Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ROUNDTABLE: Did Vikings ownership change public perception with GM firing?

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Matthew Coller is joined by Brian Murphy and Manny Hill to talk about how the Vikings ownership is viewed by fans now that they made a surprising GM firing move. Plus some Super Bowl trivia. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here. And we've got our roundtable back together, Brian Murphy and Manny Hill here on the show. And for the first half of the show this evening, we are going to have some intense Minnesota Vikings discussion based on what's happened to last week and where things will go into the future. And then a little Super Bowl trivia. Last year we did it. And Um, Murph didn't have a lot of success against Manny, uh, which I guess is probably true for just about 99. Well, the good thing is I've gotten a year older.

So that should only help. And, and look, you've watched some NFL films, John Fissenda on NFL network. I wish they would play even more old NFL film stuff, but that always gets me ready for time. I feel good between one and 35 after bowl, Super Bowl 35. I defer to Manny. All right. Well, I've written, I've written a bunch of different types of questions. and I tried to shape them a little bit more to both of you,

but we'll see. I tried to even it out, like make it a little harder on manny, but it's, he's a tough man to beat. Why don't we begin though, guys, with now that we've had a week,

to really process all the reporting and all of the information that we've gotten out of why Kwayzi Adolfo was let go, what the Minnesota Vikings are looking to accomplish from that based on what their owners said. and all the analysis and breakdowns and all those types of things. Why don't we start with you, Murph?

Because Manning and I have done some on this. Just how do you feel right now about where the Minnesota Vikings stand as an organization post-Quacia dafflemental? Well, on a razor's edge, which they seem to always be, but even more so now. And more so Kevin O'Connell, I mean, the spotlight is truly on him because he's probably going to have a pretty good, if not outsized influence on the draft process and the free agency process. And he's going to have much more of a handle on building the roster that he's going to put out on the field. You obviously have Rob Brzezinski, the long time front office. I mean, 27 years.

There might not be many people in that building that have more tenure than Rob Brzynski. And we all know how he's been able to kind of master the salary cap and bail out the Vikings and tough cap or contract or payroll situations, create some wiggle room, make things work. That's invaluable. He hasn't been sort of ever in charge of maybe personnel and exactly identifying wants and needs. And it'll be interesting to see how the dynamic goes between now and the draft as far as how the Vikings put together a plan for that. But I think what it really speaks to, I mean, I think we're all a little surprised by the timing

of it all. I mean, clearly, three to four weeks after a season ends is kind of a random time to let go your general manager. Usually it's done, if not in season, usually the Monday or Tuesday, if not part of Black Monday, part of that first week of, we're going to pivot here, we're going to recalibrate, we're going to do what we need to do. So, you know, I give the Wolf's credit for really not following that traditional path and sort of being very deliberate about this. They clearly took in a lot of opinions and a lot of information from people about what was working, what wasn't working. But I think what it kind of all boils down to is somebody did have to pay a price for the 2025 season. And at best, misguided expectations, at worst, you know, malfeasance and sort

of evaluating the quarterback situation, what they would be able to do around a second-year quarterback like J.J. McCarthy, who didn't have a lot of experience. The decisions that were made along the way, I mean, you could say there were about 0 for five in quarterback decisions over the last 12 months. And one of those widths, one of those swings and misses, just happens to be playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday. I'm not sure if that was the feather on the scale that finally tipped the wils, or if it was like an anvil watching Sam Darnold celebrate going to the Super Bowl, but it was very difficult, I think, for anybody associated with the Vikings fan, employee, coach, general manager, player to look at what has happened over the last 12 months

at that position and not understand that at this level, somebody's going to have to pay. Mani, here's something I've been thinking about over the last couple days because I just did my first mock draft simulation. And I tried to, I know, right? I tried to do it in like the shoes of Brian Flores and Kevin O'Conn. Like how can you both get the things that you need out of more picks than the Vikings have had in a while? And I traded down and added another pick because I can on the PFF draft simulator.

But I think a prevailing thought for me is how much changes in the short term for the Minnesota Vikings now with Quasi Adopulminza gone. And that's something that I can't come up with other than the operation, other than that the sort of pressure has shifted to someone else. I don't know how much different I expected to be when I already felt like they were kind of drafting for coach needs to begin with, with all they traded up to get Dallas Turner or J.J. McCarthy, which is clearly a Kevin O'Connell led type of draft pick. Donovan Jackson being compared by Quasey to keeping the ball on the fairway last.

year when I'm sure that he was having that analytics itch to trade down as the Atlanta Falcons were dangling a first round draft pick into the future, although he wouldn't have gotten to use it anyway. But you know what I mean? Like it is sort of felt like and then the signings were, you know, some of them made a lot of sense. Other ones were like, are you sure you want to pay that much for that player with that injury history or that regression recently? So how much in your mind does it change for the Vikings approach to this off season, led by Kevin O'Con? Well, I don't know if it changes a lot in terms of, you know, the types of players that they're going to look for or the decisions that they're going to make on, you know, it might change a

little bit in terms of trading up or trading down because, you know, Quasi was more of an analytics driven type of GM where he was thinking more about, you know, trading down as he tried to do, you know, in his first draft in 2022. But I think the biggest change guys that we're going to notice and really pay attention to is you can't blame Quasi anymore. If things go wrong with this draft, if they swing and if they stay at 18 and it's a swing and a miss, if it's, you know, a Lewes scene type of situation, well, Quazy didn't make that pick.

