Timing is everything. The enthusiasm we have for the Vikings may have been a bit premature, as this was recorded a couple weeks ago. Give it a listen and enjoy the irony of some of the excitement.
Greetings kindness, Chronicle listener. Before you listened to this week's podcast, we felt it was important to point out. That this was taped a couple of weeks ago. At the pinnacle of the Josh Dobbs. Mania, the Josh Dobbs love Fest. Well, If you happen to watch Monday's disaster against the bears, you'll understand this conversation is. A bit outdated at times. We hope you enjoy anyway. welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. Yeah. Speaking of Minnesota nice, we got Vikings fever. Yeah, I think, uh, I think it's pretty rampant at this point. And in that, in that vein... Who do we have with us tonight? We have our old friend, a returning guest of ours, Mr. Tom West. Tom, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles. Welcome back to the Kindness Chronicles. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me on again. Tom, remind, uh, maybe reiterate who you are and what you do for the Minnesota Vikings. Just for the people who haven't maybe, you know, have failed to listen to your episode in the past. Uh, I am the Director of Legends Relations for the Vikings, which is... A long way of saying I work with our alumni players, and uh, I've been with the club for 27 years. Um, about 25 of that was in communications or PR, and then the last couple of years I've switched, uh, moved across the hall to this area. Before we get into Vikings Fever, how has the transition gone? Are you enjoying that role, like, compared to, in what you've been doing for so long? Um, was it, what kind of adjustment was it? Was it, was it like, uh, like the pressure's off or is it a new kind of thing? What's, how are you feeling about it? It's actually been, it's about what I, I, I had in my head what it was going to be like and it turned out to be about, about what I had hoped for, so. Huh. Uh, in my last, in my past life, like I said, you know, I worked. With the guys on their media responsibilities. So you get to know the guys pretty well that way. And they, they are our alumni, so, you know, I, I knew'em as current players and, uh, so I kind of just already had a telephone full of numbers of those guys. Yeah. And so we kind of picked. Rekindle those relationships. Oh, that's cool. So, so guys you used to work with to get the PR stuff going with them and stay. I saw you on the field all the time. You were running with them and guiding them from the next piece to the next piece. And now those are the guys that you're working with now as, as a, as a legends guy. Okay. Yeah, that's cool. So you have a built in, you know, the built in relationship already with. You know, hundreds of those guys. Tom, I have about a thousand questions, so I'm really grateful that you're going to be on with us for three hours here tonight. Sit back, everybody. Sit back and relax. Um, for starters, does every team have, like, an alumni relations department? by now, yes. I would say, out of 32 teams. 30 probably do have a dedicated department to that. it seems like the Vikings are really respectful of their past. Yeah, we've, we've been, we've been lucky that, um, you know, we've, we've been given the resources to be able to to have events for guys and so they are interested in coming back, you know. Um, like I say, not every team probably has, we have two full time people that's dedicated to it. A lot of teams that may have one, um, you know, they may, uh, maybe they don't have the events per se that we have. Um, in fact, realistically we, so we can, we have a suite at the stadium so we can host about 40 guys. Oh, that's fun. 40 people. So it's usually 20 players and I guess, um, but we didn't have that at the Metrodome. Yeah. Um, there's a lot of stadiums that don't have that luxury. So, uh, it's enticing for guys that want to come back. You know, you're not You're not picking them in the 300 level of the stadium. Sure. With just population. So, you know, it's a, it's a good experience when they come back and, and they come, you know, once you come once, you usually come back again. So. How does it work? How do you, how do you decide who, who you invite to a particular game? Cause I noticed. Like last week Steve Jordan must have been there because his kid was playing and there was a big Steve Jordan deal going on. Like how does that work out? We actually, we just, so last week was, was an exception due, it