Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Super Bowl hot routes -- when will the Vikings play in the Super Bowl?

Episode Date: February 6, 2021

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill answer Super Bowl questions, including which players you wish won a Super Bowl that didn't, whether the NFL needs more parity or if it's cool that teams are always chasing the GOAT quarterbacks, when the Vikings will play in the Super Bowl and which Vikings team would have won the Super Bowl if they hadn't lost in the NFC Championship game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here and for some Super Bowl hot routes is Manny Hill. What is going on, Manny? Matthew, it is always a pleasure being on with you. Every time you mention hot routes, every time you text me and say you want to do some hot routes this week, I'm like, yes, all for it. Every single time. It's like there is no other answer. It's yes, absolutely. Got to do some hot routes. Now, my favorite part of having you on for this to do Super Bowl hot routes is

that the last time we did it, it was for Detroit Lion hot routes. So it couldn't possibly be farther away from the last thing that we did. Two polar opposites, basically, the Lions and the Super Bowl. Right, two things that will very likely never, ever converge unless, well, Jared Goff has been to one Super Bowl, so I guess you never know. But how about we get right into it. There's news in the NFL today. It's time to break it down in the only way we know how.

Hot Rod style. Earl! Johnny! With our spin on football headlines. With a mix of frozen tundras. Let's be a cold-blooded team, neck rolls, and grass-stained jerseys.

The good old-fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game. So I want to start right out with this, man. I want you to name me five players who lost the Super Bowl that you wished had won it. So great players, or just even your favorites, who got to the Super Bowl that you wished had won it. So great players or just even your favorites who got to the Super Bowl, but they were never in a team that won. They never got to raise the trophy. Okay, the first one, and I absolutely love this question, the first one that came to my mind,

one of my favorite, low-key favorite players of all time is Devin Hester. Oh, yeah, sure. my favorite low-key favorite players of all time is devin hester oh yeah sure super bowl 41 he takes the opening kickoff for a touchdown and i remember watching that super bowl thinking you know going into it i was thinking oh yeah the colts are going to win this thing running away and when he took that opening kick to the house i thought oh my god the bears might actually win this game this this is like you know ignite them and actually turn out a great performance from Rex Grossman, which, of course, didn't happen. No, it did not.

Yeah. It was not going to happen at all. It takes a suppose there. Yeah. He was the primary reason why the Bears lost that game. But, yeah, I just loved Devin Hester. He's just – even though he played for a team that I, for the most part, as a Vikings fan, cheered against, you know, just being a division rival.

I always loved watching him play returning kicks and things like that. So, yeah, he was the first one. Larry Fitzgerald was one that came to mind. Obviously, local ties, great receiver, Hall of Famer. I didn't realize that I was looking at some of the numbers a few weeks ago. I didn't realize how close he is to catching Jerry Rice in catches. Really? Yeah, he's probably not going to catch him in yards.

But I think he's only about 100 catches behind Jerry Rice. So he could, if he decides to more years, yeah, he could probably catch him. So when we all thought that none of Jerry Rice's records would ever be broken. And just to comment on both of your guys, Hester, I just feel like more connected to kicker and punt returners than I ever have because they've just disappeared. I mean, I don't know how many punter kick return there was in the NFL for touchdown this year, but it was like a Devin Hester's worth

for the whole league this year. And those players were just so exciting. But now I feel like teams are so good at punt coverage. Maybe they even amped up their punt coverage because Hester was so dominant. And kickoff returns, it just flies through the back of the end zone. And it's like, okay, let's just, you know, people have heard me rant about how they should use the XFL kickoff many times. So one of the more exciting players to, I think, ever play.

