Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Scott Korzenowski joins for the latest 5 Vikings series, talks Joe Kapp, Randy Moss and more

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

Matthew Coller gets together with his former co-worker Scott Korzenowski, who recently was a host on KFAN and is a lifelong Vikings fan to talk about Korzo's five favorite Vikings of all time. Korzo talks about why Joe Kapp was the coolest and all the great early moments from the 70s that made him a Vikings fan. Not to mention how his favorite players connect with moments with his father and why he couldn't get enough of watching Randy Moss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics, continuing our Five Vikings series with my friend Scott Korzenowski, who before COVID and furloughs, and we know all about this on this show, Scott, you were hosting on KFAN. You're also a lawyer. We used to also work together and we would have some great times previewing Vikings games on 1500. So what's up, man? How are you? You know, other than COVID, you feel bad for everybody, but other than the fact I did get furloughed from the fan, hopefully they'll have me back someday. My family and I are doing well. Business is good. I'm still employed, so I'm one of the lucky ones.

That's good to hear, man. And the reason I wanted to bring you on as part of the Five Vikings is, A, you're always there for me if I need law advice. So that's one. So now you have to do even more work lifelong Vikings fan and being able to go way back in the day and also having unique perspectives on the current Vikings. So I think you've always got something interesting to say. So I asked you to, like others, make a list of your top five favorite Vikings. And I have your list, and I think we should just dive into it because I love your first pick which is Case

Keenum you're going to have to explain to me Scott why Case Keenum is one of your five favorite Vikings of all time you've been watching since the 70s well and you know I'm going to ask a favor I think I I think I need to go in I think I need to go in the reverse order can I do that start with my number one and I'll tell you why because the reason why Case Keenum is my fifth favorite Viking, I think I'll explain it to you if you wait. I think it would be best. I want to start with my number one. Okay, yeah.

I was going to go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, but let's go number one. And I want to go number one because they're really, I kind of told them, I kind of have them listed chronologically as well. As a lawyer, when I'm drafting briefs or I'm telling my story, everything I do is chronological. It's amazing when you get all these documents and you wade through them and your clients tell you what happened in the case. And you wade through all these documents and all these emails now you have nowadays and text messages. And you get, this case I'm going to trial on, I think we, both sides produced over 11,000 pages of documents. Oh my. This case I'm going to trial on, I think both sides produced over 11,000 pages of documents.

And so you take a lot of time, but when you put them together and read them chronologically, they tell a story. And so I think these five Vikings that I picked tell a story about where I was at that time in my life and why those guys meant so much to me as a sports fan because almost everything in my life I remember by sports you know when was my son born I remembered it was right before the twins went to the world series when did this happen good and bad things when did my dad die my dad died you know right after I was when I was down visiting him and my dad's gonna be a big part of this right after the famous Vikings game where the Cardinals got like five fourth downs and scored a touchdown. That was one of the last times I talked to my dad was that day. So now I don't remember dates. I can go back and look that game up and know that exact date. And that's kind of what

this story is about for me. When the Vikings pulled off the miracle, the Minnesota miracle, Minneapolis miracle, I literally looked up in the sky and, like, looked up to my dad because I thought there would be nobody else that I would have liked to have been with as much in that moment. And I literally said, I said, Dad, we're going to the Super Bowl. I said that in my living room. There's been a couple times, and I'll have some stories in here, when I got tripped up by myself thinking it was going to happen, and it didn't.

And so I'm going to start with Joe Capp. Okay. Joe Capp is my all-time favorite Viking and probably my second all-time favorite Minnesota sports figure, number one being Kevin Garnett. And Kirby Puckett's certainly on that list, although he would only probably be – I mean, my favorite twin growing up was Rod Crew. So Joe Capp was on that list, and I was telling you before the show, it kind of goes back to 1968.

I was eight years old, probably not even eight years old yet. It was a 68 season, so maybe early 69. It was a playoff game from the 68 season, and I hadn't watched the Vikings yet. I was only eight years old. My dad was a big sports fan, and he's watching this game, and I said, he goes, the Vikings are in the playoffs, and I said, what Vikings and he said well they're they're the professional sports team this is the first time they made the playoffs and what are the playoffs and you have to be good in the race he explains all the players and I and I sat down and started watching that game they're playing the Baltimore Colts who of course that year went on to lose the probably still one of the most famous Super Bowls ever Super Bowl III when they lost to Joe Namath and the Jets.

Because that Colts team was a powerhouse. And Colts team was – that was one of the great teams of all time. And the Vikings really had very little chance. Kind of hung with them, but they were outclassed in that game. And my dad had kind of explained that to me. But I remember my dad left, and I watched the rest of the game until the end. And now I was all in on the Vikings. And so 1969 hits and Joe Cap is their quarterback. And I know almost nothing about him.

And the Vikings that year finished 12 and two, they lost their first game and they lost their last game. So in the middle, they won 12 straight games. And I was so enamored with Joe Cap because he would run the ball. He would run guys over his He almost never threw a spiral. He was fearless. He was the man of machismo is what he called himself. And Joe Cap, in that season, the Vikings, when they won the middle 12 games,

my dad had explained to me that the Vikings used to have Fran Tarkenton. That's who they lost to in game one. They had traded him a couple years earlier. They lose to the Giants in the first game. I can't remember who they lost to in the last game. It might have been the Falcons, but I can't remember for sure. But it kind of didn't matter. And my dad takes me to the game when they're playing the Los Angeles Rams

playoff game at old Met Stadium. And Met Stadium was a god-awful football stadium. It just was one of the worst. And my dad takes me, and we're sitting right behind home plate. These would have been great baseball seats, and they were dreadful football seats. And we're sitting there, and this couple sits next to us, and they're from Los Angeles. And it's, you know, probably like 10 degrees out or 15 degrees out. You know, my dad had the thermos with some coffee and something else in it.

He had a coffee for my hot chocolate, he had blankets and he had the whole thing and we're all bundled up and we were used to this. And this young couple sits there, probably in their 30s, sits down next to us and the guy's wearing a raincoat and like totes on his, and he's got like driving gloves on. And my dad looks at me and says, you aren't from, and they said, no, we're from Los Angeles. And my dad says, you're going to need some help. So he gives us our blankets. He's pouring him his whiskey and coffee.

And so we became fast friends with this couple next to us who are Rams fans. But in that game, the Vikings were down 17 to 7. And they go on at halftime. And we found out later that, you know, Joe Cap was raging in the locker room. He hurdles a guy. One of the touchdowns he scored to give them the lead is Joe Cap is running to the left. And he was clumsy and awkward. If you've seen any highlights of him, if you can go find the YouTube of the Rams game

and the Vikings game from 1969, do it. Because everything about it now would be illegal. I mean, there's a play in that game when Carl Eller gets sacks Roman Gabriel, who was like 6'8", and was probably my most favorite non-Viking player. I loved Roman Gabriel, and I loved the Rams other than the Vikings. And Carl Eller picks him up at the goal line, so he probably was on like the half-yard line, and body slammed him into the end zone.

So today it would have been placed at the one, and Carl Eller would have gotten a 15-yard penalty. Back then it was a safety. And that's it. So then Carl Eller, or excuse me, not Carl Eller, Joe Capp hurdles a guy at the goal line to score. Vikings go up 22-20. Joe Capp that year became my favorite the way he threw. He threw, I think, seven touchdown passes in a game that season. I tied the NFL record. I think he threw six or seven touchdown passes. In the next game, which my dad didn't take me to,

where the Vikings beat the Cleveland Browns, in the, what is, everybody, Vikings fans, the NFL championship game. The Vikings do have an NFL championship, by the way, because the Super Bowl, the merger occurred the next year, and they beat Houston, or Cleveland Browns, like 50 to seven or something. And in that game, Joe Capp tried to hurdle a linebacker.

