Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - From Moss to Favre to the roof collapse, a look back at 2010 with three Vikings beat reporters

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Matthew Coller is joined by Judd Zulgad, Chip Scoggins and Brian Murphy to talk about their memories from 2010, the craziest Vikings season of all time, as we close in on the anniversary of a ton of wild events that happened that season. What was Moss's return like? How insane was the roof collapsing? What did 2010 do to Favre's legacy? That and much more in this episode... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone, Matthew Collar here. We'll get into the show in just a second, but first got to tell you about Abner Maris, a world champion boxer, Olympian, sports commentator, and most importantly, a dad to two little girls. Beloved by abuelas and hardcore fans alike, Abner is a pro at entertaining the world both

in and out of the ring. On Blue Wire's new podcast, On the Hook with Abner Maris, we'll hear from Abner, his family, fellow athletes, and other people who made him the boxer he is today. He will discuss the state of boxing, sports, music, culture, and his American dream. Listen to On the Hook with Abner Maris wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes in English out on Tuesdays and episodes in Spanish are out on Wednesdays. All right, let's get to the show. Welcome to a special episode during the bye week of Purple Insider in which we tell some 2010 stories because it has been an entire decade from what the reporters who were there then called the craziest Vikings year. And one of those crazy Vikings reporters was indeed Judd Zolgad. What is up, Judd? Oh, boy, not a lot. And this is going to require me to have a few drinks during this because this brings back a lot of stress to my life.

This season does. I was going to ask you about that because last year covering the playoffs in 2019, just even the travel alone, there was nothing crazy that happened. But, you know, you get a couple of playoff games on the road and you're going to New Orleans and then it's a wild game at New Orleans. I've never been so exhausted by a game, even the Minneapolis Miracle,

because you think about the travel that goes into it. That stadium is just as loud. I remember walking out of there being like, I am gassed. And then, oh yeah, now I have to travel out to Santa Clara. Not so easy to get to, by the way, from Minnesota. And so I remember like how exhausted I was from covering that. And then I think about the 2010 season, which had so many things that we are addressing this week with yourself, Brian Murphy, and Chip Scoggins going back and telling the

story. So I gave you options. I said, what do you want Zolgad? Because if we tried to talk about all of these, we would need more space in the podcast universe. So you selected the return of Randy Moss for what you wanted to talk about. Now I'll just tell you from my perspective, I was in Buffalo at the time. And in 2010, I was just kind of getting my career started in media and I remember Bill Simmons had accidentally tweeted out that Randy Moss was returning to Minnesota and you can take it from there because the rest uh you know much more about than I do all right so let's actually go back to you have to go back to the 2009 NFC title game to get to where this got to, okay? Because it was in that game, I believe, that Sidney Rice suffered, I want to say, a hip injury of some sort. Now, keep in mind, Rice had been a fairly high draft pick by the Vikings,

who had underachieved until 2009 when Favre got here. And Favre had a habit by that point in his career of making one receiver a star. I covered him in 2000, I covered the Packers in 2003 or four, and he decided Javon Walker was going to be his guy. And he turned Javon into an unbelievable star for one year, of course. So Rice was, in my world, Javon Walker 2.0.

In the title game against the Saints, Sidney Rice hurts his hip, I believe. And then they, so he goes to a doctor after that, and they essentially say, you probably need surgery and we can do it now. Sidney Rice goes to the Vikings and says, I will have the surgery if you give me a contract extension. If you do not give me a contract extension, I will not be having the surgery. I will show up for training camp with the problem.

The Vikings say, no, no contract extension. They maybe started the ball rolling on the hell that was 2010 because Rice gets to training camp and goes on the pump. Now, this is without far of present. And it turns out this is without far of knowing that Sidney Rice was hurt, okay? This is all very important because things get rolling and Sidney Rice can't play. Like he just can't play. This hip is, I don't know if it has worsened or if the Vikings just said, we're not going to give you extension. So he said, screw it. I know I can't play. That I don't know. But

the Vikings worked out in the meantime, as they tried to recruit Favre to come back, knowing full well that he was never going to show up while they were in Mankato, the Vikings worked out a trade with, I believe it was A.J. Smith, the GM of the San Diego Chargers. Vincent Jackson was available and was holding out. The Vikings actually worked out the trade. It was done. And so in that world, and it would have been a good trade at that time, Vincent Jackson was going to replace Sidney Rice, problem solved. Until A.J. Smith decides at the 11th hour, screw Vincent Jackson, I'm going to let him sit and stew. I'm not trading him. I don't think it had anything to do with the Vikings.

He was just mad. Okay, problem back. In the meantime, the Vikings go to great lengths to get far to come back again which he does uh clearly once they're done with the training camp portion in mankato and i remember asking far at some point in time right before the moss trade i said would you have come back if you'd known how bad the thing with rice was and he looked at me like i had approximately three heads which i think was to say of course not you moron i wouldn't come back because I made him and without him, it's a problem. So that's when the story I've been told behind the scenes is that Spielman, who did not have control of the roster. So this

is very important. He was not GM at that time. Spielman worked out the trade with the Patriots for Moss, but went to Childress first to say, can you coach him? Like, because he's a pain. And at that point in time, Moss' skills were declining a bit. We didn't know how much. And Childress, my understanding, has said, absolutely, I can coach him. They pulled the trigger on the trade, which was what? I believe it was a third-round pick to the Patriots for Randy Moss.

And I think the Vikings got back Moss in the seventh-round pick. And that's when Moss shows up, and that's the night then that I want to say Bill Simmons tipped his hand. And to your point, I don't even remember if Simmons meant to do it. It was an accident. He was trying to DM it to Adam Schefter. That's what it was. And then in the meantime, Glazer, who at that time broke a lot more news than he does now broke the story I was in a bar and had to rush home to cover it you were I can't believe I know

you're shocked by that I rushed home to cover it but um that was that was how the Vikings got to Moss was Sidney Rice's injury coupled with the Chargers well agreement and then refusal to trade Vincent Jackson to get a veteran receiver who wanted to be paid by the Patriots wasn't but what we didn't realize at the time and I don't think the Vikings did was Belichick who is a great observer in some ways of the human condition saw that Moss' performance was falling off the table very quickly, and so sent basically what was a shell of the player he had been to the Vikings. Okay, so that is true, very much, of course. We know how it played out, that they sent half of Randy Moss back to Minnesota. However, his first game, though, do you remember this against the

