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DAILY CLIPS

TUESDAY, JULY 2, 2019

LOCAL NEWS: Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Star Tribune

Call of Duty e-sports league will have Vikings entrant By Ben Goessling http://www.startribune.com/call-of-duty-e-sports-league-will-have-vikings-entrant/512073782/

VIKING Update

After Elon, Udoh adjusting to speed of NFL By Tim Yotter https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Olisaemeka-Udoh-adjusting-to-NFL--Vikings- 133345740/

Rudolph helps open training space at high school By Tim Yotter https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Kyle-Rudolph-donates-to-training-space-at-high- school-133331191/

The Athletic

5 big questions for the Vikings in 2019: What to expect from the running game? By Chad Graff and Arif Hasan https://theathletic.com/1048408/2019/07/01/5-big-questions-for-the-vikings-in-2019-what-to-expect-from- the-running-game/

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

Minnesota Vikings owners jump into esports with 'Call of Duty' team By Nick Halter https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2019/07/01/minnesota-vikings-owners-jump-into-esports- with.html

Twins Cities Business

Vikings-backed Investment Fund to Launch Esports Team By Staff http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2019/july/vikings-backed-investment-fund-to-launch-esports-t

NATIONAL NEWS: Tuesday, July 2, 2019

CBS Sports

Why the NFL must make increasing diversity a bigger priority, both at its highest levels and among coaches and GMs By Jason La Canfora https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-the-nfl-must-make-increasing-diversity-a-bigger-priority-both-at- its-highest-levels-and-among-coaches-and-gms/

MULTIMEDIA LINKS: Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Wilf Family Creates ESports Team By FOX 9 http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=9b91b400-2455-49e9-a091-e7209f64d062

VIKINGS ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK: Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Monday Morning Mailbag: How To Best Utilize Diggs and Thielen? By Mike Wobschall https://www.vikings.com/news/monday-morning-mailbag-how-to-best-utilize-diggs-and-thielen

PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 7/2/19

Call of Duty e-sports league will have Vikings entrant

By Ben Goessling

When they built the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center in Eagan, the Wilf family touted the Vikings’ new practice facility as the penultimate goal of sorts in their ownership of the team, with the final objective being a world championship.

Come next year, while the Vikings are working to build a team in Eagan, there’ll be another franchise tucked away in a nearby building, chasing a championship in its own right.

WISE Ventures, the -based investment fund the Wilfs launched last year, announced Monday it will field a team in Activision Blizzard’s upcoming Call of Duty e-sports league, to be based in the Viking Lakes development in Eagan. Details for the start of the league have yet to be announced, but it stands to reason play could begin sometime next year, after Activision’s existing five-team wraps up its season in August.

Players will live in Minnesota, practicing in the STEM building on the Viking Lakes campus near the Vikings’ outdoor practice fields. Brett Diamond, the chief operating officer of the franchise, said the team will have administrative offices, practice space and a players’ lounge in the building, adding the group is looking at the possibility of building an e-sports arena on the campus.

“Whether it’s in a traditional sports league or e-sports, these are long-term propositions,” said Diamond, who’d worked as the Vikings director of partnership strategy the past three years. “The Wilfs are looking at it as, ‘What does this look like 10 years from now, 20 years from now?’ That’s really what drives any investment like this, and you’ve seen that approach over the last [14] years of their ownership [of the Vikings] here.”

The Wilfs’ latest venture makes them the latest owners of a professional sports franchise to invest in e-sports. The Timberwolves run a e-sports franchise in an NBA-backed NBA 2K league, and Minnesota United has a competitive gaming franchise playing the latest installment of EA Sports’ FIFA soccer series in the eMLS league.

Pro sports owners nationwide have bought into e-sports franchises, where gamers stream their competitions on Twitch, the Amazon-owned video platform that boasts more than 17 million daily viewers.

The Patriots’ and the Rams’ — whose teams faced off in Super Bowl LIII in February — each own franchises in the , run by Activision Blizzard (the same game developer responsible for the Call of Duty franchise). The Mets’ Fred Wilpon also has a franchise in the league, and is the majority owner of an e-sports franchise that practices at the ’ facility in .