I think his name was Ken Houston. I'm not sure. I didn't look it up. And knocked him out. Joe Capp hurdled him, hit him so hard, the linebacker. This was Joe Capp. And that Super Bowl game, I was nine years old. And, you know, the Vikings basically had lost no games.

The first game they lost, I wasn't really paying that attention, and the one they lost at the end of the year didn't matter. Right. And they're playing the Chiefs from the AFL. I mean, give me a break. I mean, the Vikings are like 13-and-a-half-point favorites. It never occurred to me that they would lose. And I've got to tell you, the game that I watched yesterday,

while I kind of was rooting for the Chiefs for some financial reasons, I was glad to see, even though everybody involved with the Chiefs, does one of the Hunts still own them? Do the Hunts still own the Chiefs? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so the ownership is the same. It's got to suffer what the Vikings fans suffered that day, where you have this offense that was unstoppable and could do nothing.

And where it was almost, and it was just like the whole game, the Vikings are coming back. The Vikings are coming back. And then they weren't coming back. I mean, the Vikings are down nine, nothing that the defense was hanging in there.

Jan Stennerud, who later became a Viking kick three. They're down nine, nothing at halftime. I mean, yesterday's game reminded me so much of that. Cause you just kept thinking they're going to come back, and they never did, and they never got close,

and the Vikings never got close. So the Chiefs take that, I guess, as they finally got to suffer what we did. But the number one thing I remember about that season is Joe Capp won the MVP for the Vikings. And you can find this grainy footage because I've gone back to look at it. He gets up at the Leamington Hotel and it's some dark, grainy film, this cheesy-looking table with this horrible-looking wood panel behind him, what buildings looked like back in the late 60s, early 70s. And he gets up and he says, this is not my award and I will not take it.

And he coined the phrase 40 for 60 for 70, which they were going to do. That it was 40 men, that's what all the roster was then for 60 men. And he would never claim to be, that's leadership. And Joe Cap, the Vikings got into a contract squabble with him, and he went to, of all teams, the New England Patriots, and he failed there. Yeah, yep. Much like Case Keenum did. We'll get to that later.

So that's why Joe Cap is number one for me. Well, Joe Cap, for anybody who is not of your age, Scott, has the coolest aesthetic from back in the day, like a classic this man must have played football. Like remember how Washington had the quarterback that had no chin strap? Joe Cap wore his chin strap kind of on his, like, Adam's apple. I don't know why guys didn't want to wear the chin strap, but he had the single bar,

like the kicker helmet. And he looked like a guy who had just come out of a bar and stepped in. He did not look like a pro athlete at all. He kind of looked like a linebacker in terms of his size and girth. And I could see why when I put it out there about who's the coolest quarterback of all time who's ever played for the Vikings, anybody who saw Joe Cap play was listing Joe Cap in my Twitter mentions because of just how he looked and how he played the game.

And he was a Latino, Mexican, I think. But he was the man of machismo. I mean, you hear the word macho. It comes from machismo. He was your macho guy, but in the real way, not the, oh, I'm going to lift weights. The real way that he led the team, the real way that if he had to run over a linebacker, I'll do it. You know, I'll run over the linebacker. I will do what it takes to win the games for this team.

And he was the leader. He wanted no – he was the leader of that team. And that's one of my first lessons in the Vikings game is how much I wept after that Super Bowl IV. And then Joe Capp leaves. So I was trained as an early Minnesota fan that this is what happens when you are a Minnesota fan. The first Tw twins team I like

was 1969 they win the playoffs and they get swept they lose a game by one run they lose a game by one run and then get outscored 11 to 3 or something in game three at home uh and Billy Martin got fired because he wouldn't start the picture that Calvin Griffith wanted him to uh so I mean this was what I learned early on but it still took me decades really till I accepted it so Joe Cap uh number one. And still happening with the Minnesota Twins, by the way. Yes. Right? It's amazing.

The fact that the Minnesota Timberwolves have won more playoff games than the Twins over the last 20 years is really kind of a shock. The last 10 years. The Minnesota Timberwolves have won one playoff game. The Minnesota Twins have won zero. Right. And the Vikings have won two. So, yeah.

Well, anyway, there's a lot that has happened here. So your next guy on the list is Alan Page, who I've said has a case for the world's greatest human. Considering what he accomplished as a football player and then his post-career and the man he continues to be today is truly incredible but I don't know as much about him as a player other than to know that he was great but even then it's hard to find like statistics about teams like that because they didn't keep track of the sacks and I can only imagine how many sacks the purple people leaders defense line had but another guy who had the coolest aesthetic I mean just the number and his face mask and then just like this monster sized guy at the time um that wouldn't be a monster sized

guy today but um there's so many things that are just cool about him from the perspective of someone who never watched him play but you're gonna have to tell me why you loved watching him so much well one you know I mean I think he, when, when people are saying who are the greatest Vikings players of all time, you know, you're going to have sort of, I think most people would put Alan Page number one. I think most as far as the defensive player, you know, him and LT, the only two players who have ever won the NFL MVP defensive players have

won it. You know, LT is usually considered one or two on the best NFL players list. By the way, I think that's now Tom Brady. Tom Brady's been the goat of quarterbacks for a long time. But even guys like me, I go, well, he's not a great athlete. He can't run. His arm isn't that strong. He's a system quarterback who's just taking it to the extreme.

Well, no, those discussions are over. When you go and take over Tampa Bay, 7-9 nine last year hadn't been in the playoffs 13 years and yeah Tampa Bay has talent they do but he he takes there's just something about him that I think if you're saying who's the greatest NFL player of all time I think it's got to be Tom Brady that's for another day I agree but but LT's always up on the list, and Page is somewhere in the 20 range, probably, but he's not nearly as high, and I don't know why, but I'll tell you where it started with Alan Page. It started with my father. My father loved Alan Page and loved him as a player, and that same game, that 1969 game, we're at the game, and my dad would always say, you got to watch Alan

Page on this play. You got to watch Alan Page on this play. You've got to watch Alan Page on this play. And it was 22-20 after Cap had hurdled the guy to go in the end zone and after Carl Eller had flung down 6'8 Roman Gabriel and body slammed him in the end zone for safety. And the Rams are moving down the field. The great Roman Gabriel is bringing it. And they're just past midfield. And in those days, the Gold Coast were on the goal line.

Right. So, you know, if they got down down to the 40 they were going to have a shot you know there was me a 47 yard field where they were it was already like a 53 yard field goal so they were getting close to being in field goal rings there were another seven eight yards away and if they kick the field goal they win Vikings up 22 20. Alan Page gets called for jumping the snap. And my dad was beside himself and he said he didn't jump the snap. They said he is so quick off the ball that the referees think he jumped off the snap, but he didn't. And Alan Page was rarely in a moment. He is like, he's, he's livid. He's, he's losing. I mean, here he's giving up five yards. Now they're down to like the 44-yard line. There's a minute to go in a game, and Page is beside himself because he knew he wasn't offside.

And it wasn't like the Yahoos yesterday in the Super Bowl. Two guys lined up a yard offside when they were doing the kick. And my dad just said, watch him on this play. And I did. And he took a guy, and he flung – he took the guard and flung him to the side and he comes in and he is coming straight it looked like yesterday it looked like Shaq Barrett coming in just coming in untouched and all of a sudden Roman Gabriel sees it and thinks I have got to get rid of this thing and he throws it tries to just throw it over and Alan Page deflects it in the air

and the ball comes down and he catches it and Roman Gabriel tackles him and you wrote and page you can find this history holds the ball in his upper right hand and he sprints sprints with it to the Vikings bench because they won the first playoff game they'd ever won in their history and I I was amazed my dad told me to watch him on that play and it's one of the greatest plays in Vikings history and I got to see that whole play without being distracted by watching the ball or anything else. So I became very enamored with the Vikings. And you look at that,

that front four that they had Carl Eller hall of fame, Alan Page hall of fame, you know, Jim Marshall should be in the hall of fame. Yeah. And then they had Gary Larson and then Doug Sutherland later that, you know, the Vikings,

the purple people eaters, of course, they're playing the Rams who were the, the, what were they called? The Four Norsemen. I thought the Rams had a name too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen and a couple other guys. I mean, some serious guys. Those are usually the two best. Then when the Steel Curtain came. You don't see a lot of names for front fours anywhere, but in those Steel Curtain, I mean, how much Purple People Eaters, the Four Norsemen – or not the Four Norsemen. Oh, God, I can't remember what the Rams were called.

