Sometimes, life imitates art. And football imitates football.
During a Vikings-Browns game in England last season, a field goal attempt by Minnesota kicker Will Reichard apparently struck an overhead wire. (The league strongly prefers that this not be mentioned. So we won’t.) During Saturday’s England-Norway game in Miami, the ball apparently struck an overhead wire during first-half stoppage time of the World Cup quarterfinal, setting the stage for the decisive goal by England’s Jude Bellingham.
FIFA apparently would also strongly prefer that it not be mentioned.
Via ESPN, FIFA claims there is “no evidence” that the ball hit a foreign object.
The rules require play to be stopped with a drop ball to resume the action, if it’s noticed. Because it wasn’t noticed, England won possession of the ball and soon thereafter scored.
“Before England’s goal in minute 45+2 against Norway, the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the ‘heartbeat of the ball’ when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball,” FIFA said in a statement.
The snafu in the Vikings-Browns game, which will not be mentioned, eventually was attributed by the NFL to an “optical illusion.” (At first, the league said there was “no clear view” that Reichard’s kick had struck a wire.)
Here’s the clip of the key moment from Sunday. The ball clearly moves in a sudden and abrupt way.
It’s a good thing that no one will be mentioning it.
When the Vikings start training camp later this month, all eyes are going to be on the quarterbacks.
Nothing was settled in the competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy for the starting job during the offseason program, so it remained a chief topic of conversation for head coach Kevin O’Connell during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday. O’Connell said that he’s never heard of a “closed competition” when asked if things were truly open and said that the best way to reach their goal is having “a daily attempt to have guys push each other.”
“Kyler has come in and done a great job,” O’Connell said. “J.J., I think, has benefited from it; he’s had a really good spring. Carson Wentz is this veteran quarterback in the room. As a guy who’s played seven or eight quarterbacks in four years, the two years we had our starter play the whole season, we won 13 and 14 games. We want to try to get back to the standard of having the quarterback position be a driving force behind us winning by doing their job, by hopefully activating the great players they get to play with.”
O’Connell said in June that there’s a plan in place to name a Week 1 starter early enough for them to fully prepare for the regular season, but didn’t share how much time that will take. Until that becomes clearer, the Murray-McCarthy duel will be front and center in Minnesota.
The Commanders have hired Demitrius Washington as a senior personnel executive, Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports reports.
Washington replaces Scott Fitterer, who left the Commanders to join Athletes First.
Washington previously worked with Commanders General Manager Adam Peters in San Francisco. Washington worked in the 49ers’ football research and development department from 2015-21, overlapping with Peters from 2017-21.
Washington spent the past four years in the Vikings’ front office, most recently as assistant General Manager.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and Jets G.M. Darren Mougey have a connection that dates back to their time as college roommates at San Diego State. In a Thursday conference call promoting the upcoming American Century Championship, O’Connell praised the man who is trying to turn around the Jets.
O’Connell, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, sent plenty of text messages to Mougey during the offseason.
“Most of the time I was complimenting him on whether it was a great draft they had, or how they handled some of their internal situations there — getting their running back [Breece Hall re-signed],” O’Connell said.
“I just think the plan that he’s had has been really well thought-out. It’s one thing — a lot of teams put the time and the energy in to have as much good planning as you can — but it’s about the execution of those plans. The way Darren has gone about it doesn’t surprise me.”
It’s an encouraging sign for Jets fans to hear a coach who has taken the Vikings to the playoffs twice in three seasons. The Jets haven’t been there once since 2010.
“I know there’s not a day Darren shows up to work that he doesn’t feel prepared — and I think that’s proving to be the case,” O’Connell said. “He’s not afraid to make difficult decisions, and I think that’s because it’s in alignment with the process that he has. He’s attempting to execute a vision that he has for that organization. As a former Jet, it’s always good to see the organization in good hands — and they certainly are with Darren and [head coach Aaron Glenn].”
Alignment is the key. If the timeline had aligned a little differently, Mougey could have been the new G.M. with O’Connell in Minnesota. Instead, it’ll be Nolan Teasley who’ll hopefully develop the kind of relationship with O’Connell that O’Connell has with Mougey.
Of course, that relationship will have the pause button pressed on January 3, when the Vikings face the Jets at MetLife Stadium. Especially if both teams are competing for a playoff berth when Week 17 rolls around.