So you can't blame him on it anymore. It's going to fall. There's only one. really into that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, it's, it's Kevin O'Connell and, you know, maybe to a lesser extent, Brian Flores as well. You know, if it's certainly if it's a defensive player that they take at 18,

I would imagine that's going to be heavily influenced by Brian Flores and what he wants to add to his defense. So that to me is going to be like the biggest difference is that the, the guy that everybody wanted to say was a bad drafter for the last, you know, three plus seasons is he's not. not the whipping boy anymore. You can't, you can't blame him for it anymore. Um, so I think the pressure is on from that standpoint, but I don't know if we're going to see a whole lot of, I don't know if we're going to really see a different approach than what we've seen the previous couple of years, because

I think a lot of those decisions were heavily, you know, those draft choices were heavily influenced by the coaching staff anyway. Yeah, I mean, I think that the entire last off season was influenced, It's not just by the coaching staff, but also by ownership as well and just the desire to try to fill every single need. And the irony is that in Quasi Adolph-Felmence's first draft, he cited trying to fill every single need at once as being one of the reasons they may have made some mistakes there. And then last off season it was, well, we need to fill every single need with the best player possible so we can compete with the Los Angeles Rams on a player for player basis because these are the things that got us beat in that playoff. game. And otherwise, though, Murph, I can't think of something specific that we would be able to identify from the outside. I mean, the operation will work differently with Rob Brzezinski, and those rooms will work differently with him at the head of the table. Where I go back and

forth, Murph is part of me thinks with Rob that now him, Kevin O'Connell, Brian Flores, it's sort of a little triangle there of power, if you will. And I think authority, though, authority, sorry. Yeah, it's a triangle of authority. And those guys will work together on this with similar ideas that I'm assuming that they had and wanted to go forward with anyway. But will we be able to actually identify anything? I think it would be, will Rob Brzynski be able to hold the coaching staff back at all

from just chips to the middle of the table of the table. on every single move, any type of long-term approach. Is he going to be able to say, hey, if we do this guys, we're going to be in trouble later. But if you're O'Connell, I think you're specifically saying, what's later? This cap space is for the next guy. These draft picks are for the next guy. So can Rob balance those things with a coach who clearly is going to want to get back to

the playoffs and win a playoff game with possibly a general manager? who are acting general manager, who is going to be with the franchise. I mean, he has been here for a very, very long time. He is trusted by the Wilfs. Rob Brzynsinski will be here and has been through multiple coaching changes.

And so he can go back to his other role, even if they name somebody else the general manager, and he will keep that role and he will be one of the best in the world at it. But the head coach, you know, has different motivations as people around the league like to fire coaches every other season. Yeah, Kevin O'Connell has 2026 and 2026 only on his mind.

As any NFL head coach will, the thing with Brzezinski that's interesting is because he's always been a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, but a respected maybe hard truth teller, not just in terms of the cap, but in terms of, again, are we looking at a one year, three-year, five-year, seven-year window? I don't even know if there are seven-year windows in the NFL, but he is looking at it from an organizational salary cap payroll. How are we managing not just the Wills' money, but how are we being stewards to the franchise? That voice is always going to be important,

but Kevin O'Connell needs to win a playoff game yesterday. And that's not always in alignment with good business or good, solid, long-term business decisions because he has immediate needs that need to be met. And what's interesting is, you know, free agency comes first before the draft. So clearly they're going to identify their needs and how they're going to attack them, whether we have access to them in April via the draft. But where are they going to untangle themselves from the salary cap issues? that Quasi kind of pushed them into last year by trying to compensate or overcompensate for his

lack of draft, success, and mostly depth in building out a roster. He had to go overspend last offseason to try to patch those holes. And it was decidedly mixed. I mean, there were moments when some of those, especially on the defensive side, free agent signing, you know, had moments, but at the wrong moments, kind of at the moments when they were building themselves back up to nine and eight, which wasn't getting them anywhere. But when they were on their way to four and eight, those players were either underperforming or injured or there were many other factors involved that put stress on Brian Flores' defense,

and therefore, when you sign older free agents like Jonathan Allen, you know, we can go down the list, but we know how that effect works cumulatively. throughout the season. So what I think Brazinski brings is sort of a global attitude, a little bit of a bigger picture, put people in the positions to kind of make the decisions that they're best able to make. He's also the Wils Eyes and Years for the next two to three months, essentially, unless he's, you know, sort of auditioning for the role. Nothing in his background suggests that he is. That doesn't mean he's not ambition to, and ambitious enough to want to pursue this, but it seems pretty clear that, you know, Mark

Will said, we're going to look for a GM after the draft. We're going to have Rob bring us, kind of bring this in for a soft landing. So those dynamics, which we very rarely get to see because they're all behind the scenes, but they kind of play out a little bit in free agency decisions that are made, financial commitments that are made, and also what free agency will force them or allow them to do in the draft, you know, from a flexibility standpoint, from a philosophical standpoint, whose fingerprints are going to be on those more, that will be interesting to see in the short term. At the end of the day, though, there may be a new GM by OTAs,

and the question is going to be, what kind of power will that GM have over the 53-man roster after all the key decisions have been made? Right. And I am on record saying that I would like the new structure to not be a triangle, a rhombus, a parallelogram, none of those things. I would like it to be a straight line. I would like it to be a straight line. I would like it to go from the wills to the general manager and then from the general manager to the head coach.