New York Jets? They tried to throw it to him a bunch of times, but he did have some big plays and caught four passes for 81 yards, a touchdown and a loss to the New York Jets. And then the next game he had five catches and a win over Dallas. And so, like, did it start out decently and then fall off the table? Or did you get the sense from the very beginning like oh this second version of Randy Moss is going to be a disaster um I wouldn't say that you got the impression immediately that it was going to be a disaster but the season was already sort of off

the tracks and so like nothing was tracking well if that makes sense so it wasn't that immediately you felt that the Moss trade was going to blow up, but it almost in some ways at that moment felt too late. And I will say this. So Moss's reintroductory press conference at Winter Park is an all-time press conference because that's the one where he comes in, and I remember he's introduced, and Ziggy Wolf's in the back of of the room or of the practice shed where the practice or where they held the press conferences in that corner and

ziggy wolf's in the corner back there and ziggy wolf is a guy who when he got here in 2005 was tired of all the bs right like all of it and, and Moss had been in his mind, right or wrong, very much part of the BS. So it's 2010 and Moss is controlling this press conference. And it was really bizarre. Somebody from NFL network, if I'm not mistaken, starts to ask a question and she sort of just fumbles a bit, like nothing big, but she's like thinking through her question and he's like, next question. So it was like an auction. It's it's like what's this and at the end of that press conference and i'm not kidding you this is where i knew things were going to go sideways because the way that the vikings operated was not going to work with moss's world moss gets done or he's basically done and he says i'm not joking y'all lucky I wasn't on that boat because it would have been a lot worse for someone like that. And I look back and he's like cackling and I'm like, no, dude, this is not

good for you. This ain't going to work well. And so it wasn't that I had this immediate perspective football wise that it was going to be a disaster. But if it's true that Spielman truly asked Childress, can you coach him? The answer was always no. Like, it should have been no. I don't want any part of – he's not good enough now to justify it. But, you know, Brad thought, oh, hell yeah. And with Brett – and this also came – I believe it was two years after the Packers had a chance to go out and get Moss. There was some point in time where the Packers had a chance, and Favre was still there.

And the whole talk was, will Ted Thompson bring in Moss to team with Brett? Cause it'll be great. And so I think the Vikings perceive this as, well, we'll do what the Packers didn't have the guts to do. But that press conference was the first time where you just had this really weird feeling about they can't handle this and they don't know it yet. And Childress seems like the wrong guy to try and handle a player like that anyway much less two players that were kind of like that with uh yeah Percy Harvin as well so but it's um really interesting to me though with Moss that today we look at Randy Moss and go like hey unbelievable career all-time great player here's his. You want to watch him again? And a cool guy who seems well adjusted. He's on TV and he seems nice and friendly. That was not the case with Randy Moss

then. I think we understand it better because of the Rand University documentary. And my gosh, if you have not seen it, see it. Because he was so closed off to everyone that that story was hard to tell, even if you were a journalist covering him at some point during his career because he just didn't let people in and he talked about that in a press conference that I was at at Winter Park in 2017 when he was going to go up on the Ring of Honor where he talked about like yeah I kind of wish sometimes that I hadn't been just like all you know kind of recluse in that sort of thing that he regrets that now and it his change in public perception is so interesting because at the time in 2010 he was

considered just a problem dude for a lot of uh you know i mean the first time that they moved on from him for for a lot of that stuff and then if belichick's moving on this must be a problem again yeah and he was so so and we we knew this at the time but he hadn't talked about it randy hated adults he hated authority he had a distrust of authority that went deep the thing to keep in mind and this was pretty clear at the time and now it's super clear incredibly smart guy well like he was a recalcitrant person but that did not mean that he was in any way, shape, or form dumb. He was not dumb. He was a student of the game of football.

He was incredibly smart. And he loved kids. Like he would do charity work here that they wouldn't talk about behind the scenes for hours. The key was he hated authority. And Brad was he hated authority and brad was the ultimate authority but there were times i i was told uh in the offensive room where brett and randy would like sit in the front row and just like mock the game plan they would just think the game plan and the problem was they probably weren't wrong. So both guys were super smart football guys.

I remember – so Moss would sit at his locker during the open locker room period for us. And ordinarily, as you know, guys like go to a lunchroom. I mean they'll avoid it at all costs. He would sit at his locker. And I remember I walked by him one time, and of course he wouldn't talk, but he had, he had no cards out like, like a pack, like a fanny pack of no cards and highlighter pens with game plan stuff. And he was going through it and like studying. And it's like, you don't see this much. So that was the impressive thing.

But he also, he also was, he could be a bad guy he um there was one time where one of the tv stations i forget it might have been channel four came up to asher allen a young cornerback at that time his locker and i was standing there and he's sitting there and moss is behind him at his locker and the guy at the station or gal said, can you talk, Asher? He's like, oh, yeah, sure. No problem. So they turn the camera towards where Moss's locker is, but they're not talking to Moss. And, you know, they talk to him briefly and they get done.

And they get done and Asher Allen goes back to sit down and Moss says something like, never do that again. I don't want a camera pointed towards me ever it was like it was like whoa so like this was a deep dude he was confusing at times um and he was he was more than they could handle and the last point off this is he literally in a lot of ways as far as a viking ruined percy harvinvin because Percy loved him. Like Percy was huge. And Percy was himself a great talent.

But Randy, he like worshipped the ground that Moss walked on. And so to the day that Moss got let go, I think Percy went to Moss' place to help him move and stuff. And so Percy, I think, when it came to Childress, was on the fence about Brad to start with, and that pushed him over the edge completely. So Moss 2.0 here did way more damage than good, and it went way beyond the field.

But the Vikings were so desperate that they basically said, let's try it. And the problem with Favre is Favre didn't care. Favre was like, hell yeah, that's fine. But once he was such a dynamic person that once he got in that room, there was no one who was going to pull it back and tone it down. His game against New England is the last game, and that is on Halloween. A nightmare on Halloween 2010.

Get it? Am I right? I'm sure she did, yeah. Yep, and he catches one pass for eight yards. It's a bad loss. How did it officially fall apart with Randy Moss 2.0 in Minnesota? Oh, this is a beautiful story. Belichick, in his infinite wisdom, because Bill Belichick, no matter what you say,

and he might be a jackass, he's smarter than you and me. Bill Belichick looked at an aging Moss. So, like, you could have rolled the dice there. Like, he wasn't great. He was not playing well. And was his third game against the Packers? Was that the third game he played for the Vikings?

Yes, it was Jets. Okay. And then Adalas went in against the Packersers he caught three passes for 30 yards in a touchdown and the Packers game is where you knew it was a mess because um Favre threw a pass to Moss I want to say it was in the back of the end zone and Moss and think about this for a second alligator arm the ball he's like I could catch that oh I'm not gonna catch that like this is so anti-Moss it's unbelievable yeah so I saw him pull his arm down on that pass and I'm like oh this is not good um so but Belichick didn't care Belichick rolls a safety to him the entire game so like Belichick's

like I don't care if the Vikings beat me you ain't doing it so literally the whole game and the game playing and you could see Moss is pissed. And Moss was really mad because I think Moss probably, I want to say, my memory serves now, and it's a long time ago, I want to say that Moss had come to the coaches with a bunch of ideas, and they're like, oh, no, no, no, we got this. We're football people. Which, by the way, later on, Bill Belichick, you know,

nine years later when they're doing the top 100 players ever tells a great story about how randy would challenge him all the time on the game plan and how much he loved it and how much he was like this guy would think of things that nobody's ever thought of before schematically and everything else and he's the smartest player i've ever coached or one of the smartest players it's like like, hey, Brad, maybe listen to Randy Moss. But he wouldn't listen to anybody. Anybody. But, I mean, so this is Moss' team.

