Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Time to See Keenum as 2017 Quarterback

Posted on October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 by David Shama

It might be time to start seeing Case Keenum as the Vikings starting quarterback for the remainder of this season. The Vikings, 5-2, will have played six games with the former backup as their starter after Sunday’s game in London, but fans view Keenum as an emergency and temporary part.

Keenum, 29, had never started more than nine games in his four-year NFL career when he signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Vikings last offseason. Yet he has been a godsend to the Vikings who have had to play the entire first half of the season without 2015 starter Teddy Bridgewater, and have had 2016 regular Sam Bradford for just a game and a half.

“We brought him here to win games,” said Kyle Rudolph, Vikings tight end. “In this league there aren’t many teams that go all 16 games and their starting quarterback goes out there every week.”

Keenum is 3-2 as the team’s starter and has been mostly good—and at least serviceable—leading an offense that includes a new line and is without potential star rookie running back Dalvin Cook, who is injured and out for the season. Keenum has thrown for 1,322 yards and five touchdowns as the Vikings near the half-way point of their 16 game regular season. He also has a career high 89 passer rating.

Case Keenum (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

Projected over a full season, Keenum’s 2017 numbers would compare favorably with Bridgewater’s totals in his first two seasons in the NFL. Keenum also throws a better deep ball than what the Vikings saw in the past from Bridgewater. Keenum’s passing is part of the reason wide receiver Adam Thielen is having a career season and ranks among NFL leaders in receptions and yards.

Bridgewater, after missing last season with a devastating knee injury, is practicing again and is a fan favorite. There’s a perception he should soon replace Keenum as the starter. Bridgewater, though, only began formal practices with the team last week and hasn’t played in a game since August of 2016. Even if he can move well enough to protect himself, there should be concerns about his timing and rhythm throwing the ball.

Bradford hasn’t played since that nightmare first half against the Bears on October 9. He was then trying to play for the first time in almost a month but his painful knee wouldn’t allow him to effectively pass, or avoid pass rushers. Bradford and the Vikings are quiet about details regarding his knee injury, and it’s anyone’s guess whether he plays again this season.

Both Bradford and Bridgewater will be rusty when—or if—they return to the field. The Vikings, led by perhaps the NFL’s best defense, are the favorite to win the NFC North with the players who are available. Those players include a quarterback who unexpectedly could be leading the offense in the playoffs while Bridgewater and Bradford watch from the sidelines.

Rudolph believes Keenum is “going a great job” as the QB. “He’s our quarterback,” Rudolph said. “We just approach each and every week as if he’s going to be the guy. It’s up to other people to decide (coaches as to who starts), and that’s the way I think he approaches it, which is why he has had success.”

Worth Noting

While the Vikings return to London this week for the first time since 2013, Keenum was there last year quarterbacking the Rams. He threw four of his 11 interceptions for the season in a loss to the Giants, but doesn’t blame the long travel to London for the bad day. “No, it was just poor decisions,” he said yesterday.

Keenum is reportedly on a one-year contract with the Vikings worth $2 million.

Sunday’s game will be the fourth NFL game this season in London. The closest victory has been by 20 points, and the Browns, 0-7 this season, could lose by more than three touchdowns to the Vikings.

Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks after being asked what he planed to do on the eight hour airplane ride to London: “Sleep.”

Darrell Thompson, the Gophers career rushing leader and now color analyst on the football team’s radio network, speaks to the CORES lunch group Thursday, November 9 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. Thompson is president of Minneapolis headquartered Bolder Options, the nonprofit youth mentoring organization. Reservations for the Thompson lunch and program need to be made by Monday, November 6. Contact Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.

Former Gophers receiver Chester Cooper received an award and recognition yesterday from Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman for his contributions and accomplishments as the county’s community corrections director. Cooper caught the last Gophers touchdown pass ever at Memorial Stadium in a season closing game in 1981 against Wisconsin. The Gophers moved into the Metrodome for the 1982 season.

