For the last few months, Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy has been a lightning rod of criticism for The Athletic's Dianna Russini and FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd. It has seemed like whenever these two have had the chance to bash McCarthy, they've taken full advantage of it.
Well, during an appearance on "The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz" on Tuesday, Russini was presented with the opportunity to respond to any pushback she's received from Vikings fans this year when she was asked, "why do you hate J.J. McCarthy?"
Her response won't exactly bring a smile to the Minnesota fan base.
"In the offseason, I think I got on their bad side because there was a time where Minnesota was having conversations about bringing in Aaron Rodgers, and I made the mistake of doing Dan Patrick's show.
[Doing his show] wasn't the mistake; I love Dan, [but] it was Dan [who] set me up on purpose and said, 'All right, take a guess right now. If you had to guess, Aaron Rodgers will play where? This is just a guess.'
And as a reporter, when you guess, people think that's you saying that's what's going to happen. [So, I] took a beat and I said, 'Dan, I think that Aaron Rodgers will somehow wind up in Minnesota.'”
Dianna Russini points the blame elsewhere for criticism from Minnesota Vikings fans about J.J. McCarthy
So, Vikings fans have been unhappy with Russini this offseason because of what she said during an appearance on "The Dan Patrick Show" earlier this year?
Of course, because it definitely isn't because of what she recently said on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" show about how she's "not bought in all the way" when it comes to McCarthy being Minnesota's starting quarterback and that Minnesota fans are probably "going to be disappointed" with how he plays in the upcoming season.
It certainly has nothing to do with when Russini and the co-host of her "Scoop City" podcast, Chase Daniel, accused McCarthy of coming off phony and rehearsing responses during a press conference he had in the spring.
And it obviously has nothing to do with Russini questioning whether or not the Vikings are actually telling the truth when they claim to be all in on McCarthy when she appeared on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" last week.
The Athletic's NFL Insider also revealed on "The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz" that she will be in Minnesota this week for Vikings practice. After sharing this, she said she's “going to land at the airport and people are going to throw eggs in my face.”
That would be an odd thing for Vikings fans to do in reaction to a silly little guess she had about Rodgers playing for Minnesota earlier this year, right?
It's almost as if even Russini knows that's not the real reason why Vikings fans haven't been happy with her this offseason.