PRE-BAG PRIMER
Thank you all for your submissions. We have another excellent crop of thoughts and questions to get through this week. Subjects this week include the Minnesota Vikings’ potential, scariest teams in the NFL and the origin of my nickname.
To submit questions for the Zone Coverage mailbag, contact BJ Reidell on Twitter @RobertReidell or through email at [email protected] (my new email address still isn’t functioning properly). Additionally, please use the hashtag #VGTweet, as it makes collecting questions on Twitter considerably easier. Thank you.
Note: I flipped my column and mailbag for this week, which is why we’re doing this bad boy on a Tuesday.
ONE
THE ANSWER
Before we get to this question, I’d like to extend my apologies to Mr. Adam West here because I missed his question last week. That said, I do think this is a topic that changes week-by-week — if not day-by-day — so it may actually be a positive that I missed it.
Back to business.
I feel like this is something I am always evaluating subconsciously. As someone who is also personally invested in the Vikings’ success to a degree, my opinion on this team changes rapidly just like it anyone else. The difference to me is figuring out why a negative occurred as opposed to complaining instinctively.
Potentially the best example of this line of thinking is the Vikings’ loss to the Carolina Panthers earlier this season. It was an ugly, ugly game — no disagreement here. But how did Minnesota lose? Well, in my personal opinion they beat themselves with penalties, drops and, as a whole, mistakes that they typically have been able to control.
So, in my mind, it’s Super Bowl or bust at this point. I have seen the potential of this team so many times this year that I truly believe the only reason they can lose is if they beat themselves with dumb mistakes or lose their team-first mentality.
Now, I think it is also important for me to state what I believe I could stomach since that feels like the true basis for this question. For me, reaching the NFC Championship would signal that this team has the potential to be great for the foreseeable future, assuming the key players up for new contracts in the coming years stay.
Sometimes losing is good; sometimes it really does make you even better.
TWO
THE ANSWER
Thank you for your question Seth; this should be a fun one for me.
So, in my opinion, the most dangerous team in the NFL right now other than the Vikings is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, yes I know; the Eagles, Saints and Panthers are also terrifying, but Mr. Toupal here asked me for one player — not 18.
I’ll go with Le’Veon Bell, the running back of the aforementioned Steelers. I think he is the most complete running back in the NFL right now, and he’s clearly feeding off the positive energy in that locker room. I think JuJu Smith-Schuster deserves a ton of credit for the role he has played for this team, allowing for everyone — even Martavis Bryant it seems — to be invested in a team-first approach through fun celebrations and camaraderie.
With Antonio Brown out due to injury, Bell is the safest pick here in my eyes. He is an incredibly dynamic player with enough patience to sit at the Department of Motor Vehicles for hours on end. The only question I have ever personally had with Bell is if he could avoid getting himself in trouble and, from what I understand, he has done just that.
THREE
THE ANSWER
I am so prepared for these questions it’s not even funny. I can’t tell you how many teachers, professors, inebriated females and former employers have asked me these same type of things.
So, my dad’s name is Robert John Reidell III. He goes by “Bob”, effectively stealing the best shorthand for Robert. He and my mom still decided to name me Robert John Reidell IV, but since he goes by “Bob,” they tried to find an alternative as not to mix us up in social situations.
For whatever reason — I still don’t know — they decided to call me “BJ”, which, of course, is a ton of fun for me when I’m meeting new people. It’s one of those things I had to own growing up, and now it’s just part of who I am.
I remember legitimately trying to “change” my name to “Robert” during one of the first days of class at Marquette, but within two weeks the professor was already calling me “BJ” cause I rarely answered to “Robert” upon first request.
I love all sports, man. Truly. I just love the competition and passion involved. It makes me feel like I’m really there always. That said, I have my favorites like everybody else. I grew up playing baseball — it’s my first love — so I try to watch anywhere between 80-100 Minnesota Twins games every year and I used to split season tickets with one of my friends. My friends will tell you not to even bother talking to me on Opening Day cause I’ll just sit there watching 4-5 games at once through MLB.TV.
I’m also a big hockey fan, but my basis for that is more because my friends love it than myself. I don’t fully understand that schemes involved in the game, and that makes it difficult for me to figure out what is happening at times, but I absolutely love the Minnesota Wild — and I’m the most dominant Fantasy Hockey player you’ll ever meet.
Fortunately, I have a couple of friends to teach me the game and explain exactly what’s going on when I’m confused, which is part of what being a fan is to me. We love bouncing ideas off each other, and even when things escalate, the respect is always there.
I’m working on getting into soccer still, primarily because my favorite coach when I worked for the Bismarck Tribune is an X’s and O’s genius and makes it really easy for me to follow. I don’t have a team to cheer for (yet), however, and that makes it difficult to truly invest, in my opinion.
Finally, I am as big of a Marquette Golden Eagles basketball fan as you’re going to find. I am completely reactionary and it’s the end of the world every time a shot doesn’t go down. The guys on the team when I was there really made it a life-or-death feeling for me cause many of them were incredibly humble and took their jobs extremely seriously.
Guys like Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder and Davante Gardner made Marquette impossible not to cheer for, and let’s not forget about how great of a dude Dwyane Wade is as well.
They were all just too much fun to watch, so I’ll always cheer for them — and, by proxy, the Minnesota Timberwolves — despite not being a huge fan of the game of basketball itself. March Madness is one of the greatest sporting events ever (alongside the World Cup), in my opinion, and I will never miss a significant game the Golden Eagles — er, Warriors — are in unless you literally drag me away from my television.
Anddddd, to complete this roundup of excellent questions from Mr. Rietjens, the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl Odds right now sit at absolutely zero. It’s the perfect way to sign off.
Follow BJ @RobertReidell on Twitter Dot Com for more Minnesota Vikings news and analysis.
And check out his Minnesota Vikings Podcast About the Labor with Drew Mahowald available on iTunes, Stitcher, Castbox and YouTube. New episodes post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
