C.J.: Gopher's flip-catch is no small feat

Senior Gophers wide receiver Logan Hutton does a trick that is better left on the practice field.

He can jump to catch a football and finish with a back-flip. There's video here, tinyurl.com/qgqz5cb, and various other places.

Hutton is the brother of Zelle Hofmann attorney Lee Hutton III.

First off, who's better looking?

"He is good looking, but I'm better looking!" joked III on Monday when I got him on the phone, at which time he admitted not knowing his little brother could do this.

"I knew he could back-flip. I knew he could catch," said III. "This first video with one ball was a surprise. The second video with two, which came to my phone Friday morning around 8 a.m., was impressive."

I've only seen the one catch, which was plenty impressive.

Also impressive is that III tells me "Logan has obtained his undergraduate degree in biology. He is currently beginning a master's program in security technology while playing Division I football."

According to III, "On Thursday, my brother and other football players at the U finished daily workouts. My brother jumped at the chance to challenge his teammates by doing a back-flip catching just one ball. Eric Carter filmed it and E.J. Sardinha threw the ball. Video of that catch went viral quickly. It became known as the #HuttonChallenge. Logan wanted to up the ante. He did a back-flip catching two balls simultaneously. Michael Conway threw the two balls and Sardinha filmed. This particular video has social media going crazy and has been picked up by ESPN, College Game Day, Bleacher Report, and NFL.com. Logan is humbled by the fame."

If Logan pulls this stunt on a football field, it could enrage an opponent who wouldn't mind getting flagged for a late hit.

'Fix My Life' pays Minnesota house call

Iyanla Vanzant delivered a huge dose of forgiveness to a Minnesota family that thought it was broken because a sister who was a nurse was convicted of using painkillers stolen from nearly 300 patients.

In Saturday's season finale of "Iyanla: Fix My Life," Vanzant was in Madelia, Minn., to help Tess Johnson, a nurse who was sentenced to probation at her home; Vanzant also spoke with Johnson's mother and three sisters. A postscript from the show states that Johnson has had her license reinstated.

"This family thought I was here to help Tess deal with the aftermath of her public disgrace. But as it turns out she wasn't the only one in need of healing," Vanzant said on the show (with clips here: tinyurl.com/pc75ojm)

For the uninitiated, Vanzant is a relationship expert, author and lawyer who rose to prominence on the TV show that Oprah had before starting cable's OWN. On "Fix My Life," Vanzant and her team take her life coaching ministry all over the country to help fractured families unearth the underlying reasons for dysfunctional behavior. Vanzant does this with an open heart, brutal honesty ("Let's call a thing a thing!"), wisdom, a big smile and humor that is sometimes accentuated with her infectious cackling laughter. I LOVE this TV show because I am fascinated by motive and truth. This show alternately points out how my family is really not that dysfunctional (although there are branches I think Vanzant should visit, stat! Twitter fans, I can love the show, while sometimes poking holes into the homilies Vanzant tweets and making fun of how she carries her purse with her as though she can't trust any of these families, even though she has crew everywhere.)

In the case of Tess Johnson's family, I wanted to know how members of the family felt Monday, two days later. Do these residents of a small rural community feel it was worth it to have private matters aired on a national show that will probably be on a repeat cycle? Is everything better? None of the phone numbers believed to have been those of Johnson, or her sister Kayla, were working and their mom Gwen's number was perpetually busy.

The show started with an amusing, telling exchange when Vanzant said, with a laugh joined by everybody, "Y'all look scared." I think it was Johnson who said, "We've seen your show."

My heart went out to Miss Gwen, who just wanted her daughters to become better friends.

As family members pointed fingers, Vanzant pointedly reminded them of their own messes.

"She's been on probation. You [were] drunk. She was gambling. What the hell! How do y'all get to talk about each other!" said Vanzant, omitting a reference to a bullying sister in that summation of the sisters' flaws. "If we don't get this cleared out, this whole family is going to implode."

Turns out some of those bad behaviors were first demonstrated to the daughters by their mom, whose secret was gently uncovered by Vanzant. Miss Gwen's 47-year marriage to the attention-starved girls' father had its problems. Miss Gwen, who apologized for falling short, also admitted to being jealous of her daughters because her world seemed limited to being a wife and mother. Vanzant implored the daughters to thank their mother "because she did the best she could."

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.