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.
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