La Velle E. Neal III's 3-2 Pitch: Three observations and two predictions every Sunday.

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Even the NFL wants Gable Steveson, the back-flipping, gold medal-winning heavyweight wrestler from Apple Valley who has returned from the Tokyo Olympics to a hero's welcome.

"Crazy. Weird," Steveson said. "Because I've never played football in my life. To be able to hear from the Buffalo Bills and a few other teams that reached out, it's wild."

Steveson continues to make the rounds as he enjoys his Olympics afterglow. On Thursday he appeared at Apple Valley to a packed gymnasium as the school celebrated Gable Steveson Day. He took dozens of photos and hugged dozens of friends, former coaches and teachers. Three years ago, he was sitting in the same stands with classmates, listening to others speak.

That evening, Steveson appeared at the Gophers-Ohio State football game, wearing his gold medal. A crowd of more than 50,000 fans at Huntington Bank Stadium gave him a standing ovation.

He admitted that he never thought he'd reach this point. But 13 seconds changed everything.

He trailed Georgia's Geno Petriashvili in the gold medal match 8-5 with 13 seconds to go. Then Steveson got two points with eight seconds remaining and two more at the buzzer to pull off the stunning rally. He jumped for joy, hugged his coach and, eventually, performed his trademark backflip.

Since then, it's been hard for Steveson to sit still. He attended the Bellator MMA event; he also checked out the WWE's Summer Slam, taking a picture with WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Both sports would love to have him, but Steveson hasn't committed to anything, yet.

"A decision is not fully done, but I can say it is about 90 percent done," said Steveson, who added he might announce his future plans in the next week or two.

He has decided to remain a student and will take classes at the U. He would not say, however, if he will wrestle for the Gophers again. He could compete for them while taking advantage of the name, image and likeness deals college athletes are now allowed to accept.

Or he might decide that the time to launch a career in MMA or pro wrestling. (His older brother, Bobby, recently began training at the WWE Performance Center.) While he's listened to his advisers on what his next steps should be, he's been touched by young fans who tell him they want to wrestle, too. There are people of all ages waiting to see what Steveson does next.

"I'm trying to leave a trail for everyone who is up and coming and wants to do what I do," he said. "To be able to have the platform to do all that is awesome. I don't know what the next step is but my thing is to inspire and make sure people know what I do."

Gophers rehash

Here are a few observations after the Gophers' 45-31 loss to Ohio State on Thursday:

  • Mohamed Ibrahim's injury is a gut punch, but the Gophers are fortunate to have quarterback Tanner Morgan around to mitigate any significant drop-off in production.
  • The Gophers' passing game might become a reliable one, as wideouts Dylan Wright and Daniel Jackson contributed Thursday and Brevyn Spann-Ford could turn out to be a reliable pass-catching tight end. Now, drop a healthy Chris Autman-Bell into that mix.
  • Things could have been worse for the pass defense as Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud missed several open receivers but still threw four touchdown passes. Fortunately, the Gophers might not see another group of skill position players as strong as Ohio State's the remainder of the season.
  • The Gophers showed off their offensive line depth, opening the game with seven of them on the field and actually had eight on the field in a goal-line situation in the second quarter.

Hockey in the Games

I'm a sucker for international athletic events, and Olympic hockey is not the same without NHL players. The only reason Russia won the gold in 2018 was because U.S. and Canada were not at full force — at least I'd like to think so.

Many athletes dream of representing their country in the Olympics. For players in the NHL, that dream was not realized in 2018 as the league refused to allow them to participate in the Pyeongchang Games.

The NHL is not a fan of taking an Olympic break in the middle of their season, as well as injury risks.

That changes next season.

The players successfully had an Olympics clause put into their current collective bargaining agreement. On Friday, their participation in the 2022 Beijing Games was confirmed as players, owners, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee agreed to a working plan.

Now teams will have the best players available, which will be a ratings hit for the Olympics.

And two predictions

Losing ways

The Twins will fall just short of posting a second consecutive winning month. With an inexperienced rotation, the Twins will go 13-14 in September before their final three games of the season in Kansas City.

Slow start

The Vikings will go 1-2 in September. They will beat the Bengals in Cincinnati but lose a close one at Arizona. Then Russell Wilson and the Seahawks visit U.S. Bank Stadium on Sept. 26 and make a withdrawal.