The Northwest Airlines flight out of LA was delayed virtually two hours, so we didn’t get into Minnesota until 12:30 a.m. or so. Fast forward to 3 a.m. by the time we walked through the seemingly endless airport, found our luggage (the carousel had stopped by the time we had arrived), rented a PT Cruiser (took several more minutes to figure out how to put the window up), drove to the Doubletree Hotel and checked into our rooms.

Everyone says the Target Center is only four miles from our hotel, but we haven’t seen it yet. Speaking of stadiums, the employee in the airport parking garage is a Vikings fan. He said he used to go to the games when The Purple People Eaters (pro football's Minnesota Vikings defense) ruled the NFL. It sounds funny, but it was kind of an honor to meet him. He saw Carl Eller and Alan Page and the rest of those guys in person. That is amazing. In that era, Sir Francis (Fran Tarkenton) was their QB. Those were the days. How many kids pretended they were Tarkenton when they played at school or in the street?

There’s another athlete from Minnesota who is influencing kids today … Mr. Roger Huerta. I’m sure he’ll have a ton of support at the weigh-in today. I’ll let you know.

- Doug J

 

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