MVN - Most Valuable Network

Retro Video: Jim Marshall Appears on Game Show

Felt like tracking down a Vikings-related video to post today, and I think you’ll enjoy what I ended up spotting on YouTube. On October 25, 1964, the world witnessed one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of professional sports — Viking defensive end Jim Marshall, on that date, ran the wrong way.

Playing against the 49ers, Marshall recovered a fumble and proceeded to run the ball 66 yards towards the wrong endzone. After sprinting past the goal line, he tossed the ball off the field in celebration. Little did he know, at the moment, that this play resulted in a safety for San Fransisco.

Fortunately for Marshall, the Vikings hung on to win the game, 27-22. Since his squad escaped with a victory, he was able to laugh about the infamous play in this 1964 episode of the game show, I’ve Got A Secret:

Although Marshall is best remembered for this blunder (in which he set the all-time NFL record for the shortest play at -66 yards), the man’s list of accomplishments during his career is truly astonishing. He started 282 consecutive games — a crazy feat for someone who played in the trenches — and he holds the NFL record for career fumble recoveries, with 29 throughout his 20 years in the league. Oh yeah, he didn’t miss a single game between 1960-1979.

So, it’s a shame that he’ll always be remembered as “Wrong Way Marshall.” Of course, the play is still completely hilarious more than 40 years after it happened, but one of the panelists in the video said it best: “Jim, all I have to say is that my heart bled for you.”

Happy Trails, Kevin Seifert

*Sad news, Vikings rubes: Kevin Seifert is leaving the Star Tribune. The longtime beat writer has accepted a job with ESPN.com, where he’ll blog about the NFC North.

I’m betting Patrick Reusse, our favorite old codger, isn’t going to take this news too well — last week, he wrote a column moaning and groaning about the rise of internet media and the decline of print media. Mere days after that column appeared in the Strib, the paper’s most prominent beat writer announces he’s leaving for — uh huh — a website.

Anyways, happy trails to Seifert…he’s always been one of the best beat writers in the Twin Cities (Lavelle’s my favorite, but Seifert was a close second), and he’ll do an excellent job of covering the Black and Blue division for The Worldwide Leader.

*Might the Vikings have a brand new scrimmage partner for training camp? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Rams have selected Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin as their new training camp site; it’d be a long drive for Vikings fans (the university is roughly 350 miles away from the Twin Cities metro area), but you’d have to expect that future training camp scrimmages between the Rams and Vikes are a near certainty.

*As always, I wouldn’t suggest actually betting on this stuff, but Bodog already has a bunch of interesting odds listed for the 2008 NFL season: They have 28:1 odds on the Vikes taking home the Lombardi Trophy, 9:1 odds on our squad winning the NFC Championship, and 7:4 odds on the Purple winning the division title. Interestingly, the Packers also have 7:4 odds of winning the NFC North. The Patriots, by the way, are Bodog’s Super Bowl favorite, with 10:3 odds of winning the title.

At the moment, I think I’d put Green Bay a notch above the Vikes in the NFC North race. Believe me, it pains me to say that, but I’ll reserve judgment on the divisional favorite until I see these two squads do battle on Monday, September 8th. On paper, I think the Vikings look like the better team — but that’s why they play the game, right?

If our guys can knock off the Pack at Lambeau, I’ll probably jump aboard the division title bandwagon. For now, though, the Packers are simply the more proven team — with the obvious exception of the Rogers/Brohm tandem of “quarterback saviors.” Green Bay’s gonna be tough to beat, but I think Packers fans are being a tad delusional about their quarterback situation.

Closed-circuit to Cheeseheads: There are going to be much worse growing pains at the quarterback position than you’re currently expecting. Just wanted to bring you guys back down to earth.

*Not sure what bizarre formula Pro Football Focus used to calculate their rankings of offensive tackles, but something must have gone horribly wrong with their formulation of these rankings: There’s no way in hell Ryan Cook is the 17th-best tackle in the NFL. Cook improved as the 2007 season progressed, but c’mon — if I had a dollar for every time I heard an official say the phrase “holding, number 62 of the offense” last season, I would be a happy, happy man.

Since Cook went from being “downright awful” to “mediocre” last season, it would be reasonable to expect him to leap from “mediocre” to “decent” this season. But he racked up a killer amount of penalties last season, and eliminating those from his game is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles he faces in becoming a serviceable tackle.

*Finally, I’ll leave you with a seizure-inducing video that I spotted on You Been Blinded of a man who seems to enjoy his Vikings jerseys. I happen to prefer Vikings zubaz over jerseys, but whatever.

Vikings Fans: Franchise Quarterback or Outdoor Stadium?

I was listening to the Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN today and heard the boys discuss a pretty interesting topic: If you were in Zygmunt Wilf’s shoes, would you rather have a franchise quarterback or a brand new outdoor stadium?

