Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Mike Zimmer hired in Dallas, Jared Allen misses the HOF and Super Bowl trivia fun

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill react to Mike Zimmer being hired in Dallas and Jared Allen not being elected to the Hall of Fame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, and we have breaking news. Technically, you could say this is an emergency podcast, even though we scheduled it for this exact time. Zach time, but thanks to Tom Palacero's timing, he must've known that the show was going live right at eight o'clock and decided to feed us this news right before we went on Matthew collar, Manny Hill, as always. And Manny, Mike Zimmer is back in the national football league. He is being hired as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Your thoughts, sir?

Congratulations to him. I mean, you covered Mike Zimmer for a long time as head coach of the Vikings, and I kind of as an observer, as a radio producer, and following the Vikings as kind of a fan and working at radio stations and things like that, you know, got to really experience the full time of him as the head coach of the Vikings. And listen, things didn't end great for Mike Zimmer's time in Minnesota, but he won a lot of games, he had some success, got to an NFC championship game.

And during the peak, you know, the best of Mike Zimmer's time with the Vikings, you know, they had one of the best defenses in the NFL in 2017 specifically. They had the best defense in the NFL. And so Mike Zimmer has a lot of credibility, I think. I think he can still coach. I know he's a little up there in age. I think he's, what, mid to late 60s now at this point in his life. But I think it's a good situation for him, a good opportunity.

It's a team that is a good football team with good players on defense. So it's not a situation where he has to come in and really build. He can just kind of insert what he does in some of his, you know, defensive schemes and philosophies and everything. And he's got some stuff to work with, particularly number 11, Micah Parsons, one of the best, if not the best defensive player in football. So he's got to be licking his chops right now, just knowing that he's going to be able to coach him and get really creative with some of the things that Micah Parsons can do. So I think it's a pretty good fit.

And Mike Zimmer didn't just forget how to coach football. He didn't forget about football. The guy knows it. He's been kind of staying around. I know he did some work with Deion Sanders out at Jackson State and then a little bit, I think, with Colorado last year, like some consulting stuff like that. But good for Mike. Congratulations to him because I think he's a smart enough guy to where he deserves to be in the NFL. So it wasn't just, as you know, not telling you, 2017, but they ranked either top 10 in points or yards against from 20.

I believe they even cracked top 10 in yards 2014 for the entire time until 2019 that he was there a very, very long stretch. And the defense only came apart when the defensive personnel came apart. And we know this, that nobody is above bad personnel causing you to look really bad as a coach. Even Brian Flores, you know, we talk bad as a coach. Even Brian Flores.

We talk about how great of a season Brian Flores had last year. And yet, when you got to the end of the season, they lost a couple players to injury, and all of a sudden they couldn't cover anybody, and they couldn't rush anybody. And that's kind of what happened for several seasons to Mike Zimmer from 2020 to 2021. Their defense just did not have the horses. They were trying to

tape it together with glue and popsicle sticks named Prashad Breeland and bringing back Everson Griffin. And, you know, even in 2021, they probably had their starting lineup, a pretty good defense, but then Michael Pierce got hurt and Everson left the team and Daniel Hunter got hurt. And then they fell apart, as so often happens when all of your superstars go down. Also, Anthony Barr also was out for the 2020 season. Daniel Hunter was out for the 2020 season. I mean, it just it was a very miserable time for those two years. But the vast majority of Mike Zimmer seasons are him running either a very,

very good defense or an absolutely elite top notch, top of the league type of defense. And there is such a huge difference between being a coordinator and being a head coach. There's a reason why it doesn't really correlate if you were a good coordinator to being a good head coach. I mean, of course, you always want guys who are good coordinators, but sometimes you have a special teams coordinator like John Harbaugh, who's one of the best coaches in the league, and he becomes a really good head coach. Well, in part because they drafted Lamar Jackson, but he was a good head coach before that. And, you know, because it's really a management position. And that was tough for Mike Zimmer.

It always was. It's a political position where press conferences, they make big news all the time. And what Mike Zimmer never truly understood was when you go to the podium and you say something about somebody that it's going to make news. It's going to matter, right. And I think that he never really fully got that. Like, I think that he thought, screw those players. Like they work for me and I'll say whatever I want about them. And that just is not an approach that, you know, you should really be taking in 2021 was his last year. But as a defensive coordinator, it's not going to be like that.

You talk probably once a week to the media. Just focus on your side of the ball. You're not having to answer for too many off the field stuff with players. You're not answering for organizational things, for bigger picture things, for any sort of issue with whatever player. I mean, it's really focused on just the defense. And I think when Zimmer was in Cincinnati, that really worked super well for him.

And I also think it was mostly fine early in his tenure, 2014 and 15, that he had that mentality because everyone wanted them to be tougher. But then 16 and 17, it was awkward because the pressure ramped up, the expectations ramped up, and you just shouldn't be saying that your quarterback has a horseshoe around his neck. And then as things went down, when you're that guy and you're hard on everybody and you're running the

organization that way, when you start to dip and you still act that way in public about your players, that's when they start to turn on you and get frustrated. And I think that happened in 2021, but he doesn't have to manage a quarterback or anything else. He's got to dial up his defense. And I think that this is a tremendous, tremendous fit for the Dallas Cowboys because of what you mentioned. I mean, they have a super talented defense that was very good under Dan Quinn, but they had, I think some weaknesses even in Dan Quinn's scheme in part that you can run on them and they would get beat up by the lighter personnel. I think that's something Mike Zimmer will address, but this is a guy too,

that he's thought of his old school stodgy. I think he's 67, but he reinvents himself on defense Manny. I, this is not somebody who is just going to sit around and be like, I'm running the three, four. Like it's not going to be like that. Uh, Mike Zimmer has always stayed ahead of the game when it came to defense. And he's always been innovative when it came to defense. And I think that if you're in the NFC East, you're like, dang, this is not a guy that you wanted to see show up in Dallas. Absolutely. I mean, I just look at what he did when he came here to Minnesota and the drastic changes that he made defensively. I mean, they you know, and he did it with a lot of the same players that were there.

You know, they were very young and still growing and developing, you everson griffin and harrison smith and guys like that um you know xavier rhodes is another one that was already there when zimmer got there you know but zim came in in 2014 the vikings had been running you know kind of the tampa to cover two zone coverage scheme that leslie fraser had been doing and leslie had been doing that, you know, since he was coaching under Tony Dungy in Indianapolis. Zim came in and said, uh-uh, we're not doing that stuff anymore. Xavier Rhodes, you're going to cover man to man. Like, this is what you've got the ability to do that.

You're not going to just be sitting in zone all the time. And we saw the improvement. And, you know, it was, I think the timing of that at that time too was really good because the Vikings had some young players that they invested in on the defensive side. You're talking about, you know, Harrison Smith was very young. Xavier Rhodes, you know, Sharif Floyd was obviously a guy they invested a first round pick in as well. You had some, obviously some medical issues and everything.

