DAILY CLIPS

SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2020

LOCAL NEWS: Saturday, June 13, 2020

Pioneer Press

U.S. seems ready for change, and Vikings hope to help make it happen By Dane Mizutani https://www.twincities.com/2020/06/12/how-the-vikings-are-emerging-as-a-vessel-for-change-following-george- floyds-death/

Star Tribune

What's up with 's holdout threat? (And other questions) By Michael Rand https://www.startribune.com/whats-up-with-dalvin-cooks-holdout-threat-and-other-questions/571214302/

The Athletic

‘That could be our kids’: For Spielman family, racism and inequality hit home By Chad Graff https://theathletic.com/1867425/2020/06/12/rick-spielman-family-racism-inequality-children/

Purple Insider

Friday mailbag: Receiver depth chart, paying players, QB isolation By Matthew Coller https://purpleinsider.substack.com/p/friday-mailbag-receiver-depth-chart

NATIONAL NEWS: Saturday, June 13, 2020

Maven Media

93 Days Until Vikings Football: Will Shamar Stephen Remain a Starter in 2020? By Will Ragatz https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/93-days-vikings-football-countdown-shamar-stephen

Why ESPN Needs to Put in the Booth By Will Ragatz https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/espn-randy-moss-monday-night-football-booth-announcers

Vikings Rookie WRs , K.J. Osborn Give Back During Pandemic By Will Ragatz https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/vikings-rookie-receivers-justin-jefferson-kj-osborn-pandemic

Forbes

Vikings Embrace Role In Black Live Matter Movement Following George Floyd Death By Steve Silverman https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevesilverman/2020/06/12/vikings-embrace-role-in-black-live-matter-movement- following-george-floyd-death/#524928941f5d

New York Times

The N.F.L. Embraces Progressive Action, but Not Yet Kaepernick By Ken Belson https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/sports/football/nfl-protest-colin-kaepernick-activism.html

MULTIMEDIA NEWS: Saturday, June 13, 2020

Dalvin’s Contract Call, Vikings Social Justice Committee By KMSP http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=8c0a73c8-fce0-490a-98e2-b7d8aa11dbb5

Vikings, Wilf Family Pledge $5M to Social Justice Causes By Pro Football Talk http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=ef87c0da-386b-4ed0-8e6b-63524ff774c7

VIKINGS ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK: Saturday, June 13, 2020

Lunchbreak: ESPN Ranks Vikings 18th in NFL in Continuity By Lindsey Young https://www.vikings.com/news/espn-ranks-vikings-18th-in-nfl-in-continuity

Jefferson & Udoh Donations Help During COVID-19 Pandemic By Craig Peters https://www.vikings.com/news/justin-jefferson-oli-udoh-donations-help-covid-19-pandemic

Milestone with Monterae: Vikings Table Food Truck Turns 1 By Lindsey Young https://www.vikings.com/news/vikings-table-food-truck-turns-one-years-old

PUBLICATION: Pioneer Press DATE: 6/13/20

U.S. seems ready for change, and Vikings hope to help make it happen

By Dane Mizutani

Andre Patterson watched the horrific video of George Floyd gasping for air before dying under the knee of a former Minneapolis police officer. All 8 minutes, 46 seconds of it.

He couldn’t help but think of the countless other African-Americans who had died at the hands of police, a list too long to memorize that in the Twin Cities notably includes Jamar Clark and Philando Castile.

Whether it was Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Tamir Rice in Cleveland, or Eric Garner in New York, each senseless death is a blunt reminder of a broken system.

“I’m a child of the ’60s, OK?” said Patterson, recently promoted to co-defensive coordinator for the Vikings. “This has been going on my whole life.”

You could hear the fatigue in Patterson’s voice as he uttered those words, even as he offered some hope that maybe this time is going to be different.

Why?

“Because the whole world got to see life leave that man’s body,” Patterson said. “That changed everything. Not only did they get to see him lose his life, they got to see it from start to finish.”

Floyd’s death was a brutal illustration of something Patterson said the black community has long been trying to tell the world, and while it has fallen on deaf ears time and time again, it finally seems to be sinking in with protests that started in the Twin Cities and quickly sprouted throughout not just the nation, but other parts of the world.

The general population has started to take a stand against racism and inequality in a way never seen before, and that Vikings are trying to be a vessel for change. They put their money where their mouth is this week and donated $5 million to various social justice causes, and the team on Wednesday held a nearly 90-minute video call during which members of the organization spoke with reporters to push the conversation forward.

That call featured Patterson, chief operating officer Andrew Miller, general manager Rick Spielman, linebacker , safety Anthony Harris and running back , all of whom talked about their experiences with racism and inequality, and how they want to go about evoking change.

For Spielman, the issue is extremely personal. He recalled a scenario in which his son, who is black, was pulled over because he was suspected of stealing the car he was driving.

“My son actually had to call home and get my wife on the phone to explain that this is our car,” said Spielman, who talked about the various other hard conversation he’s had to have with his six adopted children, none of whom are white. “It just tears me apart that we have a society that is still like that.”

Those incidents of racism are far too familiar for the black community, including the many Vikings players who live it every day. It’s something the team acknowledges and will fight moving forward.

“I’m thankful for 2020 because everyone’s had a chance to sit down at home and watch from the outside what’s going on, and these types of incidents are under the biggest of microscopes,” Abdullah said. “Now it’s like, ‘Whoa, it’s a big division. The people who stand for it are standing for it. The people who stand against it are standing against it.’ ”

Floyd’s death, Abdullah said, has forced people to confront things they might have ignored in the past. That could go a long way in evoking change.

“This is a time for us to reconnect, and I think 2020, it’s no coincidence with 20-20 vision,” Abdullah said. “I think a lot of people are seeing a lot clearer right now.”

SPEAKING UP Usually quiet by nature, Kendricks felt the need to speak up a couple of weeks ago. He was disgusted by the emptiness of the NFL’s statement following Floyd’s death, 150 words that at no point mentioned racism.

In response, Kendricks called the NFL out on Twitter, imploring them to take action. As much as it made Kendricks uncomfortable, he leaned into it, knowing that sometimes it takes being vulnerable to make things happen.

“I felt like I had to speak up, whereas times before I might have been more timid,” Kendricks said. “This was an issue that we continue to face. It wasn’t going to change. I decided to use my platform.”

Since then, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has issued a new statement in which he admitted he was wrong, condemned racism and systematic oppression, and vowed to stand with the black community moving forward.

“Finally, having him say those things and having our back, I feel like we can all move forward now,” Kendricks said. “We all can take a deep breath and really go after these issues that are plaguing our country.”

After seeing the impact he can have, Kendricks said he is committed to using his platform even more. He understands he can evoke change by speaking up.

There might not be a player on the Vikings that understands that more than Abdullah. His father, Kareem, marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., to help secure voting rights for African-Americans.

“I come from a family that lived through the Civil Rights Era,” Abdullah said. “All the stories that I’ve kind of gotten as a young man stick with me because they embody my entire character, to fight through things, to always listen, and to try to make the best of situations.”

Sometimes speaking up is easier said than done. Just ask Harris, who wanted to have a conversation with a police officer driving through his neighborhood earlier this week and couldn’t help but feel a little tense in the moments leading up to the exchange.

“Just being an African-American man, sitting on the side of the road with my flashers on waiting for them to come out of the one-way street where I live, flag them down and have a conversation with them, it crossed my mind that I could be potentially shot or viewed as a threat just for what I was trying to do,” Harris said.

“I made sure I proceeded with extra caution so I didn’t surprise them. With everything going on in the world, I tried to make them feel comfortable. It kind of just kept things in perspective of, no matter where I go or no matter what I’m really doing as an African-American man, that’s something that I can’t shake.”

LISTENING MORE With the rest of the NFL speaking up, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer knew he needed to say something to his team. He wanted his players to know he was there for them. He just didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

He spoke at length with Patterson before talking to the team. More than anything else, Patterson wanted Zimmer to speak from his heart.

“My conversation with him was, ‘Tell them how you feel,’ ” Patterson said. “They are going to listen. There is no right or wrong. The worst thing you can do is stay silent.”

It wasn’t a prepared statement, and while Zimmer might have stumbled on his words here and there, his players appreciated his authenticity.

“It was a big thing because he communicated to us that he does not understand,” Kendricks said. “He is not from the same background. He does not share the same skin. He can’t begin to relate with us, but he hears us and he is there for us.

“He expressed that if we want him to get involved with anything that we have going on as a committee, that he’s right there with us. That’s the thing that we all need to start is having that dialogue.”

That message had a profound impact on Abdullah, an African-American Muslim who referred to himself as “a double minority” while growing up in the south. He’s rarely had people that look like Zimmer stand up for him.

“He humbled himself greatly and said, ‘Man, I don’t understand, and even though maybe I haven’t given this as much attention, I know I love every single last one of you guys in this room, and I’ll fight for you guys just like you were my sons,’ ” Abdullah said. “To have him come out and humble himself and say, ‘I don’t understand and I stand with you’ was powerful for me.”

Spielman held a meeting with the entire personnel department earlier this week and got choked up when relaying what happened.

“We have a great group of guys that truly care for each other as a family,” Spielman said. “To sit there and listen to one of our minority scouts tell us that when they travel around this country and they get pulled over, they don’t know if they’re going to get to go home and see their families. ‘Is this the last time I had a chance to talk to my family?’ That’s something our white scouts who were on there can’t understand that because they’ve never been in that situation.”

Those instances are a microcosm of some of the hard conversations happening right now on a much larger scale. They also serve as a perfect example of the Vikings’ understanding that they have a responsibility to push the conversation forward.

