Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Where would the Vikings be if they won the Super Bowl in 2017? (A Fans Only podcast)

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

Matthew Coller answers Minnesota Vikings fan questions, starting with what advice we would give Kirk Cousins. How would things play out at quarterback if the Vikings had won the 2017 Super Bowl? How do reporters develop sources on a new beat? Will analytics result in more deserving players making the Hall of Fame? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here with you. And this is another fans-only podcast. I have so many questions that I need to get to and still some predictions. Keep sending them. I'm going to keep making episodes and we'll get through them because you guys have great questions. And here's the thing that I really like before I jump right into it. And I've made a promise, by the way, that I'm going to try to limit my answers to five minutes because I listened to my own last episode and I was like, I need to stop giving 15 minute answers to one question because then I will

never get to everyone's questions. But the thing that I really like is that they're always different. I mean, people are asking so many different types of questions that every episode has its own shape and every episode has its own themes and things like that, because you guys are very creative in coming up with the questions. So let's get right into it. And I'm going to try to manage the clock better than Mike Zimmer. Put it that way. So here we go. Let's open the diet. Dr. Pepper. All right. I'm going to jump right into it here. Uh, okay. This starts off with Ian for the fans only pod during quarterbacks week. If you were the quarterback coach at the

end of last year, what things would you tell Kirk Cousins to try and improve on for this season? Feel free to be both realistic and unrealistic. Okay. Well, uh, let me take another sip of diet, Dr. Pepper. It's actually very hot on my son porch where I'm recording this at the moment. So we may have more diet, Dr. Pepper related slowdowns, or I might have to get another one by the end of this episode. Uh, not that I'm complaining by the way, love the hot weather. So, um, yeah, as I like that you added in that part at the end, realistic and unrealistic because the quarterback coaches that this man has had offensive coordinators and QB coaches have been very, very good. Uh, I think that you can question some play calling and some inexperience of Clint Kubiak for last year, but I do think he

was a good quarterback coach. Kevin Stefanski is his offensive coordinator. I saw a very cool chart from pro football focus the other day that showed the 2020 Vikings caused opposing defenses to have tons of problems and make a lot of mistakes with Gary Kubiak designing that offense. And that's always been Gary's thing is getting the linebackers to bite, throwing off the safeties. And Kirk Cousins had Gary Kubiak with him and Kevin Stefanski. Kubiak was also on the staff in 2019 so there's nothing that I can tell Kirk Cousins that Gary Kubiak and Kevin Stefanski have not already told him and tried to get him to change or fix the shortcomings that he's had so I won't pretend that I have some crazy advice for Kirk Cousins that those guys didn't come up with. I think I would

start with though, that something that Kevin O'Connell is going to do, which is believe in yourself, Kirk and sustain that belief. Because I think that throughout a season through the ebbs and flows, and he would never agree with me on this. He would never acknowledge it, but just having observed the man from a daily basis for four straight years, I think that there are times where he just appears to be less confident than others, where there are some games and maybe it has to do with how much pressure, but you know, there have even been games where he's getting pressured a lot and he plays great. And then there are other games where it's been described many different ways, deer in

the headlights, or just looks a little flustered out there. And it's not always because he's getting hit. And it might be because of defensive schemes, defensive players, who he's going against, what the scheme was, if he's not comfortable with it and so forth. So there could be a many different issues, but I think anybody who's watched him closely, you see these moments where you're just going, come on, man, you can do it. I mean, this was Stefan Diggs.

Here's your evidence in the playoff game against new Orleans in which Kirk eventually gets it going and has a very, very good game. Stefan Diggs basically is yelling at Kirk cousins. You can do it, man. Throw the ball, let loose, go for it. And look, if Stefan Diggs has told him that, then I don't know if it's changing anything from me, but that's probably where I would start is let's talk about that part of it. I don't think Kirk Cousins personality is going to change.

I don't think you can make someone a leader. There's a lot of books that would disagree, but my experience in sports has been that there's leadership and then there's people who are more of passengers. And a lot of times it's great to be a passenger in certain positions at quarterback. That's a little tougher, but there are even some players like that. I think Justin Herbert has kind of been described as like that and you would certainly take him. So I don't think that that's something at this point you could really change.