Things didn't work out for him long term. But, you know, when Zim got on board, Sharif Floyd, he turned Sharif Floyd to a pretty damn good football player when he was healthy and out there playing. So I think he can do the same thing with Dallas, you know, and the Micah Parsons thing, man, I'm just fascinated at what he can do, you know, just how, you know, creatively what he can do with Micah Parsons, who saw Dan Quinn utilize Micah Parsons very well, you know, and I'm just wondering if, like, can Zim come in and take Micah Parsons even to another level, and if he can, that is absolutely scary because Micah Parsons is already one of the scariest defensive players in the NFL.

And he's also inheriting Trayvon Diggs, who tore his ACL, and that was tough for the Dallas Cowboys last year because they lost their top cornerback. But one thing that Trayvon Diggs has kind of struggled with is being a little overaggressive at times. So he is really great, you know, causing interceptions. And I think he did improve a little bit when it came to risk reward.

But I feel like you're talking about a guy who is the, I don't want to say a cornerback whisperer because it's always talent that's going to be number one, but has been able to work with over his long career, many talented cornerbacks and maximize their abilities. And you mentioned Xavier Rhodes. Few corners were better in the entire league in 2016, 17 than Xavier Rhodes before the injuries started to stack up on him. And now he gets to take Trayvon Diggs as well. Like these guys are not old. These guys are young. These guys are still developing into their prime right now when Zim gets to take over here. And with Mike Parsons, there has been some debates in Dallas about his usage. Should he just be rushing the passer every single play? So I am curious about that. Zimmer, in my mind, wrongfully got criticized for not

blitzing Anthony Barr enough. I think he could have turned up the dial a little bit more at times, but Anthony Barr was very different than Micah Parsons. He was more of like a Mack truck where Parsons is a Ferrari. And so, and I also think that Anthony Barr called the defense and is really, really intellectual as a player and cerebral as a player. And it was great to have him as a linebacker where he could be out there commanding the entire defense as opposed to an edge rusher. Also, their edge rushers were Everson Griffin and Daniil Hunter. And I don't know who you're taking off the field to put Anthony Barr there. But with Micah Parsons, is he going to have him like hand in the dirt for three defensive

end every play? And if he does, I promise it'll work. I mean, Micah Parsons can beat guys in so many different ways. Or is he going to have him still as a stand-up rusher? Is he going to use some of the zone blitz stuff to have him dropping back? And this is how we've seen Zimmer change things around through the years. And if you watch Steve Spagnuolo on Sunday, one of the things that he likes to do are called simulated pressures where you send four people, but you don't really know where it's coming from and who's blitzing, who's dropping back, stuff like that. And Zimmer started to experiment with that a little bit later on, 2020, 2021, as he was kind of getting a little desperate because they didn't have any talent. But I'm curious to see if we're looking at some different

stuff. And there's just been so many times over the years where we saw quarterbacks come to US Bank Stadium and just look totally lost, totally frustrated. And I also think his run defense is a big part of that as well. Again, not 2020, not 2021 as much without the players, but he's going to have the players in Dallas. And just on a personal level, I think that Minnesota always wanted Zim to be happy. fans appreciated his toughness and appreciated his candor at times and maybe you know some of it was really funny like over the years there were a lot of like funny one-liners did you see the game after daniel carlson missed the field goal and they cut him like stuff like that uh tweet that he said when he was accused of lying about signing richie incognito i believe um which he he wasn't lying that they never really had great interest in him. But he said, tweet that or whatever, stuff like that from Zimmer. He does have a

good sense of humor. And I think that people looked at him like they really, really wanted him to succeed in part because of all the things that he had gone through in his life, losing his wife. And then with Teddy teddy bridgewater he finally gets his quarterback that uh he you know they drafted 2014 he's got his quarterback and it feels like they're going to build with him for 10 years and they had such a good relationship and then his knee gets hurt all that and then you go forward i mean adrian peterson goes down in 2016 and all the other things that that happened sam bradford getting hurt and so forth. Delvin Cook tearing his ACL. There's a really long list.

And most recently, losing his son as well. This is a man who has really carried a lot of weight on his shoulders. And sometimes when we talk about Zim and his attitude and stuff like that, it's not to apologize for some of the unnecessary behavior at the podium from Zimmer but I think everybody understood like this is a guy who's really had to carry a lot throughout his career and I think the vast majority of Vikings fans would really like to see him succeed just not necessarily against the Vikings but Dallas is on a different level their roster is on a different level it really comes down to what they can do in the playoffs. So where do you think Dallas will rank in defense next year

under Mike Zimmer, Manny? Where were they under Dan Quinn in 2023? They were top 10, right? They might have even been top. Were they top five even? I should have known that before I asked you. Yeah, I should have looked before I asked you. I'll look.

You guess. I'll look. I'll say I think they got a chance with the talent that they have. I think they got a chance to be top five. I mean, we got Micah Parsons, and you get Trayvon Diggs coming back. I don't know what J. Ron Curse's contract situation is like with them, but that's a guy that has some familiarity with Mike Zimmer. And, you know, he might, you know, when other guys are coming in or kind of wondering about

certain concepts and some of the things that they're doing on defense, J Ron curse can be a guy that can pull somebody aside and be like, Hey, look, this is what he's talking about. You know, I played under him for a few years. Like this, you do things this way. This is going to work because I've seen it firsthand. So that'll be kind of interesting too. I don't know what J Ron's contract situation is. I'm, I don't, you know, I don't know how good a year, you know, PFF grade wise he had in 2023, but he knows, he knows that scheme.

He knows that system. He's familiar with Mike Zimmer. So that could be interesting too. And not a good way, if I remember correctly. Not a good way. Because J. Ron Curse had, and this is a downfall of Zimmer in part, too. J. Ron Curse and Zimmer had a bit of a personality conflict. In part because J. Ron Curse got arrested for something incredibly stupid.

Trying to drive around a barrier or whatever. And then he got pulled over and he was with Zimmer's first round pick Mike Hughes. And that became a whole thing. And after that, we basically never saw J. Ron curse again. I don't know if he's going to make amends with J.

Ron curse or not. I don't know if he's under contract, but that is a thing. Like it better be Zimmer's types of guys, because if he's under contract, but that is a thing. It better be Zimmer's types of guys because if it's not, there can be conflicts with him. But overall, I just think he's one of the smartest defensive minds of the last two decades and he deserves all the credit for that. And I think that Dallas is in a really good place. This is actually funny that Taylor reminds me, don't forget about his eye falling out. It's like, we named all those things that happened to Zimmer and didn't even mention the eye thing,

which was crazy. And that just tells you like how much this guy has been through that even that didn't even make like the podium for, you know, it didn't even make like the, uh, Mount Rushmore of terrible things that Mike Zimmer went through dealing with that serious eye problem. And so I tried when I was covering him to have compassion for that. But also, there is a level that you can't really cross without there being some accountability. But when he was here, I felt that I had a good relationship with him in part because he had a good sense of humor. And so I tried to joke around with him from time to time, not so much in those last two years,

but in the early parts when the team was having success. And I just think that his tenure was gonna kind of be remembered and defined a bit by the decision in 2018 to bring in Kirk Cousins. And that was just not a fit with Mike Zimmer. And they tried to make that marriage work for a long time, and it didn't. And I've always wondered if they had brought back Teddy and Case Keenum. Because remember, Teddy had a 99 quarterback rating or something with New Orleans when he was playing with a good team in those five games that he won in a row with them. And I don't know, like, I'm not saying that Teddy would have won the Superbowl with Zimmer, but that relationship was strong and with a strong team that might have carried on, or maybe they could have drafted a quarterback that Zimmer really wanted and kept it cheap and kept his defensive talent and all those things. Like there's lots of alternate

realities where Mike Zimmer is still the coach of this team, and they're ascending with a young quarterback or something. But instead, he's now in Dallas. I think all's well that ends well for Zimmer there, and we'll be following how that turns out. Not as good of news, though, for Jared Allen. Our friend, another Minnesota connection, Chris Thomason, reported that Jared Allen is not on the list of players that will be making the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And that's disappointing, Manny.

