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Speaker 1: As the official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL, Ticketmaster is the safest and most convenient marketplace to score fully verified Vikings tickets. So get those touchdown celebrations ready and score your tickets today at Ticketmaster.com slash Vikings. Join Paul Allen and Alec Lewis this Friday, September 18th at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Maplewood for Friday Football Feast. Presented by Coors Light, visit Vikings.com slash BWW. For full schedule and details. Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the Vikings Tailgate brought to you by Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings. Chad's with me again. Our goal this season is just to make this show a hangout, like a real tailgate. So we're trying to get some cool guests. And boy, oh boy. Chicago versus the Vikings and we have the great Jim McMahon. He gave us... A little bit of time. Chad and I asked him a bunch of insane questions as fans. We're not good at being real football interviewers, but it was a lot of fun. I think you're really going to enjoy this one, guys. Let's get into it, and let's get into our conversation with Jim McMahon.
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Speaker 2: Boom! I'm hot today.
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Speaker 3: Wreck it. Wreck it. That's a bad man.
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Speaker 1: Come on, baby.
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Speaker 3: Turn me up. Yeah. Touchdown.
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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Tailgate, brought to you by Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings. I'm Cy Amundsen, he's Chad Daniels. We appreciate you joining us. We got a fun one today. We got the great Jim McMahon joining us in a little bit.
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 1: Letting us ask him questions about... Our childhood joys. Man, I can't wait. I got a fridge question. I know you got a lot of questions.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I got to tell him something about the Super Bowl shuffle, too.
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Speaker 1: It's going to be all the fun. Let's start with a couple things here, and then we'll jump on the phone with Jim. Bears this week coming off. I mean, it's been over-talked by this point, but absurd, absurd win to start the season. You were there.
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Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. It was.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I know we're not supposed to look backwards, but I will just tell you there were several Packer fans that were very loud early and then they were gone with about seven minutes left, no longer sitting in their seats.
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Speaker 1: One of the things I'm curious because you were in the building and I think this is relevant looking back and looking forward, you know, Justin Jefferson matches his touchdown total from last year, eight catches, 92 yards. But Beyond all of that stuff, I thought it was really interesting to watch his body language. Even on TV, you could just see his emotion, where he kept it together so well last year, and it was just leaking out of him in this game.
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Speaker 2: He was excited.
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Speaker 1: He was going nuts. And then after that touchdown, and then they gave up the drive to end the half, he was slumped, just so disappointed. I just felt like throughout that game, he was the beating soul of almost of the state on the field everywhere. Absolutely. Did it feel that way in the stadium?
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Speaker 3: Yes, it did.
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Speaker 2: And it, and it was really interesting that here's something that he never forgot is where the camera's going to be right when he scores a touchdown, because he would pop up off the ground and immediately be showing his grill into a camera. It was so fantastic. And everyone in the crowd was like, yeah, finally, like we're cheering for him to succeed because he's so good. It was just, the energy was awesome. You know, I will tell you this. I called a pick before the game and I called Carson Wentz three touchdowns. Not before the game, obviously, that would be crazy. But once he went in, I was like, I got him for three. And it was just, it was, everything felt good. I will tell you, we went down to the stadium. We, I got too close. That's my fault. So I'm like, we're never going to find a parking spot. And then we're at a red light and literally I look over and there is a parking spot to the right. All I have to do is hit reverse and do the most perfect parallel park you've ever seen in your life. And all of a sudden we're walking to the stadium. So I go, this is a great omen. Let's get in there. Let's see what happens.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the good omen took a long time to come to fruition. And it's, well, before I say that, one more thing on Jefferson, uh, it kind of reminds me the way, because it's interesting to hear you say they had him on the big screen all the time so you could see it in the stadium the way we could see it at home, which makes me feel like he does have a bit of WWE to him where he truly understands, like not only is he top of the league elite guy, but he understands how to be the giant entertainment factor that is the headliner for an organization and That's what I saw. It was like, you might as well give this dude his own theme music the way that game went. Let's start the first quarter and midway into our first drive, you just hear somebody go, by God, is that Justin Jefferson's theme music? And he comes out of the tunnel late, runs right up to the line because we only have 10 guys on the field. Everybody's freaking out. They snap it and immediately go deep to him. He has a cool WWE energy right now.