And then on Larry Fitzgerald, man, he makes that catch for a touchdown against Pittsburgh, and you think he is the MVP, he's the hero, and then, you know, Big Ben does what Big Ben does. So he came so close and made the play of the game, basically, except for the Santonio Holmes catch. And it would have been great because you remember the Cardinals run to the Super Bowl that year. Larry Fitzgerald was like a one-man show. He was just like, he lit up Atlanta in the playoffs,

and then I think they went to Carolina and took care of the Panthers. And then the NFC title game against Philadelphia, he did the same thing. So it was one of the great individual play playoff runs we saw from Fitz too. And it would have been nice to see that get capped off with a ring. Another guy I thought of was Steve McNair, a guy that you and I both have sort of this mutual appreciation for just because he was so good, so tough. He played for, you know,

he won a lot of games for a coach that probably really wasn't that good like Jeff Fisher probably really wasn't that good of a coach right and uh the Titans still had a lot of good teams and and they came up just a yard short in that Super Bowl against the Rams I didn't put him on my list because I knew he'd be on your list I'm not kidding like I when I made my list I was like man he's gonna have Steve McNair I guarantee it and I always think of and I've mentioned it probably too many times on the show so I'm getting annoying. When I made my list, I was like, man, he's going to have Steve McNair. I guarantee it. And I always think of, and I've mentioned it probably too many times on the show, so I'm getting annoying with it. But imagine if they didn't have Eddie George and they just threw all the time as opposed to running for three and a half yards a carry for years with Eddie George

and putting Steve McNair behind the sticks. But, yeah, that is my favorite Super Bowl, that Rams and Titans Super Bowl. Just everything he did just on that last drive where they, you know, he backs up like 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and you think like, I think it was like Kevin Carter or somebody that almost got him, and you think you've got him, and then he gets out of that sack and steps up and completes the Dyson for like 25 yards or whatever and keeps the drive alive.

It was just amazing. Another guy I thought of was Colin Kaepernick. Just that run to the Super Bowl for the 49ers, and they were down big in that game against the Ravens, and they almost pulled it off, if not for a phantom holding call that was not called on Michael Crabtree in the end zone that caused Jim Harbaugh to like lose his headset basically.

But yeah, I mean, Cap was so good that year and on that run and kind of continued on into the next year too. So that would have been nice to see him win one. And the fifth one is very close and personal. And it is my stepfather, Oscar reed who played in three of them um and the one that i thought of the most was obviously the first one that they lost to the to the chief super bowl for so yeah no that's really cool and i was just watching on nfl network uh the other day all the old recaps because they always play those the week in between like after the senior bowl

they play uh you know, the Minnesota Vikings in their first Superbowl, you know, that whole thing. And I always say Royce likes to tell a story about that game where the Vikings basically knew nothing about the chiefs like 2021, where they've got all the, all 22 tape and all the analytics and everything else that they showed up and went, Oh man, this Chiefs team is really good. But yeah, that, I mean,

it doesn't get any cooler than that playing in three Super Bowls, but just like my hometown of Buffalo, it didn't work out and we're sorry about that, Manny. So let's run through my list, but that's a very cool connection for you. Randy Moss is first on my list. Same Super Bowl that you're referencing with Colin Kaepernick with Randy Moss. my list but that's a very cool connection for you uh randy moss is first on my list we same super bowl that you're referencing with colin kaepernick with randy moss he is in that super bowl i think he makes a catcher too he was not like a dominant player at that point but he comes so close in 98

and i'm sure that he thought we'll just be back all the time after 98 and they do get back but then it's 41 donut and you know even goes to the patriots they go undefeated and there's eli manning standing in the way and the giants defense and so he doesn't win that one and this is kind of like his last chance is latching himself on to the san francisco 49ers and that close i mean they're at the goal line and unable to punch it in. And that's it. And Randy Moss never wins a Super Bowl. So for one of the all-time great players, and that's kind of where my list goes, is guys who are either super cool or all-time great players.

Dan Marino is on my list. I think it's kind of obvious. But same with Dan Marino. He gets there right away in his career. He's in the Super Bowl. Like, okay, he's just going to win Super Bowls all the time. And then never gets back. 1994, I mean, just blowing a lead to the San Diego Chargers and Stan Humphreys ends up not getting in the Super Bowl.

