January 15, 2025 • 53 mins
Vikings heavy hour with the focus being on extending the head coach's contract, some Vikes Bites then Florio's weekly hit make up the opening hour!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back to the show. Jerk Assay, Polly Wally.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I never heard anything in my life.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Who's my insane?
Speaker 5 (00:27):
That Pio stopping shopping stopping, they falling down?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
You're kinda beat play with me. It's p A ninety nine.
I'm the fan vikings.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
What that.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Good stuff?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Just Mesten.
Speaker 6 (00:59):
And Marko.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Personal foul whipping?
Speaker 6 (01:10):
What in the hand fat is going on with you
guys here?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
But yes, I'm confident that will be world champions. That's
what I've said right from the start.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
And I'm still.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Confident that because nine to noon is in the air.
Happy Wednesday. Hey, there here comes a Wednesday nine to
noon style And on the show today we offer some
bikes bites, including bikes who bikes who Bite? And I
may not be here next year.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The scribe the News, the former quarterback and the Wolves
head coach Chris Finch joins around eleven thirty a former
quarterback being Matt castles part of an iHeartRadio podcast with
a man named Bobby Bones. And as I will share
with Matt in the final hour of the presentation, when
yours truly here's the name Bobby Bones, which can't be
(02:17):
somebody's real name and is not. When I hear the
name Bobby Bones, it feels like I'm rolling into Mancini's
on West Seventh and like I owe three people two
thousand dollars each for a missed over under.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I always love that one.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You just have the money out right away, because Bobby Bones,
you don't want knee caps to be broken. Nope, you're
worried about bones in the health already have bones.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Already had the metaphorical kneecaps broken in proverbial fashioned by
Dan Campbell.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I always love that one, the kneecap eater. I always
love that one. Bobby Bones.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You tease the name and then you look up at
NFL Network and Good Morning Football and there's Bobby Bones
chatting with Minnesotan Jamie Jamie Erdahl. So that podcast is new,
I believe, and we're really excited to chat with Matt Castle,
who's the co host. That's going to be at about
eleven o three today. The scribe been guessling shortly after
(03:11):
ten Florio with PFT.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, you know, we thirty minutes and.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Change from now, and with that he has a new
purple related obsession. Oh goodie, oh goodye with PFT. Yeah,
you know we because around this time last year, PFT
was jumping all over the Vikings not signing Justin Jefferson
(03:37):
on what seemed to be Florio's schedule. And now that
vibe has shifted to coach Kevin O'Connell and his future
here and that's where we begin nine to Now, is.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
There any chance, as part of just looking ahead to Florio,
do we bring up that he proclaimed on these airwaves,
who has He's a protectionist, he protects his heart, he
has his favorite team. But he's a guy that doesn't
go all in. He went all in. He went all
in on the Purple on these airwaves. And guess what
(04:12):
happens on the other side of that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, disaster.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, it's a ten of ten on the vitriol and negativity.
And I happen to be the one on the other
side of the microphone. And I'm really really excited about that.
But he's a twenty some odd year uncompensated guest. Yes,
so therefore, given his dedication to AM eleven thirty kfa
in and FN one hundred point three KFAM, I guess,
(04:37):
I guess, I mean it's a wei, It's it's a
one and a one age you and I. I may
ask the questions, but it's a we. I guess we
just got to sit back and take it right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I think I think we do have to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And that's one of the best parts of having him
on is even when it gets contentious, it's all love.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
But he opened his heart for the first time.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Everybody loves when it gets contentious except me.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, it's it's terrific.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah. And then I can't look to my left to
the producer Studio Eric Nordquiest producer nine to now because
you're either doing one of two things. You're either laughing
hysterically at an argument or your this is radio, so
you can't see. So outstretch everybody, unless you're driving. Outstretch,
make your arms outstretched and then wave them up like
(05:21):
you're trying to get the crowd going.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I always love that one. It's one of the two things.
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I get to see the mannerisms. I get to see
the cartoon in full effect. When you get hit with
something that you don't like, and it is two, it's
it's a movable object, unstoppable force. One of you is
going to win regardless every time it is one of
my favorite things. When you guys, when you guys take
jabs at each other.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
If I turn my back to you today, don't take
it personally. Okay, I got you so now. But seriously,
Florio last year and ProFootball Talk dot Com with Justin
Jefferson that that whole thing seemed to be on Mike's
schedule where because you know, unlike unlike things that we're
(06:08):
going to present right now regarding Kevin O'Connell and also
with a pro football Talk dot Com, there is a difference.
And at first Blush I was like, thinking about it,
I'm like, okay, cool, here we go again. You know
with the you gotta get this done with potentially made
(06:29):
up or emotionally charged subterfuge that didn't have a smoking gun.
But like we mentioned yesterday, there's a smoking gun with
the O'Connell situation and if there even is a situation
and an aside. So here's the deal. So, given the
season is over, O'Connell is heading into the final year
(06:54):
of a four year deal as head coach of the
Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are thirty four and nineteen under
cah and two in the playoffs. Twenty six and nine
and one score games, second or third best in the
history of the NFL with that mark. By the way,
nine and one and one score games this year, three
and one in overtime and two against the Rams, one
(07:15):
and five against the Lions, and four and two against
the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Smoking Gun.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Two Sundays ago, while chilling on a chilling Motor City morning,
Boom Fox's Jay Glazer pops with a report multiple teams
are interested in trading for our coach. We all remember it, right, Yes,
we do, Glazer now a week ago, so that was
a week in change ago. Glazer six six days a
(07:44):
weekish ago, doubled down on a podcast saying this quote.
I never said he Kevin O'Connell. I never said he's
getting traded. But without a doubt their teams and the
teams that are involved asking me please do not mention us,
(08:06):
which I have to respect. I know that one team
at least is saying, man, we would gear up and
trade this and that and this for this guy or
a guy like this. So yeah, there talks internally in
buildings about trying to make a run. Look, it could
(08:27):
be a long shot, it could be a crazy idea,
But it's only crazy if you don't take a shot.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
End to quote.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Now that's real, and as mentioned yesterday, quite unfortunate it
dropped day of game. The Vikings were playing for a
Conference one seed, but in no way impacted the outcome
of the game. But it's just unfortunate that there's even
a sliver of a distraction or something that is more
(08:56):
than elevator music for all involved up to at that time,
the newest biggest game of the season. Now Glazer has
covered the NFL for more than three decades, and in
no way does nine to Noon Incorporated believe he was
making up something or lying. Nine to Noon happens to
(09:20):
know how that game works. Info is fed to high
level newsbreakers nine point five out of ten times to
benefit the interest of said bird chirping.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Averaging that and good morning, good morning.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
No idea where the bit originated, but we'll ask that
very question of Florio when he joins in the third
segment today.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's about nine.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So, unlike the wonderment over what was next this time
last season for Justin Jeffers sim nine to Noon does
not recall a planted smoking gun like this, indicating the
hot water of speculation maybe boiling now. The aside to
(10:14):
the smoking gun Florio dropped is this. It was that
Profootballtalk dot Com. It was deep in the story and
if you missed it, here we are, so, Mike writes
at the end of a Kevin O'Connell Jay laser just
a story from yesterday at pro football Talk dot Com.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Read it and judge it on your own, he writes.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Coincidentally or not, the Jets have interviewed for their vacant
GM position. Doug Mujie of the Broncos. Doug mugi every here,
Doug Mugie.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Now either of I.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Mujie and O'Connell played college football together at San Diego State,
and they were roommates. Okay, so unlike Jefferson and emotionally
charged on my schedule, here's how I think things should
(11:14):
work with Justin Jefferson, and they worked out, you know,
just just fine from a contractual standpoint and extension and
stuff like that. That I'm calling a week ago from Sunday,
two sundays ago a smoking gun simply because of the
person who reported it. There absolutely is something behind it,
(11:39):
planted by somebody who either has well they have their
best interest in mind, But that doesn't mean it would
come from somebody on this side of the equation. It
could be somebody from somewhere, just like paying off a
favor somebody's done for him, trying to jack with the
per and gold vibe into the at that time the
(12:02):
newest biggest game of the season. But it happened. So
it's a smoking gun. Yes, it's a smoking gun. The
aside Doug Mujie, Doug Mugie and the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, the key is is they were roommates, right.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
But wow, I mean it's like we never heard, we
never heard and Terris Marshall, who used to play at
LSU is going to sign with this team. And at
Louisiana State University, guess who was Terris Marshall. Marshall's roommate
(12:42):
JJ and I don't even know if they were roommates,
but like, there was never anything like that included with
the emotionally charged.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Bit Here's one thing that I would like brought up
during that conversation as well, or something to dig into.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You care nothing for eleven to twenty. You've got plenty
of bites.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I got, I got a ton of bites, megabytes thank you.
I got gigabytes of megabytes of vikes bites. In this article,
he writes the week eighteen Sunday Splash report from Jay
Glazer that multiple teams are interested in trading for O'Connell
wasn't idle talk.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Excuse me, I need to dim the lights.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that's that's potentially a So the smoking gun that
you're talking about, Pa, it feels real one way or another.
The self interest of whoever is sending that information in
Jay Glazer paid at a high level to disseminate it.
But this very next sentence is where I want to
find out. Is this coming from Glazer? Is this coming
(13:39):
from Florio? And where this goes is there's tension in
the relationship, stemming largely from the fact that he didn't
get an extension after his second season. So where is
that tension supposedly in the relationship. Is that part of
the info that's being sent to Jay Glazer's that is Glazer?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
That part would have to be Glazer, who as we
piece this thing together and we follow the breadcrumbs, Yeah,
that has to be part of it. It just I mean,
whether it's a lie or not, it just has to
be part of the bird chirping, knowing that it's going
(14:22):
to provide distraction and talkers in conversation.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
But said bird, said, said purp.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
In this equation holding the smoking gun, that's the individual
or individuals who are looking to benefit from this equation.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yes, that's a problem. That is a massive problem. It's
a smoking gun. It is a mooji. They were roommates.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
So how would now with super special Moujie, whoever he is,
how would that work? Given the Jets have an opening
right now for a head coaching position, said super long
trade would have to be like this, like this week,
or maybe in a let's call it a ten of
ten impossible reality, the woebegone Jets hire a coach for
(15:18):
one year. I always love that one. It's a ten
of ten impossibility. But we got moujie and roommates and
ten of ten impossibility. Maybe they hire a coach for
a year, elevate somebody, and O'Connell's college roommate becomes the
team's GM. They wait with a sneaky handshake. O'Connell declines
(15:40):
all offers from the Purple plays out the twenty twenty
five and Boom is the new head coach of the
New York Jets. We'll just listen to that. The whole scenario, honestly,
is just stupid. It sounds ridiculous. It's ten of ten impossibilities,
ten of ten on the stupidity meter. All right, three two.