Jackson Erdmann, the former Penn State walk-on quarterback from Rosemount High School now playing for Saint John’s, is second among all NCAA Division III passers with an efficiency rating of 191.5 this season. After last Saturday’s 320 yards passing and five touchdowns, the sophomore was named the MIAC Offensive Player of the Week.

The Green Bay basketball team that plays the Gophers November 5 in an exhibition game at Maturi Pavilion to benefit the American Red Cross hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico is predicted by Athlon’s college basketball magazine to finish sixth in the 10 team Horizon League. The Phoenix roster includes guard and Wisconsin native Sandy Cohen who the Gophers once targeted as a prep recruit. The Marquette transfer is eligible to play in his first game December 21. The Phoenix has a home exhibition game Monday against Ripon before travelling to Minneapolis.

Seating for the November 5 game is general admission and tickets are priced at $10 each. Gopher Score members and University of Minnesota student season ticket holders were able to access a special pre-sale this morning. General public tickets, based on availability, go on sale next Tuesday at 9 a.m.

The Minnesota Wild practice at Bloomington Ice Garden on Sunday starts at 11 a.m. and the inventory of complimentary tickets for fans is gone. Festivities will include presentation of a $75,000 check from Kraft for improvements to the facility.

Bravo to the Dodgers and Astros for playing their opening World Series game Tuesday night in two hours and 28 minutes, reportedly the fastest series game since 1992. Baseball’s yawning pace has been creeping on for decades. When the Twins and Dodgers played in their 1965 seven-game World Series, the briefest game was two hours and six minutes, while the longest was 2:34.

Last night’s World Series game clocked in at 4:19.

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U After USA Player of Year Candidate

Posted on October 24, 2017October 24, 2017 by David Shama

Gopher football fans may want to cross their collective fingers hoping head coach P.J. Fleck and his staff can hang on to Georgia prep football wide receiver Rashod Bateman who is a national player of the year candidate.

Bateman is one of 10 candidates for the American Family All-USA Offensive Player of the Year award reported on this fall in USA Today. The 6-foot-1 Tifton, Georgia star has so far this season caught 55 passes in nine games for 1,198 yards and 15 touchdowns, according to stats from Maxpreps.com. Bateman is averaging 21 yards per reception and verbally committed in June to Minnesota’s 2018 recruiting class.

Early this year most major college football programs considered Bateman a basketball-first guy and weren’t in pursuit of him. Ryan Burns, the recruiting authority and publisher of GopherIllustrated.com, said Bateman had basketball offers from Virginia Tech and Penn State, but Fleck and his staff recognized Bateman’s football talent before others did.

Bateman is listed as a three-star prospect in the 247Sports rankings on GopherIllustrated, but Burns said Bateman’s senior tape will be evaluated after the season and the new ranking will be four-star. The Gophers did their homework on Bateman, a dominant receiver who gets separation on defenders and runs by them.

“Rashod Bateman is an immediate impact player once he steps on (the field) at Minnesota,” Burns said.

Bateman’s profile is rising rapidly and the question now is whether the Gophers can keep him away from other schools and actually sign him to a Letter of Intent in either the early signing period in December, or later in February. Ole Miss has now offered Bateman and Burns expects other SEC offers are coming for Bateman.

“I am not really concerned about most of them right now because he is very firm to Minnesota,” Burns said. “He has even taken an unofficial visit up here during the season.”

The potential scholarship offer of most concern could be Bateman’s home state Georgia Bulldogs, another SEC team and ranked No. 3 nationally in the Associated Press poll this week. Burns concedes the Bulldogs could be too much competition for the Gophers, but also counters with “every kid is different,” and Fleck’s relationship with Bateman might be strong enough to bring the explosive Georgian to Minneapolis.