“The business of competitive gaming and e-sports has been evolving and maturing over the past few years,” Diamond said. “It wasn’t important to the Wilf family to necessarily be the first ones in, but all along, we felt like when the right opportunity presented itself, it was something we wanted to get involved in. Call of Duty, as a franchise, is one of the more established games; it has a long history. And there’s been great success with the other leagues with a similar model — the Overwatch League and League of Legends [Championship Series]. Having observed the first few years of the life cycle of those leagues, it really gave the group more of a comfort level that now was the right time.”

The new franchise’s first order of business is finding a , who’ll then begin putting the roster together. Just like any traditional sports league, Diamond said the Wilfs’ new e-sports franchise will scour the country for talent. If the next Adam Thielen of e-sports is sitting in the Twin Cities, waiting to be discovered, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

“This market is filled with those great stories, whether it’s an Adam Thielen or a Joe Mauer, and this is no different,” Diamond said. “If you have a local player that’s very successful, it’s an incredible way to connect with the community. But just like with any other sport, the intention is to build a roster that has the best chance to compete and to win.”

PUBLICATION: VIKING Update DATE: 7/2/19

After Elon, Udoh adjusting to speed of NFL

By Tim Yotter

Olisaemeka Udoh figured the jump from Elon University, with just over 6,000 undergraduates in central , to the NFL would be a bit daunting. So far, he believes the transition to the had gone well.

“I think I’ve been doing a good job of observing the information. So, I’ve just been taking it day by day, getting in the playbook, learning and going out there and playing,” he said. “I got a couple extra reps early in OTAs when Brian went down, so I’m thankful for that, to learn really early about the tempo and how the game is practiced.”

At 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, the 22-year-old rookie already is the heaviest of the Vikings’ offensive linemen, but the question with such size is how he would adapt to the athleticism the new-look Vikings offensive line requires.

The Vikings saw enough glimpses of his athleticism on his film from Elon to take a chance on him in the seventh round of the draft. He is doing his best to adapt to the quicker pace and talent, but it is “definitely” a big jump from Elon, he said.

“The speed of practice is definitely a lot faster and just how efficient practice can be, which I didn’t realize. All of our practices so have been with helmets and I’ve been getting really good mental, physical reps on how to block as an NFL offensive lineman,” he said.

“There’s speed all around, it’s just been a lot quicker. So, from defensive end to defensive tackle, it’s been quicker. Definitely adjusting to that. It took a little bit of time in the beginning, but I’m definitely there right now.”

One of his “welcome to the NFL” moments has coming while lining up against defensive end Danielle Hunter. That is who Udoh listed as his toughest defender to block and it would certainly test his athleticism, but it’s an area where he believes he has improved.

“I think I fit in pretty well. The zone scheme, you’ve got to definitely be a pretty athletic offensive lineman to fit really well in the scheme. I think I’m getting it. For the most part it’s been good,” he said.

Udoh said the best tip has received so far is to train his eyes to see multiple things happening on the field and keep him aware. He has been relegated to working exclusively at right tackle, where starter Brian O’Neill has been helpful in his development.

Last year, O’Neill went through many of the things that Udoh is experiencing now and therefore has been a “really good mentor.”

There was a time when Udoh naturally wondered if he could make the jump from Elon to the NFL, but an invite and participation in January college all-star games and practices helped instill greater confidence. His trepidation about whether or not he belonged in the NFL has faded since then.

“I kind of would have said yes to that if I didn’t play in the Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl, but definitely getting that tempo out of the way helped knock that out, which was awesome,” he said.

After practicing the week leading up to the Shrine Game and playing in that, he received an invite to the Senior Bowl. After that, he started to get on the radar of NFL teams as a potential draft pick and he began to believe that was going to be the case.

Now, it’s up to him to transfer his progress in spring practices to the start of training camp and earn a roster spot.

“Definitely. I think coming to a close with mandatory camp, definitely can build off of that in training camp,” he said. “It should be a really good time, really fun.”