(16:01):
So that's where we are with that, all right. Nine
to noon doesn't see any way the team and coach
do not get together on a contract extension. Nine to
noon has no idea If said coach is frustrated with
the way things are advancing or not advancing, and nine
(16:24):
to noon actually is one hundred percent vibing. Kevin O'Connell
gets a sweet deal eventually from the Minnesota Vikings. The
pay no idea. Couldn't care less. Andy Reid gets twenty
million dollars a year. It ain't that well. So we'll
see what Florio has to say around nine point forty.
(16:46):
There will be no arguing despite the urging of the
con But out of respect for our uncompensated weekly guest,
he cares about it and we enjoy the time he
makes for the radio station.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So the bit is imply you think that's fair. I
think that's fair.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Now again, don't know or don't care like, let's look
at it this way. Don't know or don't care what
Packers coach Matt Lafleur makes, all right, but should O'Connell
be on par with Lafleur or maybe even making more
four and.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Two though, I mean you want that, you want the
market rate, right, I mean Minneapolis Saint Paul larger market,
and the inflation Lafleur shops at shop co everybody not
getting raises from twenty twenty on losing massive amounts of money.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Make it like twenty or thirty percent less due to inflation.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I mean that that that's that's a fact in the
National Football League, and and and a lot it's.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
A fact in the National Football Well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And as you're always quick to point out, any numbers
that ultimately are reported are before taxes.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Hey, so I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I mean, if we're looking at like a benchmark or
a baseline, here, Andy Reid gets twenty million, It ain't
that I got some numbers with Florio that some coaches
like outside of the top ten or something like that.
If we're going to talk about somebody else's money, which
is really cool, isn't that really cool talking about somebody else?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I mean let's just letgen I generally don't enjoy it. Yeah,
let's I mean, let's just let's make it nine to
noon in Vogue. How much do you make a year?
See you first? It's weird you first of the people.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I mean, you're like, you're like, okay, well you know
that's what you are. Dan Burrero makes this, Paul's looking
for an extension.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It ain't that. I always love that one. It's like
Andy Reid makes twenty million, it ain't that.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So the pay, yeah, the pay yeah, and we'll see, well,
we'll see where o PFT wants to take this, because uh,
those are the diseased money first chats guccies have in
situations like this. So nine to noon we'll get out
of the way and probably have O'Connell joined the show
the day gets a new deal or somewhere around that time.
(19:13):
Now the analyst, Pete Bersage and yours truly next will
be together in a month and change from the Indianapolis
Scouting combine. And it would be really really cool if
this whole situation was settled by then. Yeah, so we
can eliminate the weird from the chat. Kevin your father, Bill,
Bill O'Connell was part of an FBI team that took
(19:37):
down John Gotti. By the way, what was his bonus
to the exact dollar Incent after taking down Gotti? And
how much did he make a year? I always love
that one. Yeah, that'd be sweet. They're really cool conversations
to have. Kevin and Quacy have a season closing press
conference tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
It's during nine to noon.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
I'm not exactly sure of the time at this moment,
could be ten o'clock, it could be eleven o'clock, but
it's tomorrow, and of course we'll carry it on your
home for everything funky and fun. The scribe Ben Geslin
will be in attendance. It's set presser and also joins
nine to Noon today at ten o'clock. Thank you very
much for listening. I'm Paul Allen, mad producer produces. You're
(20:18):
listening to the nine to Noon or radio show with
Vikes Bytes around the corner at FM one hundred point
three Kfan and in Ballyhoot fashion, it's time to give
away a little money.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
The Fan indeed wants to give you a shot to
put a grant in your hand with the National Cash Contest.
Go to kfan dot com and enter the keyword check
check and you might win one thousand dollars. The keyword
is check a Mike, check a one two, one two,
you might win a grand The keyword is check. At
KFA dot.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Com, Vikes Bites.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Welcome back nine to noon. It is indeed time for
Vikes Bites. And you heard liber there at the end
of that break Elite meet for the athlete. He's talking
about Thousand Hills lifetime grazed grass fed beef, beef and.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You can shop online.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Box of meat shows up to your doorstep, local Coburns,
local co ops and they are indeed proud sponsors of
Gophers athletics. So thank you Thousand Hills, Clearwater, Minnesota's finest.
Thank you to the Minnesota Vikings. Unfortunately a screeching halt
type of end of the season, but a fourteen win
season and interesting one at that.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And I did uncover over the course.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Of over the course of the morning, some locker room
related conversation. It was moving day, sadly yesterday, love it.
And I have some audio from some of the players.
I'm going to start with Justin Jefferson and Justin Jefferson
in this point, let me see here, season ending, what
does it feel like this time around?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
JJ?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know, these are one of the ones that's more difficult,
just because, you know, if you really think about it,
we only lost to two teams this whole entire year
in the same same format. So that's the most difficult
thing in the process. You know, having fourteen wins for
the season, that's something that's very difficult to do in
this league, you know, especially with all of their new
moves that we made, the free agents that we have
on this team. It just was that type of year
(22:13):
to have to have a good chance at a super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
So that's the most tough part.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
How much do you to think it truly bugs him
because he went out of his way to mention that, PA,
Like you're sitting there, you're looking back at the twenty
twenty four fourteen wins.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Donald Again, we've you.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Know, year of his career, year of his life, this
year Sam Darnold had with Kevin O'Connell in this offense,
and jjson there couldn't beat the freaking Lions at home. Yeah,
really like and then we lost to the Rams. Oh,
and then everything was on the line and we lost
to the freaking Lions again, and we can't beat the
Lions nowadays, and Jamier Gibbs is getting to the end
(22:50):
zone nine times in like four games. And then we
actually do that again. We go back to back losses
against the Lions and the Rams twice this most time,
of course, ending our season. It's gotta bug everybody in
that locker room if they take that moment, thirty seconds
even to just go really like, these two teams were
our bugaboo the entire season.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The justin Jefferson and and you know this is this
is the it's a business portion of the equation. He
was frustrated in from from what I see, what I know,
and what I'm around, I think he was frustrated more
this season than he was happy because we went through
that long patch where Sam forced it to him pick
(23:35):
pick pick should have been four penalty by Darby penalty
on the Jags. Yeah, next game, came back to the
pack a little bit. Next game two catches twenty yards
massive one and overtime and but still two catches.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So there was a long patch there where it's like
they're doing this.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
O'Connell said on nine to Noon, you know two months
or two and a half months of Tuesdays ago. That
just thinking basketball, your stuff, Curry Lebron, James Anthony Edwards,
and you're getting triple teamed every single play.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It's frustrating.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So not frustration with the organization or the coaches or
the players, just frustrate shun period.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And there was more voice right there is.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
You know, we had we had four big games, well
all of them were big, but two in the regulars
or three in the regular season, one in the postseason.
We went on four and for the high enders, the
stars prefer to shine when the lights are brightest, and
when the lights have been bright against the La Rams
(24:38):
or the Detroit Lions specifically in the last two games,
the Vikings were with all due respect, duds. Now that
ties into the what's next plan for the head coach.
I looked back at I mean, Zimmer was hired for
the twenty fourteen season, yeah, and left after twenty twenty one.
(24:58):
You know, that's all I mean that we knew it,
and we lived it and at times we loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
During that run.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That was a long run, and you know, handling man
dealing with conflict and dealing with you know, just just
conflict and players and staff members and stuff like that.
O'Connell's a ten of ten compared to Zimmer and you
go fourteen to twenty one with all that, and you know,
(25:24):
now you know what you have when it comes to
dealing with people and acquiescing and empowering and just being.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
A kind human being when you need to be kind. Well,
that's ten of ten with O'Connell. And then you get
the results, which whatever I said in the open thirty
four or whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Those are good too.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
So there are a couple of stumbling blocks here, one
major one one in five against the best team in
the division and zero to two against mentor guy, and
the most recent one was in the postseason, so it's polarizing.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Those are facts.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
More from Justin Jefferson here specifically on the QB room.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What's it going to look like?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
It doesn't really matter to me. It's not really something
that I'm making like a big deal about. You know,
whoever they decide to either bring back or you know,
to have in this locker room, we gotta make it
work and we gotta, you know, do whatever it takes
to you know, get a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Do you think a guy like Justin Jefferson has the
ability to knock on the coach's door, or now that
it's the the off season, the off season being upon us,
maybe he just tosses a text like you want to
go have a coffee or something, and maybe he has part.
He might not even have a final say or a
say in the mix, but you think that Justin Jefferson
(26:39):
might reach out to the coach and at least say.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Here's what I like, here's here's here's what my favorite
traits are.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And maybe that that lends to a certain guy entering
his second season, Maybe that lends to a guy that
just had the year of his career. Do you think
a guy like Justin Jefferson can broach that.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Topic with the head coach?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Of course, but it generally works the other way, especially
with those who you know, all coaches, no matter how
standoffish or knuckleheadish they can be, they generally include their
best players in massive decisions, in sneaky texting or talking
fashion more than people know. So, like, I guess that
(27:20):
would involve we're going to bring back Sam. Okay, so
say it's like jjis dimes that, but off all of this,
we're going to bring back Sam because all of a sudden,
the money works better than we thought it was going
to work three weeks ago. And by the way, I mean,
I'm not like over the top negative on that because
Sam Donald came through more than Sam Donald did not
(27:43):
come through. But I also do elevate pressure pack moments
where the last two had a pressure the games against Atlanta,
Arizona or ed Dimes did not have.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I personally believe the last two actually outweigh the previous games.