Fearsome Foursome. Fearsome Foursome, yeah. Yeah. Those are some names right there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were organic. You know, they were organic names. They were good. So I think Alan Page was at the heart of the Vikings' defense.

Now, I have a couple stories later as to why you said what a good human being he is. He got into it late in his career with bud grant and and by the way i follow alan page on twitter and the other day he tweeted a picture because he likes to run around the lakes and he was all frozen because he was running i saw that i saw that and so alan page believed because he didn't want to get you know he back in those days he was already light for a tackle he weighed about 250 260 you know nowadays tackles are weighing, what, 320, 310, 320? They're different now than they were then. Page was probably, I would say tackles back in those days weighed 270, 280.

So they were much smaller back then. You know, you can, is it weightlifting, is it steroids, is it whatever it is, but they were just much smaller. And Page decided, I'm getting later in my career, I can lose weight. And he was playing at 228 can you imagine that wow yeah he was playing at 220 and bud grant said you have to stop he goes he goes if you don't put on weight i'm gonna and he did he wouldn't put on weight and he got traded to the bears and so i already respected on page because he stood up for

himself as much as i love bud grant i respected that one time many years later maybe 20 years ago now 30 years ago now i was playing golf out at a golf course down in southern minnesota and i get paired up with bob lertzema and gary zahner gary zahner was the viking special teams coach yeah i know bob lertzema the benchwarmer bob who made a career out of being a benchwarmer doing tcf ads but you know lertzema had a good good NFL career as kind of a rotational tackle. Who would come in, fill in, never started, Benchwarm or Bob. And I got talking to him about, and he gave me a lot of great insight into Alan Page and how much Bud Grant was frustrated because he'd be sitting in the locker room reading his law books.

He'd eventually trade him. Well, in my legal career, I then clerked for the state supreme court in 1995-96 so i got to know alan page a little bit there and one of the things i learned about him there is they would the each of the justices there were nine of them would have two clerks each so they're like 18 clerks they would throw like little events for the for the law clerks and so he threw one he threw like an ice cream social in his chambers the just big glorified office and it was really nice offices and he's playing abba and i got talking to him and i said why are you playing abba and he wasn't joking he says that's my favorite music and he would hardly ever talk about football because he was so proud of his legal career.

Yeah. But, you know, we were up there for a while, and I started talking to him about the great Michigan State 10-10 tie between Michigan State and Notre Dame. So many good NFL players played in that game. Clint Jones, who was on Michigan State, the Vikings drafted early, I think in the same draft as Alan Page. And he got talking about that game, and he got talking about high school football. And you could tell that he doesn't talk about it, but if you get him in the right mood, obviously he loved football. And one of the all-time greats, right?

I mean, just a great player, great human, made great plays, stood up for himself. See, I love Alan Page. I bet Alan Page was on Royce's list. Was he not? Let's see. Was he? Yeah, I think he was. He must have been.

He must have been. Or maybe he was a – yeah, shoot. Well, he might not have liked him because he might have been less of a character. Royce likes the character. Yeah, I think that might be why he wasn't. But he said clearly Alan Page is to him the number one Viking of all time. But John Randall was more of a character, so I think he included him. But I'd have to go back now and check if he was actually on his list

or if he was honorable mention. I can't remember. But his post-career stuff is how I've always known Alan Page. And one thing I would just suggest to anybody is just go to his Wikipedia, and you'll be like, if you had his NFL career, that alone would get you through a lifetime of greatness, right? And then, you know, the second part of his career, how he treats people, how he plays his, what is it, trombone for the people?

Oh, I know, it's tuba. Tuba, plays tuba, that's right. During the marathon. Right, during the marathon. Like, just this super interesting character who has such a great mind. During his Hall of Fame speech, he talked about how important education is. I mean, think about that. Like most guys stand up there and they talk about how great their lives were,

and they say thanks, Mom, and thanks to my teammates and all that sort of thing. And Alan Page was talking about society and how we need to improve it during his own Hall of Fame speech, which I think really speaks to who he is. And on that front, he's building a school. I saw that. He's building a school. And he also has within his house an incredible collection of signs and other things related to when our country was segregated. And it's like a great museum to that horrible time in our society.

He doesn't want people to forget. And the reason that he wants to talk about that, because he's always been a guy that wants to use his platform for that. In effect, he has this fundraiser we used to go to where he sends you a bow tie. And I remember there I took a picture with Roger Goodell. I mean, there'd be some great – it would raise a lot of money. And it's all for raising money for scholarships for kids who need help getting to school. And they're called Alan Page graduates, and they come in. So he's a great human being and, you know, a wonderful guy.

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It's appointment listening. It really is. Okay, so correction on Royce. The reason he didn't have Alan Page was because he didn't cover him. So I did with Royce his five favorites to cover specifically as a journalist. But in terms of best players of all time, he's got Alan Page at number one. Now the next guy on your list, all I know is his resume. Ron Yerry. His resume is unbelievable. I mean, Hall of Famer, seven-time Pro Bowler, six-time All-Pro, a guy

who was the first overall draft pick for the Vikings, but you're going to have to tell me more about him as a player because I've only seen him in slow motion on NFL films, pretty much is my entire knowledge base of Ron Yerry. Well, so Ron Yerry came a little bit later, I think. Maybe, you know, like Joe Cappas. So I get indoctrinated in the Vikings in late 68, early 69. So the 69 season was the first season I really watched. And I don't – when did they draft Yerry?

Maybe 74, 73? Maybe not. I don't even look. But he was later. They drafted him in 68, but he actually didn't really start playing for them until 70. Okay, so he was there at the time. So I'm saying, so as I became more of a student of the game, and, you know, when you're that age, and you're 10 years old, and you're watching the Vikings, now there wasn't ESPN and all that stuff now.

You have the local sports, you have the newspaper, but there was Sports Illustrated, which I got. There was the Sporting News, which I got. I mean, I would Monday, I think that Sports Illustrated was always dated Monday and would always hit my mailbox on Friday. You know, Friday was like the day. You'd go out there and it would always be there. It was dated Monday, but you'd get it the Friday before.

I got Sporting News, too, and I would read and read and read and read and read the sports page and read everything about it. So I knew I'd watch these games with great interest. And I knew Ron Yerry was good because he's not only all pro, he's first team all pro. Like you said, was it six all pro? It was six and seven pro bowls, yep. So six all pros, which is, you know, as an offensive lineman,

five is an automatic ticket. Four you're probably in, but five is an automatic ticket, right? Yeah. So he's a six-time, he's one of the best tackles in the NFL. On a team that had a great offensive line through all those years. The offensive line was so good. I mean, you can, you know, Mick Tinglehoff was a phenomenal player. Grady Alderman.

I mean, they had so many great offensive linemen. And he was right at the top of the list. And, you know, they've only had, you know, you look since then, certainly they had Randall McDaniel and who were the – you just mentioned the other – Randall McDaniel, incredible. Gary Zimmerman. Sorry, the only two Hall of Famers are Yerry – well, Mick Tinglehop is a Hall of Famer now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, and I knew Yerry was good. But as much as my dad loved Joe Capp and loved Alan Page, my God, did he hate Ron Yerry. He hated Ron Yerry. And we'd be watching the games, and Yerry, and I didn't even go back to look this up, but if you would listen to my dad, the only reason Yerry was going was all pro over years because he held all the time. So when he would get a holding call, my dad would go, and I could, because this podcast,

you can say whatever you want, but I'd go, Jesus Christ, Ron, Gary, my dad, there was no Viking other than this guy, first pick in the draft. I mean, surefire Hall of Famer. Yeah. Six-time All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowl player. I mean, objectively, in every category, every measurement, a great player on great offensive lines and great offenses. And he was a very good-looking guy.