PUBLICATION: VIKING Update DATE: 7/2/19

Rudolph helps open training space at high school

By Tim Yotter

Several Minnesota Vikings have or will be conducting youth football camps during their time away from the team in the summer break, and Kyle Rudolph is among them. Many NFL players are vacationing and enjoying their time away from their respective teams, and Rudolph, the Vikings tight end, presumably will be among those, too.

But Rudolph was also seeing the end product of his large donation to help his alma mater, Elder High School in the Cincinnati area, build a 20,000-square-foot fitness center. The Panther Fitness Center completed its first phase with a 5,870-square-foot training space, new locker rooms, a lobby and offices for coaches.

Rudolph is a major donor in the project.

“A lot of people ask why and the biggest reason I can say why is because what this place did for me, the man this place turned me into,” Rudolph said. “I came here as a 14-year-old kid who grew up knowing this would be the only place I would go to high school.

“From the age I could walk, the age I could talk, it was all Elder all the time. … I was always a fan of Elder High School. The players I looked up to, both on the football field and on the basketball court, they were the superstars to me; they were the professional athletes that I wanted to be one day. It wasn’t Michael Jordan or Troy Aikman. It was [athletes from Elder]. Those were the guys I wanted to be like. Without this place, I wouldn’t be half the person I am today. When I talked to Coach Rankin about this opportunity, I told him, ‘The kids of Elder High School, current and future, deserve this building.’ And they deserve this building because both mentally and spiritually they’re being developed into some of the finest young men in the entire country in those hallways. Now they have an opportunity to develop themselves physically. I said earlier, this high school deserves the best.”

Rudolph said the idea for his involvement in the renovation started four years ago.

“This was an idea that started back in 2014 and now it’s finally come to fruition,” Elder Athletic Director Kevin Espelage told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “This wouldn’t have been possible without the teamwork and the commitment of so many individuals. We wanted to build a facility that would be a lifestyle changer for all students – past, present and future students at Elder High School. Today, certainly we’re making Elder great.”

Rudolph graduated from Elder in 2008 and went on to play at Notre Dame before he was a second-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2011. He was nominated as the Vikings’ representative for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2018, mainly for his large commitment to the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. Rudolph and his wife Jordan personally donated $250,000 to the construction of “Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone” at the hospital, a 2,500-square foot respite that includes a basketball hoop, sports simulator, lounge and kitchen. Since it opened in March 2018, it has received well over 5,000 patient visits.

PUBLICATION: The Athletic DATE: 7/2/19

5 big questions for the Vikings in 2019: What to expect from the running game?

By Chad Graff and Arif Hasan

(Editor’s note: This is the second in a five-part series breaking down the most pressing questions facing the Vikings this season with a new article published every Monday until training camp. Last week: A look at Kirk Cousins entering Year 2. Next week: Do the Vikings again have a top-5 defense?)

Chad Graff: One of my most vivid memories from last season came in a cramped room right off the field at Gillette Stadium in New England where the Vikings had just lost a kind-of ugly game on a foggy night outside Boston.

Mike Zimmer entered the postgame news conference with his black hat pulled low after the offense managed just 10 points and 278 yards. I asked Zimmer what needs to happen for the offense to get going again? “Same thing I’ve been saying all year,” Zimmer replied. A colleague followed up asking whether the Vikings ran it enough. “No,” Zimmer said.

That night, the Vikings ran the ball 13 times for 95 yards. The production was there since the Patriots played some sets with only two — and occasionally only one — down defensive linemen. dared the Vikings to run it. And the Vikings refused. We later reported that Zimmer was so angry with the offense after that performance that the Vikings probably would have fired John DeFilippo after that game had they not been traveling to Seattle the following week for a massive game against a team they were battling for a wild-card berth. They deemed it wasn’t enough time to implement a new offense.

Of course, DeFilippo was fired after that game in Seattle and Kevin Stefanski took over. Now as the Vikings look to improve an offense that was very middle-of-the-road last season, Stefanski remains in charge, though he’s aided by Gary Kubiak. Together, they’ll be tasked with getting more from the Vikings’ running game.