I believe that those moments when you encapsulate the entire
twenty twenty four's.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right as cool and fun as it was. I know
what you mean.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I think the last two are more important than the
previous but I can't say they outweigh them because there's
too much on the other side.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, it's these are I was.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
The one yesterday that talked about class of competition and
we swept the AFC South, which you know is akin
to bragging about straight A's at junior college. You're all
wound up for Kirko Chains and you killed him. You
beat Kyler, the creator of ros punts.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Did you get straight a's Pasadena City College?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
No in all five, No, No in all five years.
I think my highest GPA might have been a two
point four, but that's okay, all.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Right, three two.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So the what you beat is fact, but you still
have to beat it. And like Arizona Buddha Baker, Atlanta
had Grady Jackson. I mean, they all have players who
can ruin your day. So it is accomplishment to have
the most completions of twenty five yards or more over
the course of sixteen games compared to everybody else in
(29:08):
the game who does what you do. Yep, that's coach, coaches,
quarterback and skill guys meshing for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
That does matter.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
But I elevate, like you said the last two because
pressure is not for everybody, and that includes a lot
of people in this conversation because those were pressure filled
moments and they weren't l's, they were capital l's, So
that that even requires Like, if I'm working on the
team side, the organization side with extensions, I want to
(29:42):
know exactly your opinion as to why these things work
the way they do and to the best of your knowledge,
why did that thing pop with Glazer day of the
last game.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I want to know what you.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Know before I fork over six seven eight million dollars
a year for X amount of years. So all of
that is forthcoming, All of it is real, but it's
you know, so so I don't believe. I don't believe
Darnold will be the quarterback next year. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
With McCarthy and Daniel Jones. Who can be the next
Sam Darnold if given the opportunity, I believe he can.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
It's McCarthy or bust from here, man.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, it's all about JJ JJ and the play action
and working under center and running outside on some boots,
and and the vibrant personality and the flowing hockey hair
and oh my goodness, the postgame emotional interviews that he's
gonna have and the drive buys with the kid. It's
gonna yeah, just give it to him now. I'm all
(30:45):
done with everything. I mean, if Sam wants to work
for a dollar, great, I'm just kidding it. But it's
all about JJ and Uh. Let's let's extend this Kevin
O'Connell related conversation with the Mike Florio from Pro Football
Talk dot com and we'll get into some more locker
room or action. Following the fourteen and four season for
your Minnesota Vikings coming up a little later, but PFT.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
You know we that's next on KFA n nine to noon,
(31:34):
y'all and head a, We'll come in, We'll come in.
P FT. Hey there.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com NBC's Football Night in America
is going to be in Philadelphia Sunday for the Rams
Eagles pregame, and he joins us Now, Mike, good morning.
Do you think at Lincoln and Financial you're going to
get heckled because that's what they do out there.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Well, I think everybody gets heckled. I mean when the
bar is Santa Claus. Yeah, I fully expect it. But
that's fine. I get paid either way. And some stadiums,
the reception is friendly and positive. The Lions Vikings game,
the folks at Ford Field were very friendly, very nice.
It's always nice to see folks out in the wild,
you know, the folks who who are PFT officionados. They're
(32:27):
out there and I enjoy that. And it's fun being
down on the field, getting a chance to intermingle with
coaches and players who are aware of PFT and who
read PFT and the one group that seems to have
the highest saturation of folks who smile and say hi
or come over and say hello. The officials. High percentage
of officials who are fully aware of what we do
(32:48):
and who I am, which tells you they keep close
track of everything happening in the NFL. It's not just
about the rule book, it's about the full.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Existence, right, And I don't I'm not surprised by that
because those asarly, as they officiate some of these games,
they want to win your favor. So maybe a look
the other way on a story which you never would
do well.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
And it's funny. I just wrote something about Tom Brady's
obvious conflict of interest on Saturday night when he's working
the Commander's Lions game. In one capacity, he's the Fox
broadcaster who, in theory, is providing honest and authentic and
unbiased opinions about what he sees, and he's coming up
with comments in twenty seconds or so that he has
(33:29):
between plays with exteporaneous thoughts, presumably unaffected by any other
interests he might have. Meanwhile, he's a minority owner of
the Raiders, who, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal,
it's Tom show. Now he's running the show. He's looking
for a coach. He's interviewed both Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn,
and at some level, his desire to enhance and maximize
(33:52):
his effort to hire either of them one of them
is going to potentially affect his willingness to be candid.
It'll keep him from criticized them, or it'll cause him
to excessively hype what they do. And the audience needs
to know about it. You know, conflicts of interests are common,
but when the media knows about it, the people who
follow the NFL closely know about it. It's out there.
(34:13):
It's part of the NFL's reality. They place restrictions on
Tom Brady and what he can do prior to a game.
Fox has an obligation to tell the audience at the outset.
There's gonna be forty million people who tune in. I
don't know how many of them don't know. Many don't know,
maybe most don't know. People need to know that the
guy who is telling you what's happening and giving you
(34:34):
his assessment of the play on the field has an interest.
It might cause him to say things differently than if
he didn't have that interest. That's all it is. It
doesn't mean the guy goes to jail. It just means
that Fox has an obligation they'll let everyone know where
everyone stands because there is a very real conflict of interest.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And you've been all over this for a while and
rightfully so. And I kind of live did a few
weeks ago when Brady was calling the Vikings in Green
Bay Packers game. And like you've written before, you know
those sneaky production meetings that they have where they get
the the A plus intel.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
He's not in those meetings.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
He's not walking around the bottom of US Bank Stadium,
popping into locker rooms and talking to coaches on the side.
I mean the as I learned, the NFL is very
stringent about that with him in particular in these games.
And so there's that. So you've been on that. But secondly,
when he calls games, what do you think? How do
you think he's doing well?
Speaker 5 (35:34):
When the games are being played on Sunday afternoon, I'm
at NBC in the viewing room. We're watching all the
games at once, we get the audio of one at
a time. So I haven't had a chance to really
sit down and scrutinize his full performance and in my mind.
I've said this before, maybe to you, I know I've
said it to others. It's Pat summer All, John Madden,
Al Michaels, and everyone else. And Tom Brady is in
(35:54):
the category of everyone else. He's never going to be Madden.
He's never going to be summer All until he starts
chain smoking unfiltered camels for the next twenty years and
deepens his voice. But yeah, there's nothing about him that
makes me say, wow, Hey, even if it's a game
I don't care about, I need to tune in because
I need to listen to Tom Brady, right.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yeah, And that's what Tony Romo was like during his
first season when he was in those production meetings. He
was watching practice. He knew what plays were coming. So
thus when he would see a red zone formation, he
would know the eighty percent probability was this play is
going to happen. He would predict it, and people were
treating him like he's a soothsayer.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Oh, and others in the business were mad about it,
because anyone can do that. And there's a line that
you don't want to cross between what you found out
in a lot of conversations and attending practices where it's
kind of off the record and to help you after
the play explain what happened. When you're there saying hey, look,
I think they're going to do this next. You're kind
(36:57):
of taking unfair liberties with what you found out. And
most of the people who tune in for an NFL
game just aren't aware of that. We're aware of a
lot of the stuff because we are adjacent to the
sausage making process and you at times are in the
middle of it. The average fan who just watches football
games and doesn't consume talk, radio, internet videos about it, whatever,
(37:18):
they're not obsessed with it. Whenever games aren't being played,
those folks don't know. And that's what this is ultimately about.
Because there are a lot of people in the media
who want to downplay the conflict of interest. I think
most of them don't even know what a conflict of
interest is. It's just another chapter of post standards America
where things that used to matter don't matter anymore. The
fans at least need to know. You need to know
(37:41):
because look, every game, part of the process of rooting
for your team is evaluating everything the broadcasters say. Are
they for us or are they against us. Why do
they hate our team?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Why do they not like our team? My son was
very upset on Monday night when we were watching the
playoff game because he thought that both Buck and Aikman
were programs and anti vikings. People are always looking for
that kind of stuff. So those folks need to be
equipped from the outset with the knowledge that Brady owns
a piece of the Raiders, that he's heavily involved in
(38:13):
the coaching search, that he's running the show in Las Vegas,
and he's trying to hire Ben Johnson. They need to
know that.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Wow, that's beautifully laid out.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com And as we mentioned in
the open previewing the show, here's a question, is your
new and Pro football Talk dot COM's new stop jacking
around with Justin Jefferson bent going to be stop messing
around with Kevin O'Connell and pay him post taste.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Well, here's my take. In the aftermath of what's happened
over the past ten days. Sunday Morning, Week eighteen, Jay
Glazer goes on Fox with a Sunday Splash report that
made quite the splash. Multiple teams are interested in trading
for Kevin O'Connell. The inclination to those who don't really
(38:59):
know what might be going on behind the curtain was
to say, what the hell is this? That report was
an indication of some tension that traces to the fact
that he was not given a new contract after year
two on the job, so he's required to prove himself
along with GM Quasiado Famensa through year three. Now here
he is one year away from coaching free agency, something
(39:21):
we rarely ever see the coach take advantage of. Most
coaches go ahead and do an extension and stay where
they are in lieu of giving up the bird in
the hand when there's only thirty one others out there,
and in any given year, there's what five or six
seven this year that we're open. But the tension is there,
and I think if Kevin O'Connell doesn't get the kind
(39:42):
of contract that he thinks he deserves, he'd be inclined
to finish out his contract and take his chances. It's
a big risk, but he'd be inclined to do it.
So when we entered week eighteen, I think Kevin O'Connell
was in blank chech territory has a real to whatever
he wanted from the Wilfs. The biggest challenge now is
(40:04):
the two sides properly assessing the impact of thirty one
to nine and twenty seven to nine on his leverage.
What does it do to that blank check? It's not
a blank check anymore, so what's the number? And if
they can't agree on it. If O'Connell's position is, hey,
i won fourteen games this year. I won thirteen games
(40:25):
my first year. I'm the first coach in franchise history
to have multiple thirteen win seasons. Playoffs don't matter, and
if the team's position is yes, it does, and what
happened in the most important games of the year is
a factor in how we evaluate your compensation going forward.