He had, like, movie star looks. He was kind of a charismatic guy. And my dad just hated Ron Yerry. Well, this is to an ode to my dad to say, Dad, you hated him so much that I would take it on my own to defend Ron Yerry all the time. Everybody gets called for holding every now and again. You can't be that upset with this guy when he's that good.

I mean, I wasn't breaking down film in those days. But I did know that offensive line was an important position. I guess I learned that well before, you know, a certain GM for the Vikings learned it. I mean, it's an important position. It's not a glorious position. Right. But it's an important position.

So Ron Yerry is there just kind of as a because i remembered so often how much my dad would complain about yeah but he but he's probably not the best offensive lineman i'm sure he's the best tackle the vikings have had from from an objective standpoint and randall mcdaniel's all world you know guard you know randall mcdaniel is going to be ranked higher in the guard echelon in the nfl than yeri is in the tackle echelon. But he's the Vikings' best tackle ever, for sure. And so he was a great player on great teams. And so that kind of completes my kid portion of the picks, is those three guys.

You know, the one my dad loved, the great player who my dad ironically hated, and Joe Kapp, who was, you know, the most my favorite Viking ever. So that's the kid portion of it, which for almost anybody, the portions of being a sports writer as a kid is the best it gets. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And anybody who listens to the show knows how much I enjoy 90s football because that's me that's when I'm growing up and I love that you talk about arguing with your dad about some of these players because that's very much me of growing up debating different things with my dad and fighting over you know this player that player or whatever else even until today Patrick Royce we mentioned him he interviewed my dad for an article he was doing on the Bills. Yeah.

And so he includes, of course, that my dad and I would argue over Josh Allen and how good he liked Josh Allen. I thought he was kind of skeptical of whether he could ever be good. So I guess he wins this round for now, but we'll see. You know, it's funny you mention that because my dad was incredibly negative when he watched the game. Now, some people might, when I was on radio, they might think I'm negative, but I understand that there's another team out there.

I'd say, there's another team out there. I mean, you can't, everything from my dad's perspective was, it was just the Vikings. The other team was nothing. It was like the other team wasn't even there. If the Vikings would do things right, they'd win. If they did things wrong,

they would lose. It wasn't like that. Sometimes the other team is better or sometimes the other team played out of their asses or did, you know, a guy made a great play late in the game, get him covered and everything, and everything goes wrong.

I mean, you know, you look at the famous push off the Nate Wright play, you can argue whether or not that should have been a penalty. You can get mad at the refs for it being a penalty, but you have Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson. I mean, two of the great players of all time, and Nate Wright was trying to guard them.

I mean, Nate Wright wasn't as big as Drew Pearson or as strong as Drew Pearson. I mean, you know, they made a great play, okay? Maybe it should have been a penalty. We can argue that, but you can't take away what a great play. I mean, Nate Wright was right there doing everything he could do. He got beat to the ball by a bigger, stronger, better player than he was. My dad couldn't understand that that happens sometimes. So I would always push back on it, especially in later years. And it is funny how differently people watch games. There are some people who are convinced

even when their team is down by 20 points that they will definitely come back and win. And then there are people when, and I see this in my twitter feed when they're up seven nothing they're still going to lose no matter what so that's that's funny you mentioned say one other thing that's my sister judy uh judy uh my older sister she lives in boston now um and when the vikings were losing to the Steelers' Super Bowl game. And really, I could do – if you ever want to do a podcast on Vikings' Super Bowl games, have me join because I can remember a lot about the pain. They were all different kinds of pain. But the Steelers' pain was this great Vikings offense with Fran Tarkenton.

It would make what Patrick Mahomes did yesterday look like a shootout for his, I mean, the Vikings had like six yards rushing. The Vikings made like 80 yards. There was nothing. They did nothing but turn the ball over. I mean, I think they got six points off of a blocked punt or something. I can't remember. And then, of course, missed the extra point.

But the destruction that the steel curtain put on that Vikings offense that day was epic. And I'm sure there's many, many Superbowl records still out there for inept offense on that Vikings, a Superbowl nine team. But that game, I was so frustrated and I'm now I'm a little older. I'm like 14 or 15 and I'm watching the Superbowl and my parents are used to go to a Superbowl party.

So I wouldn't even be watching with my dad. I'd be watching it. And Judy, my sister had become a big Vikings fan, but she had taken on – well, I'll get to that in a second. So I'm sitting there, and she meant well. She was older than me. She said, Scott, she goes, there's always next year.

Well, when your team is getting their ass kicked in the Super Bowl for the third time in five years, you don't want to hear that. Right, right, right. You want her to say, boy, don't the Vikings suck? And I go, yes, they do. They're terrible. They're terrible. Yes, they are. We agree on how terrible they are. That's what you want her to say boy don't the vikings suck and i go yes they do they're terrible they're terrible yes they are we agree on how terrible they are that's what you want to hear so i took my shoe off and i hit her with it and she goes mom's gonna hear about this and she left the room of course my mom heard about it so the funny thing is judy became my dad and when judy

moved to boston you know 30 years ago she has been riding the tom brady train oh sure 20 years yeah i had her on my show talk about deflate gate yeah because she's she is uh she's she's literally she's crazy tom brady could do no wrong right right looks like fans of a certain form of president think he can do no wrong sure tom brady can do no wrong she she for the most part he does no wrong i got it except for deflate gate okay i think that i'm a true believer in deflate gate i believe they were deflating the footballs and brady's all of a sudden throws his phone away and they dodge a bullet okay and he actually got suspended for it right so so he was convicted of deflating so i had her on my show once just to listen to her rabid nut nutsiness.

Well, her husband takes her to Super Bowl, was it 50? No, the one that was in Houston when they came back and beat the Falcons. That was 51? 51, I think. In Houston, her husband takes her to that game and took the boy. He got the tickets and he brought the whole family to that game. And, of course, that's the 28-3 game. Sure. And at halftime, Judy sends out something on Facebook that

says, the end of an era. And then, of course, the Patriots and Tom Brady, they come back to win. I jokingly sent her a text and I said, I'm so sorry you left and missed the second half of that game. She goes, of course I didn't. She loves Brady. So yesterday,

she starts texting us at how much she hates Tom Brady. That makes no sense to me. I get you might be upset he left, but I was happy that Timberwolves traded Kevin Garnett. And when he won a title with Boston, he was such a great player who played so hard. I was happy to see him go to a place where he could get the one thing you want most when you're a professional athlete. Because he had the money. He has all that.

I get this. Life's going to be good if you never won a title. But we all have our jobs, and we like to have professional success. And he couldn't get it here, and he never asked his way out here, and he won. I'm just shocked that any Patriots fan would be anything other than saying, you know, Tom Brady gave us six Super Bowls in 19 years. We went to nine of them. He wants to go try it somewhere away from Bill Belichick.

I'm going to root for him except for when they're playing my team. I don't get the bitterness of Tom Brady if you're a New England fan. It must have been fun for Sports Talk Radio in Boston because all you have to say is start the show with, are you rooting for Tom Brady? And then you could just sit there for four hours and listen to phone callers yell at each other about whether you're rooting for him or not. I saw Boston had the second highest TV ratings for the game. I thought, well, half of Boston was rooting against him and half of Boston was probably rooting for him in the Super Bowl. So it resulted in everybody watching.

