There was a lot of talk this week about the culture that Kevin O’Connell has worked hard to build in Minnesota.

It’s what the Vikings hired him in to do, and while O’Connell has championed the transformation in good times, he has done so with an understanding that the biggest test for the culture would come in bad times.

This recent stretch of futility might as well be the MCAT.

This is the first time the Vikings have vastly underperformed with O’Connell leading the charge. This was a roster designed to compete for the Super Bowl. It might actually be competing for a Top 5 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by the end of this month.

The playoffs odds went out the window for the Vikings following last Sunday’s 26-0 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

It’s left the Vikings playing for nothing more than pride when they host the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“We need to all respond the right way together,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got the leadership to do it.”

That statement starts and stops with Justin Jefferson.

As much as O’Connell deserves credit for the culture he has built, Jefferson could easily burn it to the ground if that’s what he wanted to do. That’s the hardest part about the buzzword so commonly used in sports: It doesn’t matter how good the culture is; it can never supersede the superstar.

The fact that Jefferson has continued to buy what O’Connell is selling amid the worst stretch of his career speaks volumes about who he is as a person. He’s everything the Vikings could ever hope for when it comes to their face of the franchise. That’s largely because of the way he carries himself on and off the field.

“He obviously wants to win,” O’Connell said. “He’s as competitive as anybody I’ve ever been around.”

That competitiveness hasn’t come at a cost, however, as Jefferson has never once gone out of his way to place blame on anybody else. But the frustration momentarily got the best of him when he declined comment after the Vikings were shut out by the Seahawks. Maybe because he didn’t want to say anything he knew he would regret. He was back at the podium this week vowing to keep it pushing.

“This season isn’t over,” Jefferson said. “I will never sit there and give up on this team and quit.”

That mentality is something the Vikings shouldn’t take granted. Especially considering that they have employed their fair share of outspoken superstars of the past couple of decades. It’s not hard to imagine Randy Moss or Stefon Diggs going nuclear right now if they were in Jefferson’s shoes.

It’s clear the Vikings miscalculated by thinking J.J. McCarthy was ready to pick up where Sam Darnold left off. Instead, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft has proven to be a project, forced to re-learn the fundamentals of playing the position.

Not ideal for Jefferson considering he’s in the prime of his career and should be operating at the peak of his powers. This is a guy who has been on a trajectory that was pretty unprecedented since he was a rookie. He could potentially flirt with Jerry Rice’s seemingly untouchable records if he manages to stay healthy deep into his 30s.

Now he’s on pace for the lowest output of his career.

“You have to have a lot of patience,” Jefferson said. “We’re 4-8. That’s definitely difficult to go through. It’s definitely not exciting to lose games.”

A few minutes later, Jefferson was given yet another chance to roll McCarthy under the bus. He wouldn’t.

“I can’t say enough about him,” the young quarterback said. “You see a lot of receivers around the league be a Me Guy, and he’s not a Me Guy at all.”

That’s why the culture works for the Vikings. It’s as simple as that. All of the effort that O’Connell has put into building it wouldn’t mean anything if the team’s best player wasn’t serving as the foundation.

“It’s all about us sticking together and not really listening to the outside noise,” Jefferson said. “We’ve just got to lean on each other, focus up, execute our plays, and figure out what we need to do to have a different outcome.”

As he finished up his chat with reporters this week, Jefferson tried to push the narrative forward, saying this minor setback for the Vikings will eventually pave the way for a major comeback.

“There are going to be better times,” he said. “There’s going to be a time where people cut on that TV and they’re talking all about us and they jump on our bandwagon.”

There’s nothing about Jefferson that suggests he won’t be around to see it through, and for that, the Vikings should consider themselves lucky.

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The ghost of the nearly record-breaking snowfalls of 2022-2023 haunted St. Paul’s snow emergency this week, forcing the city’s Public Works to pair civilian ticket issuers with police parking enforcement officers to issue printed instead of handwritten tickets to vehicles parked in plow areas.

In a purely administrative decision, “Ramsey County District Court ruled … that as of May 1, 2025, we couldn’t issue handwritten tickets,” explained St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw, in an interview Friday. “It was overwhelming the court system. In the winter of ’22 and ’23, we issued over 20,000 written tickets. Most of those were tickets for snow.”

The written tickets require additional data entry processing and generally take more time, he said.

With parking enforcement officers working the printers from their squad cars, civilians hired by Public Works served as runners this week, scouring streets to issue some 3,253 tickets from Sunday through Wednesday. Those tickets resulted in 952 tows, hitting the department’s goal of maintaining a clearance rate of about 30%.

