Media – Page 54 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Crowds May Favor U.S. Ryder Cup Win

Posted on September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 by David Shama

Rich Beem and other PGA players have long been impressed with the size of the crowds and support at major golf events in Minnesota. Beem, who saw such crowds at Hazeltine National Golf Club in 2002 when he won the PGA championship, predicts the fans will provide a big edge when the Ryder Cup is played over the next three days at Hazeltine.

Beem is in town working for Sky Sports, a group of sports TV channels popular in England and elsewhere. The major storyline at the Ryder Cup is the Americans have lost the last three matchups with the Europeans, and eight of the last 10.

“I think the U.S. will win,” Beem told Sports Headliners. “It won’t be easy. Crowds will make a big difference.”

Those crowds, a raucous mix of Minnesotans and others from various parts of the United States and the world, will create an intense environment for an event widely considered the most special in golf. Starting today the focus of golfers on both sides will be tested, but in Beem’s view that might be a particular challenge for Europe’s rookie players. “I think it’s our time,” he said.

Scottish–born Colin Montgomerie told Sports Headliners last summer he, too, believes the U.S. will win the 2016 cup. The former European Ryder Cup great talked about the electric atmosphere and home course advantage expected at Hazeltine all weekend. Montgomerie said other factors favoring U.S. success are the leadership of captain Davis Love III, and the “aura” of having vice captain Tiger Woods around the American players. …

Glen Taylor has extended Kevin Garnett an invitation to meet and discuss a possible future association with the Timberwolves. Garnett retired as a player earlier this month and Taylor suggested he take awhile before the two meet.

Before Wolves basketball president Flip Saunders died, Garnett talked about partial ownership of the franchise. If Taylor wanted to eventually sell the team, or a major share, Saunders could be counted on to form a group of investors. Saunders owned a small share of the team prior to his death in 2015.

Taylor gave no indication in a conversation with Sports Headliners whether he will talk ownership with Garnett but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be other involvement with the franchise. “He came back here (in a 2015 trade with the Nets) because he wanted to be more involved, but on the other hand, he thought he was going to do it with Flip,” Taylor said. “I think he is concerned if that will ever be the same without Flip.”

Taylor said Garnett’s decision to retire after 21 seasons (13-plus with the Wolves in two eras) was of his own doing. New coach Tom Thibodeau is a strong leader and Garnett has been a powerful locker-room voice. Did Thibodeau tell Taylor he wanted to block Garnett’s return? “Oh, no, no, no, because he didn’t get involved with it,” Taylor said of offseason talks with Garnett that were only between the future Hall of Famer and the owner.

Garnett, 40, has struggled with knee problems. During the summer he also struggled with a decision whether to play another season. “What he said to me was, ‘I would like to play but I don’t know if I can.’ So I guess he’s telling me that he wasn’t getting the strength or something in his knees that he had hoped to.” …

Gophers coach Tracy Claeys was asked what he will do to celebrate if his team wins its opening Big Ten game tomorrow at Penn State. “I like to get back (home) and enjoy a little TV and a little pizza, and I like to watch other college games,” he said.

The Gophers frequently used a three-man defensive front in their 31-24 win over Colorado State last week—at times abandoning their more traditional four-man look. Rams coach Mike Bobo was impressed with the change. “I thought that (the three-man front) had us a little bit confused at first,” he said. “I thought the speed of their players had us a little bit taken aback.”

Bobo said mixing the three and four-man fronts “will cause confusion for an offensive line.” He praised the Gophers linebackers and defensive linemen, singling out junior defensive tackle Steven Richardson who had four tackles for loss against the Rams, and referred to him as “unblockable.”

The 300-pound Richardson has been outstanding in two wins against the Rams in 2015 and 2016. “He is about 5-9 but he’s one of the best players that we’ve played against the last two years,” Bobo said. “He’s wreaked havoc on us both years and he did again today (last Saturday).”

Looking ahead, Claeys called it “situational” whether to use more of the three-man front alignment that puts additional mobile players and pass rushers on the field. He said the three-man look is more likely if the Gophers have big leads in games and teams are passing, trying to narrow the score. …

Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill, who grew up in Kansas, will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Sunday night in Wichita. Kill, now a leader in the Kansas State athletic department after a nationally recognized coaching career, is from Cheney, Kansas where his mother and brother still reside.

