New Vikings QB And Certified Hockey Guy JJ McCarthy Had To Big Time Wayne Gretzky

Former Michigan Wolverines quarterback JJ McCarthy is now a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings which means he will be spending a lot of time in the State of Hockey.

While McCarthy has made a name for himself on the gridiron, McCarthy was a solid hockey player growing up and played in La Grange Park, Illinois.

"That was actually my first love," McCarthy told the Detroit Free Press in 2019. "I started when I was like 5 years old and yeah I had to make a really big decision on if I was going to stick with the hockey route or the football route.

"I kind of made that decision around freshman year of high school and it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make."

However, while he had to hang up the skates a bit sooner than he may have liked, McCarthy has hung on to his Hockey Guy cred as evidenced by the fact that one of history's greatest Hockey Guys: Wayne Gretzky.

The Great One gave McCarthy a ring after the draft on Friday, but it just so happened that the newest Viking was in the middle of a Zoom press conference.

This meant he had to big-time Wayne.

"Oh, wow… that's Wayne Gretzky," McCarthy said. "Hockey Guy 101 and going to the Hockey State."

Wow… 

I mean, McCarthey handled that like a professional and continued to field questions from the media, which is a hell of a lot better than I would've done. 

If that happened to me, I would've slammed the laptop shut so fast to go and chit-chat with Wayne-O.

But there are many reasons why that won't be happening the least of which is that I'm not a National Championship-winning QB and first-round NFL draft pick… yet.

Hopefully, as soon as his press obligations were finished McCarthy was able to call the Great One back.