Getting Open with Paul Allen

he's typically the one asking the questions. But we decided to flip the script a little bit and I got to interview him. I really appreciate the conversation with Paul because he was willing to get really vulnerable and open and talk about a variety of topics, including how the COVID nineteen pandemic has affected his life personally. Well, Paul, I feel a little bit strange doing this and being the one asking the questions instead of answering them. So

thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's my honor. The series is great. From Jail and Holmes through Kendricks and then coming on my radio show at KAPAN, A couple of times. Thank you very much. Absolutely well. We are going to get into a few different topics here today, but I wanted to start out a little bit more generally because we've been doing this series now for several weeks. I know you and I have talked about it. Like you just mentioned, there have

been several players involved. I love the wide spectrum of perspectives that we've been able to get on this topic. And you had told me early on that you wanted to be a part of this from your perspective. Why was this an important series to be a part of for you? Well, for me, you know, being a man, and I mean whether you want to take it from the game calls or if I know you, you know, I guess that would be pacified as an emotional man

where I'm open, you know, I don't. I don't. I've failed a lot, and I guess professionally I've succeeded to a certain level and through all of that, I just know through the people I've met, specifically men that you know, when there are problems or when somebody's hurting, they will internalize. And you know, certainly in no way to put my professional a lot in life in comparison to members of the Vikings or NFL or whatever. But you know, being a public figure and to some a big fish in

a small pond. You know, I think people will look at a lot of things I do with cafe and radio, calling racist at Canterbury or calling Vikings games, and they'd be like, he has it all figured out. I mean, this is just absolutely fantastic. And it is. But along the way, there's been a lot of turmoil, and there's been a lot of hey, and you know, I have been a man who I'm not afraid to open up and I'm not afraid to talk about things that are hurting me, and it has benefited me all of my life.

So you mentioned that it's been all of your life, so that's always kind of come easily for you to be open to talk about your feelings, to share about what's going on. That's just been something that's been natural for you. Yeah, it's always been natural, like my faith, which always has been there, you know, but I really intensified it the last couple of years by by either listening to or reading the Bible on a daily basis.

And I'd say over the last couple of years, I just became more at peace and more comfortable with who I am as a person, more so than PA and you know everything that goes into it, and you know there I'm a pretty black and white individual. There's not much gray area with me, and sometimes that can be to a fault because you can, you know, you can share,

whether it's about me or trying to help somebody. And you know, not everybody's used to that, specifically men, so you know it can it can get a little awkward, but by faith, I know the way I'm doing it is the right way to live. Can you talk a little bit more about how that faith aspect has played a role in just this whole topic that we're talking about in mental health? So in your mental well being? What part does faith play in that for you? Well,

the Gospel, the prophecy, the Bible. God first and foremost to me over every single thing, and always has been. So you know, now that I've really taken time to study the Old and New Testament, we can begin in Genesis with Noah when it was all wiped out, the story of Noah's ark, you know, through the turmoil and everything two thousand years ago, people went, for instance, in the Lard's prayer when it says give us this day

our daily bread. When I'm teaching that to my kids or praying it or talking about it with people, I don't take it loosely. I mean, when it was written two thousand years ago, they didn't eat, they didn't have any food. So when they said give us this day or daily bread, it was they were begging for the

opportunity to eat. So, whether it's coronavirus now, whether it's really anything that has transpired in the history of the world or my fifty five years, I have a great appreciation for the totality of the last two thousand years, and it helps me put in perspective a wounding you know that potentially is taking place with coronavirus and just everything that goes into heavy things that are hitting us.