“We talked about internally maybe hosting (through) our space with the Vikings, maybe our auditorium, something to bring in officials, people from all walks of the community, to talk about these issues,” Abdullah said. “To unclothe a lot of the internal things. Because who we are externally as people is predicated on who we are inside. And no matter how much we try to put paint over rusted metal, that rust is always going to burn through that paint, eventually. We have to heal from the internal before we can really talk about reform.”

TAKING ACTION While the Vikings are at the forefront of some of the hard conversations, they are also doing tangible things in the Twin Cities as a way to evoke change.

The team already had formed a Social Justice Committee dedicated combating racism and inequality and making a difference in the community. Recently, members came up with the idea to establish the George Floyd Legacy Scholarship so that his memory lives on.

Additionally, the Vikings have done work with Project Success, an organization that inspires young people to dream about the future, and All Square, an organization designed to help those that have been convicted of a crime get the opportunities they need.

RELATED ARTICLES Dane Mizutani: Why is the NFL still so afraid to talk about Colin Kaepernick? Vikings to donate $5 million to various social justice causes Dalvin Cook reportedly set to hold out in search of contract extension Vikings’ front office employees back in Eagan. When will the players be? Roger Goodell says NFL was wrong for not listening to players The latter is something Kendricks, who has done work at the juvenile detention center in Minneapolis, feels particularly passionate about. He feels like the justice system is fundamentally flawed about the way those with convictions, especially juveniles, are treated after serving their time.

“How are they supposed to get off probation if they can’t get a job and can’t get housing? They can’t. It’s a trap,” Kendricks said. “These are some of the things where I personally see the impact. I see these kids, and they’re good kids, and they get stuck in the system, and they’re there forever. It infuriates me because I feel like there’s no one else that’s looking out for them. I feel like they’re abandoned.”

This is an example of something Kendricks wants to bring more attention to, and he’s thankful the Vikings are giving him a platform.

Now the hope, according to Abdullah, is that the NFL as a whole follows suit. If it does, through raising awareness and taking action, change can come.

“Just with our voice and obviously with a lot of the campaigns that we can start and a lot of things with the player coalition putting together in terms of funds, shifting economics, everything down the whole line,” Abdullah said. “I think the NFL can be a huge catalyst for change in the future.” PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 6/13/20

What's up with Dalvin Cook's holdout threat? (And other questions)

By Michael Rand

It’s the middle of June, and sports are at a very interesting juncture. No game in any major U.S. professional team sports league has been played for more than three months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And as some leagues prepare to return to play, their plans are being overshadowed in many cases — and rightfully so — by calls around the world, including many from the world of sports, for social justice reforms and anti-racism measures.

I put out a call for reader questions the other day, and the responses were a wonderfully eclectic mix that reflect where we are right now in sports — with a lot of pent-up energy looking to be spent in a lot of different directions. Let’s get to them:

Minncell梨 @notanthony312 Replying to @RandBall Gimme your thoughts on dalvin cook contract situation

2 2:03 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Minncell梨's other Tweets A: We learned this week that Cook is ditching the last stages of the Vikings’ virtual offseason program and threatening a holdout during training camp if he doesn’t get a fair contract extension.

I’d say this is less of a holdout threat and more of a grab for attention combined with a clever move to get out of a few extra video meetings. As our Ben Goessling reported, Cook has very little leverage if he decides to hold out. The Vikings, meanwhile, have made it publicly clear how much they value Cook.

If you could turn up the heat on your boss just a little, at least symbolically, while also skipping out on some torturous Zoom meetings, wouldn’t you do it?

As Ben wrote and we talked about on this week’s Access Vikings podcast — after spending the bulk of our time on the much more important topic of the Vikings and social justice — it seems likely that Cook will have an extension in hand before the year starts.

Dan Wade @Dwade Replying to @RandBall Over/Unders:

10.5 games this NFL season? 70.5 games this MLB season? 4.1 picks before the Twolves’ in the NBA draft?

2 2:03 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Dan Wade's other Tweets A: Those are some good ones.

I’ll start with what I think is the easiest one: The NFL will play more than 10.5 games. In fact, I think the league will play all 16.

With MLB, I’ll take the under. There’s enough acrimony between the sides to make me wonder if there will be a season at all. And if there is, it might be the 50-60 games the owners crave because they wield the most power and time is running out.

The last one is basically a coin flip if you look at the math. The Wolves have the third-worst record and have a 52.1% chance of getting a top four pick. The higher you are in the pre-lottery order, the farther you can fall. And the Wolves have NEVER moved up. But I’ll still say they get a top-four pick. So, I guess, the under.

Matthew Coller ✔ @MatthewColler Replying to @RandBall Who’s your favorite original Tampa Bay Devil Ray

1 2:03 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Matthew Coller's other Tweets A: I love this question because it sent me down a strange rabbit hole that is the 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Baseball Reference page. Just when I thought I had settled on Fred McGriff — love the Crime Dog going back to his days with the Braves — I found this name: Scott Aldred.

Aldred was absolutely terrible for the very bad 1997 Twins, going 2-10 with a 7.68 ERA mostly as a starter. His peripheral stats, if you wanted to go digging for a silver lining, were no better. Aldred gave up 102 hits (including 20 home runs) and 28 walks while striking out just 33 batters in 77.1 innings. I witnessed a few of those starts firsthand, and they were not good.

And yet the expansion Devil Rays said: Give me some of that. And they actually got a somewhat decent year out of Aldred in the bullpen — a 3.73 ERA that ended up being the best Aldred posted in NINE seasons in the majors. So he’s my favorite original Ray.

Dale Gentry @DaleGentryMN Replying to @RandBall Does the US have just the big 4 sports leagues, or has MLS make it the big five?

1 2:18 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Dale Gentry's other Tweets A: I think the U.S. either has six or four, but not five. If you are including MLS, you have to include the WNBA. The leagues are similar in their timelines. MLS certainly involves more money than the WNBA, which nudges it toward the “big” category, but unlike the other five leagues under consideration, MLS is NOT the best professional league in its sport worldwide. That will always bother me when it comes to putting MLS in the same category as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and WNBA.

Shorter answer: I say there are six, but there is a gap between the four longstanding leagues and the other two relative newcomers.

Nick Lansing @toasthaiku Replying to @RandBall How many casual fans won't migrate back to sports?

The real fans can't wait. But people who attended a few Twins games a season or followed the TWolves casually now all do other things.

1 2:13 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Nick Lansing's other Tweets A: That’s an interesting question, and I think quite a bit of it has to do with how coronavirus evolves. Are we able to find a widespread vaccine in the next 12-18 months? Will we experience a second wave this fall that threatens sports again? If you read a lot about the virus and treat attending sporting events as a non-essential action, which is very reasonable, it might be a while until you come back to a sports venue — particularly one that’s indoors.

How leagues maintain a connection to those fans will largely be impacted by how they are able to present games on TV. Do they feel like weird, soul-less exhibitions or will there be enhancements that make them feel like different but worthy programming?

Brandon Kennedy @ExtraPaleMale Replying to @RandBall have any pro MN sports franchises considered moving away from using the MPD as additional security at events and games?

2:14 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Brandon Kennedy's other Tweets A: Another good one. I haven’t seen a lot of teams address this — and sorry if I have missed some — but it has been reported that the Vikings are “talking through” that very subject. How teams follow through on questions like this will be telling.

Sam Nord @SamuelNord Replying to @RandBall Is the current 0-16 playoff losing streak the Twins are riding the greatest accomplishment in sports history?

1 2:53 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Sam Nord's other Tweets A: It’s quite amazing. I did the math (sort of) a couple months ago, and let’s just say it’s improbable.

Carl Kyphosis @CrookedMustache Replying to @RandBall Can you dunk a basketball?

1 3:40 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Carl Kyphosis's other Tweets A: Absolutely not. I’m about 5-10, 160 pounds. I’m 43 years old — probably closer to retirement age than my athletic peak.

(Short break to gaze off into the distance, as a single tear falls).

Back when I used to play a lot of basketball about 20 years ago, and my joints were springy and I weighed a little less, I jumped one time and grazed the rim with the tip of my finger. That’s as close as I’ll ever get to dunking a basketball.

I’ll just have to settle for dunking on all the haters.

PUBLICATION: The Athletic DATE: 6/13/20

‘That could be our kids’: For Spielman family, racism and inequality hit home

By Chad Graff

Rick and Michele Spielman saw the same excruciating video as millions of others, watching as George Floyd’s life was ended despite his pleas for air because the knee of a white police officer plunged into his neck for more than eight minutes.

They sat in silence the first time they saw the video together. They’d watched similar videos in fear and anger over the years as dozens of other black men were killed by officers. But this was different. This was Minnesota, their home, and this was the Minneapolis Police Department, the one that reports to Vikings games on Sundays in the fall.

The Vikings general manager looked over at his wife on the couch and watched the tears stream down her face. She looked back at him and mustered the crushing words they’d both been thinking.

“That could be our kids,” Michele said.

Rick and Michele weren’t able to have a child on their own and decided in the late 1990s that they’d adopt. The road through adoption was a winding one full of disappointing phone calls and disheartening visits.

But, finally, in 1998 when Rick was working for the Bears, they learned that a trip through the pouring rain on the South Side of Chicago matched them with two brothers, their first kids. The children were black. Rick and Michele are white.

They hadn’t thought much about what would happen if they were matched during the adoption process with children of a different race. They just wanted a family.

But they also wanted to take their role as parents of black children seriously. They studied black history, hopeful they’d one day be able to help their children understand and celebrate their heritage.

