Maybe it’s no pipe dream to believe the Vikings will play in the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis.
Former Cowboys personnel authority Gil Brandt, now writing for Nfl.com, said in a January 28 story the Panthers and Seahawks top his list of teams with the biggest Super Bowl windows, but he is aware of the Vikings. He identified six teams that are best positioned to compete for championships for awhile: the Panthers, Seahawks, Steelers, Bengals, Vikings and Patriots.
Brandt ranked the Vikings No. 5 mostly because of a strong nucleus of defensive players, anticipated improvement of third-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and the excellence of Adrian Peterson who led the NFL in rushing last season and might repeat at age 31. Brandt wrote the Vikings are “by no means perfect” but are an ascending club in a division where the Packers, the longtime king of the hill, are a “bit of a descending team.”
Former Vikings defensive lineman Bob Lurtsema, who remains close to the team, has predicted for about a year his former club will be in the 2017 Super Bowl. “This (coach) Zimmer, he’s got his act together,” Lurtsema told Sports Headliners.
Lurtsema has praised third-year Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer perhaps longer than anyone else. Lurtsema doesn’t see weaknesses on the defense, and he is predicating a successful 2016 season and Super Bowl on an improved offense. Most specifically he sees a better offensive line next fall that will give third-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater more time to throw.
Lurtsema has watched Zimmer lead the Vikings from a 2014 record of 7-9 to an 11-5 success and the NFC North title during the 2015 season. Zimmer is a demanding leader but generates results. “The players love him,” Lurtsema said.
Super Bowl 50 this Sunday will be played in Santa Clara, California, then next year the game is in Houston before coming to Minneapolis. It will be special if the Vikings earn an invite to the “big party” in the next couple of years. The Vikings haven’t been in the Super Bowl since 1977. Only twice in Super Bowl history has a team played in a stadium in its home market, according to Wikipedia.
The Panthers have been about a six-point favorite over the Broncos this week but Lurtsema said that’s too many points for Sunday’s game. “If I was a betting man, I’d bet my house and everything. I’d take the five or six points and grab Denver—because Denver’s defense, especially the defensive line, is the best in the league. …”
There is a lot of flattering talk about Cam Newton, the Panthers’ talented 26-year-old quarterback. Lurtsema is an admirer and he recalled a 2011 game in Charlotte between the Vikings and Panthers. Late in the game Lurtsema was on the sideline and so close to Newton he could closely observe a hard hit on the 6-5, 245-pound Newton.
Newton’s response to the collision? “God, I love this game.”
Lurtsema was won over when he heard that. “I am in love with this guy from now on,” Lurtsema declared on that late October day.
There are Minnesota connections in Sunday’s game including Jared Allen with the Panthers and Ryan Harris from the Broncos. A defensive end, Allen was one of the Vikings’ most popular players from 2009-2013. In 2011 he had 22 sacks for the season and set a Vikings’ franchise record. He narrowly missed the NFL record of 22.5.
Named to the list of the 50 greatest Vikings ever in 2010, Allen was often good for a sharp quote during media sessions and was known in the community as a longtime supporter of military veterans. While he was in Minnesota he started Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Veterans, a charity to provide handicap-accessible homes for veterans returning from duty.
Allen is an outdoor enthusiast and has hunted wolves, bison and elk. Lurtsema owns land in outstate Minnesota where he gave Allen permission to hunt black bear and deer. “Very nice guy but he beats to a different drum,” Lurtsema said. “He was into hunting big time. That was his passion. He’s been to Africa. He’s done it all.”
Allen left the Vikings during the 2014 offseason to join the Bears. Now 33, he was traded last September by the Bears to the Panthers for a 2016 draft pick. A broken foot caused him to miss the Panthers’ NFC championship win over the Cardinals, but expectations are he will play Sunday in his first Super Bowl.
Harris is another player with a “good guy” reputation among Minnesotans. The Minneapolis-born starting left tackle for the Broncos played three seasons for Cretin-Derham Hall before attending Notre Dame. While at Cretin, his line coach was former Gophers center Ray Hitchcock. For three seasons Harris was a Raiders starter at left tackle and over the years he formed a tight relationship with Hitchcock and his son Brooks.
Five days before the Broncos-Patriots AFC title game on January 24, Harris extended a surprise invitation to the Hitchcocks. They paid their airfare to Denver and back to Minneapolis, but everything else including game tickets, lodging and dinner at Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steak House was courtesy of Harris.
“He is just a hell of a guy,” Ray said. “He’s a guy you want to be around.”
Worth Noting
Football fans learn Saturday if former Vikings quarterback Brett Favre and Tony Dungy—who played for the Gophers and was an assistant coach with the Vikings—are selected as new members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Hall’s Selection Committee meets in San Francisco Saturday to elect the 2016 Hall of Fame Class.
Favre and Dungy are among 15 Modern Era Finalists being considered for induction into the hall. This is Favre’s first year being considered, and the legendary quarterback who led the Packers to a Super Bowl title seems like a cinch to win approval Saturday. Dungy, who was the first African-American head coach to win the Super Bowl when his Colts defeated the Bears in 2007, has been a finalist before.
The criteria used in searching for the next Gophers athletic director is likely to emphasize candidates with integrity and a proven track record in building relationships. Those are qualities that distinguish WCHA men’s hockey commissioner Bill Robertson whose career workplaces have included the Angels, Ducks, Timberwolves and Wild. A Minnesota native with a long list of friends and contacts in the Twin Cities, Robertson’s WCHA office is in Edina.
Perhaps in a couple of years all Gophers football fans will be applauding the 2016 recruiting class coach Tracy Claeys announced yesterday, but for now Websites like Rivals.com aren’t giving the group high rankings. Rivals.com ranks five of seven schools from the Big Ten East Division ahead of the No. 50 Gophers. The West Division is home to the Gophers and Rivals has the recruiting classes of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern listed ahead of Minnesota. Nebraska at No. 25 is the highest ranked West Division recruiting class while the East is led by No. 3. Ohio State, No. 4 Michigan and No. 20 Michigan State.
The Gophers basketball team is 0-10 in the Big Ten going into tonight’s game against 3-7 Northwestern in Evanston. Minnesota’s laundry list of problems mostly comes down to this: the Gophers have only one consistent impact player. Sophomore guard Nate Mason leads the team on a regular basis in scoring (13.7) and assists (4.5). Last Saturday in a close loss at Indiana he had 21 points. The prior game against Purdue he totaled 15 points and 12 assists.
Mason has scored 19 points or more in three of his last four games, but he plays with inconsistent teammates. In the Purdue game freshman guard Dupree McBrayer tied a career high with 13 points, and then had 8 points against Indiana while missing 9 of 12 shots. Another freshman guard, Kevin Dorsey, didn’t score against Purdue but had a career high 21 in the Indiana game. Freshman forward Jordan Murphy, who leads the team in rebounding at 7.9 per game, often is in first half foul trouble and has to sit on the bench for long stretches.
McBrayer, Dorsey and Murphy are talented and must all become consistent impact players to help the Gophers reach .500 or better in the Big Ten next season. The same is true of sophomore center Bakary Konate who is finally showing improvement and gives the roster badly needed size.
“Future is pretty bright for us,” Murphy said last week after the Purdue loss. “I think we know that as a team, but we still gotta compete this season. It’s not over yet. We gotta just keep grinding. …”
McBrayer talked recently about the problem of making free throws late in games when they’re needed the most: “We shoot them every day after and before practice. They should be second nature to us. It’s just in a game you have to calm down and knuckle down.”