Enough Said: Vikings roster set, Twins need a win and a special guest

So spontaneous! God, I love TV, Justin Gard, because that was not, they weren't coaxed into that reaction. Welcome back, Enough Said, the emotional final State Fair edition of Enough Said for 2026 State Fair edition. My name is Dan Barrero, joined as always by Justin Gard and Lori Fisher, who always works the room, will get us all started. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I like how she clapped for herself. I do. You're supposed to clap, everybody clap, like they're trained SEALs. I did that on the radio when I was with you guys last Friday, too. Here's the deal, I know it's our second and final show at the fair. Last week, last, a week ago, you guys told the crowd you only listen to Enough Said because it was the crowd you don't usually listen to me. That's true. So I thought I would bring in reinforcements. We have the one and only State Fair Police Chief Ron Nafla with us, you guys. Chief, I heard you're a big Enough Said fan. I am. What do you like about the show? I like the banter back and forth, and I like when you try and cut them off, but they just don't seem to listen. So how are you going to help with that today? Well, I'm going to try and coach them first, and let them know Enough Said means Enough Said. Well, he's packing heat, so Justin and I might go along with him today. Do you have like your ticket book? Do you guys still do like ticket books? Forget the apps and the digital stuff. Can you just like write a few tickets, like a parking ticket? They are going to jail. Do not pass code. Do not collect $200. Wow. He is talking business today. Well, I'll be honest. I'm intimidated by the chief, but I'm more intimidated that Lori's mom is in the audience today as well, and I don't want to disrespect Lori in front of her wonderful mother, Lois. So I think maybe we will be listening today. I don't know. At least for a while. At least for the first second. Well, we're going to have the chief and my mom and the entire crowd yell Enough Said when Enough has been said. Okay. So we're going to first, we're going to start with the Vikings first. Here we go. We're just a little more than a week away from the start of the NFL season. The Vikings play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, September 13th. Can't the chief deal with that guy? Like, why can't the chief deal with the Packer fan that's trying to stir trouble? Maybe he kind of likes Green Bay. I don't know. Maybe he can tase him. Well, I don't want us to actually make Fox 9 news tonight. The team did sign past rusher Kyle Van Noy, who played under coach Flores before. General manager Nolan Teasley was on this week. He spoke saying cutting down the team was an emotional roller coaster, a tough day, tough conversations. But he also talked about Harrison Smith. We're still waiting to see what's going to happen with Harrison. So again, I'm not waiting for Harrison. Okay, well, why don't you take it away? I don't think Justin is either. I haven't been. No. God bless him. But I'm done waiting for Harrison. We love the hitman. Exactly. You're in or you're out, I think is a fair way to say it. Here's what's weird. The cliche thing is, again, to talk about the starting quarterback situation and then ignore, for example, how good this defense might actually be and the importance of other positions. But I got to tell you, I think the cliche is accurate because, again, we were reminded last year of what? Competence at the probably changes record, changes outlook. And so we are all waiting to see if Kyler Murray can be the guy they are projecting him to be. Since we've been on last, also the fair thing to get into also is I think both of us were bewildered with the notion that J.J. McCarthy needs to be caught. He needs to be excommunicated. Like in 10 minutes, all this was happening too fast. He's clearly not going to start this year. He may not even be the backup. Right. But I don't want to give up completely on this concept. And I want to at least see the thing play out. How did we get to a place where he went from maybe an option to we don't even want to look at his face? Well, I think Vikings fans are used to moving on at the quarterback position, right? We've been sadly been doing it for a straight year, a new starter. Yes. And in my entire life, I'm 44. I think they've had like 30 quarterbacks. I was actually encouraged to Dan's point about what Nolan Teasley said. First of all, I thought he was a lot less boring in the press. Remember his introductory press conference? It was very boring. He really said nothing. I thought he actually said some stuff, including about J.J. McCarthy. The guy's played 10 games. He's got the hardest job in sports. It makes no sense to give up. I hope he means it because you and I have been in alignment to use KOC's favorite buzzword or one of them