I would like the head coach to answer to the GM and the GM to answer to the owner. A little bit of the struggle there is that O'Connell just signed this massive contract extension. But if they're reevaluating everything and starting to fire people, then I think you can restructure how this thing works. And whether it's Rob Brasinski as the general manager or not, I would like it to work that way. So the GM is making the call on the head coach and the GM and the ownership are in lockstep, not you guys are there vying for your own ideas and power and who the building is buying

into and everything. I would rather it be regardless of how anyone in the building feels about that guy, the GM, that's the guy who is in charge. he is the one that makes the final calls. And if he doesn't like you, then you are going to be fired KOC. And as much as I thought that Buffalo looked a little bit goofy with the way that Brandon Bean fired McDermott and they blamed him for Keon Coleman and like that became real stupid.

But their structure is clearly the general manager is the the guy for the owner. And if he says we need to get rid of the coach, then we are believing in him. And I now think that that's the right way to do it after two times in a row of not really having this work. Here's a question, though, for you, Manny. I always struggle when it comes to fans criticizing the ownership of this team because I look around and go, guys, there are comedy shows that are happening around the NFL. But do you think that the Wilf's view their approval rating as owners, which I think a year ago would have been 99 out of 100, right? After they had won 14 games, then all those free agents signed,

and everything else. Do you think that it has been damaged by the recent events? Not really. I think it's, I think it's fair to question, you know, some of the timing of the way they've done some things of, you know,

you're, you're less than a year removed from giving Quasi and extension. And then you turn around and fire him. And you don't even fire him on, as Murph said, on Black Monday, you wait, you know, three weeks before you actually decide to cut him loose. I think it's fair to sort of ask those sort of questions of, you know, why now, what's up with the timing, that kind of thing. But look, I mean, they have, for the most part, the Wills have allowed for the football people to do the football things and make the football decisions.

They, they, you know, when they gave Rick Spielman the job of general manager in 2011, and, you know, Rick had been with the organization for a handful of years before that. But when Rick took over as GM in 2011, or was it 2012, I think it was after the 3 and 13 season. But, you know, when Rick took over, it was, you know, Rick, you are the general manager, you are making the draft picks, you are signing the free agents, you are making decisions on the head coach, all of that. So they've, for the most part, allowed the football people to do the football things. And I think that's the best way to do it. Now, we can nitpick and say,

hey, you know, the next guy that you bring in as general manager, he needs, the structure needs to be very similar to what it was with Rick Spielman for a number of years. But I think for the most part, they've done about as well as you could ask for from an ownership group. They haven't really meddled. They haven't interfered. They, they stay out of the news cycled. We're not hearing, you know, we're not hearing anything about the Wilf's, you know, getting involved in other outside stuff that has nothing to do with the organization. I mean, they've, they've been, they've been in college. Yeah, no kidding.

That's a whole other can of worms. But, but, you know, they've, they've largely, I think, been, been really good as owners. So I don't know if their reputation has or even should take a hit under this circumstance. I think they identified an issue with sort of the power structure within their football operations, and they made a decision and they said, we got to move on. This current status quo is not good enough, and this is not the way we wanted to be. And so they made a decision. And we can talk about the way they went about it all we want, but ultimately they made a sound decision that they feel very good about. And I think you have to applaud them for having the wherewithal to be able to do it

and not let this situation fester for a couple of more seasons. And then things really get haywire and out of control. So I respect them for making this. decision and and sticking with it and moving forward and going with a different approach. If there's one thing, Murph, that I could say may have changed in the public eye about the Wilf's. I think everybody knows about the class of the organization, how people are treated, the players, how they've graded the ownership in the past. And mostly, I think everyone would agree that the more ownership hands over the decisions to the football people, the better

You know, I've always said that one of the reasons Green Bay is always so successful is because they don't have an owner who jumps in and does crazy stuff. But I do think that this makes them look a little bit disconnected. And maybe also when you start to calculate over the years you go, are they really more reactionary than we think? Now, this had to do with a lot of different dynamics of which I have reported, Kevin Seaford, Alec Lewis, the Star Tribune, you know, everybody. has reported and national outlets on, you know, the disconnect and so forth and things like that.

But it has seemed like they're the last people to get looped into some of this and to make the decision when you do after talking to people. It's like, wait, this has kind of been, you know, bubbling a little bit behind the scenes for a while. And then you have these final meetings and just decide, all right. And then you go through the coach firings, you know, Tice has a nine and seven season. he's out. You have Childress where it's a great year,

it's a bad year, he's out. You have Les Frazier, makes the playoffs, bad year, he's out. Mike Zimmer gets the COVID year, I guess is a pass. The next year after that, he's out. And now we're talking about Kevin O'Connell needing to win in 2026 or probably getting booted.

I know it's the nature of the beast, but it does feel like, and you can't avoid whether it's true or not about Sam Darnold making the Super Bowl, you can't avoid that. as something to, you know, look at and go, odd timing with him making the Super Bowl. I'm not saying that's exactly why I tend to think

Brian Flores returning is much less coincidental. But I think that that viewpoint, Murph has probably changed a little bit of like, how dialed in are you to what's happening here at TCO Performance Center? How dialed in and am I? much less than you, but as somebody that observes this. No, Lerf, the Wilf's, the Wilf's. Yes, I know what you're saying, but what I'm, I don't, it, it looks reactionary. It might feel reactionary.