“We were really efficient,” Kershaw said. “It’s at least as much as, or more than, some of our other snow emergencies.”

The snow emergency that was declared last Sunday officially ended at 9 p.m. Thursday, but snowing continued Friday morning, and could resume Saturday evening with another inch or so of precipitation. There also may be more snow next week.

“This week has been a good example of why we need a new model,” said Kershaw, who began experimenting last winter with alternating even/odd-side parking in two pilot areas in Highland Park and Payne-Phalen. “When we have successive little snows, it’s hard to go back and plow residential streets because they’re all parked up. You’ve got cars on both sides.”

“With this alternate side parking, we can go back and clean them up without calling a snow emergency,” he said.

Snelling-University, Selby-Western even/odd parking

To test the concept in more densely-populated areas, Public Works will enforce temporary even/odd parking in two new pilot areas as of Jan. 1, and they’re both “areas that are a little more difficult,” Kershaw said.

Near the intersection of Snelling and University avenues, even/odd parking will take effect west of Snelling and north and south of University, within the area bounded by Thomas Avenue, Snelling Avenue, St. Anthony Avenue/Interstate 94 and Aldine Street. In the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Selby and Western avenues, even/odd parking will take effect in the area bounded by Selby, Western, Summit Avenue and Dale Street.

On-street parking in the designated areas will be limited to one side of the street, alternating weekly between the even and odd-numbered addresses. Signage will be posted, and maps of the two areas are online at StPaul.gov/NewSnow.

Salting streets

St. Paul Public Works typically reserves salt or brine for major arterial streets, bridges and other high-traffic areas, rather than residential side streets, but sunny days followed by frigid overnight temperatures inspired a change of plan. In light of ice build-up and compacted snows during the freeze-thaw cycle, the department began salting residential streets, as well, and was still cleaning up where it could on Friday on both residentials and arterial thoroughfares.

Where to call if your street wasn’t plowed

Kershaw said he was confident plows had worked their way through every street in the city, but if your street isn’t fully plowed, call 651-266-9700 to have plows do another pass. Major ticketing and towing wrapped up Monday night, but the department has gone back to tag abandoned vehicles.

Delayed text alerts

On Sunday, before ticketing and towing commenced, some of the city’s alert systems kicked in a few hours later than usual.

St. Paul Public Works informs residents that a snow emergency is in effect through a variety of platforms, from social media blasts on sites such as X, previously known as Twitter, to emails and text alerts in multiple languages, an online parking map, a recorded line, local news media and, new in recent months, outgoing voice messages. Not all of those systems rolled out without a kink on Sunday.

A problem with a third-party vendor slowed text alerts for hours, sending out 66,000 text messages on a staggered basis.

“Some went out right away, some trickled out,” said Lisa Hiebert, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works, earlier this week.

The snow emergency was declared at about 12:30 p.m. and some 64,000 emails launched soon after, but by 2 p.m. only about half of the text alerts had been distributed. Still, “all the text messages went out by 6 p.m.,” Hiebert said, giving recipients several hours to move their cars.

Another issue — tied to the cyber-security incident that crippled city systems for weeks this summer — left Public Works scrambling to change the message on a recorded line — 651-266-PLOW — that residents can call for updated snow emergency information. That message was not changed until 6 p.m. Sunday, despite the best efforts of communications staff, Hiebert said.

“We had a little glitch with the voicemail message and being able to access that,” she said.

New and existing platforms

The city added a new phone service about a year ago that sends recorded snow emergency messages to 150,000 phone numbers culled from public records. The Everbridge Resident Connect service sends the voice recordings to landlines and mobile numbers using “open sources” registered in St. Paul, Hiebert said. Everbridge is distinct from the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) used by FEMA.

“It’s just one of many, many ways people can get the status update,” Hiebert said. “Signing up for email and text alerts is the best, but residents can also check out the snow emergency parking map, check our socials.” More information is online at StPaul.gov/snow.

How to report vehicles blocking plows

During a snow emergency, residents concerned about an abandoned vehicle blocking snowplow access can call Ramsey County’s non-emergency dispatch number — 651-291-1111 — or fill out an online form at StPaul.gov/SnowTicketing.

Minneapolis also declared a snow emergency on Sunday, after a winter storm that began the previous Friday finished dropping about 5 inches of snow throughout the Twin Cities.

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Hiebert’s advice to new residents?

