The Josh Innes Show - Paul Allen Drama Part 1: What If

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

I did not intend to do 4 parts on this Paul Allen drama in Minneapolis. But, here we are. First off, here is audio of Paul Allen providing one of the best radio calls I've ever heard from an announcer. Second, somehow this leads to a discussion about my favorite topic...What If's. Plus, a little Minneapolis radio history to help set the scene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody, welcome in all up, NS podcast. Greetings and salutations. Glad you're hanging out today. Yesterday, I only got in two pods. And I apologize for that. And if you notice, they kind of ended sort of abruptly as I was getting into talking about the lack of field goal kicking or taking the points, right? So what happened yesterday is I was sitting at the house just doing some pods. Jilly had gone to the store, so I was going to try to knock out three, four, five pods.

And my phone started ringing at the, it kind of in the middle of one of the episodes. And it was a, honestly, it's a number that I didn't have saved, but the name popped up. And I knew that it was the program director in Utah. And I just assumed he was just calling me about something that didn't matter. So I just kept rolling, right? And I get a text almost immediately after. Now, mind you, this is right around 5 o'clock. in Detroit.

And I get a text. He says, I'm not seeing any of your voice tracks. Where are you? And I go, what do you mean? I'm not on until 7 o'clock. So I don't have to track that for another four hours. He goes, no, we moved you to afternoons today. And you have to get something in in the next five minutes.

So I had to stop the podcast and then flip over to the voice tracking software, right? which is pretty fascinating how like I could go on the radio anywhere in the country from the house. Not live. Actually, I think I might be able to go live too, but I can at least record it and it's instant. So I'm like, shit. All right, fine, I'm on it. So I stopped the podcast and had to proceed to do the four-hour radio shift. Now, granted, I don't have to work for four hours.

It takes, you know, 20 minutes of that. But so I had to start knocking that out. And then by the time I did that, Jilly had got. gotten home and I'm like, well, fucking, I'm just not going to pod. So it is wild, though, how some of this works. First of all, let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue. It is pretty crazy how this works. And the studio I'm sitting in right now, I can go live on the vast majority of the radio

stations in the IHeart universe. As long as I have access to them, I can basically go live on them. And when I say basically, like I'm on in Utah, right? this system we're on, I have to record it, but it will drop instantly. The second I hit save, it will instantly end up where it needs to end up and end up on the radio. So like if I'm on in the afternoon in Utah, like sometimes I'll leave some openings there for like a sports score. When I was doing nights there, I would leave an opening. Wait until the game is over.

Just walk into my bedroom and boom. I say, hey, the jazz lost 140 to 137 and double overtime. tonight, here's lit, and that will hit instantly. So technology is a fascinating thing, because on one hand, it's beneficial. On the other hand, it's got its issues and it doesn't always work and shit like that. But it's interesting. So I had to do that yesterday. And then I never got back to the pod.

That's why I only was able to do two episodes of the pod. But here we are. And I'm glad you guys are with me today. So let's start here. This guy Paul Allen is the voice of the. Minnesota Vikings. I think he does a really good job. And Paul Allen of the Minnesota Vikings also has a talk show from 9 to noon on K-FAN in Minneapolis, which is a very highly rated sports radio station, which is fascinating. Like if you look at Minneapolis

radio ratings in a city that's not very good at sports, the baseball team isn't very good, football team's fine, hockey is fine. Like, they're all fine. Like, I don't believe there are a bunch of teams that are dreadful. But if you look at them, they're just a gigantic ratings machine. Now, part of that is they carry the football games, right? They carry the Vikings. But if you look at them for, like, just from September to December, nobody is close to these guys ratings-wise.

It's bonkers. Like, you wouldn't think Minneapolis, Minnesota is a gigantic sports radio town, but it really is because there's only one and it's on FM. There's another sports, but it's owned by Hub. who I used to work for and it's kind of a throwaway. And in fact, they may have even dropped sports on it and made it exclusively. No, actually, I take that back. You want to hear a ridiculous difference between the first place sports station and the second place sports station and a city.

So, the fan, K-fan in Minneapolis, which is owned by IHeart, September, this is 6-plus. So this is the ratings for radio stations based on the overall 6-plus. which no one really cares about. Most people sell like 2554, 2554 men, whatever. But K-FAN in Minneapolis has a 10 share, a 12 share. That's 10 in September, 12 in October, 11 in November, and 10 in December. The only time they lost in that stretch was to this classic hit station, which I'm going to guess played Christmas music in December.

