This week in sports news with Wally and Eric
Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan looks to pass the ball during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Western Illinois, Sept. 10 in Minneapolis.
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Sports fans are excited this week for U of M Gophers to head to New York City. Why? Our sports guys Wally and Eric joined the show to fill us in. Wally Longfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of “Ten-thousand Takes” sports talk show. Eric Nelson is the other host of “Ten-thousand Takes” and the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio “Eye on Football.” They join us every week with the sports news we need to know.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: OK, time to talk sports. We have two experts, Wally Langfellow, Eric Nelson. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the cohost of 10,000 Takes sports talk show on radio and TV. Eric Nelson is the cohost of that very same show and the Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL. Hey, how are you guys doing?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Good. Staying out of the snow.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, stay out of the snow, which is hard to do. There's so much of it.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: You are correct.
CATHY WURZER: Well, let's see. Where shall we start? How about Vikes, the Vikings? So 10 and 3. Pretty good.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, I mean, 11 and 2 would have been better, but they laid an egg in Detroit, so to speak. But Detroit is playing pretty good football this time of year. The problem, though, is that the Vikings defense has been holey. And it has nothing to do with the holiday season. They've given up 400-plus yards in their last five games now. They've managed to win three of those five.
And they still haven't clinched the NFC North, but they can do that. All they have to do is win one of their last four games. They play the Colts on Saturday at noon. Indoors fortunately. I know Eric would rather be outdoors, but indoors at US Bank Stadium. And if they beat the Colts, they clinch the NFC North. If they don't, they still have three more chances after that and/or if the Lions lose a game between now and then.
So yeah, it's the defense right now. They do have some good news coming back from the injury front. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw and center Garrett Bradbury, both expected to return from injuries on Saturday. That will help the offensive line.
ERIC NELSON: If you look at recent history between the Colts and the Vikings, and they don't play that often because they're in different conferences, the AFC and NFC, but Indianapolis has won four straight against Minnesota. And as we all know, even when the Vikings win, it's usually close. They've played a ton of squeaker games. They've been walking a tightrope all season.
What I think Minnesota needs to do is go out on Saturday and win convincingly and shore up that holey defense, as Wally has so aptly put it. They need to send a message that you know what? We're better than people think we are.
CATHY WURZER: Mm-hm. All right. Let's move on to Carlos Correa. Evidently, he had these opt outs in his contract with the Twins, and he opted to leave the Twins. [LAUGHS] What's up with that?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: He signed this three-year deal with an opt out after each of the seasons on the three-year deal with the Twins. It was a $35 million deal. Did the Twins get their money's worth this past season? I don't know. I mean, you could argue maybe not. I mean, they still finished in third place, below .500. So any way you slice it, Carlos Correa was going to find a maximum deal, and he basically got it. San Francisco is going to pay him $350 million over 13 years.
Now, the Twins reportedly were in on the bidding till the end. They offered 285 over 10 years. That's nothing to sneeze at. But at the same time, I'm not that disappointed, to be honest. I think that if you hitch yourself to somebody for that long of a contract, what's Carlos Correa going to be like in 8, 9, 10 years?
I know that there's a lot of Twins fans that were down on Joe Mauer at the end of his career. Here's a guy that plays an athletic position too. He's a shortstop. And so I don't know. What kind of athlete is Carlos Correa going to be in 10 years? Are the Giants going to be paying out those big bucks in 10 years to somebody that's not going to be paying them dividends? I think the Twins are better off spending their money elsewhere in primarily pitching. And I think that that's what they're going to end up doing.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, and I think Wally's right, Cathy. And I think another factor in all of this is Correa has been targeting a multiyear, multimillion deal. He's got an agent, Scott Boras, who is a tough guy to deal with. And so he won the MLB lottery. He's getting his money.
But remember, the San Francisco Giants targeted Aaron Judge, who signed last week, re-signed with the New York Yankees, nine years for $400 million. Judge is from Northern California. They thought they had a shot. Well, they whiffed on Judge, bringing him back home.