Like, he knows this team. Yeah. And so Bill's like, well, I'm going to roll a safety over in your direction almost all the time that you're playing. So you're going to be held to one catch. And so people think, to this day day people think that moss got cut because during the course i believe of the patriots week that he had gone into the locker room on friday and at that time at winter park there was a spread that the players ordered in each week on friday

and it would be a different supplier and it was tanucci's and the story is and the story is true but moss walks in and i don't know if he picked up some of the food or what but the line was i wouldn't feed this bleep to my dog and so this story got out so the fan base and the press were like well he got cut eventually because of that what really transpired was well two things one is Moss I think upon arrival here wanted a contract extension and they said no which ticked him off but probably the more important thing was after the Patriots game the Wilfs as they always are were in the locker room win or lose right waiting for the team to come in because they always do and then they hear the coach address the team, blah, blah, blah.

So Moss and a fullback by the name of Fahutahi are the first two who get into the room because Moss basically bolted off the field as Moss did when Moss was ticked. He looks at the Wilfs and it was the Wilfs. And I think they sometimes bring friends in too, right? So this is like their entourage, and they're very proud. This is their football team, and yeah, we've lost to the Patriots, but we're going to hear the coach talk. And the story that I heard was Moss got in the locker room with Tahee. They walked in, and he looks at Wilf and says, y'all better get yourself a new bleeping coach because this bleeper can't coach,

and goes off and is dropping a lot of probably objectionable words. Because I think the Wilfs bring in friends who are sometimes younger kids, too. So this is not just a bunch of grizzled football people. That gets back to Brad. Brad then decides the next day, without telling the wilfs that he's going to cut moss he cuts moss goes and does his monday after press conference at which it gets really weird and to his credit bob sansevier the pioneer press says to brad at the podium did you cut him like this is just really weird brad's like no no we get back to the press room nfl network is reporting that moss has

been cut the problem is that that um brad didn't tell the wilfs that he had cut the player and then the last part of the story is we we go over to the locker room at winter park for the access period and the only guy who comes in the room the entire time poor linebacker ben lieber comes in there and he's distributing like nflpa flyers i'm serious and we're like hey ben did they just cut randy moss and he's like yeah and that's how we found out that's how the wilfs found out through the media and so that's how if you're a coach who's just gone to the conference title game you get fired so within i think it was i want to say it's 28 days within 28 days it went from get out your 84 jerseys which is what moss said get out your 84 jerseys get those out

to randy moss being cut by brad childress shortly after that, the next month, Brad being fired after a loss to the Packers. Nearly 10 years to the day that you are listening to this podcast, all of that transpired and one Judd Zolgad was there. And what's remarkable is that that is not the craziest thing to happen the entire year that's just one small subset and we've been talking for this long about that specific subset now what's interesting to me judd is that this did not really at least by the time i got here damage his reputation as a minnesota viking that it was fascinating to me to learn about that because Adrian Peterson and his transgressions certainly damaged the Adrian Peterson love. There are still people out there who will fight you to the death on AP, but a lot of

people go, eh, not real happy about that whole thing with the child and so forth. And not so happy with some of his other act that went on in my first year here in 2016 of breaking the news he was coming back on his radio station, some other silliness that went on. But with Randy Moss, really bulletproof when it came to this, that even though he had acted the way that he acted, even though he did not perform at the same type of level at all, it's just when you are so iconic with a franchise, even if something like that happens,

it's mostly kind of just the tiniest blip on the radar that people pretty much look right over. It's twofold. One is it was so short and Childress was not liked. So like Brad is seen, Brad is seen as the bad guy. And also that 2010 was so goofy that the Moss story fits into it. But it's not, to your point from before, it's not the story. The other thing is, as great as Peterson was, and he's great, he didn't, I don't think, cause a huge segment of the state to become fans yeah like like moss

literally took people who were like what am i gonna watch here too oh my god the vikings are great the vikings are great um moss changed that franchise so his stint from 98 to 2004 so overrides the the four games that he returned here that I don't think people hold those against him. And also aside from, from the deal downtown where the person was trying to give him a ticket and he decided to shove her with his car a bit, there wasn't really off the field stuff about Moss.

Right. It was objectionable. So, but I really think it comes down to one thing in 1998, Randy Moss single-handedly helped redefine who a Vikings fan was. And people love that. And that group was not about to abandon him because in Brad's mind, he screwed Brad.

And I think that the post career stuff where the, I mean, it's really, truly shocking to me who he was then, that he seems like a guy that disappears into the mountains of West Virginia and builds a mansion. Never talks to anyone again. I think he should go fishing, Matthew. Right. Right. I was shocked.

I was shocked, but I'm glad because he's a really smart dude. Yeah. Yep. And he's a really smart dude. And he's become just a good broadcaster. And even though sometimes, you know, he has this kind of jokes that fall flat or whatever when it's on TV. But he just is likable, and you feel like a guy who went through so much early in his life

that you sort of understand what he's come through to be more stable now, and you can easily kind of wash some of that other stuff out because of what he dealt with and the reason why he did have such adversarial relationships with people. And it's always interesting to me to talk to people who played with him. what he dealt with and the reason why he did have such adversarial relationships with people and it's always interesting to me to talk to people who played with him like Gus Farratt and I talked about this a while back Gus said that you know they played cards all the time and Randy was just kind of one of the guys to the players like to everybody else on the outside he was something very very different but to the guys that played with, he was another player and he didn't put himself, you know, kind of above the team or anything else

like that in the, in the good days of Randy Moss before we end up getting to the end. So, um, a really fascinating guy that I never tire of talking about in Randy Moss, Judd, and I have greatly, um, enjoyed this 2010 story. Thank you for doing it. PTSD for me. Thanks a lot, Collar. I appreciate that. I love that you never get tired of talking about it, though. You've always got energy for 2010 stories. Oh, yeah.

I will never see, I hope to God, another year like that. I've only got room for one of those seasons. I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen this stuff yet, you've go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen this stuff yet, you've got to check it out. One of my favorite designs is of the Metrodome. I have a t-shirt of this one myself, and it's perfect for those of you who grew up going to the Metrodome. All of their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies.

You will love it. And we're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. Use code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. okay to continue our series looking at 2010 since it's been 10 years since the craziest season on record ever covered by minnesota vikings reporters we bring in one of the great all-time minnesota vikings reporters chip scoggins to talk about the collapse of a roof.

