July 19, 2024 • 9 mins
Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell stops in to the morning show to talk about new rules this year, the State Fair, and play the game Is It Legal?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The coach just walked in. Howare you, coach? Grab a microphone,
Coach, I am, I amdoing very well. I really apologize
for walking in and see him.I gotta get used to this radio thing.
I'm used to be able to walkin and talk in every room I
ever walked. No, no,no, no problem. No, I
totally get that. I think thereare probably three people that are allowed to
walk in mid studio when the microphonesare on. Yeah, you are one,
(00:22):
Taylor Swift and Joey McIntyre. Doyou know who Joey McIntyre is,
coach? I don't believe. Sohe's in New Kids on the Block.
Do you know what you could absolutelycould walk in? What's going on?
Coach? I always wondered about you. When do you get time off?
Because football season ends like in earlyFebruary and then you get like a half
(00:46):
of a week off before you startworking again. Is that pretty much accurate,
coach? Yeah, so we are. Our main chunk is just about
to wrap up. And really it'sit's hard to say. My wife and
kids would probably tell you that eventhough I'm technically off right now, I'm
it's it's getting close enough that mymind is starting to go there because training
camp starts in like a week away. When we have our first group of
(01:08):
guys reporting Sunday Sunday, it's it'sbasically here. This summertime is our time
off and it's the most important timefor a coach, his family. My
favorite time of the year. Obviouslybeautiful here in the Twin Cities. So
we've had an absolute blast this summer. But as you guys said, it's
time. It's it's about that timeto go. Did you get to do
anything? Did you go to thecabin? Did you go to Disney?
(01:30):
Did you go did you go toBlack Hills and go to Bear Country?
Us A? I mean, didyou do anything? I would tell you
that travel, baseball and learning takesup a crazy baseball dad. We did
go to San Diego for a coupleof weeks see my family and and some
of our old friends from back there. But really it was it was a
(01:51):
Minnesota summer, just here as muchas possible. We just absolutely love it
here. Do you get kids loveit here? So really fun summer.
Do you get I'm off to goto the State Fair because a month away
is the Minnesota State Fair. You'reshaking your head like, oh no,
you never go to the state Fair? Never never been. I know.
I always give the players get somedays off around that time, and they
(02:12):
always go, and they're always tryingto bring us, to bring us with
them, but never been. Neverhe has to go. This year,
he has to. We'll try tosneak out of practice, sneak you in.
We'll come down and we'll get likea mask and we'll sneak out of
practice, go to state fair.Is there restrictions when the players go to
the state Fair? You'd be like, okay, guys, do not eat
your way through the fairgrounds. Youshow up looking like refrigerator Perry did after
(02:34):
the Super Bowl. You may knowwhat I'm talking about. When you put
on like one hundred and forty sevenpounds, do you have restrictions like as
far as like, you know,guys don't eat your way through the fair.
I just asked that they don't comeback with like, you know,
any of the food they eat,like still on their face. So yeah,
yeah, nice, bad enough,I don't get to go. We
probably now that you're you know Iwhen you haven't been, you don't know
what you need to worry about thingsin my head? You don't know what
(02:58):
you're missing. It's the best placein the world. It is it something
you go to multiple times a year? Absolutely? Yeah, oh yeah.
You can go to the State Fairand you can spend like of several days
there and still not see at all. So it's very cool. Are you
up for a little quiz here?Yeah? Coach Danna from the Viankings.
Now, now I wrote up somefootball scenarios and I want to see how
(03:19):
well you know the rules? Doyou think you're pretty well versed on the
rules and the regulations. We gotsome new ones this year. Is there
anything throwing you off this year?Well, we're gonna spend about a month
and a half getting ready for thisnew kickoff rule. What's the new kickoff?
Oh my goodness, it's gonna lookto even a fan that you know
hasn't watched a lot of football before, it'll look different. We're gonna have
basically about twenty twenty to twenty twoplayers right there, you know, about
(03:44):
five yards apart on the plus sideof the fifty yard line. Okay,
one returner back, one kicker backwhere they normally kick from, and it's
gonna be a big old scrum andwe'll see what happen. Why did they
make that change just to make moreexciting or safety reasons? If you know,
we lost about eighty to ninety percentof the kickoffs kickoff returns, which
historically I know watching as a kid, was always one of the more exciting
(04:08):
plays for me, seeing a guytake it back one hundred yards. Just
with the new rules and the rulesthat kind of got put in for the
safety of the player, we justlost with everybody was the power of the
kicks. Nowadays, everybody's just kickingtouchbacks out of the back of the end
zone almost became an obsolete place.That's what you would expect as a touchback.
They want to get it back inthe game. So a lot of
rules about where the ball can land, what happens when it lands where,
(04:30):
and obviously expect to see some differentkind of kicks and different kind of return.
