Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Live from Las Vegas, part 2: Meeting tortured Vikings fans

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk to the owner of Circa Las Vegas Derek Stevens and discuss Matthew meeting a bunch of Vikings fans in Vegas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Purple Insider. Look who I found! It's purple insider look what i found it's brian murphy he's actually here he's not on a zoom this time what's going on when in rome right uh thank you for uh hooking me up here at circa and thank you for uh bringing me along for this extravaganza because where else would you rather be in early december than sin city uh we are doing well for ourselves once again if you caught the live stream yesterday i've been here since since Friday at Circa Las Vegas. They've put us up. We're in a cabana. And it's just hard to explain how intense the sun is and why we can't be facing the sun. But if we were, all you would see is just sun and nothing else.

But right outside of us, the heated pools, the giant TV screen that's about the size of a football field. And where we are, it's probably like 75 degrees where we are. But outside, it's more like 60. Well, we're right in the sun, right in our cabana. It's a very cool place. And last night, Murph, I hung. The sun feels like God's flashlight, by the way, silently judging us. Yeah, that's right.

Well, so last night, Murph, we had a party here for Vikings fans, and it was at Circa. It's just a bar that's inside of Circa next to their sports book. And I ended up meeting a lot of Vikings fans last night. It was a really cool experience. So if you came out, if you're one of the people who listens to the show and came out, thank you so much. And one guy brought me two Diet Dr. Peppers.

He actually went to the store and out of his jacket pulled two Diet Dr. Peppers for me to drink at the party because everybody knows that I'm not a drinker. You're a cheap date. I know, right? It was great. No, but it was really great to meet people. We had a fun time. And this is weird because we have a news item that we really have to talk about. Of all towns to discuss this, by the way.

It's an awkward transition because we're like, we're having a great time. It's so much fun. The booze is flowing. Hey, everyone. Maybe Wes Phillips should have stuck to Diet Dr. Pepper like me. But we'll talk about that. And then I also want to tell you about the things that I heard from Vikings fans last night, because I was probably there for like

three hours and it was entirely just hanging out and listening to these people's perspective on the team, which I really, really enjoyed. And I liked that part of it. And, uh, I think I took away some interesting things from how fans feel about the team right now. And then the big picture of this. But we have to talk about, to start, Wes Phillips gets a DWI. If you haven't seen it, Kevin Seifer from ESPN reporting that he got a DWI 0.10 over the limit. I don't really have any other takes about this other than he's going to coach, and that's the unfortunate incident that no team at all wants right before the biggest game of their season.

It's a distraction. I don't know if distractions are real when it's an offensive coordinator, if that could distract a whole team of grown men or not, but it certainly is putting them in the news cycle for a reason they didn't want to be there. No, it's unfortunate. And it comes in that vacuum of the news cycle, of course, which is Friday night into kickoff on Sunday. So yeah, according to Seifert's report, 0.10 driving back on 394. He's going to deal with it. The team knows about it. It's an unfortunate mistake that he's going to have to reckon with legally. The team's already put out a statement.

They've consulted with the NFL. He's going to be on the sidelines Sunday. He's going to be participating in team functions. We'll see how this plays out. I don't think in the overall scheme of things it's going to be a major distraction. It probably won't be. He's not the primary play caller anyway.

This is Kevin O'Connell's offense. So it's just going to have to be something that the team's going to be a major distraction. It probably won't be. He's not the primary play caller anyway. This is Kevin O'Connell's offense. So it's just going to be, it's going to have to be something that the team's going to address at some point in the press conferences on Sunday. Not exactly what you, there's no ideal time for a DUI arrest, probably not coming out of the buy going into your most pivotal game of the season as well.

Yeah, I guess that that's the only real takeaway here is that to have something like this happen, the timing is not particularly good. I mean, because this is a game where if they win, then we're talking about playoff scenarios. We're looking at, all right, what's the route going forward? You go to Cincinnati, you feel like if you get two out of two here are the next two, and then go down the stretch with those three difficult games that all you need is one to get into the playoffs and then you have something like this pop up right before that but there doesn't seem to be anything else to the story so it's really just

this happened and now you carry on but maybe if we're trying to look for an angle when Jordan Addison went 140 miles an hour and was arrested for that there was no consequences whatsoever he came out and practiced the next day and was taking first team reps and everything else and there was a bi-week arrest last year with no consequences Wes Phillips is not going to face any consequences and I do wonder about this with Kevin O'Connell and his leadership style in general which seems seems to be very much, you know, giving people opportunities to kind of be adults and handle themselves and so forth. And he has not shown that he's going to be that type of head coach like Mike Zimmer was.

I think when these incidents happened with Mike Zimmer, it infuriated him. And players who got in trouble off the field, it was a big problem. I think it was a different approach from Zimmer who got maybe personally offended when something like this happened and wanted to do something about it and wanted to show that he cared about it. But having him coach, I don't know that it does. I don't know that it does show any accountability for doing something like this that is an embarrassment to the franchise. No, and it's something that O'Connell's going to have

to deal with going forward. What kind of standard is he going to set? What kind of expectations does he have? And frankly, this is a decision that's probably above his pay grade anyway. This is the front office that's going to have to weigh in on this. If there are more details that come out about his interactions with the police, I mean, you know, the initial report said he showed signs of impairment. We don't know what kind of, you know, field sobriety tests, what his interactions were with the officer. Was he defiant? Was he combative? If he wasn't, this is unfortunately an occurrence that happens a lot in this country. So it's not like this is the first time anybody's been pulled over on I-394 at 1-0.