So the Giants are probably saying we've got to come up with some sort of a huge signing, a splash signing, if you will, to appease our fan base because they're in a tough division with the LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres, two teams with deep pockets. So I think the Giants felt like we need to make a tsunami-like splash. We'll do it with Correa.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. That's a lot of money. OK, let's talk about the Gopher football team. I have never heard of the Bad Boy Mower Pinstripe Bowl.
[LAUGHTER]
WALLY LANGFELLOW: You haven't?
CATHY WURZER: What? No, I have not. Where is this? What is it? I mean, what the heck?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: The Pinstripe Bowl. It's named the Pinstripe Bowl. And Bad Boy Mower is the sponsor because it's played at Yankee Stadium in New York City, so that's the concept. The Yankees, of course, one of their nicknames are the Pinstripers, so thus the name. So they got basically a whole month to prepare.
I mean, the Gophers played their last game against Wisconsin right after Thanksgiving. And this isn't until the end of December, but it's an opportunity for them to get better, prepare for next year, see what they have. It's basically a meaningless game insofar as the overall scheme of things.
ERIC NELSON: And Cathy, 'tis the season to go bowling. The college football season with all the bowls actually begins Friday. It's really a bowl bonanza. 43 bowl games.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh my gosh.
ERIC NELSON: And just for this show on NPR, I came up with a list of my favorite bowl game names. Now, Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl is on my list, but how about the LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama?
CATHY WURZER: What?
ERIC NELSON: Or the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida or the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise?
CATHY WURZER: Oh, there's a good one.
ERIC NELSON: Or the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit? And then the winner--
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, here it is.
ERIC NELSON: Here is my winner--
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Here it comes.
ERIC NELSON: --is the Cheez-It Bowl--
CATHY WURZER: The Cheez-It Bowl?
ERIC NELSON: --in Orlando being played at Camping World Stadium. And why they don't have Wisconsin in this bowl game is beyond me. The Badgers get to go to Phoenix, and they were worse than the Gophers this season.
[LAUGHTER]
You got the munchies, that's the place to go.
CATHY WURZER: The oft-coveted Cheez-It Bowl trophy I'm sure will be fantastic in someone's trophy case.
ERIC NELSON: It's not edible.
CATHY WURZER: Wow, OK. Well, how are the Gophers doing? I mean, is it-- are they're going to go into next season halfway decent or what?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think that what they did get out of this season, if nothing else, was they figured out they probably have a quarterback going forward. Tanner Morgan in and out of the lineup with injuries towards the end of the season, so they went to Athan Kaliakmanis. And he was pretty good. He had ups and downs.
He certainly struggled at Penn State in his first game, but who wouldn't? I mean, he's going in there basically as a freshman with no experience in playing in a White Out. But they found out that this kid can play. He engineered a huge drive to help them win against Wisconsin. I think that there's some upside here.
Obviously, they're losing some great players to graduation. They're losing Mo Ibrahim, and they're going to lose John Michael Schmitz, their center. Those two guys were very instrumental in the success that they have had this year. But I think that there is some upside as they look forward, no question.
ERIC NELSON: And let me say this, Cathy. It is basically a meaningless bowl game at chilly Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. But I think if you're a Gopher fan and you follow this team, it's a sendoff for Mo Ibrahim, the running back, who's one of the greatest Gophers we've ever seen, coming back from a devastating injury last season against Ohio State. He will play in the NFL. I know I've enjoyed watching him.
So hopefully, Minnesota can win the game against Syracuse, and Mo can have a big game on the hallowed Yankee Stadium grass, and we can send him off to the NFL. I think Gopher fans should appreciate what he's given to this team, especially coming back from that injury in 2021.
CATHY WURZER: Well said there. And before we go, World Cup, of course, continues. And what do we want to say about that? Because I know a lot of listeners are glued to the TV to watch World Cup soccer.
ERIC NELSON: Well, I know Wally is going to be hunkered down in his man cave.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh boy, oh boy.
ERIC NELSON: He's got a Lionel Messi jersey he's going to be wearing, or maybe it's a Lionel Richie. I don't know.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: More like Lionel Richie.
[LAUGHTER]
ERIC NELSON: Well, it's in Qatar, and the championship match is 9:00 AM Sunday morning, so set your alarm clock. And Lionel Messi has been in five World Cups now. He's one of the global greats in the sport of soccer, but he's never won one. So can he go out on top in what might be his last match on the pitch? Argentina.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, OK, we'll see what happens.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: We'll see.
