The praise that rookie punt returner Myles Price has been garnering in the aftermath of his NFL debut is very much deserved.

Let’s just say he certainly looked the part

After signing with the Vikings an undrafted free agent this spring, Price slowly started to separate himself from some of his peers this summer. He solidified his spot on the roster by winning the competition to be the punt returner.

“I knew at some point I was going to get my opportunity,” Price said. “As soon as I got it, I said, ‘Don’t give it back.’ ”

That seemed to be Price’s mentality on Monday night at Soldier Field as he did his part to help the Vikings earn a 27-24 win over the Chicago Bears.

“He was able to make a guy miss at the point of attack and get to the second level where his blockers were,” special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said. “We stole a lot of the hidden yardage in that game.”

In the end, Price finished with four punt returns for 68 yards, showing a combination of shiftiness and explosiveness in space. That number is not insignificant when considering journeyman receiver Brandon Powell served as the punt returner last season and logged 164 yards total.

Minnesota cornerback Marcus Sherels makes New Orleans defensive end George Johnson miss during a punt return in the first quarter of an NFC playoff game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday Jan. 14, 2018. (Pioneer Press / John Autey)

There’s an argument to be made that Price is already the best player the Vikings have had in that role since longtime punt returner Marcus Sherels.

What makes a great punt returner?

To figure out the answer to that question, the Pioneer Press tracked down Sherels, who still owns a bunch of franchise records, including most punt return touchdowns in a career (5), among others.

“It’s a position that not a lot of guys want to play,” Sherels said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of pressure being out there on an island.”

If anybody would know, it’s Sherels, who did it for the better part of a decade. A defensive back at Minnesota, his journey with the Vikings started in 2010 after he was invited to rookie minicamp on a tryout. He remembers arriving at Winter Park and seeing his last name was misspelled on the depth chart.

After garnering few reps on defense at his first practice, Sherels approached former special teams coordinator Brian Murphy and told him he wanted to join the competition at punt returner.

“He was like, ‘Sure. Whatever,’ ” Sherels said. “He didn’t even really know who I was at the time. I ended up doing it, and I was catching them fine. He kind of liked what he saw and they signed me.”

Never mind that Sherels went on to become the GOAT punt returner for the Vikings. He admitted there was a feeling-out process despite finishing with 2,480 punt return yards.

“I would be back there like, ‘Please don’t drop it. Please don’t drop it. Please don’t drop it,’ ” Sherels said. “My mindset kind of changed as I got more and more comfortable. I wanted those opportunities. I went in knowing I could change the game.”

Asked how he perfected his craft, Sherels credited the countless hours he spent with former special teams coordinator Mike Priefer. They would stay late after practice to get extra reps in. They would also watch tons of film to learn tendencies of opposing punters.

“He really believed in me, so we put a lot of time in it,” Sherels said. “That’s what it takes to be great at it.”

Though a willingness to work is extremely important to success at the highest level, Sherels said the key to having staying power as a punt returner is consistently being able to make the initial defender miss.

“I think where I kind of stood out was with my quickness,” he said. “I was pretty good at making people miss, and then I could use my vision to read where to go once I had the ball in my hands.”

There’s also some fearlessness required.

“You’ve also got to be able to take a hit and get back up no matter what,” Sherels said. “There were a bunch of times I didn’t make the right decision with the fair catch, and I got blown up because of it.”

As he was sitting at home this week watching the Vikings play the Chicago Bears, Sherels found himself glued to the screen whenever a ball was booted skyward.

“That’s still my favorite play to watch,” he said. “It brings me back.”

What did he think of Price in his NFL debut?

“He looked good,” Sherels said. “He had some juice. I’m excited to watch him. I think he’s going to keep getting better and better.”

Minnesota cornerback Marcus Sherels makes New Orleans defensive end George Johnson miss during a punt return in the first quarter of an NFC playoff game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday Jan. 14, 2018. (Pioneer Press / John Autey)

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A jury has convicted a St. Paul man for his role in the assault and shooting of a 42-year-old outside a Rice Street bar.

Edward G. Robinson, 43, was found guilty this week in Ramsey County District Court of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and first-degree assault for the killing of Oscar Lee Covington, who died nearly a month after he was robbed and shot on Oct. 30 after patronizing Born’s Bar along Rice Street near Manitoba Avenue. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 7.

Edward G. Robinson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The alleged shooter, Marlon Deion Dickey, 40, has been charged with second-degree murder and prosecutors are awaiting his extradition from another state, according to a spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Meanwhile, Erica Ruth Hampton, who was working as a bartender at Born’s, is charged with aiding an offender by being an accomplice after the fact. A jury trial is scheduled for next month.

Officers called to the bar about 5:45 p.m. on a report of a shooting found Covington on the ground in front of the bar with a gunshot wound to his torso.

Items recovered by police at the scene included Robinson’s wallet and cellphone.

Covington talked to investigators at the hospital the next day and said that, when he went outside, a short man he didn’t know but who he’d seen around asked him for a cigarette. People with the man had their hoods up, which he made note of because it wasn’t cold. He said he was then robbed and shot.

Surveillance video from the bar and nearby businesses showed that Covington left the bar about 5:42 p.m. Robinson “began a physical assault” on Covington, with others joining in, according to the criminal complaint.

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Dickey pulled out a handgun and swung it at Covington’s head. He then put the gun to Covington’s torso and fired, “and everyone involved in the robbery and shooting scattered,” the complaint says.

An analysis of the casing found at the scene showed that it was fired by the same gun that fired a casing recovered at a shooting in Milwaukee in 2022, according to the complaint, which adds that Dickey has ties to the Milwaukee area.