That's not excusing it. It's just a fact of where we're at. The question is, is it going to be something that's going to be dealt with on Sunday? How, how is O'Connell going to react to it? Did it, you know, the, the, the game plan was already put into Tupperware. Preparations for the Raiders were already dealt with. It's not like this was Wednesday or Thursday, not that that would make it any different or any better, but at this point it's going to have to be handled in house and we'll see how the team reacts going forward. Yeah.'t i don't want to make too much of that point or try to make that point too loudly that like o'connell doesn't care about dw i that's not what i'm saying i i just we've had

a couple of incidents since he's taken over as probably every head coach has and in each time that something has happened we have not seen any type of reaction to that. It being the Ole Udo arrest last year during the bye week and then Jordan Addison and then this. And if you're in the building, if you're in the locker room, like, do you think that there are consequences to your actions or not? And I guess that that's that's the only way that I want to put it I'm sure that it would be very difficult to just not have your offensive coordinator come with you to the biggest game of the year but it is uh it is an unfortunate incident that I guess they're not really going to do anything to deal with and and that's all I really have to say so well and the other thing is

like you mentioned the Addison incident over the offseason too and it's like you know if I'm a player in that locker room and, you know, something happens off the field, you know, are you going to measure that against what your head coach has decided to do with your first round rookie and you're one of your key assistant coaches? So, you know, there's a standard being set or there's a level of expectation being set that's going to have to be analyzed going forward. Yeah, I guess that's just sort of in the in the bucket a little bit but you know i guess i i shouldn't hold up zimmer in this way necessarily because i think after it came out with george edwards when he had a dwi that he coached in philadelphia that week uh so maybe it's standard around the league i i don't know that when there's something like this there isn't any type of punishment but i don't have anything more to say about it i just when when you go from the hard nose head coach to the i'm going to be more relaxed and be the players coach and everything else i'm going to be easier to work with easier to deal with there's always the question of can you also put your foot down

when it has to be put down and in this instance they're not going to do anything. So I guess I feel like I'm presenting that without saying it's like I'm really worried about it, but more of just saying like I'm taking note that that's the way that this was handled. So anyway, who wants to talk about Vegas? Because I don't really know what else to say about an offensive. No drinking going on here at all. Yeah, right. I think I saw someone with a beer earlier walk by so hopefully that person's okay it was a light beer yeah light beer so anyway um here's what i wanted to tell you about murph last night we had this party inside circa it's awesome what they've done for us has been amazing you got to ride in their limo which was very cool first time in my life i've ever come down the escalator at baggage claim with somebody standing there with my name on it saying you're with me here's a stretch limo and i

got to bring five other guys with me and they thought i was a baller so thank you circa for you know elevating my status here we basically arrived the same way lebron does that essentially uh no i think he comes in and i'm like if there's any traffic out there on the freeway please drive into it we'll get to there anytime soon yes so it's they've just set us up unbelievably well we're in a really good situation and the party last night was great because a lot of vikings fans i'm sure if you listen to the show regularly that you heard me advertising for it come to circa it's where i'm gonna be going to have this party. But as the night went on and people did indulge themselves, people who were walking home to their hotel rooms or staying at Circa, they started to get a little emotional about the Vikings as we were having discussions.

Weepy or indignant or angry? Here's what I mean. I think it's all of those things. All of those things all of those things what this team has caused vikings fans to feel like and what i really felt is this new no but what i really felt was that when josh dobbs took over this is something we were talking about last night when he took over and he had those couple of games there There was like an intense rush of excitement, of maybe this can be something different than we've already known.

And then when they lost to Chicago, it killed that intense rush for them, and a lot of these people went back to being like, well, typical us, another wasted year. We have no Super Bowls and so forth. It is amazing to me, Murphph how much it lingers over every single thing that happens just in a four game stretch the fact that they don't have a super bowl and this is something that everybody defaults to the worst yes yes and I just I I want to know what you think of that because I find that to be fascinating I grew up in a place where they

had no super bowls it was It was similar. And now it even sort of has gotten so intense for these people that it applies to every little micro thing all the way down to a backup quarterback having a couple of good games. Well, I think it would have been misguided to believe that Josh Dobbs was going to step in and lead everybody back here to Vegas in February. Now, will that happen? Outside chance. I don't expect that to happen, but to think because he kind of wandered in out of a cornfield in Atlanta and salvaged that game and had a great moment against New Orleans that, you know, suddenly this changes the trajectory of the franchise and Josh Dobbs career. I mean, that's,

you know, a little bit of an overshoot. So the fact that he had an awful performance against the Bears, I don't think should have that kind of a bottoming out feeling as well. But as you mentioned, we've talked about this. I've written about it ad nauseum. This is an abused fan base. This is a very self-loathing fan base and a deserved fan base that feels like they've been robbed, and they have been, from forces out of their control, from forces in the team's control, bad luck, all of the above. We can go down it. We won't bother with that. I understand the psychological reaction, but where they're at right now at 6-6 is not a bad place to be considering you were own three, you were one in four,

you lost your franchise quarterback to a season ending injury. And you know, you're, you're really still playing with house money at six and six is still in contention. All right. We're going to have the owner of Circa on here. Actually.

