kfgo studio: 701.237.5948
My Thoughts Exactly
In this week’s edition of My Thought’s Exactly, Daniel "Pinto" Gunderson will discuss the tape delayed Olympics, Minnesota Vikings chances and a coach acting selfishly.
National
The 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies were met with much excitement and watched with wonderment by millions across the United States. They were also taped so that they could be played in primetime instead of live time.
Okay, well, I can understand that. It is a six hour difference between London and North Dakota’s central time zone. I was busy, like most people, around 3 p.m. on Friday when the opening ceremonies were taking place. I’ll give NBC, the television company carrying the Olympics, a pass on that.
Then, the men’s 400-meter individual medley in swimming is aired in primetime on tape delay on Saturday. There was a little more angst because people already knew the final results. This race was big in the idea that it was the passing of the swimming torch from Michael Phelps to Ryan Lochte.
Still, to me, no big deal. I had no idea what the results were prior to seeing the race. I was busy having a life in the middle of the afternoon on a beautiful Saturday.
The big mess up was the one that happened Monday. Missy Franklin, a 17-year-old American swimmer, had just raced the 100-meter backstroke. NBC’s plan was to tape delay the event and play it in primetime. Fine, get the most viewers for the race, even if they already knew the result.
There was one problem, however. In NBC’s haste to make sure they promoted their morning show, they ran a promo giving a preview to the conversation with first-time gold medal winner Missy Franklin about six minutes before they actually showed the race!
That mistake, which I’m going to dub the “Franklin Faux Pas,” is something that will go down as one of the bigger mistakes by NBC during these Olympics. I wouldn’t consider them tape delaying bigger events to show them in primetime a mistake.
Why would I want the biggest swimming race of the Olympics to be aired at 3 or 4 p.m. while I’m at work? People who are upset about this evidently have enough time or that lack of a life that they want everything as it is happening now. Well, tough. You’re not the majority and in television, like most aspects of life, the majority rules.
Get off Twitter, Facebook and even the Internet if you don’t care to know the results beforehand. Otherwise, shut up and watch the greatest athletic spectacle the world gets to see. At least NBC has enough respect for people who don’t have the time to hit refresh on their computers every five minutes.
Regional
The Minnesota Vikings opened up training camp on Friday, July 27 in Mankato, Minn. on the campus of Minnesota State University-Mankato. Like the other 31 teams in the NFL, their season is being met with high expectations and the selling of hope.
I’m here to tell you don’t hope and just accept fact. The Vikings are going to finish last in their division and probably by two or three games.
The Vikings defense was the biggest Achilles’ heel they had last year. New defensive coordinator Alan Williams has his work cut out for him. He inherits a defense that finished 31st in points allowed last year at 28 points per game.
The Vikings secondary, their weakest aspect of defense, is very young and inexperienced. They signed Chris Carr in free agency, who was mainly a backup and kick returner for his years with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens. He did start all 16 games in 2010 for the Ravens, but otherwise saw mainly backup time.
There is a lot of talk surround Josh Robinson after his great performance at the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine. However, that’s all it is. Talk. And we won’t know how he is going to stack up against the games’ best wide outs, most of who reside in the NFC North.
And therein lies the problem I have with the Vikings even approaching 8 wins this year. They’re going to lose all six games within their division because they have to match up against three legitimate playoff contending teams.
The Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions both made the post-season last year and Chicago got aggressive and traded for Brandon Marshall. When Marshall played with Jay Cutler in Denver, Marshall had back-to-back 100 catch seasons, one of those coming when he didn’t play the entire 16 game schedule. He’s had five straight 1,000 yard receiving seasons as well. With him and Matt Forte on this team, good luck stopping them.
The Vikings offense is not good enough to keep up with the NFC North nor is the defense good enough to stop them. You take six losses there, plus losses to the 49ers, Redskins, Seahawks and Texans and you have a 6-10 season.
What’s going to make this worse for Vikings’ fans is that the team could start out at 5-3 because a very favorable early season schedule. So, don’t get your hopes up too high because those losses will be coming quick and fast in the last eight weeks.
Local
Sunday morning came with no reluctance but was met with some by me. I had to run the board at KFGO from 6 a.m. until noon. I was tired, but awake and looking for something to pass the time. I grabbed the sports section from the local paper and saw an interesting headline.
New York Mills was taking on Stephen-Argyle for a chance to advance to the championship game in the District 9 American Legion baseball tournament in Hawley, Minn. on Saturday, July 28. During the game, there was an interference call at second base that went Stephen-Argyle’s way.
The call got the New York Mills head coach Tim Kupfer off the bench and in the ear of the umpires. Things got heated and Kupfer was ejected. According to the American Legion Baseball rule book, any player, coach or manager ejected by an umpire must leave the ballpark.
They are also suspended from the remainder of the tournament, unless reinstated by the tournament director, not the umpire. The game continued and New York Mills eventually won and advanced to the championship game.
Kupfer was not going to come back and asked his players if they wanted to continue on without him. The kids said no and forfeited the championship game, giving Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton a berth into the state tournament.
My biggest issue with this whole thing is the coach asking the kids if they wanted to continue without him. That is an extremely
unfair position to put young men in. These players spent an entire summer working hard for a man they have a ton of respect for.
He didn’t just ask them, he put them in an uncomfortable spot. “Do you really want to win something without me? You saw how unfair the call was and I didn’t deserve the treatment? I’m not going to be disappointed if you say you want to keep going, but don’t you guys love me enough to walk away with me?”
Selfish would be a term I would use for the coaches’ actions. Instead of asking, he should have told his team to continue without him. The reason should have been easy to see for a man that is supposed to be a role model.
Life is tough and won’t always go your way. Instead of taking your ball and going home, you need to fight through this. You’re a good team and you can win this game and have a chance at the state tournament.
The coach might not be there, but he knows that he has taught the players well and they will succeed. Players would respond to that, use that as a chip and fight through the adversity.
Sports are sometimes referenced as a battle and you always need a leader in battle. The leader is the coach and the troops are the players. If the leader is injured in battle, does he turn to his troops and go, “I have a question for you? Do you want to continue without me and face possible elimination or leave with me and blame the loss on a technicality? At least if we walk, we can blame it on something else and not ourselves.”
If I was this coach, I would be ashamed of myself and apologize to each one of those players and their family for not being a true leader and showing them the right way.
