Giants player: Vikings fans 'too nice,' thought stadium would be louder
He probably didn't realize it when the words fumbled out of his mouth, but New York Giants offensive lineman Nick Gates may have lit a fire under Minnesota Vikings fans.
Gates, the 27-year-old starting center for the G-Men, says he thought U.S. Bank Stadium would've been louder when the Giants played the Vikings on Christmas Eve.
"Surprised. Actually, I thought it would be a lot louder," Gates said this week. "I thought especially when our offense is out there they would be a lot louder out there. But you know, they're Midwest people. They're too nice. I can say it because I went to Nebraska. I went to Nebraska. I include myself in that one."
Gates is not exactly a Midwesterner. He grew up in Las Vegas and spent just three years at the University of Nebraska before forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. He's been in New York ever since.
It feels like Gates is on the verge of learning the lesson about not mistaking a person's kindness for weakness, because there is no question fans will be a lot louder for a playoff game than a regular season game that happened to fall on Christmas Eve.
What's more is that the playoff game starts at 3:30 p.m. compared to the noon start on Dec. 24. That's three more hours to charge the batteries, so to speak, and get fans to a point of pure anxiety and insanity before kickoff.
Gates is treading the same path that Minnesota Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell took a year ago when he referred to the home crowd as "quiet-ass fans." Minnesota fans responded with fire and were loud the rest of the season.
And that's a Timberwolves fan base that has 30 years of reasons to be quiet. The Vikings fan base is known for being loud and creating one of the most dominant home-field advantages in the NFL.
The Vikings are 8-1 at home this season and they own the third-best home record (34-15) in the NFL since U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2017. Only the Packers (36-12-1) and Chiefs (38-11) have been more dominant at home.
Related: Packers' Jaire Alexander is hearing it from Vikings fans
Related: Something about the Vikings' matchup with the Giants just feels right
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.