So that's one foreshore among others.We have some situations here and I
want to see how well you knowthe rules of the NFL. So let's
give you a scenario here. CoachJustin Jefferson is lined up wide left on
the Vikings forty six yard line.The clock is running. Suddenly, a
mosquito bite on his head starts hitching, so Justin takes off his helmet to
(04:55):
scratch it, but he gets itback on before the ball is snapped.
Is this legal? I'm going tosay. I'm going to say illegal.
I can't take your helmet off atany point in time on the field,
because I would say, I don'tcare what the rules are, I'm taking
(05:15):
my helmet off. No, butyou're right, it is illegal to take
your helmet off while the clock isrunning. So make sure Justin knows this.
So we're going to stick with themand just get up in there with
the sticks instead. I think that'sa good idea. Let's say, okay,
let's say it's Jordan Edison's grandma's birthday, so he writes Happy birthday Grandma
on his EyeBlack. Is this legal? Also illegal? Why? I just
(05:38):
have always told the players, justto avoid all conflict, can't write anything
anything, any kind of message thatyou know. They're just not allowed to
do that. Once again, bothof these I would I would ask you
guys, where are you guys aton either one of those rules? I
have no idea, I mean sensemosquitos message to grandma? Yeah, but
(06:00):
it's Jordan's grandma's birthday. I wouldsay the player would take the fine at
that point, Do you want todo another one? Come on? Okay?
The Vikings score a touchdown on Detroit. Detroit decides they want the Vikings
to have the ball again, sothey elect to kick the ball off to
the Vikings. Is this legals?In other words, the Vikings just scored
(06:21):
a touchdown, but Detroit they don'twant the ball. They want to kick
it off to the Vikings. Isthat legal? No, it's not legal.
Actually it is. The team thatwas scored on gets to decide who
gets the ball next. Of course, they always choose themselves. Really,
you didn't. It never comes upthough, I've never actually been asked by
any of our wonderful I asked coacha question that nobody has ever. Do
(06:48):
I get some sort of a plaquefor this? All right? You want
to do one more? Yes?Okay? Uh, let's see here.
Harrison Phillips grabs the Chicago Bears runningback by the hair to tackle him.
Is that legal? That is legal? Yes, it is? Yes,
he got this. When a player'shair is just as much in play as
the rest of his body, itis even legal to tackle the runner by
(07:09):
the hair or a handful, ora handful can be called a holding penalty.
I'm not sure I understand that part. Okay, let's do one more,
one more. These are fun.You have a good time? Are
you glad you came? I am? Okay? Look at Bailey's he's kissing
up pandering right now by wearing purple? All purple? Where's your purple?
(07:30):
Oh? You don't want to knowwhere I'm from? Last one? Aaron
Jones runs for a fifteen yard touchdown. To celebrate, he turns his booty
towards the stands and aggressively twerks.Is this legal? This kind of falls
under the kitten peel sketch where howmany thrust? Type of conversation. But
(07:57):
I do believe that is legal.Try again. It's props and that's not
whatball. Well, let's not leaveyou on a down. Yeah, let's
try another one here, okay.Byron Murphy intercepts it pass, runs thirty
four yards for a touchdown. Hedoes a lay up and spikes the ball
through the goal post. Coach,is that legal? It is illegal?
(08:20):
Yeah, that would be called excessivecelebration. Is that right? They're not
allowed to use the ball as aprop of any kind really. So yeah,
so if you've noticed sometimes and especiallyto slam dunk over the goal post,
they've had some issues, you know, with some fines. Yeah,
you're quite good at the rule thing, Kevin. Well, I'm telling you,
(08:43):
I take offense to the fact thatI've never actually been asked, Uh,
coach, you want to, youknow, give up the football here
and go ahead and just kick itback off. Try that. That's a
new strategy. Yeah. I hopethat doesn't come to play a lot,
but well, we'll definitely ask aboutthat one. That was all awesome.
Thank you, it was fun.Thanks for coming in. I know you're
busy. I know you got alot of stuff to go to. We
did have to ask one question beforehe left, talking about it all morning.
(09:09):
What is your favorite kind of fry? So you got your tater todds,
you got your waffle fries, yougot your take fries, curly fries,
sweet potato fries. Coach, whatdo you think? I probably I'm
a pretty strong waffle fry. Butthere's something to be said about just the
standard, good old fashioned standard fries, not steak cut, but somewhere in
(09:31):
between that and the and the andthe shoe string right, it's probably where
i'd land. I love it.Coach. Thanks for coming in, man,
it was a pleasure to meet you. So appreciate that. Go Vikings
and training camp starts to the start. Showing up a week from Sunday first
preseason game is only a couple ofweeks away. Person, we don't get
(09:52):
a whole lot of time, sowe got to get rolling. Wow Coach, good luck
The coach just walked in. Howare you, coach? Grab a microphone,
Coach, I am, I amdoing very well. I really apologize
for walking in and see him.I gotta get used to this radio thing.