But how do we get this consistent confidence and aggressiveness out of Kirk Cousins? I would say this too. Consistent message would be nice. From Mike Zimmer, the message was, hey, stop throwing interceptions in 2018. And oh, by the way, we don't trust you. And then as it goes on to last year, it's like, hey, why aren't you throwing it up to Justin Jefferson? Well, I don't know, man, maybe because for the first couple of years you went off on the guy every

time he made a mistake. I mean, Mike Zimmer saying that he locked onto his reads and that's why he ended up throwing interceptions in 2020 early in the season. And some of them were like that. Some of them were bad breaks or tips or hail Marys. But I think that a consistent message for Kirk cousins would be pretty good. If you're the offensive coordinator, let just telling him to let it loose is hard because it's a lot tougher when you're actually the guy with the football to just fire away. I mean, so think about this, Matt LaFleur, when we asked him in, I think it was 2020, because it was on a Zoom call, so it must have been 2020, when we asked him about Kirk Cousins and throwing interceptions

and things like that, and he said, it was actually very insightful, that Cousins has to throw with anticipation, which is why he has been criticized for not throwing to receivers unless they're open or throwing some interceptions from time to time. And his interception totals go up and down because he, he doesn't have the rocket arm where he could just fire it in there like a Brett Favre. He has to throw with more anticipation. And I think the other thing I would tell him is I'm going to find a way to get the ball in playmakers hands and let them

do a lot of the work. And then you got to make a player to a game because, you know, I think that the offense previously asked a lot of, uh, the receivers to get open and make big plays. And he was able to distribute the ball a lot, but I think that in the last two years, it was not as good as with Kevin Stefanski when it came to the screen game and the quick passing game. And even with John DiFilippo early in that season, 2018, the quick passing game was really effective. So we're going to do this for you. We're going to give you more of those quick, easy throws and not just run the ball and then heave it away and look for a big bomb, run, run, run, and then look for a big bomb. We're going to do everything we can to make sure third and 10

doesn't happen. Third and 13 doesn't happen. It's going to be third and four. And then we're going to let the playmakers do their jobs. That's kind of the way that I would approach it. Like, like believe in this offense and how we're going to operate it to get the playmakers, the ball, and believe in yourself that if you make a mistake by pushing it down the field and Justin Jefferson or Adam Thielen's direction, nobody's going to be upset with you. And that's going to work out more often than not and stay consistent with that message. And when he gets down, we need to coach everybody else to pick up Kirk Cousins as well, because in recent years, Kirk Cousins has been the most expensive guy out

there. And you could tell like there were times where you would just see the body language of his teammates, almost like, Oh man, you're supposed to be the expensive guy. What are you doing? When cousins would have his down times. I don't see enough on the sideline of other players coming to pick him up very often. He usually kind of stands away from everybody. You don't see other guys coming up to him and talking about what happened out there outside of the time in 2018. So I think I would want to be coaching everybody up around him. Aside from that, I really think that the shortcomings with Cousins and the difference, it's so, he said this himself, it's so razor thin between being a great quarterback

and a good quarterback and a bad quarterback. It's this big is the gap. It's just tiny. I'm holding up my fingers to suggest that it is tiny. And when you have someone who is not as physically gifted as a Josh Allen or a Justin Herbert, you have to be as accurate and as smart and as confident and as gutsy as Drew Brees. If you don't have that arm or as Phillip Rivers and cousins does not have that type of mentality. Can we work on it?

Can that be my job? Because look, the X's and O's, uh, I'm not that type of quarterback coach. I'm not going to tell you, Hey Kirk, why don't you, you know, adjust this protection that way? Like that's, uh, Gary probably did that just fine. But, uh, that other stuff, you know, coaches have a tendency with players to focus so much on what they do wrong all the time that I wonder if everybody handles that differently because it doesn't seem like there were many times where cousins could pull himself out of that until they were down 20 points how can we end that early in

a game when we spot it when we see him check down to CJ Hamm so there am I am I hired in uh for offensive for quarterback coach uh no, no, they should probably continue to have their own offensive, uh, coordinators and quarterback coaches, but that's a great question. And I did not keep it to five minutes, but it's a really, really fun question. So thank you, Ian, for that one. All right. This comes from at S I nine three zero three fans only question for you. Let's say it's opposite day and the Vikings beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game. What's your best take on where the Vikings are right now?

If they win the home Superbowl and where are they? If they lose, thanks. There is absolutely no way on God's green and ocean filled earth that case Keenum is not the quarterback in 2018. If they go to the super bowl, if they go to the super bowl case, Keenum is their quarterback. They are resigning him. He is getting a multi-year extension for a decent amount of money. And he is playing quarterback in 2018 and possibly 2019 as well.