If they can't agree on that, then the Wolves have
to decide do we let him finish his contract and
then walk away with no compensation, or do we take
(40:47):
a call from the Jets, for example, just to name
a random team that I have no reason to think
would be inclined to possibly do that deal. Do we
take the call and do we work out compensation and
then let them try to strike contract with Kevin O'Connell
that's what they have to decide. If you're looking at
one more year and he's gonna walk away, what do
you do? And you know, the natural inclination for the
(41:10):
average fan is to say, oh, they'll work it out.
All they'll work it out, because they always do. You
rarely see this where there's a contract impass between coach
and team. But that's exactly what happened with the Cowboys
and Mike McCarthy. Even though they try to say that
there were never negotiations. Belooney, Cowboys offered him a short
term deal, he wanted a longer term deal. It fell apart,
and now he's gone. So the negotiations happening now impass.
(41:35):
What do you do going forward? Do you run out
the clock on the contract and see what happens next,
or do you listen to one or more of the
multiple teams that are interested in training form acknowledging also
that your trade leverage has gone down over the past
two games as well, And.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Then you factor in something called Doug Moujie, who's with
the Broncos, is interviewing to become the general manager for
the Jets, and as I read at Pro football Talk
dot com, pft A. You know we Mouji played at
San Diego State University with Kevin O'Connell and in fact
was his roommate. What do you think of that aside?
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Yeah, I think that if all of a sudden, Dougmujie
is the new GM of the Jets, we know what
the next domino might be. And you know how these
things go. There's what we're told publicly, and then there's
the stuff that happens behind the scenes, and the wheels
are turning in New York to figure out who their
coach is going to be, and that would be a
(42:36):
pretty clear indication, no different than the indication last week
when Antonio Pierce is fired by the Raiders on Tuesday.
Two days later, GM Tom Telesco has pushed out that's
a message to say, Ben Johnson, Hey, if you're looking
for alignment with the front office, you're gonna have it
here because it's a clean slate and we'll hire whoever
you want if that means you're going to take the job.
That's how it was interpreted by many, and I think accurately.
(42:59):
So you know, there's two different ways to follow football.
You can just sit back and wait for the presence
to spontaneously open, or you can start peeling the corners
and trying to peek underneath the wrapping paper and see
what's there. And you know, if you're inclined to have
that kind of information about what's going to happen in
(43:19):
the NFL, that's what we try to provide.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
Mike florioprofootball talk dot Com I read at Yahoo. Sean
McVeigh makes fifteen million a year. Dan Campbell's like eleven
million a year on average before bonuses and stuff. So
what would the steam be here? Could it be argued
Kevin O'Connell should make more than Matt Lafleur whatever he makes.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Well, here's the problem with the NFL's overall coaching pay structure,
And if we ever had access to the full numbers
actually paid to the coaches over the past fifty years,
and if we compared that to the growth in player's salary,
I think we would be stunned by the growth of
coach salary relative to the growth and explosion of payer
(44:03):
player salary because it's fueled by salary cap that is
driven by revenue, and it's all the product of a
negotiation between the players union and the league, and there's
a salary floor, not just a salary cap, and you've
got to spend that money. When it comes to coaches,
think about this, with no salary cap, no salary floor,
no union. Whatever you pay your coach, choose into your
(44:26):
bottom line, choose into your profit margin. And if you're
paying that coach two three four million more per year
than you need to, that's two three four million less.
That goes into your superyacht maintenance fund, plain and simple.
So I think collusion is real in the NFL when
it comes to well, a lot of things, but when
it comes to holding down what coaches make. And one
(44:47):
of the reasons it's never easy to get a clear picture.
A lot of these coaches are paid by the team
under the official contract, and then there's other money that's
funneled to them through other com and he's owned by
the same owner, jacking up the total compensation without necessarily
(45:08):
blowing the curve like a Bill Belichick. I mean, I
think officially he was making in the neighborhood at fifteen,
but he was making like twenty five. Generally accepted from
those in the business who who are in a position
to have an idea of what's going on. So that's
part of the game too. What is a guy actually making?
So I don't know what Kevin O'Connell wants. I don't
(45:31):
know what the Wilfs are whigling to pay. My point
is this his performance regular season two of the last
three years is a major plus in his this is
what I want category. The Wolves can point to the
playoff performances, especially this year, and say that takes something
(45:51):
away from it. If they can't agree on a number
as influenced by the relevant factors, that's when we get
to the point where Kevin O'Connell might just say, one
year away from pre agency, I'll bet on myself like
a player does, and I'll go be the head coach
of whichever team I like the most out of all
the teams that are looking for coaches next year. Again,
there's a risk. Because a risk, you're gonna end up
in a bad job. Most jobs don't come open because
(46:14):
everything is great. So you're going into a new place
after four years of getting the vikings to where you
want them to be. You're going into a new place
and starting over. But if he's willing to do it,
you know it doesn't matter. That no one else ever
does it. If he's willing to do it. That's part
of the risk that the Wolfs are going to take.
And O'Connor's gonna want to move quickly, I believe, because
if there is a trade to be done, you need
(46:35):
to do it before the six open jobs and any
others that might unexpectedly pop open in the next week
or two, before those are filled. After those are filled,
that's running out the clock for the Wolfs. And so
at that point it doesn't come down to a possible trade.
It comes down to do we get a deal done
before he walks out the door. But that needs to
be priority number one. It needs to be happening now.
(46:57):
They need to be sitting down now and working this.
So there's no doubt, no ambiguity, no uncertainty whatsoever about
Kevin O'Connell's future with the Vikings. And I absolutely believe
he should be their long term I just think that that,
And you know, I mean, I don't just think. I
believe that there's some stuff there that they need to
(47:18):
work out or this thing could go sideways, and the
last two games could make it go sideways.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
All right, p fts, it's going to need to be
a two topic talker with Mike Florio because the Dean
Blandino bit I heard on the radio yesterday. I have
to get to that and get your opinion before you leave. Lastly,
here with two Sundays ago, that's smoking gun. I mean
Florio's at a boutique hotel in Detroit. Glazer pops with
(47:45):
the O'Connell trade. Stop, what do you think the origin
of that was?
Speaker 6 (47:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Where do you think it started?
Speaker 5 (47:53):
Well, and I say this with a caveat. People in
the business get very very sensitive to an upset about
any effort to guess as sources, and Jay Laser will
strangle me if I start speculating about his sources. Now,
with that said, let me speculate about his sources. When
(48:14):
the report is multiple teams are interested in trading for
Kevin O'Connell. Okay, that either came from O'Connell's camp, which
would be privy to the notion that multiple teams are
interested because all sorts of conversations occur through back channels,
even if they would officially be tampering. Either that's the
case where you have one source that's feeding you the
(48:35):
information or Jay Laser has contacted all of the various
teams that might have been in position to fire coach
and found out by mining his contacts at those various
teams just kind of coincidentally. Oh hell, this team wants
to call the Vikings and potentially trade for Kevin O'Connell. Now,
I'll leave it to the audience to decide which one
is more likely. But that's the universe. It's not something
(48:56):
that fell out of the sky. Ye you know. It's
not a Woodward and Bernstein situation where someone is digging
through dumpsters. I mean, it's either O'Connell's camp reaching out
with that information or Glazier while he's exploring what all
these various teams are going to do, finding out independently
while he's scratching the surface and digging deep with four
(49:21):
or five sixty seven teams. Oh wow, look at this pattern.
Multiple teams are interested in trading for Kevin O'Connell. Again,
it's for you to decide which one is more likely
to be true.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
And Dougmujie, I always love that one, all right. Last one,
I was listening to NFL radio yesterday. Dean Blandino, rules
analyst for Fox, former league vice president and officials for
half a decade. He said something that he said that
the league he said, ok, three to two, he said
something the league never will share is absolutely officials look
(49:55):
at in stadium replays and just drop flags like on
the CA Ashman face mask Monday night.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
How about that's if he's right? How about that slippery slope?
Speaker 1 (50:08):
PFT Live needs to assassinate at least once a week weekly.
Speaker 2 (50:14):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (50:15):
Well, and look, we used to have a structure in
place and we had the time to do it. The
problem is with two hours a day, five days a week,
we need a bigger boat. There was a time when
we did and what would we call it? After further
review segment on Wednesdays where we'd look at three four
calls from the week that was and really dissect the problems.
But it's not just watching the in stadium replays. It's
(50:37):
the earpiece they have for real time communication with the
league office. And you know, we don't know who's in
the room, we don't know who's talking to whom. There's
no transparency whatsoever. All we know is the officials don't
throw a flag during the play, and then all of
a sudden, oh wait, there's a flag, and I you know,
(50:59):
one of the one of the common problems this year
has been uncalled face masks, and in the offseason, I
fully expect the league to expand the entire replay system
to include face mask fouls. It's not for whatever reason,
and I think this is negligent on part of the NFL.
It's not one of the things that can be reviewed.
As we learned Week eight, Thursday Night, Sam Darnold gets
(51:21):
the Linda Blair in the Exorcist treatment and there's no flag,
and then we get all the excuses, Well, look at
where they're standing, they can't see it. All the more
reason have replay review. So when you get the single
elimination football, I would not be surprised at all to learn.
And I'm going to take Blandino's comment in a different direction.
I would not be surprised to learn that the league
(51:41):
has decided, you know what, screw the rules in this
playoff season. We don't need an uncalled face mask undermining
the outcome of a game. So we see it, We're
going to use it. And I go back to the
same rams twenty eighteen NFC Championship when it was blatant
(52:03):
pass interference, so it wasn't called, and obviously it wasn't
subject to replay review. My attitude then was I don't
care somebody get in the referees hear and say drop
a flag. There was pass interference, because look at it
this way, if you don't drop that flag, there's hell
to pay if you drop that flag. The only argument
anyone could have ever made the RAMS could have said, oh,
they violated the terms of Rule fifty two, Subsection one,
(52:26):
Article A, Subpart B regarding not being able to use
the replay assist or replay review system to drop a flag.
Nobody's gonna care because they got the call right. Getting
the call right goes a long way to quieting whatever
criticism you might have. So I always believe it's better
to not follow the rules and get a call right
(52:46):
than follow the rules and get a call wrong from
the standpoint of just what's right and what's wrong. And
I think that in this playoff season we will see
no missed face mask calls.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
Appreciate you call you next week, right. Mike Glorio Pro
Football to do dot Com describe Ben geslin Is in
the studio.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Net
M hm.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back to the show. Jerk Assay, Polly Wally.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I never heard anything in my life.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Who's my insane?
