Minnesota Vikings

It’s been 21 years.

Twenty-one years today. January 9, 2005. Vikings at Packers. Wild-card round.

The sixth-seeded Vikings, who qualified for the playoffs with an 8-8 record, visited the third-seeded Packers at Lambeau Field. The Packers had swept the regular-season series, winning both games by the score of 34-31.

The Vikings built a 17-3 lead in the first half. By the fourth quarter, Minnesota still led by fourteen, 24-10.

After the Packers scored with 13:37 to play, cutting the margin to seven points, the Vikings were in danger of blowing it. They moved the ensuing kickoff to the Packers’ 34. On first and 10, receiver Randy Moss did a stutter step within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Cornerback Al Harris bit. Moss took off, throwing his hand in the air.

Quarterback Daunte Culpepper rolled a few more steps to the right before firing the ball toward Moss. Harris closed the gap as the underthrown pass approached. Moss caught it at the five and carried Harris into the end zone.

And then Moss went to the goal post. He pretended to moon the crowd. He capped the gesture by rubbing his rump on the padding.

Enter Fox’s Joe Buck: “That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss. And it’s unfortunate that we had it on our air live. That is disgusting by Randy Moss.”

Moss later explained that the fake moon was inspired by the collection of real moons that the Vikings saw on their way to the stadium that day.

“There’s probably like 10 white asses sitting over there over the hill, they’ve got all their pants down,” Moss said in 2021. “Nothing but white moons all lined up.”

Moss was fined $10,000 for the celebration. Which prompted one of the best NFL sound bites of all time.

Heading to his truck at the team’s facility, someone with a camera asked Moss whether he wrote a check for the fine.

“When you’re rich, you don’t write checks,” Moss said.

“If you don’t write checks,” he was asked, “how do you pay these guys?”

Replied Moss: “Straight cash, homey.”

There was more, which rarely gets mentioned. Moss then was asked if he was upset by the fine.

“No,” Moss said. “It ain’t shit. It ain’t nothing by ten grand. What’s ten grand to me? It ain’t shit. Next time, I might shake my dick.”

Now that would have been a disgusting act.

The Cowboys have lined up their first three interviews with defensive coordinator candidates.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they will speak with Vikings defensive pass game coordinator Daronte Jones and Browns safeties coach Ephraim Banda on Friday. Broncos defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard will meet with the Cowboys on Saturday.

The last three Cowboys defensive coordinators — Dan Quinn, Mike Zimmer and Matt Eberflus — all had NFL head coaching experience in the past, but that’s not the case for any of these three candidates. Leonhard was the interim head coach at the University of Wisconsin in 2022 and went 4-3.

None of the three have been defensive coordinators in the NFL either, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this week that is not a prerequisite for the job.

The Cowboys fired Matt Eberflus earlier this week, putting them in the market for a new defensive coordinator for the third consecutive offseason. The new hire will be the team’s fourth defensive coordinator in four seasons.

The Cowboys have requested permission to speak with Vikings defensive pass game coordinator Daronte Jones, Broncos assistant head coach/pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard and Browns safeties coach Ephraim Banda, Todd Archer of ESPN reports.

The Cowboys were denied permission by Atlanta to talk with Jeff Ulbrich, who remains under contract despite the Falcons’ search for a head coach, Archer adds. The Cowboys could eventually speak with Ulbrich after the Falcons settle on a head coach.

Dallas ranked last in the NFL in points allowed, giving up a team-record 511. The team was 30th in yards allowed.

The new coordinator will follow Dan Quinn (2021-23), Mike Zimmer (2024) and Eberflus (2025).

Nearly four years after the lawsuit was first filed, a key threshold question is moving toward a final answer.

The NFL has filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court as to the question of whether the civil action filed in February 2022 by former Dolphins coach (and current Vikings defensive coordinator) Brian Flores against the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans will be resolved in court, or in arbitration.

The specific legal question presented to the Supreme Court is this: “Whether an arbitration agreement governing disputes in a professional sports league is categorically unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act because it designates the league commissioner as the default arbitrator and permits the commissioner to develop arbitral procedures.”

The NFL has wisely narrowed the question, given that the reasoning (if applied throughout corporate America) would empower other companies to attempt to rig the in-house arbitration process by putting employment disputes in the hands of the CEO. Still, the league’s position is clear — it wants the Commissioner to retain power over disputes involving the NFL and the various teams that have hired and that handsomely compensate the Commissioner.

