MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — While Minnesota Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman was at work at TCF Bank Stadium last week with his team, his son JD was helping defending state champion Eden Prairie High School beat Totino-Grace — and he hardly missed a play.

“[I] had our game in one ear and his game in the other ear on the radio, and then had it streamed on my computer,” Rick Spielman said.

JD has blossomed into a big-time football player.

“JD is a really gifted young man, but he’s also got great football IQ, understands the game, understands what we’re trying to do,” Eden Prairie Football Coach Mike Grant said.

He had to make an athletic decision. See, he is also a highly-regarded lacrosse player. But he ultimately chose football.

“Football has always been in my heart, you know. At first, I didn’t think I was going to be able to have a chance to play college football, so I chose lacrosse and I was good at it,” JD Spielman said. “But after junior year, a lot of people started telling me, ‘You know, you can go send your film out and I think coaches are going to like it.'”

Next season he will keep wearing big red for Nebraska this time. Yes, he will be a Husker.

“It was just after my last visit down there, got more one-on-one with the coaches, you know, which was a big deal,” JD said. “And I got to meet them more, find out more about their program and what they stand for.”

So Rick Spielman will not mind the frantic football pace this fall. It is more of a football blessing.

“It’s something that you just got to take time to reflect because it’s the last, it’s his senior year, it’s the last chance for, you know, myself and my wife to get an opportunity to just enjoy driving down the street to watch him play,” Rick said.