A large swath of what’s left of the Twin Cities sports media was on a Zoom call with outgoing Twins president Derek Falvey on Friday when the Vikings announced that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was suddenly their outgoing general manager.

It was a surprise to most of the teleconference participants, who had their noses buried in Twins news, but no one was more surprised than Falvey, a friend of Adofo-Mensah who was just hearing the news from a newspaper columnist.

“Really unfortunate news,” Falvey said after gathering his bearings. “I didn’t know that. I love Kwesi.”

It’s not often that one of Minnesota’s four major pro sports teams parts with its personnel chief, and the Twins and Vikings did it within two hours of one another Friday. It was a surprise. Adofo-Mensah got a contract extension last May; Falvey had recently been named the Twins’ president of baseball and business operations and hired a new manager in November — not to mention that spring training starts in two weeks.

So, yeah, the timing was odd. But neither separation was totally unexpected.

Adofo-Mensah’s exit is the simpler to explain. In the parlance of “GoodFellas,” it was for Billy Batts, or more specifically, Sam Darnold.

A lot of people with a lot less personnel experience suspected it was a bad idea to ask J.J. McCarthy, in his first NFL season, to lead a team to the postseason, let alone an NFC title. When the Vikings finished the regular season strong despite poor quarterback play, and Darnold led Seattle to the Super Bowl, it didn’t look good for the guys who made that call.

Presumably, Kevin O’Connell was a big part of that decision, but he’s a) not the general manager and b) was notably able to keep a deflated team playing together and hard down the stretch.

Firing both would have been a complete re-start, and Adofo-Mensah was the easy choice. He has added some good free agents in his four seasons, but spent a lot of money to do it and has whiffed on some high draft picks. As a result, the Vikings are up against the salary cap and don’t know who their starting quarterback will be in 2026.

FILE – Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah answers questions during an NFL football press conference Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Eagan, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

According to overthecap.com, only one team has a larger cap deficit than Minnesota, and it’s the Kansas City Chiefs — who have played in five of the past six Super Bowls and won three. The Vikings haven’t been there since 1977. It’s not surprising ownership wanted to move on.

Falvey is a little more of a head-scratcher if you just look at the resume. In nine years as the team’s president of baseball operations, he built three American League Central Division winners and four playoff teams. Many of the draft choices he made with then-GM Thad Levine. And while only the 2023 team won a playoff series, that team snapped what was a major league record 18-game postseason losing skid.

But Falvey was noticeably uncomfortable with ownership’s decision to slash payroll by $30 million after that season, and had a difficult time explaining why the team traded away 10 of its best players at the deadline last July.

“It’s been a challenge at times,” he acknowledged Friday. “I’d be lying to say anything else.”

The last two months of the 2025 season were hard on anyone watching the Twins. Left with a team full of young position players still finding their way in the majors, the Twins couldn’t hit and didn’t have a bullpen because they traded away their best five relievers. The results were predictable.

The three free agents the Twins have signed this winter are reasonable additions, but none of them are likely to move the needle. Fans see a long road back to competitiveness ahead; after a third straight season of belt-tightening, it’s impossible to imagine Falvey didn’t feel the same way.

Both Falvey and new executive chair Tom Pohlad described Friday’s move as mutual. That’s often a transparent euphemism for someone getting fired, but in this case, it seems accurate.

“I think what we shared is a sense of urgency to be decisive about doing what’s in the best interest of the Twins, and this was what we were decisive about,” Pohlad said.

Falvey might not have been expecting to leave right before spring training starts, but if the past two seasons weren’t a sign of things to come, he certainly got a good look while discussing the landscape over the past few weeks with his new boss.

In the end, not so surprising.

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By JESSICA HILL

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada jury on Friday convicted “Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse of sexually assaulting a minor.

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The jurors in Las Vegas found Chasing Horse guilty of multiple charges of sexual assault. He was acquitted on other sexual assault charges.

He had pleaded not guilty to all 21 charges and his defense attorneys said he was falsely accused. Prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls. Most of the guilty verdicts returned by the jury centered on Chasing Horse’s conduct with a victim who was 14 years old when Chasing Horse began assaulting her.

The verdicts mark the climax of a yearslong effort to prosecute Chasing Horse after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023 in a case that sent shock waves through Indian Country.

As the verdict was read, Chasing Horse stood quietly. Victims and their supporters cried and hugged in the hallway while wearing yellow ribbons.

“Dances With Wolves” was one of the most prominent films featuring Native American actors when it premiered in 1990. After Chasing Horse appeared in the Oscar-winning film, he traveled across North America and performed healing ceremonies.