That would have been epic, him against Steve Young. And they could have won that game against the Chargers, but then Pete Stoyanovich missed like a 45-yarder at the end. That would have won the game for the Dolphins and sent them to Pittsburgh for the AFC title game. You know, the Dolphins are funny. They are kind of a cursed franchise, but they won in the early 70s, and so no one ever talks about it. It's like the Vikings are, the Chargers are, the Bills are, the Browns are, but no one really ever talks about the dolphins but they've got their fair share to have a quarterback of dan marino's uh eliteness and never win one is kind of incredible because you look at all the other greatest quarterbacks of all time they don't all have brady's resume but they all have one or they get or they get there a few times and uh not the case

for poor dan marino my favorite thing about him is that for seven straight years he led the league in sack percentage lowest sack percentage uh it's like my favorite rid of that ball man it's amazing quickest release of all time man he got rid of that football it's unbelievable Thurman Thomas is the next guy on my list now let me just circle back and say when you mention your stepfather there's all of those guys that you could mention you could mention Tarkington and Alan Page so I'm not like intentionally saying it's that it's sad that those old school Vikings didn't win their Super Bowls because it is but we could just name a bunch of those guys Thurman Thomas is the next on my list because Thurman Thomas was the best player in the 1990 season Super Bowl against the Giants should Should have won the MVP, but a Scott Norwood field goal goes wide right,

and he doesn't. And there's a clip on NFL films of after they get beat by Dallas, Emmitt Smith introduces his son to Thurman Thomas and says, hey, this is the best running back in the NFL. You know, just so the respect for Thurman Thomas, he was the centerpiece of those offenses. He was way ahead of his time. He was Christian McCaffrey before Christian McCaffrey.

And for him to go to four and never get one. And then I got to know him in Buffalo, and he's just a tremendous human being. So there's that connection, too, for Thurman Thomas. But, man, he would be so good if he was playing today. I think he'd be the best running back in the league. Yeah, and like you said, he was ahead of his time. I mean, Marv Levy did a great job of figuring out, hey,

you know, instead of just turning around and handing the ball to him all the time, why don't we have him run some routes and throw the ball to him and get him out in space? Hint, hint, Mike Zimmer, you could do that with Dalvin Cook, maybe, you know? Give it a shot, you know? It's possible. Not against the rules.

He doesn't have to be Terrell Davis. He can go do other stuff. Steve Smith was the next on my list because I really appreciate Steve Smith. And he was so close a couple of times. With Carolina, there may be a correct kickoff away against the New England Patriots. I'll never understand that kicking. I think they kicked it out of bounds and then allowed the Patriots to go score.

That was in my phase. I think of college of thinking the NFL might be rigged, but Steve Smith, like taking over, like you mentioned, Larry Fitzgerald taking over and guiding Jake Delome. And then he's with Baltimore too, and was on good teams and was not 2014. Was that when there was the, like the Patriots started sort of semi cheating and, you know, making tackles eligible and doing weird things to the Ravens in the playoffs.

I feel like that was that year too. And Steve, Steve Smith was on that team. And my final one is Cam Newton, because I know that you could debate Cam Newton all day of, well, is he Hall of Very Good? Is he a Hall of Fame quarterback? Is he this? Is he that? That one season, that 2015 season, is one of the greatest seasons, I think,

ever played by a quarterback. And he just – I think he got screwed in that Super Bowl. He gets fumbles, drop passes. The sod on the field was not good enough for Mike Remmers to stick his cleats in, so he's getting driven back every play. And then he doesn't jump on a fumble. He kind of pulls the Jeff George and doesn't jump on the fumble and then walks out of the press conference after answering 20 questions or something.

And that ended up being the story. I hated the way he got raked through the coals after walking out on the press conference. First of all, he's hearing all the Broncos on the other side of the little flimsy wall or whatever, celebrating and talking about how they beat him, and he's frustrated. He's super competitive. He's as competitive as anybody as there is in the league.

And everybody's mad at him because he just got up and walked out of the press conference. Like, who cares? Yeah, not the first athlete to ever do it, by the way. But, you know, look, I mean, he should have jumped on the fumble, sure. But he was really let down in that game by the rest of his team. You're throwing to Ted Ginn. You're throwing to was really let down in that game by the rest of his team. He was throwing to Ted Ginn. He was throwing to Ted freaking Ginn in that Super Bowl.