I mean, I think that Jared Allen is a guy who numbers wise belongs in. There's really not a whole lot of debate. Like, what's the argument against him? One of the great sack artists in history. One of the issues that the NFL always has is how many great players keep getting backlogged in one year they put a bunch of them in and i think they're gonna have to do that again like once every five years where they increase the number of guys who could get in because you have so many worthy players that are sitting on the sidelines and it's disappointing for jared allen to not be able to go in but he's also in a

crowd of many players who are very much uh right there with the resumes that they've built up and they have to wait and every year goes by the more likely it is that you just get left out of the party altogether and you're one of the players like you know just uh viking jerome mentioning jim marshall like you just kind of get, like because then there's some other guy who's the guy who's right on the cusp. So you wonder about Kevin Williams is this way. Kevin Williams, six all pros. How many guys have six all pros by the numbers by pro football references, Hall of Fame monitor.

Kevin Williams should be the most shoe in Hall of famer based on that and is not in because you kind of just get off the radar in a couple years and then you're left behind and then other guys are retiring and coming through so you know i think that this is a tough one for jared allen to miss out on and i wonder if he's going to get in anytime soon yeah it just kind of feels like you know this is going to to be a sort of a tough, tough hill to climb for him. And it's, it's, it's hard to believe because like you said, the numbers, the numbers are there, man. I mean, I've got his numbers up right now from, you know, he had double digit sacks from 2007 to 2013. That was included his last year in kansas city and then um the the six years that he was

here with the vikings so i mean that's that's got 136 career sacks 32 for uh forced fumbles 19 fumble recoveries i mean this guy was he was a machine you know what i mean you you knew like the vikings signing him and giving up what they gave up to get him back in 2008 it it changed everything for that defense because the year before they just really struggled defensively to rush the passer you know what i mean they could they could cover okay they were still great against the run because they had the Williams wall in the middle of that defensive front. But they just couldn't. You know, I remember late in that season in 2007, a game against Washington where Todd Collins just picked them apart because they just couldn't apply any pressure on him. And so he just had a clean pocket the entire time. And, you know, credit to Brad Childress and the front office at that time said we got to go get a pass rusher.

You know, this this was another missing piece that we needed to add. And you look at Jared Allen's six year run with the Vikings. It was he was worth every penny, worth every single penny. He played out the contract. There was no, you know, restructuring or anything like that. Or, hey, Jared, want you to take a pay cut so we can add this player and stuff like that. He played out the six years of that contract. And it was six years, 72 million or something like that. I remember.

And he was just, he was great. He knew he was a locker room leader. He was obviously a productive player, popular among the fans, and part of some really great teams that were trying to at least contend for a championship. So it's tough, man. I mean, you just hope eventually. And maybe because he's one of the more recently retired guys. I think last year was, what,, with the bears and Panthers. So he's, he's been retired

for almost a decade now. He's been eligible for about four or five years now. So you just kind of hope like, all right, eventually in the next couple of years, he's going to find his way in because the numbers speak for themselves. But if he doesn't it's going to be tough and you know the commenter brought up jim marshall i mean jim marshall was the captain of the of one of the great defenses in nfl history you know certainly one of the premier defenses of the 1970s jim marshall was you know the sort of the the backbone of that defense um and then when you look at car Leather getting into the Hall of Fame, Alan Page getting into the Hall of Fame, Paul Krause getting into the Hall of Fame,

so many great players on that defense. And Jim Marshall was sort of the heart and soul of that group. And he's not in the Hall of Fame, and he should be. So I hope Jared gets in. He was a great player, certainly worthy of it. And I guess we'll just see how everything plays out. Especially since Pro Football Reference did that project where they went back and watched all the old film and counted up the sacks, which is an incredible endeavor to do. But it really showed how much Jim Marshall, by the numbers, belonged in the hall of fame as well.

When I look at the hall of fame monitor here on pro football reference and where Jared Allen lands, it's in an interesting spot and it's based on all pros, pro bowls, sack totals, things like that. And what it tries to do is just give you a general idea of how that player compares by some of those metrics and ones that have connected to being in the Hall of Fame in the past.

And it's got him ahead of Richard Dent and Charles Haley, who are in the Hall of Fame, of course, but also in the same kind of ballpark as someone like Neil Smith. And I don't know, depending on the average age of our audience, a lot of people would remember Neil Smith, the great Kansas city chief and Denver Bronco. And I think it's a pretty good comparable. Neil Smith is not in the hall of fame, but he's also close to Dwight Freeney as well. And Cameron Jordan, who's still playing, but has a really good chance of making the hall of fame. And that's where I think someone like Jared Allen is just on the cusp and those guys either get in or they don't. And sometimes it's, it's just your time based on that class. Sometimes it's, did you market yourself the right way going into it? Did you do enough media or did you make enough friends or, you know, whatever else for that? And, you know And I don't know. So this is going to be an interesting couple of years for Jared Allen.

I think he ultimately will get in because he has the numbers to be there. But you do risk potentially getting left behind. So that is unfortunate. All right. So we'll take any questions. We're going to talk about the Super Bowl here for a few minutes. But if you have any Vikings questions, then I'm happy to take them. As long as you're not proposing me,

Justin Jefferson trade ideas, then we're good. Cause you, you missed the other night. I did kind of lose it a tad. Not that I ever really do Manny. I always keep it contained, but Justin Jefferson trade stuff.

Can I throw you a number? Actually, I'm going to do, I don't want to get too deep into this, but I'm going to throw you a, I'm going to throw you a couple of numbers here, Manny. And I know you don't need to be convinced,

but just for me, because I went and looked when Kirk cousins or Nick Mullins briefly through the football toward Justin Jefferson and his career, he has had 558 targets. So basically a full season's worth of targets for his career, like for a quarterback, right? Like 558 is basically a single season and they have completed whether it's cousins mostly or Nick Mullins, 70% of those passes, 10.6 yards per pass attempt, 30 touchdowns, and a 112.1 quarterback rating. So when throwing

to Justin Jefferson, Kirk Cousins slash Nick Mullins has played like an MVP of the league over an entire season. And now here's something else I looked at in terms of expected points added of the teams who went to the Super Bowl, how good were they at passing? Right. So I went and looked this up all the way back to 2016 because I was leaving out Peyton Manning's Broncos. So since Peyton Manning's Broncos, here's where passing games have ranked and expected points added that have gone to the super bowl first 10th first fifth first ninth first third first fourth third fifth first second first second does that sound good the team the worst a lot of firsts in there a lot of firsts in there yeah yeah the worst the worst team is actually this year that was 10th and it has my homes so passing is what is going to get you there.