What is up, Chip? I don't know about the all-time great, but I was there for the collapse of the roof. And I did. Well, you know what, Matthew? One time we jotted down a list of 2010. And you'd be amazed, like, number 13 on that list would be, like, the biggest story most years. It was 13 in 2010. And you'd be amazed, like number 13 on that list would be like the biggest story most years. It was 13 in 2010. You know, it's just amazing all the stuff that happened. So I talked with Zolgat about the return of Randy Moss and with Brian Murphy about

Brett Favre and all the experiences and appendages that ended up in the news for that season and such. But, you know, I just picked the big three to cover here with you three guys. And so in terms of the dome collapse, my recollection of it is pretty much just those famous Star Tribune photos and seeing them over and over and over again on SportsCenter and everything else and just like the ticker at the bottom, the roof collapses and everything else. And aside from that though, Chip, I know a lot about Randy Moss and Brett Favre. I don't know a lot about what it must have been like to cover the roof collapse. So start wherever you want. Start with when you found out that it fell down. Well, I will say this. So that week, I was

doing the Sunday story, the big advance. And I was so happy and proud of the story. So I, back in the old, back in the old days, back in those days in the Metrodome locker room, after a game they used to have these big hampers, like laundry, you know, the hampers. And guys would throw their playbook from that week in the hamper on the way out the door. And so I had this idea. I wanted to start from the moment that guys throw those binders, and they're like binders that you get for school.

The moment they throw them in there to game time, like the process of putting together a game plan and take me through the steps, and the Vikings were great about it. I got with Darryl Bevel, who was the offense coordinator, and different coaches, and literally day by day how they construct a game plan and down to how they fill out the play card, like how it's arranged. It's this big story. I wrote this out. Beville actually gave me one of their play calls. He's like, give me a call. What would Favre say in the huddle? And this was a pass play.

This is what he would say. This is inside football here. Yeah, it is. Red, left, tight, close, swap, Z, right, sprint, right, G, U, corner, gu corner half back flat there it is red left tight close swap z right sprint right gu corner half back flat so that was a pass play he said that's just a common play so i mean one that tells you how long their verbiage was for that yes yes so i so i wrote this big story and I'm just proud of it. It's running Sunday. And my phone rings about 6 a.m., and it's Kevin Seifert, my former colleague at the Strib. And at the time, he was covering the NFC North for ESPN.com.

He covered all the teams. And he's like – and we knew there was a heavy snowfall, and we knew there was an issue about clearing the snow off the roof. But he's like, hey, hey man did you see fox nine i was like no he said you better turn on your tv so i turn it on and they you know they're showing repeatedly where the roof you know that that infamous video where the roof caves in and the snow just comes falling and i remember sitting there just you know it's pitch dark it It's whatever time early morning. I'm thinking, this is bad. I remember just thinking, what are we going to our bosses, and we're like, you start reporting, and you're calling the Vikings. They're like, we don't know how this is going to go, and so that day went on.

I can't remember if we went out to Winter Park, or they made people available, but at the same time, the NFL's trying to figure out how they're going to play that game, and it starts, there are several options, and it became apparent that Detroit was going to be the one. And so we're scrambling to try to get to Detroit that night while reporting the story, and I remember we finally flew to Detroit that night. We landed about midnight and just thinking this is unbelievable this is so surreal even you know as as weird as this season has been and everything that's taken place we're landing at 10 you know at midnight on a sun on a sunday to cover a home game in detroit after the you know the roof cake did and so it was uh you know it was the icing on the on the cake but it was the icing on the cake, but it was – yeah, just – I remember turning on that video and just sitting there staring at TV like I don't even know where to start on this.

So your story then did not happen. Nobody read it. Well, no, it ran, but nobody – I think like three people read it. Yeah, that's the thing. You read it. That was the other thing. He's like, yeah, no one's going to be reading this story. I was so proud of it. I think like three you read it? That was the other thing. He's like, yeah, no one's going to be reading this story. I was so proud of it.

I think like three people read it. Yeah, I've definitely been there. You know, you write one. Sometimes you write them and you think, well, no one's going to read this anyway. You think, oh, I got a gem here, and then immediately it's blown up. So I'm sorry that that happened to you. That sounds like a great story. You could tweet out the link or something. I'm here, and then immediately it's blown up. So I'm sorry that that happened to you. That sounds like a great story.

You could tweet out the link or something when I post it. Did you – now, so how up close did you see it, like right after it collapsed? Did you go inside of it? Did they let people inside? No, no, no. No, it was – well, remember, our – the Star Tribune building that we worked in was right across the street at the time. Oh, okay. You know, when they tore down the dome and put up a U.S. bank, they bought our property, and so we moved downtown.

But we were literally right across the street from the Metrodome, and so I don't think I drove downtown. They definitely, I don't think, let anyone in that day. They eventually did after a couple days. I think they kept maybe all 2020 virtually, remotely. But I think they made – Lester Bagley for sure talked, and I assume Leslie did too, just trying to – I can't remember if they made any players available. But really it was just – and our news side people helped us. But it was – part of the thing was just trying to figure out how are they going to finish the season? And that was your thought is like – because we figured out the Gophers didn't have heating coils, and that was going to be a problem because it's dead of winter. And you wonder if that field was going to be playable because it was just – it was going to be frozen. And so you start thinking, well, maybe that's not even an option. So all these different scenarios are like, are they going to have to play every game on the road now to finish out the season?

And so it was just trying to – for the Vikings, their heads had to be just spinning, like how are we going to complete this season? So I remember it just felt chaotic. That day felt completely – it felt like a blur, but it felt chaotic just trying to – because there's a million scenarios going on in your head, like how is this going to work? Something that I remember popping up from time to time, because I was in Buffalo, so Buffalo always got talked about as a team that could move to Los Angeles. How much of a conversation was that then? Was that a thing then when the roof collapsed?

Yeah, and I think it became a negotiating ploy. Because Los Angeles was always out there, and then the stadium issue was contentious. And it was, you know, they need it. It's done. Nobody wants to pay for it. So it was always a conversation. And then when that happens, it upped the ante where, okay, listen, we've got to have a new stadium here. This is not being unreasonable to think that we need a new stadium. Look what happened.

The dome literally collapsed. We have to have a new stadium. Look what happened. The dome literally collapsed. We have to have a new stadium. And so I think that that increased the urgency to get something done, and it also gave the Wilfs leverage to say, you know, Los Angeles, it's warm. The dome's not going to collapse in Los Angeles. And whether people took that threat legitimately or not, I think it did – like I said, it created more momentum, I think, to get the stadium done. Yeah, I mean how crazy – I don't – Matt, I don't think fixing the ceiling, repairing the ceiling was going to be an option.

I don't think so. Let's just repair the ceiling and put it back up. It's like, no, you have to have a new stadium now. Right. It was already a garbage bin, right? I mean, it was in really bad shape. I wonder, though, from your perspective, from covering so many games inside of that place,

just how weird that was. Like you've just done it so many times, and then all of a sudden there it is in shambles. Yeah, and it's as dumpy as it was with the concourses and lack of suites and just all the warts that it had, that was a heck of a home field advantage. I mean, it got loud in there. And you go back to that Dallas playoff game, that's still one of the loudest. It wasn't how it was for the Superdome in 09, but it was pretty loud.