Well, that's funny. And I think a common experience that everyone shares is fighting with their family about sports and whether to root for different things or not. And one other show to Patrick Royce, a column he wrote when Jack Morris left the Twins after one year. I mean, if any Twins fans picking their five favorite Twins, if you don't have Jack Morris on it, you're crazy. I mean, one game. That one game. Forget one season. That one game is one of the greatest moments in Twins history,

one of only a couple of them. And when it was over and the Twins were kind of, the Twins were doing, they were going to offer just enough so he says no so we can save face and he can go to Toronto, which they did with Torrey Hunter. They did it with a lot of guys. And Royce wrote the column and he said, Twins fans complaining about Jack Morris going and cashing in with the

Blue Jays, which he then went on and played, I think, like two more World Series. He said, when he comes into town next time, give him a standing ovation. Right. And he always should. And so that's what they should do. If Brady plays in New England, they should give him a standing ovation. I think maybe they will. Yeah.

And eventually those things usually work out that way, like Favre going back to Green Bay and so forth. So the next guy on your list is much more in my wheelhouse and is on most people's lists, which is Randy Moss. Randy Moss is – and I can tell you when I knew he was going to be on my list. Again, sports – I can always remember where I am when I'm at a game or watching it. The breakout game for him was the Mondayay night game at least for me the

monday night game when they were playing the vikings were heavy underdogs to the packers yep and they're playing in glambo field and i was kind of a foggy night not to be confused with the foggy night where chris dishman made the inter wasn't that chris dishman made the inter that was a similar night yeah this year and what what he did to the packers team that night i'm watching it from a hotel room in washington dc i was down there to listen to go to the Packers team that night, I'm watching it from a hotel room in Washington, D.C. I was down there to listen, to go to the Supreme Court and listen to an argument on a case that I had worked on. And it was going up there. So I got the ticket to go in here and go to the Supreme Court in person, which was quite a great experience for anybody. But for a lawyer, it's pretty cool.

And it's really kind of small. And you sit in there and like 15 minutes before that you have to be in your seat 15 minutes before and then you have to be completely silent for 15 minutes and you're sitting there for 15 minutes and i remember i went to get chaps and then they have these guys with like the armed guards like with the backs to the where the justices sit the justices aren't in there yet and they're they're just looking at everybody to make sure and i reached in my pocket to get some chapstick and the guy comes moving over toward me, and I thought, I take my hand and hold it up.

It was an interesting experience. But I do have a feel for when you have a once-in-a-generation talent. I mean, the way I say about Randy Moss is I think if you took football people and you said, you got one game, your first pick at receiver, I think you'd have to be insane not to take Randy Moss. Don't you agree? Yeah.

I mean, Jerry Rice is great, right? Jerry Rice is – and I always said this about Randy Moss and Jack Nicklaus. I think if you want to have one golfer be your partner in an event or pick him to win a tournament, I would take peak Tiger Woods over peak Jack Nicklaus. Jack Nicklaus had the better career. It was longer. He didn't have injury problems. He didn't have personal problems that derailed him. He had a longer,

he accomplished more in his career than, than, than Tiger Woods did. And Tiger Woods career is not over, but he's at 15 majors with his back problems. He's not passing Jacks 18. Sure. And take nothing away from Jerry Rice. What a tremendous receiver. In fact, if anybody – and maybe this is a ridiculous comparison, but I was trying to think about who does Justin Jefferson remind me of

and a little bit of Jerry Rice. And Justin Jefferson doesn't really – he's no Randy Moss, right? He's not this burner. I mean, he's fast. He's just always open. Yeah. And you're never quite sure why. It's his moves.

It's his technique. It's in a sprint. You know, if you took all the wide receivers in the NFL and sprinted, he wouldn't be the slowest, but I don't think he'd be the fastest. He's not the biggest. He's just always open. That's a good skill to have. And he never drops it.

I mean, but but you know you every time you see him get open and unless you really break down the film and see these incredible routes he runs and that's what jerry where randy moss would just run yeah and the ball would be in the air and and there could be three guys around him and he would sit there and i think his number one ability is one catching the ball was so easy to him. He didn't even have to think about it. And, two, he could get to where the ball was coming. He knew where the ball was coming down before anybody else did. So if you threw it up there, the exact opposite, by the way, of Troy Williamson,

who I would say Troy Williamson's catch radius, if he hung on to it, would be about a foot. Okay? I think if it was two feet to his right he could not make that catch that was the real problem with troy williamson randy moss was the opposite of that if you put the ball up high with his speed you could be 40 yards off target and he might get there yeah because he he's like a great center fielder who the minute the ball's off the bat they know where it's going to end up and one of the i know you don't have children and and may not, but when you hit pop-ups to kids, little kids,

they're like five, six years old, there's always two of them that they've never played before, and you hit them a pop-up and they don't know right where it is. The rest of them have no clue, and it takes tons of repetition to get them to get under it. Well, Randy Moss was doing that too, I'm sure. He could just do it. And then the other thing he did that I loved is he'd run out there

and as the poor defender is chasing him and thinking, as soon as he looks for that ball, as soon as he raises his hands, I'm going to stick my hand up. And Randy would just keep his hands down his waist. He would just stick his hands out, and it would drop in, and the defender had no idea the ball was coming because he wouldn't let them know it. And I don't know if you covered Randy Moss much,

but I know Judd Zolgad, he's talked about how smart Randy Moss was and how he would study cards and he knew the game. He knew how to get open. He knew what to do. And we see his broadcast career now, very smart guy. And so when you have a once in a generational talent like that, and the Vikings got to enjoy him for eight, nine years, you know, that's pretty good. And I remember one other play, the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game, we had three catches for 163 yards and three touchdowns.

That's the perfect Randy Moss game. Randy Moss is not a guy who you're going to throw the ball to, you know, the Randy rule. He's not a guy who you're going to sit there and go, dink, donk, dink, donk, dink, come over the middle. No, no. Three catches, 163 yards. He's the home run hitter.

He's the slugger. He takes the top off your – and it's so fun to have guys like that. And, you know, when I was a kid, Sammy White – I loved Sammy White. It was the first guy when Fran Tarkenden got him. And Sammy White had a lisp, and Fran was very shy. And Fran Tarkenden pulled him aside. I read this in the Star Tribune. He said, stick with me, son.

I'm going to make you a star. Randy Moss didn't need anyone to make him a star, although he had quarterbacks that were good at it. Guys that could throw along, you know, with what Randall with, you know, he had guys that could throw along. Randall Cunningham and was Randall. Yeah. And then Donnelly Culpepper called great quarterbacks for him.

And so he was just so fun to watch. And the fear that he'd bring to the Packers made it worthwhile as well. And the off field stuff, you know, it was just silly off field stuff. And the sense I always got from him, you know, he's never,

as I've known, other, he had that little run in with the parking lady. I don't think he'd get charged. Maybe you got him. I mean, you never hear him getting arrested or having any serious problems. If you read about his history,

I just think he was a guy that, that authority had let him down his whole life. And he did not trust authority. He just didn't. But he's not a bad guy. Obviously, he's gone and have a great post career at doing it. And he was just so much fun to watch. Hey, everyone, we're in the full swing of winter now. And SodaStick has you covered. If you're a hockey fan, check out the North State Icon shirts or the Mick Golden Light snowmobile designs. All of these along with great football designs like the Skull Hats, football state beanies and hoodies, and my favorite, the Metrodome gear.

If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping. Just go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. shipping yeah in terms of like here's one way to sort of bucket different types of players is when his highlight reel pops up on twitter from nfl.com or whatever he's one of five players ever

who you will click every single time and no matter how many times you've seen them you'll watch them again barry sanders barry sanders gail sayers might be in that ballpark. I mean, Randall Cunningham is that way when he was with Philadelphia. But there are not many guys who, Deion Sanders, who just totally broke the game. And I love that you make the point about how he would keep his shoulders square running down the field and never turn his body back around to give any indicators of when the ball was going to come down. And he would catch it like the ball weighed almost nothing. Like it was like a Nerf ball, like where you just grab it. Like it was that easy.

