The Skolney Blog

Preface: I have become rather obsessed during quarantine with the Rewatchables podcast on Spotify. This is the Bill Simmons' The Ringer podcast, the idea of which is simply to get a few people together and talk about older movies. I think it's very entertaining and it's kind of inspired me to do something similar, which I've also kind of wanted to do for a while. I've wanted to do some sort of look back at movies from the past that matter to me or I enjoyed or had an impact or whatever. And I figured the easiest way to do this would be through anniversary viewings, which is something that to one degree or another I've done for years. And I figured for the purposes of putting something on the blog it would be easy to just do the anniversary recaps the way that I've just naturally watched movies for many years. Specifically movies from 10 years ago and twenty years ago. And now that 1990 is 30 freaking years ago (Holy shit, 1990 is 30 years ago!) I may even...

After a free agency period that saw more significant names depart the roster than any such period in memory, the Vikings very much needed to ace this draft in order to hold their place amongst the NFC elite. I absolutely feel that they did that. This draft was a homerun. Rick Spielman filled the gaps on the roster across the board. He didn't throw away picks in panic moves to trade up. He took a somewhat depleted roster and filled it with promising starters to be and lots of intriguing depth pieces.  Let's go chronologically. On Thursday night, the draft really fell well for us. At 22 we took WR Justin Jefferson, who put up monster numbers at LSU, with the pick we got for Diggs. Now, I was not of the opinion that we had to immediately go for a Diggs replacement, but it became an easy choice when a top receiver fell in our laps. Then, as the board continued to really fall our way, Rick traded down from 25 to 31, picking up a couple extra picks. And not a single player who we wer...

No, not a mock, just some general thoughts on how I think the Vikings should and will approach things in a draft that could very well mean the difference between being a strong super bowl contender next year or being a 2nd tier playoff team.  I am definitely in the camp that says you take the best player available in early rounds regardless of position, provided it is absolutely NOT a need position. So no QB, RB, TE, or specialists. Any other position group is on the table, with cornerback, o-line and wide receiver pretty much agreed upon as the top 3 areas of need. Just don't reach for a 1st round WR because you traded Diggs for a 1st and think that means you have to draft his replacement with that pick. Reaching for a need, or a perceived need, is how you get Troy Williamson, Christian Ponder and Laquon Treadwell. WR is supposed to be extremely deep in this draft, so I would pluck a couple of middle round guys to add to the mix. Spielman has had some pretty good luck with middle ...

Flat out let me sum it up.  I want NO part of the rumored Odell Beckham Jr. trade to the Vikings that has been the buzz of the day.  We get OBJ, Cleveland gets a 2 and 5 next year.  No! Rick, don't do it! It would be hard to think of an NFL player in the last decade more overrated than Beckham. Two things caused this, I think. One was simply playing in New York. The other was the one handed circus catch he made on Sunday Night Football. Yes he put up some big stats his first 3 years, on largely bad Giants teams that just threw the ball all the time. Somebody had to catch all those Eli throws that weren't being picked. But his last 3 years have been nothing special at all. He had injuries in 2017, then barely scraped 1,000 yards in 2018.  Here, even though he was just a year into a fat new contract, the Giants shipped OBJ to the Browns for a 1st and 3rd rounder, amongst other trade pieces. He had another okay season, with just over 1,000 yards.  But now, only a y...

I believe it was one month ago today that we saw our last games, a few stray MLB spring training games, and a couple college hoops tournament games (or parts of them).  All the sports networks have been filling their schedules up with rebroadcasts of old games. Some of it has been very cool. I can't convey the tinge of nostalgia when an old Wolves broadcast mentioned upcoming games on "WB23" But it's just not the same. It's just a reminder of what's been lost. I watch some of these games, even stuff that was recent, and it feels like it happened in another world....which in a sense I guess it did. We're never going back to this. Yes sports will return eventually and yes fans will return to the stadiums eventually. I will go to Target Field for a summertime ballgame. I will go to US Bank Stadium again for a big Vikings game. It may LOOK like it used to. But it will never again have that same feel. When something gets taken away, and you know that it can be,...

All The Bright Places (2020) Netflix movie with Elle Fanning and Justice Smith as a couple high school kids with respective traumas who fall in love. I liked it. It reminded me a lot of The Spectacular Now. Fanning is always good, but Smith is a total revelation here.  Eight Men Out (1988) I don't know how I had never seen this movie about the 1919 Black Sox scandal. I knew a fair amount of the story already (Ken Burns' Baseball has a big segment on the scandal) but this fleshed it out a bit more. Loved all the old time baseball detail. Good performances all around.  Hunter Killer (2018) A submarine thriller with Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman. This thing is very dull and very cheap looking. The Professor (2018) Johnny Depp is a college professor who learns he is going to die, and so he just doesn't give a fuck anymore. The movie starts out pretty funny, and it's amusing to see Depp in a comedic part as a real person. But the movie becomes very maudlin and loses all its ...