And so baseball obviously gave – the World Series was a tremendous home field advantage. Terrible place to watch baseball, but it was rocking. So, yeah, I mean, it was something that they used to their advantage, that noise in there. And so it was beautifully imperfect, you know, I mean, because it could be so loud and such an advantage for them, but it also just had, you know, when you look at all these different Marvel's stadiums going up with all the bells and whistles and you looked at the Metrodome, it just had none of that, you know, it had one redeeming quality. But yeah, so then when it classes, I think – I remember that day thinking that's the end of that place.

I just – I didn't think – knowing where they – how much they wanted a new stadium and just knowing how much expensive that would be to – I didn't even know if it was possible. I guess you could repair it and put it back up or whatever, but it just felt like, all right, that's so long, Metro. That was the end of the line at that point. What was the aftermath like? I mean, the game in Detroit had to be super weird. And Murph and I talked a little bit about just Favre and how the venue change plays into the end of Favre's career as well. But it just had to be a bleep show after that.

Well, it was. It was just – it felt – I keep saying chaos was the word because we go there, and that was just surreal. I mean, you're playing the Giants in Detroit, and I can't remember the number of fans that they let in. I wouldn't say it may have been 15,000, 20,000. It wasn't like you thought, okay, there'll be 10 people here. No, there's people that came because I didn't know if they charged the mission. But it was a weird environment. But I remember even, you know, talking to guys after the game, and you're still thinking okay what's going to

happen the rest of the way you know and then um then you got settled on that you're going to play a tcf bank and all of a sudden you got you know 20 feet of snow you got to clear out there and it was like all week they were getting students and paying them and they were working around the clock to get that snow out um and they you know they got most of it out and they realized they're going to play it and then um oh by the way the field's frozen what are you going to do and then chris cluey i think was the first player to say hey this thing's frozen someone's gonna get hurt and then the nflpa i think uh voiced their concerns about it and so they then they got the heaters that they put a tarp uh over the building and blew heat over it, and so that warmed it up.

But even then, I think players were concerned about it, and that night – I think it might have even snowed that night when they played Chicago back here. And then Favre – that was the Favre. He was out, and then the day of the game, they declared him out. And I didn't know you could do this. They declared him out, and then we got a call, I want to say around 11 noon, something like that, on that Monday. It was a Monday night game, right? And said Favre's been upgraded to, I think, questionable or whatever, and it's like, I didn't even know.

I thought, well, you're out, you're out, you know, but sure enough, yeah, he, he played, and he got, you know, that slammed into that, that frozen turf, and that was it, you know. Shouldn't have been playing. I mean, it sounds, it seems like he should not have been playing. you know, and then I think they went back to Detroit, right? After that, we had Philadelphia, and then they ended up in Detroit last game. And then the whole Philadelphia debacle, the blizzard that wasn't. So it was those last five weeks just, you know, when you got to the end of it, like, you're just literally shaking your head. Like, I can't even believe this is, is this – like, are we being punked? Can this be happening, you know?

So, yeah, but that – those two weeks, you know, starting from Sunday when it collapsed, Sunday morning until – I think the Bears game was the Monday night or – or it was the night game. I can't remember if it was Sunday or Monday, money but um you know just wondering if that stadium was going to be prepared to host the game you know you weren't sure if it was going to be playable and i can't remember what because i remember the vikings went down there and did a walkthrough would have been a couple days or day before or whatever and that's what i think when cluey tweeted out like this field is frozen it's not playable you know and so i think there was some debate right up until i don't say kickoff but you know up until that night game day that whether the field was going to be playable and then they get

killed and then i and then yeah and then it's just a complete mess yeah and then the game was awful and um you know it just after farm goes out and then out and then – I think guys were just done at that point. I remember talking to Brian Robinson this – not too long ago, about the 2010 season. And guys, he said at the end of that season, you're ready just to go home. You wanted to be done with it. You didn't want to think about it. Just everything that went wrong, you just wanted to just completely forget that that even happened, you know.

And so I think, you know, I think guys were just ready to be done at that point. But they rallied it in, you know, in Philadelphia. They played great, you know, competitive spirit. But I think that last month, guys were just ready for the season to be done. Did you guys rank dome collapse number one in terms of the craziest thing? Yeah, yeah. That, I mean, that's, you know, people say, what's the 2010, the year the roof collapsed? Like, literally, not figuratively.

Well, figuratively and and literally the roof collapse. So that one would be one. I think the Moss has to be two. You know, he had a coach fire to him that season. Well, you know, I think that season started with Percy and his migraines and collapsing on the field. And so, yeah, but nothing could top the your your dome literally collapsing you can always tell in camp when something's coming your way and uh i i don't know that in 2018 felt like the same sort

of like in camp it's going to get crazy in 2016 when teddy gets hurt you know it's just going to be wild from there so yeah i'm sure you... Yeah, that's how it was. Percy, I remember, I think he started seeing he collapsed on the field. In Mankato, he was back up at the facility and I think he actually brought the ambulance on. It's just he had a really bad migraine episode.

And, you know, it really started before that where they had to drag Favre out and send a plane down there to get him. And I think if he had a do-over, I think everybody would have just said, okay, 2009 was great. Let's turn the page and move on. But when you have to drag a guy and beg him to come back and play, probably you shouldn't play. Although I'm sure Favre at least anticipated the roof staying on when he

resigned. Well, he didn't think Sidney Rice would postpone his surgery, and he certainly didn't think the roof was going to collapse. So there's a lot of things that happened. I'm sure that, you know, no one thought that was going to, I mean, you know, and the whole Favre month, or the whole Moss month, I mean, that was just, you're bringing back, you know, no one thought that was coming. I mean, you know, in the whole Favre month, or the whole Moss month, I mean, that was just, you're bringing back, you know, one of the most popular players and greatest players in your franchise,

and it lasts a month, and then Coach, you know, cuts them without telling the owners, and just the Moss press conference in Boston was unbelievable. It knew after that game that was an all-timer, too. So there should be a book. I hope somebody writes a book about 2000. Because maybe me and Judd should collect it. I was going to say, I mean, the opportunities are right there for you, Chip,

that you and Judd. Well, feel free to take the idea of 2010 stories here from the podcast and put it in written form someday. Chip, this has been super fun. I always love catching up with you. And congratulations on getting the key to the city of Austin, Minnesota. I'm very proud of you. That's awesome. Thank you.

It was an awesome gesture from the people of Austin. It's a cool city, man. I have a special place in my heart for them. Yeah, it definitely is. I had a chance to go there this summer and go to the people of Austin. It's a cool city, man. I have a special place in my heart for them. Yeah, it definitely is. I had a chance to go there this summer and go to the Spam Museum. So thank you again, Chip. Congratulations on that. And we will talk again soon, man. All right, brother, man. Thanks for having me. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football.