“If you’re going out of town and you park on the street, make sure you always leave your keys with someone trusted, because we do ticket and tow,” she said.

Today is Saturday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2025. There are 25 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was ratified as Georgia became the 27th state to endorse it.

Also on this date:

In 1907, at least 361 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia; it was the worst mining disaster in U.S. history.

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In 1917, more than 1,700 people were killed when an explosives-laden French cargo ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with the Norwegian merchant vessel SS Imo in the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the Canadian city.

In 1923, a presidential address was broadcast nationally on radio for the first time as Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.

In 1957, America’s first attempted satellite launch failed as Vanguard TV3 rose about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding.

In 1969, a free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, California, was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club that was hired to provide concert security.

In 1973, Republican House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president after he was selected by President Richard Nixon to replace Spiro T. Agnew, who resigned amid an extortion and tax evasion scandal.

In 1998, in Venezuela, former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was elected president.

In 2017, President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, announcing plans to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

In 2021, ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to four years (later reduced to two) for inciting public unrest and breaching COVID-19 protocols; she is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence after a series of cases brought by the military that had seized power from her elected government.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor JoBeth Williams is 77.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is 73.
Actor Tom Hulce is 72.
Comedian Steven Wright is 70.
Rock musician Peter Buck (R.E.M.) is 69.
Animator Nick Park is 67.
Actor Janine Turner is 63.
Writer-director Judd Apatow is 58.
Actor Sarah Rafferty is 53.
NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo (YAH’-nihs an-teh-toh-KOON’-poh) is 31.
Actor Stefanie Scott is 29.

The No. 4 Minnesota Gophers defeated the Fairfield Stags in straight sets, 25-12, 25-7, 25-13, Friday night at Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis.

Minnesota controlled the match from the first serve and strolled to its first win at “The Pav” in the NCAA Tournament since 2022. The Gophers hit .582 and posted eight service aces to Fairfield’s one.

Gophers head coach Keegan Cook said at first he did not know how much of an advantage hosting would give Minnesota.

“I thought, when you get on the plane, you start to feel the energy of the tournament,” Cook said. “So I thought it was probably Wednesday or Thursday when some of the decals started to go down in the building, then I saw the enthusiasm pick up a little bit.”

Well, once Cook’s squad walked into a packed Maturi Pavilion, they channeled that energy on the court.

The first set was no contest as in the blink of an eye, the Gophers held a 5-0 lead. Minnesota strolled to a 25-12 Set 1 victory as senior outside hitter Julia Hanson and freshman opposite Carly Gilk combined for eight kills to lead the offense.

Hanson’s third kill of the first set gave her 1,000 in her college career. She said redshirt freshman setter Stella Swenson has been “great” at finding her this season.

“When I hit that back row attack for Stella, I knew immediately,” Hanson said. “But yeah, it’s not something I was focusing on, but it was at the back of my mind.”

The Stags showed signs of life early in the second set, opening with a 3-1 advantage. But the Gophers answered back with a 14-2 run to establish a stranglehold on Set 2.

A one-sided fight after four points in Set 2, as Minnesota outscored Fairfield 24-4 from that point on to tighten their grip on the match. The Gophers were hitting .543 after two sets and had 10 blocks to the Stags’ one.

Cook said having a full week of practice and keying in on their defensive eye work and winning rallies the hard way paid off.

“It kind of came together in that second set, just a lot of positive touches, a lot of good transition volleyball,” Cook said. “December’s all about transition volleyball, and so yeah, it felt good.”

Fairfield hung around in the third set, trailing 11-10, until a 5-0 scoring run from Minnesota created separation. The Gophers built on that momentum, allowing for it to rotate in subs late with the match in hand.

Gophers senior Chloe Ng picked up her first career NCAA Tournament service ace in what may have been her final match action on the Maturi Pavilion court. The Pav erupted when the ball touched the floor.

Gilk said even though it’s her first year playing with Ng, she’s been able to see the impact she has on the team.

“I know how much work she puts in on and off the court,” Gilk said. “So just seeing her be able to do that at ‘The Pav’, where she’s been her last four years, was so fun to see. I was super excited for her.”

Cook added she had been acing the Gophers in practice all four years, so it was nice to see her ace an opponent.

Minnesota toppled the Stags 25-12 in Set 3 to beat Fairfield to book their spot in the second round. The Gophers only allowed 32 total points across the three sets.

Cook said he expects the Gophers and Iowa State to respond to their first-round matches well, noting he hopes his team will be fresher because of the sweep.

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