was our annual Legends weekend. So we had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, uh, of events for guys. We had 90 guys. Oh wow. When the, when the final tally came through. Wow. Um, so. We actually, for that game, we get to take advantage of some suites that open up. So we've got four suites, actually, that have, you know, accordion partitions between them. Oh, cool. So we had, you know, a hundred and seventy five ish people in there between. Uh, alumni and guests. Um, but for a regular, you know, every other week, regular season games, we kind of just have a general call out and, um, guys reach out to us if they're in town or local guys that come frequently. Um, we're actually tracking down a few guys for the Monday night gaming in Chicago. We've got a few invitations out and hopefully, um, Hopefully they can all come. We've got, uh, Bernard Barian is going to be back. Bobby Wade is going to be back. Both those guys actually also played for the Bears. So, kind of, uh, they'd like to come for that. So, Tom, you have, you put on a, uh, uh, an event basically, you're kind of an event coordinator with 175 people, you've got a lot of logistics to deal with, right? That's a lot of people. Yeah, see, uh, that's the, that's been the learning part of the job. Didn't know anything about the catering or, uh, coach bus transportation world or, uh, uh, centerpieces and tablecloth. There's a lot to that. Yeah. Um, and then the budget to go along with it. So, yeah, I've learned, I learned a lot about that side of it. So, did this, I feel like Red McCombs during his era, was that a, obviously you were around during the Red McCombs era and it just seems like he really, Love the history of the Vikings. He did. You know, we didn't have a ring of honor. Red started it in 98. What a year to start it. Holy cow. So, he did. He really embraced the history and he embraced the guys before him. And he was great with that. And it's just carried over into the world as well. They really enjoy it. Our management enjoys it. Coach O'Connell came and spoke to the guys on Saturday night at our dinner, which was at the hotel where the team was staying. So, it worked out pretty well. And, uh, he's very, Coach has been really accommodating with letting us bring guys out to practice. And, um, so we brought that whole crew. I mean, we probably had almost a hundred people at practice on Saturday. Can I ask you about Coach O'Connell? Yes. He seems like one hell of a guy. He's a good, yeah, yeah, yeah. He seems like just a really kind of down to earth, thoughtful leader. Yeah, yeah. He, um, when players that are coming in want to, you know, just, what would you like? I go, he's a quarterback. I mean, so he's kind of a, he's kind of smooth. He's kind of a good looking guy. He likes to be liked. You know, he's a, He's a quarterback, so, you know, it kind of sums it up. He's always the most popular guy. Do you have guys from like the 60s that are still coming back? Like who are some of the oldest legends? We had a guy named Jim Christopherson who was kicker and linebacker, which was not that uncommon. Um, and he was on the 61 team, so he was our, he was our most, you know, most senior, uh, guy that was there. We've had, we had a couple guys. from the 60s. Um, but we had guys from the 60s up to the 2012 season. And a pretty wide variety of age groups. So, of all the guys, I know that this is going to be a difficult question, but I'm going to ask it anyways. There we go. Um, as this is the Kindness Chronicles, um, you know, I look at a guy like Kyle Rudolph, who I'm so happy that, I think he's back in Minnesota now, isn't he? He actually lives in Tampa, but he is kind of a snowbird, so he'll be up here in the summer. He seems, you know, he's just, he's so active in the community and he's just so involved with so many different things. Um, of all the guys that, uh, that, that you've gotten to know over the years, just tell us about some of your favorites. Just guys that are always gregarious and always, you know, good dudes. Uh, man, there's so many. I've gotten to, uh, you know, as a, as a little guy and... rural Minnesota. I was of the age where I was a big Chuck Foreman guy. Right. And now I've gotten to know Chuck and work with Chuck. I'm like, Chuck's a good dude. So that's cool. Um, been kind of fun to have it come full circle, but somewhere in, uh, in my, in a box of stuff, somewhere in my house, I have the paper that I wrote in third or fourth grade about Chuck Foreman. I still, I keep telling