The Minnesota Vikings held a night practice on Monday where their players were in pads, preparing for the beginning of the preseason. There may still be 90 players on the roster, and most of the guys were wearing shorts and foam protection on their helmets, but 8,000 people showed up to TCO Stadium to get a first glance at this year’s team.
The game itself was pretty dull, even for an August exhibition. Kirk Cousins checked down to backup tight ends instead of going deep to Justin Jefferson; Mond overthrew many of his targets. There were no big hits and few highlight-reel plays. But Paul Allen exploded with excitement when Dalvin Cook broke through the line of scrimmage and took it to the house.
Allen didn’t call the whole game. Still, I could hear his unmistakable voice and the palpable joy and excitement emanating from him from a different room in the TCO Stadium press box. I appreciate objective journalism and occasionally cringe when announcers seem too invested in one team or player. It becomes tiresome when an ex-coach praises everyone from the booth, hoping to gain enough favor from a team to land his next gig. I often listen to games with minimal or no volume, but I can appreciate a good call when I hear one.
Announcers aren’t objective reporters. They’re supposed to keep you engaged no matter the score or how exciting the game is. And Allen and Berscich did that from Vegas throughout a relatively monotonous afternoon.
Neither Mond nor Sean Mannion secured the backup quarterback spot. The offensive line didn’t do much to help them out, and Chazz Surratt looked like a converted signal-caller playing defense. But it wasn’t all bad. Dalvin Tomlinson and Harrison Phillips looked solid in the middle, and Josh Metellus nearly had a nice pick. However, this is a far cry from the product we’ll see when the Vikings take on the Green Bay Packers in Week 1.
We only saw Cook, Jefferson, and Danielle Hunter when Ben Leber interviewed them on the sideline. But that’s the point. The broadcast was great!
Say what you want about Paul Allen; he’s better than Fox’s C or D team on any given Sunday. Whether you think he’s a relatable fan or a grating homer, he has built chemistry with Bercich over the years, and they call a great game. Allen speaks for the fan, groaning when the officials penalize the Vikings and sighing in disbelief when Mond misses three receivers in the end zone.
Furthermore, he provides a vital local flavor to a nationalized sport. He highlighted the players with Minnesota roots on the Vikings and the Las Vegas Raiders. He knows the roster inside and out, providing interesting tidbits about players Minnesota will likely cut before the season opener on Sept. 11. It’s as close as we’ll get to Hard Knocks until (if) the crew visits the TCO Performance Center in Eagan.
The depth players are worth investing in. Who doesn’t want to see Jailen Nailor become a burner? Aren’t you a little curious about what Brian Asamoah can be? Let’s not forget about Olabisi Johnson, who was a seventh-round darling (*checks calendar) in 2019. Admit it, you’d like to see Mond put it together. And what soulless person wasn’t excited to see Kene Nwangwu burst through the line of scrimmage like he’s, ahem, Dalvin Cook?
Also, it’s not like the broadcast neglected the stars. Leber conducted interesting, engaging interviews with Minnesota’s star players.
“It’s been something I’m kind of used to because when I first started rushing, I was kind of standing up,” Hunter said when Leber asked him about moving to a 3-4 defense. “I don’t know if you remember, but my first sack was when I was standing up against Kansas City. So it’s kind of a transition from doing it every down to doing it every now and then. Being out there, I’m learning a lot from Z [Za’Darius Smith], and I’m teaching him a lot, so that’s that chemistry that is going to get us in the backfield.”
Leber also asked 12-year veteran Patrick Peterson about moving from a man to a zone scheme.
“I think with me, I play so well with my eyes and having the ball skills that I have,” Peterson told him. “I’ve never had the opportunity to play looking at the quarterback nine times out of 10. When we are playing in a football game, we have so many guys that are playmakers on the ball like both Cam’s [Cam Bynum and Cam Dantzler] and Harry [Harrison Smith] snagging interceptions. So, I just think it gives us a great opportunity to make plays on the ball when we have opportunities looking at the ball.”
Is this groundbreaking, shoe-leather journalism? No. But it’s not expected to be. Leber asked good questions and got good answers. It’s better than what you’ll get from a national sideline reporter who parachuted in for the game. Leber played for the Vikings and knows the team. He can get to something second-level quicker than most other broadcasters.
If you have qualms about the local broadcast’s objectivity, that’s fair. It’s essential that objective media covers the team and is honest with fans. But many national broadcasters are just as favorable to the teams but don’t have the depth of knowledge the local guys do. They aren’t at practice or around the team. They often offer homer-adjacent takes without the insight Allen and his crew has.
We’re not going to get Allen, Berscich, Leber, and Co. during the regular season, and we probably won’t anytime soon. Fox pays a lot of money for the right to broadcast NFC games. Their broadcasters cash big checks because of the audience Fox puts them in front of every week. But give me a local broadcast any day. If we can learn this much about players who won’t be in Purple come September, imagine what they could tell us about the guys who will suit up once the games count.