In those early years, when their family was smaller than it is today, Rick and Michele read a book to the boys about tiger parents who raised leopard cubs.

“We were just trying to get them to understand whether you have stripes or you have spots, we’re still one family,” Rick said in an interview Thursday. “What you look like doesn’t matter. What matters is the love we have.”

In the years that followed, Rick and Michele adopted four more children, all of them black. The youngest has special needs.

The early years could be tough. Passersby often gave double looks at the six black children following white parents. The parents had tried, of course, to be prepared for how their family dynamic might change their perception in the eyes of strangers.

“But you can’t prepare yourself for the emotions you feel when you experience it firsthand,” Rick said.

They noticed it more as the oldest children became teenagers. When kids are young, Rick noted, they all play with each other and most don’t pay much mind to who hangs out with whom.

JD Spielman JD Spielman, one of Rick and Michele’s first adopted sons, was a standout at Nebraska the past two seasons before entering the transfer portal earlier this month. (Bruce Thorson / USA Today) But even little things, like trips to the mall, started to yield frustration as the years went by. When the family was together, they didn’t get any trouble from authorities. They were just another family walking through stores.

But when the kids asked to go through a store on their own, things changed. Inevitably, they’d come out upset. Another security guard had followed them around the store until they decided to leave.

“They’re exposed to two different worlds,” Rick said of his children. “The white privilege world with us, and then the world they live in when they’re not with us.”

It’s led to more serious instances in recent years. Rick hesitates to share too many details, the story still raw, but this much he’ll reveal: His son was once driving in Michele’s car, a luxury vehicle that comes with a high price tag. Police pulled over the car. They asked the son where the car came from. How does someone like him get something like that? The incident didn’t end until the son got Michele on the phone. She cleared to the officer that, yes, this was her son, and, yes, he had permission to drive the car.

“It made us look at the world through the lens of their eyes,” Rick said of raising black children. “It gave us a whole different perspective on life.”

That perspective puts Rick in a unique position with the Vikings at a unique point in time as his organization on Wednesday announced initiatives to support social justice causes following Floyd’s death. It’s also come into play at home as the children have grown into young adults. Conversations around the dinner table have gotten more serious and more important as questions of how to combat systemic racism are raised.

Rick and Michele hear from their children about how different their lives are than what their parents experienced as white teenagers. When the children’s black friends come over, they echo those experiences.

It’s hard, of course, for Rick and Michele to hear all of this, to learn how different their children’s lives are when the white parents are around versus when they’re not. Then, the parents think of what happened to Floyd, and of all the people of color who have been victims of police brutality.

In moments like the last two weeks, Michele’s words hang in the air. This could have been one of their children.

“They live in the white privilege world when they’re with our family, then they experience a whole different world,” Rick said. “They’ve experienced racism and they’ve experienced inequality.”

PUBLICATION: Purple Insider DATE: 6/13/20

Friday mailbag: Receiver depth chart, paying players, QB isolation

By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday everyone, let’s have a look what Vikings fans have on their minds this week…

ThibaultB4Tebow @robbQthibault @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler What does the data say on success for NFL players after signing their big contracts and their ability to sustain performance w/in -/+10% of the previous season ? Are teams rewarding what has been achieved in the past or investing in future? What % of these players sustain it? June 11th 2020

1 Like I’ve never seen a study of how players perform after getting paid big bucks but there’s definitely a difference in success rate of those deals between guys who get signed by their teams right after their rookie contracts and players who reach free agency at age 27 or older.

What often happens with free agents is that teams get desperate to make leaps the following season and they overpay for players who are past their prime. A few that come to mind: The Giants signing Nate Solder to a $62 million deal and Golden Tate to a $37 million contract. Both were over 30, both had favorable situations in the past and if either one lost a step they wouldn’t be the same player. (Tate might still end up being good but it’s pretty unlikely he’ll be anywhere near the old version that tortured the Vikings). You could put Alex Boone, Riley Reiff and Josh Kline all in the same category of guys who had red flags. Reiff has worked out about as well as you could have hoped and still has been overpaid vs. production.

Those deals are way different than Amari Cooper signing for $100 million at age 26 or Mike Evans at $82 million at 27 years old.

Position matters too. Obviously running back is well chronicled but cornerbacks are pretty risky after 28 or 29 whereas pass rushers seem to sustain their success into their 30s. So every type of situation is different but signing a player coming off his rookie deal is the safest coin you can spend and it’s generally worked out well for the Vikings with Diggs, Hunter, Kendricks, Barr etc.

From Douglas via email: “Can you explore how Rodgers and Cousins are interception phobic in the extremes…Rodgers always throwing the ball away and Cousins checking down. Would be great to have a QB with guts…” PFF did an article looking for the NFL’s “Captain Checkdown” and actually discovered that isn’t the new Alex Smith in that regard. Sam Monson wrote:

“Kirk Cousins — often lambasted as a checkdown quarterback — threw a checkdown pass on just 3.8% of his third- down pass attempts, ranking 16th lowest among 41 qualifiers. Cousins evidently hasn’t been quite as conservative and risk-averse as some people like to suggest.”

The problem that Cousins has is two fold: He does the checkdown thing when his team is desperately in need of aggression. The best example is from the playoff game against the 49ers but there have been plenty of times in which the Vikings are down two scores and he’s throwing to CJ Ham. Those stand out much more than his checkdowns on a play-to-play basis.

There other part is defining a checkdown. PFF looks at it as: Throwing to a running back when all other options have been exhausted (former NFL QB Bruce Gradkowski tracks these things for them) and that’s not Kirk style. He’ll sometimes quickly throw to an underneath route when something more aggressive is needed.

Cousins also doesn’t have a crazy high sack rate. In fact, since 2015 he’s 13th of 34 QBs in sacks per drop back at 5.5%. But weirdly he has the fourth most yards lost to sacks and seems to get taken down in the backfield at the most drive-killing times.

One thing we have to admit about Kirk: He’s one of the most perplexing and fascinating quarterbacks to study in the NFL.

Derrick Anderson @dmoney0919 Hello to the best #Vikings coverage duo! Question: Do either of you think that Dalvin Cook has any leverage in the fact that Spielman and Zimmer are both on expiring deals of their own? @MatthewColler @CourtneyRCronin June 12th 2020

1 Like There’s probably a case for that because the pressure remains on Spielman and Zimmer. Last year’s buzz toward the end of the season about potential changes didn’t just go poof into thin air. They are well aware that Cook gives them a better chance to win and I’ve been told that nobody is a bigger Dalvin Cook fan than Mike Zimmer. But they did not take a panicked offseason approach and try to make a bunch of win-now moves either. Spielman has to know that GM’ing like there’s no tomorrow will run you out of a gig pretty fast.

I’ve heard conflicting things on Dalvin’s situation. Some people are worried that his side won’t budge, others are still confident a deal gets done even though the two sides are pretty far apart presently.

John Fiegel @john_fiegel @MatthewColler I was going to ask who would win in a pillow fight but in the spirit of social distancing, which Viking player would be the best at dodgeball? (I’m looking for some real thought and analysis here :- ) June 12th 2020

1 Like You might think the obvious answer to this is because he’s the freakiest athlete but the guy I’d pick No. 1 overall is currently on the free agent market: Everson Griffen. A few years ago the Vikings did battling practice with the Twins and Griffen hit a bomb. He also ran like a 4.6 40-yard dash and was one of the most dominant running backs in the state of Arizona in high school. He was a punt gunner. Everson can do anything. He could track fly balls, beat out bunts, kick bombs and play shortstop if needed.

Adam Thielen has such great coordination and ball tracking skills, I’d take him in the outfield. You have to think Harrison Smith is the guy who fires the ball 100 mph at you from five feet away on the base paths. Kyle Rudolph can pitch because everyone loves to kick it right over the pitcher — hard to do that when he’s 6-foot-6. I’ll also take Mike Boone. If I’m not mistaken, Boone had the same vertical as Derrick Rose.

And of course, Dan Bailey is the secret weapon. The outfielders move in because he’s like 175 pounds and BOOM.

JT @JTElliott68 @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler Is it better to ride the season out with Dalvin and get a comp 3rd in '22 or trade him before the deadline and get the pick for the '21 draft? June 11th 2020

1 Like It’s best to have Dalvin Cook on your football team.

If there’s no chance of the two sides coming together, the next best option is to trade him before the start of the season for a draft pick. Are you getting a third-round pick? A second seems pretty high with no leverage and lots of teams already set at running back (maybe Tampa would be interested?) But even then, that means Dalvin Cook plays for someone else and not you and that’s bad. Plus it would be a pretty tough morale hit to have him sitting out or traded.

That’s pretty much the best leverage Cook’s side has. You can see players saying: They’ve paid everyone else and he’s the centerpiece of the offense and yet he can’t get a contract that’s toward the top at his position? Or if they trade him, you could see players feeling like the team has bailed on its direction to build around Cook and punted to some extent on its chances to make the playoffs.

There’s a lot more to these things than just data saying not to pay RBs.

YouVikeThat @vike_you @MatthewColler What do you think a day to day training looks like for the Viking rookie class right now? June 12th 2020

1 Like These guys may be quarantined but they’re getting a lot of help. The Vikings have a highly respected strength and conditioning coach (would you believe I have a sources in the strength and conditioning industry that told me that? Well, it’s true) so they are working around the obstacles to remain in shape. Some players have said they’re working out in other people’s basements who have equipment or pushing cars. Whatever it takes. But honestly having some rest for these guys’ bodies might not be a bad thing considering the stress of a season and the Combine.