him, like, I, Gotta bring it and show it to them. No way, yeah, you gotta, you gotta find that time. I think the assignment was, uh, you know, tell us, uh, you know, tell us about a famous person. And I don't think they were looking for Chuck Foreman, really. I think they were, they were probably thinking, uh, you know, Cornelius Vanderbilt or a president or something. But, uh, I went with Chuck Foreman. I gotta, you know, I don't, I don't know if I mentioned this the last time that you were on, but back in, I must have been like in 7th or 8th grade. I wrote a poem that was published on the front, the front page of the Uh, St. Paul Pioneer Press. Hang on. What? And it was a Vikings poem. And I can recite it for you from memory. It's not a, does it, is it involved with the gum that fell out of your mouth? No, that was a different thing. Okay, got it. Okay. But let me tell you the poem. It was, and you could tell me what era this would have been. I want to hear this. Yeah. It was Kramer Rashad, Brown Young. The football game has just begun. The fans all cheer, go Vikes go, as they all wait for the whistle to blow. 5, The other team says, we've had plenty. We've got the ball. We've got the time. Then Ricky Young broke through the line. What a catch. What a run. The game was close, but the Vikings won. Wow! Huh? How about that? And I still remember it to this day. Yeah, you have it, like, just there, ready to go. I haven't thought about that in 30 years. I'm not kidding. And it was published? It was, uh, front, I won a contest. I'm very artistic. Ha, I, I don't doubt it. What, Tom? I think you missed the golden opportunity as a poet, I guess. Yeah! Well, I, you know, I Sports poet, it's a new field! You know, maybe I'm a songwriter. You might be. Yeah. Limerick songwriter. No. That's real and how old were you? So, so when was, like, Ricky Young and, uh, Ted, Ted Brown? 79, 80, 81. Yeah, so I was probably 12 years old. Tommy Kramer. Here's another fun Viking story. You got another poem? Not a poem, but the other day I was at Hazelwood. Um, and it, and it happened to be the day, you know, that we had you on like a week before Bud Grant passed away. Yes. Yeah. And the day that Bud Grant passed away, I was at Hazelwood having lunch and Jeff Seaman was there. Oh yeah. And Jeff Seaman, I always, Who's that? Who's that? Tell us, tell us. He was a middle linebacker back in probably that era. For the Vikings. Late 70s. 70, 73 to 83 probably range. Yeah, he was number 50. Okay. He had great hair. He always had, he always looked like he had Lego hair. Like it was the perfect hair. And I just, I had to go up to him and tell him that, you know, as I was growing up I always liked him. He was my favorite Viking because He looked like my dad. My dad looked just like him. Same hair? Same hair. Lego hair. Lego hair. Yep. The years have been better to Jeff than they have been to my dad. Love them both. But he couldn't have been a nicer guy. Yeah, he's a great guy. So, he was big. He's been in the FCA circle for a long time. Oh, is that right? Okay. Yeah, I think he, he must live out in that Bloomington, Edina area, because I've seen him a couple times out there. Huh. Okay, so Chuck Foreman. Give us some more. Who are some other beauties? Um, Mary Larson. Oh, really? The fourth Purple People leader. Yep. Um, he is, uh, he's been a really cool guy to get to know. Mm hmm. Actually was, he went to Concordia Moorhead. Really? Yeah. And then he went in the Marines, following college. And then, when, uh, I'm sorry, I take that back. He went in the Marines, and then went to college, and then was drafted by the Rams, actually, and traded to the Vikings. But, so he's a, he's been an interesting guy to get to know. So Steve, he was... He was one of the purple peep leaders. We're gonna do a quiz. Do you know who the other three are? Oh god, no, I don't know the names. Any, you can't name one? But if you said one, I'd be like, oh yeah, I remember that guy. Should we do a quiz? Hold on, let's just clarify. Tom and I were both, you know, we're younger than you. Two years. Well, okay, but... When was the people eater era? That was mid 60s, early 70s, mid 70s. Okay. Okay. All right. Because I do remember it, but I was, I was a kid. Okay. Go easy. But yes, I want to, I want to, I want to Alan page. Okay. Carl Eller. Okay. And then Jim Marshall. Who should be in the Hall of Fame, if you ask me. Yeah. What is Jim Marshall famous for? Do you remember? Um... There's two really big things that Jim Marshall is famous for. A super long return, right? Yes, but what was unique about the return? Um, um... The wrong way. