The NFL seems to be tiptoeing through a political minefield, when it comes to coexisting with the current administration. The Vikings are exercising no such discretion, as it relates to one specific sticking point for the upper reaches of the executive branch.
Via Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Vikings conducted their fourth annual diversity summit in June.
Assistant head coach Mike Pettine oversaw the three-day event. He said there was “never any doubt” that it would continue.
Minnesota’s program “focuses on exposure and preparation for entry-level NFL jobs and fosters networking, despite diversity, equity and inclusion efforts being rolled back nationwide.”
The league canceled its annual accelerator program, which would have been held at the ownership meetings in May. When the issue came to light only a week before the accelerator was due to happen, the league characterized it merely as a postponement.
It’s a sensitive point for the league, based particularly on multiple answers given by Commissioner Roger Goodell to questions on the topic when he met with reporters to cap the May 2025 meetings.
For example, Goodell interrupted a question that referred to the situation as a “cancellation” to say this: “It’s not a cancellation. We established that we’re doing this in 2026.” Also, when asked if he was concerned about the optics of the situation given the current political climate, Goodell said this: “I’d be concerned about being reported correctly in the context of we had the accelerator program earlier this year. We’re committing to do it again next year. So there’s no miscommunication on what our intention is. We are very focused on continuing our efforts in this area. We believe it’s been helpful in identifying talent, helping great talent develop. That’s what our focus has been. That’s what our focus will continue to be.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion generally are under attack. The league has insisted that it is not softening its commitment to those goals. And while the cancellation of the May 2025 accelerator program contradicts that claim, the Vikings’ diversity summit shows that not everyone is treading lightly.
At a time when it seems like many are running scared, on an assortment of issues, we’ll say this: Good for the Vikings.
As Netflix inches toward potentially acquiring a full package of games, some of the streamer’s eventual competitors are reluctant to help the company produce quality content on Christmas.
According to FrontOfficeSports.com, ESPN and Fox are reluctant to loan talent to Netflix for the 2025 Christmas doubleheader.
Per the report, ESPN talent will not appear on the Cowboys-Commanders and Lions-Vikings games on December 25. Fox talent is not expected to participate.
Last year, Fox said no to a request to lend Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady to Netflix for Christmas. Eventually, the network allowed Greg Olsen to work one of the two games. ESPN allowed Laura Rutledge and Mina Kimes to work the Christmas games.
CBS produces the Netflix games, making CBS far more likely to allow its one-air talent to work the games. NBC’s Devin McCourty was involved in last year’s broadcast, too.
It’s unfortunate for the folks who would like to take on the extra work. Since the Christmas games are happening on days when the NFL isn’t otherwise playing, it’s not distracting them from their primary jobs.
And so it seems petty, frankly, for the networks to deny their employees the chance to spread their wings. It also becomes a bargaining point for future employment contracts, with talent seeking express permission as part of their deals to participate in one-off productions with other networks.
One of the greatest players in NFL history will be back in this fall to talk about the sport he dominated.
ESPN confirmed to Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com that Randy Moss is expected to make a full-time return to Sunday NFL Countdown in 2025.
It’s great news. Moss was diagnosed last November with bile duct cancer. He missed the final two months of the season, but he returned for the Super Bowl.
A 2018 Hall of Famer, Moss starred for the Vikings from 1998 through 2004. After two subpar (by his normal standards) years in Oakland, he had one of the best seasons in league history by any receiver in his first year with the Patriots.
Moss joined ESPN in 2016, after a stint with Fox.
Quarterback Sam Darnold’s lone season as Minnesota’s starter was magical, until it wasn’t.
At 14-2 and with one game in Detroit with the No. 1 seed on the line, Darnold’s chariot became pumpkinized. Then, in the wild-card round, the orange menace spread to the rest of the team.
“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold recently told Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com. “And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.”
He’s right. There’s only one trophy. And the better a team performs in the regular season, the more prominent the failure seems when it happens.
“I feel like I could have played way better, to be completely honest with you,” Darnold said. “I feel I didn’t play up to my standard. I truly feel that way. I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance.”
Darnold’s play was more conspicuous in Week 18, when the Vikings repeatedly had chances and Darnold repeatedly misfired. By the time the playoffs started, the Vikings were simply overmatched and overpowered.
So what happened in those two losses that turned a 14-2 start into an 0-2 finish?
“I feel like L.A. did very similar things on third down to what Detroit did to us,” Darnold said. “They played man and tried to play some ‘robber’ stuff, and that just gave us some troubles. It gave me some troubles, personally.”
As Darnold tries to learn from that experience, it sounds as if he’ll be more committed to running with the ball in 2025 if/when his options are stymied in the passing game.
“[Kevin O’Connell] and those guys in Minnesota did such a good job — and we do a great job here as well — of giving me answers if they take options away,” Darnold told Silver. “Like, just go through your progressions and work your feet and if it’s not there take off and run — because there’s no one accounting for the quarterback, unless they play a spy or whatever.”
Whatever happens in 2025, the gains Darnold made in the first 16 games of the 2024 season were undermined by the regressions of the final two. And even if he gets off to a great start again this year, the real question will be whether he shows up when the lights are the brightest and the stakes are the highest.
Someone actually had the nerve to get into a fistfight with former NFL running back Adrian Peterson over a game of poker.
Via TMZ.com, it happened on May 27 in Houston.
The video can be seen here.
Apparently, everything was resolved.
“Me and the guy, we’re cool,” Peterson told TMZ.com. “We’ve known each other. It was literally like a brother situation. We agreed to disagree, we had our words, and we threw blows -- and that was it. . . .
“I felt really bad,” Peterson added. “It’s a situation where I kind of regret it.”
Police weren’t called, and the club at which the incident happened took no action against either Peterson or the man he fought.
A 15-year veteran and future Hall of Famer, Peterson ranks fifth in career rushing yards, with 14,918 yards. He spent 10 years with the Vikings before finishing his career in New Orleans. And Washington. And Detroit. And Tennessee. And Seattle.