That is the only thing I can assume because they went from a 5.5 to a 10.8, So they had to have played Christmas music, which is a gigantic thing everywhere, which is fascinating. But that's how it works. Now, so let's just look at December. The fan in Minneapolis had a 10.3. Their competition is a station called K-S-T-P. They go by Score North, S-K-O-R, Score North. It is mostly an online thing.

They are not a big over-the-air thing. It is on AM, but their bigger deal is that they are a very digital. digitally driven thing. Like when I worked at Hubbard, they would tell me about that. They were very big on the digital aspect of their sports talk because they knew there was no way they were going to compete with K-FAN. K-Fan is a behemoth. It is a juggernaut, okay? And you're dealing with a big FM station versus an AM station.

They've got the Vikings. I think K-Fan may have all of the teams, actually. I think. I know that they have the Vikings. I'm not positive if they have. the if they have all the other teams. I don't know which teams they have, but they are the flagship, certainly,

of the Vikings and some other ones. So they're a big deal there in Minnesota. A 10 share, mind you, for K-FAN. Scroll all the way down in the ratings, all the way down. How about this? The other sports station in town has a 0.1. 0.1, which would be high for the Houston stations.

but is 0.1. That's how big of a difference. 10 times the numbers, 10 times the numbers that they have one station to the next. It is a juggernaut. It is a behemoth. It is one of the most highly rated sports radio stations in America, period, right? Why do I tell you that? I tell you that because of this.

This guy, Paul Allen, is the voice of the Minnesota Vikings. In fact, he's responsible for one of my favorite radio calls in the history of football. And it was the interception that was thrown by Brett Farv in the NFC championship game when Farv threw the pick against the Saints and it sent the game to overtime. Paul Allen has one of the great calls ever. Let me see if I can find his audio of that really quick. Let's see if this is the audio. Let's see. Let's see if this is it.

Can't hear anything so I don't think so. me see. Are you Paul Allen? No, that is not it. Let's see if this one is the actual. Garve sprints to his right, throws back across the middle. That's just Joe Buck. Nobody wants to hear that. But the Paul Allen call of it is spectacular. Like I love hearing the heartbreak from Paul Allen as he was the, here we go. There we go. This is fantastic. So this is Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings who's now under fire. But this is Paul Allen on the call back in 2010.

Now, this is the year the Saints won the Super Bowl. Mind you, the setup is this. The Vikings have the ball at the 38-yard line of New Orleans with 19 seconds to go. It's third and 15. Worst case scenario is you throw the ball away. You have either a long field goal or you punt. Now, this is back in 2010, so dudes weren't drilling 56-57-yarders like they were 20-yarders. But that was the setup for this.

And I'm playing you this just so you know this dude. Dude, so when I talk about him, you'll kind of have an idea of who he is. This is one of my favorite radio calls ever in sports, and it's the losing side of it, or at least they eventually lost. But here you go. Back to the right. Brett Farve goes back to pass. He pumps.

Now he fires over the middle. Intercepted. I can't believe what I'm seeing right now. It was intercepted by Tracy Porter, near side to the 40, and John Sullivan runs him down at the 47-yard line. You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe what I just saw. why do you even ponder passing?

I mean, you can take a knee and try a 56-yard field goal. This is not Detroit, man. This is the Super Bowl. Like, I'll give him this. How many hometown announcers do you know that are going to say that? Like, I think that you'll get something like that from like a Merrill Reese. I think he'll be honest. You know, I don't know that it'd be to that like a great.

Well, I'll give you an example of what I heard Merrill do it. So Merrill, this is before I got to Philly. This was in 29. 2010, 2011, something like that. And one of these guys, basically it was a situation where the Eagles had to get a stop. And basically, they were going to get the ball back late in the game trailing. All they had to do was avoid jumping offside. They were trying to get them to jump offside.

And whoever it was, I forgot the guy who did it, jumped offside and it cost them the game. And Merrill at one point just goes, he jumped. Oh, God. Like, they weren't going to run a play. I enjoy that. I enjoy when you get play-by-play announcers who are at least honest and think the way the fans think.

You don't get that a lot now because people are afraid for their jobs and you very rarely get that level of honesty. So when you hear that call from Paul Allen, that is not something that you normally get when you listen to a football radio broadcast in 2026. You just don't get those.