Because think about this. I mean, this team has not gone to the super bowl since the seventies. You're not going to ship the guy overboard who just took you to the super bowl. The Ravens did that once upon a time with Trent Dilfer and they brought in Elvis Gerback and it was a big mistake. And I don't think the Vikings would have done the same thing. Now, how it would have played out from there had they won the super bowl or lost. I don't know if

it's a big difference. You would have been losing to Tom Brady, but I still think even in a bad performance against Tom Brady, let's say you lose 24 to 10 case. Keenum took you to the Superbowl. You're not bringing in Kirk cousins who had won eight games that year. Not going to happen. Seven games in 2017, not going to happen. There's no way ownership is letting that go down. Even if Mike Zimmer did not believe in case Keenum. So you would bring that Keenum either way and you wouldn't hire John D Filippo. Now let's keep that in mind because Pat Shermer absolutely gets a different job because he was already interviewing for jobs during that time. But the reason that they hired John D Filippo and no one's ever said

this directly, but I mean, it's kind of obvious, right? Was because the Eagles out schemed the Vikings in the NFC championship game because Mike Zimmer wanted all that noise over on his team. And, uh, then D Filippo tried to bring it here to Minnesota and then Zimmer didn't like it. Well, you know, such as life, but they do not do that. If the Eagles, uh, don't have a good performance offensively in that game, and the Vikings beat them and reached the Super Bowl, which opens the door to a greater possibility that the Vikings are back in the playoffs in 2018. And if it all plays out the same, everything else except this,

the 2019 schedule was very easy. And you can win 10 games without having to win too many against winning teams. I think there was one win against winning teams that year. They're probably back in the playoffs again. And we might still be talking about Case Keenum as the Vikings quarterback. Now, if he goes into 2018 and struggles, which he may have because he remains Case Keen keenum that he may have just fallen off the edge of a cliff and mike zimmer might have said i told you guys so i told you he didn't have the talent then we're talking about drafting a quarterback at that point or looking for you

know who else was out there and uh who might be looking to change teams? I think what Philip Rivers was that 2019 where he ended up in Indianapolis. Maybe he's here. Think about how perfect that is for a Philip Rivers to be the Vikings quarterback. I mean, considering their history with the Jeff Georges and Warren moons and Randall Cunninghams of the world, that a formerly great quarterback landing in Minnesota would not be a shock at all. The Favres, of course. That's kind of the path I would have seen them or drafting a quarterback.

But if you had made a trip to the Super Bowl, I mean, there's just less pressure on everyone. And sometimes it happens where a couple years later after a Super Bowl appearance, someone loses their job. It happened to Dan Quinn after everything fell apart. But I don't think that would happen here. I think that they would have taken a little more long-term tact if they had struggled in 2018. If they had made the playoffs in 2018,

let's say they even get nine wins and get into the playoffs, they're not really hitting the reset button. They're coming back and they're saying, all right, we got to do this, this, and this. And they're still pushing to get back to the Superbowl. But if they had missed the playoffs and Keenum was just brutal, I think everyone would have sort of shrugged their shoulders and said, well, you know, we kind of figured it would happen, but look, the guy took us to the Superbowl. Now it's time to draft someone. Now it's time to try to lure in one

of those older quarterbacks that might be looking to change places. And then going into 2019, it would have either been, okay, you've got a rookie quarterback with a veteran team trying to win, or you've got your Phillip rivers, your veteran quarterback who ends up here. I don't even want to say Tom Brady because that's just like, wow. I mean, Dan Marino was almost a Viking and Favre was a Viking. So that maybe Tom Brady finds it interesting to play indoors. I don't want to go down that road, but what they would have done at quarterback, it probably does not carry on with case Keenum year after year, after year, after year, that would have eventually run out, but I don't see any way they could have not brought him back at that point. And that ends up being

the biggest difference that they likely would have run themselves into quarterback flexibility, drafting somebody, uh, or bringing somebody else in. Uh, that's, that's a good question because I think, and then really what they do from that perspective defense depends. Uh, but they might have ended up running the Keenum thing through 2019, then done a complete rebuild after 2019, which is what they actually needed. So crazy stuff, crazy stuff. The what if game will, I will have June content forever folks, because of the what ifs of this franchise folks want to remind you to go to soda stick.com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com use the promo code purple insider for 15 off your purchase it is summertime it's baseball season they have all sorts of great minnesota baseball gear and if you are prepping for training camp

get your purple people eaters shirt your can't the Thielen hat, and all sorts of other great football designs. Go there, SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, promo code PURPLEINSIDER for 15% off. All right, our next question. From Steve McClure, 22. 98 Viking versus Cowboy Games on NFL Network right now has me thinking about how the Vikings best offense versus best defensive seasons would play each other. Is the Vikings 1998 the best offense we've ever had? It's probably hard to nail down the best defense.

I don't think stats were tracked that well during the days of the purple people eaters, but curious on your take Vikes best D ever and how they would play the best offense ever, uh, rules would have to be whatever team was first. So I assume you mean like what year, uh, how the rules are played. Follow up Rand is Randall Cunningham case Keenum, both backup quarterbacks leading their team to the NFC Championship game? I'll answer the second part first. No. Randall Cunningham was way better than Case Keenum at football.