His trial came as authorities have responded more in recent years to an epidemic of violence against Native women.

Nathan Chasing Horse, center, confers with attorneys as he appears in court for his trial on charges of sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

During the three-week trial, jurors heard from three women who say Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them, some of whom were underage at the time.

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci said in her closing statements Wednesday that for almost 20 years, Chasing Horse “spun a web of abuse” that caught many women.

Defense attorney Craig Mueller said in his closing statements there was no evidence, including eyewitnesses. He questioned the main accuser’s credibility, describing her as a “scorned woman.”

Prosecutors said sexual assault cases rarely have eyewitnesses and often happen behind closed doors.

The main accuser was 14 years old in 2012 when Chasing Horse allegedly told her the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, Pucci said during opening statements.

The subjects of the viral play on Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena were almost as surprising as the sequence itself. This wasn’t superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes delivering a perfect pass to superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov.

This was bruising defenseman Jake Middleton channeling his inner Hughes while finding reserve winger Vinnie Hinostroza.

Though he’s not exactly known for his prowess with the puck, Middleton decided to float a fluttering pass from deep in the defensive zone, which Hinostroza literally caught in stride a millisecond before entering the offensive zone.

“It was just perfect,” Hinostroza said. “I didn’t have to change my speed or anything.”

After managing to stay onside while catching the puck, Hinostroza calmly placed it down, took a few strides, then cashed in with a snipe top shelf. That goal held up as the game winner in the Wild’s 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.

“You’re not thinking about anything but making the play,” Hinostroza said. “I was able to do that and score a goal to help the team.”

In the immediate aftermath, Hinostroza let out a huge fist pump, then skated to Middleton along the boards to celebrate.

“I was so excited,” Hinostroza said. “I don’t remember the last time I scored.”

It had been 24 games without a goal for Hinostroza, to be exact, which slowly started to weigh on him. As much as he tried to stay positive, he admitted that he was starting to get into his own head.

“It has been a while,” he said. “Hopefully this could start something and (I) chip in a little more often.”

Asked about the beautiful setup, Middleton essentially shrugged when talking about what exactly was gong through his head in that moment, saying, “I was just trying to get it to him.”

In that same breath, Middleton credited Hinostroza with making him look good, emphasizing that the pass wouldn’t be worth talking about if it didn’t result in the Wild putting the puck in the back of the net.

“That was a great play by him,” Middleton said. “He read it well.”

The fact that Middleton even thought to try a pass like that sparked some friendly ribbing in the locker room after the game. It’s not often that his teammates see him operate with so much creativity on the ice.

“Yeah,” winger Matt Boldy said with a laugh. “I didn’t know he had that in him.”

Maybe it’s easier for Middleton than simply making a pass tape to tape.

“He practices that all the time,” goaltender Filip Gustavsson said while shaking his head. “He’s the flip master.”

There wasn’t much else to get excited about as the Wild didn’t bring their best against the Flames. Maybe it’s fitting then that the assist from Middleton and the goal from Hinostroza proved to be the difference.

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By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has delayed astronauts’ upcoming trip to the moon because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site.

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The first Artemis moonshot with a crew is now targeted for no earlier than Feb. 8, two days later than planned.

NASA was all set to conduct a fueling test of the 322-foot (98-meter) moon rocket on Saturday, but called everything off late Thursday because of the expected cold.

The critical dress rehearsal is now set for Monday, weather permitting. The change leaves NASA with only three days in February to send four astronauts around the moon and back, before slipping into March.

“Any additional delays would result in a day for day change,” NASA said in a statement Friday.

Heaters are keeping the Orion capsule warm atop the rocket, officials said, and rocket-purging systems are also being adapted to the cold.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew remain in quarantine in Houston and their arrival at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is uncertain.

NASA has only a handful of days any given month to launch its first lunar crew in more than half a century. Apollo 17 closed out that storied moon exploration program in 1972.

Complicating matters is the need to launch a fresh crew to the International Space Station as soon as possible, a mission accelerated because of the last crew’s early return for medical reasons.

The moonshot will take priority if it can get off by Feb. 11, the last possible launch date for the month, mission managers said Friday.

If that happens, the next station crew will have to wait until the Artemis astronauts are back on Earth before launching later in the month.

“It couldn’t be cooler that they’re in quarantine and we’re in quarantine, and we’re trying to launch two rockets roughly around the same time,” NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, part of the next station crew, said Friday. “It’s a pretty exciting time to be part of NASA.”

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