Come on in Derek. Come on in. Sit right there. We'll shuffle over. So we're on camera here. We're live on YouTube. You can slide over. People can see your awesome suit.

See if we can get you in the shot here more than me. All right. Derek Stevens, everybody. Owner of Circa. I'm Matthew Collar. This is Brian Murphy. How you doing? Thank you, Derek.

This is Brian's second or no, first time here, my second time here. Let me tell you, man, we've been talking pretty much nonstop about how awesome this is. And our friend Aaron, who set all this up, he said that we should just ask you how this happened. Like, how did this happen? Like, people can't see it on the camera because the light is too intense. But there's a football field-sized screen with every sporting event in the world going on out here with heated pools. And it's just one of the coolest things i've ever seen in my life like how did this happen well uh i love coming out to vegas and uh i'd come

out for work i'd come out for uh sporting events and uh i'd come with uh my girlfriend my wife uh wife now and uh she loves going to a pool she loves listening to music um i like betting on games and i like seeing games. So I'm from the Midwest, so I always thought, you know, you come out here in November, December, January, the weather's gorgeous. Look at this. What is it around December, the 9th today? You know, the clouds, not really much.

The sun's beautiful. You get a suntan out there. It's gorgeous outside during the day. So we always thought we were going to build this great outdoor aqua theater. This is our theater. It's our theater of sports, Las Vegas sunshine, and some nice refreshing drinks all put together. So you've got the Super Bowl coming in about two months.

Tell us about what that's going to mean for you and what you're preparing for here. Well, we're very prepared. I think Vegas is very prepared for the Super Bowl. I mean, I think for a lot of communities that have never held a Super Bowl, there's a lot that goes into it, and it's a shock to the system. I mean, when you think, like, you know, the nontraditional sites, let's say, I mean, when Minnesota had it, when Detroit had it.

New York had it outdoors. Yeah, with Jacksonville. Some of the communities that are not in the regular rotation, it's a major, major ordeal. But, you know, Vegas, we put together 300,000 people every single weekend, and we turn it over week after week you know it's just we just got off of f1 two weeks ago uh so that was a pretty major event um you know we've sold formula one for you football fans that aren't familiar with the acronym yeah uh and then

and then obviously for football weekends i mean we're sold out every weekend so um i think vegas is very prepared for a Super Bowl. Obviously, the worldwide eyes with the Super Bowl. So Vegas is going to get a lot of attention. So we're all excited about it. Should be a lot of fun. I'm curious about just since the Raiders came, since you've seen, I mean, even since you built this place, there's just been such an influx of pro sports here. I mean, it's incredible how that may be coming.

Right. I mean, and one of our friends also works for a local radio station around here and her career in media is now sort of blowing up because of the sports i just wonder like how that's changed the landscape because we're here and we were just talking about how i spent all last night with all the vikings fans who came in and And it seems like this has become such a destination for fan bases, not just here building a fan base, but all over the United States. Yeah, you know, I own the AAA baseball team here for six years. So that was back in 2007 for six seasons. And I did a lot of interviews back then.

And I said I always thought Las Vegas was ready for all four major sports. At that time, though, it seemed a little bit far-fetched because there was still a black cloud over Las Vegas because of sports gambling. But nowadays, you know, sports gambling is legal, and I think a little more in 30 states. There's casinos in most states around the country. So the stigma of gambling and sports wagering, that's kind of come off now. I mean, I think everybody's really kind of come to realize that sports wagering is good for leagues.

It's good for league owners. It's good for players. It's good for the Players Association. It's good for fans. It's good for vendors. People are interested. If you've got to blow out of a game, thank God there's a point spread. It's going to sell an extra hot dog and a Pepsi probably.

You know, it's going to keep people engaged. It's good for advertisers. And I think what transpired when the Golden Knights came here as the first team, this community just embraced that hockey team. And for a city that had no background in hockey, the hockey team just went crazy. And then obviously now with the Raiders and with the A's coming, I think what we're seeing is that sports are some things that many people enjoy by themselves. But sports is also something where you can enjoy as a group, where fan groups can come together.

You can have your neighbors over. You can have your buddies go out to have an event. And I think sports is so often enjoyed in groups. And if you're going to enjoy it in a group, oftentimes you take a road trip. And if you're going to take a road trip, you know, if you're going to come watch your favorite team play, you've probably got the date when they're playing against the Vegas team circle. Cause Vegas is a great team, great team to visit.

So I think, you know, in the way the NFL is beautiful schedule is so synchronized every, every franchise will get here once every eight years at, at, at, you know, at least once every eight years, but every time they come, the first time the Vikings have been here. So this is awesome. I just loved seeing all these Viking fans throughout the whole, whole city last night. It was awesome.

So if I'm coming out here and there's a million sports books I can go to, why am I going to come to Circa? Well, I would tell you now, of course, I'm going to tell you the truth, even though I am biased. If you're a sports fan and you come to Las Vegas, you've got to come to Circa because it's the world's largest sports book. So it doesn't matter where you stay. Aren't you going to want to come and see the world's largest sports book. So it doesn't matter where you stay. Aren't you going to want to come and see the world's largest sports book?