And when you pass it toward Justin Jefferson, you turn your quarterback into an MVP. There's no reason to talk about not having this person. And I even, this was driving me so crazy, Manny. I even created a contract for Justin Jefferson using over the cap.com today. I w I was, I was this like apoplectic about this idea because you're talking about like trading a receiver, LeBron James, and I'm not a fan of that. And I created a contract for 130 million over four years with 70 million guaranteed, which would blow anybody else out of the water as far as fully guaranteed money. And his cap hits went as follows. 15, 15, 24, 39, 37. But the 39 and 37 include a lot of base salary that could be changed into bonus and lower those numbers. That would make up like 7% of the salary cap if those were his numbers. Kirk Cousins at his peak made up 17% of the salary cap if those were his numbers.

Kirk Cousins at his peak made up 17% of the salary cap. This can be done without a problem. Throw the football to Justin Jefferson for the rest of time, and we'll all make it. We'll all get it there. The franchise is not shutting down in 2024. He's going to be here for eight more years or more. So don't worry about it just pay him

the money find your quarterback and build a team around those guys and i'm not and until and unless and until he tells you that he wants out any conversation about trading him should be non-existent in my mind. You know, it's one thing if he comes, if he goes to crazy and KOC and is just like, look, I don't like the direction things are going. Get me out of here. I'm not going to sign an extension. I don't want to be here anymore. Then that changes things. And that applies to really any player that you're dealing with in professional

sports, not just with the NFL. But until that happens, if it even is going to happen, which I'm not anticipating that anytime soon, it's just a nod. The idea of trading him is just a non-starter for me. I saw a tweet. I think it was from New England radio or like Boston radio or NBC sports, Boston or something where they were talking about, because Colin Coward had threw out the idea of the Vikings, you know, the Vikings should trade Justin Jefferson to the Patriots for like the third pick or something. And I'm just like, come on guys, like, stop it.

Stop it. And I know national guys, they like to throw out the speculation and stuff because they largely, you know, they're not, they're not paying attention to one specific team out the speculation and stuff because they largely you know they're not they're not paying attention to one specific team over the other um and that type of thing uh so they're just going to throw out ridiculous speculative stuff but it's like no that's just not gonna happen it doesn't make sense for the vikings to do that because even if you were to move him and get the third pick and take you know jayden daniels or drake may or whoever you're kind of diminishing the chances of those guys having early success because they're not going to have justin jefferson like part of the reason why

we are so like gung-ho on the vikings going towards getting a young quarterback is that guy can step in and have success early on because Justin Jefferson is going to be here. Like that's part of the reason why he's going to be good. So it's just, it's a ridiculous notion at this point. Again, if he decides he wants out, then, then that's, then that changes things, but he hasn't given any sort of indication that he wants out. So it it's like why is it even a conversation horse feathers says how i feel which is can't wait for jj to make the deal so people can just stop and uh the day he does everyone will be like yay it happened uh i i've been even thinking so much about this that i've like into the, what's the psychology of this?

What would cause your brain to make you go, yeah, trade the best player on the team? And what I came up with was defense mechanism. That's what I came up with. Because these people have been through it. They've been through a lot and if you've been watching this team a really long time you still bring up herschel walker even though it was 35 years ago i mean how it literally was 35 years ago i was three years old when they traded herschel walker like that has nothing to do with what's happening now. And yet those scars run pretty deep for people.

And I also think there's a part of a lot of Minnesota fans in particular that is like, oh, if they don't like us, I'm going to not like them first. Right? Like if he doesn't want to sign that I'm going to prepare myself by not like it. Like I'm going to break up with you before you break up with me, but you don't have to do that here because Jefferson's going to sign an extension. And look, if they traded him for Jaden Daniels, I would be like, I don't know, man. I'd be like, you know, Tony Romo. I don't know, Jim. Like that would be me because I like, this is exactly what you said. Like the reason I think the quarterback can succeed that they draft is because he's going to get Justin Jefferson.

That is the only circumstance where I might be like, okay, I, I guess I'll accept this. I don't love this, but it's for a quarterback. So I'll accept this. I don't think there's any chance of them doing that. But I just I also saw that that trade idea. And I'm not for that because I think that the chances that the number three quarterback workout versus the number four quarterback aren't different enough. And you're sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul there. And we see someone like Brock Purdy having so much success with all the weapons around

him. The key to all of this is the weapons. And I won't go through it again, but I went through last night, all the teams that have gone to the super bowl recently in the weapons they had. Like that's, that's the key.

Unless you have Patrick Mahomes, you don't have Patrick Mahomes. If you told me you could trade him for Patrick Mahomes. Yes, I will do it. Other than that. No, no, I won't.

And you know what, Collin? Some wide receivers are just different, man. And Justin Jefferson is one of those guys where it's just, there are a lot of really good wide receivers in the NFL. This guy is different. This guy changes the dynamic of your offense if you have him versus if you don't have him. And there are few wide receivers in this league that have that kind of an impact.

I mean, look, Vikings fans, we saw what happened to the Vikings when they traded Randy Moss away. We saw what happened to Dante Culpepper when Randy Moss was traded away. He was a completely different player. The Vikings were a completely different team. There were things on offense that they just couldn't do anymore because he wasn't around. And if the Vikings trade Justin Jefferson away, it's going to be really hard to replace him and get back on track on offense. And so tweaked by this idea that I went back and watched the super bowl that randy moss was in with the patriots because i was like you know because somebody said well boss didn't win any super bowls

you know and uh he roasted a dude off the line of scrimmage with two minutes left in the game to score the go-ahead touchdown for the patriots. And then Eli had the David Tyree thing happen. Randy Moss is the Superbowl hero. If that ball bounces off of David Tyree's head, instead of him pinning it to his head with his hand. And then also Plaxico Burris roasted a guy. Was he any good? Is it good to have receivers? I don't know, Manny. Like this is where I feel like I'm just being like hoodwinked by people. Is it good to have the best players in the league? I don't know. So I won't obsess over it, but we'll move on. The Pollock says, what do you guys think B flow would have at the top of his shopping list, defensive tackle, pass rusher, even a corner. That is a really interesting question. I mean, they don't have any defensive linemen, so that's kind of a big deal, But bringing up corner is interesting because this draft has a lot of cornerbacks in it, or so it seems by the draft analysts. And if they draft

a quarterback first round, if they don't, a shutdown corner, LeJarius Sneed has just made me think about how important the shutdown corner is. You can create pressure in other ways like Brian Flores did last year, like Steve Spagnuolo has been doing around Chris Jones. I think you need some greatness, but if you can't cover anyone, they just destroy you. There's nothing you can do.