Most of these guys are homogenized and sterile and boring. They're like all these big brand-new stadiums. they're building. They're boring and sterile. And a lot of broadcasts are boring and sterile. Paul Allen is not boring and sterile. To me, he is one of the best in the game. I think he's fantastic at what he does. I enjoy listening to him. Like whenever there's a game, like if I'm in the car and I have the NFL app and I'm just looking for something to listen to, if I'm in the car during football season, and I'm like, hey, I'm in the car right now. Let me see what I can find. I'll flip that on and just listen to him, call the game. He is among the handful of the absolute

Like, again, you don't hear that. How often when you're listening to a broadcast, you hear a guy go, why would you even ponder passing? This isn't Detroit, man, it's the Super Bowl. Back to the right. Brett Farb goes back to pass. He pumps. Now he fires over the middle. Intercepted.

I can't believe what I'm seeing right now. It was intercepted by Tracy Porter, near side to the 40, and John Sullivan runs him down at the 47-yard line. You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe what I just saw. Why do you even pont? underpassing. I mean, you can take a knee and try a 56-yard field goal. This is not Detroit, man. This is the Super Bowl. You want to talk about what-ifs, by the way? You know, I love a good what-if. What if Farrv doesn't throw that pass and the Vikings do kick a field goal and the Vikings

knock out the Saints and the Saints never go to the Super Bowl? Like, that play right there changed the history and the lives of so many people. Like, obviously it changes the the life of Drew Breeze, because instead of being Drew Breeze, the guy that couldn't win the big one, he at least has a Super Bowl. Sean Payton, the guy that finds a way to lose in the playoffs, Sean Peyton gets to a Super Bowl, has the onside kick to start the second half, and the rest is history. They win. They beat Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl, right?

So it changes the fortunes for Brett Farf, who probably would have gone if they just don't throw that ball away. Again, that game went to overtime, mind you so they still had to play overtime, and that was back in the, you know, first score wins overtime. But how does it impact Brett Farv's legacy? You know whose legacy was impacted probably most by that play? Tracy Porter. Tracy Porter is a guy.

Again, I'm supposed to talk about this Paul Allen being, you know, stepping in it. Now people want him fired. And I will. But Tracy Porter who intercepted that pass. If he doesn't intercept that pass because Brett Farv doesn't throw the pass, the Saints probably don't go to the Super Bowl. If the Saints don't go to the Super Bowl, Tracy Porter doesn't ice the Super Bowl with an interception of Pate.

Manning that's returned for a touchdown. And if he doesn't do that, no one knows who Tracy Porter is. Had a nice little rum with the Saints. But now Tracy Porter is an icon who had a pick six in the Super Bowl. Tracy Porter is signing that picture for the rest of his life. If Tracy Porter is broke, he can go to a card show and sign his signature on that picture of the pick six in the Super Bowl.

And he can do that until the day he dies. Pretty crazy. Like how one decision alters the lives of so many people. Now, maybe if the Saints lose that game, maybe things go differently and maybe somehow the call against the Rams goes the other way. Or maybe they don't lose the Beast Quake game in Seattle. Like, I love what ifs. You know that I love what ifs. It is my favorite thing.

And I love the idea that that decision, like what the decision by Brett Farve did and what his decision did to alter history? I love that shit because that pass changed the life. For the better, for a lot of people in New Orleans, and it changed the life of a lot of people in Minnesota for the negative. Mind you, Minnesota still hasn't won that other Super Bowl. It's been a while since they've won a Super Bowl, obviously. Since what, the 70s? Well, they were in the Super Bowl and Super Bowl 4. But the Vikings have won the Super Bowl, though, right?

I'm not tripping on that, right? But my point being is that that changed the lives of so many people. I love that. I just, oh, God. And I was watching Back to the Future this weekend. So now it's like really top of mind, like how one decision alters the like the rest of time. You know, like that's kind of how this thing goes, right? Like I always think of these things.

But it's true. One decision can completely alter people's lives, you know, and that's a great example. Just one thing. And it alters so many people, not just you. Like sometimes if you say something dumb on the radio, God, now I have a heart on for this conversation. Like, what happens if I don't post the picture of Al Jolson? What happens there? If I don't post the picture of Al Jolson, maybe they don't fire me.