We take the biggest bets. You know, on an NFL game, we'll take $300,000 if you walk up to the counter. Really no questions asked. You've got to fill out a couple forms, but really no questions asked. You know, so we take large wagers. We don't limit people. And we really focus in on sports. Sports isn't really an amenity to us.

It's a core part of our being here with Circa Resort and Casino. And then I think you can see out here as well, if you stay with us, you get to get in a stadium swim for free. And this beautiful 143-foot screen out here begs for a group, begs for a party. And the heated pool does not hurt either. I mean, I was telling Aaron, it's not hard to do your commercial. Like, I don't struggle to say, well, yeah, actually, come be in the sun with all the heated pools. Come from Minnesota, by the the way where it's probably

you know 20 degrees at this point what's a what's a parade look like in las vegas because we were just talking about that we don't have them in minnesota and then vegas gets they get a team and of course the links have won championships as well the aces have won two now and then uh you know the hockey team as well i mean just what what is, what has that meant to have those as far as Las Vegas? I mean, you mentioned it's so crazy how quickly this has happened where it becomes a destination sports town, but I've got to think that the success of the teams has also played into that. Folks, is there any better way to spend the holidays than attending sports?

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I mean, their initial season was kind of crazy to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. And I think the Aces' success has been terrific. That's really helped them. The Raiders is a little bit of a different animal. The Raiders have not had success. But the NFL is a different animal too. Road teams travel.

And, you know, I think was it about 10 days ago or so uh the chiefs were in town and i think it was 75 red inside that stadium i expect tomorrow uh well more than 50 it's going to be purple um it's good the raiders have not been able to develop a home crowd. And I think that's what's a little bit different. I think you're going to enjoy the hell out of going to the game, but it's effectively going to be a Viking home game in the West. And that's what Allegiant Stadium has really turned into.

It's the visiting team that effectively has the majority of the crowd here. And it's just because Vegas is such a great visiting destination. So there's, you know, as a Vegas veteran, I mean, you have the Strip and then you have downtown. So what, in recent years, I haven't been here much downtown. What distinguishes the downtown experience from the Strip experience? Well, first, it's really not that far apart. I mean, you're only a couple miles away. So it's a quick little Uber ride.

People ask me that question a lot, and I'm good friends with the CEO of Wynn, of Caesars, of MGM, and they all know how I answer the question. And the question is simply, I don't view us competing with the Strip in any way. We're very complimentary to each other. With 360,000 hotel rooms in Vegas, there's only about 6,000 downtown. So you're looking at 95% of all the hotel rooms are on the Strip. And that means our business models are different. They need to get heads in beds. We're opposite. We just need visitation. So up and down Fremont Street Experience, we'll do 24 million people this year walking up and down Fremont Street Experience.

Fremont Street Experience here in downtown is the second most visited tourist destination in America. Times Square is number one. This is two. So we really don't compete with the Strip. They need people sleeping in their hotels. We need people that are sleeping in their hotels to come and visit us for a few hours and get a couple of drinks. You know, Fremont Street Experience, we've got three stages outside, free entertainment, 365 days a year on all three stages. It's a, I would say, a safer, cleaner version of maybe what you'd see in some other

some other locales where where it's a big party district effectively and that's that's really where I think Fremont Street in downtown Vegas really stands out it's a big party for everybody so you are what Michigan is where you're from I'm originally from Michigan well so is Brian actually about well when you look at the hand, I'm right around Detroit. I was on the east side. I grew up, spent four years in Ann Arbor, and then I moved back to downtown Detroit, and then I have a place now in Birmingham, Michigan. But I live out here.

I've been living out here full-time in Vegas now for about 15 years. Grew up in Lincoln Park. I'm a downriver rat. Went to Wayne State. Lived in Royal Oak before I moved to Minnesota. So a little bit of a ride right there. Very good. I spent a couple years in Wayne State as well.

After Michigan. Nobody knows about Wayne State. It's just we just get education there. You guys don't really. We don't win any games. I was going to ask about like were you a Detroit Lions fan? Because Murph has sort of taken on the torture of what it's like to be a Vikings fan. But if you're a Lions, like, that's a totally different level.

Yeah, I mean, with all due respect to your audience here, you know, as a Lions fan, I'm jealous of the Minnesota Vikings franchise. Remember, the Detroit Lions have won one single playoff game in my lifetime. 65 years. Yeah. I was there. So was I. At the Silverdome. my lifetime. 65 years. Yeah. I was there. So was I. At the Silverdome.

At the Silverdome. They beat Dallas. They beat the hell out of Dallas. Yeah. Think about this. We're Lions fans, and in our lifetime, we could almost go through every single play. Since Eisenhower. We only won one game.

Since Eisenhower. Yeah. So, no, Vikings have had a few good playoff runs. Obviously, that missed field goal is something that haunts the minds of Vikings fans. One of many. But Vikings have had a better run than Lions have had. Maybe this is our year. Maybe.

Who knows? I mean, would it be, you know, the coup de grace if you could get the Lions to Vegas for the Super Bowl? That would be something. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Let's win a playoff game. That's what my goal is this year. So we don't want to take up your time. I'm sure you're busy, Derek.