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offer available anywhere go right now to indeed.com slash blue wire terms and conditions apply offer valid through december 31st here along with brian murphy looking back at 2010 in our 2010 series. So let's begin with just Favre returning in 2010. I'll tell you from someone who was not here when this happened, what I remember was the story of Ryan Longwell going down and talking the old gunslinger into it. So maybe you can just start there and give some perspective on how Favre decided to return after the way that 2009 ended. Well, it wasn't just Longwell. Longwell might have gone down a couple times during the offseason to take his temperature. I know Brad Childress did, and Favre and Childress never got along and never saw eye to eye. They had a well-documented

tiff on the sideline even during that magical 20 2009 season i think it was down in charlotte uh when the vikings were getting rolled and and childress wanted to bench him and farb just swatted his hand away on national tv so it started there so you know childress went down and and tried to take his temperature and farb just kind of aw shucks them and there was really no conclusions. But just before training camp started, or I think it was actually during, it might have been during training camp, toward the end of it when they were in Mankato, it was Ryan Longwell, Jared Allen, and Steve Hutchinson, sort of the old guard. Ziggy chartered a jet.

They went down from the Eden Prairie Airport to Hattiesburg, went down on the ranch, rode the golf cart, pointed out the wild turkeys, probably had a few cocktails, grilled some meat. And essentially what it boiled down to is those three guys were like, hey, don't do it for the records. Don't do it for your coach. Don't do it even for the fans. Do it for the guys in the locker room, the guys that kind of sweat, sweated and toiled and bled for you last year. And you bled with them as well. If you want to do this, A, we need to know. We need to know now. And B, do it for us. Do it for the guys. And it sort of became a rallying cry because he was the 22nd returning starter from that 20 uh 2009 season they returned all 22 guys and everybody just thought all you got to do is plug in and play

and they'll be 12 and 4 again and and look what could happen Favre was checked out mentally all offseason uh he came back in okay shape but he got beat up badly in the NFC championship game in New Orleans I don't think he really wanted to play. And oh, by the way, besides the appeal to his do it for the boys campaign from those three, Ziggy Wolf also backed up a truckload of $20 million as well to sweeten the pot. And, you know, I'm sure looking back at what happened not only on the field but off the field with Brett Favre that season, he probably can give you 20 million reasons he should have just stayed on the field and just walked away peacefully the way it ended up. But it was such a, you know, because, again, this wasn't the first time he had danced around retirement. This had been a yearly thing both with green bay

with the jets and with the vikings so it was sort of a there was so much desperation in the air the vikings and their fans were just so bitter and so so close and uh you know you could even blame it you could blame it on a million things what happened in that game, but also Greg Williams and his assassin defense. They beat up on Favre. The Vikings just need one more crack at this. You just can't recreate magic like that. Clearly, as the season showed all year long, Favre was the least of their worries. Everything else fell apart too.

That's where I wanted to go. You get to the start of the season and uh it's immediately bad for the offense you score 19 points in the first two games i mean the defense plays pretty well but when was it that everyone had the sense like was it right away or was it be patient i mean did he look so bad early on that everyone just went, oh, no, what have we done? People forget, too, Sidney Rice was injured. Sidney Rice was their number one receiver the year before, was an emerging star, and Favre loved him. He had a hip injury. I think he had surgery in the offseason.

I'm not even sure he played all year, but I know he missed at least the first six weeks probably, or was projected to miss that. So that was strike number one uh i thought that you know they went down to new orleans and it was sort of this vengeance game and a lot of talk i was down there the whole week leading up to that it was the thursday night opener and it was all about you know the the bounties and how dirty the saints were and who was going to get back at who it was a it was an ugly 14-10 boring game that did not live up to any hype. But then they came home.

I believe they played Miami. You may have the – I do, yeah. And they lost to Miami 14-10. And Miami was terrible. And I think that was when people realized this is not going well. You threw three picks. Because you're at home.

Miami was mediocre at best. And they got pretty much handled at home. Miami was mediocre at best, and they got pretty much handled at home. Remind me where they went after that. They went to Detroit and got a win, as Vikings teams want to do. But he also played horrible in that game. I mean, he averaged like six yards a pass and threw two picks, only 200 yards. They still won because their defense was good. But, I mean, he didn't play well at all through the first three weeks of the season.

And then after that, you end up with a really bad loss to the Jets where he only goes 14 for 34. And that game, of course, was overshadowed. Well, at that point, they had already gone out and signed Randy Moss after the Patriots had let him go. overshadowed great well at that point they had already gone back gone out and signed randy moss after the raiders had let or the patriots had let him go um so the big hype going into that game in new york it was a monday night game in the meadowlands and it was moss is back in the minnesota uniform farb is going for a touchdown record which he actually did set, I think, for passes, career touchdown passes, with a shot to

Moss, which is a great storyline. The Vikings found a way to lose that game, but the big thing hanging over that entire week was, this is when Deadspin had come out with its story, revealing sexting pictures that Favre had allegedly, and had been, I i think pretty much legitimized that he had sent uh genitalia shots as it were to a former jetson sideline reporter named jen sturger uh during his one season in new york this story i i know it broke late in the week it kind of didn't get addressed early on but what i recall is in the media room in New York, all of the New York media was there waiting to grill him about this after the game. And this is a Monday night game. It's like midnight. They're all on hard deadlines. It was kind of a zoo. And basically, he sidestepped,

avoided, dodged, and basically said, I'll talk about anything that happened out on the field today, which wasn't much, but I'm not going to address this. But it was kind of fun watching, like, the New York Post and the New York Daily News and whoever else was there, their society columnist grilling Brett Favre postgame after a blowout loss in the bowels of the Meadowlands. I got to imagine at that podium right there, he's thinking, God, I wish I would have just stayed in heavy.

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Use code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K dot com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code PURPLEINS purple insider for free shipping. That particular incident, it really kind of washed over in history where the Oh nine season was so special for him that the 2010 is more of a shrug. And that particular incident is more of a shrug, which I think is interesting analyzing what sticks to somebody and what doesn't.

Like Adrian Peterson, his thing with beating the kid, like that sticks. That will be a first thing that everybody brings up when Adrian Peterson comes up. Great player, but with Randy Moss, a lot of his issues did not stick at all. Whether he was, you know, a problem for his coaches or teammates or, you know, when it came to not really trying for the Raiders or running over a parking attendant or straight cash homie or whatever. It all became kind of the Randy Moss lore in the long run, where with Favre, this is just one of those things where it's sort of like a, yeah, I remember that. But, you know, I guess I wonder what it was like when it was happening, because in the long term, you know, 10 years later, I don't think it's the hundredth thing that comes up when Brett F just kind of laugh it off. But these were unsolicited pictures,

and this was not something Jen Sturger was asking for or deserved to have to deal with. And also, you know, Brett Favre marrying, I think, his college or high school sweetheart Deanna, you know, every team he's ever been with has always been quick to shove him out there as a family role model as well. She had to endure this publicly. I mean, she stuck with him. I think she even put a statement out at that time or shortly after that standing by her man. It was easy for the cynics to scoff at it.