This faith is not by convenience. You know, when you follow and believe in the Bible the way I do, it puts things in perspective that what's right in front of us now it's awful. A lot of it is so awful physically for so many, mentally for so many, But if you go back two thousand years, it was worse, and here we are still professing the Bible. For those who don't believe in it, you know, we're still debating it,

and that's a two thousand year prophecy. So it helps me stay at peace, not by convenience, but by faith. I know it's right, and it helps me put things in perspective. I really appreciate you sharing that. I know that you and I have had some conversations and you are on the same page with that. But I think you also have the nail on the head that life is always hard. But this has been a really hard year in a lot of different ways, for a lot of different people. And even if we can find peace

in that, it doesn't make it not difficult. So let's talk about your career. Obviously a long time voice of the Vikings, but this year looks so different for you because you were calling road games from home and not traveling. We understand the health protocols, We understood why that was important and health and safety is number one, but it did impact your job. What kind of impact did that have on you personally and how did you kind of

work through that? Well. The first road game that I called off TV was the Indianapolis Colts game, and I made more identification mistakes in the first half of that game then I'm going to make in ten years. And I'm very prideful with pronunciation, preparation and just laying things out the way I think the audience wants to hear it. So after I tightened that up and got things good, you know, I feel the calls of the games off TV were up to my standards, which are incredibly high.

Now the double edged sword with that, Lindsay is I enjoyed it too much. And what I am enjoyed too much was the convenience of coming from my house to the stadium and then getting done, going home and being able to Mowilawn at for forty five in the afternoon. That's great, Okay for me, that's great. That's not how the job was constructed. And it's not just being able to see the full plane of the field from the road stadiums or feeding off the road crowds. It's everything

that goes into it. Working with the team, and you've traveled before, so sitting on the buses for a long amount of time, the tarmac, getting up early to get to the stadium three hours early, a lot of it can be a grind, especially when the team's not winning, but it's our grind, it's the team grind, and we're

all doing it together. You know. During the course of my career, I've had agents approach me privately about doing things nationally, whether it's radio or TV, and I've always thought about it or second and then I'm like, I like working with a team. I like being part of a team that's succeeding and feeling that exaltation. And when things aren't going well, I like being on that grind too, and then doing my nine to noon radio show and hearing from the fans whether it's negative or it's positive.

And you know, I think I just became a little too. It was just a little too convenient doing road games the way I did them last year. If there's an organizational decision made that that's how road games are going to go, I'm going to call the games off TV. But you know, despite personal life sacrifice with the leaving on Saturday and getting back super late on Sunday, I found myself missing that because I didn't feel like I was immersed or one with the team. Did that at all?

Drive home for you even more kind of the importance of connection, of having a support system, of being a support system to tend to to one's mental health mental wellbeing. Well, the answer is yes. And you know, I think a lot of people would agree with this is it's yes, But I'm not completely sure the totality of the why now. I think the best way to put it is, I haven't even met Justin Jefferson in person. I mean, that's ridiculous. Okay,

it was almost Rookie of the Year. He's unbelievably cool and good and yeah, I did some zooms with him several times, and it's the best we can do, and I understand it. But I mean, you know, when you go to road fellowship like I do, when you when the media leaves the locker room and I'm left in there and I'm chatting with people privately about life or about the team. I greatly missed that. In fact, I missed it so much that I was sour at the end of the year. I mean, those home games with

nobody in there, and again we letely understand why. It was just awful. It was just awful. I mean, it was very, very The home games were more difficult than the road games because I just became saddened during the Star Spangled banner of what we were missing. But I understood it every step of the way. So you see taking hits like that, now that's me. Other people take, you know, they're taking job related, family related, health related,

financial related hits all throughout the year. And the physical damage COVID has done, that's obvious, and people can see that and they can understand what it is like if they've had it like I have. The mental part of it. I think that's all going to come to pass, and

I know it is with me. I mean, we're doing this interview and I'm a Twin Cities Orthopedix Performance Center actually inside at the TCO studios for the first time in six months, and you know, when I walked in here, it took my breath away because I miss the intimacy of being part of a team, sitting in Zimmer's office, talking about things for the game coming up over the weekend, being next to cousins and talking about faith and Matthew eleven twenty eight and Deuteronomy and things like that, and

messing around with Dalvin about the great game he just had. I just missed that. You know, I've done this coming up on my twentieth season, So I don't call the games trying to establish myself in the pecking order locally of where I stand or nationally where I stand. I couldn't care less about that. What I really love and adore is the intimacy and the personal contact of being part of that team. And it was gone, and I understand why it was gone, but it doesn't mean it