Last season, the Vikings ranked 27th in the NFL in rushing attempts with 22.3 per game. Even if it’s clear that Zimmer wants more rushing attempts, the head coach remains sensitive to that perception. During minicamp, he was asked about his desire to run the ball more and instead stressed that it’s simply balance he’s seeking.

However you phrase it, the running game will be a focal part of the Vikings’ offense. With that in mind, how do you foresee it looking, Arif? How often will they use it and perhaps equally important, is Zimmer right about the importance of balance?

Arif Hasan: During the spring, Zimmer has been extremely quick to clarify that it’s balance and not running for running’s sake that he’s looking for. While I think that’s a better clarification than if he had simply committed to having an offense that ran the ball just because it could, it can be concerning. Everyone knows there’s an emphasis on play- action — it gets brought up in just about every offensive presser. Kubiak is a whiz at installing it, Kirk Cousins has brought it up unprompted, and Zimmer knows that it can help improve the passing game.

Naturally, that makes one think of the running game. I don’t think running is unimportant; in fact, a lot of credible stuff I’ve seen says running and defending the run is about one-third as important as passing, which means your ability to run or stop the run can swing games or bail you out of a subpar passing day. More than that, I think teams (including the Vikings) should run the ball more often on third down (and less often on first down).

But I don’t think that running has much of a relationship with play-action. There’s no evidence that running the ball well or running it often gives you an advantage in play-action passing. That’s not the same as “if you never run the ball, your play-action passing will be fine” — there’s some point where you’ll hit that hiccup, but NFL teams haven’t done that yet.

So I don’t think it’s about running the ball more. I think it’s about running the ball appropriately. In that New England game, I think Zimmer had already presupposed that if the run numbers weren’t good, he’d take issue.

A few days after the Patriots game, Zimmer mentioned that he thought DeFilippo might have been spooked after New England went up 17-10, but the Vikings only had three plays in that span, one of which was a run. If he’s talking about the drive prior to that, he might have a point — the Vikings only ran the ball twice on 12 plays, but it was a successful drive! It’s difficult to have an unsuccessful drive of 12 plays unless it ends in a turnover, but they turned a field position where an average team scores 1.47 points and got three out of it.

It would have been nice to get a touchdown, but if a team averaged three points per drive over a full season, they would usually have the best offense in the league (and the Vikings would have been one point behind City last season with 564 points).

I’m not sure they should run the ball more often (though they undoubtedly will), but they should at least strive to be better at it when they do. And they should pick situationally appropriate times to run. To that end, the Vikings are very likely improving.

A 13-rush day in a December loss in New England spelled the beginning of the end for John DeFilippo. Expect a different approach to the ground game in 2019. (Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) Chad: The other part of the run game, of course, is the offensive line and their ability to adapt to the zone rushing scheme that Kubiak is helping implement.

Those in the Vikings’ front office felt fortunate that not only did the top center in the draft (Garrett Bradbury) fall to them, but that he perfectly fits this system that the Vikings will run a majority of the time. Coaches have mentioned the importance of having athletic offensive linemen in this scheme, which requires linemen to be able to move well laterally. They feel Pat Elflein will be able to do that well in his move to left guard, and of course, there are no concerns with right tackle Brian O’Neill’s athleticism.

Arif, after the Vikings hired Kubiak, you broke down how his run game generally operates. But how do you see this offensive line fitting his system? And what kind of a difference can this zone scheme make for the unit?

Arif: I think the offensive line will define much more of the run game’s success than Dalvin Cook will, as talented as he is. Cook actually played spectacularly well last year and was among the league leaders in forcing missed tackles, yet still only managed 4.6 yards per carry — good, but not commensurate with the level of play he showed on the field. Compounding that, his success rate was only 41 percent, which ranks 41st of 47 running backs.

To that end, we should see better and more consistent play from the offensive line. Kubiak generally has done a good job whipping run games into shape over his career and I expect something similar for the Vikings. I think the offensive linemen the Vikings have selected and will roster this year are generally very good fits. It’s not just that they move quickly when pointed in the right direction, but that they generally can move their hips fluidly and get on the right track in the first place.