CATHY WURZER: Argentina. We'll see. All right, you guys. Always a pleasure. Thanks so much.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow, Eric Nelson. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the cohost of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of that show and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Good. Staying out of the snow.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, stay out of the snow, which is hard to do. There's so much of it.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: You are correct.
CATHY WURZER: Well, let's see. Where shall we start? How about Vikes, the Vikings? So 10 and 3. Pretty good.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, I mean, 11 and 2 would have been better, but they laid an egg in Detroit, so to speak. But Detroit is playing pretty good football this time of year. The problem, though, is that the Vikings defense has been holey. And it has nothing to do with the holiday season. They've given up 400-plus yards in their last five games now. They've managed to win three of those five.
And they still haven't clinched the NFC North, but they can do that. All they have to do is win one of their last four games. They play the Colts on Saturday at noon. Indoors fortunately. I know Eric would rather be outdoors, but indoors at US Bank Stadium. And if they beat the Colts, they clinch the NFC North. If they don't, they still have three more chances after that and/or if the Lions lose a game between now and then.
So yeah, it's the defense right now. They do have some good news coming back from the injury front. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw and center Garrett Bradbury, both expected to return from injuries on Saturday. That will help the offensive line.
ERIC NELSON: If you look at recent history between the Colts and the Vikings, and they don't play that often because they're in different conferences, the AFC and NFC, but Indianapolis has won four straight against Minnesota. And as we all know, even when the Vikings win, it's usually close. They've played a ton of squeaker games. They've been walking a tightrope all season.
What I think Minnesota needs to do is go out on Saturday and win convincingly and shore up that holey defense, as Wally has so aptly put it. They need to send a message that you know what? We're better than people think we are.
CATHY WURZER: Mm-hm. All right. Let's move on to Carlos Correa. Evidently, he had these opt outs in his contract with the Twins, and he opted to leave the Twins. [LAUGHS] What's up with that?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: He signed this three-year deal with an opt out after each of the seasons on the three-year deal with the Twins. It was a $35 million deal. Did the Twins get their money's worth this past season? I don't know. I mean, you could argue maybe not. I mean, they still finished in third place, below .500. So any way you slice it, Carlos Correa was going to find a maximum deal, and he basically got it. San Francisco is going to pay him $350 million over 13 years.
Now, the Twins reportedly were in on the bidding till the end. They offered 285 over 10 years. That's nothing to sneeze at. But at the same time, I'm not that disappointed, to be honest. I think that if you hitch yourself to somebody for that long of a contract, what's Carlos Correa going to be like in 8, 9, 10 years?
I know that there's a lot of Twins fans that were down on Joe Mauer at the end of his career. Here's a guy that plays an athletic position too. He's a shortstop. And so I don't know. What kind of athlete is Carlos Correa going to be in 10 years? Are the Giants going to be paying out those big bucks in 10 years to somebody that's not going to be paying them dividends? I think the Twins are better off spending their money elsewhere in primarily pitching. And I think that that's what they're going to end up doing.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, and I think Wally's right, Cathy. And I think another factor in all of this is Correa has been targeting a multiyear, multimillion deal. He's got an agent, Scott Boras, who is a tough guy to deal with. And so he won the MLB lottery. He's getting his money.
But remember, the San Francisco Giants targeted Aaron Judge, who signed last week, re-signed with the New York Yankees, nine years for $400 million. Judge is from Northern California. They thought they had a shot. Well, they whiffed on Judge, bringing him back home.
So the Giants are probably saying we've got to come up with some sort of a huge signing, a splash signing, if you will, to appease our fan base because they're in a tough division with the LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres, two teams with deep pockets. So I think the Giants felt like we need to make a tsunami-like splash. We'll do it with Correa.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. That's a lot of money. OK, let's talk about the Gopher football team. I have never heard of the Bad Boy Mower Pinstripe Bowl.
[LAUGHTER]
WALLY LANGFELLOW: You haven't?