There's no blitz. There's no pass rusher. There's no nothing. If guys are open instantly, and we really saw that against the Bengals and then against the lions late in the season, I actually liked the idea of them really aiming, whether it's free agency or in the draft, to get another corner

and not just being like, oh, well, Caleb Evans was okay for most of the year last year. You really need to get somebody who is excellent, not just, well, maybe he'll be okay. Well, I mean, hey, 10 minutes ago we were just talking about xavier rhodes and how good he was in 2016-17 i mean the vikings were good good at rushing the passer and in those years with the neil hunter and and uh and everson griffin um but what xavier rhodes was able to do as a shutdown cover corner it just did wonders for that defense because it's it's

just a domino effect if he takes away one side of the football field it only makes things easier for the corner on the other side it makes it easier for the safeties because they don't you know harrison smith and anthony harris and some of those other guys didn't have to come over to help because you knew, oh yeah, Xavier's got that guy. He's fine. You know what I mean? And everybody else can kind of just fit in the right way and do and really excel at what they do best. So if you can find that guy, it will do absolute wonders for your defense, everybody else involved. I agree. The defensive line has to be rebuilt somehow and through the draft is part of it,

but I don't think they should lose sight of how important the cornerback position is. And if you have that one guy, it really swings everything. Mark says, I saw a take where we trade O'Neill for a pick to free up some money and then draft one of the really good tackles. This draft is loaded with linemen. The O'Neal contract concerns me a bit, Manny, because he just didn't play as well last year. And I think it was the Achilles, but you start to worry because he also had a foot injury as well.

This is a guy who's not supposed to weigh as much as he does. And utmost respect for a captain and a great, great player. But going forward, projecting forward, the injuries are concerning to me. And his play started to dip in the second half of the year. Clearly, he was banged up. He was fighting through it. And there are some players who are naturally massive, like Christian Derrissaw. And other guys have to work really hard to remain large.

And I think the guys have to work really hard to remain large. And I think the guys have to work really hard to remain large. That weight's not supposed to be there and it can cause problems. So I'm kind of, I mean, intrigued by that, but I don't know how much someone's giving up. If someone would be willing to trade a lot. And also as we talk about that, hey, what's going to set up a quarterback to succeed? What do you think? Having two really good tackles is a thing that's going to do that. And even if you draft a tackle, one of the problems with drafting them, Manny is that they take a while to develop. Oh, Neil, luckily for the Vikings did not. And you know,

Daris only took a year, but sometimes it can take two, three years. So it's not always just plug and play unless you're talking about drafting a top five tackle or something. So I guess I would rather work around that and not start picking off things that we have that can work for the future. I mean, I'm a little concerned about the injuries, but tackles can play till they're like 35 and be good. So unless they are concerned about the injuries, but tackles can play till they're like 35 and be good. So unless they are concerned about the injuries, I would say keep everything in place that you can that's going to set up your next quarterback for success. Yeah. You just don't want to do anything. The Vikings have such a terrific situation offensively. When you're talking about the offensive line,

an offensive-minded head coach, the receivers, the weapons that they have on the outside, they're just set up perfectly for a rookie quarterback, a young quarterback on a rookie scale deal to come in and just have success. So it's kind of like it's not what they have set up is not broken. Really, you know, we'll see about O'Neal's health and we'll see if Darisaw can get back to being, you know, healthy consistently and things like that, because that's all going to factor into it, too. But.

You know, it's not broken. So don't, right now, don't do anything to disrupt it. It's just like the trading Justin Jefferson part of it. And, you know, we talked about like trading Jordan Addison maybe as an idea or something like that. I think you can maybe get away with that a little bit more because as good as I think Jordan Addison is, it might be a little bit easier to kind of replace him down the line.

If you need to, you can go in free agency and find a really good, like number two wide receiver, but like the positions that are really hard to find and really hard to fill and hard to develop when you have those guys, if you can avoid like trading those guys away i think you have to stay with what you got and stay with what works and give your young quarterback a chance for long-term success was interesting though last year that they could have restructured o'neill's

contract and they decided not to and i wondered why that was i mean maybe they wanted to see how he came back from injury and didn't want to push money down the road farther and then have to deal with that if he had issues. And I'm not saying that he's going to fall apart or anything. It's just that has to be factored in that he's not super young anymore. He's got some mileage on the body. And then we're talking the last couple of years by the end of the season, he's had things go wrong and it's not quite the same level as it had been. But if they feel comfortable with where he's at injury wise, and maybe it's just been some bad luck with the Achilles and the foot injury, then you should probably be keeping him. Jake says, I don't remember what happened to Moss. Can you explain what happened? You know, that's funny because I always think about like this team's history, Manny, and how when you come out of the womb in Minnesota, they hand you a guidebook. It's like, here you go. Here's what you got to know about the ways that the Minnesota Vikings have screwed this up. So here's the Super Bowl.

Here's a trading away for Antarkington. Here's how they lost the Super Bowls. Here's 87. Darren Nelson dropping the ball. Here's Gary Anderson. Here's Herschelington. Here's how they lost the Super Bowls. Here's 87. Darren Nelson, drop of the ball. Here's Gary Anderson. Here's Herschel Walker here, whatever. And trading away Randy Moss certainly falls into that handbook. But it was a long time ago.

And I was not here for that. I was in Buffalo. So I only knew that things were just uncomfortable with him and the team. And it seemed like he was so unhappy that that's just how it ended up happening. But what light can you shine on this for Jake? I think, I think it was that what you,

what you just said, I think that was part of it. I think also they may have felt like it was easy. You know, it was easier to trade Randy away because in 2004, Dante had really had this great, you know, MVP caliber season. He threw for 39 touchdowns, had almost 5,000 yards passing. I think he ran for like another five or 600 yards. Like Dante was just great.

And Vikings fans that are old enough to remember, Randy Moss had a hamstring injury that he suffered in, I think it was New Orleans against the Saints. And so Randy was kind of in and out of the lineup for most of that season. He still ended up with like 13 touchdowns that year, you know, which tells you how freaking great he was that he basically missed half the season he still had like 13 touchdowns um and so on the games that randy missed dante still played like really well and you know we saw you know um nate burleson really kind of emerged as a as kind of a top flight target for him that year jermaine wiggins was a really

good productive pass catching tight end um and they had a really good offensive line and and you know offensively they were still really good in games that randy missed and so i think there was this thought that okay things have kind of run its course with randy here we saw dante play really well even when randy wasn't in the lineup. So we could probably just trade him, get some good draft capital in return. And we're still going to be fine because we've got our quarterback. And then 2005 happened. And they traded Randy and they got the seventh pick in the draft, which they used on Troy Williamson.

Sorry to bring that name up. And the 2005 draft was just not a good one. They drafted Williamson number seven. They drafted Erasmus James with the 18th pick, and he ended up being a bust. And just none of the draft picks that year worked out. They got Napoleon Harris in the Randy trade as a middle linebacker from the Raiders, and he was

just a guy. Dante was not as good. In fact, in 2005, he was bad at times. I remember the game against Cincinnati, we threw five picks. It was just bad. Then, of course, he had the knee injury in Carolina. So that's kind of how it played out.

And it's tough. You just look back on it now, and it's like, man, I understand things were getting a little sour there towards the end of Randy's time here. But he was just such a great, impactful player that in hindsight, you just look back on it and just say, man, you got to hold on to guys like that. You know, because and from from what I understood, like Randy was not happy, but he didn't like really like want to leave.

