PTI - Vikings Fire GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Frank Isola discuss the Australian Open, the Minnesota Vikings, and Lindsey Vonn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Michael Loban's National Whig Day, Frank. If you lost your hair, would you wear a wig? I'm Frank Isola.

I lost it 25 years ago. This thing's a snap on. It is not a snap on. You get a full head of hair. By the way, they used to call them toupeees. What happened? Whigs? Men don't wear wigs and we're toupeeves.

That's not the word. Can we think of a person? You want to out somebody is wearing a wig? Elton John? Yeah, Elton John. Yeah. Everyone should thank Bruce Willis and Michael Jordan what they did for shaving the heads. Shave it off, baby.

They look good. Wake up in the morning. Shave it off like I did this morning. Be a man. There you go. Welcome to PTI. Tony made it a whole week without working. And here to handle his business is our great friend from the starting lineup on Sirius XM, Mr. Frank I saw.

That it's set. Let's begin with the out. absolutely captivating Australian open men's semifinal matches. Carlos Alcoraz overcame cramping and vomiting to survive Alexander Zverev in a five-set thriller that took five-and-a-half hours. Then 38-year-old Novak Djokovic snapped a five-match losing streak against 24-year-old two-time defending championic center, also in five sets. So now either Alcaraz at 22 will become the young. youngest man to ever complete the career slam or Joker, Joker will win his record 25th major and become the oldest slam winner in the open era. Wow. Frank, what stands out to you?

It was almost 10 hours of tennis today. And Djokovic, I got to the microphone. He told the crowd, you got your money's worth today. Alcarez, I expected it from him. Now, the cramping's up in Zaver was not happy about it. And you wonder, maybe that'll carry over to Sunday. Maybe that could help Djokovic. But we talked about this a bunch this week. He was going to have to catch a bit of a break. He caught that with Mizetti having to retire. Then he created his own break. And then we said he was going to have to play one of the best matches of his career. Do you know that he faced 18 break points and he won 16 of them? It's amazing. And what a match he played. And it was I was, I woke up early enough to watch the final four sets. And they have a big Serbian community

there in Australia. I mean, there were Serbian flags all over. You, could see how emotionally he was. If he pulls this off, Mike, and it's not going to be easy, but he is 3 and 1 on hard court against Alcarus. And he beat him last year on the quarter of all time. If he does this and gets to 25, I mean, come on now. That's Roger and the doll, gone. He beat them. And now beating Sinner and Alcarus. If you can still a big if. So I watched Alcarez when the first two sets when the tie break. And it's like, you know, going on 1 o'clock Eastern time. And I'm like, you know what? I'm not going any longer.

And then I hear that not only did that match become epic, which we were not expecting. Yep. But then Joker to beat Center like that, after Center had beaten him twice, and let's face it, Center has been a legit number one in the world. That's right. And Joker at 38 to win on that surface. I mean, he's not playing on something that slows you down like Clay. He's not doing that.

So this is amazing and an amazing final to watch. And Sinner won the first set, then he's up to one, and Jokovic comes back, wins the fourth set and the fifth set. And like I said, he was emotional. Think about this, though, for Jokovic. Since turning 30, this is going to be his 17th Grand Slam final. Raphael Lidal did it 10 times. Roger Federer eight times.

You know what all this is saying. Think about that. If you want to talk about a goat in men's tennis, it's hard to come to any conclusion other than Jokicester. It is. But here's what happens with Jokovic. I loved Federer. There was a gracefulness about his game.

Nadal, you know, just like how hard that he works. He's a puncher. He's like Joe Frazier out there. Jokovic has been involved in a lot of controversial stuff. So he's not his beloved, but you're right. I mean, that would be his beloved, but he beats you. He beats his body. And you imagine if he wins on Sunday.

Now, the thing, you're going to get up at 3 o'clock to watch it? No. Got to have to watch it on tape. All right, let's move to the NFL where the Vikings fired, PM Coezy Adafo Mensa just a day after he openly contemplated his decision last year to let quarterback Sam Darnal walk in free agency. We all know how that's turned out. Donald is in the Super Bowl with Seattle while J.J. McCarthy underwhelmed in his first season,

starting from Minnesota. There are other decisions that Adolfo Menses we can discuss too, Mike. But what was your reaction to the one the club made today? It just seems rash. I'm going to go straight to J.J. McCarthy because that's where I live. That's my division. That's the NFC Central. And J.J. McCarthy, who started off his season, his career,

in a preposterous win over the Bears and a Monday night for the whole country to see. He then got injured. He played down to what we expect rookies to play to. But at the end of the season, Mr. McCarthy won his final four starts and the Vikings won their final five starts. So maybe the pressure should not have been put on him at the beginning of the year.

