'You're soft': Why the refs flagged Vikings' Garrett Bradbury for unsportsmanlike conduct
A 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Garrett Bradbury can be partially blamed for killing a drive when the Vikings were leading the Cardinals 7-3 on Sunday.
Why did the refs flag Bradbury for taunting? He apparently told Arizona's Budda Baker that he's "soft," according to running back Dalvin Cook.
"If you would've heard what it was, it was just like, 'you soft.'" Cook explained. "They was going at it and Garrett just said 'you soft' and the ref threw the flag up in the air. It was just like ... football talk. You know what I'm saying, like taking the fun out of the game. Garrett didn't do nothing crazy. Garrett ain't that type of person."
The flag was thrown after Cook gashed the Cardinals for a 30-yard run, setting the Vikings up with a first down at the Arizona 36-yard line. But the penalty brought Minnesota back to their own 49, and five plays later Kirk Cousins overthrew Adam Thielen and the Vikings turned the ball over on downs.
Had that penalty not been called, the Vikings surely would've moved deeper into Arizona territory and at a minimum could've sent Greg Joseph on for a manageable field goal.
But if you were curious about the penalty, that's apparently what happened.
The Vikings went on to win 34-26, but not without posting two big fourth quarter stops while leading by one score. Had that penalty not been called, we might be talking about the game in an entirely different narrative.
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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.