felt good. You mentioned the impact both physically and mentally and emotionally that COVID has had on so many people. And you mentioned that you dealt with COVID yourself, and I know that you've been pretty open about that. Can you share with us just a little bit about the experience that you went through and what that was like for you emotionally? And I know that there were positives and negatives to that. Yeah. I live with a flight attendant named Lisa, she's the love of my life. February

twenty eighth, she tested positive. So with that happening, I immediately contacted kay Fan and Eric Sugarman with the vikings and I said, the flight attendant came up positive, what do I do? Kay Fan said, You're not coming in Monday, March first, Sugarman said, get over here Monday morning. We're

going to give you a test and see what happened. Now, during that time, Lisa and I had been tending to her eighty one year old mom who has who had cancer, and living with her is her son and Lisa's brother, Jimmy, and he's had a very very rough life for the last quarter century. So I'm positive, Lisa's positive, Agnes her mom positive, and Jimmy, her brother positive. So we knew. We knew all of that March first. So now I said to Sug what do I do? And he said,

just wait. About two hours later, I had the worst fatigue hit me a human being. It was seriously like a freight train just rolled me over. I mean people were texting and or emailing. I'd look at it and I couldn't respond. I was just wiped out, lost taste, lost smell, no respiratory problems, thank Evans. And I was sleeping Monday and Tuesday, about sixteen hours a day. I couldn't pray. I like to listen to the Bible in bed,

couldn't do that. I couldn't focus, couldn't watch TV, look at the internet, my phone, nothing that's okay because it will pass, at least I thought. And during that time Lisa,

who also tested positive, she was fine. So now we get to Wednesday, March third, jump in the hot tub for a second, see what the hot water is going to do in the jets after sleeping again seven in the morning until about ten in my recliner because I just I can't function, and those who have had the fatigue due to COVID know exactly what I'm talking about. You can't do anything. And got out of the hot tub and felt a little better and picked up my Bible.

With Lisa, drove up to Woodberry and said, we're going to go to your mom's. She's starting to struggle badly. Everything we have heard, read or seen with those saying the elderly with a predetermined condition when they get COVID, look out, everything was right. Every single thing we have heard was dead accurate. And so we get over there and we pray. I read some of John fourteen and Romans eight to Agnes Agnes harmony. There's a lot of

crying in the room with Lisa and Jim. Then I go to leave and I get in my car and I can smell and I can taste and my fatigue is gone. I had COVID forty hours, and thank Heavens, however you want to look at it, I only had at forty hours because two days later Lisa's COVID became COVID pneumonia and she ended up in Saint Joseph's Hospital in Saint Paul for eight days. So now her mom is dying rapidly, and she requested in home hospice where she wanted. She wanted to die in her bed with

her loved ones next to her. So I had some people who had gone through death with family members and stuff, and the hospice team said to me, you know, twenty four hour hospice is available, and I said no. I got healed in forty hours, and I believe I'm healed to be here to guide this woman to the end,

and that's what I'm going to do. So thankfully, Cafin and the Vikings were I mean not thankfully, not surprisingly Cafan of the Vikings were awesome during that time, and I was at her Woodberry house twice a day at least or twenty four hours a day for eight days. Her daughter, Lisa was in a cold hospital room during a pandemic where people couldn't come see her, so she's

devastated or facetiming, it's the best we can do. And from that Sunday through the next Sunday when she died, being somebody who had the responsibility of providing comfort and care for a woman who was dying and you know, a son who was really struggling in his own right and basically running that hospice for eight days. It's the

greatest honor ever bestowed upon me in my life. And that's the only way to put it, whether it's via prayer with her, trying to get her to smile, trying to get her to laugh, trying to get her jaw to on lock so she could take an ice cube, the secretion that started coming out of her mouth, and how and dealing with that, changing diapers, turning her over, just every single thing that went in with the earthly ugliness that is death, while reminding her every step of

the way that you're going to heaven. And I'm so envious that you get a chance to go to heaven. And that's awesome. It's the greatest honor that's ever been bestowed upon me in my life. And when it was done, you know, of course, you have a daughter and a son grieving the loss of their mom. And while I understood that and I felt for them for about two or three days, I just wanted another honor like that.

