Vikings fans, who would you put on the team's Mount Rushmore? In other words, who are the four most influential people in the history of the franchise?
Good question. The NBC Sports Network is launching a series —‚ "Faces of the Franchise: Who's on Your Team's Mount Rushmore?'' — on Monday to help answer that perplexing question.
Mike Florio and Erik Kuselias co-host the19-episode series which is scheduled to wind up on June 28.
Florio has identified 12 finalists for each team.
"The process of identifying 12 finalists for each team has been very difficult,'' said Florio, the creator of Pro Football talk and ProFootballtalk.com "Fortunately, the fans also vote on their own final four for each team. We won't callthem idiots, but we may thinkit based on their selections."
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The series kicks off on Monday with the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins.
The Vikings and Lions will air on June 10, the Bears on June 11 and the Packers on June 12.
So what do you think? For the Vikings, Bud Grant, Alan Page and Adrian Peterson are no-brainers. But then who?
Likewise for the Packers. Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr and Brett Favre are shoo-ins, but who would you put next?
Lynx open on Saturday
The Minnesota Lynx open their 2013 season on Saturday, and the home game at Target Center against Connecticut will be televised on Fox Sports North . Tip off is 7 p.m.
FSN will televise eight Lynx games, six of them at home.
Six Lynx games are also scheduled for NBA TV and two — July 9 against Atlanta and Aug. 24 against Indiana — will be on ESPN2. Those two games are at home.
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For FSN, Marney Gellner will call the play-by-play alongside analyst Lea B. Olsen.
• The WNBA season-opening Memorial Day doubleheader on ESPN2 – Washington Mystics at Tulsa Shock, followed by Chicago Sky at the Phoenix Mercury – averaged a 0.3 household coverage rating and an average of 366,000 viewers, including the most-viewed regular-season game on ESPN2 in nine years.
The Washington at Tulsa 3 p.m. telecast earned a 0.3 rating (314,000 viewers), while at 4 p.m. Chicago at Phoenix produced a 0.4 rating (455,000 viewers). The later game is the most-viewed WNBA game on ESPN2 since Phoenix at New York on July 11, 2004 (487,000 viewers).
Around the tube
• ESPN's countdown of the 20 Greatest Coaches in NFL History continues on ESPN.com. So far they have selected 15 coaches including No 20, Tony Dungy; No. 19, Mike Shanahan; No. 18, Sid Gillman; No 17, Marv Levy; No. 16, Hank Stram and No. 15, Bud Grant.
You can assume that Brad Childress did not make the list.
• The NBA and NHL playoffs continue and we can promise you one thing, both will be over by the Fourth of July. We can't promise Father's Day, however.
TNT is televising the NBA Eastern Conference finals, including a 7:30 p.m. game on Saturday between Indiana and Miami. A seventh game, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday.
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ABC will televise the NBA Finals, starting next Thursday. The series is a 2-3-2 format.
In the NHL, the conference finals begin this weekend with a Saturday doubleheader — Los Angeles at Chicago (4 p.m. on NBC Sports Network) and with Boston at Pittsburgh (7 p.m. on NBC).
The two series then alternate days. Chicago and Los Angeles play again at 7 p.m. Sunday. Games continue on a nightly basis.
• CBS Sports Network airs its in-depth interview series ONE2ONE on at 6:30 p.m. Sunday featuring University of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. CBS Sports Network's Jon Rothstein sits down with the coach of the 2013 NCAA champions to discuss a variety of topics including the differences between coaching at Louisville and Kentucky, the legacy of his 2012-13 Cardinals team and the relationship with his son, Richard Pitino, the new head basketball coach of University of Minnesota.
