A sign of hope: NFL high ranking exec says league expecting full season plus national praise for Rudolphs
By Jeff Diamond, former Vikings GM who co-hosted Monday Night Purple and Purple Sunday Postgame this past season on News Talk 830 WCCO
I’m an optimist by nature so I was happy to see the comments from Jeff Pash, the NFL’s executive vice president, general counsel, who I know well from my NFL years.
Pash told the media this week after a conference call with team owners that there was no discussion about shortening the season or changing the structure of the season. Pash said “All our focus has been on a normal traditional season, starting on time (September 10), playing before fans in our regular stadiums and going through our full 16-game regular season and a full playoffs.”
The 2020 regular season schedule is likely to be released around May 9. Pash added that the NFL has confidence there will be a full season because the NFL’s doctors and medical experts are “looking at models that address the effectiveness of different kinds of interventions, on how the curve has trended down and tailed off in other countries, and what they believe will be the result based on the modeling that’s been done in this country.”
Of course the NFL is looking at all options and contingency planning, according to Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations.
But Pash is one of the smartest execs I’ve met in the sports world so I’ll gladly accept his optimism compared to the negative perspective of Kirk Herbstreit, one of ESPN’s top college football analysts, who recently said, “I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens. Just because of what I understand, you’re 12 to 18 months from a vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. As much as I hate to say it, I think we’re scratching the surface of where this thing’s going to go.”
I was angered by Herbstreit’s well publicized opinion. He’s not an infectious disease expert so who wants to hear his uneducated, negative viewpoint? It’s premature to make such a statement when we’re over five months away from the start of the 2020 NFL regular season. Yes, NFL and college football offseason programs will be shortened or eliminated and training camps could be shorter. Perhaps the NFL preseason will be cut back which wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen since we’ll be down to three preseason games anyway in 2021 when the regular season almost certainly increases from 16 to 17 games.
People need to hear hopeful messages, not downers in these scary times, so I’m with Pash and not with Herbstreit in believing we will have football this fall at all levels along with the other pro sports resuming in June or July.
Kyle and Jordan Rudolph’s efforts saluted nationally: Speaking of positives, one of the nation’s top NFL columnists—Peter King of NBC Sports—included the Rudolphs in his Football Morning in America column this week where he mentioned several NFL players and owners who are contributing to coronavirus relief efforts. King wrote that through Rudy’s Meal Plan, the Vikings tight end and his wife “seeded a Twin Cities meal campaign with the goal of 500,000 meals by donating 82,000 meals to Second Harvest Heartland.”
King quoted Rudolph as saying, “Without food service at school, a lot of kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from. My wife Jordan and I here in the Twin Cities have provided meals for kids and for families that go through food insecurity. We’re fortunate. The only uncertainty I have right now is entertaining my three kids under 4 on a daily basis. We thought it was our responsibility to support so many of the families here in the Twin Cities that have supported us, not only on Sundays but with everything else we’ve done in the community here. The big thing I tell people who say ‘my donation won’t make a big difference’ is a donation of $25 will feed one person for an entire month. Take that a step further. If you donate $100, you’re feeding a family of four for an entire month. We’ve had unbelievable support from all over the country.”
If you want to contribute to this wonderful cause, go online to second harvest heartland-rudy’s meal plan.
Rudolph also told King of his offseason workout regimen without access to the Vikings facility or local health clubs and workout facilities. “You kind of go back to what life was like for me as an athlete before I had a world-class facility,” he said. “I did a lot of pushups, a lot of situps. I ran around the neighborhood. I ran in the yard. You find a park or an open field. And that’s kind of what I’ve resorted to now.”
Rudolph also is incorporating new technology with his old school training as he recently had a strength-training and fitness system installed in his home where he can follow classes based on individual needs.
Around the NFL Observations:
1.Expanded playoffs approved: NFL owners approved the expansion of the playoffs from 12 to 14 teams this week. If this had been in place in 2018, the Vikings would have made the playoffs as the seventh seed in the NFC instead of missing out with their 8-7-1 record. The Rams would have been the final NFC playoff team last season. This is the first expansion of the playoff field since 1990 and only the teams with the best records in each conference will now get a first round bye which would have been San Francisco in the NFC and Baltimore in the AFC last season.
2. Dak Prescott and Cowboys reopen negotiations: Prescott has been the NFL’s most underpaid player the past four years after taking over as starting quarterback in his rookie season when Tony Romo was injured. As a fourth round pick, he far exceeded expectations as Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2016, two Pro Bowl appearances, a 41-26 record as starter and he led the Cowboys to the playoffs twice including a postseason win in 2018 over Seattle.
The Cowboys put the franchise tag on Prescott at a price tag of $28.7 million for 2020 and have until July 15 to negotiate a long term deal or risk alienating Prescott as the Redskins did with Kirk Cousins via applying the franchise tag to him twice before he departed for Minnesota.
I think Prescott and the Cowboys will settle on a five year, $175 million contract that at $35 million per year will equal the average in new money for Russell Wilson under his latest extension (but since Wilson had one year left on his contract when he signed the extension, his actual average over five years is $31.4 million per year). Prescott also would exceed the new money in the deals for Cousins ($33 million per year on his two year extension) and Prescott’s 2016 draft classmates who he has outperformed--Jared Goff ($33.5 million per year) and Carson Wentz ($32 million per year) under their four year extensions signed last year.
Prescott’s guarantee should hit a record $125 million if he signs a five year deal. Then he’ll soon see reigning Super Bowl MVP and 2018 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes blast by that mark when his record new deal is done at $200 million plus in total dollars with an average per year of over $40 million in new money.
3. Draft chatter: We’re now only three weeks from the draft that is definitely on for April 23-25 with no postponement that some GMs were pushing for. There’s no way to know a better date as of now so I agree with the league’s decision to hold the draft as scheduled with no fans in attendance and players introduced virtually via the TV coverage. And once the pandemic subsides, it will be a rush to get teams into their offseason program or training camp depending on the timing so it’s better that the rookies are selected and signed by their teams and starting to learn team offenses and defenses virtually as soon as possible.
While we all recognize the gravity of the current situation around the world and in the U.S., I think it will be a good thing for sports fans to have a live event to focus on during this difficult time.
In next week’s column, I’ll analyze the Vikings offensive draft needs and identify some possible targets in the early rounds. Then the following week, I’ll focus on the team’s defensive draft needs and potential fits from the 2020 draft class.
Jeff Diamond was the NFL Executive of the Year in 1998 after the Vikings' 15-1 season. He also is former president of the Tennessee Titans. He does sports/business consulting, media and speaking work including corporate and college speaking on Negotiation, Management, Leadership and Sports Business--contact him at diamondj4@comcast.net