Like, come on. It was really the ultimate one-man band type of season, and to go 15-1 was truly incredible. And I know that he never was able to repeat it, and the toll that it took on his body was obviously significant. But that was as fun as it got. Plus, everyone would get mad because he was doing the whatever dance he was doing which you know i'm always going to side with that guy who's doing the dance everyone's mad about or whatever so that yeah that's my list um moss marino thomas steve smith and cam newton next question for you manny is what is the most

disappointing super bowl you can remember? This one was pretty easy. I went with Super Bowl XLVIII, Seahawks-Broncos, just because it was just not very well played at all. I mean, the game – From the very first snap. First play of the game is a safety of a bad snap, goes over the head of Peyton Manning because he's still, like, trying to call out signals, and Manny Ramirez, his center, the ball first play of the game it's a safety you just kind of

knew after the first couple of possessions that the Broncos had and this is like arguably the greatest or at least statistically the greatest offense in the history of the league yeah going up against you know one of the all-time great defenses that we've seen and it just you could just tell after the first couple of possessions for the Broncos, like, yeah, this is not going to go well. This is going to be ugly. And Seattle just, you know, you look at Russell Wilson's performance, his numbers don't really pop out to you.

It was just sort of a steady kind of performance. There really was nothing about that game that was great outside of you know Seattle's defense just being so dominant it just wasn't a very competitive game at all it was sloppy at times and it was just uh yeah it was it was ugly I was really disappointed because I thought you get the top rated defense you know in the league going up against one of the all-time great offenses that I thought it was going to be more, much more of a closer competitive chess match type of thing.

And it just, it just was a complete dud. I will go. I mean, there has been numerous ones of these that have just been like, really? I mean, Rams and Patriots recently. I know that some people tried to argue, I love a good defensive battle. Like, yeah, okay. But I mean, this was really a poorly played game by the Rams. But the most disappointing for me

was 2002 season Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It just from the very outset was over. It was never good at any point. And it was such a great Raiders team. They had so many stars. And Rich Gannon was obviously the Minnesota quarterback who ends up revamping his career and having this MVP season. And so you had a great offense, a great defense, the same type of thing that you're talking about. And then it was just over. Like never even really got started. And you got the MVP is what, Dexter Jackson? Like, really?

I mean, anytime it's a complete, and it's what, Malcolm Smith in the one that you're referencing? Anytime it's like a complete rando, that probably means it wasn't that great of a Super Bowl. And that one was disappointing from the outset. And there were all these, like, conspiracy theories about, like, did Oakland lose on purpose? Or, you know, there was something with the coaching

staff and did they like gruden all know their playbook yeah right all that stuff yeah right there was who was the who was the raiders center that just like disappeared on barrett robbins yeah just like goes a wall yeah they don't know where he is and then they end up having to start the backup in the game like it's just like, oh, yeah, that, yeah, that was a mess right from the, from the very beginning. So there, I mean, there's a number of other ones. The Giants and Ravens is just a big thumbs down. The Giants could never move the ball even a little bit.

Like that's the team that's going to try and take them on. And that's another one where you think the Vikings would have had an offense that might have actually been able to match up with the Ravens, but the Giants did not. And old Kerry Collins was not able to do a thing. So that was also disappointing. And let's hope that this does not have any of the same vibes of the ones that we just talked about.

Next question. I want to know if you prefer having lots of different teams make the Super Bowl or you like the fact that the NFL has always kind of been some team defending a dynasty and then everybody else cycling in with their one shot. So you had like Pittsburgh and then the 49ers and the 80s and then the Cowboys, Patriots, and now it feels like the Chiefs are going to be the team every single year where it's like who's facing off with the Chiefs when we get to the Super Bowl because that's how it felt.

I mean, wasn't there the stat that every year except one, it was Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, or Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, and then it was just – but it was Rex Grossman, and it was, as you mentioned, it was the 49ers, and with Kaepernick, it was just, but, but it was Rex Grossman. And it was, as you mentioned, it was the 49ers and with Kaepernick, it was like the other teams sort of cycled in, but in the AFC, it was the same, the long way. Do you like a team that is dynastic or would you rather see every year? It's somebody different.