Kill’s new book that came out late last smmer has already raised $200,000 to assist the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time has raised another $80,000 for Kill’s cancer fund in Illinois.

chasing-dreams1 Kill wrote the book with former Gophers football player Jim Bruton. “Triumph Books in Chicago released 40 new books this fall and Chasing Dreams was their leading seller last week,” Bruton said via email. …

Hamline’s football team is 3-0 for the first time since 1988 and fans are looking forward to the Pipers Homecoming game October 8 against St. Olaf.The celebration will include a reunion of the 1966 MIAC title team. Wins that year included a 6-3 victory over defending NAIA champion Saint John’s. Among those expected to attend the reunion is 92-year-old Dick Mulkern, who coached the 1966 Pipers. …

Congratulations to coach Clay Anderson of the Pipestone Area Arrows who won his 100th football game last week with a 48-7 win over St. James Area. His overall career record at five high schools is now 100-90 in 19 seasons. …

The Oakes family and Gophers baseball program are helping with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Minnesota Chapter’s annual Light The Night Walk on October 16 in Minneapolis. Gophers players, coaches and alumni, and the Oakes family, are raising funds and awareness to support blood cancer research and patient services to honor the late Todd Oakes, the former UM pitching coach. More at Gophersports.com.

The Gophers will play their first baseball series in U.S. Bank Stadium February 24-26 against Seattle University. The Gophers will play several games in the covered stadium from February 24 thru March 12, including the Dairy Queen Classic March 3, 4 and 5.

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What Vikings Fans Need to Know & Do

Posted on September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by David Shama

With the Vikings’ season starting in a couple days, there is a new book to help fans celebrate their franchise. Star Tribune sportswriter Mark Craig educates and entertains fans with 100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (Triumph Books).

Craig has been a regular on the Vikings beat for years and is known for his comprehensive coverage. Craig’s thoroughness shows up in his paperback book that includes the prominent names from the franchise’s start in 1961 up through 2015. There is plenty of good storytelling in 100 short chapters, with surprises mixed in including the song Prince wrote for his favorite team.

Mark Craig book Vikings fans will learn how the franchise got its name and why the first game was played in South Dakota. Howard Webb Field in Sioux Falls is where the Vikings got their start in August of 1961 before 4,954 fans. Craig suggests Vikings fans visit the field as one of the things that true Purple Heads will enjoy. Other recommended destinations include Kezar Stadium in San Francisco where Jim Marshall made his infamous wrong-way run for a touchdown.

Craig interviewed many sources for the book including former Vikings owner Red McCombs who talked about his trade of star receiver Randy Moss in 2005. McCombs dispatched Moss to the Raiders shortly before selling the team. Craig writes that McCombs didn’t make the trade out of revenge for not being able to secure funding for a new stadium. Moss, moody and unpredictable, had just worn out his welcome with McCombs and a lot of other people.

In the chapter about Moss’ trade to the Raiders, Craig recalls details about the closing seconds of the 2004 season finale against the Redskins when Moss left the field, and later in the locker room where he was confronted by livid teammate Matt Birk. That wouldn’t be the end, though, to Moss’ erratic behavior in the NFL.

Moss is a recurring figure in Craig’s book. Chapters include “Randy and Red Resurrect a Franchise,” “Visit Lambeau Field, the Site of Moss’ Moonshot,” and “Eat at Tinucci’s—Where Randy Moss Wouldn’t Take His Dog.”

Moss had a brief but second hook up with the Vikings, joining the team in 2010 after the season began and lasting less than a month. Craig writes that in a move that didn’t follow franchise protocol, Vikings coach Brad Childress unilaterally released Moss after the wide receiver had been “wildly insubordinate” the day before in a game against the Patriots. Within weeks team ownership fired Childress.

Craig acknowledges that the former Vikings coach annoyed players because he was too strict. Childress won no popularity contests with the fans, either, but Craig reports how without notice the coach once stopped what he was doing in his office and accompanied offensive lineman Anthony Herrera to his U.S. citizenship ceremony in St. Paul.

It was Childress who coached the Vikings in 2009 when almost 40-year-old Brett Favre arrived as the Vikings quarterback. Craig tells about Favre’s magical debut game when in the closing seconds he brought the Vikings from behind to win a game that almost blew the top off the Metrodome. Receiver Greg Lewis caught the winning touchdown pass with two seconds remaining. Favre was under such pressure he didn’t even know who he was throwing to and six years later Adrian Peterson still called it “the most amazing” play he’s ever seen.