I think it was more deliberate. The fact that they actually took four weeks, three to four weeks, to four weeks, to make this decision, gather information. You can make the argument, well, they're in New Jersey. Why didn't they, they know this in October? When you look back at the, the, the, the, upshar between the relationship between Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman that seemed obvious to everyone in the building, but wasn't obvious publicly, didn't seem to be obvious to ownership until it got

really debilitative. So you can make the argument that they're a little bit late on the, uh, the upswing, but I also feel like they make decisive decisions. And when you go back to, you, you kind of listed them off. Tice was nine and seven coming out of the, the, the, the McComb's austerity years where he wouldn't spend anything on office supplies, let alone the roster of the stadium. Tice did what he could, but I think that's a situation where the wilts are like, we want our own guy. The Childress firing, I don't think they wanted to make, it became inevitable by his mismanagement and the fiasco of the 2010 season, which was a lot of self-inflicted wounds, mostly from the coaching position, that became a

untenable. I mean, when you're losing 31 to 3 to Green Bay at home in the third quarter and your defensive players are getting in fights on the sideline and the 60,000 people are yelling fire childress. I think the decision's been made. I don't know any owner that could say, we're going to hang with Brad and see what happens. So there was that. Frazier, you know, was kind of a stopgap measure. And the 10 and 6 season he had in 2012 with Adrian Peterson running for 2,000 yards fell apart because he had to start Joe Webb in a playoff game at Lambo Field. But I felt that was like a not a very confidence-inspiring team.

And when you follow that up with Ponder and Donovan McNabb and all the calamities that lead to 3 and 13, you have to go as well. So if we go through all these decisions that are made, there's some like, yeah, maybe they're thinking like this. But when the winds are blowing that hard, you do have to pay. attention. I think some owners in all sports make the mistake of burying their heads in the sand and wishing all the bad stuff would go away and really aren't paying attention to that. So if anything, the Wills should at least be credited for being aware of what's going on in the

room. I think as stewards of this franchise, I don't think if you're a fan, you should be really concerned about the Wills. Maybe early on you're like, who are these guys, mall developers from New Jersey coming in and taking over our team and are they going to move them? What are they going to do? Look at the world-class training and facility that they have in Egan that every player in the NFLPA really puts up there, elevates them in, if not the best, the top five franchises for handling players. U.S. Bank Stadium is anybody that's ever been in it. We're a little bit spoiled, but even nationally has a great reputation as being a world-class facility. I'm not concerned about where the Wills are coming from.

They seem to be able to make decisions that are deliberate and educated at the time. And, you know, look, they're allowed to make mistakes and hire the wrong people. They own the team. So they're allowed to blow through coaches and GMs as much as they want. But at least they are recognizing when there are train wrecks occurring in front of them. They're not turning the other way. you could make the argument in a lot of sports with a lot of franchises. Ownership is not plugged in at all and really comes in late.

And then when they do come in late, they take a sledgehammer to things, either publicly or behind the scenes, and it really doesn't help the cause. If anything, Rob Brzezinski represents calm. He represents institutional knowledge. He represents, we're going to get us through these key moments in the off-season. season and then we're going to bring in our person at the, you know, in, in, in the middle of the summer. So if I'm a fan, I'm not, I shouldn't be concerned about the wills. I would be more holding the roster and the people constructing that roster accountable. I also can't help but think

that the Vikings organization would be still viewed as cream of the crop, brilliant, amazing at what they do great operation, et cetera, et cetera, had the quarterback play just been a little bit better and gotten them into the playoffs, even if it had been a little bit above average, they would have made the postseason and then people would have said, you know, hey, wow, uh, the, you know, they made this bold move and they made the playoffs with J.J. McCarthy, et cetera. And that didn't work out. And that's why they say to quarterbacks, you have everybody's fate in that egg that's in your hand. So you got to think about that. And maybe there were times this year where J.J.

McCarthy didn't fully process that in the moment, which probably takes more development of the frontal lobe. But when it comes to Manny, there's one more thing and then we'll have some fun with some Super Bowl trivia. When it comes to Kevin O'Connell then, given the discussion we just had, if I gave you two options of Kevin O'Connell deserves to have 2026 make or break his career as Minnesota Vikings head coached, or you have to sign on the dotted line for four more seasons of Kevin O'Connell guaranteed. Which do you think that, well, which would you do? And which do you think that the Wilfs would pick? Like if they were here now and it was Mark and Ziggy instead of Mani and Murph, like what would they say if I said to them, all right, here's your option, guys,

because I have decided I'm Roger Goodell. I'm the commissioner now. And you can either have your coach be this year is you're going to decide. or you have to sign up for him for multiple more seasons, and those are your only two options. How do you think they would approach that? And then I guess part of that question is really just, is it 2026?

I mean, is it all on 2026 or not? Or do they view this as someone that they would prefer to have their coach for 10 years? So it's make or break 2026 or, or he and he's absolutely the coach and you can't fire Can't fire them until 2030. If I'm the Wilf's, I'm probably leaning more towards, especially, you know, when you consider, you know, the history, I think you're leaning more towards 2026 is make or break. Just because we've kind of seen it and you kind of laid it out where, you know, things don't go well. And, you know, if things don't go well in 2026, you're now talking about two consecutive years. of not making the playoffs.

And the last head coach, you know, Kevin O'Connell's predecessor, missed the playoffs in his last two seasons. And he got fired. And it wasn't even like the bottom fell out. It wasn't like they went three and 14 in those seasons. And Zimmer had a playoff win. Yeah. And Zimmer had a playoff win.