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Speaker 2: Oh, there's no question. And it is, I mean, for as long as the season must have been for him last year, he was right in it and just giving the fans what he knew we needed. And it, man, what an absolute gem of a game.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of like Groundhog's Day situation, though, where last year, right, week one, really tough game almost all the way through its entirety. Then this unbelievable end. ever like I'm, I'm like running around making proclamations about the future of the organization that are unhinged. Right. Then we go to the, we go to Atlanta and we come back down to earth and the rest of the season goes the way it went. Now this year, same thing through two and a half, three quarters. You're like, man, I just, we just can't get it. We're not, it's hard to get over the hump. Unbelievable end. Now, you walk into a much tougher week to opponent in the bears and a, right. A, a larger potential reality check, but I'm really bullish on this year as opposed to last. There are some things that I saw in that game that make me, I mean, this is going to be a really hard match, right? Obviously, of course, but of course I'm very interested in seeing, you know, which side of last game, is a more realistic indication of who this team is. And I think it's a really cool challenge that it's like, well, this is, you get to see that against a team that a lot of people think is in the Super Bowl mix in the NFC.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I just kept saying we need to get the jitters out. It just that's what it felt like, you know, because preseason, you don't want people to get hurt. You're not playing your starters a lot. So really, this is like the first time they're going and taking big swings. And It took that one play of the free play where Wentz went deep and Jefferson made that huge catch. And then now all of a sudden you have the defense, you have Van Ginkle and you have Turner, and they are just figuring out which hole to hit to hit the quarterback and pressure the quarterback and cause fumbles and all this stuff. And you could see it. And so now you go with that momentum going into Chicago, right? If you take the first The first half and the first half of the third quarter of the last game, and you send that team to Chicago, you go, well, I don't know. But now you have all this momentum of people making the right decision, and now they're taking the chances that they needed to take. I am very excited and very positive about them going into Soldier Field.
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Speaker 1: I have one Brian Flores take that I'm going to give you in the game preview that I'm really excited about to see if I can get you on board with it. I'm calling it, it's a theory that I'm developing today. But sweet Chad, before we get into our.
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Speaker 2: Game preview, I am so excited.
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Speaker 1: We are fortunate enough right now to be joined on the line here on the tailgate by the great Jim McMahon. Jim, I hope you're having a great day, man. Thank you for joining us.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem. I'm just starting my day. I'm out on the West Coast or actually in Nevada. So just starting out.
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Speaker 1: I got to ask you, for a guy who played such incredible football, for the bears and who had such a great season for us here with the Vikings. What does, what does this week look like where the, you know, the two teams
that you spent, you know, significant moments with play one another.
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Speaker 3: Well, I know the Vikings were always, you know, when I was with the bears and, you know, we, we had to beat the Vikings. You had to beat the Packers in order to win that division. And when I was with the Vikings, the same thing, you had to beat the bears. You had to beat the Packers. And so I'm sure they're, They're gearing up and taking this pretty serious.
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Speaker 2: Jim, I remember watching a game. It was the Thursday night edition of Monday Night Football. You have back injuries all week or back problems all week. You talk Dick into coming in, and you end up throwing three touchdowns in seven minutes to beat the Vikings. I have to tell you, I'm a Vikings fan, but it was interesting watching other Vikings fans that week because they just had dead eyes. eyes after that whooping.
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Speaker 3: It kind of worked out pretty well. I mean, Dick was sure that I was not going to play. He had told me that the day before. I was in the hospital in traction on Monday and Tuesday. I got out of the hospital on Wednesday. I went to practice. And Dick has said, oh, you're not going to play. And so we get to Minnesota that night. And then the night of the game, I came out and I was in pregame warmups. I was throwing the hell out of the ball. And I told Mike, I said, look, if you need me, I can play. And he said, no, you didn't practice. Get out of here. You're not playing. And so the way that game was going, I mean, we were not doing anything. I mean, Tommy Kramer was having a good night. He had him up a couple touchdowns, and I kept telling Mike, look, he better put me in the game. We're going to lose. We just weren't the same team. I was watching our guys come off the sidelines, and we were just not the same team that we were the first two weeks. And we just needed some kind of a spark. I mean, Steve Fuller was not playing badly. It was just nothing was going on. And I'm convinced to this day the only reason he put me in the game was to get him out of his face because I was bugging the hell out of him.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And then the first play that I'm in, he gave me a call, which was supposed to be a screen pass to our fullback off to the left. And I actually called the play. I said, you know, I called the screen. And then they came with an all-out blitz. And I almost fell on my face, you know, coming out from under the center. So I was a little wobbly. And so when I read my balance– and planted my foot, I just happened to look downfield and Willie was just running his, he was just doing his job, running his guy off because that's what you do on a screen, take them deep. And he was 10 yards past his guy and I just let it go. And, you know, we scored and then we got the ball right back. And then the next play was a bootleg and I'm supposed to hit the back in the flat of the tight end coming across the middle. And I had the back.
