JOTTINGS
• There are rumors around Kansas State that when 76-year-old football coach Bill Snyder retires, former Gophers coach Jerry Kill will succeed him. But Kill insists his coaching days are over.
• When Mike McCarthy took over as Packers coach in 2006, Green Bay trailed the Vikings in the all-time series 44-45-1. But McCarthy has dominated the Vikings, going 15-5-1.
• One big reason the Dallas Cowboys are listed by Forbes as the NFL's most valuable franchise at $4.2 billion is that their stadium has held some major events outside of Cowboys games. The Vikings are listed at $2.2 billion, and that's up 38 percent from 2015 because of U.S. Bank Stadium. Look for the stadium to continue to elevate their value.
• The Vikings released defensive end Letroy Guion after the 2013 season. He was picked up by the Packers and has started 21 games since, including this year's season opener.
• Quarterback Shaun Hill has started only once vs. the Packers over his long career. That was a 28-26 loss at Lambeau Field while he was with the Lions in October 2010.
• Though the Twins are trying to avoid 100 losses, all their farm teams had winning seasons. Class AAA Rochester went 81-63; Class AA Chattanooga went 75-65; Class A Fort Myers went 70-68, and Class A Cedar Rapids went 78-61. Cedar Rapids was the only one of those teams to win a playoff spot, earning a wild card in the Midwest League playoffs, where the Kernels swept two games from Wisconsin in the first round before losing a series to Clinton last weekend.
• The Twins have had a top-two pick in the MLB draft five times overall, but they failed to sign the pick the first two times, Tim Belcher (No. 1 in 1983) and Travis Lee (No. 2 in 1996). Both went on to long big-league careers but never played for the Twins. In 2000, the Twins drafted Adam Johnson No. 2 overall, but he was a bust. The other two top-two picks are on the team now, Joe Mauer (No. 1 in 2001) and Byron Buxton (No. 2 in 2012).
