Vikings Receiver Wants Fanboy Refs Out of Football

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Adam Thielen - Minnesota Vikings
Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The (4-5) Minnesota Vikings get back on the football field Sunday, at U.S. Bank Stadium, in a near-must win game against their NFC North rival (6-3) Chicago Bears.

More than anything else in week 11, we need to see Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy take a step forward in his development as the future face of this franchise.

With Jonathan Greenard ruled OUT on the other side of the football, it’ll be up to those around him on the Vikings defense to hold help corral Caleb Williams often enough for Minnesota’s offense to figure out a Chicago defense that has been putrid most of the season.

MN Vikings WR wants fanboy NFL refs replaced by full-timers

One teammate hoping to help his young QB out on Sunday is recently reacquired veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen. But that’s not the only area of this weekend’s football game where the 35-year-old Thielen wants to see improvement.

Adam Thielen - Minnesota Vikings
Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

In fact, he isn’t just looking for improvement from his team or the opposing Bears. On Friday during an interview with KFAN Radio’s Power Trip Morning Show, Thielen revealed to hosts Cory Cove, Meatsauce and Chris Hawkey that the league’s biggest referee issue right now is a lack of professionalism.

See, the NFL still has part times refs; guys and gals who referee NFL games on weekends, between grinding out normal five-day workweeks at their full-time job.

In fact, Thielen referred to today’s standard NFL ref as a “fanboy” who uses their super cool part time job as a way to brag to co-workers during the week at their real job.

“I think we need to have full-time referees. I think it’s ridiculous that we have — and no offense to these guys, they obviously love their job and they put a lot of time into it, I know they do — but we have these [referees] who are kind of fanboys, a little bit.

They love the fact that they get to go out there and they get to shake hands with Patrick Mahomes. They get to hang out with these professional athletes. Then they go to their real job on Monday through Friday and tell everybody how cool their side job is.

I think there should be full-time referees. I mean, the NFL has billions and billions of dollars. There’s so much money in the game, there’s so much betting on the game, that these games matter so much.

Obviously, not just the people who are gambling, but what about the people who put in so much time and effort to try and go performa well and win games. All the time the coaches put in. They deserve to have full-time referees. That’s my take on it and I think it’s very easy to do and I don’t know why it hasn’t been done.”

Adam Thielen – Power Trip Morning Show – KFAN Radio

Related: MN Vikings Superstar Calls on Year 3 Jets to Return

Thielen’s comments on the Power Trip Friday came at an interesting time. Last Sunday, against the Baltimore Ravens, Adam threw an all-time Thielen tantrum, which is saying something since he has had some legendary on-field outbursts in the past.

Context to Adam Thielen’s comments on KFAN Radio

The Detroit Lakes native and Minnesota State – Mankato alum lost his mind after he was called for an illegal blindside block that cost the Vikings one of only a few productive offensive plays in the game.

Theilen seemed even more frustrated after the game, following a meetup he had with some fanboy refs postgame who expressed confusion over whether or not they made the right call against him on the field.

Late in the 2025 preseason, after Jalen Nailor went down with a preseason wrist injury and Jordan Addison was suspended, the Minnesota Vikings were staring at life for three weeks without a respectable outside option for JJ McCarthy.

Looking back now, it sure feels like the Vikings panicked in the moment, especially once Nailor returned sooner than expected. In order to pry Adam out of Carolina, Minnesota had to give up multiple mid-round draft picks — a a 2027 4th and 2026 5th.

Related: JJ McCarthy Shows Up to Vikings Practice with New Ailment

Fast forward ten weeks later, where Justin Jefferson, Addison and Nailor are all healthy and cemented above Theilen on the Vikings depth chart, and it seems likely that 2025 will finish as the least productive in Adam’s career since 2015, when he was still just a special teams player.

Through nine games, the results have not been what Adam Thielen or the MN Vikings expected. Thielen has caught just 7 passes on 15 targets for a total of 63 yards and 0 touchdowns, which is not up to snuff for a guy who was so expensive to bring back.

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