Harrison Smith will more than likely retire with the Vikings after agreeing to restructure his contract ahead of next season.

The 35-year-old safety is by far the longest tenured player on the roster and provides irreplaceable leadership on the defensive side of the ball. That will be especially important for the Vikings with the recent departures of edge rusher Danielle Hunter and linebacker Jordan Hicks to free agency.

There was a thought that Smith might consider retirement at some point before next season. Asked about the possibility of retirement immediately following the final game of last season, Smith noted, “It’s hard to have the ability to play and not have a desire.”

If his performance last season under defensive coordinator Brian Flores proved anything, it’s that Smith certainly still has the ability be impactful. Maybe then it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Smith also has the desire to continue playing for the Vikings.

This is the second straight year that Smith has agreed to take a pay cut to remain with the Vikings. He reportedly will make $9 million next season. That’s roughly the same amount he made last season after taking a pay cut.

Originally selected in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame, Smith has played 176 games in his career with the Vikings. He has been a stalwart in the secondary, recording 1,039 tackles, 19.5 sacks, 34 interceptions, 86 passes defended and 12 forced fumbles, among a handful of other impressive stats.

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Eric Ramsay has traded Manchester United red for Minnesota United blue.

During his introductory news conference Wednesday, the Loons’ new head coach wore a hooded sweatshirt in that newly obtained shade and listened as MNUFC Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad shared how, in his previous leadership role at Barnsley, he interviewed Ramsay to be that English club’s head coach approximately two years ago.

That hiring would have kept red the primary color in Ramsay’s wardrobe. But Ramsay said he wasn’t ready for any sort of change at that time, even if he felt a connection to El-Ahmad.

Ramsay wanted to work for then-new Manchester United coach Erik ten Hag. Now roughly 18 months later, Ramsay believes he is ready for his first head coaching job of a first team.

Ramsay, who was hired Feb. 26, conducted his first training session with the Loons on Tuesday and will debut on the sideline against Los Angeles FC on Saturday night at Allianz Field.

“I’m grateful that sort of fate has led me to the 18 months there (with ten Hag at Manchester United) and the chance to come here with Khaled,” Ramsay said Wednesday. “It’s really the perfect blend of circumstances for me.”

Ramsay, 32, will be the youngest head coach in MLS, but he feels like he checks all the boxes necessary to be ready for this stage.

“I wouldn’t be putting myself in this position if I didn’t feel I wasn’t prepared to carry that out to a high level,” Ramsay said. “I was never in a mad rush to become a head coach. I never had a fixed point in mind to which I wanted to be a head coach. I wanted it to be the right circumstances and when I felt ready.”

Ramsay’s tenure at Manchester United spanned three head coaches, starting in 2021. Born in England and raised in Wales, he was an assistant with the Wales men’s national team as well as Chelsea’s Under-23 squad and had stints at Swansea City’s academy and as interim head coach at Shrewsbury Town.

“I feel like if you could design a checklist of things to do before you become a head coach I wouldn’t be far off completing those,” Ramsay said. “… I feel like I’ve done the work that is due before hitting this point. I wanted to come into a structure where I felt like I would be supported. There would be clarity and I could do what I’m largely good at.”

Ramsay acknowledged there will be unfamiliar elements to his new job.

“Obviously what I haven’t had up until this point is real hard-hitting decision-making part and leadership responsibility,” Ramsay said. “As an assistant coach largely you are working, from a technical perspective, your parameters are sort of defined by the manager that you work under and the club you work for. I’m now going to be much more responsible for those decisions and difficult conversations and defining those parameters to an extent.

“I’m ready for that,” Ramsay continued. “That is why I am in this position, so I’m not second guessing myself really in that sense. I don’t have too many reservations of if I’m going to be capable of doing that or not because I feel like I’ve got a really strong base to rest on in that sense.”

Ramsay will rely on newly named assistant coach Dennis Lawrence, 49, who comes to MNUFC after stints leading the Trinidad and Tobago men’s national team. He has been an assistant coach at Coventry City in the English second division and will need a work visa before coming to the U.S.

Lawrence, a former player at Swansea City in Wales, and Ramsay were involved in the coaching education pathway in Wales and worked on a couple of UEFA courses together as mentors for other aspiring coaches.

