Some Minnesota players dispute that they taunted former kicker Blair Walsh during Friday's preseason game.
We now have some reaction from Minnesota players to one of the more interesting subplots of Friday’s Seahawks-Vikings game — new Seattle kicker Blair Walsh taunting the opposing sideline after his two 52-yard field goals in the third quarter.
Walsh played for the Vikings from 2012 until being released last November and said later he was reacting to taunts he heard coming his way from some of his former teammates.
“It was in jest because they were taunting me,” Walsh said. “I hoped their taunts were in jest, but I didn’t know their intent and I didn’t appreciate getting really yelled at by guys who I’d been friends with for five years. So my response was simply to look at them like I wasn’t having it.”
Several Vikings players this week told TwinCities.com that they weren’t razzing Walsh any more than they do any opposing kicker.
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“There were guys just yelling his name,” said tight end Kyle Rudolph. “You could be down there on any preseason game, and when the kicker is on our hash, guys are going to be hollering out to him.”
Receiver Jarius Wright said Walsh is “a great guy” but seemed to also dispute that there was any real taunting.
“I feel like it was a little nonsense,” he said. “But at the same time, when you play, it’s always competition.”
Wright added that if the teams play again “we’re going to try to block every one of his kicks.”
That won’t happen this year unless the two meet in the playoffs, as occurred two years ago when Walsh infamously missed a 27-yarder in the final seconds allowing the Seahawks to escape with a 10-9 win in the wild card round.
But the Vikings are scheduled to come to Seattle for a regular season game in 2018 when the Seahawks are set to play every team in the NFC North.
Walsh has just a one-year contract with the Seahawks, so whether he’s on the field for that game is yet to be determined. But he’s off to a good start, making 4-5 field goals — the one miss hitting the crossbar from 53 yards against the Vikings — and all eight PATs in the preseason.