Like he really loved it here. He loved playing here, loved the fans. So, yeah, it was tough. I remember just being a fan of that time. I was I was angry, man because i i had my moss jersey and i loved randy and um so when they traded him away it was just like damn it this is not gonna be fun you know and it wasn't after that for a long time yeah sometimes you trade away an elite wide receiver and get justin jefferson in the draft sometimes you get troy williamson uh but there there is uh there you go now jake now you know exactly what happened with randy moss and i think there was a number of little things that added up

as well sideline incidents uh some people blame joe buck um so you know the play when i want to play uh so you know all those. So let's run down. I'm just going to go kind of rapid fire through a few more of these comments and then we can get to some Superbowl trivia. I found a website that has a bunch of pretty good trivia things. So we're going to pick some out randomly and go against each other and see how we do. Tyler says wide receivers like cornerback can never have too many. San Francisco would agree with you, my friend. Look at at these weapons add do not subtract when you have weapons uh ron says would rather

them stay at 11 than mortgage the future on three guys uh that could possibly be draft the bus take mccarthy nicks or pennix if top three or bus then you've lost a lot of draft capital i think statistically you're probably right but that's only if one of those guys actually is worth an 11th overall pick. That would be the thing with the reason, the justification to trade everything up would be if you don't like any of those quarterbacks and you're just like, we got to get one. So let's go. Jonathan says, I think we need to find higher caliber cornerback and free agency and draft one as well as some point. Yeah, for sure. I totally agree. I mean, it's, it's still a major need. I don't have an issue with Mackay Blackman or Byron Murphy, but those are solid players. Those are not guys that are complete difference makers. Scott says, Matthew, have you looked at how many players are

in the books for 2025 and beyond it's spectacular and that's the nfl right like very few but when you're talking about the salary salary cap that they currently have that's a major point for why you draft quarterback is that all of that cap space is opening up to completely rebuild this thing with young players and then make those big moves that will be game changers you know once we we get there and maybe they'll try i don't know maybe they'll try to bring back kirk and stretch it out until then but it just doesn't feel like that should be the way they go so anyway uh i am going to well let's see here uh from jp if they get a shot at a decent center in the second round,

do you think that they might do it to change up their run game? I don't think that Garrett Bradbury is really the issue with the run game. It's probably more have been the guards that have been the problem and just the scheme and getting everybody on the same page. Dalton Reiser is one of the worst run blocking guards in the league, so that impacted him. Ed Ingram was not good at run blocking last year. It's probably much more of, um, probably much more of an issue with those guys. And there's just, there's too many needs and not enough draft picks. So, okay, Manny,

you've been patient. I got to do prize picks my Superbowl prize picks. So last one of the year, last one of the year, uh, prize the year, prizepicks.com. And if you go there, but they've got all the sports though, basketball, everything else. So you can still use prize picks, even though football season is over. And if you use the code purple, I think for just the rest of this week that they will do a match up to a hundred dollars for your first deposit. So you could do that as well. If you sign up at prizepicks.com. Here's my picks. Brock Purdy, less than 248.5 yards. Isaiah Pacheco, more than 68.5.

And Patrick Mahomes, more than 264.5. And my favorite one, Manny, that a kicker will make a field goal over 48 yards. That's my favorite one. More than a make a field goal over 48 yards. That's my favorite one. More than a half a field goal over 48 yards in the Super Bowl. So those are my prize picks. Again, prizepicks.com. Fun times were had all season with that. So now let me, if I can, and this is going to take the chat. I'm going to need your help here, folks, because I'm going to share the

screen so you guys can see it and I'll fix this up. Just give me a minute. Okay. There it is. And there it is a little bit bigger. Here's the questions. Now here's what I need from the chat is for you to tell me if this is really loud or not when I click on one of these and it's right or wrong. So I just clicked on it and it made a noise and I need the chat to tell me if that's terrible and like super loud or if it's fine. So if it's fine, then we'll go forward with it. And if it's not, I'll pull it up on my phone. And if it's like terribly loud. So someone in the chat, tell me it's fine. Okay, good. All right.

Well, let's go forward then. Johnny was not the first answer. So here's what I want to do, Manny. We'll start with the second question. I just want to go back and forth. And is it too small to read? Well, put it on full screen on your phone. If it's too small to read, I don't know how to make it any bigger.

Turn your phone sideways. Turn your phone horizontal. Yeah, turn your phone okay everybody set here's what we're gonna do there's six pages of trivia here you're gonna do a page and i'm gonna do a page i'm just gonna pick pick a number two through six manny uh five okay so you will get page five so you're gonna go first and then i will go Uh, five. Read the questions and the potential answers. You're going to give an answer. It's going to be out of 10, and we're going to see who can do better, me or you. And I haven't read any of these. I called this up. I saw it, and I was like, oh, okay. All right.

Like, we'll do this. All right. So let's start out. Manny, how many career interceptions does Deion Sanders have in the Super Bowl? Zero, one, two, or three? So Deion played in two Super Bowls in a row, 29 and 30. I don't remember him getting an interception in either one. I do know he caught a pass in Super Bowl XXX against the Steelers

for the Cowboys. So I'm going to say 0 interceptions in the Super Bowl. That is correct. All right. 1 out of 1. Did not snag any interceptions in the super bowl that is correct all right one out of one did not snag any interceptions this this website is great i don't it's called useful trivia.com by the way uh i was playing around with it earlier good job everybody uh who got zero all right next question what interrupted play this is too easy what interrupted play in super bowl whatever it was you know which one that is x l v i i for 34 minutes 47 super bowl 47 47 and it was at a power outage rain earthquake or injured player well that was the uh ravens 49er super bowl at the super dome and

i'm gonna say it was a power outage. Way too easy on that one. All right, next question. Two for two. Who holds the record for most passing yards in a single Super Bowl? Is it Marino, Brady, Warner, or Elway? It was Kurt Warner at one point, but it is now currently Tom Brady. Hey, three for three, Manny.

I would expect nothing less from you. All right, next question. Which quarterback and receiver hooked up for the longest completion in Super Bowl history? Elway and Rod Smith, DeLome and Moussa Mohamed. Shout out, Moussa Mohamed. Great poll. Rich Gannon and Tim Brown or Steve Young and Jerry Rice. Longest reception in Super Bowl history.

I believe it was Jake DeLome and Musa Muhammad in Super Bowl 38, and I believe it was 87 yards. 85. 85 yards. Wow. Well done. Okay, so Manny is four for four. And I have not looked at any of these questions by the way folks if

there's anybody questioning or if i knew these already like i just this is all top of my head stuff yeah well that's why that's what yeah i mean i didn't even show this to you and you just picked a random page so uh all right and also i would not want to help you win um but you're killing it right now how many rushing attempts now this is a now. How many rushing attempts? Now, this is a harder one. How many rushing attempts did John Riggins have in Super Bowl? Is that 17? Is it 28, 48, 38, or 18? He was the MVP of that game, I believe. That was Super Bowl XVII, Washington and Miami.

And I believe it was 38 rush attempts. Oh, my gosh gosh five for five come on all right this is your thing Manny we should just do this every show this is Super Bowl trivia we'll go through every one of these because you are crushing who scored the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history was it Jerry Rice James Harrison De Sanders, or Moussa Muhammad? It's an easy one. James Harrison is pick six against the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. I think it was 99 yards or 100 yards.