that it is too early to give up on him. Sam Darnold's proof of that. Daniel Jones is proof of that. There's a million quarterbacks that are proof of that, but I think it's mostly Dan just because we're so accustomed to it. And to be fair to the fans, he was dreadful last year and has never been healthy. So I think that's part of the reason why people were quick. Teasley, regardless of whether deep down they're working on deals, Teasley said exactly what he needed to say. I agree with you totally. He tried to sort of take a lot of the heat off of this thing in the short run. And again, are the odds good that McCarthy's going to end up being a starter for this team? Probably not at this point. But that's what makes this so weird. You've turned the operation over to a quarterback who got rejected by his last team. That organization, I'll grant you that point, who is considered also kind of a short-term solution. And it is exhausting. Ready, everyone? About how often we're in a position, this organization is in the position where we don't know who the quarterback's going to be. Enough said. I'm going to put you on the spot, Chief. Are you a Packers or a Vikings fan? I've been a Vikings fan since I was born. Nice. Non-wavering. A man with conviction. Have you seen all four Super Bowl losses, Chief? Unfortunately, yes, I have. Why did I have to say that? Why would I have to? Well, it's facts. It's true. You probably didn't get a chance to watch the Gopher football game last night because you're out here making sure everybody's safe. That is true. It was a historic performance by the team. Oh, we got some Gopher fans here. Yeah, we got some Gopher fans here. Justin was working the game. They won. They beat Eastern Illinois 59-7. Again, they made some records. Last season, they were 7-5. And last two regular seasons, their next game is Saturday, September 12th against Mississippi State. Also at home. So let's keep the momentum going, right, Justin? No news was good news last night for the Gophers. They did what they're supposed to do. They did what they needed to do. There was very little drama. I will say the encouraging thing is kind of what Lori mentioned, the special teams touchdowns. To get two punt returns, obviously opponents going to factor into that. It's an FCS team. Not very good. Untouched on both of them, I believe, or at least one of them, right? It was pretty emphatic. And what I like about that is it's a new special teams coordinator. It's a new special teams coach. It's a new special teams vibe. And whatever happens, offense and defense, the Gophers have always needed to be a team that has really good special teams that don't just hold water, but actually maybe help you win games like Iowa has had forever. And they just haven't had it. Even in 2019, special teams was at best a net, basically even. And in most of the case, most years, it's been kind of a negative and worked against them. So that was, to me, the most encouraging part of the deal is that there does seem to be a good vibe. Obviously this guy right here, Darius Taylor, if he stays healthy is important. Quarterback played well. Defense didn't have to do a whole lot. So as I said at the top, no news is good news. And now they've got a much bigger test, we think, coming next Saturday. Red zone, that red zone touchdown, a short pass. Who caught it? Do you remember? The tight end. To the tight end. Yeah, over to the right. Yep. What struck me and several cynics about that play was, could JJ McCarthy have made that throw? Why do we have to make it about JJ? I mean, I'm just telling you, it looks like an easy pass, but you have to have some touch. I think McCarthy probably would have thrown it through the tight end's chest. And that's part of the problem. And that's part of the reason why your QB is viewed as a guy who's got a chance, maybe to be the Vikings quarterback eventually. I was standing next to KOC a year ago when he was watching, I think on the Thursday night game. So he does have some nice touch. Yeah. And he played well. And it looks like the guy who had the two punt returns for touchdowns, Javon Tracy, had a nice day receiving as well with a couple of big catches. And Eastern Illinois was dreadful. Of course. Dreadful. Yes, of course. But they did what they had to do. It was drama-free, not a lot of drama. And now we move forward and we'll see where they end up. Not said. Well done. Why do you seem angry about it, Chief? Like we've been listening. He's so excited. It's a lot of resentment. Yeah. A lot of years built up. That's a lot of baggage over the years, yeah. I just want to make sure you get the message. We've been compliant. Do you ever throw anything at a TV, like a sock or something? Never. Never. He's got to keep his cool. Are you a Twins fan? Not much of a baseball fan. Not baseball after overall. Football for sure. Gotcha. Well, the Twins, they're three games behind now for a playoff spot with this week's losses to the Tigers. That didn't help anything either. 