Generally speaking, zone-running teams are supposed to expose themselves to fewer tackles-for-loss and run play- action more effectively. At the NFL level, the advantage with regards to tackles-for-loss seems to disappear, but most of the most-effective play-action teams in the NFL right now seem to work out of zone.

Whether or not that’s the case, what’s more relevant is if the Vikings can make it work for them, and it really looks like this is a good fit given their skillsets.

PUBLICATION: Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal DATE: 7/2/19

Minnesota Vikings owners jump into esports with 'Call of Duty' team

By Nick Halter

The Wilf family that owns the Minnesota Vikings is launching an esports franchise that will compete in a Call of Duty league.

The league is run by Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), a Santa Monica, Calif.-based video game company with $7.5 billion in annual revenue. League play is expected to begin in 2020, with franchises already announced in Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Paris and Toronto. More franchises should be announced this month.

According to an ESPN report earlier this year, the franchise fee to get into the league is $25 million.

The Minnesota team will be run by Brett Diamond, who was previously the Vikings' director of partnership strategy and worked in the NFL league office before that. Diamond is the son of Jeff Diamond, the former Vikings general manager and architect of the team’s successful run in the 1990s.

Jonathan Wilf, the son of Vikings owner , will be the family’s lead on the esports franchise as president. The esports business is operated by an entity called Wise Ventures, though the franchise doesn’t have a name yet.

In addition to the Wilfs, Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, is an investor in the Minnesota team.

It may amaze older, non-video game players, but esports have become a big business, with millions of people watching from devices around the globe. That presents all kinds of sponsorship and advertising opportunities for companies.

Diamond got a taste of that interest when he oversaw Madden competitions the Vikings held at Mall of America over the past few years.

“At the end of the day, entertainment is what people decide it is, and if fans and the population decide that what is interesting is to watch is people playing video games, that is where the entertainment industry goes,” he said.

While many of the details on how the league will be organized are yet to be announced, Wise Ventures is starting to put some things together. In the near term, the team will be located in the new Innovation Center building that was constructed on the 200-acre Viking Lakes campus in Eagan where the football team practices.

But longer term the group has larger ambitions.

“We are exploring the viability of building an arena on the Viking Lakes campus in Eagan,” Diamond said. “It’s not something we have a firm commitment on, but we are actively exploring it.”

Diamond also said that Wise Ventures could eventually launch teams in other esports leagues.

“There is potential for this organization to invest in other esports team,” he said. “We have no immediate plans to do so as we focus on getting this team established. But in the long-term there is potential is potential to bring other esports teams in under the same umbrella.”

The Minnesota Timberwolves also launched an esports team that competes in an NBA 2K league with other NBA teams. There’s no equivalent to that in the NFL, which is why the the Vikings owners are competing in a first-person shooter league and not a football video game league.

NFL owners Robert Kraft and Stan Kroenke have esports franchises in Activision Blizzard’s other Call of Duty league, the Overwatch League.

PUBLICATION: Twin Cities Business DATE: 7/2/19

Minnesota Vikings owners jump into esports with 'Call of Duty' team

By Staff

A Manhattan investment fund has unveiled plans to launch an esports team in Minnesota.

On Monday, WISE Ventures announced that it has inked a deal with Activision Blizzard to create a Call of Duty franchise based in Minnesota. WISE Ventures was founded by the Wilf family, which owns of the Minnesota Vikings.

The franchise will be based at the Viking Lakes mixed-use development in Eagan. The team is the seventh to enter the Call of Duty league; other teams are based in Paris, New York City, Toronto, Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.

WISE Ventures had looked into other esports opportunities in the past, but the firm’s leaders wanted to wait for the industry to mature, says Brett Diamond, the new team’s chief operating officer.

“They wanted to wait until they felt the opportunity was right,” says Diamond, who will transition out of his current role as the Vikings’ director of partnership strategy. “We really felt now was the right time to get in, and that Call of Duty— with its historic success as a franchise—was the right game to get involved with.”

Over the last few years, the Vikings has been testing the waters with a series of tournaments for Madden NFL video games. But those events were aimed at reaching a younger demographic to build the Vikings fan base, Diamond says. The goal of the new venture is to build a fan base around the esports team itself.