Randall Cunningham has a case for the Hall of Fame. He had a couple seasons in Philly where he's injured. And if he wasn't, he would have the number stats to make a really good case for himself. One of the most athletic, strongest arms, dynamic superstar players who was past his prime as that guy, as that dynamic player. But he was still in the chance he got in 98. He was fantastic. It wasn't just throw it up and Moss will make plays. There was some of that, but he played great. That was his raw talent for him to play that well. I think Keenum was playing up above where his talent is. That the circumstances were perfect.

The offense was perfect for him. The receivers were great. They caught absolutely everything. And everything just kind of fell into place for Keenum. Keenum is more like, oh gosh, one of those, he's actually more like Nick Foles really as somebody who was much more of a, if you play him on an average team, he wins five or six games. That's really what Case Keenum is. But everything was perfect. The number one defense in the league and it just all fell into place. Super random kind of thing,

but not really the same. It is a, it is the same of a guy coming off the bench for sure. Like that, that happened in both instances and is incredibly rare in the NFL. Usually if your backup quarterback is playing, your season is over, uh, if it's for the entire year, but not the case for either one of those, which just adds to the craziness of the Minnesota Vikings. But your first question, 98 Vikings versus the best defense the Vikings ever had. So I think I can go to the numbers here and figure this out for the best defense they ever had. But I think that the early seventies teams, or maybe the one that where joe capp takes them to the super bowl i remember patrick royce telling me some crazy numbers on the early 70s and late 60s vikings defenses so let's go all

the way back because that's got to be the best i mean 2017 is a really really good defense but if we're going gosh they were number one three years in a row, 69, 70, and 71. So I guess kind of pick whichever one you like. Let's see the 1969 defense that went to the super bowl with Joe cap playing quarterback. And the funny part about that is that Joe cap was voted second and MVP when their defense was that good. Let me see what they allowed for points we'll just go all the way down this rabbit hole they allowed nine points a game folks nine points a game in 1969 they're expected win loss that year they were number one in offense and defense uh expected to win 13 out of 14 games that's how good that team was Jim Marshall Alan Page it is very difficult to, uh, in really any way, uh, put a number on how those guys would play against the 98 Vikings. But here's what we know just in general. So Jim Marshall,

Allen page, those guys drove the whole bus, Paul Krause, fantastic, deep safety, Bobby Brian on the outside, picking off passes. Like they really had a complete defense and you could say the same thing for the 2017 Vikings that were number one defense top to bottom. Every position is great, but here's what we know. The Vikings in 1998 had an awesome offensive line, which I think would have neutralized to at least enough of an extent to give them a chance. Here's how I know Kansas city beat the tar out of

this team. 23 to seven, the Kansas city city in 1969, didn't have that much trouble. And Philadelphia beat the tar out of the Vikings in 2017. That if you have a great offensive line to go along with incredible weapons, it's just hard to stop in one game. It can be done. We've seen it done before in the NFL where a defense wins a championship, but even like when it was Chicago, when they had that unbelievable defense versus Indianapolis, eventually you're going to have a game that isn't incredible on defense and you're going to get beat by some team that has amazing weapons. And I think that the 98 team would give Randall Cunningham enough time to throw the ball that you just can't stop everyone. If you're playing everybody deep, you can't stop Robert Smith running the ball.

If you're playing aggressive and blitzing, you can't stop Randy Moss and Chris Carter, even if we made them relative to what they were in the day. Of course, you know, the guys who played in 1969 would not have ever been able to cover Randy Moss, but even if you made them relative to what they were, the strongest players on defense, even in that day in, in, in 1998, we're still not able to slightly slow down Randy Moss for that season. So I don't know that there's any defense that would have had a chance. I mean, there's a few historically and the Ravens, of course, are the one that stands out the most that may have been able to slow them down to some extent, but offense usually

is the thing that comes, you know, it comes through at the end. So that's, that's what I'm going to say, is that I think that the 98 offense would have a great chance. I would give them 60-40 to beat any defense in NFL history in one game. Let's go on to the next. Anthony via the email. Let's see. Fans only question regarding reporting.

Let's see. If you still want those types of questions, I'll give it a shot. Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh only question regarding reporting. Let's see. If you still want those types of questions, I'll give it a shot. Oh yeah, for sure. No, definitely take reporting questions. Absolutely. Anthony. Let me take a sip of the diet. Dr. P here. The can is sweating. Now at this point, that's, that's where we're at in terms of heat. All right. When you're starting a new beat, how does a reporter develop sources, especially ones quote inside the organization? So it's not not it's not complicated, really. So I moved to Minnesota in 2016 from Buffalo.