Just snatch it out of the air. And for everybody else, the thing is heavy. And yet for some reason for Randy Moss, it is not heavy. I love the style that he played with. And as a kid, for me, I loved the edge that he played with. I loved the bad attitude, the play what I want to play. I just loved the style and the trash talking and the mooning the Packers fans. Like all those things.

I mean, maybe when certain people get older, they start to get a little more stodgy about that stuff. But I think when you're a kid, you're like, this is all awesome. I just love that he's always at the center of some stuff and then just dominating people on the field. So for me, I mean, he absolutely belongs on any list that's ever made for Vikings. But he goes in a different category of the like 1% of 1% of 1% of all people who have ever stepped on an NFL field for their uniqueness, their talent, and how fun it was for them to play. He, he, I have yet to see a receiver as,

as physically gifted as he was. I mean, he tall, never got hurt and never got hit. You know, we always talk about these quarterbacks and the running quarterbacks and they're going to get injured. And I go, but if you watch Lamar – whatever you think about Lamar Jackson, how many times does he get hit hard? These guys can't touch him. When he's moved – when you're sitting in the pocket, you get hit – Kirk Cousins gets hit hard.

Much to his credit, he comes back from it. He's tough. But when you're standing there still and you don't feel the pressure coming from behind, you get hit hard. Lamar Jackson on the move, whether that's good for football or not and that's what randy moss was like he never got hit because he was he was more athletic than everybody else he played with he he could sense you coming and avoid it sometimes he'd run out of bounds which was fine uh they were smart not to send him over the middle of locks he was a spindly guy you don't want to

get him hurt but i don't ever remember him having hardly any injuries he played almost all the time he and and the thing about catching the ball is that catching the ball to him was like you and you and me breathing. He didn't have to, you don't have to think I'm taking my next breath. It just happens, right? Right. That's catching the ball for Randy Moss was like, it's like breathing. That isn't the thing. I don't even have to think about it. I just got to go get to where the ball is. I will never let the defender know it's coming and, and I'll, and I'll, and I'm going to catch the ball. I'm sure he's dropped an occasional pass in his career, but the tough catches he made.

And I remember one of my favorite plays was they were playing Detroit on the road because I was watching on the end, and Dante goes back and just hoists it. I don't know whether it was at the end of the game. Three guys are there. And it wasn't this where Dante waited too long. I think he had looked at some other pattern and finally well Brandy's standing down in the in the end zone yes he has three guys around him but I'm gonna just throw a moon ball and see if he can get it

and it wasn't even close not only did Randy Moss catch it the other three guys fell down they're laying on the ground and he's holding the ball in the end zone and they're looking at each other that would be one of those times that if I was a Lions fan and my dad was, I would have to say, dad, you can't blame those guys. They couldn't do anything about it. They tried. So Randy Moss was just one of those transcendental, transcendental, and he's super fun to watch. And you mentioned that, these celebrations, these planned celebrations, my wife loves them. I have no problem that they're not illegal. They don't do much for me. But I really like organic things.

And Randy Moss had organic when he squirted the ref with a water bottle. When he mooned the Green Bay fans, as a Vikings fan, I loved it. And I know all Vikings fans now forevermore hate Joe Buck for what he said. I don't care what Joe Buck says. Joe Buck's a good announcer, but I really don't put a lot of stock into his opinion about stuff. He's a pro. He does a good job calling a game. If he

has an opinion that that was terrible, fine, Joe. I don't care. Why does everybody care about Joe Buck's opinion? I care that Joe Buck does a professional job calling the games, which he does. He's very good at it. I get offended when someone's not good at it, and that's your job, but I don't care about his opinion. I loved it because I thought if I scored a touchdown against the Packers,

I'd like to moon him too. He did capture that element to it. That was organic. That wasn't planned. That wasn't him taking the phone out of the thing. Right. It was just like it was the FU Packers fans, you know, and he destroyed Packers fans.

There's no Viking player that has ever been feared more than Randy Moss by Packers fans just like unfortunately as Vikings fans we've had two Packers Rayron Rodgers and Brett Favre we've had right right uh so real quick on a couple more Randy Moss things yeah my favorite is a game that didn't even really matter but the Vikings are playing New Orleans in one of the seasons that was kind of lost where the defense was horrible they went like 5 and 11 or something with Dante but they're going down to try and win the game and they're at the goal line and they throw four straight passes to Randy Moss and he catches the fourth one like everyone in the stadium would have known they're throwing this

game-winning pass to Randy Moss it's like like incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. And then he catches the last one. It's like, if you could be that dominant that everyone in the world knows and the other team knows that they're playing their defense to stop you. And yet you still get the job done and win the game. I mean, you are on a completely different plane from everybody else who has to be schemed open, who has to be one-on-one, who needs all these other things. It's like, nope, Randy can beat an entire defense by himself. And other one was you know how Randy used to throw his hand up that Gus Farratt told me that that was actually a signal to the quarterback like I know I'm supposed to run a different route but this is the route I'm running and he would throw his hand up and then of course if you're Gus Farratt you better throw it and so I thought that was a cool detail

because I never understood. I thought it was baller, but I never understood, like, why he did it. It was just to tell the quarterback, yeah, I know I'm supposed to run a hitch or something. I ain't running that hitch. I'm running right by this guy. So, yeah, one of the coolest players of all time. I'm sure every list that I do of these he'll be on.

So now we're to Case Keener. Now I think we understand your full history, the full perspective of Scott Korzanowski on the Vikings. So tell me, Case Keenum. You get to Case Keenum, and like everybody else, one, I was – and maybe I would never pull the trigger on a lot of these deals and maybe maybe i wouldn't be a good gm and i've always had a feeling of saying i used to say this all the time when i'm on the radio errors of commission in the salary cap league are far worse than errors of omission i mean we have an error of omission you know one of the biggest in minnesota sports history would be david ortiz horrible you know they let him go he goes on to have a hall of fame career who knows if he would have had it here but at least then you're not – but when errors of commission,

like drafting Christian Ponder, is far worse than that. There you lose one player, but it really has – you're not paying them any money. It's like if I'm going to have a client that doesn't pay me my bill and I'm doing all this work and not getting paid, that's a lot worse than me if I could just be sitting on my boat all day and still not get paid, but at least enjoy it. I'd be just as poor. And so I was never a fan.

I remember I was at the State Fair working at 1500 when the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford. I just thought this team's not going to the Super Bowl. Don't give up a first-round draft pick. He's not that good. And I proved we were right. They go 8-8. But you think of that next year, and Sam Bradford just lit up,

what was it, New Orleans in the first game? New Orleans, yeah. And now I'm thinking, well, maybe I was wrong and Sam Bradford just lit up what was it New Orleans in the New Orleans yeah and and now you're now I'm thinking well maybe I was wrong about Sam Bradford maybe this maybe he's figured it out maybe on third and nine he's not going to keep throwing a Steve Dills third and seven pass that's the name from the past if you ever had a five worst Vikings list which by the way I put one together Steve Dills is on that so he gets gets hurt. We're all devastated. He was terrible that Pittsburgh game. And then he starts playing. And then I remember they bring Sam Bradford back in Chicago,

and Bradford can't play. And I had great respect for Sam Bradford. There's no way he should have been out there. He's risking the rest of his career. He's going out there. So I'm not mad at Sam Bradford. It was a horrible decision by Zimmer and company to put him out there. You don't put a guy out there like that. And then Keen Sam Bradford. It was a horrible decision by Zimmer and company to put him out there.