For most positions there shouldn’t be much concern. Offensive line is the one area where it might be very tough to have missed OTAs and minicamp workouts etc. because of the chemistry required and the need to stay at a certain weight/body fat percentage etc.

Kai @gunnerviking @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler You can keep 5 current Vikings players and build a new roster around them. Who are you keeping? June 11th 2020

1 Like Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, , Justin Jefferson, .

Here’s my thinking: Yes, Kirk has his shortcomings and no I’m not entirely sure he can win a Super Bowl but if I’m starting an entirely new roster and I can begin with a QB in his prime who ranked in the top 5-7 in PFF grade and QB rating last year I’m going to do that rather than going QB hunting and risk ending up with a bust or a worse journeyman. With Kirk I’ve guaranteed myself 7-10 wins, now the rest is on me to build a great team around him.

No explanation needed on Hunter or Thielen. Pro Bowlers in their prime. I’ll take the two rookies over Harrison Smith only because their positions are more valuable and they are so much younger and cheaper. Sure we don’t know how good they are but I’d rather go with players who can grow with my budding team than a Hall of Fame level player in his later years.

I might also take Dalvin here and play him like McCaffrey.

Average Aaron @Aaspecht @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler Your thoughts on and will lynch get key playing time as rookie, 3 tech hybrid June 11th 2020

Harrison Hand is a tough one without having any sample of seeing him yet. He’s in the mix of a bunch of different corners and it’s going to take a really good camp performance to leap frog over Mike Hughes, Jeff Gladney, Holton Hill, Kris Boyd and Cam Dantzler. My guess is that he’ll need to be terrific on special teams.

Very high chance Lynch gets playing time at three-technique on passing situations. He has to show that he can beat NFL guards during camp and whatever preseason exists but based on his college production he’s likely to get every opportunity to win a spot. is the leader to get the most time among players battling for position. Hercules Mata’afa and start camp in dire need of showing something.

Jon Darling @WarleyOwl @MatthewColler When it comes to your defensive line, would you rather have really good starters but with below average depth, or decent starters with better depth? So quality or quantity? June 11th 2020

Really good starters. Everyone’s in love with the D-line rotation and it’s certainly helpful to be in the position that the 49ers last year or 2017 Eagles were in with seven or eight guys who could make a difference but those lines were anchored by stars like Nick Bosa and Fletcher Cox. The others were compliments. The best Vikings teams played Everson, Danielle and Linval on almost every play and they made a case in 2016 and 2017 for being the best D-line in the league without much behind them aside from Brian Robison.

Sheev's Peeves @PalpatinesRobes @MatthewColler Another position battle question. After Thielen, Johnson and Jefferson, who are the Viking receivers for 2020? Will they go with six receivers due to NFL roster expansion? June 11th 2020

1 Like I do think there’s a high percentage chance they go with six receivers because KJ Osborn might make the team purely as a punt returner. Let’s assume that happens, the depth chart probably starts camp something like:

Thielen, Jefferson, Johnson, Sharpe, Beebe, Osborn

Lots of wild cards in the mix though. Alexander Hollins saw a few snaps last year, has high upside, Davion Davis made a good impression, underafted Quartney Davis is interesting. It’ll be a great battle to watch.

Håvard Steffenak @havardms1 @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler According to rumours (Rapaport?) the cap might drop 40 million next year, the Vikings will have a cap space of ca 32 million (overthecap). This is without signed draft classes, additions etc. How would you solve the cap for that season? Keep up the great work! June 11th 2020

1 Like I asked somebody in the know about this and they said they can’t see that happening even if the entire season is played without fans (which also seems pretty unlikely). Most likely scenario is that the cap doesn’t move or maybe goes down a little and they pass on whatever losses to future years when they will have the 17-game season. So let’s say the 17-game season was set to bump the cap up by $100 million, maybe instead it goes up $70 million instead. So many teams would be screwed if it dropped $40 million that they can’t allow that to happen.

Angela @AngelaKG @Purple_Insider @MatthewColler What needs to improve the most from a special teams perspective? June 11th 2020

1 Like Dan Bailey, and Austin Cutting were terrific last year. They need a dangerous threat at kick and punt returner. The days of Marcus Sherels and weren’t that long ago but 2019 made it feel that way. Whether that’s KJ Osborn or Ameer Abdullah or someone emerges, that is a pretty big hole to fill.

Also any of those 5th-7th-round picks. We’ve seen players like , Anthony Harris and Eric Wilson go from special teamers to really good players in a few years after holding down special teams roles. Often times if you can shine there, you can handle a bigger role. Maybe or Brian Cole shows they have a future at safety by turning in strong special teams performances.

Nick Miller @NicholasMMiller @MatthewColler What does Harris’ participation in call with Rick say about his contract status (if anything)? And what do you think of the idea floated by Arians and McVay about having a QB in isolation from the rest of the team in case of COVID-19 outbreak? June 12th 2020

Doesn’t mean anything toward his contract but allow me to stop and say that I’m not the least bit surprised that Anthony Harris was on a call regarding social justice that required some deep thought from players. He’s one of the smartest players I’ve covered and he expressed himself eloquently with not only the issues at hand but the road to potential solutions. If that video is somewhere on the Vikings website, everyone should hear these players speak. Long gone are the days of NFL players being jocks.

The QB isolation idea isn’t crazy but it does make me laugh. So stays in a hotel for months on end just in case? He doesn’t practice? He just stays in a hotel for months and reads the playbook and binges Breaking Bad? Do they give him a PS4 and Madden to stay sharp?

It’s going to be a really, really strange season, everyone.

PUBLICATION: Maven Media DATE: 6/13/20

93 Days Until Vikings Football: Will Shamar Stephen Remain a Starter in 2020?

By Will Ragatz

As we count down the days until the Vikings' opener against the Packers on September 13th, InsideTheVikings will be previewing every single player on the roster. The amount of days remaining corresponds with the jersey number of the player being examined on that day. Today is June 12th, and there are 93 days until kickoff for the 2020 regular season. That means our daily player preview looks at a veteran defensive tackle who could face serious competition for his starting role.

Countdown to Vikings-Packers on September 13th: 93 Days

Player Preview: Shamar Stephen (No. 93, Defensive Tackle) USATSI_10365802_168388404_lowres College: Connecticut Drafted: 2014 seventh round (220th overall) NFL experience: Six years (2020 will be his seventh season) Age: 29 (Turns 30 next February) Size: 6'5", 309 2019 PFF Grade: 58.2 Notable 2019 stats: 21 tackles, 6 pressures, 1 sack, 3 pass breakups, 1 FF, 1 FR Notable career stats: 139 tackles, 4.0 sacks

Using their nickel formation, the Vikings have six returning starters on defense: Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Harrison Smith, Anthony Harris, and Shamar Stephen.

One of those things is not like the other. Five are big names who have either made a or should have (Harris) and – with the possible exception of Barr – are stars in the NFL. They're all locked in as starters again in 2020. The sixth is Stephen, who might face more competition for his role than any other returning starter on the roster. The only other incumbent starters facing a potentially serious challenge for their job are Pat Elflein and Riley Reiff on the offensive line.

Stephen was the clear weak link on a 2019 defensive line that also featured Hunter, Everson Griffen, and Linval Joseph. That's not a knock, as those are three veteran stars and he was probably playing out of position at three- technique. Stephen is a solid run-stopper playing a position that is supposed to produce interior pressure, which is something he hasn't proven capable of doing at a high level.

Stephen was a solid presence in the middle of the defensive line, but he failed to create any pressure whatsoever last year. In 314 snaps, he recorded just six pressures and one sack. That was 41 fewer pressures than registered for the Vikings in 2018 while Stephen was with the Seahawks.

From a wider perspective, Stephen has had quite a solid NFL career considering he was a seventh-round pick out of UConn in 2014. He started three games as a rookie and has carved out a role in the league ever since. In six years, Stephen has played in 82 games and made 49 starts. He was taken 220th overall, but those 82 games rank 35th among his draft class.

Stephen's best year came in 2017, when he posted a 67.9 PFF grade in a rotational role behind Linval Joseph and Tom Johnson. Stephen then spent a year with the Seahawks, posting a career-high two sacks, before returning to Minnesota last year. In each of his three years as a full-time starter (2016, 2018, and 2019), Stephen has posted a PFF grade between 58 and 60. That's firmly below average for a veteran starter.

At 6'5," 309 pounds, Stephen has good size that allows him to plug gaps in the run game. He has a strong frame and plays with decent leverage. However, Stephen is severely lacking in the athleticism and explosiveness that teams typically want from their three-techs. He would probably be better suited at nose tackle, but with the Vikings replacing Joseph with Michael Pierce, that spot is secured.

Because of Stephen's uninspiring play, there will likely be a wide-open competition at three-tech in 2020. His primary asset in that competition is his experience; Stephen's six years in the NFL are easily the most of any DT on the Vikings roster. However, he may face an uphill battle to keep his job. If Mike Zimmer wants to continue having a bigger three-tech, both Armon Watts and Jaleel Johnson probably offer more all-around upside. If the Vikings want to maximize their interior pass-rush, especially with Griffen gone, they could hope someone like James Lynch, Hercules Mata'afa, or Jalyn Holmes wins the job instead.

He's had a great career for a seventh-rounder and will likely stick around the NFL for a while longer, but Stephen's days as a starter might be ending in 2020.

PUBLICATION: Maven Media DATE: 6/13/20

Why ESPN Needs to Put Randy Moss in the Monday Night Football Booth

By Will Ragatz

The NFL regular season is just three months away and ESPN has yet to announce its Monday Night Football booth for 2020.