And what ends up happening is you just get to know people like this is a business in reporting that just getting to know people is the best way to do your job. And this goes for this doesn't have to be like sources inside the organization, like like these secret people who are meeting you in parking structures and leaking you that a bodyoddy Adenabo is getting let go or something like that's not a thing. But what happens is when you're around every day and you take the time to be there every single day, you're at all the practices, all the press conferences, you're at the, you know, the draft night and everything else. You just get to know people. And that could be other reporters who, you know, the draft night and everything else. You just get to know people. And that could be other reporters who, you know, really well, who have other contacts that you might sort of hear things or, you know, listen, like Courtney Cronin is on the show all the time and she'll be back around once, uh, you know, we get to a few more weeks,

July and so forth. She's off being very famous with ESPN, but she'll be back. But, you know, Courtney and I, we did this show every week. And so we would kind of compare notes and things. I mean, you would hear us doing it on the air, like, oh, well, I heard this, or somebody told me that. So then you get to know things from even other reporters who know certain people, or you run into people at the combine and you start chatting about, Hey, you know, what do you think they're going to do about this? And the thing that you have in common with other people is football and is the team.

So you end up talking about that and you'll like, I'll give you an example. That's like non-controversial at all. I was at the combine and I was with Sage Rosenfels, former Vikings quarterback. We're just walking around. And he bumps into a former special teams coordinator that he had played under sort of, right? He didn't do a lot of special teams, but he was a holder. And so they start talking. And I made some comment about the XFL kickoff. And this special teams coordinator says, we've been talking about it, man.

And it's like, oh, okay. Well, that's kind of interesting information and it's not on the record. So I can't quote you, but I can kind of talk about it on the show. Like, Hey, you know, I've heard that the NFL is talking about it and I'm not like doing anything to, you know, uh, out this person for saying that to me, but just sort of, that's the buzz and that's how you end up doing it. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of being there. Like if you are just, you know, sitting in front of your computer tweeting all day, you're not learning a whole lot about what's going on in the team. And it's not, you know,

it's not a thing where every day you go out to practice or something. And every day you're having some earth shattering conversation. It's just that when you build these relationships over time, and this is through the whole league. So I end up knowing through this show or through all those things, like, I don't know, hundreds of people involved in the NFL in some way or the other. So somebody hears this or that, and then you kind of check it with somebody else. And is this what's really going on? And, you know, you kind of build those relationships over a long period of time. It is absolutely not something you just show up there

and then go up to somebody and go, tell me who they're cutting. Like that would be a really bad plan, but it's, uh, it's, I wouldn't say it's much of an art form. It's more of a, you gotta have the right personality for it. You gotta have like for every minute that you spend on this show, doing a podcast, there should be hours spent away from doing this show, doing a podcast that go into knowing all the things that I'm going to say on the show. So I guess that's how I would put it. That's a great question. That's a really great question. I don't, I've never really thought about it before. It's just something that you kind of always do because I love talking to people. So I just, you know, love chatting up people and

finding things out. I don't necessarily do it, which I think is another key. I don't ever have these conversations with people like with the goal of like, Hey, Hey, nudge, nudge. Tell me what's going on bucko. Like that's the, no, that's not, that's not gonna, I mean, that's going to make everybody dislike you. And then if you, if you have a conversation and you run right to Twitter and be like, somebody told me this, I mean, no, one's going to really trust you. So it's kind of a, yeah, there's a little bit, it's a little bit of a subtle thing is going to get you farther than maybe going in there and trying to cut with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. Good question. That was fun. All right. This is from at swerving Mervin second time, long time.

I have something for you to chew on for the fans only pod. These days, one of the huge factors used to judge whether a player is great or not is their metrics. We have stats up the wazoo helping us quantify how good a player is. We can use advanced metrics to determine whether counting stats are valuable or a misrepresentation. Now, when we judge historical players, we basically only use counting stats that are available, anecdotal evidence, and things like media voted awards. These are all things that we now take with a grain of salt. For the question, do you think that there are Hall of Fame players that don't actually deserve all the praise they've received and the opposite how many great players got no love due to poor luck accumulating counting stats and no media love swerving mervin that's a

great question and i think that it's the latter it's probably not the former there are so few players in the hall of fame that i don't think there are many of them that are huge mistakes. Because the way that this is done is you have reporters who cover the players that are in that room and they make their case for guys to go to the Hall of Fame. So, for example, Mark Craig is going to or would have Mark Craig, the strip beat reporter would have had a really challenging case to argue for Randy Moss. So he would have done his presentation. I'm being sarcastic. He would have done his presentation and said, Randy Moss, everyone. What do you think? Hall of Famer? We all agree with that. Okay. We're all set, but you would still present. Here's what he did with the numbers. I watched him. Uh,