Because they wouldn't have had grounds. That was their cause to fire me. But let's say in Philadelphia, I don't post the picture of Al Jolson. And I write out the fall in Philadelphia where I had talked with my old program director and we had talked about things I should do to get myself back in the good graces of the people I've showed you before. I had this whole list of things that I had written down that I needed to do to, you know, make things better and try to remedy. problems, right? If I don't post the picture of Al Jolson, if crossing broad never does the story about the fake phone calls, and I never post the picture of Al Jolson, I'm certainly not fired in August

of that year, it continues on, mind you, I'd been offered a new contract to stay at WIP. What if somehow the ship gets righted and they end up paying me a lot of money to stay? Whose life does that impact? Well, it impacts Chris Carlin, who ended up following me at WIP and then ended up leaving to go to New York. When he leaves, I guess John Marks gets that job. Or, oh, how about this? If I end up staying at WIP, let's say we do well in the afternoon. Angelo eventually retires.

They move me to mornings. There's no Joe DeCamra in the morning. You know, maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But my God, the idea of a what if is such, oh, I don't know why I love that so much. What happens if? What happens if Brett Farve just falls down? they kick a field goal.

Sean Payton's never a guy who's a Super Bowl winning coach. He's just always known. He's like a Sean Payton would fall into the category of like a Sean McDermott. Right? He'd become a McDermott. He'd be a guy that had the talent all around him and never got the job done. If they never win that Super Bowl, does Sean Payton get fired during Bountygate? Because remember, Peyton sat out an entire year.

And the Saints had a stretch where they went 7 to 9, 7 and 9, 7 and 9. And I think one of those seven and nine years was his suspension year for Bountygate. Because the Bountygate thing happened after they won. I think the Bounty Gate stuff came down after they lost in the playoffs to the 49ers, I think. Or it might have been the next year. I forgot what year it was. So I think all the stuff came down in the summer of 2013. So it would have been after 2012.

So then the Saints in 13, 14, I think it was 14, 15, 16 didn't make the playoffs. And I think Sean was suspended. the first year of that for the entire year. Do they just cut ties with Sean Payton if they lose that game? That changes everything because that guys won a Super Bowl. So you're going to ride it out with a guy who goes to the playoffs every year at that point seemingly, and they've won a Super Bowl. If they don't win that Super Bowl, does Sean Payton get whacked during Bountygate?

Do they just say, how fucking it's not worth it? I don't know. But tell me that's not fascinating. It is. I really should just do an entire podcast about what ifs. That should just be my schick. Like today's what if is this and blank. I'm aware that this is not some original concept.

People do what ifs all the time. But what if? Like whose lives are, and then you talk to the people whose lives are impacted. Talk with Tracy Porter. Like Tracy Porter, a kid from Port Allen, Louisiana. I played against this guy in high school. Basketball. He played for the Port Allen Pelicans.

I played at Brulley. They're rivals. He was obviously better and played a lot more than I did. He was older than me. But I would get into these games whenever we were getting our asses kicked or we were up big or whatever. So I'm fairly certain I've been on the court at the same point as Tracy Porter. He went to Port Allen. I went to Brulet, two rivals, West Bank, Baton Rouge, all that.

So if you talk to Tracy Porter, like you ask, hey, what is your life like and how is your life different if Brett Favreve doesn't throw that pass? how is your life different? How does your life change? I'd like to know how much money he thinks he's made from autograph signings. Because that's one of the most famous pictures in the history of Louisiana sports. There's a handful of them that are very famous. You've got, you know, Nick Saban holding the crystal balls a very famous picture from their first national championship in the 2000s or their second technically or third, I guess, whatever one that would have been. But the first one of the new era, you know, you've got the, you've got the, the picture of Homeboy from Ohio State getting sacked in the championship game.

You've got Warren Morris's walk-off home run in the College World Series. You've got different pictures of like Pistol Pete Marevich. I mean, you know, there are famous things in the history of Louisiana sports. But that picture is one of them. You go to any sports bar in Louisiana, and there's a picture of Tracy Porter, like, pointing forward as he picks off Peyton Manning takes it to the house. How is Peyton Manning's life different? So let's say Tracy Porter doesn't intercept the pass against Brett Farr. Brett Farrv sits on it, they kick it, Saints never go to the Super Bowl.

Does Peyton Manning smoke the Vikings? And does he get another Super Bowl? I guess that would have been a second at the time. And he eventually went on to another one. How does it impact his life moving forward? This shit is fascinating. I can't get enough of it. I love it.

And this is all based on the fact that I was intending. to have a conversation about Paul Allen, which I'm still going to do because that was a big news story in the minds of these whacked out fucking liberal gibbons, right? So let's do this. Let's bring an end to this episode. And then what we will do is we will move on to the next one. How about that?

So we will be back with another episode. Well, if you're listening on the podcast, like immediately. Go now.