>> The Vikings so far this year are No. 1 in the NFL in cash spent on players, $362.3 million, per spotrac.com. The Packers at $259.5 million, are No. 27 in the 32-team league. Last season, the Vikings ranked 18th at $228.4 million, the Packers 19th at $234 million.

>> The 2025 NFL draft and free agency have been completed and Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who has one season left on his initial four-year contract, remains without an extension even though Vikings ownership has said it will get done.

>> TV viewership of the Timberwolves-Oklahoma City Game 1 of the Western Conference finals last week was down 24% from the Wolves-Mavericks Game 1 playoff a year ago, per sportsmediawatch.com

>> So much of the coming Vikings season will depend on how rookie QB J.J. McCarthy plays. At this juncture, a 10-7 regular season record isn’t unreasonable.

>> The NBA is expected to wait until soon after the NBA Finals to announce that Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are officially new owners of the Timberwolves and Lynx. Meanwhile, a second source has confirmed that Rodriguez and Lore did not have the $1.5 billion purchase price and needed mega-billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Eric Schmidt to step in to fortify.

>> A little birdie says a Gophers men’s sophomore basketball starting guard will play this year with a $700,000 name, image and likeness (NIL) deal.

>> If Gophers football sophomore defensive back Koi Perich, paid $250,000 via NIL last season, makes less than $1 million, he’s being underpaid.

>> Sophomore offensive line starter Phillip Daniels, who is 6-foot-5 and 315-pounds, has left the Gophers and is joining a reigning national championship Ohio State team that had a NIL player payroll of $20 million last season. Minnesota plays in Columbus on Oct. 4.

>> Don’t think there won’t be major competition among Minnesota casino tribes for more sports gambling rights when it’s officially announced that Grand Casino in Mille Lacs will succeed Xcel Energy Center as corporate naming sponsor for the Wild’s St. Paul arena.

>> A sports memorabilia collector the other day was able to get new Pope Leo XIV, an American baseball fan from Chicago, to sign a baseball.

Leo XIV is expected to be asked a lot to autograph baseballs. In 1987, former Gophers catcher Mike Sadek from Richfield, while working for the Giants, was able to get a baseball signed by Pope John Paul II during a papal appearance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Pope signed it “JPII.” It brought $34,000 in an auction.

>> Now word is it’ll take $17 million a season if Kirill Kaprizov’s representation squeezes the Wild to re-sign its star in July.

>> Wild first-round draft pick forward Danila Yurov from Russia will play for the entry-level $950,000 when he gets to the NHL.

>> Plans are underway for a huge retirement party in Montreal in August for Marc-Andre Fleury and teammates from his 21-year career, which ended with the Wild this season.

Overheard

>> The Twins’ Rocco Baldelli, the 2019 AL Manager of the Year: “I could be wrong about this, but over seven years there’s only one guy in this clubhouse who was here in 2019, Byron (Buxton). It’s basically Byron and a different group. When it gets down to it, you’re going to have to win in a completely different manner.”