22 games left this season. At the end, last game, September 27th. So we're just weeks away. So we could just be done for good this year, Dan. Well, here's the thing. I'm just wondering how many of the fans, maybe even some of them here, are willing to apologize and to give some culpability because we were kind of told by ownership that if the Twins don't finish strong as a team, it's really more on the people who have not rewarded the Twins for the extra 8 million they added to payroll by showing up at games. We were told that. We talked about this on the radio. Honestly, every time this team seems to take a step forward from a public relations standpoint with your guy Tom Pollack, we get this new idea of, well, I hope you guys, I hope you fans do your bit, which is preposterous and absurd. It's over. It's not any fan's fault. It's still the organization's fault. And we got some kids that we like. I get that. But it's a consolation yet for me to get all that excited about your favorite baseball. And now it might be a long time before we see him, right? We're at the end of this season. Everybody thinks there's going to be some type of lockout or labor stoppage. So these guys are going to be out of sight, out of mind for a long time. I'm ready for a salary cap. I'm ready for a salary floor. Are you? Which this organization needs because that forces you to spend an extra, I don't know, 50, 60, 70 million a year at the low end. I'd like to see that. I hope that happens because baseball obviously does need a complete reassessment of its financial situation. It's the same thing that they're trying to get in college sports too. So you don't have, you know, five teams outspending everybody. And it's gotten silly with what the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Giants, even the Padres, you know, the Mets, it has gotten silly. They're not technically playing the same sport or in the same ballpark, no pun intended. So we'll see how all that irons out, but it's going to get ugly. Don't you think it's going to be everybody thinks it's going to get ugly for a while. Tends to be the strongest in all of sports. I just don't think they have, in this case, as many fans on their side as they have previously, because I think the owner's proposal is not horrible. It needs some adjusting, but I don't look at it and say, well, you're, you're, you're, you're the reason baseball is going to get shut down. I think they're, they're putting up some serious ideas to try to give markets like this one, a chance Yes, sir. Welcome back to enough said at the state fair. Lori, can I ask you a question? It's so hot out here. We have such a great crowd and we also have the state fair police chief Ron Nafla with us as well. So give him a hand, right? He's, he's enforcing you guys today. Are we supposed to respond? Are we on the air? I don't want to say anything out of turn. Cause as you mentioned, he is the police chief for the state fair. He's been here 38 years. Incredible stuff. That is incredible, but I am going to stay in line. I mean, that was the whole idea. So I'm not stepping out of bounds. He's a fan of the show and is like, gosh, they don't listen to you, Lori. I'm going to help you out. That's the key to it. Lori, can I ask you a question real quick, a production question before we keep going? The, the man who was holding up at the start of this segment, a great big applause sign and signaling it towards people in the stands. I need that sign. Do we show that on TV? Cause to me that would be more truthful and honest. Why do we need to run from it? We don't have science here. I have no clue what you're talking about. We don't tell people when to clap. It's very natural. It's very natural. It's much more truthful. I want to borrow that for my house and just walk around and hold it at my kids. Just make sure like to my wife after I like do the laundry, just hold it up. Let's talk. Oh, I like that. Let's talk some breaking WNBA news. Uh, the commissioner, Kathy Engelbert is retiring at the end of the season. She just announced it today. This after seven seasons, the piece of Collier is holding up the applause sign somewhere. Well, and after a lot of drama and I was going to mention Collier had said the league has the leadership in the world. Justin. Yeah. I think here's what I'm confused by. Didn't she say a while ago she was going to get them through the CBA and then step down and then decided that she, so this isn't all that surprising. She wasn't very popular. Obviously here, I'm never going to get over the fact that she wore a New York skyline dress when the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota links a couple of years ago, that whole charade and escapade was ridiculous. David Stern once wore that same