It’s a tough question because most of us would probably prefer to see the Vikes stay indoors, but ultimately, I’d go with the outdoor stadium. A franchise quarterback would likely make this team a legit championship contender during the next several seasons, but if your team is in danger of being moved, it doesn’t matter if you have Tom Brady or Spergon Wynn under center. First and foremost, you need to secure the future of your franchise.

Still, if/when our lawmakers finally get around to approving funds for a Vikings stadium, it would be a terrible mistake if a retractable roof wasn’t part of the deal. Building a roof is the only conceivable way Minnesota would have an opportunity to host a Super Bowl, the stadium could be used year-round for concerts and other events, and we’d have an excellent chance of being selected to host a Final Four.

Of course, there’s something to be said for the home field advantage an outdoor stadium could offer; yeah, Vikings rubes would be freezing their asses off during the latter parts of the season if the Purple played outside, but an outdoor stadium in Minneapolis could develop into one of the toughest places to play in the NFL.

I’d suggest the compromise of building a retractable roof but not utilizing it during Vikings games…rather, the roof would be used for concerts and other events that would require protection from the elements. This scenario is unrealistic and simply ain’t gonna happen, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the Vikes play outdoors.

*Elsewhere, it’s been far too long since we’ve pointed and laughed at Packers fans, so let’s take this golden opportunity to do just that. Follow the link to see an excellent example of phenomenal parenting: Indeed, a kid who appeared to be roughly eight years old was photographed at Disney’s Magic Kingdom wearing a Mark Chmura jersey.

What better role model for a young child than an athlete who introduced teen girls to the wonderful game of beer pong, and *allegedly* sexually assaulted the 17-year-old babysitter of his children? Ah yes, the next generation of Packers rubes is clearly in good hands.

Sid Hartman: Voice of Reason

At 88 years of age, Sid Hartman continues to be the biggest homer in the Twin Cities — and, of course, he continues to make little effort to hide his homerism. Let’s face it…if someone was gonna shine a ray of positivity on the Bryant McKinnie nightclub debacle, it was gonna be Grandpa Sports. Observe:

After investigating the incident, the Vikings front office questions the details reported by Florida newspapers following Bryant McKinnie’s arrest in February outside a Miami nightclub. People close to the left tackle have said the whole thing was blown out of proportion. And you can be sure that if the Vikings thought they would lose McKinnie to a lengthy suspension, they certainly would have been more active in the draft for an offensive lineman. McKinnie has a hearing coming up in Miami and will meet with NFL officials after that.

OK, as an illustration of why Sid’s points are garbage, I’ll share a quick story from last month…

I received a press pass from the Timberwolves to cover their final game of the season for T’Wolves Blog, and although I wasn’t granted access to the locker room, I was able to attend Randy Wittman’s postgame press conference. Sitting in front of me was none other than Grandpa Sports, who asked his usual stale, mundane questions during the presser. That’s not the noteworthy part; the noteworthy part is what happened when Wittman walked off the podium.

Grandpa Sports rushed up to Wittman as the coach was exiting the media room, asking Witt if he’d have time for an interview in the coming days. I’ve never seen an 88-year-old move as fast as Sid did when he tried to arrange this exclusive one-on-one chat…I’m roughly one-fourth of Sid’s age, and would be hard-pressed to move so swiftly. Indeed, if I had rushed the coach as Sid did, I would have been quickly hauled off by Target Center security.

I laughed with some members of the media about Sid’s ambush of Coach Wittman, but this does display that Grandpa Sports makes all the right moves in maintaining his high level of access with the teams of the Twin Cities. So, as a general rule of thumb, take everything he says with a grain of salt. This guy will make the subjects of his columns look a helluva lot better than they actually are to remain on good terms with the higher-ups in the local sports scene.

Here’s my translation of Sid’s McKinnie update: “After investigating the incident, the Vikings front office quickly realized that McKinnie will face harsh punishment from the league, but wants to persuade fans that everything will be fine and dandy for their embattled lineman. People close to the left tackle are trying to help cover McKinnie’s ass by saying that the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

And even though the Vikings realize they’ll lose McKinnie to a lengthy suspension, they didn’t want to reach for an offensive lineman in the second round of April’s draft, and character issues scared them away from Carl Nicks in the later rounds. McKinnie has a hearing coming up in Miami and will meet with NFL officials after that, where Roger ‘The Enforcer’ Goodell will lay down the law. It won’t be pretty.”

*Although I begged and pleaded ABC to let me be a contestant for the upcoming season of The Bachelorette, my efforts came up empty — unfortunately for me, the show had already filled its quota of Minnesotan contestants after they selected former Viking Ryan Hoag to be one of the 25 males vying for DeAnna Pappas. It’ll be interesting to see if the Gustavus grad has the right stuff when the show premieres next Monday.