I like the way it is now with, with the dynasties because I honestly think that when you see these dominant teams that dominate decades or dominate, you know, a five- or six-year period, and then you mix in one sort of random team that wins in the middle of a dynasty, I think it adds a lot more weight to what that one team did. And, you know, I think that, that you know when you look at like what the Ravens did with Joe Flacco in the middle of you know a dominant Peyton Manning Roethlisberger Brady that whole era and then whoop there's Joe Flacco winning a Super Bowl I think it you know I think

that's something that Joe Flacco even though he's never really been a great quarterback that's something he can really hang his hat on and be extremely proud of. Like, hey, while Brady and Manning and Roethlisberger were winning Super Bowls, I mixed one in there too during that exact same time period. So I think it actually adds weight to, you know, a team sort of in the middle of a dominant dynasty, randomly out of the blue winning one. Because I think if you sort of look at it as a team that, you know,

a bunch of teams are just winning it randomly left and right, I think it kind of takes the fun out of it because it's just, it kind of falls into that everybody gets a trophy type of conversation. You know, I like for teams to really have to go out and really earn the championships if they win. Hey, I want to take a second to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics,

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between college football and hockey. College football, good luck with your program, you're losing to Alabama. That is who you will play in the championship, and you will not beat them unless you get Trevor Lawrence and a really stacked Clemson team. It happens every so often that Bama loses. But for the most part, it's just Bama all the time,

and it gets frustrating. I mean, this went on with UConn women's basketball for a while, and finally now we've mixed in with some more teams. But they were so good for so long when they're winning 100-plus games in a row and things like that. You just feel, like, helpless in a way. Like, why should I get excited about a game when a team is going to just wipe the floor with their opponent?

There is an element to the NFL that's like you got to come at the king and you better not miss kind of thing. And with Alabama or UConn women's situation, it was to come at the king and you better not miss kind of thing and um with alabama or yukon women's situation it was like come at the king and get your face kicked in and you know at bama it seems to be going on for even longer but with hockey it's anybody's ball game all the time and that also feels too random for me where it's just you know you get playoffs, who's getting puck bounces, who's getting the one penalty per game that they're going to call. And right. You don't feel like there's any control over it.

And the same thing I mentioned, you kind of women, but like the same thing for the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. It's like I like the Knicks. And, hey, they always had to lose to the Bulls because you know and everybody else too the Pacers and um and as long as Michael Jordan was there you weren't winning and it feels the same way with LeBron where there's just like an inevitability to hey you had a great season Memphis but you're gonna lose to LeBron and I I feel like that's not random enough there's not enough people getting chances at it so the the NFL, no surprise, is the master of having this exactly perfect where the best quarterbacks win, but they don't win every single time.

Sorry, did you have a follow-up on that? No, I'm good. Go ahead. I said it perfectly. Correct. And we're moving on. Okay, thank you, Manny. Let's say that you are the owner of a team and you make the Super Bowl

and your quarterback gets hurt, okay? And a wizard comes down from space and he says, Manny, you could start any quarterback in their prime ever in the NFL tonight to win the Super Bowl. I will grant you that wish because I am a wizard. Who are you selecting to start your Super Bowl contest? This was the easiest question of the five that you sent me to answer. And as far as I'm concerned, for me personally, there is no other answer.

It's 1994 Steve Young. Give me 1994 Steve Young every single time. I mean, 1994, my favorite NFL season of all time. It was the absolute year of Steve Young where he wins the league MVP. He goes on and wins the Super Bowl. He's dominant in the Super Bowl. He's kind of right in the middle of, the peak of his career. He gets the shadow of Joe Montana sort of off of his back. He becomes really like his own man, his own legacy. And he was great that year and great in that Super Bowl.

So if I need one guy, give me 1994 Steve Young. There was a stretch. Six of seven seasons he led the NFL in quarterback rating. I mean, like you know how if anybody's ever gone to baseball reference, the like black ink for leading the league in whatever. Well, it's the same way on football reference, and Steve Young leads the league in the like bold categories of everything all the time during his prime of his

career for the San Francisco 49ers. I mean, if it had gone on just a little bit longer, he might be considered the greatest or if he had one more Superbowl, but Troy Aikman and the Cowboys were always in the way for the 49ers. And you know, they would tend to find a way to beat them because the Cowboys were so strong, but that's a great selection. I might go with a very

boring selection here Tom Brady I mean right like he's down 28 to 3 he finds a way to win but I did think about I did think about saying Patrick Mahomes because I don't know if I've ever seen a quarterback who feels like there's no antidote. There's no way to stop this player. With Tom Brady, the New York Giants found a way twice. And Atlanta had him down. And there are other times where teams have played well against Tom Brady in Super Bowls. And sometimes he's won and sometimes he hasn't. But with Mahomes, I was watching the other night the game from 2018

Mahomes versus Brady and Mahomes is down 14 nothing in the first half and he comes out and throws a 50-yard bomb on the run to Sammy Watkins like just right in the second half to get them back in the game there's no amount of points that Patrick Mahomes can be down there's no defense that you could be playing against him that I would say, oh, yeah, you can get him. You could shake Peyton Manning. You know, you could get Brady a little messed up in the pocket. But Mahomes has all their skills with the mobility element, too.