Speaker 5 (00:27):
That Pio stopping shopping stopping, they falling down?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
You're kinda beat play with me. It's p A ninety nine.
I'm the fan vikings.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
What that.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Good stuff?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Just Mesten.
Speaker 6 (00:59):
And Marko.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Personal foul whipping?
Speaker 6 (01:10):
What in the hand fat is going on with you
guys here?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
But yes, I'm confident that will be world champions. That's
what I've said right from the start.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
And I'm still.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Confident that because nine to noon is in the air.
Happy Wednesday. Hey, there here comes a Wednesday nine to
noon style And on the show today we offer some
bikes bites, including bikes who bikes who Bite? And I
may not be here next year.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The scribe the News, the former quarterback and the Wolves
head coach Chris Finch joins around eleven thirty a former
quarterback being Matt castles part of an iHeartRadio podcast with
a man named Bobby Bones. And as I will share
with Matt in the final hour of the presentation, when
yours truly here's the name Bobby Bones, which can't be
(02:17):
somebody's real name and is not. When I hear the
name Bobby Bones, it feels like I'm rolling into Mancini's
on West Seventh and like I owe three people two
thousand dollars each for a missed over under.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I always love that one.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You just have the money out right away, because Bobby Bones,
you don't want knee caps to be broken. Nope, you're
worried about bones in the health already have bones.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Already had the metaphorical kneecaps broken in proverbial fashioned by
Dan Campbell.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I always love that one, the kneecap eater. I always
love that one. Bobby Bones.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You tease the name and then you look up at
NFL Network and Good Morning Football and there's Bobby Bones
chatting with Minnesotan Jamie Jamie Erdahl. So that podcast is new,
I believe, and we're really excited to chat with Matt Castle,
who's the co host. That's going to be at about
eleven o three today. The scribe been guessling shortly after
(03:11):
ten Florio with PFT.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, you know, we thirty minutes and.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Change from now, and with that he has a new
purple related obsession. Oh goodie, oh goodye with PFT. Yeah,
you know we because around this time last year, PFT
was jumping all over the Vikings not signing Justin Jefferson
(03:37):
on what seemed to be Florio's schedule. And now that
vibe has shifted to coach Kevin O'Connell and his future
here and that's where we begin nine to Now, is.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
There any chance, as part of just looking ahead to Florio,
do we bring up that he proclaimed on these airwaves,
who has He's a protectionist, he protects his heart, he
has his favorite team. But he's a guy that doesn't
go all in. He went all in. He went all
in on the Purple on these airwaves. And guess what
(04:12):
happens on the other side of that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, disaster.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, it's a ten of ten on the vitriol and negativity.
And I happen to be the one on the other
side of the microphone. And I'm really really excited about that.
But he's a twenty some odd year uncompensated guest. Yes,
so therefore, given his dedication to AM eleven thirty kfa
in and FN one hundred point three KFAM, I guess,
(04:37):
I guess, I mean it's a wei, It's it's a
one and a one age you and I. I may
ask the questions, but it's a we. I guess we
just got to sit back and take it right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I think I think we do have to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And that's one of the best parts of having him
on is even when it gets contentious, it's all love.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
But he opened his heart for the first time.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Everybody loves when it gets contentious except me.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, it's it's terrific.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah. And then I can't look to my left to
the producer Studio Eric Nordquiest producer nine to now because
you're either doing one of two things. You're either laughing
hysterically at an argument or your this is radio, so
you can't see. So outstretch everybody, unless you're driving. Outstretch,
make your arms outstretched and then wave them up like
(05:21):
you're trying to get the crowd going.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I always love that one. It's one of the two things.
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I get to see the mannerisms. I get to see
the cartoon in full effect. When you get hit with
something that you don't like, and it is two, it's
it's a movable object, unstoppable force. One of you is
going to win regardless every time it is one of
my favorite things. When you guys, when you guys take
jabs at each other.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
If I turn my back to you today, don't take
it personally. Okay, I got you so now. But seriously,
Florio last year and ProFootball Talk dot Com with Justin
Jefferson that that whole thing seemed to be on Mike's
schedule where because you know, unlike unlike things that we're
(06:08):
going to present right now regarding Kevin O'Connell and also
with a pro football Talk dot Com, there is a difference.
And at first Blush I was like, thinking about it,
I'm like, okay, cool, here we go again. You know
with the you gotta get this done with potentially made
(06:29):
up or emotionally charged subterfuge that didn't have a smoking gun.
But like we mentioned yesterday, there's a smoking gun with
the O'Connell situation and if there even is a situation
and an aside. So here's the deal. So, given the
season is over, O'Connell is heading into the final year
(06:54):
of a four year deal as head coach of the
Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are thirty four and nineteen under
cah and two in the playoffs. Twenty six and nine
and one score games, second or third best in the
history of the NFL with that mark. By the way,
nine and one and one score games this year, three
and one in overtime and two against the Rams, one
(07:15):
and five against the Lions, and four and two against
the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Smoking Gun.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Two Sundays ago, while chilling on a chilling Motor City morning,
Boom Fox's Jay Glazer pops with a report multiple teams
are interested in trading for our coach. We all remember it, right, Yes,
we do, Glazer now a week ago, so that was
a week in change ago. Glazer six six days a
(07:44):
weekish ago, doubled down on a podcast saying this quote.
I never said he Kevin O'Connell. I never said he's
getting traded. But without a doubt their teams and the
teams that are involved asking me please do not mention us,
(08:06):
which I have to respect. I know that one team
at least is saying, man, we would gear up and
trade this and that and this for this guy or
a guy like this. So yeah, there talks internally in
buildings about trying to make a run. Look, it could
(08:27):
be a long shot, it could be a crazy idea,
But it's only crazy if you don't take a shot.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
End to quote.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Now that's real, and as mentioned yesterday, quite unfortunate it
dropped day of game. The Vikings were playing for a
Conference one seed, but in no way impacted the outcome
of the game. But it's just unfortunate that there's even
a sliver of a distraction or something that is more
(08:56):
than elevator music for all involved up to at that time,
the newest biggest game of the season. Now Glazer has
covered the NFL for more than three decades, and in
no way does nine to Noon Incorporated believe he was
making up something or lying. Nine to Noon happens to
(09:20):
know how that game works. Info is fed to high
level newsbreakers nine point five out of ten times to
benefit the interest of said bird chirping.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Averaging that and good morning, good morning.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
No idea where the bit originated, but we'll ask that
very question of Florio when he joins in the third
segment today.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's about nine.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So, unlike the wonderment over what was next this time
last season for Justin Jeffers sim nine to Noon does
not recall a planted smoking gun like this, indicating the
hot water of speculation maybe boiling now. The aside to
(10:14):
the smoking gun Florio dropped is this. It was that
Profootballtalk dot Com. It was deep in the story and
if you missed it, here we are, so, Mike writes
at the end of a Kevin O'Connell Jay laser just
a story from yesterday at pro football Talk dot Com.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Read it and judge it on your own, he writes.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Coincidentally or not, the Jets have interviewed for their vacant
GM position. Doug Mujie of the Broncos. Doug mugi every here,
Doug Mugie.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Now either of I.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Mujie and O'Connell played college football together at San Diego State,
and they were roommates. Okay, so unlike Jefferson and emotionally
charged on my schedule, here's how I think things should
(11:14):
work with Justin Jefferson, and they worked out, you know,
just just fine from a contractual standpoint and extension and
stuff like that. That I'm calling a week ago from Sunday,
two sundays ago a smoking gun simply because of the
person who reported it. There absolutely is something behind it,
(11:39):
planted by somebody who either has well they have their
best interest in mind, But that doesn't mean it would
come from somebody on this side of the equation. It
could be somebody from somewhere, just like paying off a
favor somebody's done for him, trying to jack with the
per and gold vibe into the at that time the
(12:02):
newest biggest game of the season. But it happened. So
it's a smoking gun. Yes, it's a smoking gun. The
aside Doug Mujie, Doug Mugie and the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, the key is is they were roommates, right.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
But wow, I mean it's like we never heard, we
never heard and Terris Marshall, who used to play at
LSU is going to sign with this team. And at
Louisiana State University, guess who was Terris Marshall. Marshall's roommate
(12:42):
JJ and I don't even know if they were roommates,
but like, there was never anything like that included with
the emotionally charged.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Bit Here's one thing that I would like brought up
during that conversation as well, or something to dig into.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You care nothing for eleven to twenty. You've got plenty
of bites.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I got, I got a ton of bites, megabytes thank you.
I got gigabytes of megabytes of vikes bites. In this article,
he writes the week eighteen Sunday Splash report from Jay
Glazer that multiple teams are interested in trading for O'Connell
wasn't idle talk.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Excuse me, I need to dim the lights.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that's that's potentially a So the smoking gun that
you're talking about, Pa, it feels real one way or another.
The self interest of whoever is sending that information in
Jay Glazer paid at a high level to disseminate it.
But this very next sentence is where I want to
find out. Is this coming from Glazer? Is this coming
(13:39):
from Florio? And where this goes is there's tension in
the relationship, stemming largely from the fact that he didn't
get an extension after his second season. So where is
that tension supposedly in the relationship. Is that part of
the info that's being sent to Jay Glazer's that is Glazer?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
That part would have to be Glazer, who as we
piece this thing together and we follow the breadcrumbs, Yeah,
that has to be part of it. It just I mean,
whether it's a lie or not, it just has to
be part of the bird chirping, knowing that it's going
(14:22):
to provide distraction and talkers in conversation.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
But said bird, said, said purp.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
In this equation holding the smoking gun, that's the individual
or individuals who are looking to benefit from this equation.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yes, that's a problem. That is a massive problem. It's
a smoking gun. It is a mooji. They were roommates.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
So how would now with super special Moujie, whoever he is,
how would that work? Given the Jets have an opening
right now for a head coaching position, said super long
trade would have to be like this, like this week,
or maybe in a let's call it a ten of
ten impossible reality, the woebegone Jets hire a coach for
(15:18):
one year. I always love that one. It's a ten
of ten impossibility. But we got moujie and roommates and
ten of ten impossibility. Maybe they hire a coach for
a year, elevate somebody, and O'Connell's college roommate becomes the
team's GM. They wait with a sneaky handshake. O'Connell declines
(15:40):
all offers from the Purple plays out the twenty twenty
five and Boom is the new head coach of the
New York Jets. We'll just listen to that. The whole scenario, honestly,
is just stupid. It sounds ridiculous. It's ten of ten impossibilities,
ten of ten on the stupidity meter. All right, three two.
