There was a mascot vs. youth football players game at U.S. Bank Stadium as part of the Vikings vs. Buccaneers halftime festivities.

Goldy Gopher — perhaps inspired by P.J. Fleck, who was on hand for the ceremonial sounding of the Gjallarhorn — took a pitch, ran right, showed an elite burst of speed to turn … and then basically ran over a young defender on his way to the end zone.

The highlight made the rounds on social media — enough, in fact, to get former running back LaDainian Tomlinson talking about it on NFL Gameday Prime with former defensive back Deion Sanders.

"Who does he think he is?" Tomlinson bellows at one point as the highlight is shown while challenging Goldy to pick on someone his own size. "This is a little kid right there. Man, you can't do that."

Maybe Tomlinson is right. Next halftime should be former NFL players vs. mascots. Then we can have some real fun.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.