It's been over a month since unsurprising news broke that the widely-criticized duo of and Booger McFarland was being replaced. ESPN was apparently targeting huge deals for Tony Romo or Peyton Manning earlier this offseason, but it has since been reported that the network will make internal hires for its next MNF announcers.

Steve Levy is reportedly the favorite to replace Tessitore on play-by-play. That would be a strong move. However, the rumored leading candidates for color commentary – , , and Dan Orlovsky – all leave something to be desired.

When it comes to replacing McFarland, the choice is obvious: ESPN needs to put Randy Moss in the Monday Night Football booth in 2020.

Everything about Moss makes him the perfect man to be the next lead analyst for MNF, provided he's willing to take the job. The biggest factor is that, like Manning, he's a legend of the game and an almost-universally beloved figure in the NFL world. That alone would create excitement when the announcement was made and would likely shield Moss from some of the endless criticism directed towards McFarland and over the past two years.

Moss would instantly make the broadcast more fun with his charming personality and southern twang. He's been one of the most entertaining people in the league since his playing days; there's a reason why NFL Films ranked Moss third on their list of the "Top 10 Mic'd Up Guys of All Time." The man whose catchphrase was "straight cash, homey" would infuse a certain level of energy and charisma into a booth that hasn't had much of either for quite some time.

Even though Moss has never done color commentary before, there's no reason to think he couldn't excel at it. Romo had never done the job when he started at CBS in 2017, and he quickly became one of the best in the business. Moss spent 15 years in the NFL and is not only one of the best wide receivers of all time, but he was also known as an extremely smart player. The Hall of Famer would have no trouble providing insightful analysis into what was happening on the field, and he could fill gaps in the broadcast with an endless assortment of stories from his career.

Plus, Moss has almost a decade of experience being on TV. He started with FOX Sports after his retirement in 2013 and joined ESPN in 2016, where he has spent the past three seasons as a studio analyst for MNF. Over the years, Moss has improved and become quite good in that role. Being a broadcaster is an entirely different beast, but even if it took some time for him to get used to the difficult responsibilities of color commentary, Moss's excitement and personality would more than cover up for that.

That was the argument made by Yahoo Sports writer Frank Schwab, who was the first to push for this idea a couple weeks ago.

We can learn from Romo’s success story that enthusiasm matters more than actual analysis. Mike Mayock, for one example, was very good at instantly breaking down Xs and Os during a game. And as a game commentator, he never resonated with the audience as a whole. Romo, who is also very good at breaking down Xs and Os, did.

Moss might not be immediately great at breaking down the game from the booth at warp speed (though he might be, it’s impossible to know). No matter what, he’d be entertaining and fun, and that matters.

Former Colts punter and current media personality Pat McAfee has also thrown his support behind the cause.

"He's one of the most entertaining people on TV already," McAfee said on his show. "Whenever Randy Moss gets going, Randy Moss is unbelievable. You're talking about a guy who has the respect of everybody. With his incredible personality, his resume, his ability to resonate with people, I think he would be amazing at it."

The caveat, as mentioned earlier, is that Moss would have to want the job. It's not an easy one, with all of the necessary meetings and preparation. But it's not like Moss isn't doing some of that already as a studio analyst. Moving to the booth is a logical next step for Moss in his TV career, and it's a job that he could have a lot of fun doing.

Make it happen, ESPN. Put Steve Levy and Randy Moss on Monday Night Football and watch the ratings soar.

PUBLICATION: Maven Media DATE: 6/13/20

Vikings Rookie WRs Justin Jefferson, K.J. Osborn Give Back During Pandemic

By Will Ragatz

Vikings rookie wide receivers Justin Jefferson and K.J. Osborn haven't signed their first NFL contracts yet, but they're still stepping up and helping out during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Jefferson, who the Vikings selected in the first round of this year's NFL draft, recently teamed up with a pair of companies to donate 10,000 face masks to Children's Minnesota.

Children's Minnesota ✔ @childrensmn Justin Jefferson, @JJettas2, from the Minnesota @Vikings along with @genies and @BellaCanvasLA recently donated 10,000 face masks to @childrensmn. Thank you all for your generosity; we are so thankful! 

View image on Twitter 183 9:00 AM - Jun 12, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 18 people are talking about this Masks are one of the best tools we have in the effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Jefferson's donation not only provides masks for children, parents, and health care workers, but it helps raise awareness on the importance of widespread mask usage.

"Excited to donate much needed Bella+Canvas masks to Children's MN with the help of the Vikings in an effort to flatten the curve," Jefferson wrote on Instagram. "We just sent 10,000 masks yesterday to fight COVID-19, but it only works if everyone wears their mask."

Osborn, a fifth-round pick, went with a different route to help fight against this pandemic. He recently returned to his hometown of Ypsilanti, MI, and donated bottles of hand sanitizer to residents of the community.

“It’s great; it’s huge,” Osborn told MLive. “It’s something I wanted to do since I was a kid. I’ve been blessed to be in a position I’m in to be able to come back here to my roots and give back to the community. It’s the first of many so I’m really happy.”

KJ Osborn ✔ @KJ_Osborn First of many! Blessed to be in this position 🙏🏾 https://twitter.com/matthewbmowery/status/1270805447491158019 …

Matthew B. Mowery @matthewbmowery FOOTBALL: @Vikings draft pick @KJ_Osborn gives back to Ypsi community he grew up in, donating part of signing bonus to provide free hand sanitizer >> https://bit.ly/3he9hkQ @SplitterNation @kate_moff

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter 1,065 2:55 PM - Jun 10, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 144 people are talking about this These two rookie receivers are following in the footsteps of the veteran leader at their position. Earlier this offseason, Adam Thielen's foundation donated $100,000 to various causes to help families during this crisis, and also hosted a radiothon to raise additional funds.

Back in March when this pandemic began in the , the Wilfs and the Vikings organization donated $500,000 in COVID-19 relief.

PUBLICATION: FORBES DATE: 6/13/20

Vikings Embrace Role In Black Live Matter Movement Following George Floyd Death

By Steve Silverman

The have been thrust into the middle of the most important American development of the 21st century: The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis that was caught on videotape and broadcast around the world.

The video of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, has set off a movement that is designed to put an end to racial injustice at all levels throughout the country.

General manager Rick Spielman is not just the leader of a franchise that is fighting to get to the top of the NFC North and go on a long playoff run. Spielman is a white man who is the father of six adopted and non-white children. It didn’t take the death of Floyd for Spielman to know the risk that African-Americans face when forced to confront those in law enforcement.

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Nike Declares Juneteenth To Be Annual Paid Company Holiday Under Armour Unveils Sportsmask, A Performance Facemask For Athletes 2020 NBA Season Restart: Schedule, Participants, Playoff Odds, News On Basketball’s Return To Play “My kids see a whole different world,” he said, per Arif Hasan of The Athletic. “I struggle to explain to our kids why there is white privilege and why when we go out on our own, we live in a totally different world.”

In addition to the teaching position that Spielman is now in, the Vikings have a three-year-old internal social justice committee that is designed to open eyes to the problems faced by people of color in the Twin Cities and throughout the United States.

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That committee, which is headed by co-defensive coordinator Andre Patterson, will help the team’s ownership decide how to spend $5 million to help the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the country.

Vikings players held an emotional call earlier this week to discuss how the NFL can lead changes in areas from justice reform to major social issues. They also used the opportunity to talk about their own individual circumstances when facing racism from a variety of institutions.

While the business of playing for or coaching an NFL team is normally a singular challenge for those involved, that is no longer the case in 2020.

The recent Black Lives Matter video put out by star African-American NFL players, including Patrick Mahomes, Michael Thomas and Saquon Barkley, demonstrates how powerful athletes can be in providing emphasis to a social movement. That is not likely to change at any point in the upcoming season.

The Vikings will be in an extremely visible role throughout the season as a result of their proximity to this watershed incident. The moment of Floyd’s death has focused world-wide attention on racism, and the local angle is likely to ensure the Vikings’ social justice committee will continue to remain in a leadership role for the foreseeable future.

How this will impact the team’s performance on the field is a complete unknown.

The Vikings face multiple issues as they prepare for the 2020 season, including the upgrading of a defense that slipped badly in its pass coverage in 2019. Multiple moves have been made in free agency and the draft, and head coach Mike Zimmer, Patterson and co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer will have to find a way to get this unit on track if the team is going to be an NFC contender.

Adding to the tumult is the unhappiness of star running back Dalvin Cook with his contract. While a holdout is possible, the likelihood is that Cook will not stay away from the team during the season. This is due in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on NFL revenues.

Cook is the center piece of an offense that depends on its ground game as much as any team in the NFL. The Vikings know that for their offense to perform at a high level, Cook must be the lead performer. That will open things up for quarterback Kirk Cousins, who has shown he can put impressive statistics on the board but has often struggled against the best opponents.

The Vikings’ status in this powerful movement for equality and justice among African-Americans as well as the issues on the football field will make the 2020 season among the most important and memorable in team history. PUBLICATION: New York Times DATE: 6/13/20

The N.F.L. Embraces Progressive Action, but Not Yet Kaepernick

By Ken Belson

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the N.F.L., a league that has wrestled with racial issues for years, has shown unusual unity. Players, coaches, league officials and owners have expressed sadness, remorse and a commitment to seek solutions to police violence against African-American people and other forms of social injustice.

Yet the specter of Colin Kaepernick still looms large over any conversation of football and race. As the league grapples with next steps to take, many players say that the N.F.L. must address Kaepernick, who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality toward African-Americans, if its newfound progressive stance is to be viewed as legitimate.