Covington’s wife notified St. Paul police on Nov. 26 that Covington had died after being removed from life support.

The condition of the last victim of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting to remain hospitalized has improved after two weeks.

Sophia Forchas, 12, has improved from critical condition to serious condition as of Thursday morning,  according to the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. Serious condition, as defined by HCMC , means the patient is acutely ill and there is a chance for improved prognosis.

Sophia is the last of the 21 people, most of them children, who were injured in the Aug. 27 shooting to still be under hospital care. Two children — 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski — were killed as Annunciation Church and its affiliated school held a back-to-school Mass.

The shooter died by suicide, police said, and no motive has been publicly identified.

At a Sept. 5 briefing, Sophia’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicich, said there was a chance she could be the third fatality in the shooting but that he was starting to see “rays of hope.”

“I noticed her blue nail polish and her curly hair, and I opened her eyes, and she was bilaterally fixed and dilated, which means that her pressure in her brain was very high,” he said. “And if you had told me at this juncture, 10 days later, that we’d be standing here with any ray of hope, I would have said it would take a miracle.”

Galicich said Sophia was shot in her left temporal lobe and the bullet remains lodged in her right occipital lobe. Important blood vessels in the bullet’s path were damaged, he said. She has swelling and pressure in the brain, and as of Sept. 5, she was in a medically induced coma with intermittent breaks.

“It’s day by day, and I can’t tell you how this is going to end. I know she’s had a stroke from that injury, that blood vessel,” Galicich said at the time. “I don’t know what her permanent deficits are going to be, but we’re a little bit more optimistic that she’s going to survive.”

Sophia’s father, Tom Forchas, also spoke at the Sept. 5 news conference. He described Sophia as “kind, brilliant and full of life.” Her family has released a verified GoFundMe, which has raised more $1 million.

“Sophia is strong. Sophia is fighting, and Sophia is going to win this fight for all of humanity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Annunciation resumed preschool this week, with students and their parents returning to the school on West 54th Street at Lyndale Avenue South, according to principal Matthew DeBoer.

A memorial service for Harper Moyski will be held Saturday at the Lake Harriet Band Shell in Minneapolis. A funeral service for Fletcher Merkel was held Sunday at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

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By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor is promising universal free child care to families of all income levels.

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her plans this week, saying she wants to leverage a financial windfall from oil and gas production to help more parents by removing the state’s income eligibility limit starting Nov. 1.

Rules for the program are being hashed out and lawmakers still have to approve funding, but New Mexico already is several steps ahead of other states when it comes to subsidizing child care.

The latest initiative expands on previous early childhood education investments by extending access to another 12,000 children and making low-interest loans available to spur construction of new child care centers as demands surge.

Lujan Grisham says it’s life-changing for parents to have free child care, since it means more money can be spent on utilities and groceries.

Gaining traction

Americans overwhelmingly view the cost of child care as a significant issue, but there are deep divisions over what the government’s role should be in addressing it, mainly whether it should foot the costs.

Many states are limited in what they can take on as President Donald Trump’s administration cuts or freezes billions of dollars in education funding.

Lujan Grisham hopes the initiative stirs conversations beyond New Mexico.

“My hope is, as we watch elections take hold around the country, that our congressional candidates are talking about these investments, our gubernatorial candidates are talking about these investments” in child care, the second-term Democrat said.

The concept of free child care is being embraced by lawmakers including Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, through proposed tax hikes. Oregon’s most populous county ramped up its universal preschool program this year despite funding issues, and enthusiasm for early childhood education spawned the creation last year of a dedicated state agency in Illinois.

Footing the bill

New Mexico in 2020 began diverting surplus government income linked to surging oil and gas production to a trust for early childhood education. The balance is nearing $10 billion, with about $500 million in investment earnings being funneled each year to early childhood education programs.

The child care expansion will draw on those savings, some federal funding and a request that state legislators provide an additional $120 million annually. That’s a 26% increase over current spending of $463 million, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman said.

The Democratic-led Legislature has balked at entitlement programs before, repeatedly rejecting paid family leave requirements for the private sector. Republican lawmakers are concerned that the governor’s latest plan would result in a handout for wealthy families.

New Mexico in 2022 expanded eligibility and waived copayments for child care assistance to families earning as much as four times the federal poverty rate — about $128,000 for a family of four this year.

Paul Gessing, president of the libertarian Rio Grande Foundation in New Mexico, said it’s baffling that a Democratic governor would come to the financial aid of upper-income parents.

“We’re already doing this up to 400% of the poverty level — that’s a pretty decent amount of money to be making,” he said.

By eliminating the income cutoff, state officials aim to improve family financial stability, encourage participation in the economy and better prepare toddlers for school.

Hurdles

To meet increased demand, the Lujan Grisham administration says it will need more than 50 new licensed child care centers, 120 licensed homes that accommodate a dozen children and as many as 1,000 new registered homes that serve four children.

Child care slots already are in short supply across New Mexico. And attendance from low-income families declined as assistance expanded to higher income brackets, according to a review by the Legislature’s budget and accountability office.

There’s also little evidence that New Mexico children are better prepared for school than children in other states. The 2025 survey by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranked New Mexico’s public education system last among 50 states.

The governor’s plan includes incentives to improve quality — raising hourly base pay for child care workers to at least $18 where excellence is demonstrated.

The universal child care guarantee will cover crucial infant and toddler years before and after children become eligible for public preschool — defraying average annual costs of about $12,000 per year.

Eligibility for child care assistance also will extend to grandparents who are in charge of grandchildren, often because of parents struggling with addiction, with no work requirement.

Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed from Portland, Ore.

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.