I don't know if Mark was here for that, but you know, here's what was written about him. Here's what was said about him. Here's why he belongs in the hall of fame. And there's such a small number of guys who are in there that you think that if they screwed one of them up, uh, okay. I mean, all right, fine. But mostly you're going to trust that those guys are probably pretty great. If those are the several hundred that are in there, the other half of that though, there are dozens of players whose value and specifically in the trenches. And I think also at the cornerback position, because if you're a wide receiver and you have, I don't know, the third most catches of all time, I'm going to go ahead

and say that was probably pretty good. Like you didn't luck into being Tara Lowens, for example, and have all these statistical things that that makes it pretty easy. And if you're a receiver who didn't have that many catches or touchdowns or yards, well, you might've been great, but probably not great enough to get yourself open enough to be that guy and to be in the hall of fame. So that's a position that's pretty easy. I think quarterback is mostly pretty easy. Now there's going to be debates over Eli Manning. I'm fine with him going into the hall of fame. Kurt Warner, some people didn't love. I totally get that one by the way. But if I pull up, so pro football reference has a hall of fame monitor that is, um, uh, it uses a lot of the things that you're talking about. Um, it uses, I'm sorry, typing and talking it uses like championships accolades total statistics

things like that and if we look at the quarterback position i'll just give you some of the guys that it has at the top of the hall of fame monitor you think that you could tell me if you think there's any mistakes here in the hall of fame monitor tom brady peyton manning aaron rogers brett farve johnny unitas joe montana drew breeze john elway dan marino fran tarkington steve young of fame monitor Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rogers, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Drew Brees, John Elway, Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young. So those are the top guys. Uh, probably not too much to be debated there. So there will be quarterbacks who get debated, but I don't think there's going to be anybody where you go, Oh, come on. You know, they put in, I don't know. They put in Dave Craig. What were they thinking? Like, no, no one's, You know, they put in, I don't know. They put in Dave Craig.

What were they thinking? Like, no, no one's, you know, Jeff Garcia is not ending up in the Hall of Fame by accident. So long way of saying the offensive lineman, the corners, the shutdown corner who nobody ever threw at, but didn't get interceptions in 1997 when the interception started to drop in the NFL. I mean, what do you do with that guy? I brought up Antoine Winfield the other day on the show. Antoine Winfield senior did not get thrown at that much. Didn't get a ton of interceptions. Look at his PFF numbers only for the last few years of his career where they had PFF and oh my gosh, the guy's a hall of famer,

right? But he didn't have quite the attention, the all pros and all that sort of stuff. So I think that offensive linemen corner specifically have been left out of this party way too much. And I think we should go back and try to reassess those, like use everything we have to go back and look and say, who did we miss here? Like Alan Fanica getting in. That's a really, who did we miss here? Like Alan Fanica getting in. That's a really good thing. There was not only one Alan Fanica, you know, the only analytics for offensive line back in the day was P was not PFF. It was Madden Madden. Just guessing on the numbers, uh, Walter Jones, who's a deserving hall of famer, but Walter Jones was a 97 on the numbers, uh, Walter Jones, who's a deserving hall of famer, but Walter Jones

is a 97 on the game. All right. Hall of fame for me. Uh, but you know, using local reporters to try to make the case is a way to mitigate that problem. Cause then you have people who are there and they understand what the player's reputation is, what they accomplished, how good they were, but there's just no way to say this guard was really dominant. Everyone statistically from back in the day. So, uh, I, I like that. I like that thought. And I think that in the future, we are going to do so much better of a job of rewarding those people, uh, and, and making sure that some of those guys who deserve to be in the hall of fame that do not play old school box score statistical positions, uh, get rewarded. So hopefully that answers that question. Uh, let's see.

Okay. All right. Uh, this comes from, let's see, this comes from Scott, uh, at S M McCullough, which is Scott, who has been a long time follower, a long time listener. And he sent me a bunch of questions. So we'll just blast through these fans only head to head best season of parks and rec versus the office. Uh, what are they? Why is, uh, which one is most rewatchable? So I'm not really sure on which season specifically now season two of the office is clearly the best one parks and rec. I'm not really sure which season it is. That's the best one. Uh, but I would say that the office is the easiest show to just turn on and laugh a couple of times while you're not really paying much attention to it.