I had Walter open early, but I got a little greedy. And I said, I think if I wait just a little bit, I know I'm going to have my off receiver, Dennis McKinnon, replace the weak safety. Because I used to tell Dennis all the time, look, the only guy that can stop this play is the weak safety if he jumps the tight end. And that's what happened. He jumped the tight end. And I never even saw Dennis. I just knew he'd be there and threw it up. And he was there and he scored again. And then the other one a couple minutes later was just, you know, I had, it was a, I think it was a drop back pass. And I just kind of scooted out to the left. I was getting pressure from the left side, got around him and looked downfield. And there was Dennis again behind his guy. And I threw it and the rest was history. But yeah, that night worked out pretty well.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say so.
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Speaker 1: You know, I've been lucky to spend a bunch of time with Fran Tarkenton and a little time with Brett Favre. And, you know, both those guys have that same thing in them that you just described, which is I don't care. Like when the game turns on, however I felt, I don't feel anymore. Put me in, put me in, put me in. Like, how did that come to be? Because you're kind of famous for that. You played through a bunch of stuff. Like, do you think you just had a high pain tolerance? Do you think it was uber competitive nature? What was that mentality and where did it come from?
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Speaker 3: Well, it was definitely, I've got a high pain tolerance. I mean, I've, I've been having a lot of pain since my early childhood. So I'm kind of used to it. Uh, but game day comes, I want to play. I hated practice, never did like practice. Uh, it's just not the same. It's like, it's like in golf out there, guys out hitting balls all day long. You know, I said, it doesn't matter how many balls you hit. If you can't hit it, you know, when you tee it up. Right. I've always just, I've been looking forward to games and I want to play.
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Speaker 2: Well, after that night, I will tell you that a bunch of kids in northern Minnesota showed up to football practice with headbands on because we were just blown away by that performance.
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Speaker 3: Well, it was a great night. I mean, it worked out great anyway. But yeah, that was fun.
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Speaker 1: You and Ditka seemed to have a fun but complicated relationship over the years. And Ditka always said football should be played on grass, right? and the Metrodome should be used for a roller skating rink, right? I think he had a certain way of looking at the game, and you had a certain way of looking at the game. What was that relationship at its core like, especially when you guys were at the height of your height?
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Speaker 3: Well, I was bored to death with that offense because I had just come from Brigham Young where I got to throw it 35 times and a half. When I was with Chicago, it took me like two or three games
to throw it 35 times. And so I was really bored to death. We just had a different opinion on how to get things done. He wanted to run the ball, control the clock. I said, we can do that by throwing the ball as well. Why can't I throw Walter the ball from seven yards around? Because I can tell what the defense is doing to me. And if I saw man-to-man, I said, why can't I just audible to a little halfback options route? There's not a linebacker in the league that can cover Walter. And he said, no, we're going to run the ball. We're going to, you know, so we, we clashed the whole seven years that I was there because of the, the way the offense was and the way he liked to call plays.
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Speaker 1: Sure.
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Speaker 3: And you know, Mike, I told him many times, I would have loved to play with him because he was a great football player, played the game the way it's supposed to be played. It was a great tight end. And, but I said, you know, I just don't, I don't understand why you, you want to beat your head against the wall when you don't have to.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. So, so, Playing for a team like Chicago, there's all these expectations from the fans and everything. Did you ever feel like there was a moment where that got out of hand for you?
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Speaker 3: What got out of hand?
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Speaker 2: The pressure and the expectations from everybody.