(16:01):
So that's where we are with that, all right. Nine
to noon doesn't see any way the team and coach
do not get together on a contract extension. Nine to
noon has no idea If said coach is frustrated with
the way things are advancing or not advancing, and nine
(16:24):
to noon actually is one hundred percent vibing. Kevin O'Connell
gets a sweet deal eventually from the Minnesota Vikings. The
pay no idea. Couldn't care less. Andy Reid gets twenty
million dollars a year. It ain't that well. So we'll
see what Florio has to say around nine point forty.
(16:46):
There will be no arguing despite the urging of the
con But out of respect for our uncompensated weekly guest,
he cares about it and we enjoy the time he
makes for the radio station.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So the bit is imply you think that's fair. I
think that's fair.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Now again, don't know or don't care like, let's look
at it this way. Don't know or don't care what
Packers coach Matt Lafleur makes, all right, but should O'Connell
be on par with Lafleur or maybe even making more
four and.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Two though, I mean you want that, you want the
market rate, right, I mean Minneapolis Saint Paul larger market,
and the inflation Lafleur shops at shop co everybody not
getting raises from twenty twenty on losing massive amounts of money.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Make it like twenty or thirty percent less due to inflation.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I mean that that that's that's a fact in the
National Football League, and and and a lot it's.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
A fact in the National Football Well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And as you're always quick to point out, any numbers
that ultimately are reported are before taxes.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Hey, so I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I mean, if we're looking at like a benchmark or
a baseline, here, Andy Reid gets twenty million, It ain't
that I got some numbers with Florio that some coaches
like outside of the top ten or something like that.
If we're going to talk about somebody else's money, which
is really cool, isn't that really cool talking about somebody else?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I mean let's just letgen I generally don't enjoy it. Yeah,
let's I mean, let's just let's make it nine to
noon in Vogue. How much do you make a year?
See you first? It's weird you first of the people.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I mean, you're like, you're like, okay, well you know
that's what you are. Dan Burrero makes this, Paul's looking
for an extension.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It ain't that. I always love that one. It's like
Andy Reid makes twenty million, it ain't that.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So the pay, yeah, the pay yeah, and we'll see, well,
we'll see where o PFT wants to take this, because uh,
those are the diseased money first chats guccies have in
situations like this. So nine to noon we'll get out
of the way and probably have O'Connell joined the show
the day gets a new deal or somewhere around that time.
(19:13):
Now the analyst, Pete Bersage and yours truly next will
be together in a month and change from the Indianapolis
Scouting combine. And it would be really really cool if
this whole situation was settled by then. Yeah, so we
can eliminate the weird from the chat. Kevin your father, Bill,
Bill O'Connell was part of an FBI team that took
(19:37):
down John Gotti. By the way, what was his bonus
to the exact dollar Incent after taking down Gotti? And
how much did he make a year? I always love
that one. Yeah, that'd be sweet. They're really cool conversations
to have. Kevin and Quacy have a season closing press
conference tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
It's during nine to noon.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
I'm not exactly sure of the time at this moment,
could be ten o'clock, it could be eleven o'clock, but
it's tomorrow, and of course we'll carry it on your
home for everything funky and fun. The scribe Ben Geslin
will be in attendance. It's set presser and also joins
nine to Noon today at ten o'clock. Thank you very
much for listening. I'm Paul Allen, mad producer produces. You're
(20:18):
listening to the nine to Noon or radio show with
Vikes Bytes around the corner at FM one hundred point
three Kfan and in Ballyhoot fashion, it's time to give
away a little money.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
The Fan indeed wants to give you a shot to
put a grant in your hand with the National Cash Contest.
Go to kfan dot com and enter the keyword check
check and you might win one thousand dollars. The keyword
is check a Mike, check a one two, one two,
you might win a grand The keyword is check. At
KFA dot.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Com, Vikes Bites.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Welcome back nine to noon. It is indeed time for
Vikes Bites. And you heard liber there at the end
of that break Elite meet for the athlete. He's talking
about Thousand Hills lifetime grazed grass fed beef, beef and.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You can shop online.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Box of meat shows up to your doorstep, local Coburns,
local co ops and they are indeed proud sponsors of
Gophers athletics. So thank you Thousand Hills, Clearwater, Minnesota's finest.
Thank you to the Minnesota Vikings. Unfortunately a screeching halt
type of end of the season, but a fourteen win
season and interesting one at that.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And I did uncover over the course.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Of over the course of the morning, some locker room
related conversation. It was moving day, sadly yesterday, love it.
And I have some audio from some of the players.
I'm going to start with Justin Jefferson and Justin Jefferson
in this point, let me see here, season ending, what
does it feel like this time around?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
JJ?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know, these are one of the ones that's more difficult,
just because, you know, if you really think about it,
we only lost to two teams this whole entire year
in the same same format. So that's the most difficult
thing in the process. You know, having fourteen wins for
the season, that's something that's very difficult to do in
this league, you know, especially with all of their new
moves that we made, the free agents that we have
on this team. It just was that type of year
(22:13):
to have to have a good chance at a super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
So that's the most tough part.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
How much do you to think it truly bugs him
because he went out of his way to mention that, PA,
Like you're sitting there, you're looking back at the twenty
twenty four fourteen wins.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Donald Again, we've you.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Know, year of his career, year of his life, this
year Sam Darnold had with Kevin O'Connell in this offense,
and jjson there couldn't beat the freaking Lions at home. Yeah,
really like and then we lost to the Rams. Oh,
and then everything was on the line and we lost
to the freaking Lions again, and we can't beat the
Lions nowadays, and Jamier Gibbs is getting to the end
(22:50):
zone nine times in like four games. And then we
actually do that again. We go back to back losses
against the Lions and the Rams twice this most time,
of course, ending our season. It's gotta bug everybody in
that locker room if they take that moment, thirty seconds
even to just go really like, these two teams were
our bugaboo the entire season.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The justin Jefferson and and you know this is this
is the it's a business portion of the equation. He
was frustrated in from from what I see, what I know,
and what I'm around, I think he was frustrated more
this season than he was happy because we went through
that long patch where Sam forced it to him pick
(23:35):
pick pick should have been four penalty by Darby penalty
on the Jags. Yeah, next game, came back to the
pack a little bit. Next game two catches twenty yards
massive one and overtime and but still two catches.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So there was a long patch there where it's like
they're doing this.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
O'Connell said on nine to Noon, you know two months
or two and a half months of Tuesdays ago. That
just thinking basketball, your stuff, Curry Lebron, James Anthony Edwards,
and you're getting triple teamed every single play.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It's frustrating.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So not frustration with the organization or the coaches or
the players, just frustrate shun period.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And there was more voice right there is.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
You know, we had we had four big games, well
all of them were big, but two in the regulars
or three in the regular season, one in the postseason.
We went on four and for the high enders, the
stars prefer to shine when the lights are brightest, and
when the lights have been bright against the La Rams
(24:38):
or the Detroit Lions specifically in the last two games,
the Vikings were with all due respect, duds. Now that
ties into the what's next plan for the head coach.
I looked back at I mean, Zimmer was hired for
the twenty fourteen season, yeah, and left after twenty twenty one.
(24:58):
You know, that's all I mean that we knew it,
and we lived it and at times we loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
During that run.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That was a long run, and you know, handling man
dealing with conflict and dealing with you know, just just
conflict and players and staff members and stuff like that.
O'Connell's a ten of ten compared to Zimmer and you
go fourteen to twenty one with all that, and you know,
(25:24):
now you know what you have when it comes to
dealing with people and acquiescing and empowering and just being.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
A kind human being when you need to be kind. Well,
that's ten of ten with O'Connell. And then you get
the results, which whatever I said in the open thirty
four or whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Those are good too.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
So there are a couple of stumbling blocks here, one
major one one in five against the best team in
the division and zero to two against mentor guy, and
the most recent one was in the postseason, so it's polarizing.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Those are facts.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
More from Justin Jefferson here specifically on the QB room.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What's it going to look like?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
It doesn't really matter to me. It's not really something
that I'm making like a big deal about. You know,
whoever they decide to either bring back or you know,
to have in this locker room, we gotta make it
work and we gotta, you know, do whatever it takes
to you know, get a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Do you think a guy like Justin Jefferson has the
ability to knock on the coach's door, or now that
it's the the off season, the off season being upon us,
maybe he just tosses a text like you want to
go have a coffee or something, and maybe he has part.
He might not even have a final say or a
say in the mix, but you think that Justin Jefferson
(26:39):
might reach out to the coach and at least say.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Here's what I like, here's here's here's what my favorite
traits are.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And maybe that that lends to a certain guy entering
his second season, Maybe that lends to a guy that
just had the year of his career. Do you think
a guy like Justin Jefferson can broach that.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Topic with the head coach?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Of course, but it generally works the other way, especially
with those who you know, all coaches, no matter how
standoffish or knuckleheadish they can be, they generally include their
best players in massive decisions, in sneaky texting or talking
fashion more than people know. So, like, I guess that
(27:20):
would involve we're going to bring back Sam. Okay, so
say it's like jjis dimes that, but off all of this,
we're going to bring back Sam because all of a sudden,
the money works better than we thought it was going
to work three weeks ago. And by the way, I mean,
I'm not like over the top negative on that because
Sam Donald came through more than Sam Donald did not
(27:43):
come through. But I also do elevate pressure pack moments
where the last two had a pressure the games against Atlanta,
Arizona or ed Dimes did not have.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I personally believe the last two actually outweigh the previous games.