And though the esports business differs significantly from traditional sports in many ways, revenue opportunities are often very similar.

“It’s ticketing at events. It’s broadcast rights. It’s sponsorships with local companies and those sorts of things,” Diamond says. “Those are things we’ll be working on rolling out over the next few months.”

WISE Ventures also is mulling building an arena for the new team.

“It’s something we’re interested in and plan to explore,” Diamond says. We think there’s a lot of opportunity in creating a hub activity for the gaming community in the region. But we have a lot of due diligence and a lot of analysis to do before any final decisions are made on it.”

The new esports team will be a separate entity from the Vikings, though the Wilf family owns both. Jonathan Wilf— Zygi Wilf’s son—will serve as president of the esports team. Over the next couple months, Diamond expects to hire between 20 and 30 staffers to help run the new team.

The team’s ownership includes entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of digital strategy firm VaynerMedia. Diamond says Vaynerchuk will play a key role in the team’s branding and marketing efforts.

“We plan to lean heavily on Gary’s expertise,” Diamond says. “He’s an expert at so many things that are going to be important for this organization – whether it’s social media or branding.”

PUBLICATION: CBS Sports DATE: 7/2/19

Why the NFL must make increasing diversity a bigger priority, both at its highest levels and among coaches and GMs

By Jason La Canfora

ATLANTA -- Several years ago at the annual NFL Spring Meeting, while standing in the sprawling hallway of a swanky resort as high-ranking team and league officials began to pour out of a conference room for lunch, an associate asked me a question that resonates even more loudly today.

The individual, at the time a person of considerable heft in football circles, wondered aloud that if I sat in that hallway all day, how many people of color -- excluding coaches -- would be among those scampering in and out of meeting rooms in their smart business suits? It's something that has run through my head in the years since, spending countless hours hanging around and waiting for such meetings to conclude, and it's a dynamic hardly lost on those at the league office as well.

For two days in Atlanta this week, the NFL hosted a Coaching Summit, trying to identify a pipeline of diverse coaches on the offensive side of the ball in the pro and college ranks who can hopefully rise to become head coaches themselves. Coaches and general managers spoke frankly and passionately about the problems they face during the symposium, trying to address the issue at the grassroots level. And they did so knowing that the power structure within the league -- owners and team presidents and GMs -- are almost entirely white, and there is a dearth of people of color in a position to hire in football.

The recent decision of Minnesota Vikings highly-esteemed team president , one of the most prominent African American front office executives in the NFL, to depart to become commissioner of the Big Ten was a topic of private conversation at the summit as well, as one might expect. The topic seems more timely now than ever, with Ravens ex-general manager Ozzie Newsome now in a reduced role, with the number of diverse head coaches dwindling, with a slew of African American general managers let go in recent years without landing anything close to similar positions elsewhere (Jerry Reese, Ray Farmer, , Rod Graves, Sashi Brown, Doug Whaley and Reggie McKenzie come to mind), and with the , in the eyes of many, making a mockery of the Rooney Rule with their "general manager search" this month.

The issue runs deeper than just at the head coaching level. The NFL is searching for ways to address the lack of diversity in all disciplines of football -- beyond just the coaching and GM ranks -- and it is a cause that Troy Vincent, the league's head of football operations and one of the hosts of this event at Morehouse College, is championing.

"Here (at the summit) we are primarily talking about the quarterback coaches and play-callers," Vincent told me. "But what we should be looking at -- which we have -- is diversity across the entire spectrum, and that includes team presidents and ownership groups, that's the accountants and that's the lawyers, that's marketing, that's media. But it's easy for us to just focus on what the public sees, and that's the head coach and the play-caller. We have to be intentional around each of these disciplines."

As we sit mere weeks away from the start of 2019 training camp, about to kick off the NFL's 100th season, you can count on two hands the number of true high-ranking non-white decision-makers among the 32 member clubs. There is just one managing ownership group (not counting minority partners): Shad and Tony Khan in Jacksonville. There are just four non-white head coaches and just two general managers ( in Miami and Doug Williams in , though Williams does not have final say over personnel decisions and Bruce Allen is in fact Washington's highest-ranking football operations official). And, as conversations about the topic have intensified around the league with Warren's abrupt departure, I've had several people opine about the lack of diversity across the board.