100, yeah. Easy for you. Maybe not everybody, but... And it was right before halftime. It was the last play before halftime, and there was a block in the back. If you go back and watch that play, there was a block in the back on his return that was not called that should have been called and would

have nullified that touchdown and it probably would have the cardinals probably would have won that game if that had been called it's always everybody know i i assume that people like know us and who we worked for in the past and so forth so they not everybody probably realizes that you used to work with patrick royce as a producer for patrick show and he had a nickname for you he would call you the steel trap and this is what this is what he and manny he's the steel trap steel trap of a mind all right we're gonna get we're gonna get you on one of these. You are seven for seven so far. My God. What player holds the record for most sacks in a single Super Bowl?

There's no way you know this. Chuck Howley, Elsie Greenwood, Bruce Smith, or Randy White? You're right. I don't know this. I know that Chuck Howley was a linebacker for the cowboys chuck howley is the only and i apologize if this is like another question on on this trivia thing but chuck howley is the only uh player to win the super bowl mvp on a losing team with the Cowboys in Super Bowl V. He's a linebacker. He had a great game that day.

I don't think it was him, though, for most sacks because he was a linebacker. I'm going to say, I'm probably going to miss this one. I'm going to say Randy White. Oh, he finally got one wrong. All right, who was it? Elsie Greenwood okay four sacks in 1976 seven for eight the streak finally comes to an end uh you're out here looking like steph curry

making every single shot um okay next question how are the yeah okay how many receiving yards does Deion Sanders have in his two Super Bowl appearances? Is it 115, 0, 47, or 2? Well, I just mentioned in the previous Deion question that he had caught a pass in Super Bowl XXX against the Steelers, and I believe it was 47 yards. And there it is, 47 yards. Yes, he did. Well done, Manny. and there it is 47 yards yes he did well done manny and i think that uh they tried to throw him one in san francisco and and he didn't catch it they tried right at the end of the game all right next question who is the only player with three interceptions in a super bowl game

is it rodney harrison rod martin mel blunt or larry brown uh lar Larry Brown had two in Super Bowl XXX, and they were virtually identical. Neil O'Donnell threw it right to him both times. So I don't think it's Larry Brown. Rodney Harrison, I think, had two in Super Bowl XXXIX for the Patriots. So it's either Mel Blunt or Rod Martin. I'm going to say Mel Blunt.

I'm probably going to miss this, too. No dice. No dice. It was Rod Martin. That was. Oh, yeah, that's right. I remember that now. Yeah.

Yep. Did I click too quickly? Did I click too? Like, were you still hemming and hawing there? No, when it wasn't. You had submitted your pick. Yeah. When I knew, well, when you clicked on Mel Blunt, which was my guess, it was wrong. I knew at that point it was Rod Martin.

So, yeah, it's fine. Okay. Last one, man. You have only missed two. Okay. How many Super Bowl broadcasts was John Madden a part of? 7, 11, 9, or 13? Okay, I have to count because I know this, but I just have to count.

All right, because I know which Super Bowls that John Madden did. So I just have to count. Of course you do. The first one he did was 16, Niners-Bengals. And that was the first one him and Summerall did. And then, so 16-18, Raiders-Washington and Tampa was on CBS with the two of them. 21.

Manny, I'm going to need an answer before the Super Bowl here. I have to count because I know this. I just have to make sure I get it right. Okay, so 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 31, 33, 36. So him and Tim and Summer all did eight together. And then he did three without Michaels. So I'm gonna say 11.

Not correct. 13, 13. Yep. Yep. Oh, a trick question okay yeah one is a pre-game analyst oh oh look at you useful trivia.com you tricky bastard uh just incredible work here manny you only missed one two three so I have to almost run the table. Which page would you like me to do? One through six.

Well, don't pick one because we already know one of the answers there. Two through six, two, three, four, or six. Which page? Let's go three. Okay. So do you want, can you read the questions or is it too small on your screen? Do you want me to read the questions? I can read them.

Yep. Okay. Yeah. Why don't you go ahead to read the questions? I can read them. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Why don't you go ahead and read the questions and I'll just scroll for you. Okay. Start with 21 there. All right. Number 21.

Who was the headliner of the first Superbowl halftime show? The Three Stooges, Doc Severinsen, Ella Fitzgeraldald or Elvis Presley and one thing I know is from watching all the old NFL films is how absurd the halftimes were they were ludicrous they were not like bringing out prints so I am going to go with the three stooges and that is correct and also it says that a trumpeter two college marching bands and two men in jet packs and 300 pigeons also perform and that does not surprise me if you watch any of those that they are completely absurd for the halftime shows in fact i think they should bring it back where it's just a total circus and it's not just somebody singing but that's the that's a different story all right

next question one for one i'm coming back what was the first super bowl in which the winning points came on the final play super bowl 14 super bowl 36 super bowl 1 or super bowl 30 and i know this answer but of course you do um i so i don So I don't know this answer because I don't remember the X's and V's and the numbers of Super Bowls. Just do not compute with me. So I'm not going to cheat and ask you which Super Bowls those were. And I'm just going to guess Super Bowl 36. And that is right. Yep.

Vinatieri. Well, I thought that it was one of the Patriots ones I couldn't remember if it was against the Rams or if it was the last play of the game when they came back on the Falcons but I guess it wasn't or was it wasn't it over time uh the first Patriots Rams one no that was as time expired Vinatieri kicked that ball with like, there was like six seconds left on the clock and he made it as time expired in the fourth quarter. Right, right, right.

Oh, but they also won on the, was it, who was it, James White in the Super Bowl? But the question is the first Super Bowl in which the winning points came on the final play. So not the only one, but just the first one. Okay. So I have gone now two for two. Now on to the next question.

What traditional ingredient was missing from Super Bowl 45? I think that's 45. Yeah. Goalposts, referees, TV cameras, cheerleaders. It's probably pretty easy. So was Super Bowl 40, well, how could you do it with the other three? Was that the COVID year? No, that was Packers-Steelers, Super Bowl 45.

Oh, Packers-Steelers. Well, couldn't have not had goalposts, referees, or TV cameras. Must not have had cheerleaders. Thank you, Useful Trivia trivia for giving me a freebie. I am on pace to keep up here. All right. Next question. I didn't know it didn't have cheerleaders.

That's odd. I actually didn't know that either, but I just looked at the other three. It was like, Oh, those teams don't have them. Yeah. Those teams don't have all that's right.

Yeah. That's why I was like, what did the cheerleaders do? Miss the bus. They don't have them.'s right yeah that's why i was like what did the cheerleaders do miss the bus they don't have them yeah all right next question uh you probably know this one what was the first team to win five super bowls why why am i questioning myself on this i feel like this is a free throw that I'm going to choke. It's a little bit of a tricky one, but I know what the answer is.

First one to five Super Bowls. It feels like that answer should be the Steelers, but now I'm not. No, it must be the 49ers. Maybe. All these teams have lots of Super Bowls. I'm going to pick the 49ers. And that is right.