Matt Simon, Minnesota’s outstanding wide receivers coach, is a big plus for the Gophers, too. Simon, 31, played a major role at Western Michigan in developing wide receiver Corey Davis into a top five NFL draft choice. Simon has already turned heads at Minnesota including for the work he has done with leading receiver Tyler Johnson, who came to the Gophers as a quarterback and is a potential All-Big Ten talent. Johnson has 27 receptions for 499 yards and seven touchdowns in seven games.

If Bateman chooses Minnesota his teammates could include a quarterback with a lot of national hype, too. For the class of 2019 the Gophers are pursuing two top 10 nationally ranked quarterbacks, according to 247Sports rankings. Both are interested in Minnesota and Burns believes the Gophers might receive a verbal commitment from one or the other in the coming months.

Hank Bachmeier from Murrieta, California is the No. 4 overall quarterback. If the Gophers land him he will be the highest ranked quarterback ever at Minnesota since recruiting rankings began in 1998. Alabama, California, LSU, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas and UCLA are among schools that have offered scholarships, according to 247Sports.

Burns said Bachmeier has a relative living in Minnesota and Bachmeier’s parents are favorable toward the Gophers. Burns also said Bachmeier visited Boise State last weekend and is likely to make a college choice before Christmas time.

Max Duggan, from Council Bluffs, Iowa is the No. 10 ranked quarterback nationally in the class of 2019. He has offers from Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin and others, according to 247Sports. Burns said in-state schools Iowa and Iowa State (both have offered scholarships) are “trying their hardest” to interest Duggan who Burns thinks may announce his college choice after January 1 of next year.

The Gophers aren’t likely to receive commitments from both Duggan and Bachmeier. Both of them will want “to be the guy” at Minnesota or whever they go. Burns said the two coveted quarterbacks are interested in the Gophers because they see the potential to play early in their careers, and like other high school recruits they are drawn to Fleck’s energy and vision for the program.

Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Demry Croft is trying to claim the job as Minnesota’s starting quarterback now. He made his first career start last Saturday against Illinois and was nervous. He completed of 5 of 15 passes, throwing one touchdown pass and two interceptions in the win over the Illini. On Minnesota’s last scoring drive the Gopher coaches didn’t call one pass play.

It will be interesting to see who Fleck starts at quarterback on Saturday at Iowa. Redshirt senior Conor Rhoda, who started the first six games of the season, has thrown for 839 yards and five touchdowns. Croft is a superior scrambler and running threat on option plays. Rhoda has 11 yards net rushing yards this season while Croft has 159 yards despite starting only one game.

Minnesota, 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten, will be at least a seven point underdog in the Iowa game that starts at the unusual time of 5:30 p.m. Iowa, also 4-3 and 1-3, has defeated the Gophers seven consecutive times in Iowa City, with the last Minnesota win coming in 1999. The Hawkeyes also retained Floyd of Rosedale in Minneapolis last season with a 14-7 win.

The Gophers have lost two straight to Iowa but that’s a lot better than the record against Minnesota’s other border rival, Wisconsin. The Badgers have won 13 consecutive games against the Gophers.

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Ric Flair Film to Preview Here Friday

Posted on October 22, 2017October 22, 2017 by David Shama

There are characters—and then there is Ric Flair who spent part of his youth in Edina and is the subject of an ESPN documentary that airs November 7. Minnesotans will have a preview look at the show on Friday night as part of the Twin Cities Film Festival at the ICON Theatre in St. Louis Park. The film is part of ESPN’s much praised “30-for-30” series.

Jim Brunzell, who has known Flair since the two attended Verne Gagne’s pro wrestling school in suburban Minneapolis in 1972, will be at the ICON with Verne’s son Greg, and the two will do a Q&A with show attendees. Brunzell, who partnered with Greg in the 1970s to form the famous “High Flyers” tag team, told Sports Headliners that Flair might also attend the showing Friday night.

Flair almost died earlier this year and Brunzell said doctors have cautioned the 68 year old about travel. Although Flair has been retired from wrestling for years, he does promotional work for World Wrestling Entertainment, the pro wrestling industry giant. Often referred to as the greatest professional wrestler ever, he paid a price for his demanding career in the ring and his extravagant lifestyle out of it.