dress. Is that true? That's very true. Long time ago. I'll take your word for it. He probably wore it very, very well, but I think it was pretty obvious. We've talked about the WNBA a lot on this show and on the radio. And unfortunately for them, not a lot of it has had to do with the basketball stuff, right? Because there's been so many missteps, not all of it is on her, but there's been so many times where it seems like the commissioner's office could step in and get some things under control. And she just missed the Mark far too often. So the Collier stuff is its own kind of side, side tangent here, but it's definitely time because this league is growing. This league is going into a new phase here. And it was clear that they probably needed somebody different to get them to that new phase. What I don't think she was very good at doing. And this to me is what leadership is, is preparing the league for when it was going to cross over into the mainstream. They weren't ready for it. They weren't ready for Caitlin Clark, for God's sake. And a stronger leader would have been bold enough to say some stuff that frankly, some players and coaches in this league needed to hear about that. And she just didn't seem to have all that in her. I mean, the contract that the players have is actually ended up a very good one. That's why it's true. What does Andrew Zimmern always tell us about food vendors here? You don't have to prepare for failure. You just close. You need to prepare for, if you're the hottest at the fair, what are you going to do then? And that's what the WNBA was not ready for. You're going to have to deal with people who might disagree with you politically. If you want more fans, you want more eyes. You have to sort of live with that a little bit. You're right, sir. You actually did. Thank you, chief. Sometimes we need a second reminder. In wild news, you'll be able to watch their games. There's only one warning. Is that all we get? That's all it should be. Officer, respectfully. Sorry. Be careful. You're going to be able to watch the wild games on Amazon Prime. This season, you will have to pay extra, though. So you are going to have to pay extra. But hey, at least it's on Amazon. General Manager Bill Guerin was out at the fair. He talked to you guys. He talked to Fox 9. Of course, we all want to know about Quinn Hughes. How about Lori? I know. You talked to Fox 9. Trust me. I was getting 50 text messages. Bill Guerin is going to be, is he going to make us 503 with Jim Rich? It's like, relax. It's not our first show. It's unbelievable. We'll get him to the next spot. Thank you. Thank you for helping. We had him on for an hour. John Skinner here. You had him on for 90 seconds. Quinn, he said, is a massive part of the team. Everyone loves him. They all want him back, but it takes time. Everyone simmer down, just like it did with Kaprizov, Dan. Well, what I think is potentially, I've been in the group that says it's going to get done. Me too. But it's a little bit apples and oranges because now we're coming, I guess, close enough to a place where the people who know say, if it was going to get done or it's as easy as this, it probably already would. Now, is it possible there's a wink, wink and, you know, Guerin knows exactly what they're looking for? I'm not sure. I will say again, they can't not sign him. That's their situation because they gave up too much for him. He's already meant too much to the franchise. It would be a horrific surrender to have to go to the public, the hockey public and say, we know you loved him, but we're going to have to turn around and trade him and just trust us. We're going to get a lot of good assets. I just don't think that's going to play very well on the whole Amazon deal. What's going to be fascinating is at what point are there too many subscriptions? Now, apparently with the wild, if you do have some cable, if you do have direct, they are going to have going to be a number. Allegedly, we got to pay for it. Yes. Like with the twin. Right. But at some point, like I'm old enough to remember when we had all these channels and they were just bundled into a thing called cable. And it was a wonderful thing. And they even have your Internet. Very archaic thought. I mean, my sport, college sports. 