I believe that those moments when you encapsulate the entire
twenty twenty four's.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right as cool and fun as it was. I know
what you mean.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I think the last two are more important than the
previous but I can't say they outweigh them because there's
too much on the other side.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, it's these are I was.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
The one yesterday that talked about class of competition and
we swept the AFC South, which you know is akin
to bragging about straight A's at junior college. You're all
wound up for Kirko Chains and you killed him. You
beat Kyler, the creator of ros punts.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Did you get straight a's Pasadena City College?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
No in all five, No, No in all five years.
I think my highest GPA might have been a two
point four, but that's okay, all.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Right, three two.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So the what you beat is fact, but you still
have to beat it. And like Arizona Buddha Baker, Atlanta
had Grady Jackson. I mean, they all have players who
can ruin your day. So it is accomplishment to have
the most completions of twenty five yards or more over
the course of sixteen games compared to everybody else in
(29:08):
the game who does what you do. Yep, that's coach, coaches,
quarterback and skill guys meshing for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
That does matter.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
But I elevate, like you said the last two because
pressure is not for everybody, and that includes a lot
of people in this conversation because those were pressure filled
moments and they weren't l's, they were capital l's, So
that that even requires Like, if I'm working on the
team side, the organization side with extensions, I want to
(29:42):
know exactly your opinion as to why these things work
the way they do and to the best of your knowledge,
why did that thing pop with Glazer day of the
last game.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I want to know what you.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Know before I fork over six seven eight million dollars
a year for X amount of years. So all of
that is forthcoming, All of it is real, but it's
you know, so so I don't believe. I don't believe
Darnold will be the quarterback next year. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
With McCarthy and Daniel Jones. Who can be the next
Sam Darnold if given the opportunity, I believe he can.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
It's McCarthy or bust from here, man.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, it's all about JJ JJ and the play action
and working under center and running outside on some boots,
and and the vibrant personality and the flowing hockey hair
and oh my goodness, the postgame emotional interviews that he's
gonna have and the drive buys with the kid. It's
gonna yeah, just give it to him now. I'm all
(30:45):
done with everything. I mean, if Sam wants to work
for a dollar, great, I'm just kidding it. But it's
all about JJ and Uh. Let's let's extend this Kevin
O'Connell related conversation with the Mike Florio from Pro Football
Talk dot com and we'll get into some more locker
room or action. Following the fourteen and four season for
your Minnesota Vikings coming up a little later, but PFT.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
You know we that's next on KFA n nine to noon,
(31:34):
y'all and head a, We'll come in, We'll come in.
P FT. Hey there.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com NBC's Football Night in America
is going to be in Philadelphia Sunday for the Rams
Eagles pregame, and he joins us Now, Mike, good morning.
Do you think at Lincoln and Financial you're going to
get heckled because that's what they do out there.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Well, I think everybody gets heckled. I mean when the
bar is Santa Claus. Yeah, I fully expect it. But
that's fine. I get paid either way. And some stadiums,
the reception is friendly and positive. The Lions Vikings game,
the folks at Ford Field were very friendly, very nice.
It's always nice to see folks out in the wild,
you know, the folks who who are PFT officionados. They're
(32:27):
out there and I enjoy that. And it's fun being
down on the field, getting a chance to intermingle with
coaches and players who are aware of PFT and who
read PFT and the one group that seems to have
the highest saturation of folks who smile and say hi
or come over and say hello. The officials. High percentage
of officials who are fully aware of what we do
(32:48):
and who I am, which tells you they keep close
track of everything happening in the NFL. It's not just
about the rule book, it's about the full.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Existence, right, And I don't I'm not surprised by that
because those asarly, as they officiate some of these games,
they want to win your favor. So maybe a look
the other way on a story which you never would
do well.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
And it's funny. I just wrote something about Tom Brady's
obvious conflict of interest on Saturday night when he's working
the Commander's Lions game. In one capacity, he's the Fox
broadcaster who, in theory, is providing honest and authentic and
unbiased opinions about what he sees, and he's coming up
with comments in twenty seconds or so that he has
(33:29):
between plays with exteporaneous thoughts, presumably unaffected by any other
interests he might have. Meanwhile, he's a minority owner of
the Raiders, who, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal,
it's Tom show. Now he's running the show. He's looking
for a coach. He's interviewed both Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn,
and at some level, his desire to enhance and maximize
(33:52):
his effort to hire either of them one of them
is going to potentially affect his willingness to be candid.
It'll keep him from criticized them, or it'll cause him
to excessively hype what they do. And the audience needs
to know about it. You know, conflicts of interests are common,
but when the media knows about it, the people who
follow the NFL closely know about it. It's out there.
(34:13):
It's part of the NFL's reality. They place restrictions on
Tom Brady and what he can do prior to a game.
Fox has an obligation to tell the audience at the outset.
There's gonna be forty million people who tune in. I
don't know how many of them don't know. Many don't know,
maybe most don't know. People need to know that the
guy who is telling you what's happening and giving you
(34:34):
his assessment of the play on the field has an interest.
It might cause him to say things differently than if
he didn't have that interest. That's all it is. It
doesn't mean the guy goes to jail. It just means
that Fox has an obligation they'll let everyone know where
everyone stands because there is a very real conflict of interest.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And you've been all over this for a while and
rightfully so. And I kind of live did a few
weeks ago when Brady was calling the Vikings in Green
Bay Packers game. And like you've written before, you know
those sneaky production meetings that they have where they get
the the A plus intel.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
He's not in those meetings.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
He's not walking around the bottom of US Bank Stadium,
popping into locker rooms and talking to coaches on the side.
I mean the as I learned, the NFL is very
stringent about that with him in particular in these games.
And so there's that. So you've been on that. But secondly,
when he calls games, what do you think? How do
you think he's doing well?
Speaker 5 (35:34):
When the games are being played on Sunday afternoon, I'm
at NBC in the viewing room. We're watching all the
games at once, we get the audio of one at
a time. So I haven't had a chance to really
sit down and scrutinize his full performance and in my mind.
I've said this before, maybe to you, I know I've
said it to others. It's Pat summer All, John Madden,
Al Michaels, and everyone else. And Tom Brady is in
(35:54):
the category of everyone else. He's never going to be Madden.
He's never going to be summer All until he starts
chain smoking unfiltered camels for the next twenty years and
deepens his voice. But yeah, there's nothing about him that
makes me say, wow, Hey, even if it's a game
I don't care about, I need to tune in because
I need to listen to Tom Brady, right.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yeah, And that's what Tony Romo was like during his
first season when he was in those production meetings. He
was watching practice. He knew what plays were coming. So
thus when he would see a red zone formation, he
would know the eighty percent probability was this play is
going to happen. He would predict it, and people were
treating him like he's a soothsayer.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Oh, and others in the business were mad about it,
because anyone can do that. And there's a line that
you don't want to cross between what you found out
in a lot of conversations and attending practices where it's
kind of off the record and to help you after
the play explain what happened. When you're there saying hey, look,
I think they're going to do this next. You're kind
(36:57):
of taking unfair liberties with what you found out. And
most of the people who tune in for an NFL
game just aren't aware of that. We're aware of a
lot of the stuff because we are adjacent to the
sausage making process and you at times are in the
middle of it. The average fan who just watches football
games and doesn't consume talk, radio, internet videos about it, whatever,
(37:18):
they're not obsessed with it. Whenever games aren't being played,
those folks don't know. And that's what this is ultimately about.
Because there are a lot of people in the media
who want to downplay the conflict of interest. I think
most of them don't even know what a conflict of
interest is. It's just another chapter of post standards America
where things that used to matter don't matter anymore. The
fans at least need to know. You need to know
(37:41):
because look, every game, part of the process of rooting
for your team is evaluating everything the broadcasters say. Are
they for us or are they against us. Why do
they hate our team?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Why do they not like our team? My son was
very upset on Monday night when we were watching the
playoff game because he thought that both Buck and Aikman
were programs and anti vikings. People are always looking for
that kind of stuff. So those folks need to be
equipped from the outset with the knowledge that Brady owns
a piece of the Raiders, that he's heavily involved in
(38:13):
the coaching search, that he's running the show in Las Vegas,
and he's trying to hire Ben Johnson. They need to
know that.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Wow, that's beautifully laid out.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com And as we mentioned in
the open previewing the show, here's a question, is your
new and Pro football Talk dot COM's new stop jacking
around with Justin Jefferson bent going to be stop messing
around with Kevin O'Connell and pay him post taste.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Well, here's my take. In the aftermath of what's happened
over the past ten days. Sunday Morning, Week eighteen, Jay
Glazer goes on Fox with a Sunday Splash report that
made quite the splash. Multiple teams are interested in trading
for Kevin O'Connell. The inclination to those who don't really
(38:59):
know what might be going on behind the curtain was
to say, what the hell is this? That report was
an indication of some tension that traces to the fact
that he was not given a new contract after year
two on the job, so he's required to prove himself
along with GM Quasiado Famensa through year three. Now here
he is one year away from coaching free agency, something
(39:21):
we rarely ever see the coach take advantage of. Most
coaches go ahead and do an extension and stay where
they are in lieu of giving up the bird in
the hand when there's only thirty one others out there,
and in any given year, there's what five or six
seven this year that we're open. But the tension is there,
and I think if Kevin O'Connell doesn't get the kind
(39:42):
of contract that he thinks he deserves, he'd be inclined
to finish out his contract and take his chances. It's
a big risk, but he'd be inclined to do it.
So when we entered week eighteen, I think Kevin O'Connell
was in blank chech territory has a real to whatever
he wanted from the Wilfs. The biggest challenge now is
(40:04):
the two sides properly assessing the impact of thirty one
to nine and twenty seven to nine on his leverage.
What does it do to that blank check? It's not
a blank check anymore, so what's the number? And if
they can't agree on it. If O'Connell's position is, hey,
i won fourteen games this year. I won thirteen games
(40:25):
my first year. I'm the first coach in franchise history
to have multiple thirteen win seasons. Playoffs don't matter, and
if the team's position is yes, it does, and what
happened in the most important games of the year is
a factor in how we evaluate your compensation going forward.