You don't put a guy out there like that. And then Keenum comes back and wins the game for him. And from that moment on every game, I mean, it was like, it was like clockwork every game I'm going, it's not going to last. I remember the Rams game when they beat the Rams and they Jared Goff, they beat him like what? 28, seven or 24, seven. Yeah. Yeah. And the first try was third and seven they won't make it first down oh that's no the i the dredger if somebody went back and looked was this the year when they had one of the highest third down conversion rates in history but it seemed like every third and

seven they would make it akina would make some play and it would be just fluttering pass and who does he remind me of joe cap yeah joe cap he's bodies different joe cap back in those days was like a drinker he was uh you know he was he was a macho man case keenum but their flair for how they played and the fact that these two guys neither of them could throw a spiral although the although keenum could and the miracle was a pretty doggone good pass gets underrated on that play uh and keenum just he was so much like Joe Capp. Joe Capp, no one ever considered Joe Capp to be this great quarterback. No one ever thought he was something.

But with that team, he was the perfect guy. And so I'm watching that Vikings team. That Vikings defense was so good in 17 that it reminded me of the 69 Vikings defense. They had the great front four. They had great cornerbacks. They had a great front four. They had great cornerbacks. They had a great defensive coach. Now, granted, their stats are going to be not as good as 1969 because of the NFL. But comparatively speaking, that Vikings defense was very much the equal of that 69.

And they had the same quarterback. And I just said he's the perfect quarterback for this team. And Zimmer never got that. This was the perfect mobile quarterback, shifty as hell when you have kind of a mediocre offensive line, can make plays on the run. You're still a running team, so you just need him to make plays here or there, was willing to go down the field, and was a leader.

Now, you were around that team. You wrote a book about that team. So I have to go off to read that book. Did the team – was he a leader in the clubhouse did the team like him did did they rally around him it appeared that way from as an outsider oh yeah there's no question um case keenum's personality was a huge part of that team's success not only because of him being like a fun guy and a story that they could all root for and somebody that connected really well with the other players, but also because I think they rallied around him a little bit when Mike

Zimmer continued to criticize him openly in the public. And I think that it sort of endeared some players more to case Keenum as a person, even though there were some people who thought in the locker room, maybe we should go back to Teddy or, you know, maybe if Sam comes back, he's the one that should play in the playoffs or something because they all knew that this was a going to turn into a pumpkin situation like he just didn't have the raw skills he's not tall he doesn't have a strong arm he's not the most accurate but that sort of mentality that he had of we're going to find some

way to win no matter what I think absolutely endeared himself to them. And you're right about Zimmer. I mean, if you're Zimmer, you're thinking this is my one shot to win the Super Bowl probably. And this is the guy that I'm stuck with is somebody who's not Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre or Troy Aikman or something. It's little Case Keenum, you know, so it probably did drive him crazy and eventually he was right they got to the nfc championship and the big interception that he was worried about it came it showed up but at the same time even myself as a reporter on the radio feel like i spent so much time that year maybe even arguing with you about like case keenum and whether it's for real and all those things and so when the interception against even while there was one in the miracle

game, but then there was another one in Philadelphia, when those came and the wheels started to come off the cart, I think for me, it was like, well, this was bound to happen at some point. And this is why Zimmer is saying what he's saying. But at the same time, there is a part of me that says it, you know, I kind of wish I enjoyed the ride a little bit more and wrote even a little bit more about that part of it with Keenum as opposed to arguing with people on Twitter and the radio all the time about whether it was for real or not. I'm just a believer that when it comes to quarterback, and you were talking about it on one of your early podcasts, you say there's two quarterbacks at the top of the draft. You got a 50-50 chance of knowing who's good.

I mean, it's really hard to tell because I think my theory on it is, and the reason why quarterback is such a difficult position to pick is because I would say that, and this is a pretty obvious statement, but I don't think that the people that are picking players, Tom Brady from a physical standpoint, there was a reason he was a sixth-round draft pick. So obviously he got better. His skills got better. But the non-physical elements of the game, he's unbelievable at.

Whatever that is. And then when you get a guy with physical talent who also has that, you get an Aaron Rodgers or you get a Pat Mahomes. But guys that – look, Joe Montana was a third-round pick. Joe Montana was small, didn't have that great of an arm, and Joe Montana had that. And my view is that given the right situation, Keenum was an elite talent at that at reading defenses at feeling pressure at leading

his team at knowing when to move and knowing how to play the game when it came time to throw he was probably less than 50 percentile but but to me I think that that you know you take a guy like Demarcus Russell when it came to throwing it he's like 98 percentile but the rest he's fine you need to have that. And what happened to Josh Allen this year? He still throws it funny, in my opinion. He throws it like Teddy, under the ball. But that other part of the game that maybe some of us didn't think he had,

he must have had it, and he's developed it now, and it's growing in him. He still makes stupid plays, but it's growing in him. And I think that element of the game is Case had that a lot. And, yeah, they lost the Eagles game and the interception was bad. But to me, I will give you three letters why they lost that game, RPO. I mean, the great Zimmer is like they had never seen the RPO before. And he just got shredded on defense. His defense got shredded by Nick Foles and the RPO.

RPO, RPO, RPO. And, yeah, Foles made some great catch throws and there were some great catches. shredded on defense his defense got shredded by nick falls and the rpo rpo rpo rpo and yeah they mentioned you know foals made some great cat throws and there were some great catches but a lot of guys were running clean in that game okay and and yeah the interception was part of it look they only scored seven points so it wasn't like the offense came back but but i just remember the defense getting shredded and shredded and once you're down what they were down they weren't coming back and even great quarterbacks lose games and throw interceptions. I mean, Patrick Mahomes yesterday. You know, Brady throws three interceptions in a game they won.

I mean, yeah, he's going to throw interceptions. Kirk Cousins throws interceptions. They all throw interceptions, except for Aaron Rodgers. And he still threw one in that play. You know, he's throwing fewer than anybody. And you're a better – but I just felt like he was the right guy for this team. And I would have liked to have seen another year where they could have paid him far less than they paid Kirk Cousins.

And it might've blown up, but guess what? They wouldn't be where they had Kirk Cousins for three years and won one playoff game and are, and are dead to the salary cap. I would have rather rolled the dice with case. Could they have won one playoff game with case? Maybe could they want a Superbowl?

I don't know. And, and I'm not saying this to rip Kirk Cousins. I think Kirk Cousins, you and I have had a lot of discussions about him. There's some things he's very good at. He's a tremendous passer, a way better passer than Case Keenum. He's getting better at pocket presence and some of those things. But he's still, if you're going to have a bad offensive, could you imagine Kirk Cousins in the Chiefs game yesterday? I mean, they would have had eight yards of offense. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I heard somebody, I don't know if it was your podcast or Bill Barnum say that in that game, Patrick Mahomes threw some of the most incredible incompletions in the history of pro football. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, incredible. But so I love Case Keenan because – and that whole team reminded me of 69. And even though Case Keenan's a different player than Joe Kapp, they had a lot of the same qualities.

And this kind of guy wasn't drafted, coming from nowhere, leading the team. And I was truly – and when they got the miracle, and I looked up and said, you know, my dad, this is for you, when that miracle play happened. That was like a spiritual – and people say, well, wasn't it ruined if they lost the next week? No, it would have been better if they won the Super Bowl. But that was like a spiritual. I mean, I looked at my dad and said, they're going to the Super Bowl. I mean, I said that.

So I can tell you three times where I bit off stuff and I shouldn't since I've been a kid. One was, well, for sure in 98, we all thought they were going to win that one and that and when they lost i didn't sleep all night and i wrote i left to send it to you sometime i wrote this long op-ed piece that they ran in the star tribune really one of the best things i've ever written second time when they were playing the saints in the white season 09 champion no the 09 season 2010 nfC championship. Yep. I'm sitting there watching the game and I kept saying,

they're going to lose. And I was one on the radar. I said, they're going to lose. They're going to lose. They're going to lose. I'm not going to get suckered into this. They're going to lose. They're going to lose.