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Speaker 3: I didn't worry about pressure. Pressure's for tires. You're out there playing a game. I knew what I was capable of. I knew what our guys were capable of. Our guys, especially my line, they understood that I understood the game. You know, I wasn't doing things just to piss off Mike Ditka. I was trying to win football games. You know, and Mike, like I said, he was a tight end, but that's how he called plays, like a tight end. He had no idea how to, you know, set up the runs and the passes. You don't run a play-action pass without running the play first. I mean, you've got to set things up. And so, you know, I didn't care if he was going to be mad at me or not. You know, we're winning the game. That's all I worried about.
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Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, you had such a highly decorated college career. You mentioned it at BYU. And then, you know, you were such a high profile guy on one of the flashiest teams in NFL history. Like, where did that kind of outward persona come from? Where did that like character that you brought, not just the skills that you had, but kind of the charm and liveliness you brought to the field's most important position? Where did that come from?
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Speaker 3: I always like to have fun. No matter what I'm doing, I want to have a good time doing it. Why do it if you can't have any fun at it? Being in our practices and our meetings, they were not fun. I try to do things to make guys laugh and take some pressure off of them. It kind of worked.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, were you guys kind of a
yin and yang in that way, where you think about the Herb Brooks teams and some of these other things? With the structure, it's almost like as much structure as Ditka brought, you were the guy that brought the joy and the fun, and that probably balanced things out for all the other guys.
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Speaker 3: Well, I know they all kind of enjoyed Mike being mad at me. Because they knew I didn't care. I mean, if he's going to be mad at me, fine. you know, if you don't want me to hear trade me. And eventually they did. We had a good, we had a good five year run before they got rid of me. For sure.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: You guys were a very flashy team. You think about the Superbowl shuffle was, did you guys push back on that at all? Or did you embrace it and just really go into that video shoot loving it?
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Speaker 3: Well, I didn't go to the video shoot.
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Speaker 1: I did.
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Speaker 3: What happened was they came to us with this idea that we're going to do this record, right? That's all they told us. We're going to make a record. And then the proceeds would feed the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cause we did this thing with, I think with four games left in the season. And so we thought it would be a good thing for Chicago. You know, we just thought it was going to be a local thing. And then as soon as we all did our speaking parts, I mean, it went nationwide and then they did end up taping the video the day after we lost our only game that year, you know, we lose down in Miami on a Monday night. We get home at three or four in the morning, something like that. And the guys had to be at the studio at eight or nine in the morning. They were there, I think, for 10 hours. But Walter Payton and I both told him, look, that wasn't the deal. He said, we're going to make a record. That's what we did. And so him and I didn't go to the video shoot. And so about a week after they did the video, the people in charge came to us and said, if you don't do your parts, we're going to sue you. I said, this was supposed to be a charity thing, and you're going to sue us? I mean, this is ridiculous. And so Walter and I had to do our parts after practice. one day in the racquetball court at house hall. So what you saw up there was a couple of pissed off guys doing whatever we did. And then, you know, it went, it went crazy.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: I mean, we, you know, we got a gold record, gold.
00:20:02
Speaker 3: Record, a platinum video, and we lost the Grammy to Prince that year. So another Minnesota connection.
00:20:09
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, that's wild.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: What an all-time origin story. Think of how famous that thing is in the lexicon of NFL media. And the fact that it was a rope-a-dope, that you guys got... You were told you were feeding the poor, and all of a sudden they had you dancing about the Super Bowl. That's incredible. I've never heard that.
00:20:29
Speaker 2: Well, what's really incredible is how long it lasted. Because in 1991, I got beaten for a touchdown.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: On the field and the opposing quarterback came by me and said, I just throw my body all over the field. I can't dance, but I can throw the pill. He quoted you in Super Bowl Shuffle to rub it in my face. Unbelievable.
00:20:52
Speaker 3: People still talk about it everywhere I go.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: The song comes up and I mean, at the time, I guess it was pretty cool.
00:21:01
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. There are a lot of things in the 80s that aged way worse than the Super Bowl Shuffle. That is for sure. I got to ask you one more Superbowl question before I get your quick thoughts on the game this week. The, the other thing that, you know, is pretty unique in the lexicon of NFL history is handing the ball off to William, the refrigerator Perry and letting him erupt into an end zone or get it. Like where, where did that come from? And again, Was there like an energy when all of a sudden you saw him rumbling from the sideline into– I know you like to pass, but that's probably one of the most unique running plays in league history.
