Andrew Van Ginkel, Please Be an Electricity Factory Again in 2025
I don’t know about you, but I, for one, love it when a football player who shouldn’t make crazy plays makes crazy plays. It’s like asking mom to pull into Taco Bell for some Doritos Locos Tacos and instead of her saying “No, sweetie, we have food at home”, she whips the GMC Yukon into the drive-thru and snags you a pair with a Baja Blast (the actual drink, I don’t really like the freeze), and that’s exactly what Andrew Van Ginkel was for the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.
Andrew Van Ginkel was a pair of Doritos Locos Tacos and a Baja Blast while riding home with mom from the grocery store (there’s Caprisuns in the grocery haul) with the windows down while listening to Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson. I never knew how much those cheesy tacos meant to me.
Andrew Van Ginkel didn’t just make memorable moments in 2024; oftentimes, he was the moment. The long, blonde-haired Midwesterner, hailing from Rock Valley, Iowa, by way of the Wisconsin Badger Football program, was an absolute force on the American football field for the Minnesota Vikings, racking up 11.5 sacks and 2 interceptions that he both returned for touchdowns.
You knew this guy was gonna bring the heat when one of those pick-sixes came in his very first game with the fellas in Minneapolis, when he absolutely baited Minnesota Vikings legend and at the time Giants QB Daniel Jones for a house call when the boys were already up 21-6.
It’s not often a play gets me to stand up for my chair just because of how nasty it was, but that one definitely got me.
Then there was the pick-six on Aaron Rodgers against the Jets in London. You wanna talk about bringing the electricity overseas? Great Britain hasn’t seen a display of American muscle like that since the Revolutionary War. It just made it all the sweeter that it was on Aaron Rodgers, and seeing his already-droopy face droop even more was so awesome.
It looked exactly like how an experienced Madden player would hover down on the line of scrimmage and then immediately shoot up as soon as the dude they’re playing online snaps the ball and tries to throw a quick slant over the middle. Not many things on this planet feel as good as a User Lurk. Also, with all due respect to Rich Eisen, I’m not sure about how much I like him in the live commentary booth.
Special shoutout to the Miami Dolphins for opting not to pay the Ginkelmeister; I know that they already have Jaelen Phillips and Bradley Chubb, making Andrew Van Ginkel the odd man out, but he’s kind of seeming like one of those players you don’t want to just let walk away, you know?
The Vikings did right by Gink, and backed up the Brinks truck to his front doorstep earlier this offseason, so now he can be sick on the field while making way more money, which seems like a win-win to little old me.