But we had giant burgers. We're out here at Stadium Swim. What else should we do? We had the party. The party was great last night. I would tell you, Stadium Swim, it's great during the day. And, like, in the winter, you know, the sunshine is awesome. You is awesome you know i mean growing up for me growing up in detroit you know and you would know it oh yeah you know you you don't see the sun basically from thanksgiving

until about damn near opening day right of baseball so you get a little sunshine out here makes you feel good um one thing that a lot of people really like doing though is coming out and watching your favorite team at night you jump in in the water, you get a bucket, a six-pack next year, you bring all your buddies out and it's a great place to watch games at night. We actually do a decent amount of nighttime business out at stadiums swimming throughout the

winter. So I would say if you have time out here, I'd recommend that. I'd recommend making sure you get up to Legacy Club. That's the rooftop lounge uh cigar lounge indoor outdoor and it's got the most incredible view of the whole vegas valley so i would recommend i recommend you do that as well you know you must have the easiest interviews that anybody gets to do because everybody who comes here is like hey this is awesome tell us

more yes it's it's it's not bad it It's pretty good. It's not bad. Well, it's a beautiful place, and we can't say enough how much we appreciate you having us out. It's my second time out here. It's just been first-class bull time, so I really appreciate it. I really appreciate you stopping by to chat, too. Oh, good. Thank you. And I had a great time meeting all the Vikings fans last night,

and hopefully many of your fans and many of your listeners came out here for the first time are going to hang around and stay with us going down the road. We love having our Midwesterners here at Circa. Yeah, for sure. And best of luck to your Lions. We'll see. I mean, they've restored the roar. I don't know. Maybe I'll be back here in two months, man.

That'd be something. We'll be back. The earth may open up and swallow us all. I can take the microphone from you. There you go. Thanks, Derek. Thanks for the hospitality. Appreciate it.

Really appreciate it. Thanks again, man. Great to meet you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Aaron. Appreciate it. How about that?

All right. We'll slide back over. Give us a second. Did you know that? We bonded. No, I had no idea. In fact, there's only 80,000 of us on the planet that can claim to be at the only Lions playoff victory in 65 years. I mean, how funny is that, though, for like a small world thing?

Sorry, it's hot in here. I've got to get a drink. Do you want a water? No, I'm going to have a sip of my beer. Okay. But how funny is that, though, that the owner here here of circa and you were at the same football i know well here's the problem there's only one game that they've ever won so it's really not that hard in some ways because i know like what are the odds like right there all the gin joints

in all the world that's what i'm saying all right yeah uh that's the type of stuff that happens at vegas if we can come back here on february 11th and share that same conversation i'll die and be happy well maybe we will and you know what it actually ties back into what we were talking about right before derrick stevens tortured fan bases tortured fan bases and i just i have really started to think a lot about even everything we talk about and how it all matters to the bigger picture of vikings fans and you know i get sometimes when we talk about tanking people get really you're really itchy sometimes you were all over tanking about six weeks ago i'm all over tanking always because it gets people championships sometimes but uh but it's not living in the now

collar you need to live more in the now yeah well people do say that to me when I come out to Vegas, that I need to do more living in the now. I mean, this is a now city. It's got some great museums. It does. Who goes to Vegas and goes to a museum? Are you out of your mind? Earlier today.

You guys want to know exactly. You're looking at a Renoir on the strip? People last night that I'm meeting, they're saying like, well, you know, what else do you do? We feel like we know you all about football, whatever else. And I'm like, nothing.

Dr. Pepper and art. That's why I came to Vegas for. So today, the most on-brand thing for me ever, I was in my room upstairs here at Circa and I was watching a chess tournament and I was working on a story about cj ham which purpleinsider.com go see it it's a good story about how i weep for you how they've used cj ham differently so while the world is awaking and heading out to party i was writing i was transcribing my jerome felton interview who was talking about c Hamm. So that is, that is very much on brand for me,

but just what we were talking about though, like where does Josh Dobbs fit in the whole lore? Like the whole thing at the end, at the end, the story isn't complete. That's what I'm asking at the end of the day, where is Josh Dobbs going to fit in this whole, I don't know until the end of the day comes.

We're at about two o'clock in the afternoon on the jobs experiment are we not that's what I'm saying I want you to I want you to try to figure it out where's it going to go I tomorrow's going to tell us a lot I would think I mean because he's really on a short leash so if he can manage the game if he can control his turnovers if he can make some things happen and and as we talked about last night, if the defense carries them, he will keep this train rolling. If it's another disaster, we may not be talking about Dobbs again. So as far as where the – at the end of the day, at the end of tomorrow,

I think he's going to buy himself another day. I do feel like this is going to be a week. It always is a week to week slog, but I do really think this is, this feels like sort of a nine and eight team. It's going to be win one, lose one, win two, lose one. It's going to come down to that last week. I do think Dobbs is going to be there at the end, but I don't think you can judge him at all until the totality of it all comes into play. It may all come into play tomorrow at six o'clock central time, but I do feel like it's still an open book on him, and I'm glad O'Connell, just for the sake of the story,

for the sake of the possibility, the what if, I do feel like Dobbs gives them the better chance to really make something out of nothing rather than the safe choice or the evaluation choice of Mullins and Hall, respectively. I think at the end of the day, we'll probably talk about it like the year that Gus Farratt came in for a while and was like 38 years old. Yeah, but Dobbs is not 38. Dobbs has potential. Farratt was a placeholder. We knew what Farratt was. He was sort of a guy that can

