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'Real talent': Vikings announcer Paul Allen gets another shoutout from Pat McAfee

Another shoutout on the national level for Paul Allen.

Joe Nelson

'Real talent': Vikings announcer Paul Allen gets another shoutout from Pat McAfee
'Real talent': Vikings announcer Paul Allen gets another shoutout from Pat McAfee /

Paul Allen drawing praise from Pat McAfee is becoming a bit of a regular thing. Last year, McAfee applauded the Minnesota Vikings radio announcer's emotional calls from the mid-November thriller between the Vikings and Buffalo Bills. This year, even though it's only the preseason, McAfee is loving up Allen some more. 

"Hey, Paul. You're a talent, guy. You're a real talent," McAfee said Friday after watching the Vikings-Seahawks game Thursday night. "The Minnesota Vikings fans are lucky that you are their guy, their voice."

McAfee was watching the game on NFL Network's feed, which started with the home team's broadcast booth via KING5 TV. But technical difficulties forced NFL Network to switch to the Vikings' booth, which featured Allen, color commentator Pete Bercich and sideline analyst Ben Leber via FOX 9. 

Here's one of Allen's distinctive calls from Thursday night.

McAfee went crazy after hearing Allen's highlights from the Buffalo game last year. 

"Did you know of this dude named Paul Allen, this Minnesota Vikings [expletive] play-by-play guy on the radio?" McAfee asked co-host A.J. Hawk, who played for the Packers from 2006 to 2014. 

"He called the Buffalo Bills 'lucky suckers' when they got the goal line, which he calls a goal stripe, stand on Kirk Cousins with 40-some seconds left or whatever. The way he rode the wave of the game is a complete homer. Complete homer. Showing his emotions. Complete homer. He seemed to be eternally optimistic, too." 

He kept going... 

"I had no idea that this man's hair was this fantastic, that his ability to tell a story was this good. This mother[expletive] deserves a lot more recognition. I guess he calls horse races in the area and he also hosts a daytime show. This dude, his brain to mouth, top of the line."

"He's unbelievable at what he does. I like watching him work, too." McAfee continued. "His head and his eyebrows, just everything about it."

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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

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. 

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