CATHY WURZER: What? No, I have not. Where is this? What is it? I mean, what the heck?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: The Pinstripe Bowl. It's named the Pinstripe Bowl. And Bad Boy Mower is the sponsor because it's played at Yankee Stadium in New York City, so that's the concept. The Yankees, of course, one of their nicknames are the Pinstripers, so thus the name. So they got basically a whole month to prepare.
I mean, the Gophers played their last game against Wisconsin right after Thanksgiving. And this isn't until the end of December, but it's an opportunity for them to get better, prepare for next year, see what they have. It's basically a meaningless game insofar as the overall scheme of things.
ERIC NELSON: And Cathy, 'tis the season to go bowling. The college football season with all the bowls actually begins Friday. It's really a bowl bonanza. 43 bowl games.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh my gosh.
ERIC NELSON: And just for this show on NPR, I came up with a list of my favorite bowl game names. Now, Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl is on my list, but how about the LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama?
CATHY WURZER: What?
ERIC NELSON: Or the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida or the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise?
CATHY WURZER: Oh, there's a good one.
ERIC NELSON: Or the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit? And then the winner--
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, here it is.
ERIC NELSON: Here is my winner--
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Here it comes.
ERIC NELSON: --is the Cheez-It Bowl--
CATHY WURZER: The Cheez-It Bowl?
ERIC NELSON: --in Orlando being played at Camping World Stadium. And why they don't have Wisconsin in this bowl game is beyond me. The Badgers get to go to Phoenix, and they were worse than the Gophers this season.
[LAUGHTER]
You got the munchies, that's the place to go.
CATHY WURZER: The oft-coveted Cheez-It Bowl trophy I'm sure will be fantastic in someone's trophy case.
ERIC NELSON: It's not edible.
CATHY WURZER: Wow, OK. Well, how are the Gophers doing? I mean, is it-- are they're going to go into next season halfway decent or what?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think that what they did get out of this season, if nothing else, was they figured out they probably have a quarterback going forward. Tanner Morgan in and out of the lineup with injuries towards the end of the season, so they went to Athan Kaliakmanis. And he was pretty good. He had ups and downs.
He certainly struggled at Penn State in his first game, but who wouldn't? I mean, he's going in there basically as a freshman with no experience in playing in a White Out. But they found out that this kid can play. He engineered a huge drive to help them win against Wisconsin. I think that there's some upside here.
Obviously, they're losing some great players to graduation. They're losing Mo Ibrahim, and they're going to lose John Michael Schmitz, their center. Those two guys were very instrumental in the success that they have had this year. But I think that there is some upside as they look forward, no question.
ERIC NELSON: And let me say this, Cathy. It is basically a meaningless bowl game at chilly Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. But I think if you're a Gopher fan and you follow this team, it's a sendoff for Mo Ibrahim, the running back, who's one of the greatest Gophers we've ever seen, coming back from a devastating injury last season against Ohio State. He will play in the NFL. I know I've enjoyed watching him.
So hopefully, Minnesota can win the game against Syracuse, and Mo can have a big game on the hallowed Yankee Stadium grass, and we can send him off to the NFL. I think Gopher fans should appreciate what he's given to this team, especially coming back from that injury in 2021.
CATHY WURZER: Well said there. And before we go, World Cup, of course, continues. And what do we want to say about that? Because I know a lot of listeners are glued to the TV to watch World Cup soccer.
ERIC NELSON: Well, I know Wally is going to be hunkered down in his man cave.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh boy, oh boy.
ERIC NELSON: He's got a Lionel Messi jersey he's going to be wearing, or maybe it's a Lionel Richie. I don't know.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: More like Lionel Richie.
[LAUGHTER]
ERIC NELSON: Well, it's in Qatar, and the championship match is 9:00 AM Sunday morning, so set your alarm clock. And Lionel Messi has been in five World Cups now. He's one of the global greats in the sport of soccer, but he's never won one. So can he go out on top in what might be his last match on the pitch? Argentina.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, OK, we'll see what happens.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: We'll see.
CATHY WURZER: Argentina. We'll see. All right, you guys. Always a pleasure. Thanks so much.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow, Eric Nelson. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the cohost of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of that show and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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