give you six starts and maybe get you from point a to point b there's still ups potential upside and there's an open-endedness to dobs and there's a skill set that i think excites people more than ferrat did that go out the window though like about the skill set that excites people because for those couple of weeks there was this real flood of this guy can run and this guy can make plays and hey this is what it looks like and you know i watch those philadelphia eagles games and their quarterback runs and right like uh josh allen versus jalen hurts is just two great quarterbacks yeah but hurt seems to know what he's doing you know dobbs is making it up on the fly

and that's a completely different subject right i. I agree. And so I think that because of that, a lot of people's dream of Josh Dobbs being the next Case Keenum and maybe potentially being the future quarterback, like whether it was a bridge quarterback or whatever. And no one likes to be realistic. Right. So that's why I always feel like I'm the worst when I say, guys, it's a backup quarterback. Maybe you should be realistic. I almost don't want to say it because, like, let them dream, you know what I mean, in a way. And this is what I run into a lot is the fans are deeply upset because of everything, just gestures at everything for the reasons they're deeply upset about this franchise. Probably because the Packers are coming back on, too. Well, and that could be it as well. But also, at the same time, when you talk to some Vikings fans,

they'll be like, yeah, I mean, this team makes me so upset. I just get so mad. But I keep coming back for more. And then the next sentence will be, well, but maybe Dobbs. And I think that that was – I'm not going to say it was – There's no cold turkey in this fan base. No, there is not. What I'm getting to is like that they have –

there's a lot of these moments throughout history where there just feels like there's a flicker of something. And I want so badly for these people to have their moment, right? Like we're talking about hosting the Super Bowl here. We're in Vegas and everything. And it's like so badly I want these people who have gone through this and had the flickers of hopes dashed and their spirits had shot down every time. You sound like a social worker.

To actually have that, yeah. And it's a weird position for me because I just cover the team, but yet when I meet these people, it's like, I want it so badly for you. I want this to work for you. I don't think it will, but I want it to for you. Well, I do too. I mean, my 12 year old son is all in and has been all in and was, you know, I'll admit he swore at the television during the Monday night game against the bears. And I almost looked at him and wanted to punish him, but I like you know what it was said in the right context I understand what you're saying welcome to being a fan I mean I under yes I get it you everybody

wants to root for the the positive story in the feel-good story there is a sense of realism here what I'm saying is you need to enjoy it week by week. I think everybody always wants to take a look at it from a, what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? What is this going to mean for our draft implications? What is this going to mean for two or three years? This is a 6-6 team that was going nowhere at 0-3 and 1-4 and lost its franchise quarterback and its superstar wide receiver.

It brought in somebody off the street, literally out of a cornfield, to work some miracles. It's still in play. You're still relevant. You're still battling. I don't think you need to get worked up and be angry about what might have been or who's screwing who or what decision should have been made. You've got to live in a little bit in the moment,

and that's why you're in Vegas. I mean, if there's any town where you're going to live in the moment, I would think it would be Vegas. But here's what I'm saying. This is a five-game slog to the end. I think they're going to be there throughout. This is the game tomorrow. Dobbs obviously needs to make something happen,

but I do believe, as I said last night, it's going to be more on the defense. It's going to be more on what O'Connell can do in terms of managing the game. I still think this team is relevant. They're going to be relevant for the next three or four weeks. I think you are so much better than me at looking at things from a singular season perspective because I've always, even since I was a little kid like your son, playing video games and so forth, building rosters. You had a five-year plan?

I did, yeah. No, I mean, when I was your son's age, I could have told you nearly every starting player on any NFL roster. He can too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And what does that do for you? So what I would do, well, it made me lots of money. Right? It got me here.

Huh? There you go. You're subsidizing me. I'm not going to disagree with you. Yes. Okay. Maybe the lots of money part is a little much, but it did get me here. No, but what I mean is that even since I was your son's age, I was going on Madden and taking these rosters and trading players and drafting players and building teams. And on one of the, some of

the old men's, you could develop players, which was super cool year to year. So you'd simulate to the next year and you'd build your team until you had a powerhouse. And then you try to win the Superbowl and like, uh, at the time it's like Madden Oh three. So it's like the, you know, Matt 2010, by the time you feel like you're ready to win. So I've always thought that way about teams, about when it's your time. And if you're in the middle of a season, when it's not your time, you have to be getting closer to that and developing and everything else. So I'm always thinking with everything that happens, are we closer? Are we far away? And this season, I feel like they're closer because Kirk Cousins not under contract

because they've developed a lot of players, but also from the single season perspective, if they lose every game from here on out and I come on here and go, Hey guys, actually they're closer because of whatever, whatever, like no one wants that. But then again, if they go nine and eight and then they lose in the first round, I'm going i don't know it was okay i guess they're closer but they didn't tank right like so yeah but if they were tanking would we be sitting in a cabana right now talking about the possibilities of this season yeah i had this deal months ago but yeah um nobody'd be watching no one would be watching i'm not sure we can't see the computers in the sun if anyone's watching anyway so if you are some comments thank you everyone all i'm all i mean is screen runs for