He shouldn't have been starting. Let's blame the coach. Let's put the blame where it belongs on the coach. And yes, it was a bad decision to let Sam Donald go. Many of us knew that on the way in the door. But if you want to talk about what it is you expect from McCarthy, if the kid goes out there in a tough division and wins his final four starts, what the hell else do you want from the guy who selected him?

It's funny that you mention that because I think they're basing a lot on Sam Donald. the fact that he lost the last game of the regular season to the Lions, and then he lost the playoff game. They only scored nine points. So they were looking at it, and it makes sense from a financial decision. They're thinking, do we give Sam Brown a $40 million? When we have a quarterback on a rookie scale, we can get other players. But you mean to tell me other people didn't sign off on that building?

A hundred percent. And that's, so here, you know, he's at the Senior Bowl representing the team. You're fired. Again, can you wait for a guy against a scout? Yeah. But my only thing would be, and that position is so different because it, To me, it's the most important position in professional sports, quarterback. It looked like you had a guy.

It's so hard for so many teams to get that guy. And you're paid the big bucks. And what's interesting about Coasey is that he's a guy, he's a basketball guy, went to Princeton, obviously really, really smart. He's a big analytic guy. See, you defend some of the analytic guys because you think it's a little unfair with what they did. To me, that's a big organizational decision. Yes. But they're also going to look at a lot of the players he draft.

I think they've gotten like 172, you know, career starts out of all the players he's drafted. That's combined. And he hasn't drafted a pro-baller yet either. Okay. And all of that's fine. We know this comes down to quarterback. Yep. And maybe he did get the right guy.

So if he got the right guy McCarthy, suppose McCarthy wins his first four starts next season. Yeah. What more was he supposed to contribute in that context? But now that they made this, the firing, now the stories are coming out that there was a lot of tension with the coaching staff. in the front office. So this seems like it was something that was building, especially when they didn't make it.

I got two teams I can root against with great conviction. Every snap of the rest of the way, the Cleveland Browns and the Minnesota Vikings. What about Sean Browns? Who I rooted against anyway. Peyton got his own.

All right. And now, let's go to some winter sports, real winter sports. Lindsay Vaughn got injured in her last downhill race before next week's Olympics. Vaughn crashed today in snowy conditions

in Switzerland. She managed to ski down, but was then airlifted out. The 41-year-old has won two downhills this season and leads the overall standings despite skiing on a titanium right knee. Today's injury was to her left knee. Frank, your reaction to the crash and how it could affect one of the most anticipated storylines of the upcoming winter games. All right.

Very few of us want to do that at that speed. The crash itself wasn't that. horrific and like you mentioned it's not the knee that she had partial knee replace me so the women's downhill just like the men's downhill that's one of the most anticipated events of the Winter Olympics for me it's the best event I the downhill is an amazing thing the courage that that the men and women have to do that it's 13 days away so you know she's 41 years old she took six years off from racing do I think she could be in the Olympics you know NBC is keeping their

fingers crossed that she can do it she's one of the biggest She can. You'll delay the Olympics rather than have one of their main storylines. They'll tell everyone, just stay at, like, you know, a restaurant in Milan, drink some wine and eat some possible. Let's let it go like a couple of weeks later. But I think it'll be, I think there's a chance that she can compete whether or not she'll be able to win. I like what she said. She said, my Olympic dream is not over. She released a statement.

Then she went a little Yogi Beron. She said it's not over until it's over. Well, listen, I'm not going to speculate whether she can or whether she can. I hope she can. Yeah. Lizzie Vaughn is one of those stars. you like watching whether she's competing or doing a commercial or sitting for 60 minutes or whatever it is. Lindsay Vaughn has that kind of hold on people who care about the Winter Olympics.

I've covered the Winter Olympics and I have been down at the bottom of that hill to watch the finish. I've been at the top as well. The courage that it takes to even stand up there, much less go through what Lindsay Vaughn has and do it again. When her life is set, come on. I mean, she doesn't have to do this to prove anything in terms of that sport. But to do this, and people are probably thinking, well, what is she doing, racing this close to the start of the Olympics? That's what happens. Yes, yep.

In both summer and winter Olympics. That's right. And so I just, I hope she can make it. It is one of the huge stories of the winter games, and particularly because she's been so public talking about the travails and getting there and having to navigate. It's such a great event because everyone understands. You're just trying to go fast. It's not like the slalom where you can get penalized. I still say one of the best sporting events I've ever seen that was on TV.