“When you meet him, you will get a feel for the type of guy he is, full of energy, really sort of loyal, principled guy, excellent coaching background,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay will also look to previous Loons interim head coach turned permanent assistant coach in Cameron Knowles for MLS experience and understanding of the current team. And, of course, he will look to El-Ahmad.

“I’m not lacking in humility enough to say that I’m not going to need a nudge in the right direction from time to time,” Ramsay said. “But I’m reliant in the sense that the raw skills that I’ve built up until this point is what is going to take me forward.”

Ramsay might have been earmarked as El-Ahmad’s candidate at MNUFC, too, but Ramsay went through the rigorous coaching search just like the dozens of other candidates for the job.

“Eric went through the process,” El-Ahmad said. “We were all aligned that he was No. 1 decision. Him being here represents the whole club. Not just the new sporting director.”

Ramsay said he didn’t have a “fixed destination” for his first head coaching job, but he was drawn to MNUFC, Allianz Field, MLS and the U.S. As a multilingual speaker, Ramsay sought a diverse locker room, and MLS provides that melting pot.

“I could probably speak for 10 minutes about the various angles that sit behind my decision,” Ramsay said. “But if you look at this club, in particular, everything you would want as a first-time head coach in terms of stability in ownership and sporting director that I have a very good relationship and definitely clicked from how we see the team and how we see the vision of the club in general.”

But there remains the unknown.

“The rest is left to people’s imagination and my imagination to an extent,” Ramsay said. “But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel I was ready to go.”

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A Maplewood mother was sentenced to four years of probation Wednesday for the 2020 fentanyl overdose death of her 3-year-old son at a West St. Paul apartment, where authorities say she used the drug and where it was sold.

Queenetta Jeanette McDaniel, 36, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Amier Isaac McDaniel on Dec. 7, 2020. She was charged in April 2022.

Queenetta Jeanette McDaniel (Courtesy of Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

McDaniel entered a straight plea, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of her sentence. She faced up to 10 years in prison; prosecutors asked for 41 months.

Dakota County District Judge David Knutson stayed a four-year prison term for four years, during which McDaniel will be on probation. Besides not consuming illegal drugs, she must follow mental health recommendations and conditions of Ramsey County Social Services.

Knutson gave several reasons for his departure from state guidelines, including that McDaniel is amenable to chemical dependency treatment and has shown remorse.

County Attorney Kathy Keena said in a statement that she is disappointed with the judge’s decision, “given the facts of this case. Such a tragic and senseless death due to the negligence of Ms. McDaniel. My sincere condolences to Amier’s family and loved ones.”

Died at Children’s Hospital

West St. Paul police and medical responders were called to the apartment around 7:45 a.m. on a report that a 3-year-old child was not breathing.

McDaniel told police that she had been asleep with her son on the couch. She said she woke up to use the bathroom and, when she returned to the couch, realized that he was not breathing and appeared to have vomited, according to the criminal complaint.

McDaniel told police the boy had been conscious and apparently well at approximately 11 p.m. the previous night before going to sleep.

The boy was transported to Children’s Hospital by ambulance, where a short time later he was pronounced dead at age 3 years and eight months.

Police suspected McDaniel was under the influence of drugs because of her behavior at the scene and at the hospital, the complaint says. Several hours later, investigators collected a sample of McDaniel’s blood, and fentanyl and a metabolite of fentanyl were found during a toxicology analysis.

Investigators were told that the apartment belonged to McDaniel’s friend and that she and her son had been staying there the previous two days. Investigators then learned from drug task force officers that a resident of the apartment was suspected of selling illegal drugs, including fentanyl, out of the home, the complaint alleges.

The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office ruled the boy died of a fentanyl overdose. The complaint does not say how the boy ingested the drug.

Witnesses told investigators that McDaniel was a heavy and habitual user of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, at the time of her son’s death, the complaint says. “(McDaniel) had reportedly been using drugs while she and the (boy) had been staying at the apartment in West St. Paul, including smoking fentanyl with at least one witness,” the complaint says.

Police searched the apartment and recovered numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia in a bedroom and bathroom.

Example for others

In arguing for the departure, defense attorney Luke Rezac noted how McDaniel has no prior criminal history and has been sober for nearly two years.

“Although she has struggled heavily with sobriety, poverty and single motherhood, she has managed to keep a completely clean record with no criminal convictions,” he said in a March 6 court document.