And KOC does not at this point. I think they would be, you know, much more towards 2026, make the playoffs. Now, we could debate over, you know, how much success in 2026 would allow for them to want to keep Kevin O'Connell around. You know, is it, you know, get to the playoffs and win a playoff game, or is getting to the playoffs and playing well in that playoff game and coming up short enough to keep him around? As far as what I would do, I kind of lean towards the same way.

just because I, you know, if things don't go well in 2026, like if they really don't go well, I would have a hard time feeling really good about being locked into somebody for four more years, guaranteed. If I had an out, you know, beyond 2026, you know, I would be open to it because I do think that, We've seen in this league teams be very reactionary when something goes left. And then they fire a coach and then they just never recover. It just, it snowballs into, you know, 10 years of ineptitude. So, you know, that's a, it's a slippery slope.

But, you know, I tend to want to be able to give Kevin O'Connell another shot at drafting a young quarterback and trying to develop him because it's entirely possible that, you know, J.J. McCarthy might not just might not be that good. And it's just because he's not that good. It has nothing to, might not have anything to do with O'Connell's system or the way he, you know, coaches quarterbacks

or anything like that. It's, it's hard to really tell. But I think if I'm the wolf, if I'm leaning much more towards 2026, get it done, get to the playoffs. And if you don't, then we've got to move on. So the answer to me would be that they should go with the four years, which I think Vikings fans are like, wait, no, you can't do that, right? But you also don't want your coach. So what, what have we, what have we been talking about since they fired Quasi has been, well, this kind of means that they're all in. And, you know, are they going to spend whatever to move up in the draft? Are they going to.

spend like crazy and have these contracts that are kicked down into the future. Are they going to sign a quarterback that's a one year solution like bringing Kirk Cousins back or whatever it might be, right? Like there's all these short term type of save my ass moves are the ones that got them in the position where Cui Cui felt like he had to try to trade down and gain a bunch of draft picks to try to fix all the problems because he knew that there wasn't going to be a great cap situation and also then had to tear. apart the old roster that had been extended and extended beyond what a lot of those players

should have been paid because those guys were trying to save their butts. So if you want to make the same mistake again, then yeah, hold it to 2026 because that's what's going to happen is if you put people in short-term pressure, they're going to make short-term decisions. I would prefer to see a coach have the long-term outlook to this offseason, which also might result in developing J.J. McCarthy. Like if you're, if you're on a one year thing,

you're just like, okay, whatever. I, this guy can't, he can't give me the playoffs next year, more likely than not. Give me, give me Kirk, give me Rogers, give me Kyler,

give me Gino, give me somebody who has been to the playoffs before, and we'll just get there in hope. But if you're looking more long term, you're thinking, all right, then JJ needs a chance to develop and, and to maybe,

could win the job, not saying it should be handed to him. And then also you would give him a chance to draft another quarterback. I think when you reach a certain degree of competency, you should be way, way more patient because the grass is not always greener. Everyone dislikes their own coach. Everyone dislikes their own play caller because they see all their weaknesses. And I want him to freaking run on third and one too.

My gosh, hand it to Jordan Mason, dude. But when you look around at how many coaches have been fired, when you look around at how many coaches have just been awful. You're assuming that the next coach is going to be better, but what are the chances that he's better? So I think you should try to be very patient. Same question to you, Murph, and then we'll do some Super Bowl trivia.

I'm not as down on Kevin O'Connell's coaching ability. I think his coaching has, I need to stop moving my camera here, sorry. I just think he's, I think he's been on top, he's managed a quarterback situation that some of it has been self-inflicted, some of it has been like maybe over, you know, overconfidence in his ability to not only coach up J.J. McCarthy, but evaluate him going into an NFL career, which clearly they overestimated. but his ability to hold that room together,

and he's had four seasons that are as fascinating if you were to unpack them all, just looking at what happens, you know, when you lose a quarterback like Kirk Cousins in the middle of the season and are now cycling through a bunch of rehab projects, and yet going into week 17, you still have a chance with Nick Mullins to clinch a playoff spot

to also managing and really rhythm, resurrecting Sam Darnold into the quarterback who's going to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday. I have a hard time balancing that with the evaluation and the confidence in saying J.J. McCarthy, who didn't have a ton of reps in college, is a little bit of an outlier. He's worth putting all of our chips in and saying he's our guy. And then watching that implode throughout the season, both because of injury, poor line play, in experience, hubris, all of the above. And yet, at the end of the day, he finished nine and eight.

Now, to all of us that says it doesn't matter, they didn't play in January, nobody cares. But I used to say last March, last May, last June, I kept posing the same question. If the Vikings finish eight or nine or nine and eight with J.J. McCarthy as their number one quarterback now, I was also assuming he was going to play 16 or 17 games. But if I said that, would you be okay with that? And I'm thinking most people would say, yeah, that sounds great. It's building blocks. However, during that 9 and 8th season, J.J. McCarthy was historically inept and also

showed signs of immaturity that we didn't see coming that Kevin O'Connell and Quasi and others maybe should have seen coming, but didn't or ignored and then foisted this lemon of a 2025 season upon us. So that's a lot to unpack. I do believe, though, that as he, as a locker room manager and as a big picture seeing the big picture, I like Kevin O'Connell a lot, and I think he's got a bright future. The question's going to be, how are we going to measure him this offseason?

How are we going to measure him on the sideline? How are we going to measure him in January when all 17 games are played? because again, are we looking at it's playoffs or bust? Or is it playoffs or bust, but how do they perform in the playoffs? Is it playoffs or bust? What is the quarterback doing? Who is that quarterback? There's a lot to learn still about Kevin O'Connell.