30 seconds, 30 seconds. The Gopher game was on Peacock. How many texts do you think I got about that on Thursday night? Where's the game? How do I find it? Do I need a subscription? So we will see at some point, because the Wolves are now in this bit. The Lynx just had a meltdown with their streaming provider. We'll see where their games are going to be. That's going to be an interesting thing to follow, because it's another 20 bucks a month or whatever it is. Yes, sir. Now the crowd's beating is going before the Chiefs actually saying it. Wow, that all sounded like 50 percent. I think this is a story that you'd be interested in. The Star Tribune did a story this week on bicyclists worried about being doored, called being doored. It's when they're in a bike lane doing everything right, and a driver opens their door, potentially striking the cyclist. There is a state law that says no person shall open any door on a motor vehicle unless it's reasonably safe to do so. So you need to check your rear view mirror. And according, though, to the Star Tribune, prosecutors almost never press charges, Dan. We could do a whole hour on this. I was going to say, this is Dan's wheelhouse. And it's dangerous. But the short version of this to me is that we live in a dream world because we want it all. We want to have several lanes. We want to still have cars. And we only have so much width available, especially during construction season. Right. So we're just not facing reality if we think that there are not going to be, sadly and even tragically, some situations in which, guess what? Somebody, when they get out of their car, is not going to look behind them first to see that the one in a million chance that a cyclist is going to be going by. It's because we want it all. And sadly, bicycles and cars in that environment, they just don't mix very well. And there's only, I think, so much we can do about it. We just have to have honest conversations about that. That's not an anti-cycling rant in any way. It's ironic we're talking about this because on Como today, I watched a near collision with a cyclist and the guy was turning right into the parking lot. The cyclist is flying down the road. It is unrealistic, like Dan says, to think that we're going to be able. Obviously, you get out. You know you're in an urban area. You know there's bike paths. You're going to do your best. But things are going to happen. To make it a citation and a law, it's like. Are there people going to have criminal prosecution? Are there people that are going to be opening doors? Are they going to put people in jail for that? I don't know. Maybe it's a question for the chief. I'm not sure. But just be careful. Everybody just watch out. The cyclists need to watch out, too. Well, you were hinting about the possibility that occasionally the cyclist is also not following the law. It's possible. Do you mean that? Wow. Big round of applause. And the sign's not even up for that. Everybody. And you're in a bicycle. Sadly, you're at a disadvantage next to a hunk of metal. You should be paying attention, too. It's not fair. But that's the reality. If you want to put everybody in this confined space in a city. Enough said. Wow. Did you just see Dan's face? Oh, even more. Unbelievable. How long do we have left in the show? No, don't stop clapping. The sign is still up. Welcome back. You have to keep clapping until the sign goes down. A really well-oiled machine. Those are the rules. I don't make the TV rules. This has been the craziest show we've ever done. Back up. Welcome back to Enough Said at the State Fair. We have Dan, Justin, and the State Fair Police Chief Ron Nafla. Enough Said left a sign, Justin. Yes, sir. I just wanted to talk about the State Fair. Record-setting days last Thursday and Friday. Thursday, more than 155,000 people. And then Friday, which we suspected was going to be record-setting. Although last Friday, you told me, oh, that record's going to be hard to beat. And guess what? Beat it. 204,065 people last Friday. Now, the last few days, a little bit slower. But kids are back to work and stuff. What have you noticed this year? Well, there's a lot of factors that come into play. It's the kids being back in school. And obviously, weather is always a factor. Yeah. Whether it's rain or too hot, that makes a difference. Dan, Justin, what stuck out to you this year? Here's what I'm going to say. If we don't set a new record every day and every year, it's OK. This is still a great event. We still love it. It's still important here. So the idea that our self-worth is all based on, yeah, we got to set another record. We all know the reality this year, Justin. A lot more schools are in session. Right. That has changed everything. And here's another thought. Maybe the State Fair some days is even better. 30 seconds. When you don't have to wait four hours for every one of your favorite foods. And yet, you still are enjoying all of it. Is that such a bad idea? We can have everything. We just had the line to get into the Jason show a couple of days. Did you see that? Yes. That was a huge line. Ready, Chief? What are we doing? They're doing another one. Enough said. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chief. You're welcome. Thanks for keeping us safe. Does that mean the show's over? Are we really done? Yeah, we're really done. We're really done, everybody. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Thanks for having us. The Chief. Very good crowd. I love it.