It didn't have – I mean, it was seedy, but it didn't have the visceral reaction of, say, a child abuse scandal that Adrian Peterson would endure several years later. It was, you know, and this was at the time too, Deadspin, they admittedly paid for the information. I don't know if it ever came from Sturger herself, but it came from somebody with access to the Jets communications. It felt dirty all around. The fact, and the fact that it was New York stirred it up. I mean, this got a lot of attention on, you know, Good Morning America and that kind of thing. In fact, I may be wrong about this, but I seem to remember Deanna Farr doing one of those sort of feel-good sit-downs on The View or something like that to kind of address this. She took a little more bullet flack than he did over this.

But while the Vikings were also imploding, I don't think fans here care. I think fans here were just like, yeah, it sucks. It's dirty. It's ugly. But why can't he complete a pass? Why can't we protect him? Why can't we uh you know the typical myopic uh you know the season's falling apart i don't really care what he did

in his private life that's kind of where it went and you're right it just it fizzled away pretty quickly i think part of it too and maybe this was insinuated and not directly said was farve and painkillers and things like that. And one thing that I know that fans do not realize is how addicted to painkillers many NFL players are as they're going throughout their careers. I've heard some stories just behind the scenes about certain players. You go, that doesn't sound good for your kidneys or anything else, sir. These guys are lunatics when it comes to this. that doesn't sound good for your kidneys or anything else, sir.

These guys are lunatics when it comes to this. So I'm not saying that I would give him a free pass for doing something really disgusting and something that many women journalists deal with and never put out there that they have to deal with. But I think that Favre probably at that point in his life had a lot of problems with his body and was probably doing a lot to try and get back on the field that would have impacted him as a person as well and you know maybe maybe maybe that's part of the reason why people go okay yeah that was really messed up but also this this guy was dealing with some stuff well, he did not play well with the Jets. I think people kind of forget that hiccup of a season because when you look at, you know, he finally retired with the Packers. The Jets coaxed him out.

I think he was nursing hamstring or groin problems all season. The Jets were average at best. I don't remember. I know they didn't make the playoffs. And it was just sort of chalked up as, well, he's done. Then he comes back and he has this fantastic season with the Vikings. So that kind of erases the memory of the Jets season. And again, it's two years after the pictures had allegedly or were sent that the story broke.

If he had stayed in retirement, my guess is that it would have never come out. And let's be honest about Brett. Not exactly the most self-aware or sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to global implications of snapping a picture of your penis and sending it to a woman on a flip phone, because this is 2010. I don't even know how clear it looked. But I don't think he realized, wow, this could be out there forever. I think he was just bored in probably his apartment in New York or his condo where he wasn't living. And he just was like an 18-year-old idiot. And unfortunately, or fortunately for her sake, unfortunately for her sake and for his, it became a national story. So I don't, you know, again, you got to remember that, too. 2010, it was only 10 years ago. But in terms of technology, I know I still had a flip phone.

I think from what I remember, these were texted via flip phone. This was not, today this would have Deadspin's profile as well. And I think that the way that women journalists have been treated in sports by athletes, colleagues, all those things is horrifying in many instances. And maybe that went some way towards showing what a lot of them have to deal with. So let's move on from his, you know, and back to back to back to his performance on the field. So, you know, he had beaten Green Bay in 2009. It was this big, big thing, big, huge story. The first time he faces Green Bay, he beats them. It's one of the great moments in the last 20 years for the Vikings.

But in 2010, not the same fate. And they lose to Green Bay. He throws three interceptions. And if you didn't feel like the season was a total wash at that point um it had it had to be there that it was officially like this is not turning around this guy can't play anymore and i wonder what that was like for them to lose to green bay and just and just what his play looked like to you like what you remember about just watching that broken version of brett farr he he always seemed to be lost.

His protection was bad. He had lost his number one receiving weapon. He was clearly a step behind. I mean, he was 41. You could say, well, what's the difference between 40 and 41? Well, he was fairly well protected throughout 2009. The Saints put him in a meat grinder. He didn't really do much in the offseason.

He didn't participate in camp. He just showed up when they moved back down to Eden Prairie. And again, there was this sense of, well, we'll just plug back in and play. And it just didn't work out that way. And what I recall, now you're referring to the Green Bay game. Obviously, they played them twice. The one that stands out to me is the November, I believe it was 20th, just before Thanksgiving at the Metrodome.

November 21st, yep. Was that his three-interception game or was that a different? That was when they got killed, 31-3. That is clearly where the season died a slow death because what you had was, it was a 30-3 kind of a blowout at home to your arch rival, but you also had players coming unglued on the sideline. I remember distinctly watching Chris Cook getting blowtorched as he often did in the secondary, coming off and getting into a shouting match with Ray Edwards, the veteran defensive end, and helmets being thrown and water bottles being swiped aside.

And you've got to remember, the Vikings bench is right in front of the press box. I mean, this was all playing out. Clearly, Childress was losing control of the team. I think they fell to about 3-7 at that point, and it was inevitable. Inevitable Monday morning he was going to get fired. And sure enough, by 2 o'clock, Ziggy Welch was very creakily standing at the podium trying to explain why Leslie Frazier was the answer at the time. But it was, as you mentioned earlier, I mean,

yesterday's performance by the Vikings against Atlanta at home is the kind of game that gets a coach fired. Yep, it is. Which is exactly what happened with the Packers. That was the game that clearly showed Brad Childress was done, and they had to make the move. So I don't know what his contract status was. It clearly wasn't as – he wasn't extended a month before the season

like Mike Zimmer was. But I remember feeling that day at the Dome, watching it play out in front of us, that this was a team falling apart at the seams. I do seem to remember him getting an extension, though, that offseason after 2009, because our pal Sage Rosenfels does not always speak the highest of his head coach at the time. And I think he mentioned something like, imagine extending that guy at that point. So as you go toward the end of the season, now I remember when they played the Bills, of course, because that's where I was, and the Bills hurt him early in that game.

And his whole thing had been he played every game, right, and had just gone on the streak for a long time. And I remember Arthur Motes hitting him and that kind of being it and then I think he comes back and plays against what Chicago on the very sad on the ice field so just just tell me what you recall about both of those things well clearly the season was lost and uh he he clearly got his bell rung for the nth time against Buffalo. And it became sort of this, are we witnessing sort of a death march here? I mean, of a storied career, but also as a human being and his health.

Like, why keep going forward with this? And what you've got to remember, too, is december 10th the dome falls in yeah yeah so they relocate the game against the giants to detroit uh he's not playing but they have one more home game to play i believe the what would that have been the 17th or 18th but it was a huge deal for a couple of reasons one it was the 50th anniversary celebration of the franchise so they had already sent out all these invites to all these franchise greats. It was going to be this huge celebration on the field at halftime or pregame or both. The Vikings were adamant that they had to play a home game.