And just like space filler, the accumulation of both shows parks and rec is a better show. In my opinion, that doesn't mean that it's peak funny moments are funnier. I think that the way that they develop the characters and develop a story over a number of years just makes for a better show, a better show overall, a better technical show. But the high end of Michael Scott being ridiculous is funnier. And there's the times where you laugh so hard that it hurts with the office where that doesn't happen as much with parks and rec. So I'd say that parks and rec is a smarter show. It has some very clever jabs at government and things like that. Whereas the office is just pure ridiculousness. Like it's, it's not commentary. It's not storytelling. It's just absurdity. And that absurdity just runs a little, a little low

with me. Eventually, uh, there's not any characters who become more likable. They all get worse as they go along. Pam and Jim are not funny at any point in the show and our main characters of the show. Uh, so you kind of just end up disliking every single character. And what I mean that I made him worse, like Ryan Howard was a very clever character of, you know, the business school temp who thinks he's smarter than everybody else. And he's too good for that place and so forth. And they just took it in such a bad direction. I mean, even, you know, the Jim and Pam thing people like, but I think both characters are

just immensely like not great people and totally unlikable. So I never really enjoyed that part of it very much. It's really just the gags, the prison mic and things like that are, are super funny. Favorite chess opening. Well, for white, it is either the four night Scotch or the, um, Joe Bava, London, Joe Bava report London. And for black against E4, I would say Carl Khan against E5. Uh, I would play probably a French defense. So those are kind of my two. Did I ever challenged Steven Weatherly to a chess match? No. Um,

it was kind of COVID time still. And like we were in a room when I interviewed him for the story about him playing chess, we were in a room for like 15 minutes with each other, which was probably pushing it for what they wanted to do as far as COVID went and everything. But Steven Weatherly, a super interesting and smart guy and just a joy to talk with about a lot of different stuff.

Really, really enjoyed Steven Weatherly and his comments on playing chess and how it applies to football. If you haven't read that article, just, if you type in like purple insider chess, I interviewed an international chess master and Steven Weatherly about chess and football. And, uh, it was a really fun article to work on, especially since I enjoy playing chess. Uh, who would have won me? I would have won. Um, I think that Steven, I think that Steven really loves chess, but I'm not sure that he like studies it in the same way that I do. I mean, the man is an NFL player and plays music and has lots of different interests. I think he really likes it. Uh, but, but I've kind of put

more study into it from talking to him. So I think I would have won, but I've kind of put more study into it from talking to him. So I think I would have won, but I don't want to say that for sure. You can make one mistake and lose. Let's see. And one more question from Scott. Do you ever write questions using a pseudo name for the pod or have your wife submit questions? No, because I have people like you, Scott. No.

In fact, for most of these, I mean, I can produce the receipts on all of them, but, uh, the tweets mostly, I mean, it's usually DMS or, or tweets. You can search for these questions. That's the part that's so much fun about it is that you guys come up with all sorts of different stuff and I never know what's coming. I never know what's going to happen on the next episode because you guys come up with so many good questions. So I've never had to do that. And a lot of times questions like what's your favorite chess opening or parks and rec versus the office. I would not, um, come up with that to ask myself for sure. So thank you, Scott. Appreciate that. Uh, let's go two more. Do we have time for two more? I'm sure I broke my own rule about trying to stick to like five minutes. Okay. Let's see. This is Rick via the email. Another longtime listener slash subscriber to the newsletter. There've been rumblings that the league is not happy with the contract.

The Browns did for Deshaun Watson. Is there any chance that factors into a suspension? I doubt it, but I'm generally in favor of whatever gets him gone. The longest related question, the Vikings looked into Watson. Do we know to what extent, not the team will not that the team will admit it at this point. Now you're certainly right about that. Uh, the only thing that I ever read on the Vikings and Watson was that they had looked into it. And I don't know how to take it any farther than that, but at least, at least if you even start approaching that, that to me says you're interested. I have no idea how that would have happened, how they would have created the cap space. Although, you know, the way that the

contract worked out, maybe that's what they were selling to teams. Hey, if you do the contract this way, then yada, yada, yada. You can fit them in however you want. If the Vikings had done that, gosh, I mean, I just, I don't know, man. That would have been a very tough time to continue doing this all the time, to have to talk about all the issues that have come along with that would have not been any fun. But I don't know to what extent, but at least that tells you

that they were interested and had Watson said, my lifelong dream is to be a Minnesota Viking, that probably would have happened. They probably would have traded Kirk Cousins and found a way to have Deshaun Watson as their quarterback if he had wanted that. Now, as far as the league and the suspension, yeah. Is Roger Goodell vindictive? I think if you look at Deflategate, you would say, yeah, yeah, he sure is whenever he wants to be the inconsistency of things involved with the NFL and suspensions is so frustrating to try and figure out.

I've probably mentioned this at some point, but Kareem Hunt got suspended for eight games and I'm not saying Kareem Hunt didn't do something wrong. Oh, he did, but he was not charged. He did not go to prison. I don't even think there was a trial. There was no trial for Kareem hunt. There was a very short video, but what happens with Delvin cook means nothing to the league. I, I don't really understand it. And for this entire time with Deshaun Watson, it's been like, well, you know, uh, it's a civil matter. I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see.