Peterson receives his own attention in the book including a chapter about his startling and successful comeback from knee surgery. Peterson had torn up his left knee in a game on Christmas Eve in 2011 but soon was determined to return for the next season, and he did so rushing for over 2,000 yards.

There are a lot of feel-good stories in Craig’s book including the author’s suggestion fans visit Peterson’s hometown of Palestine, Texas. In June of each year Adrian Peterson Day celebrates the future hall of famer’s achievements on the field and gifts he has made to the community.

Readers will find some chuckles as they make their way through the book. There is, for example, a chapter on “prankster” Wally Hilgenberg, and another on the “dirty jobs” that some former Vikings experienced prior to their pro football careers. For “dirty” details you will have to buy the book.

Craig told Sports Headliners it took a year to write the book. “Learned to wake up early,” he said. “Getting up at 4:30 in the morning and putting things together—talking to people.”

Craig is pleased he can pass along his Vikings knowledge and the new tales he learned in a year’s worth of research. “I get to share them (all) in a book form,” he said. “It’s a pretty neat concept, I think, being able to present 100 things that people should know or do.”

Worth Noting

Former Gophers coach Jerry Kill is in Minneapolis tomorrow and Saturday signing copies of his new book Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time. Kill will be in the Dairy Queen Club at TCF Bank Stadium from 8 to 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. From 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow he will be at the University of Minnesota Bookstore at 300 Washington Ave. S.E. Saturday Kill will be available from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Buffalo Wild Wings location at 2001 University Ave. S.E.

A friend in Las Vegas reports the Vikings’ odds to win the Super Bowl are 10 to 1. He visited a sports book yesterday and learned that with the addition of quarterback Sam Bradford, the Vikings’ odds are superior to all but five other clubs. The five with shorter odds are New England 6 to 1; Arizona 6 to 1; Green Bay 8 to 1; Seattle 8 to 1; and Pittsburgh 9 to 1.

Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen after being asked this week about Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “I am focused on the Tennessee Titans. I don’t know who Aaron Rodgers is right now.”

The Vikings open their regular season Sunday against the lowly-regarded Titans before facing the Packers and Rodgers in their home opener September 18. The Packers have won the last three games in Minneapolis.

Eden Prairie native and offensive tackle Carter Bykowski, who was added to the Vikings’ practice squad this week, told Sports Headliners he was going to give his pro football ambitions at least another 30 days if no NFL team had signed him. Bykowski, 26, has a business degree from Iowa State and some day could end up working for a local company.

Former Gophers quarterback Philip Nelson completed 28 of 32 passes including five touchdown passes in his debut game for East Carolina last Saturday when the Pirates routed West Carolina 52-7.

Creative Charters is offering Gophers football fans travel packages to away games including November 12 at Nebraska—with no overnight stay. A charter plane will leave Minneapolis the morning of November 12 and fly to Lincoln for the 6:30 p.m. game between the Gophers and Cornhuskers. The charter returns to Minneapolis following the game.

Creative Charters is offering transportation and more to all five away Gophers games but the Illinois and Maryland games are already sold out. For more information, visit the company website, creativecharter.com.

Pioneer Press sports columnist Charley Walters comes from a golf family. He has an 11.2 handicap and brothers Dick and Steve Walters, who work part-time at Wayzata Country Club, have handicaps under five. Charley has played a lot of courses including in Ireland but Augusta National is his favorite. “As good as it gets,” he said.

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Scottish Great Picks U.S. to Win Ryder Cup

Posted on August 8, 2016August 8, 2016 by David Shama

Scottish-born Colin Montgomerie predicts the United States team will win the Ryder Cup when the famous biennial golf competition with Europe is held September 30-October 2 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska. Montgomerie, in town for last weekend’s 3M Championship in Blaine, is now on the senior tour but is famous as one of Europe’s legendary Ryder Cup players.

Europe has won six of the last seven Cups but Montgomerie told Sports Headliners he expects a supportive and electric crowd at Hazeltine will be among key reasons the United States wins the match play event. He believes the U.S. team will be motivated to end Europe’s domination that includes three consecutive Cup wins.

Montgomerie said other factors favoring U.S. success are the leadership of captain Davis Love III, and the “aura” of having vice captain Tiger Woods being around the American players. The 12-man U.S. roster won’t be finalized for awhile but qualifying point totals show Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker will be leading the team.

Montgomerie will be covering the Ryder Cup for both British and American television. A former captain, he played for Europe eight times and was on five winning teams. Undefeated in Ryder Cup singles matches, he is famous for holing the winning putt at the 2004 competition at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan.