Brunzell said Flair had an awful pain in his stomach this summer and was hospitalized. He had internal bleeding and was put into an induced coma. “During that time he was on the edge of leaving us,” Brunzell said.

Part of Flair’s colon was removed and he was placed on a defibrillator for heart arrhythmia. He was in the coma for nine days. “He can’t remember anything but he knows right now he will never have a drink again,” Brunzell said.

Flair told Brunzell he is “very fortunate that I didn’t kick over.” Flair also said he plans to “lead a better life” in terms of his habits.

Flair admitted to Brunzell he had too much idle time in hotels and airports during his wrestling career. Drinking alcohol filled a lot of hours. “He told me he got in the habit of drinking too much,” Brunzell said. “He was drinking to the tune of about 3,800 calories a day (of alcohol).”

Years ago Brunzell and Greg Gagne attended a party at the Sofitel Hotel in Bloomington where the booze flowed. Guests brought refreshments like whiskey, vodka and rum. They dumped everything into a container lined with a garbage bag—brewing up “mother hunch punch.” Brunzell said the concoction “was like firewater.”

Flair appeared at midnight near the hotel swimming pool. He was dressed in cowboy boots, cowboy hat and a handmade wrestling robe that might have cost $10,000. Brunzell said Flair started dancing, took off his robe and revealed his naked body. The hotel staff told Flair that wasn’t acceptable. Brunzell and Gagne headed to their hotel rooms in case things got a little crazier.

Brunzell tells the story to make a couple of points including how much Flair loves to be around people—to see them smile, to feel their energy and to entertain them. On any given night Flair might do just about anything to get people’s attention and feed his ego. “There’s stories that people just can’t fathom, and they’re true,” Brunzell said.

In the online ESPN “30-for-30” trailer, Flair said, ““Everybody wanted to be me. Every man because I had the nicest clothes, the biggest cars and the more (most) women, and I was the best wrestler.”

Flair claims in the documentary to have slept with 10,000 women. Brunzell, who has known Flair for more than five decades, won’t put up an argument about the number saying, “Well, it’s close, and I can tell you that for a fact. …”

Flair has been married four times and he lost his son Reid to a drug overdose in 2013. His relationships have been strained with those closest to him. He often faced the question of how his actions would impact family and himself. “Many times he went the wrong way on that question,” Brunzell said.

Talk to Brunzell for awhile about his friend and it doesn’t take long to understand why he says the “30-for-30” documentary about Flair’s life will be compelling and sad. The two have known each other since 1968 when they met at the University of Minnesota. Brunzell, from White Bear Lake High School, was a sophomore on the Gophers football team when this kid with literally one of the biggest heads on the team showed up for practice.

Flair stood 6 feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds. He practiced for five days. Then guess what?

The coaches learned the freshman hadn’t bothered to register for classes at the University. Well, despite the warning, Flair didn’t register, and that ended his brief Gopher football career.

Flair, who managed to do a little socializing at a fraternity during his short stay at the U, never earned a college degree and sold insurance before turning himself into a professional wrestler. He went on to become a “Mount Rushmore” wrestling icon because of his persona (including his signature “woo” catchphrase), and also his skills and athleticism in the ring.

Brunzell refers to the gifted Flair as one of the top five wrestlers of his era. “He could do anything and he worked his rear off, and he took hellacious bumps (punishment),” Brunzell said.

It would be a homecoming for Flair, who now lives in Atlanta, to come back to Minnesota later this week for the showing of his documentary. “Well, I think deep in his heart, he was proud to come from Edina,” said Brunzell who recalled that Flair, once known as Rick Fliehr, was an adopted child who spent some of his school years at a boarding school in Wisconsin.

Whether Flair is able to return here or not, he will long be remembered by Minnesotans and others across the country as a larger than life wrestler and entertainer. As Flair says in his ESPN documentary, “Diamonds are forever and so is Ric Flair.”

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