With cornerbacks Mackensie Alexander and Mike Hughes on injured reserve, the Minnesota Vikings worked out Terence Newman, their former nickel/cornerback coach and player, league sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Field Yates on Saturday.
The 41-year-old Newman worked out for the team this week, and the Vikings considered signing him before promoting cornerback Nate Meadors from their practice squad.
Newman, who is close to Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, played 15 NFL seasons before he became an assistant coach with Minnesota.
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Had he signed, Newman could have played in the NFC divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday.
Newman, who retired as a player just prior to the 2018 season, played for Zimmer on three teams (Dallas 2003-06, Cincinnati 2012-13 and Minnesota 2015-17) and appeared in 221 career games with 205 starts.
Before his retirement, Newman led the league with the most career interceptions (42) among active players.
Luis Suarez will undergo an operation to treat the external meniscus of his right knee, Barcelona confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
The club provided no timeline for Suarez’s return from Sunday’s surgery, but Marca believes the in-form forward is expected to be ready for the Champions League last-16 meeting with Napoli on Feb. 25.
The procedure will address the same knee issue that ruled Suarez out of last May’s Copa del Rey final defeat to Valencia. The Uruguayan felt discomfort in his knee during the 3-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in Thursday’s Supercopa semifinal.
Suarez has crafted some impressive numbers this term. The 32-year-old is third in La Liga’s scoring charts with 11 goals, and he’s the top flight’s most generous player with seven assists.
EAGAN, Minn. — Seven years later, Dr. Cindra Kamphoff’s star pupil is still turning to one of her strategies to move past a costly mistake — this time in the NFL playoffs.
Few knew what Minnesota Vikings receiver Adam Thielen was doing when he made a motion with his hand like he was flushing a toilet after fumbling early in a wild-card playoff game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
But Kamphoff, a mental performance coach, did because she taught him and the rest of the Minnesota State Mankato football team during Thielen’s senior season in 2012 about “flushing the toilet,” or letting go of mistakes.
Here’s proof for the doubters. Flush it! @Mentally_Strong #MavNation pic.twitter.com/73TQPASq4B
— Darius Clare (@D_clare47) January 6, 2020
“One component of mental toughness is the ability to live and let go,” Kamphoff told ESPN. “We’ve got to learn and burn. You have to learn from the mistake quickly and then we have to burn it, we have to let it go. That’s the heart of it. The reason we want to do that is to remain in the present moment because the past play we can’t do anything about, we can’t change it. All we can do is reset for the next play.
“Adam is one person I use as an example in other work that I do with teams and individuals as someone who can move on quickly, but that’s also a skill that you can practice; it’s not something that you have innate in you. The best athletes can move on very quickly so they can get back to present.”
Adam Thielen shook off an early fumble to turn in one of his best games of the season in an OT playoff win over the Saints. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
The “flush” helped Thielen move on and turn in his second-highest receiving total of the season, recording seven catches for 129 yards, including a 43-yarder that set up the Vikings to beat the Saints in overtime and advance to play the play
The mental preparedness Thielen has gleaned from his work with Kamphoff in college and during his time with the Vikings helped him through one of the toughest challenges he has faced as a professional.
His streak of playing in 87 consecutive games ended in Week 8 when he sat out with a hamstring injury. Thielen admits to returning too early in a Week 9 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, setting himself back further when he re-injured his hamstring in the first quarter. The next six weeks taught Thielen a lesson in overcoming the mental strain associated with an injury he’d never dealt with.
“It’s taken a lot for him,” Vikings rookie wide receiver Bisi Johnson said. “I’ve seen him struggle through it emotionally, but it’s also a testament to us as a wide receiver group because he has put his trust in us. Maybe he rushed back the first time but after that it was like, ‘Yo, I just need to take my rest time, get right and let the other guys do everything else.’ We took care of business and he took care of business how he needed to, getting treatment, things like that.”
NFL PrimeTime continues this postseason with extended highlights and analysis following the conclusion of each day’s playoff games. Watch on ESPN+
Days after his breakout performance in New Orleans, Thielen suffered another setback in practice after a cut to his left ankle required stitches. He is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game in San Francisco, but sources told ESPN the injury isn’t expected to sideline him, although the team is monitoring the injury closely.
Moving past this obstacle requires Thielen to hit the flush valve yet again. The tactic he gleaned from a tiny toilet has him mentally prepared to cross the next hurdle as he aims to help lead the Vikings back to the NFC Championship Game with what he hopes is another standout performance.
“It’s the same thing as a competitor with anything whether it be a play, an injury, a distraction,” Thielen said. “You just put it behind you, you take the situation for what it is and you control what you control and the people that do that the best are usually the more successful team, person, individual, what have you.”
Harry Kane is expected to resume training in April after confirmation from Tottenham that the striker needs surgery to repair a torn hamstring.
The club updated Kane’s condition on Thursday after initially diagnosing the injury last week.
Kane ruptured a tendon in his left hamstring while taking a shot against Southampton on New Year’s Day.
“The decision to undergo surgery is not expected to impact the time frame that the England captain will be sidelined, with the expectation that he will return to training in April,” Tottenham said in their statement.
Kane is now set to miss at least 13 matches across all competitions, including both legs of Tottenham’s last-16 clash with RB Leipzig. The Premier League season will end on May 17.
Spurs have reportedly identified AC Milan striker Krzysztof Piatek as a potential stand-in for Kane. Piatek is apparently available for £30 million after a poor start to the season in Serie A.