They weren't going to relocate another game. They had to be at home. So they made Herculean efforts to de-winterize TCF Bank Stadium, which had only been open for a year at that time. It was not prepared for sub-freezing temperatures. So they had, you know, it wasn't as simple as sign a lease agreement, we'll play there. They had to redo the plumbing and they literally had to just restart the whole operation. And it kept snowing in Minnesota. It snowed for a long time that week. And leading up to this was a Monday night game against the Bears. And the big story was, this is a college field that does not have

heating coils under it. It's buried under a mountain of snow that's got to be removed and also de-winterized. And I remember Chris Cluey, who was the union rep at the time, raising some very legitimate questions about the safety of the field. Look, we're not exactly thrilled to be going out there and putting our health and safety at risk. And sure enough, I mean, it snowed that Monday. They were blown snow off the field before kickoff. And sure enough, I don't know what part of the game, I think it was the first half, Barb goes back to pass and he gets pancaked by a Bears lineman, head smashes into that turf.

You could clearly see in his eyes at that point, he didn't know where he was at. That's exactly how his career ended, getting pancaked on a frozen college field in a nothing game, and that's the last image of Brett Favre on a NFL field. And it was really sad and almost inevitable, just the way the year went, the weather was going, and this inglorious end, no question. Yeah, and in hindsight, you probably just, I mean, what do you do? You just move the game or you just don't start Brett Favre in that game or I don't know. I don't think he should have been on the field, I think. And nor should he he gave a very I mean he was prone to rambling press conferences but he was the available post game and I'm telling you he was not there faculty wise that's stunning

I'd love this I'd love to see what that would not happen today like because uh he had no business being in front of a microphone uh with his brain scrambled the way they were. Man. So now give me your, just to kind of put a bow on this, the Brett Favre era in Minnesota, we'll just forget 2010. But in your mind, like what does it sort of mean to the Brett Favre legacy? I mean, do we just sort of put it under the category of Willie Mays with the Mets? Like that at some point, guys who play too long end up in a bad situation. And I mean, Peyton Manning got super lucky that his worst god-awful horrendous year ends up winning the Super Bowl with one of the great defenses of all time. And then he kind of got it in the playoffs

back a little bit for Peyton Manning. But this is not that unusual. I watched the end of Jim Kelly as a kid in Buffalo, and I think he had the same end to his career with a concussion being carted off the field the same way that Brett Favre did. So a lot of times it's unceremonious, but the fact that he had come so close the year before, it was with a different franchise, it just has one of those Hakeem Olajuwon with the Raptors kind of ends to it. Yes, but I don't – yes, and I think the Vikings bear a lot of responsibility.

Well, look, I think he convinced them to let him play. And, you know, with Leslie Frazier, three games into his interim coaching career, going to tell the Hall of Famer, no, you can't play anymore. I think there's a little of that. I think for how chaotic the Vikings season was that year with weather, stadium issues, Randy Moss coming and going, firing your coach, and oh, by the way, just a slow methodical demise of your franchise, you know, a franchise and a Hall of Fame quarterback. I think if you're a Vikings fan or even an NFL fan, I think you have to acknowledge that. I think you have to acknowledge it was an ugly end. But again, and I'm speaking dispassionately because I'm not,

I didn't grow up here and I don't have a dog in the race, but if you're a Vikings fan, I still think the fun and the pure joy of 2009, despite its biblical end in New Orleans, I think you have to look back at that as a hell of a ride. Because A, you got to stick it to your cross-state rival by taking his hero. But anybody that was at that week two or three game against San Francisco when he throws a touchdown pass to Greg Jennings as the clock expires in the back of the end zone from 40 yards away on the run that's why you got Brett Favre and that is your glory right there and you know you have to you just have to you just have to wonder in his mind and he may never admit this but but I think he would have gladly told the boys, I appreciate your pitch to me. I love you to death, but I'm done. And, you know, I think he wouldn't have to have this asterisk at the end of his career. Even if they just beat New Orleans and go to the Super Bowl and lose, then... That's fine, because what? They haven't been to a Super Bowl

since 1977. Gerald Ford was still in office for a couple of weeks, the last time the Vikings actually played in a Super Bowl. So, yes, if he could have done that, he would have walked on water here forever. Yep, yep. I need, before we wrap up, the Murph story. I don't know what it is, but I know you. And I know you in 2010, as a reporter, did something crazy, and I want to hear about it. Because I have seen you in 2010 as a reporter did something crazy and I want to hear about it

because I have seen you in action I have seen the person dangling from the roof and you somehow finding their phone number and calling them I have seen you take it to Mike Zimmer I want to know what happened with you personally in 2010 well it was really personal in a lot of ways because I was sort of a caretaker on the beat between beat writers. Jeremy Fowler came in sometime in September and took it over. But so I was sort of doing a lot of off beat stuff, not day-to-day coverage. But what I remember distinctly, well, there's two quick things and and you can revisit this with Judd, too, when you talk to him. He'll tell you about this. We went out for a beer, imagine that, the two of us,

before the first preseason game in San Francisco when Favre had just re-signed. And we both sat there, and I told him, I said, this has the potential to be the greatest season in Vikings history for the largest burning train wreck we've ever seen. And we had no idea what was to come, but we just had that vibe of, man, they are on a tightrope right now. So there's that that I remember.

And also my wife was eight and a half months pregnant with my soon to be 10 year old son throughout that, or she was pregnant throughout that season. But as we got into, he was due in mid January when we got, when the roof fell down in December December 10th on a Saturday night she went into premature labor and had to go take a taxi cab to

the hospital on that Sunday because a I hadn't plowed the 20 inches of snow b I was neck deep and trying to figure out where they were going to play this game and see there was no way for us to drive we also had a 17 month at home i mean the the the the the thought of being a horrible husband piling my maybe in labor wife into a taxi in a blizzard to a hospital while i'm writing about this stupid dome that fell down made me feel about two inches tall fortunately Fortunately, they halted the labor. I didn't end up going to Detroit for that game anyway. But, and what, two or three weeks later, we're in Philadelphia. I thought I was gonna fly in the day of the game and fly home the next day, right?

I fly in, it's 11 o'clock. I turn on the TV in my hotel room. I see the ticker on Fox saying, Vikings-Eagles game has been rescheduled until Tuesday night. I had to call my wife on Sunday morning and say, honey, I'm not going to be home until Wednesday. That was not a pleasant phone call. So those are the things that I remember is that the chaos of covering

that season and also having to balance the needs and guilt of having an eight and a half, almost nine month pregnant wife dealing with all of this alone. But everything worked out. Son's great. He's now a very bitter Chasen Vikings fan himself. So, you know, he's truly a Minnesotan. Well, the last 10 years have given him plenty of other reasons, even though he did not see 2010 outside the womb. Right. But he can claim he was part of it. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. He's part of the story that is 2010. Well, Murph, I really have enjoyed this conversation and reliving it with the guys who were there because we are now, you know, myself and Courtney and all the other beat reporters, like we get the Zimmer eyeball stories to tell down the road. You know, the person hanging from the truss in week 17, all those things. You guys had that in 2010. So this was really fun, man. All right.

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