I'm used to be able to walkin and talk in every room I
ever walked. No, no,no, no problem. No, I
totally get that. I think thereare probably three people that are allowed to
walk in mid studio when the microphonesare on. Yeah, you are one,
(00:22):
Taylor Swift and Joey McIntyre. Doyou know who Joey McIntyre is,
coach? I don't believe. Sohe's in New Kids on the Block.
Do you know what you could absolutelycould walk in? What's going on?
Coach? I always wondered about you. When do you get time off?
Because football season ends like in earlyFebruary and then you get like a half
(00:46):
of a week off before you startworking again. Is that pretty much accurate,
coach? Yeah, so we are. Our main chunk is just about
to wrap up. And really it'sit's hard to say. My wife and
kids would probably tell you that eventhough I'm technically off right now, I'm
it's it's getting close enough that mymind is starting to go there because training
camp starts in like a week away. When we have our first group of
(01:08):
guys reporting Sunday Sunday, it's it'sbasically here. This summertime is our time
off and it's the most important timefor a coach, his family. My
favorite time of the year. Obviouslybeautiful here in the Twin Cities. So
we've had an absolute blast this summer. But as you guys said, it's
time. It's it's about that timeto go. Did you get to do
anything? Did you go to thecabin? Did you go to Disney?
(01:30):
Did you go did you go toBlack Hills and go to Bear Country?
Us A? I mean, didyou do anything? I would tell you
that travel, baseball and learning takesup a crazy baseball dad. We did
go to San Diego for a coupleof weeks see my family and and some
of our old friends from back there. But really it was it was a
(01:51):
Minnesota summer, just here as muchas possible. We just absolutely love it
here. Do you get kids loveit here? So really fun summer.
Do you get I'm off to goto the State Fair because a month away
is the Minnesota State Fair. You'reshaking your head like, oh no,
you never go to the state Fair? Never never been. I know.
I always give the players get somedays off around that time, and they
(02:12):
always go, and they're always tryingto bring us, to bring us with
them, but never been. Neverhe has to go. This year,
he has to. We'll try tosneak out of practice, sneak you in.
We'll come down and we'll get likea mask and we'll sneak out of
practice, go to state fair.Is there restrictions when the players go to
the state Fair? You'd be like, okay, guys, do not eat
your way through the fairgrounds. Youshow up looking like refrigerator Perry did after
(02:34):
the Super Bowl. You may knowwhat I'm talking about. When you put
on like one hundred and forty sevenpounds, do you have restrictions like as
far as like, you know,guys don't eat your way through the fair.
I just asked that they don't comeback with like, you know,
any of the food they eat,like still on their face. So yeah,
yeah, nice, bad enough,I don't get to go. We
probably now that you're you know Iwhen you haven't been, you don't know
what you need to worry about thingsin my head? You don't know what
(02:58):
you're missing. It's the best placein the world. It is it something
you go to multiple times a year? Absolutely? Yeah, oh yeah.
You can go to the State Fairand you can spend like of several days
there and still not see at all. So it's very cool. Are you
up for a little quiz here?Yeah? Coach Danna from the Viankings.
Now, now I wrote up somefootball scenarios and I want to see how
(03:19):
well you know the rules? Doyou think you're pretty well versed on the
rules and the regulations. We gotsome new ones this year. Is there
anything throwing you off this year?Well, we're gonna spend about a month
and a half getting ready for thisnew kickoff rule. What's the new kickoff?
Oh my goodness, it's gonna lookto even a fan that you know
hasn't watched a lot of football before, it'll look different. We're gonna have
basically about twenty twenty to twenty twoplayers right there, you know, about
(03:44):
five yards apart on the plus sideof the fifty yard line. Okay,
one returner back, one kicker backwhere they normally kick from, and it's
gonna be a big old scrum andwe'll see what happen. Why did they
make that change just to make moreexciting or safety reasons? If you know,
we lost about eighty to ninety percentof the kickoffs kickoff returns, which
historically I know watching as a kid, was always one of the more exciting
(04:08):
plays for me, seeing a guytake it back one hundred yards. Just
with the new rules and the rulesthat kind of got put in for the
safety of the player, we justlost with everybody was the power of the
kicks. Nowadays, everybody's just kickingtouchbacks out of the back of the end
zone almost became an obsolete place.That's what you would expect as a touchback.
They want to get it back inthe game. So a lot of
rules about where the ball can land, what happens when it lands where,
(04:30):
and obviously expect to see some differentkind of kicks and different kind of return.