It's a civil matter. And they even put out a statement the other day after he settled a bunch of the things. Like, well, you know, we'll just go by the CBA. Like, what does it say in the CBA that you guys are following here? Because I can't figure this out. So would I be surprised at all if old Raj was just irritated with the negative press that this has brought for somebody trading for him and purposefully, you know, circumventing that, uh, suspension for him financially. I mean, he had to make sure he could pay off everybody right with his money. Uh, no,

I wouldn't be surprised at all. I wouldn't be surprised at all. I would not be shocked if it's an entire year. I mean, this is 24 women. And even then, if you have to settle with 20 of them, as far as making the shield look bad, makes the shield look pretty bad. So I would not be surprised if both Roger Goodell took out whatever anger he has with the Browns on Watson. And also if it was a deserved suspension, I feel the same way that, uh, nobody's gonna criticize Roger Goodell if he lays down the hammer on Deshaun Watson. Thanks Rick. Okay. One more, one more. Uh, let's see here. Jake from DC love the show. I've been following you since my dad who lives in Rochester, New York told me about you going to the Vikings beat. Well, that's very cool. I mean, that's a very

cool connection. Rochester, New York is near Buffalo for anybody who's in Minnesota. And you also have a Rochester and, uh, but Rochester is near Buffalo. So let's see, he says, I've been a football fan since 14, but I've also been a fan of the e-sports league of legends for nine years. How much do you know about e-sports and what do you think of them? I know a lot of traditional sport people don't like them, but I feel there are a lot of more similarities than differences. Now I don't watch any e-sports like that, like league of legends or mad Madden players or anything. Like I don't do that, but I do watch chess tournaments and I watch recaps of chess

tournaments and conversations about chess tournaments and things like that. I can name you all the players in the candidates chess tournament that are going to play for the world championship against Magnus Carlsen. who's the greatest player in the world. So if I sat here and told you that I thought e-sports were stupid, that would be pretty hypocritical. Uh, I interviewed for an article, the greatest Madden player on earth presently, um, last year. And I asked him about whether he could manage a game better than an NFL coach.

And I have no doubt that the answer is yes. After talking to the kid, uh, he goes to West Virginia, super guy. Um, gosh, I forget his name right off the top of my head. And he might be in second place now or something like that, but, uh, super kid, like going to West Virginia college and, um, you know, anyway, so like, I think about the people who e-sports gives opportunities to, and the level of talent at your craft that you have, but also the level of interest. Yeah. It's not being super fast yourself or being able to throw a pass, but if you don't think it's a talent, I'd love you to play this kid Madden and get smoked a hundred to nothing. And then tell me that he's not talented. And he trains and puts a lot of work into what he's doing.

He studies the game. He puts out these YouTube videos, studying the game where he shows like different strategies he uses and all those other things. Every game that you play, whether it's a board game or if it's that, or it's cards, like, how is this different than poker that you're just playing a game that has to do with talent that you put a lot of work into. Right. So I view it that way. And I think it's great. The people who like it and want to want to take the time to watch it. If you understand, I don't the game that you mentioned, I I'm not familiar with it, but if you're a big player of that type of game and you want to watch the best

in the world, that's how I feel about chess. Absolutely. I mean, uh, that is a very cool and I would love to see it to continue to grow. And I think that, you know, the YouTube part of it has been amazing for people like that really talented gamers that everybody gets to see them be amazing at their craft. So yeah, no, man, I I'm a huge fan of that. I think it would be, I mean, we're all, look, we all like really dumb stuff. Okay. I mean, nothing is better than anything else. One of the thing. So, okay. Yeah. If you're a fan of say, I don't know, classical music, you can probably work a pretty good argument to say it's better say, I don't know, classical music, you can probably work a pretty good argument to say it's better than, I don't know, Nicki Minaj.

Like you could probably make a case for that because the music is more complicated, takes far more talent. I don't know, whatever it is. Sorry, Nicki Minaj. I'm sure she's very good at what she does, but like you're not Beethoven. Okay. But when it comes to other stuff, like, you know, you like, you're not Beethoven. Okay. Uh, but when it comes to other stuff, like, you know, you like this and I like that. I mean, just, I don't like to insult people's

interests. You know what I mean? Like if you like, uh, watching those, those cooking shows, I've watched it. I can see how you could get into it. It's definitely not my thing, but that's fine. That's cool. If you like parks and rec more than the office, that's fine. Like these aren't things that I have much brain space to argue over. And I think that there's some objective ways to say whether something is good or not, but if you like it, that's awesome. And the people who play those e-sports games are pretty cool. So, okay. Well, another epic fans only still got a lot of questions to go still got a lot of predictions to get to through from predictions week so i appreciate all of you who sent your questions

and who listened and if you're waiting for your question to be read i am working on it so thanks everybody take care