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. Okay. That's right. I do remember that. And the other thing was, he was an Ironman. Like, he played in more consecutive games than anybody at the time, and I think... There was a push about Jim Marshall a few years back. I remember hearing all about that. So that's why I do remember that. So I know all those guys names, but I couldn't have named them off the top of my head. I forgot the range, but do you, do you know all those guys? He played in, he played for 21 seasons, but he played 20 seasons of the Vikings and won in Cleveland. That's right. Oh, I didn't even, I didn't realize he went to Cleveland. Yeah, he actually played in the CFL, and then Cleveland, and then the Vikings. Oh, okay, because he, he retired as a Viking. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, yep. He started his first NFL gig was in Cleveland. Does he, does he come around? Uh, he hasn't lately. He's having a little bit of a hard time. Yeah. Uh, with disabilities, but. But we hear from him a lot and, uh, keep in touch with him. He and his wife, they're, they're great people. His wife is a, a woman that actually, I, I know. She, her, her brother is my, now follow this, her brother is my wife's godfather. Okay. Does that make sense? Her last, her last name is Landware. Yep. Oh, so you know her? Yeah. Yeah, she's cool. Very lovely woman. Small world. Yeah. It is a small world. Wow. So I've, I've actually been at family functions where Jim Marshall was there. Yeah? And I was just like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited that he was there. That's cool. Um. I tell rookies, like, one of the things we'll do with the rookies is take them through the museum over by the facility there and he's going to let us. There's a display for GM, and I'll try to explain like, oh, you know, he's a defensive lineman, a great player, you know, played for all these years in a row, uh, never miss a game, and, uh, It's kind of bouncing off of that. Necessarily really great. And so I'll go, I said to Garrett Bradbury when we drafted him which was I can't remember, let's say it was 20 Probably 6 years ago. Yeah, something like, so let's say it was 2018. Um, and so I said, to put it in perspective you would start every game from now until 2037. Wow. What did he do? He's like, oh my god, that's, that's, oh my god, well, he did it. The problem was, is he was playing with Alan Page and Carl Eller, who were absolute monsters. Yeah. God, those were fun days. Absolutely. Um, okay, let's, let's talk about current times. So, Tom. You got some exciting stuff going on. The team is doing amazing. It's very exciting year already. Even for Steve. Even for me. I always love the Vikings. Tom knows that. I do. I don't study the names and know all the weights and how much they bench pressed in fourth grade. I don't have a poem about them. But I do love watching the games. And I think it's really exciting. This whole Dobbs thing is out of the blue. Right? For me, I was like, who's this guy? Yeah. It's pretty, we, uh, so we've won, you know, we've, the last three games, we've won three games in a row with three different starting quarterbacks. Wow. What a wild ride. Which is pretty, pretty unique. Um, it's pretty, pretty crazy. Um, but it's been fun. You know, it's just been great energy and, and, uh. Have you met Dobbs? He seems like just a great guy. He is. He's very, He's very articulate, very smart, obviously, he's a rocket scientist. He's literally a rocket scientist. Really? Yeah, like an aerospace engineer. Yeah. He's a legend at the University of Tennessee. Is he? Oh, absolutely. Okay. He threw a Hail Mary pass that, um, will go down in Tennessee history. Really? Yeah. Well, Tom, you've been there a long time. You've seen a lot of things happen. You've been there for multiple eras, multiple coaches, all these great players. Is there anything, what can you say about what's happening right now? This, you said it's fun, obviously, it must feel different right now. And there's a lot of kind of things have been in change, but a lot of times when things are in transition, it's kind of a rough time. This is like transition, but I think some of our older, you know, like Harrison Smith, the great galley, you know, it's his 12th season. And, uh, we're talking about it. Don't overthink it. Just, you know, enjoy it. Happening, you know, live in the now and don't, you know, don't try