Knutson gave McDaniel the “incredible opportunity” to be furloughed to treatment from the jail two summers ago, Rezac said. She graduated from long-term inpatient treatment and into outpatient treatment. She found work and has been a peer recovery specialist through Twin Cities Recovery Project since August.

The boy’s death is a “near impossible burden” that she will “have to bear for eternity,” Rezac said.

“Yet McDaniel is still trying to pick up the pieces and move forward as a shining yet terribly serious example for others who struggle with chemical dependency,” he said.

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A group of lawmakers wants to use state money to help families of LGBT children who have relocated to Minnesota, particularly those from states that restrict gender-affirming treatments for minors.

Last year, Minnesota enacted legislation that blocks other states from taking action against parents in Minnesota who help their children access medicine like puberty-blocking hormones, widely known as gender-affirming care.

The move to establish the state as a “trans refuge” came as many other states, including some of Minnesota’s neighbors, banned the treatments, spurring some families to relocate.

Now, a bill sponsored by Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, the state’s first transgender woman lawmaker, would give Minneapolis LGBT nonprofit PFund Foundation $1 million to help the newcomers. The funding is for LGBTQ+ families in general, though most of the discussion has centered around transgender people.

Nineteen states have a youth ban for hormone replacements and surgeries aimed at addressing gender dysphoria — where a person’s body’s sex characteristics do not match their gender identity. In some of those states, providing treatment to anyone under 18 could be a felony.

Groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association oppose interference with treatments. Conservatives, religious groups and other critics say minors are too young to make informed choices about such treatments.

First hearing

Finke’s bill got its first hearing last week in the House Workforce Development Committee, where Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, said it would help attract workers to Minnesota and support families who have uprooted their lives to get away from restrictive policies.

“If you are not close friends or family with someone who has a child who is trans, I think a lot of folks don’t realize how dire it is in this country right now,” she said. “I think anything we can do to help support those people and make sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful when they get to Minnesota is critically important.”

It’s not entirely clear how many people have come to Minnesota for access to transgender medicine, or for other LGBT protections the state enacted last year like a ban on therapy to change the sexual orientation or gender identity for minors.

But PFund executive director Aaron Zimmerman said his group has identified around 150 individuals and families who have moved to Minnesota since the refuge bill was passed last year, and off that number, 89% have relocated for better access to gender-affirming care.

“We’ve seen firsthand that people from all across the country are moving here to seek safety refuge and a better life for themselves and their children,” he told the House Workforce Development Committee.

Before the “trans refuge” bill was enacted last year, providers of transgender medicine already had long queues of patients, said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, director of Gender Health at Children’s Minnesota, a frequent testifier on transgender issues at the Capitol.

What would $1 million pay for?

If the state gives $1 million to PFund, the nonprofit would use the money to help support the state’s “gender-affirming care workforce” by giving money to health care facilities that help transgender patients.

PFund expects funds to allow the hiring of seven specialists who could help provide services like medication and counseling to about 250 patients each month over the next two years. Advocates say that could attract more gender health specialists to Minnesota.

Past funding for health care, the bill also would help newcomers get established in the workforce, Zimmerman said.

“Funds from this bill will be used to provide wrap-around services that help individuals get job ready, create pathways out of poverty and address the many disparities that prevent LGBTQ+ people from achieving economic security,” said Zimmerman, who noted PFund is well positioned to do the work as it is an established nonprofit that has monitored new arrivals.

GOP reaction

House Republicans raised questions about the bill’s appropriation of $1 million in state money for a narrow group of people when the state has broader public health and workforce needs. Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, called it “quite an interesting bill” and said he had a hard time understanding why it was before the Workforce Development Committee when it pertained to medical support.

He also noted that last year’s “trans refuge” bill is still a new policy, the implications of which are yet to be fully seen by the state.

“A million dollars is a lot of money,” said Baker. “The ink isn’t even dry off last year’s bill to do a lot of things that Minnesotans are still kind of getting their head around.”

The money will go far for the more than 100 families and individuals who have moved to the state, argued Finke, who said the bill directly pertains to the workforce as it addresses preparing newcomers for employment in a new state.

What’s next?

If the Minnesota Legislature approves $1 million for PFund to help LGBT newcomers, it’ll likely happen as part of a broader workforce bill expected to pass later this spring.

The House Workforce Development Committee last week moved to hold the bill over for inclusion in a broader omnibus bill — typical of how Minnesota passes a lot of its legislation.

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