“It’s definitely a different social climate now and I’m praying it’s not going to be lip service,” said Chris Conley, a wide receiver on the Jacksonville Jaguars who helped organize a march of players, coaches, staff and their families from the team’s stadium to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office last week. “A lot of balls were dropped in 2016 and people realized things could have been handled better. There’s a feeling we didn’t do enough last time.”

Seattle Seahawks running back Carlos Hyde told reporters Monday, “If they sign Kap back, it’ll show they are really trying to move in a different direction, because Kap was making a statement four years ago about what’s going on in today’s world and the N.F.L. didn’t bother to listen to him then.”

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After opting out of his contract and finding no team willing to sign him, Kaepernick in 2019 won a multimillion-dollar settlement of his claim that the league blackballed him because of his protests. In November, the league organized a tryout for Kaepernick that ended in a dispute over the ground rules. Kaepernick held his own workout for a half dozen N.F.L. scouts, but no team offered him a contract.

But when Commissioner Roger Goodell said last week in a video statement that the N.F.L. was wrong not to listen to players and encourage those who were protesting, he did not name Kaepernick. Until he does, players say the league’s efforts to fight the issues he raised will be viewed as insincere.

Thanks for reading The Times. Subscribe to The Times “They should mention him,” said Devin McCourty, a safety on the New England Patriots and a member of the Players Coalition. “This was the one guy who did something, and when you came out and talked about peaceful protest, it started with one guy.”

Latest Updates: George Floyd Protests Updated 5h ago West Point cadets, isolated for two weeks ahead of Trump’s speech, will graduate with masks and without family. Florida and Texas report records for daily highs in new cases. Large gatherings — from antiracism protests to Trump rallies — pose risks, Fauci warns. See more updates Other players want more than an apology — they want a team to sign Kaepernick. Malcolm Jenkins, a safety on the New Orleans Saints, this week called for the league to apologize and assign Kaepernick to a team. That will be tricky, requiring a coach and team owner willing to absorb the inevitable news media attention that would follow and even potential criticism from President Trump, who has reiterated that players should stand for the anthem.

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“Is there an N.F.L. owner willing to take the chance and break ranks?” said Charles K. Ross, the director of the African-American Studies program at Ole Miss and the author of “Outside the Lines: African Americans and the Integration of the N.F.L.” “I know N.F.L. owners are really focused on playing football, but there are some larger issues at stake.”

Image“There’s a feeling we didn’t do enough last time,” said Chris Conley, a Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver who helped organize a march to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office last week. “There’s a feeling we didn’t do enough last time,” said Chris Conley, a Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver who helped organize a march to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office last week.Credit...Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union, via Associated Press Recognizing Kaepernick is seemingly the only concrete action that has widespread agreement among players. With momentum built, less fear of reprisal from owners, the league or fans, and an unusual amount of time away from the field because of stay-at-home restrictions, players want to get more involved in societal change. The only question is: What’s next?

Some want to double down on the many initiatives already established. In 2019, the league started a program called Inspire Change that directs millions of dollars in donations to groups focused on “police-community relations, criminal justice reform, and education and economic advancement.” On Thursday, the N.F.L. said it was nearly tripling the size of its commitment to the program, pledging to spend up to $250 million over 10 years. (The league has already distributed $44 million.) Goodell announced in a memo on Friday that the league would observe Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in America, this year, closing its offices on June 19.

The Players Coalition, which split progressive players when it began in 2017, has drawn widening support for justice reform measures in recent months. Quarterback Tom Brady, who has been friends with Donald Trump for many years, last month added his name to the group's call for Attorney General William P. Barr to investigate the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. The Players Coalition amassed 1,400 signatures to a letter urging Congress to pass a bill that would end qualified immunity for public officials, including police officers. The signees included quarterback Drew Brees, who last week reversed course on his condemnation of players protesting during the national anthem.

Players on other teams have focused on increasing their work on the local level, through their teams’ social justice committees. The Minnesota Vikings, for instance, have in the past accompanied students to Washington, D.C., to visit the Holocaust Museum and the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and work with All Square, a group in Minneapolis that helps people leaving jail find work.

George Floyd Protests › Recent Changes Sparked by the Protests Updated June 12, 2020

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed an expansive package of bills aimed at combating police misconduct, while the mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh, announced the city would transfer $3 million from the Police Department budget to public health programs. President Trump rejected an idea under consideration by the Pentagon to rename military bases named after confederate generals. This came in a week when statues of historical figures, including Confederate commanders, slave traders and Christopher Columbus, have been toppled in the U.S. and around the world. Audrey Gelman, co-founder of the Wing, the upscale women-only club and co-working space, resigned from leadership of the company amid a furor over treatment of black and brown employees. Hers is the latest in a string of high-profile departures. The country trio Lady Antebellum has changed its name in the wake of the George Floyd protests. The band, now known as Lady A, wrote in a letter to fans that its eyes had been “opened wide” to the injustices black people face. On Wednesday the team announced that it had established a college scholarship in George Floyd’s name for African-American students, helped clean neighborhoods hit by destructive protests and met with the city’s police chief. Ameer Abdullah, a running back on the team, on Wednesday told reporters that he expected players to encourage citizens to vote in the presidential elections in November.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who took part in a player-led video that pushed the N.F.L. to support their protest and include “Black Lives Matter” messaging in its statement, said he and his teammates would meet next week to come up with ways to increase voter registration. He said they wanted to “get as many people registered to vote so they can go and try to affect change in every way they feel possible.”

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Others players, including some on the Denver Broncos and the Jaguars, have attended protests. Justin Simmons, a safety on the Broncos, encouraged a crowd in downtown Denver on Saturday to discuss the racism African- Americans face, no matter how uncomfortable.

“We as a black community need our white brothers and sisters to explain to the rest of the white brothers and sisters out there what it means for black lives to matter,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t matter your platform, your sphere of influence in your life — the people around you matter. Those are tough conversations to have, but they need to be had.”

Image Jason McCourty, left, with his Patriots teammate and twin brother Devin, said the best thing the N.F.L. could do was not stand in the way of players involved in social justice. “At the end of the day, allowing players to use their platforms is enough.” Jason McCourty, left, with his Patriots teammate and twin brother Devin, said the best thing the N.F.L. could do was not stand in the way of players involved in social justice. “At the end of the day, allowing players to use their platforms is enough.”Credit...Elise Amendola/Associated Press In some cases, team owners have supported the players and their initiatives. But Devin McCourty said players must find their own solutions and not rely on the N.F.L., which has its own agenda.

“I truly believe the N.F.L. is public-opinion based and puts out statements to make the public happy,” he said. “You didn’t see them support the players in 2016 because it wouldn’t make someone happy. Now, the question is how involved they are.”

Jason McCourty, his twin brother and teammate, said the best thing the league could do was not stand in the way of the players.

“At the end of the day, allowing players to use their platforms is enough,” he said. “When it comes to big businesses, they will do the things that will keep them making money. It comes down to the players.”

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The McCourty brothers have raised millions of dollars to help families fighting sickle-cell anemia and lobbied lawmakers in Massachusetts to reform the state’s juvenile penal system. Devin McCourty’s support for Boston Uncornered, an organization that helps people involved in gangs go to college, got a lift from Robert and Jonathan Kraft, the owners of the Patriots, who donated $100,000 to the group.

The brothers said they did not expect every player to be as involved as they are. But participation takes many forms.

“For some guys, it might be adding your name to a petition or sending a letter,” Devin said.

Coach Bill O’Brien of the Houston Texans, a team whose late owner was a critic of protests during the national anthem, plans to kneel with players when the games begin. Other stars not known for their activism have also been taking action. Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, promised to give $1 million to improve police training and address racism through education. Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, pledged $500,000 toward his goal of raising $2 million in donations. (So far, he has raised $1.2 million.) Ryan will meet with leaders in the African- American community in Atlanta to decide how the money can be best used.

“When you’re listening to players or the protesters, one of the messages that comes across is you can’t continue to be silent,” said Ryan, whose charitable efforts have mostly focused on supporting children’s hospitals. “I’m not sure of the solution, but I’m trying to rectify that.” PUBLICATION: Vikings Entertainment Network DATE: 6/13/20

Lunchbreak: ESPN Ranks Vikings 18th in NFL in Continuity

By Lindsey Young

It's no secret that there was a fair bit of turnover on the Vikings defense in between 2019 and the upcoming 2020 season.

Free agency departures and terminated contracts came after multiple seasons with very little changes to the core group. But that being said, how much continuity did Minnesota retain overall coming out of last season?

ESPN explained that teams being unable to meet in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic could be "problematic for teams that made a lot of moves this offseason or advantageous for clubs that maintained continuity from 2019 to 2020."

The top the league with 95.4 percent of their offense returning, while the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers lead the way on defense with 88.3 percent coming back. Meanwhile, the Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs return nearly their entire starting lineup and coaching staff. On the flip side, the Carolina Panthers return a league-low 58.2 percent of their offense and an even worse 36.2 percent of their defense under new [Head Coach] Matt Rhule.

Rookie* Mini Chat: Former College Teammates and Talk Off-The-Field Interests, Time at Boise State, and More ESPN's NFL Nation reporters ranked all 32 NFL teams based on continuity. The Vikings and Cardinals tied for 18th in the league with 73.4 percent.

