STrib: Super and surreal: Ex-Gophers Tyler Johnson and Antoine Winfield Jr. ride crazy adventure to Super Bowl with Bucs

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Mark:

Barry Sanders played 159 games over nine seasons. Went 1-5 in the playoffs. Never made a Super Bowl.

Gale Sayers played seven years and Dick Butkus nine. Never even made the playoffs.

Tony Gonzalez played 17 years and went to a record-tying 14 Pro Bowls. Went 1-6 in the playoffs. And …

Never. Made. A. Super Bowl.

No wonder former Gophers and current Buccaneers rookies Tyler Johnson and Antoine Winfield Jr. set the unofficial Super Bowl video news conference tag-team record for combined number of times two guys have said, "Man, it's crazy."

Winfield, who is as close to a clone of his former Vikings cornerback father as possible, is 22 years, 171 days old. He's played 18 games, all starts at safety.

Johnson, hailed as the greatest receiver of all time from north Minneapolis, is 22 years, 162 days old. He has spent all 17 games and three starts catching balls from another GOAT of considerable note, Tom Brady.

On Sunday, they'll play in Super Bowl LV in their home stadium with the six-time winner Brady against the defending champion Chiefs.

"It's crazy," Winfield said … again.

"Every time I see Tyler, I'm just like, 'Man, we in the Super Bowl.' It's crazy because we both came into [college] together. We got drafted on the same team and we're about to play in the Super Bowl. It's been an amazing experience to have that with one of my friends that I've played with at different levels of the game."

www.startribune.com

'Man, it's crazy.' Ex-Gophers Winfield, Johnson on a Super surreal journey

Somewhere in Minneapolis, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck had to be thinking of splicing together all the "crazies" for a Ski-U-Mah recruiting infomercial.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 


TJ and AWjr are bringing a lot of publicity to Coach PJ Fleck and the program. I hope they both take every opportunity to promote Gopher Football.

What are the chances that these two will will make impactful plays? Would that be nice. You have to love the fact that Bruce Arians watched these two influenced the outcome of the Outback Bowl, and decided luckily to go for a Gopher two-fer.

Go Bucs!!! :cheer::cheer:
 

Never thought I'd be pulling for Tom Brady in a Super Bowl but those Gophers make you rethink your priorities. (Still doubtful I'd be cheering for the Packers no matter how many Gophers were with them.)
 

hungan1 said:
TJ and AWjr are bringing a lot of publicity to Coach PJ Fleck and the program. I hope they both take every opportunity to promote Gopher Football.

What are the chances that these two will will make impactful plays? Would that be nice. You have to love the fact that Bruce Arians watched these two influenced the outcome of the Outback Bowl, and decided luckily to go for a Gopher two-fer.

Go Bucs!!! :cheer::cheer:
Click to expand...
TJ should hide a University of Minnesota flag in his jersey, catch a TD, and then pull it out and wave it around as a celebration.
 





Not an NFL guy out of the gate.

That said, thanks to the internet and cable I've watched and listened to the Bucs for most of their games this season just to hear these two Gophers alums names get mentioned 3, 4, 5 times a game.

It's been fun.

Go Bucs! but will be listening for Damien's name too.
 




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