Franz Klammer winning the downhill in Innsbruck, Austria. How amazing was that? You couldn't find your way to Europe to come to the Winter Olympics with the rest of us? And it probably was on tape delay, right? Unless they were skiing at night. That was a great event. But we come back. Former roommates, Cooper Flagg and Connipple,

tallyed triple, not triple career highs while battling each other. last night, what's the word for that? And how to best describe the Hurricanes Furious Three-Go rally to beat the mammoth? What's the word is next? You should come to the Winter Olympics. And I wouldn't mind going. It's unbelievable. And by the way, the jump is every bit as, oh my God, as a down.

You've got to be crazy. Time for our version of words with friends. What's first? Last night's battle between former Duke roommates Cooper Flag and Khan Knieppel was blank. Nationalistic is what I'm going to go with, Frank. This was crazy. I mean, how about Cooper Flag getting 49? I mean, he started off the year, slowly, kind of slowly,

and has now just exploded. Cinnipple, because he's playing for a team nobody cares about in Charlotte. People didn't know that this kid was lighting it up from day one. I mean, he is shooting better than 42% from three. If you ask me right now, who my vote went for rookie of the year, where my vote goes, I think I say C CNPILP. Really? Yeah, flag can pass him.

He probably will. He's in a groove now. But here's the thing. You don't get American kids who are that great anymore. The last seven MVP's, all international players. You've got to go back to James Hardin in 2018. We're working on eight years. Amazing.

So Cooper and C Cnapp will come into the rescue like this is sort of, you think the league will understand and maybe playing some All-Star Festi. And they're both in that game. I'm sure they're going to have a chance to make the big game. Yeah. So my word is on the mark because last night, one of your Chicago guys, Mark Aguier, was getting his number retired. And Cooper Flagg, you know what he did? He broke Mark Aguyer's rookie scoring record last night by scoring 49.

Do you know that Cooper Flag right now has scored the most points in NBA history as an 18-year-old? He did that on December. Hang on a second. He did that as December 19. And then, what, 40 days later, he now has the most points. ever scored by a 19-year-old. We're any 19-year-olds either. Look, he scored 49.

I don't need the age. He scored 49. That's all it matters. That's not impressive. No, he could be 50. And he scored 49. That's what I... And he missed a shot at the buzzer.

Greatest high school player I ever saw. He missed the shot at the buzzer, which would have given him 51. Yeah. I got one for you, though. Okay. So the two teammates, so the two rookies last night, that's the most points combined by two rookies in the same game since 1971, Tiny Archibald. Pistol Pete Marevich combined the score, 91.

How far did those two guys get Cooper and Knieples? How far did they get last year together playing on a college student? I know. That was, I'm just asking. You're getting on John Shire now? No, Chicago's on. I'm not going to take shots. But why are you, the guy, you don't think that's an impressive stat?

No. Because no one was 18 for the first 100 years of the league. No, it's irrelevant. This greatness is not because he's 18. But what about? It isn't. And they play more AAU games. Kids now play 70 games a year.

You know this. They play 70 games a year when they're 15. No, it doesn't. LeBron was 18 and players. Okay. They were about the all-time legendary players. It's great because they're great players, not because they were 18. All right.

Huh? What's next? Says the 38-year-old over here. Still impressive. Last night's three-goal rally in the last two minutes by the Hurricanes. was blank. Confusing for me, Frank. Yeah.

Just because the hurricanes, and I think it's cool whenever, it's not often, they dress up as who they were, the Hartford Whalers. That's always pretty cool to me. I'm sure, you know, it causes people to go with Twitter in Bristol.

But they're dressed as the Hartford Whalers, and they're having this comeback, this historic comeback, beating a team that's the Utah Mammoths who used to be last year, the Utah Hockey Club, who previously were the Arizona Coyotes, who previously were the Phoenix Coyotes

who previously were the Winnipeg Jets. It's confusing. That circle's confusing, too. My word is stunning. It's the first time in 30 years the team has rallied from two goals down in the final two minutes to win in regulation. Here's how they did it.

The first goal, power play, but they also pulled their goalie, so it's six on four. Then they keep their goalie out at six on five. Then Jordan Stahl scores with 29 seconds to go. Redirect. They did it in regulate. Now, people have scored that many goals just not to end the game.

Yeah. And again, to win it in regulation, that's the impressive part. And if you're Utah, how bad of a loss is that? You can't even get to overtime. You're up two goals. They scored three goals in 80 seconds, Mike. So there should be some defensive drills if they actually have some skate time before their next game. But it was just what literally gives me as the visual of the Hartford Wheelers.

It seems like there are more NHL clubs who have just, sort of moved, rename themselves, reinvented themselves. It seems like half the league is something else. The Colorado Avalanche weren't the Colorado Avalanche forever today? Weren't they the Quebec Nordiques at some point? So there's been over 200 games where a team has scored three goals within a minute, but not at the end of the game. Not the end.