According to ESPN, the Vikings "continuity stats" shake out in the following manner:

_Offensive snaps returning:_85.1% (6th)

_Defensive snaps returning:_62.9% (24th)

_Starters returning:_18 (9 offense, 6 defense, 3 special teams)

_Non-coordinator assistants returning:_11 of 17

_Coordinators returning:_1 of 4 (Marwan Maalouf, ST)

_Starting QB:_Kirk Cousins, 3rd season with Vikings (9th overall)

_Head coach:_Mike Zimmer, 7th year (57-38-1)

ESPN's Courtney Cronin wrote:

Continuity is the buzzword for the Vikings offense. Zimmer liked what he saw from Cousins & Co. last year and said the same system, play calls, motions and formations will remain in place to help this unit take another step forward. Defensively, it's a different story. With two new co-defensive coordinators in Andre Patterson and Adam Zimmer, who will continue to coach their respective positions, along with a host of new position coaches and starters, the Vikings defense is set to undergo a period of evolution.

2019 Season in Photos: Vikings QB Kirk Cousins View the top photos of Vikings QB Kirk Cousins from the 2019 season.

Cousins ranked 5th among QBs under pressure in 2019

Quarterbacks are evaluated by a number of metrics: passer rating, completion percentage, arm strength, mobility, and the list goes on.

Recently, NFL.com's Nick Shook honed in specifically on quarterbacks' performances under pressure, using two specific numbers tracked by Next Gen Stats to rank the top 10 passers in this category. Shook wrote:

The first is passer rating under pressure, a slightly modified version of a traditional metric that most football fans should understand (158.3 is perfect, while anything 100 or better is pretty darn good, etc.). The second is completion percentage above expectation while under pressure, which might be the best indicator of all. How effective are you in the most trying moments on the football field? That statistic attempts to answer that question.

Next Gen Stats: How Did Kirk Cousins Perform Under Pressure In 2019? Shook noted that quarterbacks "must have thrown a minimum of 250 pass attempts" in order to be included.

Minnesota's Kirk Cousins came in fifth on Shook's list of best QBs under pressure. According to Next Gen Stats, Cousins when under pressure in 2019 had a 91.5 passer rating, a +3.8-percent rate above expectation and a 58.1 percent completion rate.

Cousins was a stud under pressure in the earliest years of NGS tracking, which helped destroy a narrative of him being average at the absolute best. But thanks to a play-action offense built out of an emphatic rushing attack led by Dalvin Cook, Cousins doesn't face as much pressure as he once did. Even with that considered, he still lands in the top five of most under-pressure metrics. His passer rating under pressure was fifth-best, his completion percentage under pressure was fourth-best and his completion percentage above expectation while pressured was also in the top five. You won't often see Cousins' name mentioned among the Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes of the league, but he has the numbers to back it up.

The four quarterbacks who ranked higher than Cousins when under pressure were (from 1-4) Ryan Tannehill, Drew Brees, Derek Carr and Lamar Jackson. Coming in behind Cousins were Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Dak Prescott, Josh Allen and Daniel Jones.

NFL commits $250 million over 10 years to 'combat systemic racism'

On June 5, the NFL released a video of Commissioner Roger Goodell giving a statement condemning racism and admitting that the league was "wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier."

"We encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest," Goodell said.

NFL ✔ @NFL We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange

Embedded video 52.9K 5:31 PM - Jun 5, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 39.4K people are talking about this Eric Kendricks, a member of the Vikings Social Justice Committee, told media members Wednesday that Goodell's response was appreciated.

"That's what we wanted; we wanted to be acknowledged. We wanted it to be out there," Kendricks said. "It's uncomfortable for everybody. Obviously we play football and we want to try to keep it to football as much as possible, but these are issues that are facing the majority of the players' communities. For us to feel like we can't speak up about it and x-y-z, it just didn't feel right. Finally having Goodell say those things and having our back, I feel like we can all move forward now. We all can take a deep breath and really go after these issues that are plaguing our country. I'm thankful that I have this platform and I have these resources that the Vikings have been so generous – I truly believe that it's going to bring the best out in all of us."

The NFL announced Thursday that it will commit a total of $250 million over the next 10 years to "combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans." PUBLICATION: Vikings Entertainment Network DATE: 6/13/20

Jefferson & Udoh Donations Help During COVID-19 Pandemic

By Craig Peters

EAGAN, Minn. — Justin Jefferson — and his custom-designed avatar — are helping during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vikings rookie receiver this week teamed with Genies and Bella + Canvas to donate 10,000 masks to Children's Minnesota.

Genies designed a custom avatar of the first-round pick, complete with the No. 18 that he will wear for the Vikings and a black mask, to appear in a video that illustrates CDC guidelines and best practices for helping stop the spread of coronavirus.

Jefferson's avatar is accompanied by the following text:

"CDC advises wearing a simple cloth face cover slows the spread of the virus by reducing the transmission of respiratory droplets but only if everyone wears one … you could be spreading it without showing symptoms."

Children's Minnesota ✔ @childrensmn Justin Jefferson, @JJettas2, from the Minnesota @Vikings along with @genies and @BellaCanvasLA recently donated 10,000 face masks to @childrensmn. Thank you all for your generosity; we are so thankful! 

View image on Twitter 183 9:00 AM - Jun 12, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 18 people are talking about this

Udoh Delivers for Health Care Workers

Second-year pro Olisaemeka Udoh last month donated and delivered 500 meals to workers at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. oli-udoh-2-2560 "It was awesome, but they're the ones that need the applause right now for everything that they're working through," Udoh told The Fayetteville Observer's Rodd Baxley.

The 6-foot-6, 325-pound tackle stood out — and above others in the crowd — in a red hoodie, purple Vikings hat and black mask. oli-udoh-3-2560 "Seeing the impact this virus has had on different communities around the world, I kind of just wanted to do something good for people on the front lines helping us out," he said.

Udoh is no stranger to the challenges that have confronted health care workers in their mission to treat people during a global pandemic. His father is a doctor, and his mother is a nurse in their own medical practice.

He also made a donation to Second Harvest Food Bank to help families in North Carolina. PUBLICATION: Vikings Entertainment Network DATE: 6/13/20

Milestone with Monterae: Vikings Table Food Truck Turns 1

By Lindsey Young

A young girl approaching the Vikings Table food truck window appeared timid at first, then broke into a comfortable smile upon seeing a familiar face behind the counter.

Monterae Carter's grin matched the girl's, whom she greeted by name.

After handing out the day's meal of turkey tacos with a side of fruit salad, the Minnesota Vikings Foundation Programs Coordinator stepped out of the truck for a moment; she knelt to talk eye-level with one of the friends she'd made after several distribution stops in the community.

Ask anyone who knows Monterae, and they'll tell you about her ability to connect with youth.

"I think it's because I have a childlike mindset on everything, seeking joy. And I'm always seeking to learn, so I try to put myself in their shoes," she explained. "I think it's just so important for every child to feel like someone loves them, no matter what. Even if it's just a one-time interaction with that child, I'm going to … make sure they feel heard, they feel seen, and I'm going to uplift them.

"For me, that's one of my missions in life: to just keep improving the lives of young people," Monterae added.

Since its launch in June 2019, Vikings Table has served more than 9,000 meals to youth across the Twin Cities who are dealing with food insecurity. A large portion of those meals were distributed to students throughout a nearly three-month school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's so much more than just a meal; it's a dignified experience," Monterae said. "And I'm really happy with the way we've been able to pivot these last few months. I'm very proud to say that we have almost prepared as many meals during the pandemic as we did during our entire first year."

Carter-VikingsTable Growing up giving

Monterae assumed her current role with the Vikings in 2017, but her experience with philanthropy started years earlier.

In fact, it's fair to say that things really have come full circle.

Monterae first was exposed to community give-back programs through her father, Hall of Fame wide receiver . As a child, she, Mother Melanie and older brother Duron often accompanied Cris to the team's community events.

"The thing about Monterae was, she always used to love hanging with her dad," said Cris, who noted that it was Vikings Head Coach Dennis Green who established the league-wide Community Tuesday initiative. "He mandated that everybody do something on Tuesday. It was not a day off. 'Make someone feel better who doesn't have the things in your life that you have.' With that being my only day and spending a lot of time at the Vikings facility, I used to try to take my kids with me.

"Also, I wanted them to have a balance in life," Cris added. "I grew up in a housing project, a very, very different situation than what they grew up in, but I thought it was important … that they would see people – people of color and other people – and be able to relate with that throughout their life. Monterae's mother and I were very, very conscious as far as their upbringing and making sure they had some type of balance."

Monterae called the experiences part of her "normal" growing up.

"That really shaped who I am as a person when it comes to the community – and also what I felt the Vikings stood for," she said.

Monterae specifically was impacted by the annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaways.

"I remember watching those families come in, their hands shaking because it's so cold outside, but they're just so grateful to receive that meal," she recalled. "Those are my fondest memories as a family with the team."

When it comes to her dad's on-field accomplishments, she is candid about her recollections.

Cris played for the Vikings from 1990-2001, during which he received All-Pro honors twice (1994; 1999) and earned eight straight Pro Bowl nods from 1993-2000.

Monterae, born in 1993, practically grew up at the Vikings Winter Park training facility in Eden Prairie. She and Duron often accompanied Cris to practices – or better yet, to the cafeteria – but one of the "weirdest things," she said, reflecting back, was that she doesn't really connect her childhood to football.

"It was just my dad's job, and that's what the family was doing – when he was working out, everyone was working out," Monterae said. "My mom did a really great job of just normalizing our lives as much as possible, so I didn't even think anything was different for me. That's just how we lived our life.

"He was just my dad," she added. "I didn't recognize that everybody else knew who he was, as well."

