Live at 5 p.m. Wednesday: Our biggest, baddest sports villains
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It was tough luck that the Lions, Packers and Vikings were in the same division with Dick Butkus. He had plenty of ferocious hits to go around. No one was safe when No. 51 was around. Vikings running back Dave Osborne was asked after a game against the Bears what happened to his blocker on a play that went nowhere. "I don't know," Osborne said, "maybe Butkus ate him."
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If there was a 1980s TV show you liked, there was a good chance Dick Butkus was in it at some point https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124792/
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Between the lines the Timberwolves haven’t had enough sustained success to build a rivalry with a lead villain. But in their 20+ years years of existence they’ve consistently been foiled by one entity...the draft lottery ping pong balls. Is it the fault of the commissioner? I know one Randall rube that would think so. But I think their true villain is luck.
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A lot of us CLAIM to be at the game where Twins fans threw dollar hot dogs (and maybe some batteries) at Chuck Knoblauch, but I was actually there, in the left field bleachers ... acting completely innocently.So it gives me great pleasure that Joe Christensen's second round pick is Mr. Knoblauch. if you force a trade out of Minnesota and develop a sudden case of the yips, you will be a villain for life.
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I have a lot of options but I think I have to go with someone I didn't even consider until this draft started.Carl Pohlad helped the Twins stay in Minnesota by buying them in 1984 and was the owner for their two championship teams. But he was also reviled for offering the team up for contraction after years of losing, and his name today seems to always comes attached with the adjective "cheap." I don't think you can have a list of Minnesota sports villains on it without having Carl Pohlad listed.
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Out in Eden Prairie, a three-loss prep football season is viewed as failure. That’s what happened this past fall, and you just know there were smiles abound among other big school programs. Since Mike Grant took over in 1992 the Eagles have been a dominant force in Friday night football. Eden Prairie has made habit of running over its opposition, winning 11 state titles since 1996. Eden Prairie had such a rough time finding willing lambs to fill out its schedule the team traveled to Winnipeg – Bud Grant’s old stomping grounds – to play two Canadian teams to open the 2010 season. The Eagles finished 9-2 that year, then won four state championships in a row from 2011-14. -
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That rollicking run to the Western Conference finals by the Wild in 2003 wouldn’t be fun without a villain, would it? There was one, and it was Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks.Bertuzzi was an outstanding player – he had 46 goals and 51 assists that season – but he also used his 6-3, 229-pound frame to inflict damage, sometimes after the whistle. He was just the type of player opposing fans loved to hate, and he provided Wild fans plenty of fodder in the Western Conference semifinals.After the Canucks beat the Wild 3-2 in overtime in Game 4 in St. Paul to take a 3-1 series lead, a group of Wild fans were in line for tickets to a potential Game 6 at the X. Bertuzzi was passing by and told the fans they were wasting their time, implying that Vancouver would close out the series at home in Game 5. Apparently, Bertuzzi forgot that Dan Cloutier was his team’s goalie, and the Wild put up seven, five and four goals in completing its second consecutive rally from a 3-1 series deficit.
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Jimmy Butler is my favorite kind of villain because his career with the Wolves started with him playing the hero -- a huge press conference downtown, flying on a private jet with KAT, giving out his phone number! Everyone loved Jimmy Buckets. And by the time he left I couldn't have liked an athlete any less than him. Smug, talented, self centered, hard working, media starved and confident above all else. He took the Wolves to their first playoff run in a decade and destroyed the front office and roster within 18 months. Very impressive.
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OK, how about this: Before Jimmy Butler, there was Stephon Marbury. He remains the third-best Timberwolves player of all-time. He and KG could have won a championship together. But instead, a common plague derailed the dream: Marbury couldn't stand the idea of not being the biggest show in town.So he forced his way out of Minnesota in a trade. The Wolves got the agonizingly dull Terrell Brandon in return, paving the way for a bunch of stupefying one-and-done playoff appearances.I'll never forgive you, Steph
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Going off the board with the 17th pick... This is about embarrassment and your top rival benefiting. When you talk about on-field punchlines in Vikings history... the 2003 squad. Josh McCown to Nate Poole. The 3-12 Cardinals. The play. The fact the NFL killed the force-out rule five years later. Can it all be a villain? If only because the Packers then made the playoffs and Green Bay awarded Poole a key to the city. There were layers and none were pleasant for Minnesota. https://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs03/news/story?id=1700369 -
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Live from the Calhoun Beach Manor, the final pick tonight is … Nick Bockwinkel. The AWA superstar was the arch foil to our beloved Verne Gagne back in the 70s, and Bockwinkel insulted us peons every time interviewer Marty O’Neill put the microphone in Nick’s face. Super promoter Wally Karbo was always outraged at Mr. Bockwinkel’s cheating, scheming ring behavior. Sure, there are other more colorful villains but Mad Dog Vachon turned from heel into good guy on occasion, and everyone knew Baron Von Raschke was a genial schoolteacher away from the ring … Nick was a sniveling weasel from the get-go, even if Bobby Heenan wore the suit better. Yep, those were the days, before wrestling was fake, right?
(photos by Tom Sweeney back in the day ...) -
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Also, courtesy of Brian Stensaas, here's a hole-by-hole of our 18:
- Norm Green (Chris Miller, pro sports editor)
- Aaron Rodgers (Andrew Krammer, Vikings writer)
- Brett Favre (Michael Rand, senior digital writer
- New York Yankees (Jeff Day, copy editor)
- Drew Pearson (Randy Johnson, Puck Drop editor)
- Michigan Wolverines football (Brian Stensaas, night web sports editor and golf writer)
- Blair Walsh (Ken Chia, spoy editor)
- Al Secord (Joe Christensen, Gophers editor)
- Dave Forbes (Pete Steinert, Sunday sports editor)
- Dick Butkus (Steinert)
- Chuck Knoblauch (Christensen)
- Carl Pohlad (Chia)
- Eden Prairie football (Stensaas)
- Todd Bertuzzi (Johnson)
- Jimmy Butler (Day)
- Stephon Marbury (Rand)
- Nate Poole (Krammer)
- Nick Bockwinkel (Miller)
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