And the other pick, I know I've picked several, but, like, I know John Elway was not great in his early Super Bowls, but I will still take John Elway in any big league. Oh, yeah. Dude, those Bronco teams and, I mean, those Bronco teams in the late 80s were not good. No. Like, they were not good.

Super Bowl. Yeah. And that was, you know, and part of it was because the teams weren't very good, and the AFC was kind of like the weaker conference at that time. I mean, the NFC was unbelievable with the Niners and the Bears and the AFC was kind of like the weaker conference at that time. I mean, the NFC was unbelievable with the Niners and the Bears and the Washington football team and all that.

But, you know, and even the Giants with like LT and those guys. But Elway just took that whole Broncos franchise and just put him on his shoulders and he was like 24, 25 years old doing this.

Then he'd get to the Super Bowl, and then he'd be going up against like Montana or, you know, Joe Gibbs and that, you know, Washington football team. And then you just knew, yeah, they got no shot. Okay. Last question from me, and then you have a question as well for me. What year will the Minnesota Vikings make the Super Bowl again? It will be the 2027 season, 2028 Super Bowl, Super Bowl 62.

Super Bowl 62. I like it. You're going this decade. Once a decade, they get their shot. And so all you have to do is not lose 38 to 7 or 41 to nothing that's all you have to do it's that simple um or you know make the field goal at the end i like it though because it clears us of the current where they're at right now but doesn't put it so far out in the future that it's ridiculous so you're assuming then that they eventually say draft their

patrick mahomes and build up the roster around them justin jefferson still very much in his prime and you're in the super bowl and head coaching them i think will be eric b enemy why not there you go there you go right just you know what the hell i get emails every day like you think b enemy will come here next year if it doesn't go well? Like, I don't know, man. I mean, eventually it's going to get to the point where if he doesn't get a job in the next couple of years, Andy Reid's going to retire and he's just going to say, you know what? I'll just take over for Andy Reid.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Andy Reid. And why not? He'll have Patrick Mahomes, so why not? I was even thinking about this for Andy Reid. If he wins, like, two in a row, does he just say like, I'm going to Disney World and I'm retiring? I mean, he's in his 60s.

So, I mean, maybe he wants to coach forever. I don't know. But I did have that sort of cross my mind with his age and sort of how much he has been through in the NFL for such a long time that that was a possibility. Like Tom Brady on one side to walk away, retire Andy Reid on the other side. Well, I think that that's the exact right way to go with this, is next year doesn't feel like it's going to be their year,

and it doesn't feel like the present regime has a super high chance of being there, but it also feels like there's the bones of something to build around with a really good young wide receiver and the draft picks that they've gotten together. And so maybe you could put it a little closer or maybe you could put it a little farther away if you just think the Vikings are never going to make it back. You could also do that. You could say, I don't know, 2060. But I love your pick of 2027. It's exactly kind of where I would put it. So, all right, your question.

All right, sir. My question is if you could pick one team that came close to getting to the Super Bowl but didn't make it and you could change their fortune, in other words, have them actually get to the Super Bowl. Who would it be and why? So do you want me to pick a specific year or a team that just never made it, like a group that never made it? Either or. Whichever one is easier for you. Okay.