The 25-page document is the first step in an effort to persuade the Supreme Court to take up the case. Of the many petitions it receives each year, few are accepted.

More time will pass as the Supreme Court considers whether to take the case. Even more time will pass if the Supreme Court grants the petition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit invalidated the NFL’s arbitration provision, concluding that the procedure lacks independence. (And it does.) The Supreme Court, if it takes the case, will decide once and for all whether it’s legitimate for the NFL (and any sports league) to put its Commissioner in charge of claims made against the NFL.

It’s fundamentally unfair to delegate those powers to someone whose connection to one side of a legal fight is so obvious. Frankly, no Commissioner should want to be expected to set aside their clear self-interests in an effort to dispense justice in an objective way.

But this has been the league’s practice, for years. It desperately wants to run its own business. It desperately hopes to hold the gavel when it comes to deciding whether the legal claims against it are valid.

It’s a bad way to do business. It’s now for the Supreme Court to decide whether it’s a good way, or a bad way, to apply the laws of the United States.

The NFL has named Vikings kicker Will Reichard NFC special teams player of the month for December and January.

Reichard connected on all 12 of his field goal attempts and all 12 of his extra points in Minnesota’s five games during the period.

In his second season, Reichard finished the year having hit 33-of-35 field goals and all 31 of his extra points.

He has not missed an extra point in either of his first two seasons while posting an 87.7 percent field goal rate.

At least one team is interested in speaking with Brian Flores in this coaching cycle.

Via Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the Ravens plan to interview the Vikings’ defensive coordinator and former Dolphins head coach.

Albert Breer of SI.com notes the interview will take place next week.

Flores, 44, has been with the Vikings since 2023. Minnesota’s defense finished No. 3 in yards allowed and No. 7 in points allowed in the 2025 season.

Flores was Miami’s head coach from 2019-2021, registering a 24-25 record. The Dolphins were 5-11 in 2019, 10-6 in 2020, and 9-8 in 2021.

Even without a head coaching job, Flores may end up departing the Vikings as his contract is up as defensive coordinator. He is also involved in an arbitration and litigation case against the NFL and multiple teams (Giants, Dolphins, Broncos, and Texans).

Nowadays, you can bet on pretty much anything. And now that six coaching jobs (and possibly more) are open, wagers can be placed on who’ll get each job.

At DraftKings, the favorite to become the next head coach of the Raiders is Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, at +175.

Technically, Flores remains the Vikings’ defensive coordinator until the specific date when his contract expires. But, frankly, there’s no more work to do. The last game of the final year of Flores’s three-year deal has ended. If he doesn’t re-sign, he can go wherever he wants.

Even if he signs a new deal in Minnesota, he can always leave to become a head coach elsewhere. Over the weekend, we wrote about a rumor making the rounds that the Raiders, under the guidance of minority owner Tom Brady, could engineer a Patriot Way reunion in Las Vegas, with Flores as head coach and Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator.

Enough people are putting enough money on Flores to make him the favorite, regardless of whether the Raiders hire him.

Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is next on the list, at +800. 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has 10-1 odds, or +1000. Ditto for former Packers and Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who took 2025 off.

Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken land at +1200, followed by Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, at +1400.

Then there’s Bill Belichick, at +1600. We’re extremely confident that one will not happen. Which probably means it will. (It won’t.)

Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden lurks near the bottom of the list, at 40-1. And it wouldn’t be a complete shock if owner Mark Davis pulls rank and insists that his deposed BFF be brought back, especially if Davis isn’t happy by the limited time his replacement BFF seemingly spends on Raiders matters.

Regardless, Flores is the favorite for now. Time will tell whether that possibility comes to fruition. With Brady’s decision (if it was his) to go with a non-Patriot for 2025 turning into a disaster, it would make plenty of sense if he rolls the dice on starting the coaching staff with folks who have been influenced by Belichick — especially in light of the success that Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels have had this year in New England.

In San Francisco, the next man up is a man who once had a hand in fueling a 49ers run to the Super Bowl.

Linebacker Eric Kendricks steps in, as the replacement for Tatum Bethune. Who was the replacement for Fred Warner. And it was Kendricks who helped dramatically reshape coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive approach during the 2019 postseason.

