hear that via the.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Course where you're home for Wolf's Hoops the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The answers to the question that you texted me last
evening and I didn't see it till this morning, is
Anthony Edwards in my opinion. The answer is, you know,
he's two fifty to one to become the NBP. So
you got like Shay, Gilgess, Alexander, and Djokis who are
prohibitively favored to win it.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Yeah, it's almost it's like one and a half to
one each of them. They're very close.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
It's it's certainly with Shay the team is heavily favored
to win the championship, and so the teams that the
bet shops believe will garner the most attention and win
the most games. So who's the best player on that team?
Who is the one all of the people who vote
(39:32):
for absolutely know of now, of course they know event
but really until he does things that those two if done,
then they're just like, here, kitty, kitty, you got twenty dollars,
you want to put it on him at twenty five,
two fifty to one, whatever it is, go ahead and
do it.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
He's not going to win it. Totally makes sense.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
We've had this MVP conversation similarly in the NFL before.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Just two fifty was very jarring to me.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Now, NBA awards are so top heavy and maybe pragmatically,
if you we were just gonna say.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Who's the MVP of the NBA.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Yeah, well, people would get bored because Joker would be
the MVP probably the last four or five six seasons
if you were truly looking at it from an actual
most valuable standpoint, Shay is probably the right answer in
this equation with what he did last year. I get it,
But I'm just thinking Aunt at two fifty to one,
especially if he continues to carry this thing on his
(40:22):
back like he has the last week and a half. Yep,
and this is a team fine, maybe for their third
consecutive Western Conference Final series. I'm just thinking, man number
five needs a little bit of love, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
And maybe not.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
This isn't a take for a Todd, but maybe if
I was a Todd, I'd tell my dad, I'd like
you let me maybe throw five on Aunt at two fifty to.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
One and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
We have a minute left before we paused for O'Connell
just to land the plane here. You know, I like
this maybe for tomorrow or moving forward, where if you
look at each team, you know that say has a
winning record, and you take that MVP guy from.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
It, what do you think would happen? You see what I'm.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
Saying, yeah, that'd be fun to look around actually, but
then you get to like the Rockets.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Okay, Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant more important than Amen Thompson.
Is Amen Thompson more important than whomever else? You want
to go to the MBT on that team. I like
that next.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
Well, lastly, as we are indeed about to pause the
Wild and as well as they've been doing. Sadly they
lose that shootout against the Sabers. After that incredibly emotional
w at home on Friday against the Abs, they're out
of Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers and it will
be yesper vaalstet in Net for the Minnesota Wild tonight.
(41:38):
That's at eight pm on your home for a while,
the hockey the fan looking for them to continue their
their winning ways as they create a nice little gap
six points clear. I believe the Blackhawks are the next
team in the division. They are four points clear where
the wild card teams are at. So this, you know,
it's tough to build that kind of momentum with the
three point game and how everything works out scoring wise
(41:58):
in the NHLAH. Impressive turnaround from some ugly and meager
beginnings to this season, looking forward to Heinze's team getting
another two out West tonight, Well, this time last.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Week, or actually like Thursday or Friday last week when
we were laying out Hey, they have twenty eight points.
Twenty eight points puts you x amount behind the Abs
in the best division in hockey. But if you're in
something called the Metropolitan, you'd be leading it. If you're
in the Atlantic, you'd be in a tie for first.
It kind of a perspective as they go around the
league Central strong right now. It's just crazy how things
(42:30):
change in a short amount of time. Where the Wild
have thirty three points, Okay, so they beat Colorado, there's
still nine behind Colorado, still five behind Dallas. Like Nordo said,
the Central was crazy. But you go to the Pacific
and we'd be tied for first with Anaheim first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
How in the heck is Anaheim in first? That's up
with the Ducks and.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Secondly Edmonton with Connor McDavid Dreiseidel, Evan Bouchard and some
of those other high enders. Well, they're in the spot
we're in last week, yep, they have twenty seven points,
So that's very intriguing and we'll see all it works
out tonight.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
News Denord brought to you by Canterbury Canterbury Parkcanterbury Park
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
We sell Christmas trees at Canterbury by the way, if
you would like to stop by the they're outside on
the west side of the parking lot.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
And you've talked about it before. Oh it's sweet. What
goes into this, Well, it's just Canterbury offers everything. Whether
you're feeling the felt or you're doing the NFL Pro
Pick Them challenge, you're getting Christmas trees if you don't
want to be like me climbing up a freaking hill
because your kids picked the Christmas tree a half mile
away from the jeep and you got the little orange
saw that's down to a dull. You go to Canterbury Park,
(43:40):
you find Johnny the Mouse, Mickelson or some of the
great staff that are actually out there selling trees. By
yourself a tree, pull up the truckster, they'll strap it
on top and you're headed your way to a beautiful
Christmas tree centerpiece in your house.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Cover your ears.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Okay, all right, this right here is a great husband
and an even better father. Round up applause for the
producer of nine to Now you I told you to
cover your ears, speaking of great husbands, elite coaches, and
fantastic fathers. Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings,
joins us next on nine to noon
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.