Fumbled by Peterson. They're going to lose. Well, all of a sudden, Chester Taylor rips off that run and they're down to the 35-yard line. And I looked at my wife and I said, they're going to win. Big mistake. Big mistake. And then the miracle. I they're they're going to the Super Bowl so I it takes me a lot to step off the ledge but when I do I still get burned well I'll tell you the truth I thought the Vikings were going to the Super Bowl too number one defense going to play Nick Foles Nick Foles was not good against

the Atlanta Falcons no even just the week before at no point had he been good as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles team that year after Wentz got hurt until he played the Vikings. And it did remind me yesterday watching the Super Bowl of that game because it was just a whooping. Like that team was better than your team. They had a great offensive line, great defensive line, and their quarterback played great. And what are you going to do?

Sometimes that happens. But certainly, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to write a book about it, is because of how much that season really resonates with people. I mean, not only the experience of the miracle play, but also seeing Teddy Bridgewater come back, and he was so popular with the fan base. And the locker room that was built over a number of years of very you know interesting personalities and guys that fans really felt like they knew it was not a bunch

of free agents who came together like the 2003 Marlins and won the Super Bowl and these were all guys who knew each other and who stayed around with each other and I too will also always wonder what would have happened if they stuck with case maybe case and teddy or maybe draft lamar jackson or whatever amount of other options they could have gone with than going with kirk cousins but i i also think the answer is that it probably goes about the same way like like so many things had to go right for them in 2017 in order to get that season including rogers getting hurt that it was unlikely it was ever going to happen again. And in some ways, Kirk Cousins is a victim of circumstance of, well, we put these expectations

on him because of the previous season. But then the very next year, your offensive line coach passes away. Your left guard gets hurt on like the first day of camp for the season. And then you have an offensive coordinator who doesn't fit. And just like all these things happen that were out of his control, and I am guilty as much as anybody of putting that on Kirk Cousins. But it's sort of interesting how if Case had gone through all those things,

we'd probably end up with the same results or worse, but we'll never get to know. And for all the people who did love Case Keenum, that probably drives them crazy that we'll never get to know how it would have gone. And they could have probably, what did Case Keenum, that probably drives them crazy, that we'll never get to know how it would have gone. And they could have probably, what did Case Keenum sign, what a two-year, $36 million contract with Denver. Vikings could have probably gotten a little hometown.

If the Vikings went to Case and said two years, $30 million, I think he signs it. It's enough to respect them. And so they would have been, so if it does go, you know, so the next year they don't make the playoffs. So whether you go eight and8 or worse the next year. So even if Case Keenum fell on his face and they went 3-13 and they owe him only $15 million or more and you're getting a top draft pick,

it would have been better than what happened. And that's not the fault of Kirk Cousins. Of course Kirk Cousins is going to go try to win the games. And he played well. Kirk Cousins has not been horrible. He's played every game. He's never missed a game because of injury. Plays hard.

He stands into the pocket. He's an upstanding guy. I mean, he's not a bad quarterback. He's a good quarterback. But there is that theory out there that's really coming along now where if you have, you know, the $35 million quarterback, which means if you're like a top 20 quarterback, you get $35 million a year, give or take, right? You better have one of the higher level ones and if you don't you're better off to let him go and try to keep don't give that money because we see carson wentz now and we see you know that he's in jared golf and that he's got they've got contracts they don't

want anymore they're not good enough for those contracts right and and cousins isn't good enough for that contract by that i mean if you're going to take that chunk of your salary cap, you're going to have one of those $30 million guys, you better be in the top four or five of those guys. Yep, yep. And the other point too is, and I think they've seen this play out, that they did miss that character of Teddy Bridgewater and Case Keenum. You know, as good as Kirk is, he's not like those guys. He's much more corporate quarterback. He's much more corporate quarterback.

He's much more sort of buttoned up. And I think maybe even recently we sort of saw him take a little bit more of that role, but it's just never there. It's not that kind of guy. And I think that that means something. I think it really means something. I think it means something. I mean, it means something in baseball.

I mean, you look at Nelsonelson cruz i mean in the twins uh the year before they had this logan morrison who everybody hated and he was just like a miserable guy and he was mean to everybody and i mean you imagine baseball especially every day right you're showing up at work you got that one you got that employee who's just you don't want to be around i mean it's gonna it's going to that's not the reason you have somebody but but that's really an important part. Like you can tell – again, you're more closer to Buffalo than me, but they seem to love Josh Allen.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, Diggs loves him. I mean, Josh Allen is a guy that, you know, he's going to put his head down and go for it and he's going to get the – he's the – they love him. His teammates love him, you know, and he's that way. And Mahomes, they love him. I mean, that makes a big difference, I think, if you have that way. And Mahomes, they love him. I mean, that makes a big difference, I think, if you have that too. You know, if they hated it, I'd take Aaron Rodgers even if everybody hated him.

Yeah, which maybe they did a few years ago. I don't know about now. Scott, this has been so much fun, man. You know what I love about this series? And I kind of wanted to try it out and bring on Royce and talk about it. And why I'm going to continue to do it is because these things are so personal to people. And I love the way you connected it to just your life of watching the Vikings. And you made this really great.

It was super fun, man. I'm really glad we could connect. Well, thanks for having me. If you ever do a five least favorite Vikings, I don't know. Okay, give me who's on your list. If you made the list, give the list before I have to call it up here because I remember it. Okay, here we go. Number, and I'm going to go, this one, I'm going to go from the fifth guy, who's the fifth least favorite to my least favorite. The fifth is Dwayne Rudd. Was a decent player, but he celebrated every tackle,

no matter the game situation or how many yards the runner or receiver had made. I think they'd be losing 35-7. He was a linebacker. He'd pull a guy down after a 20-yard game and he'd get up and celebrate it. Number two, Derek Alexander. Okay player and a decent career, but the Vikings took him one spot ahead of Warren Sapp because they didn't like the fact that Warren Sapp had apparently failed a marijuana test. Oh yeah. Can't have that. Can't have. And a lot of people did that. Warren Sapp in today's day and age,

he would have been the first or second or third pick. And everybody knew it then. And you know, Denny Green decided to go with Derek Alexander who was an okay player, but he wasn't Warren Sapp. Number three, since I have Randy Moss, I've got to take the guy they traded for, Troy Williamson. We kind of mentioned him. Everyone said that he couldn't see. Remember, he got his eyes examined, and they said he couldn't catch.

I think that was wrong about both things. Like I said about him, the big thing was his catch radius. He was going to run his route where Moss would adjust to where the ball was coming down troy williamson was running to a spot and if the quarterback did not hit that spot exactly right within a foot or two he would not catch it zero adjustment to the ball zero catch radius i

mean it was it was the exact anti moss you couldn't have gotten a guy more different than randy moss than troy williamson uh number two I mentioned him too Steve Dills he was a backup quarterback they had and when guys would get hurt he'd come in went to Stanford and all I remember for Steve Dills is the numerous times that he would complete three passes and they'd still go three and out he loved the one and two yard pass and my number one guy is kind of an obscure middle linebacker they had this would have been in the 90s his name was Jeff Brady and I called I remember Jeff Brady. I called him Swivelhead because there were so many times that he'd go to fill the hole,

and as the guy went by him, he'd swivel his head backwards to watch the running back go by him. He was basically the Troy Williamson of middle linebackers. He couldn't get to where the runner was going. He had an inability to judge where the runner was coming, so the runner would always go past him and he'd swivel his head. So those are my five least favorite. I'm glad I asked. Just the five guys that drove me the craziest.

All right, man. This was really fun. And we'll get together another time to break down some more stuff. But I'm glad we did. And now that you're a free agent, if I ever get back on the fan, we can talk. That's right. We can do that now. Yes, we can.

Thanks, Scott. Thanks.