Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell faced some stiff competition Friday morning, but it wasn’t on the football field.
Rather, the intense match occurred inside an iHeart radio studio. O’Connell joined KFAN’s The Power Trip from 8-9 a.m. and made his “Initials Game” debut against Chris Hawkey, Mark Parrish, Paul “Meatsauce” Lambert and Marney Gellner.
The popular game features two initials of the day, Friday’s being B.L., and clues are given one by one until a contestant “rings in” with his or her answer. O’Connell came close on two of the rounds – he answered “baseball league” instead of “bowling league” out of the gate and later “bagged lunch” instead of “boxed lunch”– but ultimately fell short in his first go-round.
Clearly, no one was taking it easy on Coach.
“I don’t know if I was ready for the stares today,” O’Connell quipped regarding Gellner. “I’m lucky I’m far enough away. There might have been an elbow or something.”
Gellner, who recently became the first woman to provide play-by-play coverage for a Minnesota Twins series, acknowledged her aggressive approach.
“Something takes over,” she laughed. “It’s the game. It’s the music.”
Though Gellner earned three points with bike lane, body language and black licorice, it was Parrish who took home the win with four (bowling league, broken leg, Bruce Lee and brake light).
Being the competitor that he is, O’Connell admittedly was bummed leaving the studio without a point.
“What a disappointment to me, man,” he said. “This is gonna ruin my whole weekend.”
O’Connell added: “I’m definitely gonna be back.”
It may be several months before he’s able to return, though, as the Vikings are preparing to open training camp at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center next week.
O’Connell took some time after The Initials Game to discuss a number of topics, including questions about Vikings rookie draft picks J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner.
Of course, The Power Trip asked O’Connell about his authentic, real-time reaction to Minnesota trading up to nab Turner – which quickly became a viral meme on social media.
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