The purple stay out of the crosshairs

The National Football League has made its decision on which teams will be featured in this year’s installments of the Hard Knocks television series, and our Minnesota Vikings have dodged the bullet once again.

The league has announced that the Buffalo Bills will be featured on the preseason version of the long-running series, while the newer in-season version will feature the NFC East. The Vikings do play all of the NFC East teams this season, but they will obviously not be the primary focus of the show.

In all the years the NFL...

Arif and James are back to discuss the Caleb Williams story, flag football, the Brock Purdy contract, and much more! We also feature an interview with Victoria Zeller who is on to discuss her new book “One of the Boys.” Note: Victoria curses a few time during the interview. We reference this a few times during the show.

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Episode Notes:

• Buy One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller!
• The safety committee recommended banning the Tush Push. Didn’t work.
• A guide on flag football!
• The story of Caleb Williams [**wanting to go to the...

The tushes shall continue to be pushed after all

The most controversial play in the NFL will live to see another season.

At today’s NFL Owners Meetings in Minneapolis, a proposal put forth by the Green Bay Packers to ban the tush push, a play that the Philadelphia Eagles have perfected and other teams have tried with varying results, failed to get the required support to be implemented by the league. The vote was , reportedly, 22-10, but 24 votes were required to put the rule in place for the upcoming season.

There had been various reasons put forth for...

NFL screws Vikings with 2025 schedule? J.J. McCarthy faces elite QBs & 2-week Europe trip! Caleb Williams wanted MN? Join Two Old Bloggers for spicy takes on Vikings’ playoff push!

After recording on Monday night instead of Sunday, Darren Campbell and Dave Stefano on Two Old Bloggers, dissect the Minnesota Vikings’ tough 2025 NFL schedule. Is it a setup or a chance for J.J. McCarthy to shine? From a two-week European trip to elite QB matchups, we cover it all. Plus, Caleb Williams’ bombshell, Donovan Jackson’s signing, and rookie mini-camp news.

Episode Key Points:

Schedule Overview:

• Fifth-toughest schedule...

What rules changes should they adopt?

The NFL owners are meeting today and tomorrow. There are some proposed rule changes that they will be voting on. What rule change would you like to see instituted?

I think they should review face mask and pass interference calls always. Perhaps the signal would first have to come from “upstairs”? Then, the ref can go check it out real quick.

NFL owners set to vote on tush push ban and new playoff format: Four things to know from league meeting

Playoff format could be changing

The NFL revealed the details of this proposal...

It makes sense

Since the end of the 2024 season, the Minnesota Vikings have taken numerous measures to improve themselves, including shoring up the lines on both sides of the ball and adding a solid complement to Aaron Jones in the form of Jordan Mason. The questions surrounding the team stem from the most important position on the roster, and with good reason. After Sam Darnold had a renaissance in 2024 under Kevin O’Connell’s tutelage, the Vikings are expected to turn the reins over to J.J. McCarthy, who missed all of 2024 with a knee injury.

Bucky Brooks of NFL.com...

Thoughts on the 2025 Minnesota Vikings Schedule

In my inaugural article for the DN, I discussed reasons for optimism in 2025. The first was key free agency additions, particularly in the trenches. This builds on the greatest free agent class the team has ever had in 2024. The second was an unwavering faith that J.J. McCarthy is the real deal. Our Montana. Our Brady. Our Mahomes. Our Aaron Rodg…yeah, no. Sorry, no one with a measly Super Bowl victory allowed, pal. If that were the case, I’d go with Brad Johnson. He not only has a championship ring, but was...

As we thought would happen

As they’ve done frequently in recent years, the Minnesota Vikings will have some joint practice sessions with a preseason opponent ahead of an exhibition contest between them.

The New England Patriots are coming to town for Week 2 of this year’s preseason, and the Vikings have announced that the two teams will have joint practice sessions together in Eagan ahead of their game at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, 16 August.

We passed along the news back in March that the Patriots had reached out to the Vikings about the possibility of joint practices this...

The second installment in my Season of Gratitude series. Don’t believe everything you see on TV.

Remember How We Got Here

It’s more than a feeling. It’s something deeper, something guttural and instinctual. Deep inside the core of your soul. The fire that burns for the Minnesota Vikings. The heartbreaking losses are ingrained in us Vikings fans, like an inescapable gene. Year after year we always fall short. Year after year we get our hopes up. There’s always next year. Year after year after year after year...

When listening to a Minnesota Vikings fan, one often hears the phrase...

And it might not be a player you immediately think of

We’re into the throes of the offseason, folks, and we’re still about two months away from the start of training camp, so a lot of what we’re going to be talking about between now and then has to do with what other people are saying about the Minnesota Vikings. To that end, we’ve found one recent entry from a prominent analysis site that’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

Pro Football Focus has put together their “All-PFF” team, which they label as “The NFL’s Best Players of the Past 25...

How is your mustache game?

As we slog through the offseason, we look forward to the next organized team activities.

The schedule is ...

OTAs: May 27-28, May 30, June 2-3, June 5, June 16-18

Mandatory Minicamp: June 10-12

One thing I often do is look to next year and I examine the salary cap. This helps to possibly inform what players I want to watch in college football this year.

The Vikings currently are at negative 38.5M for next season. They do have 14.2M remaining on this year’s cap which some may be carried over.

Season Total Liabilities...

NFC North, Primetime, Teams with Biggest SOS Changes

Beyond the Minnesota Vikings schedule for the upcoming season, which I discussed in this piece, there are several interesting tidbits about the NFL schedule and particularly how it relates to the NFC and the NFC North.

Let’s take a closer look.

Primetime/Stand-Alone Games

The league makes some calculated decisions when it picks which teams play in primetime or stand-alone games. Those decisions largely come down to ratings, as each network that pays big bucks to air the games want a good return on investment and the league also wants to drive...