a while we might be able to read them it's so bad yeah this is the travel computer look it's got a chip off the top it's all nothing but shrapnel it looks like you sneezed five times on it well you tried to like rub it with your finger which didn't help either all i'm saying is we're here all weekend by the way rickles and i we're just just, we're always asking, what does it mean? And I think even from my own self living in the, Hey, they're playing the Raiders. And if they win this one, they're getting in the playoffs has been very hard. And I think it is for all Vikings fans. That's what I'm saying is that I'm not the only one who was like that. I think a lot of people over the more access they've gotten to more media, more analysis, more everything else that I see fans think similarly about that big picture. And I think that makes it harder on them in the moment

of a season where you should be excited that there's a playoff race and you should be like amped up for the game. But I also get this feeling it's like, well, I don't know. I don't think we can actually win it. So like simulate to the draft. Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not going to tell people how to root, but if you're really, if you're as a fan thinking, well, what does this mean for the next two to four years? What's the point? Why are we here? I mean, I, I, I'm all, I'm in the reason I tune into the NFL at 52 years old is because

it's unscripted entertainment. It's the greatest unscripted entertainment out there, and we know that. I don't know what I'm going to see on any given Sunday. I don't really care what's going to happen in April. Now, if you want to tie your emotions and your fulfillment to what their record may end up doing for the next two to four years. I mean, that's a level in investment I've never had all power to you, but I really want to see what they're going to do on Sunday. And then I want to see what that's going to lead to next week in Cincinnati, where we have, you know, you know, Jake Browning, what's he's going to be?

What, what does this mean now? Cause Burrow was out and, you know, six weeks ago, we were talking about that was a sure loss. And then, you know, Burrows goes down. It's like, well, that's probably an easy win. And now we're not so kind of sure. And then the Packers were written off. And now that New Year's Eve game is suddenly going to be relevant. I don't want to know what they're going to do on March 1st or April 25th or what the intrigue is going to be at left guard on May 14th at minicamp. I'm here for the game on Sunday.

So if you can't shrink the big picture to appreciate the small picture you're gonna drive yourself nuts okay i feel you but if i made two videos and one video was the hardcore matchup player versus player vikings and raiders and then i made another video that said, which quarterback will the Vikings draft? The draft one would do 10 times as many views. I guarantee it. And that to me ties back into. Well,

you know, your audience, I'll give you that. Well that, but I mean, it ties back into this bigger picture of if it's not going to win us the Superbowl, then we throw it out.

Like, which maybe should, why do you watch? Then you shouldn't have been watching the games after Halloween. I mean, you just tuned out like it's over cousins is done i'm done well i think everybody keeps coming back why because the nfl is the perfect drug yeah so you can't sit there and scoff at the drug and keep using it uh well i mean people are going to watch the games what else are they doing i mean you make it your sunday thing like you're going to watch the games i i just mean like the attitude overall the attitude overall see like that's what i'm

saying is that you are much more into let's ride this train week i'm a 50 000 foot kind of guy i'm you're in the weeds maybe that's why we work well together i think so yeah um but i guess i just think like that the big picture implications to all the moves and everything that happens fascinates me so much. And I think at the same time, Dobbs's performance Sunday will inform those big, bigger picture. Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, that's that's why that almost seems like what we're doing. Stakes are higher. That seems like what we've been doing here all season is that it's every week to week is more interesting from the perspective of what they're doing next draft than it is whether they can actually get to the playoffs and be a dangerous team. Correct, and we can milk that for what it's worth in the offseason.

But in the meantime, there's still a playoff berth at stake, so why not just kind of take the three hours of entertainment Sunday and focus on that? So is that what you're telling people they should do i mean are you are you never tell i would never i would never tell people what to do but if somebody said to you if somebody said to you like they're saying to me last night this party like this team this team has tortured me for so long and i get so upset at them i mean why are you still watching would you suggest well it's nfl you can't tell people not to watch the football uh football is best but i mean to live more in the moment i mean from the end of the game yes as an old guy now i with children and i'm not a 25 year old idiot anymore i mean live in the moment

because frankly that's what the entertainment is i don't find projecting what may or may not happen or what the performance on the field now is going to screw us in April and it's going to mean, no, we're going to re-sign Cousins. That's going to be a disaster. Look, if you're projecting all the way out, I mean, you're not really living in the moment. So, I mean, I don't think I'm saying anything that's revolutionary or to say live in the moment.

But, like, for as far as NFL entertainment value, appreciate the moment i mean these games are so tight they're all one score games they're one officiating mistake away they're one turnover away television does a masterful job of building it up and tearing it down why why else would you want to you know if you're really if you're really hooking your emotions on what may happen in April, March, April, and May, then you should be a GM. But what are they going to do at quarterback? Whatever they're going to do at quarterback. Dobbs will dictate that tomorrow.

He will dictate that the next few weeks because it'll all play out. I don't know what they should do or what they will do, but I know what I'm going to do tomorrow, and I'm going to tune in tomorrow, and I'm going to see this is going to be amazing whatever happens. Okay, what do you think is going to happen tomorrow? I think they're going to win very boringly 16-13. Yeah.

You know what, though? Every time this season I felt like I had a good grasp for what was about to happen. Yeah, predictions are a fool's errand anyway. Something else happens. I will say this. Even though the people's lights were turned off after the Chicago game, I would not completely eliminate the idea that Josh Jobs could play really well down the stretch.