00:21:46
Speaker 3: Well, that all came about because in 1984 in the NFC Championship game, I think with about five minutes left in the game, Bill Walsh put Guy McIntyre, who was their starting left guard, I think, in the backfield, and they ran it down our throats for the last five minutes. And so the only reason that came about is Dick had wanted to get back at Bill Walsh. And so we went back out to San Francisco the very next year, and we beat him up pretty good. And late in the game, here comes Fridge. And that was only just to kind of stick it to Bill. I think Fridge got a yard or something on that play. But, I mean, he was actually a heck of an athlete. I mean, how do you tackle the guy? He was basically round. And he was huge. And he had a lot of pop. I mean, he could, the sound that it made when he hit guys, I mean, it was incredible. And he was a heck of an athlete. You know, I ended up throwing him a touchdown pass up in Green Bay a few weeks later. Or maybe it might have been the following year. But yeah, he was a big part of the offense. And then in the super bowl, he was supposed to even throw a pass. Really? Yeah. We actually, we actually called the play too. And, and when I, when I tossed him the ball, I'm looking at the defense going, Oh God, don't don't throw it. Cause I'm going to have to go chase somebody for an interception. He did end up not throwing it and got, got tackled for loss. But yeah, it became kind of a, kind of a zoo after that.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: God, can you imagine if he'd have thrown a pass that was successful in the super bowl? Holy cow. The, this football world would have gone insane.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. But Fridge was a heck of an athlete.
00:23:27
Speaker 1: For sure. Let's, well, let's close on
this. We really appreciate your time, but, you know, and the walk down a memory lane is really fun. What do you think looking forward instead of back? What do you, what do you think about this week? You know what they're doing in Chicago and, you know, with Caleb and Ben and what the Vikings are walking into?
00:23:49
Speaker 3: You know, I know Chicago is doing great. They've got a lot of talent. Caleb is a heck of a talent as well. They put up a bunch of points. I didn't see any of the game, but I see they put up a bunch of points last week. I think Ben Johnson, he seems to be a heck of a coach. Guys like him. Guys like to play for him. So, yeah, it should be a good season either way.
00:24:12
Speaker 1: Well, Jim, we really appreciate it, man. This was a thrill for us. Thank you for being a part of the tailgate.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
00:24:19
Speaker 3: No problem. Good luck this week.
00:24:21
Speaker 2: Thank you. Have a good one.
00:24:23
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Jim McMahon for joining us. I have to tell you now that he's no longer on the phone. That was outrageous. That was the fact that the team let us talk to him, which I thought was a mistake before we started.
00:24:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:24:38
Speaker 1: Still kind of do. But man, that was what we in the business call a thrill chatty.
00:24:43
Speaker 2: I know you can't see it right now, but I have one person on each side of me ready to punch me in the face if I ruin that interview. So I was on my best behavior, but that was so much fun. I mean, go back to your childhood. And then I love the fact that talking about the Thursday night game, he just still every step, right? He's talking about moving to the left and he gets pressured from the left and has to get around. I mean, he's just like, it is just ingrained.
00:25:12
Speaker 1: Also, how about a couple of absurd origin stories? The This is why the fridge play started. We were going to throw it. And oh, by the way, we got tricked into doing the Super Bowl shuffle. Unbelievable.
00:25:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, so cool. That was really fun to hear that stuff because I wouldn't have known. I thought that Ditka came up with the fridge running and I didn't know it was complete revenge. And then I also didn't know that their scenes were shot in different spots.
00:25:45
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. I would have never, for the technology back then, I would have never guessed that. I would have kept going like, well, then where'd you do it? You mean to tell me they green screened you? But technology was so wonky back then, they probably did it and you wouldn't have even noticed. Well, that brings us up to current. We'll move from him looking back to us looking forward. You know, this game, historically in our lifetime, like, adult lifetime since we've, you know, been grown. I got, I, I do not look forward to that game. I don't want to be a part of it. That's just always lingered. Now you have that plus, Oh boy, there's, they're.
