A line of XXXXLs
July 28, 2003
BOB SANSEVERE
Pioneer Press Columnist
MANKATO, Minn.
Mike Rosenthal is 6 feet 7 and weighs 313 pounds. That makes him the scrawniest starter on the Vikings' offensive line.
He is just ounces lighter than the next, uh, skinniest member of the line. Center Matt Birk tips the ol' Toledo at 314 pounds. Birk, by the way, has a nickname for Rosenthal. Birk calls him "the runt of the litter."
Rosenthal came over in the offseason from the New York Giants. "Where I was the heaviest player on the line," he said. "I went from the heaviest guy in New York to the lightest guy here."
Rosenthal is several buffets and binge eatings away from becoming the heftiest member of the Vikings' offensive line. Left to right, they weigh 349, 330, 314, 344 and 313 pounds.
This is not just a line of wide bodies. This is a line of the widest bodies.
With a combined weight of 1,650 pounds and an average of 330, the Vikings might have the beefiest line in the NFL this season. If you're scoring, it would have been the heaviest group of starters in the league last season.
When you factor in their height — Birk is the shortest at 6-4 — the Vikings also could have the tallest offensive line in all of football. Their average height: 6-6.
They're not what you'd call lean, but none of the starters on the Vikings' line is fat, either.
"Some offensive linemen are that way — sloppy," Vikings offensive line coach Steve Loney said. "When you see our guys walking toward you, they're not sloppy looking."
No, just massive looking. If Paul Bunyan played on this line, his nickname would be "Tiny" or "Slim."
"Getting to 300 is a milestone. Life is more fun at 300," Birk said. "This is a pretty elite group. There's a big difference between 300 and 299."
Their cumulative weight has the Vikings' linemen puffing out their chests through their XXXXL shirts.
"It'd be kind of cool, being the biggest," said Chris Liwienski, who shifts his 6-6, 330-pound frame from right tackle to left guard this season. "But we don't want to be the biggest. We want to be the best."
"We've got to play big," said left tackle Bryant McKinnie, who has the distinction of being both the tallest (6-8) and heaviest (349) of the Vikings' starting linemen.
"Chris Hovan tells me when we walk to the line, he says, 'God, you guys are big,' " said right guard David Dixon, 6-5, 344. "Our size plays with people's heads."
"It doesn't matter how big we are. Our stats will be shown in the yardage our running backs gain," Rosenthal said. "And the time Daunte Culpepper gets."
Culpepper loves that kind of talk. He could be the biggest beneficiary of all the super-sized linemen in front of him.
"When I drop back, I have to look over guys. Sometimes, it's tough to see. I have to be light on my feet," Culpepper said. "They're big trees. Especially that guy on the left."
That guy on the left would be McKinnie.
"I call him Eclipse," said Culpepper, no shrimp himself.
Culpepper goes 6-4, 264. Back in the '70s and early '80s, he would have been above the average size for an offensive lineman. The Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl in 1983 with a group of offensive linemen nicknamed the Hogs for obese reasons. Back then, they were considered immense because they had a 300-pound left tackle (Joe Jacoby) and a 291-pound guard (Mark May) and three other starters who, for the era, weren't exactly pint-sized.
Check this out: Culpepper weighs more than two of the Hogs did; center Jeff Bostic went 6-2, 250, and right tackle George Starke was 6-5, 260. Culpepper is only nine pounds lighter than the Hogs' left guard, Russ Grimm, who weighed 273.
Nowadays big linemen are called hogs in a sort of homage to those Redskins.
"We don't want hogs. We don't like hogs," Tice said. "We like to pull guys. We like pass protection. We want guys who are big, tall and athletic."
He's got guys who are big, tall and athletic.
"I love our group," Birk said before heading off to have lunch.
Birk knows what every other starting member of the Vikings' offensive line knows: A man has got to eat, especially if he's a big man and wants to stay that way.
AI