I mean, I think that he is such a unique guy from like an intelligence factor. It has been well established, but from you usually don't find a backup quarterback with this athletic ability and if you can add like as of last week he was the second most valuable running quarterback in the league so the standard to even get him to be very good for passing is not even that high because he's already adding so much from the running perspective now fumbles are going to be a problem sometimes as well but he still intrigues me like i'm not done

being interested in the josh dobbs story even if a lot of people did jump off of that bandwagon well so and you would not be unwise to necessarily have jumped off of it i mean the performance against chicago was not an NFL quarterback performance. There was leaky oil against Denver. There were moments against the Saints and the Falcons where you're like, oh man, that should have been an

interception too. I mean, he's not necessarily a savior. He could be a savior, but he's not necessarily a savior. So you're rightful be a savior, but he's not necessarily a savior. So you're, you're rightful to be skeptical, but this is one of those unique situations where the possibility, the what ifs are almost as intriguing as what the Vikings have already done. And that's what makes this, that's, what's keeping us coming back for more.

I think I mentioned this last night and have a couple of times. This is like a one season divided into three parts. And this is now the third version of the 2023 Vikings, which is almost infinitely more interesting than the middle version and certainly the early version. So that to me makes it worthwhile to tune into. And I'm not, I mean, we can make some judgments on Dobbs tomorrow

based on his performance. But even if he wins and looks great, he very well may look awful in Cincinnati. I mean, there's no – I feel like this is an unbridled talent that we're never really going to be able to have a full assessment on. And you're just going to have to ride it. And there's nothing wrong with that uh that no that is uh that that is an interesting angle of it about breaking up the season into parts because in the first part we thought well it's just going to be a terrible season it's going to be a slog right that you know that when they

did the rebuild part and moved on from all those veteran players that there was a lot of problems miscalculation i mean brian flores has really changed the entire trajectory of the team to begin with by the way like of course they're happy about having brian flores and he has turned around this defense but imagine if he didn't like imagine if ed donatello had stayed as the defensive coordinator which would have been insanity but just imagine that he stays 0 and 12 they would be right they would be losing so many games and then we'd be talking about drake may and and that would be interesting to me and i and i think a lot of people who have suffered through the let's go

nine and eight story so many times uh and there's a lot of things along the way where it was like they teetered on the edge of it, totally falling apart. How about in Carolina? I mean, Bryce young has the football he's driving against them. Like if he scores at the end of that game, I mean, then we're talking about losing to the worst team in the league. How would you keep going after that? Uh, even in Chicago, Tyson Bajan comes in, he under throws a ball that gets picked off.

But if that, the guy was open, if he overthrows him or throws it deeper, like again, we're talking about Daniel Hunter as a Jaguar. And so that part of it is interesting. And then the second part to have the Dobbs roller coaster, that was a whole season in itself. And now I have no idea what the heck is coming next. That's awesome. You seem disappointed in that.

Like you want to control it. You want to, you want to, you want to be, you want to save money. You want to be smart. You want to be prudent. You want to be able to plan ahead five years.

No, no, no. You're in Vegas right now. Take whatever you save, throw it on black 24 and see what happens. No, I just,

I just feel like it, because this has been a season that nobody would have been able to predict, just as last season was, I find the entertainment value exponentially better because there's so much at stake, both from a big picture and a small picture standpoint, but it's fun. They're a fun team to watch. Even when they're losing 12 to 10 to the Bears,

they're still an entertaining product. That was not fun. It was not fun, but it was.. They're a fun team to watch. Even when they're losing 12 to 10 to the bears, there's still an entertainment. That was not fun. That was not fun. It was not fun, but it was, it was close. It was not fun, but you had to stay there to the end.

You could not look away. You can't look away. Yeah. That you can't sell too many people on that being fun, but I, you can't look away is the definition of the Minnesota Vikings for sure. So I have no idea how long we've been talking because I can't see our timer there. But I assume it's been a while.

There's no clocks in Vegas. It's almost 3 o'clock locally. Oh, okay. That's about right then for how long these usually last. I feel like this has been an absolutely unhinged live podcast, which just makes sense. It's been a long bye week. A lot has happened. We're in Vegas.

I just ate a huge burger, and I really could use a nap. Like, so, uh, no, it's a, it's a good time. Imagine if we're back here in two months, how unhinged that might be for the Superbowl. No, I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, I, I'm not, can I, can I imagine what it would be like to cover the Superbowl? No, I cannot. Uh, I came very close in 2017 but did not happen so then i got to go to media row at the super bowl and have everyone else be talking about their team so uh

that's how it that's how it is but anyway well if you tuned in i really appreciate it we're at a cabana in las vegas and what else did you expect other than a completely unhinged conversation between me and Brian Murphy? But we're going to go hang out here and cover the game tomorrow. It'll be Dane Mizutani. He's going to shotgun some Dr. Pepper if you want to tune in later to see how he's holding up. I am wondering who won that chess tournament.

We had to go eat lunch beforehand. I'm supposed to get together with our friend Dane Mizutani. I think there's a knitting convention around. Oh, my gosh. All right. I get it. Yeah, I get get it other people are having a great time and i'm near them so uh that's perfect place for me anyway thanks everybody for watching and uh after the game it will be a much more normal discussion of whatever the hell happens between the vikings and raiders and we will catch you all then. So, uh, good day.

Good day to you too. I got nothing else. Take care, everybody.