That's what separated this. You know what that's like, it's like, oh, he's 18. It's like that. Being 18 isn't impressive. How many 18-year-olds are scoring 40 points in the game? You're a hater. You're a hater. Big times.

That's the final word. Let's take one last break, but still to come. The Nuggets get some bad news, followed by some good news. There's the good news. And a big weekend ahead for Michael Wilbon's Big Ten in basketball. How many 18-year-olds are in that game? A lot. Where they should be.

They're scoring 40 points? So they should be, not in the NBA. How's that 18-year-old kids' team doing? What are they doing? The Dallas Mavericks. It doesn't have Kyrie or Anthony Davis. Time to get happy, people. Happy 23rd birthday to Amin and Asar Thompson.

Amin plays for the Rockets and is averaging 18, 8, and 5, Frank. Asar plays for the Pistons, averaging 11, 6, and 3. The identical twins played on the same team in high school and in the G League, and then we're taken fourth and fifth in the 2003 NBA draft. They faced each other last Friday with the men and the rockets beating a SAR and the pistons. Fittingly, their matchup earlier this season went the other way. Two terrific two-way players.

They are. They are. He was born a minute after his brother. He is one inch shorter at 6-7, but at 34 wins, he's got five more wins than his brother has with the Rockets. They are great defenders. Absolutely. And now already better offensively than we thought are.

And tough, tough as well. Happy anniversary, John Riggins. On this day, 43 years ago, my man Rigo rushed for a then Super Bowl record 166 yards to lead Washington Pass Miami in the Super Bowl. The capstone was a 43-yard touchdown run on fourth and one to put away the game. It was the first of three Super Bowl wins for Hall of Fame head coach Joe Gibbs. And during his second win, five years later, Washington running back Tim Smith set the new Super Bowl rushing record that stands today.

204 yards in a win over the Broncos. The big run by Riggins in that game, the defensive back on the dolphins that he ran over. Don McLean, remember that? Yeah. Riggins, I saw last week, he looks like he's 35 years old. We were thinking today about guys that got run over. We were thinking about Brian Bosworth by Bo Jackson. And remember when Earl Campbell ran over Isaiah Robertson of the Rams got him right here.

ran over a lot of people earlier than that, too. Happy trails to last night's game for the Red Wings. Detroit emptied his net down two goals to the Capitals last night and scored twice in the last two minutes to send the game to OT, the second on a simple dump-in that took a crazy bounce off the photographer's hole in the glass. At the end of the scoreless extra session, Capitol's goalie Charlie Lingren went down in pain, but with Logan Thompson unavailable and only a call-up in uniform,

him, Linkren stayed in for the shootout. Made no saves, but the Red Wing's third attempt hit the crossbar. The cap scored to win all three won the game, then carried Lindgren off the ice and down the tunnel. There was a lot of celebrating last night because Patrick Kane got an assist. So now he passes Mike Medano, most points ever by an American-born player in the NHM. It's a pretty nice distinction. Two omissions, the Packers signed head coach Matt LaFleur and GM Brian Goodick. to extensions and the Ravens hired Bears O.C. Declan Doyle

to the same position in Baltimore. We're running out of show. Let's get to the big finish. Aaron Gordon is out four to six weeks for the Nuggets. But Nukic is back tonight. How about the job that the Nuggets have done? 10 and 6 without Yokitz. By the way, he could still miss two more,

well, if he misses one more game, he will not be eligible to win any of those regular season award. But it's surprising he's back this quickly. John Gruden denies a report from the athletes. athletic that the Jets reach out to him about a role in their offense. Your thoughts? That seems much to do about Nata. The Eagles hired Packers' quarterback coach Sean Mannion as their new OC.

Does that make sense? Let me ask you a question. Do you want that job in Philadelphia? No. Being a head coach and the offensive coordinator? No job. A ton of pressure. Big 10 men's hoops this weekend.

I know you're going to be locked in. Number three, Michigan, number seven, Michigan State. Tonight and number nine, Illinois and number five, Nebraska. On Sunday, what's the bigger deal? We don't get to talk about Illinois and Nebraska. Nebraska and basketball. Illinois's big, Illinois is big and can shoot it, and they can go a long way in the tournament.

I'm just saying. Last one, Sabalinka Rabakana, meet in the Aussie Open Women's Final tonight. Who you got? I think Sabalinka, she's playing unbelievable tennis. The big thing with Sabalinka, it's always up here. She can control that. A couple of bad serves.

Yeah. A couple of unforestedres. She starts to pull and part a little bit. By the way, if the capitals had gone like this, I was with Bernie Wolf, former Capitals going to the 70s. Last night, it looks like he could still play. We're out of time. Thanks for watching.

I'm not 18, but I am Frank Isola. I'm Mike Wilbon. Have a great weekend. Luckleheads.