00:26:28
Speaker 2: A good football team.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: I mean, they put up 59 points last week. Ben Johnson is on the record saying he wants to break the all time scoring record. Uh, this is going to be a really interesting Ben Johnson, uh, Flores moment and I have let me tell you no idea how it's gonna go not I don't even you know how I'm cocky all the time and then I'm the other way when it doesn't go like of course.
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Yeah you're wishy-washy I have well I listen.
00:27:00
Speaker 1: That's a different way of saying it I guess I would.
00:27:03
Speaker 2: Like to say that you again you are talking about a defense in Carolina that that didn't play a lot in the preseason this is the first game right so It's not like everybody's, all the starters are winding up. And so now that we, now that we got our game, I'm going to, you know what, I'm going to call it a practice game. Now that we got our practice game and our defense, our defense.
00:27:27
Speaker 1: We got our practice game against green Bay. We got the rust out against the green Bay team that didn't beat us. Yep.
00:27:34
Speaker 2: I think, I think every team is going to look significantly different in week two because it is, you know, you have to get going. But I think our defense looked great. Yes, there were some over-the-middle catches at the end of the game, but those are garbage time stats. And I'm just really looking forward to it. And I think Caleb's going to get hit a lot more than he did last game. I think this is going to be just different. Any time you come to the black and blue division, it is going to feel different. And I think they're thinking they're going to swim through this thing again and score another– 50 plus no chance. It was also of.
00:28:12
Speaker 1: Note that it was 31, 31 at some point in that game. And the bears just kept sprinting and put points.
00:28:18
Speaker 2: On the board.
00:28:18
Speaker 1: You know, the, the, the evolution of the Flores Ben Johnson, when, when Ben was in Detroit, you know, they clearly got the best of us a couple of times and really took advantage of the defense. But if you look at last year, You know, the opening week and even that later in the season game, it's not like they put up a lot of points. You know, I think what Flores does, so here's the theory I was poorly teasing before we got to the game preview. I think there is a, let's call it a psychological chaos factor. So, you know when defenses, excuse me, when offenses, it's like, You keep running it. You keep running it because eventually it'll break. You run it, run it, run it, run it, run it. And then in the fourth quarter, they're wore down and boom, you crack one. Boom, you crack one and you break them. It's almost like what Flores does sometimes is the defensive version of that.
00:29:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker 1: And granted, we really needed some things to go our way against Green Bay. But when the dam broke, all of a sudden, boom,
sack, boom, fumble, fumble. It was like, we've been hitting you all day and it broke through. And now, no matter what they've seen in the past. the Bears and Ben Johnson and Caleb have to look at the tape and go, oh, even though Jordan Love is big and rangy and can move and is really successful against the Blitz and never takes a sack, They brought it 73% of the time. 73! So there was this great, before the Packers game, former Viking Javon Hargrave, who plays for the Packers now, was basically asked by a reporter, hey, you played in this defense. Are you going to be able to give a little bit of the secrets, some of the cheat codes? And Hargrave kind of just laughed. He's like, there's no cheat codes. Jordan Love knows what's coming.
00:30:27
Speaker 3: Right.
00:30:27
Speaker 1: Like that's so that's the thing. It's this no matter if they show blitz all day and then drop back and play coverage, you can't count on that. No matter how good this offense is, I think I'm just hoping that in the back of Caleb's mind, the psychological factor of Flores being on the other sideline really matters.
00:30:45
Speaker 2: It is a real guessing game when you're playing against this defense. I mean, you know, they give you one lineup, show you one thing. all of a sudden it's not even close to what you thought. And so I think it's going to be great, and I think it's going to take one big hit, and I think Caleb is going to remember that, and I think it's going to affect the rest.
00:31:08
Speaker 1: We don't, although I think a lot of people believe he might be out for a while. As of this recording, we don't have updates on Kyler Murray. I think a lot of people are anticipating Carson Wentz, who, you know, I had some big moments and clearly as, you know, it makes sense, had some rust moments as well, given, you know, the way the off season went like that. I think that makes a lot of sense. This is a big spot.
