National Football League

FOX sound guy explains how he got trampled by the Vikings

Published Dec. 9, 2016 1:04 p.m. ET

Rob Perez

A scary scene occurred before the Minnesota Vikings hosted the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, when the biggest hit of the NFL weekend took place -- not between two players but between the entire Vikings team running out of the tunnel for pregame introductions and FOX audio technician Bernie Beaudry.

What was our colleague thinking as he ran into oncoming traffic? In interviews with The Pioneer Press, Beaudry and Vikings defensive tackle Linval Joseph described how it all went down. First Beaudry:

"It was the stupidest thing in 20 years doing this job. ... I only saw the smoke. I didn't see anybody coming, and then, boom!"

Then Joseph -- who delivered the biggest blow, the force of his 6-foot-4, 329-pound frame sending the 62-year-old Beaudry crashing to the ground along with his parabolic microphone:

"I was really surprised somebody was there ... I run out of the tunnel plenty of times and I've never seen anybody run across before. I'm glad he's OK. Tell him I'm sorry."

Back to Beaudry:

"I've had a lot of close calls, but this cancels out all of that. ... I should have peeked."

Thankfully, Beaudry survived the hit and even finished the game performing his duties as a sound technician valiantly. He says he sustained a cut to his nose and broke his glasses, and honestly -- that is good news after seeing how violent the collision was in real time.