Montgomerie makes his feelings known about the Cup on his website with this quote: “If I tell you that I can remember virtually every shot I have hit in a Ryder Cup, it will go some way towards explaining how much this biennial contest means to me.”

After the second round of the 3M Championship on Saturday, the 53-year-old Montgomerie was tied for fourth with Jeff Maggert at 11 under. When the tournament ended Sunday, nine other golfers were ahead of Montgomerie. Joe Durant won $262,500 with his playoff win yesterday against Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Worth Noting

NBC’s Olympic coverage seen locally on KARE 11 had Minneapolis-St. Paul area ratings of over 7 yesterday afternoon, while the Twins-Rays game on Fox Sports North was under 1.

It will be interesting to see who emerges as Minnesota quarterback Mitch Leidner’s favorite receiver this season. That role last year went to KJ Maye but among the possibilities now is senior wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky. He is the team’s leading returning receiver, having caught 39 passes for 524 yards in 2015.

Off the field Wolitarsky is majoring in English and is an avid writer. He has written several science fiction stories and had a six-part short story published in The Wake, a student-run magazine at the University of Minnesota.

At Saturday’s second practice of training camp, Leidner was impressive with deep passes. He had difficulty with long throws last season while playing on an injured left foot.

Bob Coughlin, father of promising Gophers freshman linebacker Carter Coughlin of Eden Prairie, told Sports Headliners on Saturday his son has no lingering problems from the mild concussion he suffered in a national prep all-star game last January.

Rob and wife Jennie were chaperones at the family’s lake residence when Carter hosted about 19 of his freshmen teammates earlier this year. Rob said players from the south wore socks into the lake, explaining that is what they do back home.

Jennie handled the cooking for the lake getaway. Asked about the sizeable appetites of Carter and teammates, Rob said, “Thank God for Costco.”

There was talk following spring practice that redshirt junior Ryan Santoso, who probably will be the team’s punter, might also handle long field goal attempts this fall. Gophers coach Tracy Claeys said he hadn’t even thought about that after two training camp practices.

“If I had to make a decision today, I’d say no,” Claeys said. “I’d just as soon he punt and live with that. Emmit (Carpenter) has done a good job on the field goals, and we would go (with him). We get closer to around 15 practices, we should have that all fine for sure.”

Santoso concentrated on field goals last season, making 17 of 21. His .810 percentage was second best in the Big Ten. The Gophers, though, need to replace graduated all-conference punter Peter Mortell. Santoso punted in high school in Florida and Carpenter, a redshirt sophomore from Green Bay, has impressed this year in practices, although he has yet to attempt a field goal in a Gopher game.

Recruiting authority and writer Ryan Burns told Sports Headliners the Gophers haven’t offered a scholarship to Chicago-area defensive back Juawan Treadwell but might do so. Treadwell’s older brother Laquon Treadwell, a wide receiver from Ole Miss, was the Vikings No. 1 draft choice earlier this year. Burns said the younger Treadwell was in the green room on NFL Draft night when the Vikings selected his brother—an indication of their relationship.

Last Monday’s column about U.S. Bank Stadium and TCF Bank Stadium prompted emails including from readers who noted the walking distances from the University’s student center (Coffman Memorial Union) to both facilities. One reader wrote that it’s 1.5 miles to U.S. Bank Stadium and 0.7 to TCF Bank Stadium.

Much was written and said about Tony Dungy last weekend when the former Vikings assistant coach and Super Bowl winning Colts head coach was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A detail forgotten about Dungy is that while on scholarship as a Gophers quarterback, he played basketball for one season. During 1973-74 Dungy was a reserve guard, averaging 2.6 points per game while making .485 percent of his field goals and .600 percent of his free throws.

The Vikings will have a 6,000 seat outdoor stadium as part of their new practice and team headquarters in Eagan. Dave Stead, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League, told Sports Headliners the Twin Cities Orthopedics Stadium could be the site of prep football, lacrosse and soccer games. Among details to be determined is how the Vikings would compensate host schools for revenues lost by moving games to Eagan. The stadium is expected to open in 2018.

Apparently no decision yet on whether 40-year-old Kevin Garnett wants—or will be asked—to play another season for the Timberwolves. The process might be slowed by new Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau being at the summer Olympics where he is an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team. Garnett is a strong locker room personality and it’s not known how Thibodeau will view that as he shapes a new culture with his new team.

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