00:31:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker 1: You know, and he's a guy who historically can make a lot of throws that a lot of other people can't. And then, you know, can get a little wild with it at times. And I, One of the big things I'm watching is the stats for KOC. When this team doesn't lose the turnover battle. So in this game against with a defense that isn't as good as the one we saw last week. But still is going to have to keep up. Can the two of those guys, if it is Wentz. Can KOC and Wentz kind of meld and keep the wild moments down for Wentz. and keep the good moments up, be low turnover and take advantage of some situations. And you, you, you might put yourself in a really good situation. I know, I know you're a long time Wentz guy, so you got to be curious how this goes.
00:32:35
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be interesting too. However, if they're like, these guys are watching game film, right? And they are seeing Hawkinson and they're seeing Jefferson and they're seeing the running backs. What they're not seeing is Addison. Addison is, is
still a humongous factor in this new passing game if Wentz starts. So we're going to be able to come out and still surprise them.
00:32:59
Speaker 1: Bears are currently five and a half point favorites. They are at home going into week two here. Let's do player prediction, game prediction, personal prediction. Are we booting the game prediction? We both hate the game prediction. We don't like it.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, unless we want to go actually instead of this fantastic thing. I just don't like.
00:33:26
Speaker 1: Predicting, and then I'm wrong, and I feel like I caused it, which is irrational, my therapist said.
00:33:32
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this. The last prediction, you said that Jefferson was going to have a huge game.
00:33:35
Speaker 1: He did.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: I said Hitman was going to have a pick. I mean, tip drill. I'm going to give him the assist.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: I think we focus on the thing we're amazing at is telling you, Who might show up big time? So let's do player prediction, and let's just.
00:33:53
Speaker 2: Keep it there. Okay, I'm going to go Dallas Turner, four hurries, two sacks.
00:33:59
Speaker 1: No!
00:33:59
Speaker 2: Four hurries, two sacks.
00:34:00
Speaker 1: That was mine. That's the one I wrote down.
00:34:04
Speaker 2: Too bad.
00:34:04
Speaker 3: Too bad.
00:34:04
Speaker 2: You let me go first.
00:34:06
Speaker 1: It'll be really interesting to see if Dallas Turner can follow up his week one performance. I mean, he was a monster.
00:34:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:34:14
Speaker 1: Like, for everybody who was worried about replacing that spot, boy, oh, boy, this guy is, he's ready, I think.
00:34:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it took a while to turn it on, but when he did, I mean, come on.
00:34:26
Speaker 1: Okay, so if you're taking Dallas Turner, so let me throw a couple of statistics at you.
00:34:31
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:34:33
Speaker 1: The Vikings ran the ball 27 times while trailing last week.
00:34:39
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:34:40
Speaker 1: That is the second highest in the KOC era.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:34:44
Speaker 1: Behind a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars when Sam Darnold was the quarterback. They're also, they had six short yardage plays in the game, two yards or less, ran on all six of them. A couple of them, second and short, didn't get it, ran again on third and short. I'm loving the commitment to the run game. So that's where I'm going to keep it. I think this is going to be a higher scoring game But I think you're going to see a big performance from the combined running backs at large. And hopefully if the game gets tilted the right way, a big number because you're really controlling the game. So that's the one I'm going to go with.
00:35:32
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:35:33
Speaker 1: Are you going to go to Chicago? You were at our first win. I don't know that you're the good luck charm, but you were at our first win. Were you watching this one?
00:35:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not going to. Unfortunately, I am. taking the earliest flight out of LAX to get home to watch this thing. So I will be at home most likely pacing.
00:35:55
Speaker 1: That is a early, early, early flight to get from LA back in time for a noon kickoff.
00:36:04
Speaker 2: It's an hour drive to get there at 5 a.m. So we shall see how I.
00:36:11
Speaker 1: Do.
00:36:11
Speaker 2: I will not be watching the 3 o'clock games. I will be sleeping.
00:36:15
Speaker 1: All right. All right, all right. Thanks again to the great Jim McMahon for joining Chad and I here on the show.
00:36:21
Speaker 2: No kidding. That was so fun.
00:36:22
Speaker 1: Thank you, Chad, as always, for being here this week. Thank you to all of you for listening to our podcast feed. While you're here, make sure you give us a good review. It sure would help us out a lot. Finally, a huge shout-out to Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings, for helping make this show happen. Enjoy the game, everybody.