Well, I'll give you the obvious. The 2017 Minnesota Vikings. They would have been playing at home. And now Tampa Bay gets to play at home and i wrote the book on the 2017 team but it was such a great year for the vikings and such a wild season and so many you know storylines and everything else like that with teddy bridgewater coming back and a backup quarterback and then to go to ph and just get stomped I mean talk about air out of the uh out of the sails there I mean just you know such a such a sad fate and a sad ending

for them um so I know that I went sort of obvious here with the most recent Vikings team but there's I mean you can go with all of them I mean 98 you could go with all of them. I mean, 98, you could go with 2009, which would be a great selection. I mean, were you thinking about different ones? Because, I mean, all of these apply. Well, my answer actually applies to a Vikings team. And it is the 1987 Vikings team that lost to the Washington football team in the NFC title game. And if Darren Nelson makes that catch at the goal line and they go to

overtime and then find a way to win. My reasoning for picking them is collar. I am 100% convinced. And I don't feel this way about any of the other Vikings teams that got to NFC title game that didn't get to the Superbowl. I'm convinced that if the Vikings would have gone to the Super Bowl that year, they would have absolutely roasted the Broncos the same way Washington did. When you look at the way Doug Williams and Ricky Sanders just torched that Broncos secondary in that Super Bowl, you can't convince me that Wade Wilson and Anthony Carter

would not have done the exact same thing. Especially downfield passing game from that team. Yeah. Yeah. And you just look at the way Anthony Carter was playing that whole playoff run, the way he did. You know, I heard you and Royce talking about it a few weeks ago about, you know, they go into new Orleans and he torches them. They go into San Francisco and he torches them. I mean, I I'm, that's the one Vikings team. They're all the ones, you know, 98 and 2000 and 09. I've always been kind of skeptical of like, well,

I don't know what they have won, you know, even 2017, I'm a little skeptical just because of how high power Brady and the Patriots were, but that's the one year in 87 where I'm just like, yeah, there's no way they would have lost that, that if they would have made it to that Superbowl, they would have blown the Broncos out of the water just like Washington did. Hey, everyone. We're in the full swing of winter now, and SodaStick has you covered.

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that was going to be my follow-up for you is like which one of these teams was the most deserving to actually get to the super bowl and i think there's a i mean to at least get there there's a good case for all of them. Which one would have won it? I think you're right with 1987. The most deserving team, though, I think was 98 because they were a machine. In 2009, they were still very, very good, and they deserved to be there. They were on the doorstep of being there.

But in 98, it was the Falcons. It wasn't like Drew Brees and the Saints. It was the falcons it wasn't like drew breeze and the saints it was falcons it was chris chandler it was a team that even though they won 14 games that year you just went that's the team that gets to go to the super bowl and take on john elway as opposed to one of the most exciting offenses in the history of the sport. I mean, I think the most deserving team is probably 98 that didn't make it. So I know I made that into a purely Vikings question, but you know, 2017 for me, where if I could just sort of use my wizard from space wand and change it. So they went to the Superbowl covering the Superbowl that year in Minneapolis was miserable because I mean,

it was boring. It was like, what am I going to go interview? I don't know, like a McCarty McCarty brother, you know, from from New England. Like, you know, James White's. Do I really need his comments? It's like it would have been so exciting for Minneapolis. I just remember I just remember being on radio a couple of times that week and out of the mall of america and just the mood was just different because it was like the vikings had just gotten pasted by the by the eagles the week before and you're just all of that like excitement that you thought you were gonna have for being in town and all that it was just like a huge kind of letdown. It just didn't really have that same sort of feel or excitement of having the Superbowl in your backyard because the Vikings had come so close.

If they would have, honestly, if they would have lost to the Saints in the miracle game, you probably wouldn't have felt as disappointed because you would have been a few weeks removed from it. But the fact that they won the miracle game and then just got blasted by the eagles the next week it was it was kind of a letdown that week of the super bowl i i totally agree it felt like what do i even write about here what do we even talk about here and i remember we were sort of the topic du jour was should they get alex smith? Because he was on the trade block and that kind of thing. And I do wonder how this would have worked out with Alex Smith

because he's much more of, at least the old version of Alex Smith, was much more of a Zimmer quarterback that didn't turn the ball over and so forth. But that was the most interesting storyline is, oh, it looks like Alex Smith's going to be traded. Okay, right. We could have been talking about the Super Bowl and the Vikings in it. So, yeah, I mean, there's a good case for that.

And we just ripped open everybody's wound on the podcast here. Well, Manny Hill, you are the best, sir, and nobody does the hot routes like you. And I'm glad that we can still get together from time to time. And let's do it again soon. Let's do some free agent hot routes. Let's do some draft hot routes, 1998 season hot routes, whatever you want to do. So we'll get together again soon, man.

Thanks for your time. You got it, man. We'll do it again soon. Good to be on with you, buddy.