If they can't agree on that, then the Wolves have
to decide do we let him finish his contract and
then walk away with no compensation, or do we take
(40:47):
a call from the Jets, for example, just to name
a random team that I have no reason to think
would be inclined to possibly do that deal. Do we
take the call and do we work out compensation and
then let them try to strike contract with Kevin O'Connell
that's what they have to decide. If you're looking at
one more year and he's gonna walk away, what do
you do? And you know, the natural inclination for the
(41:10):
average fan is to say, oh, they'll work it out.
All they'll work it out, because they always do. You
rarely see this where there's a contract impass between coach
and team. But that's exactly what happened with the Cowboys
and Mike McCarthy. Even though they try to say that
there were never negotiations. Belooney, Cowboys offered him a short
term deal, he wanted a longer term deal. It fell apart,
and now he's gone. So the negotiations happening now impass.
(41:35):
What do you do going forward? Do you run out
the clock on the contract and see what happens next,
or do you listen to one or more of the
multiple teams that are interested in training form acknowledging also
that your trade leverage has gone down over the past
two games as well, And.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Then you factor in something called Doug Moujie, who's with
the Broncos, is interviewing to become the general manager for
the Jets, and as I read at Pro football Talk
dot com, pft A. You know we Mouji played at
San Diego State University with Kevin O'Connell and in fact
was his roommate. What do you think of that aside?
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Yeah, I think that if all of a sudden, Dougmujie
is the new GM of the Jets, we know what
the next domino might be. And you know how these
things go. There's what we're told publicly, and then there's
the stuff that happens behind the scenes, and the wheels
are turning in New York to figure out who their
coach is going to be, and that would be a
(42:36):
pretty clear indication, no different than the indication last week
when Antonio Pierce is fired by the Raiders on Tuesday.
Two days later, GM Tom Telesco has pushed out that's
a message to say, Ben Johnson, Hey, if you're looking
for alignment with the front office, you're gonna have it
here because it's a clean slate and we'll hire whoever
you want if that means you're going to take the job.
That's how it was interpreted by many, and I think accurately.
(42:59):
So you know, there's two different ways to follow football.
You can just sit back and wait for the presence
to spontaneously open, or you can start peeling the corners
and trying to peek underneath the wrapping paper and see
what's there. And you know, if you're inclined to have
that kind of information about what's going to happen in
(43:19):
the NFL, that's what we try to provide.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
Mike florioprofootball talk dot Com I read at Yahoo. Sean
McVeigh makes fifteen million a year. Dan Campbell's like eleven
million a year on average before bonuses and stuff. So
what would the steam be here? Could it be argued
Kevin O'Connell should make more than Matt Lafleur whatever he makes.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Well, here's the problem with the NFL's overall coaching pay structure,
And if we ever had access to the full numbers
actually paid to the coaches over the past fifty years,
and if we compared that to the growth in player's salary,
I think we would be stunned by the growth of
coach salary relative to the growth and explosion of payer
(44:03):
player salary because it's fueled by salary cap that is
driven by revenue, and it's all the product of a
negotiation between the players union and the league, and there's
a salary floor, not just a salary cap, and you've
got to spend that money. When it comes to coaches,
think about this, with no salary cap, no salary floor,
no union. Whatever you pay your coach, choose into your
(44:26):
bottom line, choose into your profit margin. And if you're
paying that coach two three four million more per year
than you need to, that's two three four million less.
That goes into your superyacht maintenance fund, plain and simple.
So I think collusion is real in the NFL when
it comes to well, a lot of things, but when
it comes to holding down what coaches make. And one
(44:47):
of the reasons it's never easy to get a clear picture.
A lot of these coaches are paid by the team
under the official contract, and then there's other money that's
funneled to them through other com and he's owned by
the same owner, jacking up the total compensation without necessarily
(45:08):
blowing the curve like a Bill Belichick. I mean, I
think officially he was making in the neighborhood at fifteen,
but he was making like twenty five. Generally accepted from
those in the business who who are in a position
to have an idea of what's going on. So that's
part of the game too. What is a guy actually making?
So I don't know what Kevin O'Connell wants. I don't
(45:31):
know what the Wilfs are whigling to pay. My point
is this his performance regular season two of the last
three years is a major plus in his this is
what I want category. The Wolves can point to the
playoff performances, especially this year, and say that takes something
(45:51):
away from it. If they can't agree on a number
as influenced by the relevant factors, that's when we get
to the point where Kevin O'Connell might just say, one
year away from pre agency, I'll bet on myself like
a player does, and I'll go be the head coach
of whichever team I like the most out of all
the teams that are looking for coaches next year. Again,
there's a risk. Because a risk, you're gonna end up
in a bad job. Most jobs don't come open because
(46:14):
everything is great. So you're going into a new place
after four years of getting the vikings to where you
want them to be. You're going into a new place
and starting over. But if he's willing to do it,
you know it doesn't matter. That no one else ever
does it. If he's willing to do it. That's part
of the risk that the Wolfs are going to take.
And O'Connor's gonna want to move quickly, I believe, because
if there is a trade to be done, you need
(46:35):
to do it before the six open jobs and any
others that might unexpectedly pop open in the next week
or two, before those are filled. After those are filled,
that's running out the clock for the Wolfs. And so
at that point it doesn't come down to a possible trade.
It comes down to do we get a deal done
before he walks out the door. But that needs to
be priority number one. It needs to be happening now.
(46:57):
They need to be sitting down now and working this.
So there's no doubt, no ambiguity, no uncertainty whatsoever about
Kevin O'Connell's future with the Vikings. And I absolutely believe
he should be their long term I just think that that,
And you know, I mean, I don't just think. I
believe that there's some stuff there that they need to
(47:18):
work out or this thing could go sideways, and the
last two games could make it go sideways.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
All right, p fts, it's going to need to be
a two topic talker with Mike Florio because the Dean
Blandino bit I heard on the radio yesterday. I have
to get to that and get your opinion before you leave. Lastly,
here with two Sundays ago, that's smoking gun. I mean
Florio's at a boutique hotel in Detroit. Glazer pops with
(47:45):
the O'Connell trade. Stop, what do you think the origin
of that was?
Speaker 6 (47:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Where do you think it started?
Speaker 5 (47:53):
Well, and I say this with a caveat. People in
the business get very very sensitive to an upset about
any effort to guess as sources, and Jay Laser will
strangle me if I start speculating about his sources. Now,
with that said, let me speculate about his sources. When
(48:14):
the report is multiple teams are interested in trading for
Kevin O'Connell. Okay, that either came from O'Connell's camp, which
would be privy to the notion that multiple teams are
interested because all sorts of conversations occur through back channels,
even if they would officially be tampering. Either that's the
case where you have one source that's feeding you the
(48:35):
information or Jay Laser has contacted all of the various
teams that might have been in position to fire coach
and found out by mining his contacts at those various
teams just kind of coincidentally. Oh hell, this team wants
to call the Vikings and potentially trade for Kevin O'Connell. Now,
I'll leave it to the audience to decide which one
is more likely. But that's the universe. It's not something
(48:56):
that fell out of the sky. Ye you know. It's
not a Woodward and Bernstein situation where someone is digging
through dumpsters. I mean, it's either O'Connell's camp reaching out
with that information or Glazier while he's exploring what all
these various teams are going to do, finding out independently
while he's scratching the surface and digging deep with four
(49:21):
or five sixty seven teams. Oh wow, look at this pattern.
Multiple teams are interested in trading for Kevin O'Connell. Again,
it's for you to decide which one is more likely
to be true.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
And Dougmujie, I always love that one, all right. Last one,
I was listening to NFL radio yesterday. Dean Blandino, rules
analyst for Fox, former league vice president and officials for
half a decade. He said something that he said that
the league he said, ok, three to two, he said
something the league never will share is absolutely officials look
(49:55):
at in stadium replays and just drop flags like on
the CA Ashman face mask Monday night.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
How about that's if he's right? How about that slippery slope?
Speaker 1 (50:08):
PFT Live needs to assassinate at least once a week weekly.
Speaker 2 (50:14):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (50:15):
Well, and look, we used to have a structure in
place and we had the time to do it. The
problem is with two hours a day, five days a week,
we need a bigger boat. There was a time when
we did and what would we call it? After further
review segment on Wednesdays where we'd look at three four
calls from the week that was and really dissect the problems.
But it's not just watching the in stadium replays. It's
(50:37):
the earpiece they have for real time communication with the
league office. And you know, we don't know who's in
the room, we don't know who's talking to whom. There's
no transparency whatsoever. All we know is the officials don't
throw a flag during the play, and then all of
a sudden, oh wait, there's a flag, and I you know,
(50:59):
one of the one of the common problems this year
has been uncalled face masks, and in the offseason, I
fully expect the league to expand the entire replay system
to include face mask fouls. It's not for whatever reason,
and I think this is negligent on part of the NFL.
It's not one of the things that can be reviewed.
As we learned Week eight, Thursday Night, Sam Darnold gets
(51:21):
the Linda Blair in the Exorcist treatment and there's no flag,
and then we get all the excuses, Well, look at
where they're standing, they can't see it. All the more
reason have replay review. So when you get the single
elimination football, I would not be surprised at all to learn.
And I'm going to take Blandino's comment in a different direction.
I would not be surprised to learn that the league
(51:41):
has decided, you know what, screw the rules in this
playoff season. We don't need an uncalled face mask undermining
the outcome of a game. So we see it, We're
going to use it. And I go back to the
same rams twenty eighteen NFC Championship when it was blatant
(52:03):
pass interference, so it wasn't called, and obviously it wasn't
subject to replay review. My attitude then was I don't
care somebody get in the referees hear and say drop
a flag. There was pass interference, because look at it
this way, if you don't drop that flag, there's hell
to pay if you drop that flag. The only argument
anyone could have ever made the RAMS could have said, oh,
they violated the terms of Rule fifty two, Subsection one,
(52:26):
Article A, Subpart B regarding not being able to use
the replay assist or replay review system to drop a flag.
Nobody's gonna care because they got the call right. Getting
the call right goes a long way to quieting whatever
criticism you might have. So I always believe it's better
to not follow the rules and get a call right
(52:46):
than follow the rules and get a call wrong from
the standpoint of just what's right and what's wrong. And
I think that in this playoff season we will see
no missed face mask calls.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
Appreciate you call you next week, right. Mike Glorio Pro
Football to do dot Com describe Ben geslin Is in
the studio.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Net
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