Carter-ChildhoodCollage And although she admits she "pretty much slept through every game" she attended at the Metrodome, Monterae remembers one of her dad's games especially well: Week 14 of the 2000 season. The Vikings hosted the Lions on Thursday Night Football, and it was that evening that Cris made his 1,000th NFL catch.

Fans at the Dome counted up to the 1,000th grab with large, numbered cards that could be changed out, creating the "Cris Carter Catch Watch." Duron wore a purple baseball cap with CC1K embroidered in gold across the front. The Carter family was brought down to field level during game play, something Monterae had never experienced.

"I'm laughing now because I only remember it because it was such a big deal in the family," Monterae admitted. "We got new outfits, I got my hair done, and I'd never been down on the field. … That was really exciting."

Cris Carter's 1,000th Career Catch Cris caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from in the first quarter to become the second player to ever reach the impressive milestone. After the score, video captured the Carter family's on-field celebration; Cris handed the ball to 7-year-old Monterae, who can be seen saying something before giving him a kiss through his facemask.

"In that video, the audio isn't high enough, but when I'm jumping in excitement to greet my dad, I'm asking him, 'How is my hair?' " Monterae said, laughing. "Looking back, I can acknowledge what an accomplishment a thousand catches is. But at the time, I literally had no idea what was going on."

Carter-1000Family Minnesota went on to defeat Detroit 24-17 that night. But not all of Cris' games, of course, ended so well, and it wasn't uncommon for a loss to negatively affect his mood on family drives home from the stadium.

Monterae fondly recalled the game that Melanie developed, in which Duron and Monterae each got to play a "reporter" of sorts and ask three questions apiece of Cris about the game – win or lose.

"My brother's were all about specific plays," Monterae said. "Mine were the dumbest questions, and my brother would say, 'You're wasting them. You're wasting them.' I would be like, 'Did you see your friends today? Did you see Mr. Randy today?' "

Carter-Moss Randy, of course, referred to fellow Hall of Famer Randy Moss, who was drafted by the Vikings in 1998 and joined Cris and Jake Reed to form the formidable "Three Deep" receiver trio.

"I vividly remember Randy Moss coming to town, and to this day, I still call Jake Reed my Uncle Jake," Monterae said. "He is the funniest, and I love him forever and ever. He was always playing around with all the kids, and I was the flower girl at his wedding. My mom is still best friends with his wife, so our families are still very, very connected."

Athletics career after all

It wasn't uncommon when Monterae was growing up to regularly see her dad's teammates. But the Carters invited more than just the team into their home. From Vikings ball boys – including Larry Fitzgerald – who looked up to Cris to young friends of Duron's, the Carter house always was full.

Through her parents' hospitality, Monterae saw a genuine care for others and demonstrated similar qualities herself.

"We always had children in our house. We were always taking in someone to live with us – either they lived with us permanently or for weeks at a time – and Monterae always accepted everyone as her brother," Melanie said. "As soon as they came in the door, they were automatically welcome, they were included in the family, and Monterae was awesome with that. Everyone became her big brother.

"It really made the children feel comfortable to be accepted by everyone in the house so easily. She's just a really giving, caring person," Melanie continued. "She never once said, 'Why do you keep bringing all these people into the house?' It never even dawned on her. She accepted them as family and always went out of her way to make sure they felt welcome and included."

Carter-LarryFitz To this day, Monterae says, she considers all those young men who came through their home to be her brothers.

"Because they were treated just like us. When we got in trouble, they were in trouble, too," she said. "I think my parents did a great job of just creating balance in our lives and letting us know, 'If you can help others, that's just something that you should do. And you can find joy doing that.' "

Monterae also credits her Christian faith, saying it has been "a recurring theme in our lives" and played a significant role in her upbringing and worldview.

"Everything is much bigger than yourself," she said. "If you can offer joy, if you can offer hope and happiness to others, that's something that you should just always be doing."

Monterae always has found joy in offering it to others, so it's often no surprise that she ended up in the career she has. And yet, her journey didn't start exactly where one might expect.

After graduating from Florida State, where she played soccer for a season, with a degree in marketing, Monterae saw a future filled with product sales and advertisements. But not sports. Definitely not sports.

"I thought it was so cliché – former athlete's kid, I was an athlete myself – so I was just trying to separate myself from that and make my own lane," she explained before adding with a laugh, "but I ended up working right out of college for the Orange Bowl committee in its marketing department, so I ended up in sports anyway.

"I fully embraced it then, just realizing that it's not really a cliché; it's something that I've always been around, I understand it, and it's something that I enjoy," Monterae added.

In 2016, she joined the Vikings as a marketing intern. She was asked during her interview with the team what the ideal job would be. Ironically, she responded, "Either a marketing executive or owning a food truck."

"The fact that a food truck came into play in my career is unbelievable," she laughed. "It's the coolest thing."

Monterae transitioned into a full-time role in July 2017 when the Vikings Social Impact department was developed and the Minnesota Vikings Foundation was launched.

Looking back, she calls the move "the best thing that could have happened to me."

"Now I don't really see my life, my career, without helping others. It's just something that, I can't take that part out of it," said Monterae, who regularly organizes volunteer events for Vikings staff. "I wouldn't feel as passionate about my work if I wasn't able to do that."

Carter-Volunteer A seat at the table

Having the last name "Carter" within the Vikings organization does not come without its challenges.

Monterae does not broadcast her family tree; rather, she stands on her own merit as she has her entire life.

"Honestly, I'm still adjusting to it," she said candidly. "It's very strange, especially with how I grew up with my dad's job not being the main thing in our lives – it was just a part of our lives.

"For most of my life, I wasn't [identified] as 'Cris Carter's daughter' … because my mom was really focused on us being individuals," Monterae continued. "So it was so weird for me to be in 20s and, for the first time, to be 'Cris Carter's daughter' every single day.

"We are so, so different. You would not want my dad to come in and do my job," she quipped. "But then again, I also can't catch a thousand footballs. It's not like we're interchangeable." carter-1-2560 She no longer is known within the organization – or throughout the community – simply by her surname but rather by the strength of her first. Three decades after her dad began writing his story in Minnesota, Monterae is penning her own.

But … "like father, like daughter" does apply from time to time.

"The takeaway I really get from my dad's career and watching him through the years is how to work so hard at something," Monterae said. "How to really push yourself; how to think big sometimes; how to work yourself hard – like doing a workout until you feel sick. That's kind of the mentality I have. Anything and everything I do, I'm trying to do it the best that I can."

The dedication to her craft is evident through the impact of Vikings Table, which will celebrate its one-year anniversary on June 13.

Cris, who mentioned Monterae's longstanding affinity for food trucks, is not at all surprised to see the way she's combined multiple passions to make a very real impact. The scale of that impact, however, continues to impress him.

"The tri-state area, the communities that she's going into, and even from a [nutritional] standpoint – not only are a lot of the products farm-to-table, but the education, how they're teaching people, [is incredible]," Cris said.

And Monterae has been hands-on through the entire process: from the research phase and developing the concept, to making several trips to oversee its construction in Iowa.

"If anyone wants to know about weight-balancing on an RV, I'm the girl," she noted.

The long days and drives paid off in a big way when Vikings Table officially launched last summer.

"It was such a huge career accomplishment for me. I had never worked on something for that many years," Monterae said. "It was just an amazing feeling to see it. Even when I see it now, I just can't believe that it's real."

And the food truck's first "customer"? Melanie, of course, who received a framed photo of the moment for Mother's Day.

Carter-FoodTruckCollage "Being there with her was such a special moment. I try to be at all her special moments, but that food truck I know was her baby," Melanie said. "The fact that it's going out and helping other people, it's just icing on the cake.

"I had heard so much about it, I heard play-by-play every day of what she was doing," Melanie continued. "To see it happen, to come to fruition, it was just, 'Wow.' Even though she is an adult, she's still my baby. To see your baby set out and accomplish what she set out to do, man. She's amazing."

Source of inspiration

Monterae works tirelessly to improve the lives of young people with nutritious meals through Vikings Table, but she also hopes to inspire them to believe in themselves and pursue big dreams, just like Cris taught her.

She pointed to Minnesota's vast achievement gap, particularly for students of color, which deepens her compassion for the youth she encounters who are sometimes facing multiple barriers.

"Children really are our future, and I hope that I can speak some type of life into them so that they're more willing [to commit to academics] or to believe in themselves more. That's really one of my passions," Monterae said. "Also, I think that being a woman of color and working in the sports industry, there's not many of us, so for me to actually be in the truck and get to talk to the kids, 'Yes, I helped build this truck. I work for the Vikings,' it's such a great platform.

"I'm tired of them being amazed by that, but I will keep telling them because they see themselves in me," she added. "And that's something that I could have never even asked for or thought of – but now I see myself as a mentor to all these kids." carte-2-2560 Looking back, Monterae believes her dad always has "had really big plans" for her, and it's special to share this experience with him.

"I've always been really big on planning for the family, making sure everybody could spend time together, making sure everything was perfect, so I think he always knew that I would be doing something like this, but he never thought it would be back with the team again," Monterae said.

"I think he enjoys what I'm doing because he grew up in a single-parent home, he's the youngest of seven, so his life wasn't always perfect, and I think that's something I always hold with me," she continued. "Anybody can be anything or do anything, so you really have to talk to these kids. Sometimes it's tough love, sometimes it's, 'You're going to have to eat these veggies before you can have a treat,' and sometimes it's just letting them feel seen."

Just the way that she was raised.

"Her family is very, very proud of her," Cris said. "I tell her she continues our Vikings legacy. The Vikings were a huge part in me giving to the community, and she's really, really embraced that and taken it to another level."