It begs the question of whether the demographics of these positions will actually change significantly from the top down, or if more systematic changes must be made in the way individuals achieve these positions in the NFL. Will it take more people of color atop team front offices to see more people of color serving as coaches and general managers?

"It goes hand in hand," Vincent said. "That's both hands. You need both. You need those that are actual decision- makers to be inclusive as well. What we're doing here is were just looking to have an inclusive process; we're not looking for any handouts.

"So that's an inclusive process. It has to go across the entire spectrum. But it's easy to focus in on the sports car, but the person who is actually making the decision -- he or she has to have that same mindset. Diversity is good business, and it's also the right thing to do."

Vincent is working closely with Rod Graves, the former Cardinals GM who left a position with the NFL to take over the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which oversees issues of diversity with the league, to try to curb the recent tide. After recently pursing every NFL team website for hours, researching the men and women listed in EVP and SVP positions -- the type of execs who represent clubs at owner's meetings -- the results were, frankly, troubling. This was not an examining of middle managers -- pro personnel guys and scouting directors -- but the types of individuals listed in the top half dozen or so front office positions.

The league has made far greater strides embracing leadership roles for women -- team after team had women in EVP roles -- especially as it pertained to legal or finance matters, in what seems to be a refreshing, growing trend. But by and large those women were white, and in many cases they were related to the owner. As for diversity in background, besides Newsome (now listed as an EVP within the personnel department but whose voice within that organization has been prominent) and Williams and Grier, you have Omar Khan (Steelers Vice President of Football and Business administration) and Paraag Marathe (49ers President of 49ers Enterprises and EVP of Football Operations essentially rounding out those of color in top positions on the football side of things. In the entire league.

Stephen Choi (Washington CFO), Husain Naqi (Jags SVP of International Development, Megha Parekh (Jags SVP and chief legal officer), Brandon Etheridge (Ravens general counsel) and Ed Goines (Seahawks CFO and General Counsel) carry considerable financial and legal titles. Besides the Khans in Jacksonville, there are 49ers "co-owners" Gideon Yu, who became the first person of color to hold a team president title in the NFL in 2012, and Mark Wan, though the York family has the controlling interest.

"This clearly is an issue at the executive level, as well as the head coach level," Graves said, "and until owners embrace diversity as part of their business plan we will be slow to make the kind of improvement that I think is necessary. And I think diversity is good for the league, and good for business …

"There are a number of teams out there that do an excellent job, and you see the effects of what I call the diversity of leadership, but I think by and large it has not been a total commitment. Because what we understand about diversity is it has to be intentional, and that's what we've seen with the NBA and the message we see in corporate America in some spots. But I think in order for it to really work and be effective it has to truly be a commitment. And that's what we're working towards."

Several of his peers around the league said that frustrations over the lack of progress on these matters weighed heavily of Warren for years, concerned about whether the scope of the Rooney Rule was broad enough and whether teams were conducting searches that were truly in the spirit of the rule's intent. Warren did not respond to messages seeking comment, but several who were close to him in the league said that they have shared concerns over the lack of diversity atop the NFL pyramid for years, and expressed consternation over how to make it more representative of the men who perform on the field and more representative of all various walks of society.

"If you look around the room at a league meeting, at who really represents each team, there just isn't much diversity," said one NFL team executive. "It really doesn't seem to change. And on the football side, Ozzie and Doug are both in their 60s and Paraag's role has sort of changed and they brought in Al Guido as a team president there, too. It actually seems headed in the wrong direction.

"How many people of color are really moving up and taking that next step? Are they really getting that opportunity? Is the Rooney Rule really working? Houston brings in (former GMs) Martin Mayhew and Ray Farmer right away and then doesn't hire a GM -- is that why the rule was put in place?"