Bethune is out for the balance of the season with a groin injury. With Warner not expected to be back from a serious ankle injury until the NFC Championship, Kendricks steps in at middle linebacker.

Kendricks, 33, had seemingly retired. He had a chance to sign with the Ravens’ practice squad. He passed. Instead, Kendricks joined the 49ers’ practice squad in late November.

Since showing up, Kendricks has appeared in three games with one start.

“I’m real confident in Eric,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Monday. “He’s been here long enough. These games he has gotten in the last couple weeks he’s done a good job, and I’m glad that we’ve got him for this situation.”

Kendricks had been a fixture in Minnesota for 10 years. He spent 2023 with the Chargers and 2024 with the Cowboys.

In January 2020, Kendricks intercepted then-49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo during the first half of a divisional playoff game between the Vikings and 49ers. Garoppolo threw two other passes that Kendricks had a chance to intercept.

The last one came on a tipped pass on the second play from scrimmage in the third quarter. The drive ended with a field goal, which extended the score to 17-10.

After that, Shanahan shifted Garoppolo into Bob Griese. For the balance of the game, the 49ers called 23 runs, three passes.

The following week, in the NFC Championship, the 49ers had 42 runs and only eight passes.

By the Super Bowl (which, obviously, the 49ers lost), Garoppolo was back to throwing the ball, with 31 passes and 22 runs. And, of course, Garoppolo missed Emmanuel Sanders for what could have been a late win.

Regardless, the 49ers may not have gotten to the point where they had a chance to blow a 10-point fourth-quarter lead but for taking the ball out of Garoppolo’s hands. That happened in part because he nearly put the ball in Eric Kendricks’s hands, three times in one game.

Now, Shanahan is figuratively putting the ball in Kendricks’s hands as the man to handle the middle linebacker position until Warner is ready to return. If the 49ers can get that far.

For Kendricks, it’s only his second playoff game since that day at Levi’s Stadium. And he’ll get the start in Philadelphia, on the same field where he played his only career NFC Championship game.

Jordan Love didn’t play for the Packers on Sunday. Neither did Malik Willis.

Third-string quarterback Clayton Tune started what was a glorified preseason game for the Packers as they did not start 16 key contributors in a 16-3 loss to the Vikings.

With the Packers already locked in as the seventh seed, coach Matt LaFleur decided to call it a regular season after Week 17. He learned his lesson in Week 18 last season when wide receiver Christian Watson tore an anterior cruciate ligament.

“I think we did the right thing today,” LaFleur said Sunday, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “And we’ll see. Time will tell. But I feel better about this certainly than I did a year ago after the game. It was a double whammy when we lose the game and you lose a key player for us to go into that run. I thought this was the best decision.”

Love, who was cleared from concussion protocol, served as the backup with Willis inactive with right shoulder and hamstring injuries. If Love had to play, though, LaFleur said Love would not have attempted a pass.

The Packers finished with minus-7 passing yards, their fewest in a game since 1976. They ended the regular season with a four-game losing streak, becoming only the fourth playoff team in NFL history to end the regular season with a losing streak that long or longer.

The 1986 Jets (five losses), 2024 Steelers (four) and 1999 Lions (four) entered the postseason on a losing streak of four games or longer, according to ESPN Research, and of that group, only the 1986 Jets won a playoff game.

The theme of Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s first season as the starter was injuries, so it was fitting that Sunday’s finale included one.

McCarthy missed Week 17 with a hairline fracture in his right hand and he left Sunday’s win because of soreness in the hand. Head coach Kevin O’Connell said after the game that the team decided to take him out as soon as McCarthy reported the issue.

McCarthy missed seven games this season due to an ankle injury, a concussion and the hand issue. His play was uneven when he was healthy enough to play and O’Connell was asked after the game if he’s comfortable going into next season with McCarthy as the starter.

“I think every year, you’re coming back to build a team throughout the offseason, throughout the draft, leading into training camp,” O’Connell said in his press conference. “I think he’s improved throughout the season. I think he’s grown like a lot of young quarterbacks do. Today was his 10th start. I can’t wait to work with him in the offseason and absolutely look forward to the continued development and improvement. I’m excited about where he’s ending the season and know there’s some things we can really dive into as a group.”

Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer were the other quarterbacks for the Vikings this season and how hard they push to upgrade that area will be a strong hint to how secure they view McCarthy’s spot in 2026.