I mean, it's like, what's next. That's all I want to do the rest of my life is what I just did because of how meaningful and impactful I saw it was and how righteous it was. And took me a while to get through that, you know, but yeah, I mean it's it's we're all better now. But that, man, that that was unbelievable. Well, thank you so much for sharing, um such a personal experience and um being so open about that, which is, you know a lot of what

we're talking about. I really really appreciate you sharing that with us. And that's what I've really loved about this

whole series. And not to be cliche, but just the idea of getting open and hearing so many different people's personal stories around mental health, whether it impacts them directly or indirectly through family members and such, and the experiences are just really important I think to impact other people that that that whole experience, Lindsay, I mean, it's it's going to set a lot of people back, and I'm not here to win God's power rankings. I'm the same as you. I'm the same as car I'm the same

as Nate, I'm the same as everybody. I was in that spot for a reason, and it impacted me in a very positive way. Now my tolerance level with a lack of common sense has become a zero, and I'm working on that specifically having a daughter who's a senior in high school and a son who's twenty and teenagers can lack common sense, so that needs to improve on my part. But it's when you hold a dying person's hand because her daughter can't be there because she has

COVID pneumonia and she's in the hospital. It has an impact on me. That is the greatest thing I've experienced in my life. And it's a peace that I'm a person who's non confrontational. I'm generally at peace, but it elevated it and took it to a different level from a spiritual standpoint, And so, I mean, I guess that's the serendipity of it. You know, you somebody died and her daughter couldn't be there with her, and through it

all thanks to the honor bestowed upon me. I look at things with more patience and I look at things with more grace because I've had so much given to me in my life that I'm not worthy of. And I was not worthy to be in that position, but I was put in it and I came through. So that's impacting my relationship with other people in positive ways. And when other people are listening to whether it's your story, John Randall. We talked to recently Eric Kendricks a while back.

What do you hope from listening to your story and from hearing some of your experiences over this past year that others will take Well, there's a common thread with this series that I've noticed without people saying it. Maybe I'm wrong. If you're into the Bible, it's stated pride goes before the fall. If you're not, just let me tell your pride goes before the fall. So I'm not going to pigeonhole just men with this, but for a lot of men to open up and say that they're struggling,

and you know what, it's more than obvious things. I took a pay cut, I'm checked to check. It's really

difficult to pay the bills. All of that is real, and all of that counts, but it cuts deeper, and the pandemic year has whether it's drug abuse, alcohol, putting on a massive amount of weight, not knowing what to do with it, jobs, all of that that hurts people, and some people are too prideful to find somebody to whom they can chat about it, and even just opening up a little bit vividly with somebody you love, even

just taking a tiny step. It's a breadcrumb that leads to a cruton, which leads to a full, beautiful salad of life that opens everything up for you. So just taking that first step, it doesn't necessarily have to be counseling or therapy. Maybe it is, but just opening up to somebody about your struggles. Taking that little step, it seriously is one tiny step for you, but a massive step for mankind if a lot of people do it. Yeah. Amen, I think that's so true, and it definitely has been

a theme throughout this entire series. I'm thrilled that you joined us for this series. We're getting towards the end here, so thank you for being a part of it and for caring. And I know that people will really enjoy listening. It's my honor. Thank you very much, A huge thanks to Paul for joining us today and really getting open about some personal topics and some really tough topics as well. I know that I always appreciate Paul's willingness to just

be himself, and you know, he doesn't mince words. He just gets to the point, and I think that's so appreciated and really makes an impact. I'm excited for next week because we are going to have one more episode of Getting Open. It's going to be kind of a unique episode. Part of it will be reflecting over the series, and we will also have another story to share with you as well. So please keep an eye on Viking's digital platforms next week for that final episode to roll out.