But I think he realizes, I think the organization should realize, and at least the fan base should hold him to the fact that, look, you've had two great seasons, you've had two unconventional seasons, to say the least that were decimated by injuries to your starting quarterback. Also, you made decisions along the way in concert with a fired GM that maybe put yourself in this awkward position. So how is he going to manage himself out of that? If they go 3 and 13, he's gone. If they go 8 and 9, how do they look going 8 and 9? How does the quarterback look going 8 and 9?

And who made the decision to bring that quarterback in? that's, I think, ultimately what we're going to evaluate O'Connell on. But I don't know if another non-playoff year has him walking the plank. It depends on what that non-playoff year looks like and what the next two to three should look like going forward. I think it does. And the reason I think it does is because they went seven and ten. They were four and four with a totally revamped roster and Kirk playing pretty well.

and then they only win three games the rest of the way because Josh Jobs and Nick Mullins and ineptitude from Kevin O'Connell at times in some of those big moments. I mean, the the tush push is the one that comes to mind. But, you know, really leaning on Josh Dobbs to throw the ball against Chicago and then playing it safe at the end of that game was costly. And, you know, we could go through them having T.J. Hawkinson pitched the ball to Josh Dobbs and just the things that happened for them to miss the playoffs. but they did not give him an extension after that.

And I think that that tells us a lot. And I don't know how you'd be more sold on him now than you were, you know, going back from a 13 win season, the culture has already been turned around. The Wilson have just not tolerated missing the postseason. And I tend to think it's going to be that way, which I don't think is entirely wrong. Like you've had your chance.

But the fact that when you feel like you've missed on a quarterback or you have missed on a quarterback, it's going to throw any franchise. for a similar type of loop and usually people do not end up surviving it. So let's get into some trivia here. Last year you guys competed against each other and it wasn't much of a competition. What was the score? I don't even recall.

I think the points were made up. Yeah, I think the points were completely fake. But man, he got most of them. So I've got some questions here starting with trying to build up from easier to harder. And they have been turned a little. little more up on the dial for manny so let's start with this manny uh in the last 20 years uh there have been since heinz ward won the super bowl MVP there have been five non quarterback super bowl MVP can you give me three of them guys who won the MVP that were not

quarterbacks in the last 20 years so give me three out of five uh julian edelman that is one uh thinking of uh santoneo holmes that's correct and uh let's malcolm smith and manny has uh got a hundred points on the board and the other two i thought that would be a 100 question for you the other two white receivers it okay go vaughn miller vaugh and Cooper Cup. Yep, are the other two. All right,

MIRF for 100 points. The last time the Minnesota Vikings were in the Super Bowl was January of 1977. Where was that game played in January of 1977? Well, considering I was a senior in high school that year, I'm pretty confident I know where that game was played. It was that the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. That is correct.

See, that's a 100 MIRF question. 100 year old, your question. Yeah. Yeah, right. Not a great, not a great football contest. I was watching the NFL films recaps running on NFL network with my wife. And she had never seen them before. And she was like, what's the next Super Bowl? I say, you know, other Vikings loss. Let's, let's go get dinner.

And then we'll come back after this. It's not good. It's not a good one. And that's, that's probably the worst part is that none of them were any good. Maybe Pittsburgh was the closest, but still just a nasty looking game. Mani for 200 points, each of you tied now at 100. In the 2003 Super Bowl, the Carolina Panthers had a chance to win the game, but they gave the Patriots a lucky break by kicking the ball out of bounds. Who was it that kicked the ball out of bounds? Actually, a guy who was a pretty good kicker for the Panthers for a long time,

left-footed John Casey. That is correct. I actually knew that one. Oh, you did. Okay. Wasn't it K-A-S-E-Y? Yes. Left-footed.

He really was not. Was he barefoot, too? He was not. I think Rich Carlos was the last bare-footed kicker. But Casey does not get maybe talked about enough is one of the bad way of saying goats of Super Bowl history. But that is one of the biggest miscues that set up the Patriots winning that one. Murf for 200 points in Peyton Manning's lone Super Bowl victory. Who led the Col.

Colts and rushing. This is 2009, correct? That would be 2006. Or no, he lost to New Orleans. Lost to Drew. Yeah, yeah. So 2016, he beat Denver, 2006.

January of 06? Oh, he won two Super Bowl. I said Lone Super Bowl. I'm sorry. Lone Super Bowl with the Colts is what I was supposed to say. Oh, Lone Super Bowl with the Colts. I apologize.

So this is the O.S. I mean, this is the Rintin and really playing in Miami. right? Payton didn't really play in the last one. He was just kind of there, but anyway. Is this against the bears in the rain? Yes. It was. Was Edger and James still playing, or was he with Arizona? He was not still with the Indianapolis Colts. Some tells me it's some tight end that got some long run or something. I don't know who it is. Steal it, Mani. You're going to give it to me already? You're punting on this already? Well, I just, I mean, if you can steal, steal. You're going to beat me anyway.

The Colts leading rusher in that game, right? It was Dominic Rhodes. I think he had 113 yards. Oh, my God. Come on. Why do you know that? I don't mind the name. Why do you know the yardage?

The reason why I know that is because I remember watching that game and thinking like Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning should not have been the MVP of that game. Like it should have been Dominic Rhodes or Joseph Adai. Joseph Adai had like 10 catches in that game. And so yeah, but anyway. All right. I'm already done.