to overanalyze it. Right, right. That's... Yeah, but everybody's got kind of that one game season kind of mentality and it's been paying off. I was told that, uh, let's see, it was Harrison Smith. Excuse me. Harrison Smith. Adam Thielen and, uh, Kirk Cousins came out to the Whiteberry Yacht Club and played a couple rounds of golf this summer. That's so cool, right? Yeah, they love golf. Thielen's apparently an incredible golfer. Yeah, he'll tell you all about it. Ha ha ha! He is. He's a good golfer. That is very fun. Um, so KG Is in Sweden right now with the Minnesota wild Kevin Gorg we're talking about assignment on the over the pond over the pond upon Yeah, and he was so like pissed that he wasn't gonna be able to be a part of this one Yeah, when I called him and told him who was gonna be on he's like, oh my god It's gonna be one o'clock in the morning and he goes I need my beauty rest and I'm like, yes Yes, you do sleep away. I think he missed Tom Tom last time as well Right, I think, I don't think he was on. It was just you and I. Right? Yup. I don't know. Is KG even on this show? Yeah. Once in a while. He makes a guest appearance. He's got a lot of assignments. He's gallivanting all around Sweden. Yeah. Enjoying it. I used to run into him once a year at Canterbury. Yeah, he, uh, he'll talk about the ponies all, till you're... Sick of hearing about it. It's, uh, you know, a couple weekends ago, it was, uh, the Breeders Cup, which is like the Super Bowl of horse racing. And he gets out his, uh, he, he loves creating these placards, so he, he goes to Dick Blick, uh, uh, art supplies, and he buys these big posters. And he's got calligraphy, um, he's got calligraphy markers. And he, you should see these things. He does it himself? He does it himself. It's the funniest damn thing. He does the same thing for his fantasy football draft. Wow. He's kind of a, he's kind of an artist. I don't know if he's a poet. Well, not quite a poet. He's a bit of an artist. Um, I thought of KG this week cause I was in, uh, Louisville, of course the home of, uh, The, uh, what is the name of the place? Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs, where they have the big Kentucky Derby. There you go. Ha ha. And I didn't really know it was in Kentucky. I wanted to leave you hanging there. Sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know if it was actually in that area, but yeah, we went right by Churchill Downs and beautiful. Yeah, that's KG's happy place. Imagine. So, back to Tom. Yeah. The, uh, Yeah. The next big home game is when? Uh, Monday night, the 27th. Oh, so it's the Monday of Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah, yep. And you've got, uh... There's a game this Sunday. Well, that's in Denver. Yeah, out. Sunday night, that's prime time. Yep, yep, yep. So, a couple questions. I heard that, uh, did we get one of our old linebackers back? Anthony Barr, yeah, he came back to the practice squad, so he'll... Was he, was he out of football? He had not been playing this year. He played in Dallas last year and was staying at the ready and waiting by the phone. That's cool, because Hicks had a weird injury from what I understand. Yeah, yeah. He'll be fine, but it'll take a little bit. And when do we expect Jefferson to be back? Can you, is there any breaking news that you want to share? Yeah, uh... I think everybody wants to be safe with that one and not make it too silly. Probably a good idea. So you mentioned that for the Chicago game you've got Bobby Wade and Bernard Berriman coming back? Berrian. Berrian. We're working on, yep, Berrian. Trivia Fun Fact has the longest... Uh, longest scrimmage play in team history and a 99 yard touchdown against the Bears on a Monday night game way back when. Oh, man. There you go. That's fun. So, do you, when you, when you're organizing these events, do you do them sort of, you know, take a look at the calendar, see who's going to be in town? Yeah. And like connect with people that have, have some connection to those teams? Yeah. We, we try to always, uh, work hand in hand with our game, game presentation people, you know, they, they do such a great job with the in game entertainment and, um, so we'll identify like, let's See if, see if Varian is available to come in for this game or, you know. Um, and then we'll, sometimes if they're, if they're not just going to be in town anyway, we'll make a point of bringing them in, you know, picking up their travel. Oh, and you have a budget for that too? Yeah, yeah, so, um, in fact we're