These issues go well beyond football, and remain something corporate America has grappled with for years. But when the demographics of those who play the game at the highest level as so heavily skewed in the opposite

direction, and with several of the long recognizable African American coaches no longer employed in such roles (Marvin Lewis, Jim Caldwell and Tony Dungy, for starters), it's clear the NFL has considerable work to do. The Texans opting to hire no GM at all -- after they couldn't land intended target of the Patriots -- despite interviewing Mayhew and Farmer, has irked many, and did not go unnoticed at the Fritz Pollard Alliance either, and concerns have been raised about several GM searches in recent years.

"I go back to -- are you really making diversity a priority?" Graves said. "And I understand, having worked in the NFL, where you establish relationships and you like to be around people you are comfortable with and who you have a history with in the past. I get that part of it.

"But all that we have asked is for there to be an open and fair process of evaluation, and if there's not going to be one, then let's not make a sham of the Rooney Rule. And that to me, again, goes back to what is the commitment to diversity? And we clearly understand that diversity is good business for the league. I believe it is, and other teams have shown that to be true."

Vincent and Graves both pointed to the Falcons, Cardinals and Vikings as teams always wiling to embrace the cause. Vikings GM , the only white NFL coach or GM who attended, spoke emotionally about the two quality coach positions his owners agreed to add to the staff, which they are using to broaden the diversity of their staff. He hopes other organizations take note, with a commitment from ownership the clearest path to altering the league's current state of affairs.

"That's when hopefully we see some breakthrough," Spielman told the group.

Perhaps others are listening too, well beyond the scope of those sitting in conference rooms at the QB Coaching Summit. There are no shortage of qualified candidates that sincerely hope that is the case.

PUBLICATION: Vikings Entertainment Network DATE: 7/2/19

Monday Morning Mailbag: How To Best Utilize Diggs and Thielen?

By Mike Wobschall

Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen both work well from the slot. How would a defense have to respond if they both lined up in the slot on opposite sides and a tight end was split wide on both sides? Would a linebacker have to move outside to follow the tight end or maybe a safety split wide? Might create some opportunities in the run game. -- Brian Duncan Powell, TN

LOVE this kind of question! And I agree that both Diggs and Thielen are great from the slot…so why not put both of them in the slot at the same time on occasion? I’m sure this kind of formation could indeed pose some challenges for a defense, although I’m equally as sure that someone like Mike Zimmer would develop some answers to this. If linebackers move out to cover the tight ends, that may be an indicator of man coverage. If the linebackers stay inside and the cornerbacks stay outside to cover the tight ends, that could be an indicator of zone coverage. But it’s not as simple as that, either, so let’s root for the Vikings to use this look and then we’ll see how the defense responds.

I know our offensive line will do better this year, but how did the Texans win 11 games while giving up 62 sacks last year? I’m sure there are plenty of different reasons. Skol! -- Curtis Moore Easton, PA

You have to credit the Texans team for overcoming that number of sacks allowed to win that many games because that is an exorbitant amount of sacks. The Vikings allowed 40 sacks a season ago and they’ve been bound and determined to find ways to decrease that number. Remember, though, pass protection is a responsibility that falls on every part of the defense and not solely the offensive line. Receivers need to get open, backs and tight ends can help in protection and the quarterback needs to be on time with delivery.

How are the cornerbacks doing? And who do you think will be the starters for this year? -- Kyler Heinzen

It’s hard to see anyone but Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes on the outside and then Mackensie Alexander on the inside as starters when the regular season opens in September. Ordinarily, I’d say cornerback would be a pretty cut and dry position group to predict on the 53-man roster, but the injury to Mike Hughes and the suspension of Holton Hill for the first four weeks of the season has opened up some competition for roster spots this year. It will be interesting to see if rookies Kris Boyd and Marcus Epps continue to impress during training camp just as they did during the offseason program. Those are two names to watch among several youngsters once camp opens.

What will be the role of Irv Smith and we will he be utilized a lot in our new offense? -- Corey A.

The Vikings were surprised and thrilled to be in a position to select Smith No. 50 overall in the draft and they remain excited about his potential in this offense. It’s also important to remember that he’s just 20 years old and that while he’s extremely talented he also has a lot to learn. I expect he’ll see the field quite a bit during his rookie season but I don’t think his presence will take away from the reps and targets for Kyle Rudolph, who remains the team’s top player at the position.