I'm going to. I'm going to valiantly, you know, silver's, there's a lot of pride in a silver medal. For 300 points, Manny. We all know about David Tyree's helmet catch, but someone else that day was the Giants leading wide receiver. Who was the Giants leading wide receiver in the Super Bowl in 2008? Huh. That's a, that's one I got to think.

about. So Tyree, I know Tyree had the helmet catch and he caught the first touchdown in that Super Bowl from from Eli Manning. And Plaxico Burris obviously caught the winner.

Amani Toomer was also on that team. I'm gonna I honestly don't know. But I'm going to guess Plaxico Burris. Well, Mani, that is a really good guess, but it is not correct. You actually said it. It was a Monty tumor who ended up with six catches for 84 yards.

So you were close, but yeah, well, you actually nailed all the receivers on the team, but did not pick the right guess. Plexico Burris had the game winning touchdown, but he only caught two passes for 27. There's only one catch or is that all he. Yeah, I thought he only had Tyree. The winner. No, no, Burris. Uh, Plexico. Yeah, no, Plexico had two. That was it. It was just two. Oh, yeah, too. So, including the winner. Yeah. Yeah.

And this actually happened with John Taylor in the catch from Joe Montana. And there may be a reason that I was looking at that box score for a later question. We'll see. But, Jerry Rice had about 200 yards that game, but John Taylor got the glory. Okay. That shows up later. But for now, Murph, in the 85 Super Bowl blowout by the Chicago Bears, it is most remembered for William Refrigerator Perry scoring a touchdown. but he was not the only one to rush for a TD in that game.

Someone else rushed for two of them. Who was that in the 85 Bears Super Bowl victory over the Patriots that rushed for two touchdowns? Well, I know it wasn't Walter Payton, and I think it gnawed at him to the grave, and it was a very big deal because he didn't score. The Patriots kind of piled on him, and he was not much of a factor. Perry obviously got the glory. I'm going to have to go with Matt Suey, his backup. running back must have had two rushing touchdowns.

The sad part is that you remember. It is Jim McMahon, yes. You remember his backup running back, but it's the wrong guess. It was Jim McMahon. Who would have guessed Jim McMahon would have had two rushing touchdowns that day? Jim McMahon had two. Matt Suey had one.

Perry had another one. And the greatest running back in the history of the league didn't have one. That's on Mike Dicca. It's a shame. It is a very, very big. shame. Mani for 400. He also, he did win the Super Bowl. Like that was, I know how big of a story that wasn't that documentary really, uh, went into it about him not scoring the touchdown. It was like, no one's taking away from Walter Payton's legacy for not getting a touchdown in a total blowout

with one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport, uh, but he took it personally. Man, yeah, it's like not getting a dance on the last dance at the prom. I mean, you know, you, you, you kind of made it there. You know, you at least want to have one more. moment. Fair enough. Mani, there is only one Super Bowl with two former Vikings as the starting quarterbacks pitted against each other, or at least I think so. What Super Bowl would that be? Two Viking quarterbacks pitted against each other. I know what it was. Does he need the number? Does he need the Roman New York? No, I know what it was. It was Super Bowl 37. It was the Buccaneers and the Raiders. Rich Gander versus Brad Johnson. Thought that would take a little more thought. But apparently that was

100 point. Is that what you were looking for? The number or the actual opponents? You were you looking? I was just looking well, that would have been fine. I was looking for just which Super Bowl was it. And man, there's a lot of course. He came up with the number. It wasn't the teams. It wasn't the location or whatever. It was XV, whatever, blah, blah, blah. All right. How about this? How about this? Murph? What is the largest margin of victory ever in a Super Bowl? Um, I believe it Was the, and Manny, you can help me with the number. It would have been the Broncos 49er Super Bowl around 1990.

At the Superdome, I'm going to say 5510. So what is that, 45 points? That is correct. Good job, Merv. That is the biggest blowout. And we what number, Manny? 24, I believe. Thank you.

24. Yep. All right. How about this one, Manny? Who threw the Philly special pass? Here. Nick Foles caught it. We know that.

Was that was that Burton? Was that Tray? Tight end. Man. Is it a tight end? Just can't. Yeah, it was a tight end, yeah. I think I'm going deep into the bag with some of these.

What's his first name? Trey, Trey Burton. I went to like different Super Bowl trivia websites that were like, here's for your Super Bowl party. There's a deep dive. Right. I was like,

I can't use any of this because Manny will go 77 and O. And we got to try to do something, but I thought that might get you. Okay. how about this, well, for Murph, when you mentioned that Jerry Rice, 216 yards in the Super Bowl, John Taylor with the touchdown at the end, Joe Montana allegedly says he sees John Candy in the audience and so forth. Who was the second leading receiver that day? So we know it wasn't John Taylor.

Who was the second leading receiver to Jerry Rice's 216 yards? in the game or on the Niners? In the game. Roger Craig. That's a great guess and that's correct. Roger Craig and there are some rumors that he's going into the Hall of Fame. I hope that's true. I think he is a and he's going to go in as a Viking.

No, he's, I think he was a Viking, right? Was that like 93? 92 or 93. 93. 93. Yeah. Okay.

How about this one, Manny? I was, you'll see how much I was trying. trying here. We know this was, I haven't been keeping track of the points because man, he started taking away with it. But we know that Nick Foles was a backup quarterback who won the Super Bowl. And we know that it happened with, you know, Jeff Hostetler and so forth. But there are two other teams that had quarterbacks that won the Super Bowl that were not the starter for the Ravens and the Panthers specifically. They were not the starting quarterback who won the Super Bowl when they won it in the early 2000s.