working on, uh, All time leading rusher for the club to come in for that Monday night game. So we'll see if we can swing that or not. Oh, Adrian Peterson. Well, I imagine Tom, back to your kind of career conversation, I think you must be the perfect guy for that role based on how long you've been there. Also, you have to be creative. You have to put these things together and think about what's in the mind of. Like you said, John, fear in there in Chicago or wherever they're playing this week, because of your relationships, I imagine you're pretty instrumental to making some of those things happen. Having these. Really legendary people come back or meet up or, um, I mean, I, I think what a perfect role for you and, and experiencing what you've had with the Vikings. It has worked out pretty well, yeah. How weird is it that when you started all of these, these players were older than you and now you are older than many of the players that you're bringing back? I was, I was telling somebody this is the first time I've been older than the head coach. Oh no. Oh boy. Yep. Wow. Do you call him kid or, you know, whippersnapper? Any of that stuff? Yeah. Go up and muss up his hair a little bit and say, good game out there coach. When you've been around as long as I have, coach. You've seen a couple things. Okay, one more question. Yeah. Um, who are some of the guys that come the most often? Who do you get to see the most? Uh, guys that live in town here. Um, Paul Crouch, uh, Stu Voigt, Ricky Young. You'll have to tell Ricky Young about my poem. I will, I will. Yeah, how about like, uh, does John Randall come around? Actually, I, uh, He doesn't come to a lot of games, but he does a lot of other stuff for us. Um, he kind of prefers to watch the game at home, which, uh, it is a perfect TV game. Um, but he is actually coming out tomorrow. We're doing an interview with ESPN with him. Oh, cool. So, I see Tom frequently. Very nice. He hangs around quite a bit. Now, lastly, who are the real jerks? No, I'm teasing. We won't go there. Give us names, Tom. We won't go there. Oh, that's cool. Tom, I'm just curious about you personally, do you, do you have a family? Do you have children? Yeah, uh, I have an 11 year old daughter and we're getting ready for a swim meet tonight. Oh, jeez. I'm going to be watching swimming here pretty quick. Very nice. Yeah, which I appreciate, she loves to swim and I can't swim, so between us, uh, we're like... Well, if you're ever on a lake and all hell breaks loose, you'll have somebody that can help you. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. You're welcome. So you got a, you got a daughter and do you have other children? No, just the one girl. Okay, is, does she, does she understand how cool of a job you have? Yeah, dad's pretty cool, no? Uh, no, but every once in a while she'll ask me if she has met... Anybody famous. I'll say well when we're at the Christmas party, you know, you talk to Harrison or you talk to Kirk or something She's like, oh, it's like oh Isn't that funny? So couldn't we come to your Christmas party this year? Come on so we can meet some Can I I, uh, I just, I could talk to you all day. I know you got, you got a, a million questions for you. I do. He's gotta get to a swim meet. Tom, I can't thank you enough for sitting down with us again and, and talking through this. We love to just check in with you and, uh, I've talked to several people since we've talked to you and since I learned your new role there and I, I just think that's. What a cool thing for a team. And it's great that there are many teams do this, but how they're really embracing, you know, the legends and they're helping them. And you talked about all the programs in the past where they, you can help them, you know, once they're done with football, especially if they're done early and they got, what a great thing that is. And, uh, kudos to you and kudos to that, to the Vikings for, uh, finding you for that role, because I think you're perfect for it. I'm, I'm so glad you're doing well and liking it. Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, fellas. Anytime. Yeah. Like a, like a older retired musician's function. We'll talk about that later. I'll be cutting that out because that was a non sequitur. They're retired though. They just keep going. Exactly. That's true. They don't stop. They don't know how to stop. Mick Jagger just turned 80 for God's sake. Alright, thanks a lot Tom. Thanks Tom. Have a good night. Good luck with the swim meet. Off we go. Thank you.