Okay. Yep. All right. Okay. I'm on a roll, Manny. Are you getting nervous? I see you sweating over there. I am getting a little nervous.

Yeah. John Madden got you with that trick question. All right. On to the next one? How many official footballs does each team get for the Superbowl? I have no idea. What the hell? I have no idea what this is. I have to be honest. This is this useful trivia.com has been great. Like this, these are great questions, But this one's absurd.

And screw you, useful trivia. I have no idea how many footballs. Let's see. 18, 88, 48, or 108 are the answers. 108 seems excessive. 18 seems like too few. I'm just going to go with 48 or 88. How many footballs does each team get or does 18 actually make sense because they have

the kicking balls God how would anyone know this I'm gonna go 48 dang the answer no oh my gosh it's 108 oh for practice trivia.com yeah yeah all right It's 108. Oh, for practice. UsefulTrivia.com. Tricky, yeah. All right, there's my first L, and I missed three times, so it didn't even matter.

All right, next one. What team won the lowest scoring game in Super Bowl history? The Patriots, the Dolphins, the Steelers, or the Cowboys? And I know this answer. Okay. the stealers or the cowboys and i know this answer okay so i think in i'm thinking the dolphins here you know this answer so um i'm gonna make your face bigger and see if i can read your face no no you're not giving away the answer. All right. I don't know this one. I'm guessing this was a really long time ago. Is this the Dolphins?

No. Steelers must have been. No. Patriots. Oh, 13-3. It was recent. See, what was the score? Do you remember the score when the 72 Dolphins won the Super Bowl?

It's 14-7, Super Bowl VII. That was the one that was on my mind. It was the lowest scoring one until the Patriots ran from a couple years ago. Only because Jared Goff overthrew a dude in the end zone. That's the only reason why. All right, so now I'm struggling. Now I've missed the last two. All right. What player holds the record for most consecutive completions in a super bowl bill sims joe montana troy acheman or tom brady i think i know this one too yeah this feels like

a tom brady stat but most consecutive completions i want to say i want to say it was Troy Aikman. This sounds like one of those things when they blew out the bills that they were like, Oh, Troy Aikman set this record for most completions. And yet it, I mean, recently it's become much more easy to complete a bunch of passes.

So Brady or Aikman feels like kind of an old school stat. I guess I'm just going to brady okay okay i needed that i needed that i needed i needed a hit there all right next one this one is ridiculous what was the first super bowl to feature y-shaped goal posts i'm not even sure I know this one. Super Bowl VII, Super Bowl IV, Super Bowl II, or Super Bowl X? And we mentioned Patrick Royce. One of his favorite stories is showing up at the Super Bowl between Kansas City and the Vikings and seeing Jan Stenrud, the Hall of Fame kicker, making them from like 50 yards and being like, we're scrapped.

But I don't know if they were Y shaped. So 12, what is a Superbowl nine? It couldn't have been. No, it's, it's seven, four, two,

and 10. Oh, four. Yeah. Can you tell that I can't read Roman numerals? It doesn't feel like this must've lasted very long. Let's go Superbowl four. Yeah. Can you tell that I can't read Roman numerals? It doesn't feel like this must have lasted very long. Let's go Super Bowl four. Dang.

What was it? Super Bowl two. Oh, so they got right to it then. Packers. I've never taken note of the goalposts. So now I have missed three and now I need to go two for two to tie. So let's give it a shot. What Dallas defensive back had two interceptions in Super Bowl 30.

If you get this wrong, you're just because you should know. You should know. Yeah, that's a Neil O'Donnell throwing. Yeah. Neil O'Donnell throwing to Larry Brown. Yeah, that was he won the MVP. Now this one for the tie, I have no idea. So go ahead.

I know this either. What player was knocked out cold in Super Bowl I? Len Dawson, Fred Williamson, Boyd Dowler, or Bart Starr? Can I call Patrick Royce for the phone a friend? Well, I don't think it was bart star len dawson fred williamson or boy dollar are two people i've never heard of in my entire life i know fred williamson is because he later became an actor okay well i I'm going to guess Boyd Fowler, and I got it wrong. It was Fred Williamson. Fred the Hammer Williamson.

For the loss, I could not remember the first Super Bowl ever and him getting knocked out. I'm sorry that that happened to you, Fred. And that's how I lose the trivia game. But, you know, I would say this. The best man won. The best man at Super Bowl trivia. and pretty much any type of NFL knowing stuff from history that I know Manny Hill with the victory. Congratulations,

Manny. We'll figure out, I'll, I'll get you a, a diet, Dr. Pepper. I'll gladly accept.

That's what you'll get. So, well, anyway, we're going to say this to finish it off who manny do you think will win the game i am going to pick kansas city i think i'm going to root for san francisco because i think it'd be cool for them to finally win one after coming so close to last few years um but i think i I think Kansas City's defense is going to make things challenging for Brock Purdy in that offense.

And I think Patrick Mahomes, being the all-time great that he is, is just going to make some plays, make enough plays. Him and Kelsey are going to do it. And I'm going to take Kansas City to win 24 to 20. I am also picking Kansas City, and I'm going to go 28 to 24. And I think that Steve Spagnuolo is going to be in part the MVP of this game. And I think he's going to make it very difficult on Brock Purdy. And then we'll have a whole offseason of debating whether Brock Purdy is good enough, despite the fact he made the Super Bowll because that's what we do. That is my prediction,

but San Francisco was number one in passing EPA this year. One of those top number one teams in passing. And, uh, if they can get their playmakers, the football and get moving, we'll see. I just don't trust Steve Wilkes, man. This has been since, since Steve Wilkes sent a zero blitz against the Vikings at the end of the half and Jordan Addison caught that touchdown. I have not trusted him. And I feel like that take has continued to work. Like the Packers moved the ball and had open receivers, Detroit moved the ball and had open receivers. They just dropped it. And you know, we end up with San Francisco in the Superbowl, despite not having great defensive performances,

which is actually kind of weird. But I think if you don't have a great defensive performance against Patrick Mahomes, you will lose. And I think that's what will happen. So this, I believe, is going to be the last show I do before the Super Bowl. So thank you, Manny. We will do a breakdown on Monday night. But thank you for all of your work this

season and leading up to this. Very excited for the game. Didn't enjoy any of the lead up, not a lot of fun, pomp and circumstance, but I think the football game has the potential to be a classic and maybe it will end up someday on useful trivia.com, but thank you and shout out to them for a lot of fun. Perfect website for Super Bowl trivia. And I am heartbroken to have lost you. But a really, really, really fun lead up to the Super Bowl and season with you, Manny. I'm going to miss breaking down games, following along with each week.

But we've got a lot of fun coming up in the offseason as well. So I will see you Monday night, everybody. Or actually, I'm going to be doing a postgame right after the Super Bowl. But you and I will see each Monday night, everybody. Or actually, I'm going to be doing a postgame right after the Super Bowl, but you and I will see each other on Monday night. So right after the Super Bowl, if you want to hear me talk about it, it'll be here live on YouTube and up on the podcast feed as well. So appreciate everybody playing along. It was a really fun conversation and trivia tonight.

And we'll catch you all later. Football!