Who were the starting quarterbacks for week one for those two teams, the Carolina Panthers 03 and the 2000 Ravens? This is another layup. So for the Ravens, it was Tony Banks. He's right. And I remember the clip when Brian Billick watching that highlight video for the Ravens for that season, Brian Billick goes over to Tony. He says, Tony, we're going to go with Trent here.

We're going to go with Trent. We got to get something going here. So there was that. And then for the Panthers in 2003, I believe it was Rodney Pete. This is awful. This is just a joke. Jake Delome won it, right? Yeah, Jake Delome took over for Rodney Pete getting benched, yes.

What do I even do here? Like, what do I even, Tony Banks and Rodney? I think you're going to have to go into weather conditions, referees, and start, which network? I think that's how deep you got to drill. You can do networks. I can do networks going back probably 40 years. Well, they've alternated for the first blah, blah, blah. But okay, all right.

We're going to have to drill deeper next year. I can flex a little bit. The Cowboys, the three Super Bowls that they won in the 90s, were all on NBC called by Dick Inberg. And it was rare because they had like a five-year run where they did them all or something. It was kind of strange. Yeah. NBC did like two in a row.

I think it had something to do with the Olympics or. something some weird. Probably money. I have no idea, but I'm guessing they ponied up a little more. Can you believe these trivia websites were like, which player forgot his helmet? And it's like, you know, this wouldn't have even, this wouldn't even been interesting.

Okay. How about this one? I'm going to go back to Mani to try to just get something going here. Is he 10 for 10 right now? Which I, well, I missed one. I missed the Amani tumor one.

You missed the Amani tumor one. That was pretty good. how about this? Which quarterback had the highest quarterback rating in a loss in the Super Bowl? Probably, was it Brady against the Eagles? Because he threw for like 500 yards in that game. It was not. It was not. It was actually Matt Ryan. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can I try? Oh, you are. I only have one guess. One of John Elway's losses, he had a great day and probably lost. No, it was Matt Ryan, Murph. That's. Oh. Okay. Against the Patriots.

Okay. How about, Murph, there are two teams that are undefeated and have multiple Super Bowl appearances. Do you know who those two teams are?

Multiple being more than one? So that's usually what multiple means. More than one. They've never lost. And they've been to multiple Super Bowls. Geez. Why don't you both try for this one? Undefeited

than one. I don't have to think about it actually. Now we got something going here. It's not the Steelers. Undefeated more than one. Steelers have lost a couple. Hmm. The, nope, not the Giants.

Giants have lost one. That's a good one. I'd have to think a little bit. Defeated more than one. It's a funny answer, actually. Baltimore Ravens. That's one. Yeah, yeah, good catch.

Do you want me to tell you? There's only two? There's two. You can come up with this because of how funny it is in contrast to the Vikings organization. The Vikings have the most wins without a Super Bowl, but this team never wins anything and then they won two Super Bowls. Why am I drawing a complete blank? Because no one cares about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Oh, Tampa Bay. Okay. Tampa Bay. Yeah. Because they've been to two? They've been to two. They won a bowl. But only one of the greatest defenses of all time.

And then the other one, they were led by the greatest quarterback of all. Yep. And in between, it's just bad and bad and mediocre and bad. If you start 0 and 26 and can claim that trivia answer, that's pretty good. Yeah. All right, fellas, before we wrap up, let's get everybody's official prediction on Fandul. The Seattle Seahawks are four and a half point favorite. favorites with the over under of 45.5 points.

So, Mani, you, I don't know, I guess one trivia. What do you think? Give me your, who wins? Do they cover prediction, et cetera? I think. And Mani closed. He froze right before the prediction. Okay.

Wait, I'm going to get them back in here. Okay. Now give it. That was dramatic. I think, I think Seattle wins. I do think they cover the, what was it, four and a half? I think they'll cover the four and a half. But I think it'll still be a pretty competitive game.

So I'm going to go Seattle 27 to 20. Okay, Murph. Yeah, I like Seattle. I think they're a little more balanced. New England's still sort of an up-and-comer, which sounds strange to say out loud. But I think Darnold has a really good day. Not just because it's an anti-viking's take.

I just feel like it's his moment. And I think he's kind of peaking. So I'm going to go 31 to 26 for a cover Seattle. I'm going to go cover Seattle 2417 because I just think they're the strongest team. But there have been plenty of times in NFL history where everyone was wrong about their Super Bowl predictions. It feels like everyone is on Seattle's side, which then makes me go, wait a minute. Is everybody going to be surprised because it's football, everyone. And something tells me Monday morning we're going to be talking about some player we never heard of doing something good or

bad, but Monday morning, there will be a John Doe moment for somebody. I said last night, guys, that I've got Kyris Tonga plus 7,500 to score a touchdown. So he's going to be the guy. Is he going to rumble? How long is you're going to rumble? I would guess a half a yard is probably the only situation you're doing that. But you never know, with Mike Vrable, you know, he caught a couple of touchdowns himself. Play action.

Mani Hill, Brian Murphy, Murph try again next year for the trivia. And this was fun. Great roundtable, as always, guys. And after this, we'll have a Super Bowl champ. We'll have plenty of time to speculate, come up with offseason ideas, and we'll see if there's any more changes than happen. So thank you guys for your time. And we'll see you both later.

All right. Football. Football, guys. Football.