So that's one foreshore among others.We have some situations here and I
want to see how well you knowthe rules of the NFL. So let's
give you a scenario here. CoachJustin Jefferson is lined up wide left on
the Vikings forty six yard line.The clock is running. Suddenly, a
mosquito bite on his head starts hitching, so Justin takes off his helmet to
(04:55):
scratch it, but he gets itback on before the ball is snapped.
Is this legal? I'm going tosay. I'm going to say illegal.
I can't take your helmet off atany point in time on the field,
because I would say, I don'tcare what the rules are, I'm taking
(05:15):
my helmet off. No, butyou're right, it is illegal to take
your helmet off while the clock isrunning. So make sure Justin knows this.
So we're going to stick with themand just get up in there with
the sticks instead. I think that'sa good idea. Let's say, okay,
let's say it's Jordan Edison's grandma's birthday, so he writes Happy birthday Grandma
on his EyeBlack. Is this legal? Also illegal? Why? I just
(05:38):
have always told the players, justto avoid all conflict, can't write anything
anything, any kind of message thatyou know. They're just not allowed to
do that. Once again, bothof these I would I would ask you
guys, where are you guys aton either one of those rules? I
have no idea, I mean sensemosquitos message to grandma? Yeah, but
(06:00):
it's Jordan's grandma's birthday. I wouldsay the player would take the fine at
that point, Do you want todo another one? Come on? Okay?
The Vikings score a touchdown on Detroit. Detroit decides they want the Vikings
to have the ball again, sothey elect to kick the ball off to
the Vikings. Is this legals?In other words, the Vikings just scored
(06:21):
a touchdown, but Detroit they don'twant the ball. They want to kick
it off to the Vikings. Isthat legal? No, it's not legal.
Actually it is. The team thatwas scored on gets to decide who
gets the ball next. Of course, they always choose themselves. Really,
you didn't. It never comes upthough, I've never actually been asked by
any of our wonderful I asked coacha question that nobody has ever. Do
(06:48):
I get some sort of a plaquefor this? All right? You want
to do one more? Yes?Okay? Uh, let's see here.
Harrison Phillips grabs the Chicago Bears runningback by the hair to tackle him.
Is that legal? That is legal? Yes, it is? Yes,
he got this. When a player'shair is just as much in play as
the rest of his body, itis even legal to tackle the runner by
(07:09):
the hair or a handful, ora handful can be called a holding penalty.
I'm not sure I understand that part. Okay, let's do one more,
one more. These are fun.You have a good time? Are
you glad you came? I am? Okay? Look at Bailey's he's kissing
up pandering right now by wearing purple? All purple? Where's your purple?
(07:30):
Oh? You don't want to knowwhere I'm from? Last one? Aaron
Jones runs for a fifteen yard touchdown. To celebrate, he turns his booty
towards the stands and aggressively twerks.Is this legal? This kind of falls
under the kitten peel sketch where howmany thrust? Type of conversation. But
(07:57):
I do believe that is legal.Try again. It's props and that's not
whatball. Well, let's not leaveyou on a down. Yeah, let's
try another one here, okay.Byron Murphy intercepts it pass, runs thirty
four yards for a touchdown. Hedoes a lay up and spikes the ball
through the goal post. Coach,is that legal? It is illegal?
(08:20):
Yeah, that would be called excessivecelebration. Is that right? They're not
allowed to use the ball as aprop of any kind really. So yeah,
so if you've noticed sometimes and especiallyto slam dunk over the goal post,
they've had some issues, you know, with some fines. Yeah,
you're quite good at the rule thing, Kevin. Well, I'm telling you,
(08:43):
I take offense to the fact thatI've never actually been asked, Uh,
coach, you want to, youknow, give up the football here
and go ahead and just kick itback off. Try that. That's a
new strategy. Yeah. I hopethat doesn't come to play a lot,
but well, we'll definitely ask aboutthat one. That was all awesome.
Thank you, it was fun.Thanks for coming in. I know you're
busy. I know you got alot of stuff to go to. We
did have to ask one question beforehe left, talking about it all morning.
(09:09):
What is your favorite kind of fry? So you got your tater todds,
you got your waffle fries, yougot your take fries, curly fries,
sweet potato fries. Coach, whatdo you think? I probably I'm
a pretty strong waffle fry. Butthere's something to be said about just the
standard, good old fashioned standard fries, not steak cut, but somewhere in
(09:31):
between that and the and the andthe shoe string right, it's probably where
i'd land. I love it.Coach. Thanks for coming in, man,
it was a pleasure to meet you. So appreciate that. Go Vikings
and training camp starts to the start. Showing up a week from Sunday first
preseason game is only a couple ofweeks away. Person, we don't get
(09:52):
a whole lot of time, sowe got to get rolling. Wow Coach, good luck
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