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Vikings troll Giants center Nick Gates on jumbotron during playoff game after calling Minnesotans ‘too nice’

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Teams are always looking to fire up the home crowd when the opposing offense is on the field. The Vikings are using quotes from one Giants lineman to try and get the crowd energized.

After a Week 16 matchup in Minnesota, Giants center Nick Gates said the midwestern fans in Minnesota were “too nice” and that the crowd wasn’t as intimidating as he expected, according to ESPN.

Well, Gates now gets to see what a playoff crowd in Minnesota is like. The Giants faced the Vikings on the road in the NFC wild-card round on Sunday, and as the Giants were on offense, the Minnesota jumbotron plastered his quote in front of the crowd as it tracked the decibels of the crowd, which was tracked at 121.8 decibels.

MORE: Giants vs. Vikings live updates, highlights

The quote from Gates came after the Vikings’ 27-24 win back in Week 16. The fourth-year offensive lineman out of Nebraska had said he left Minnesota unimpressed by the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“Surprised. Actually, I thought it would be a lot louder,” Gates said, per ESPN. “I thought especially when our offense is out there they would be a lot louder out there. But you know, they’re Midwest people. They’re too nice. I can say it because I went to Nebraska. I went to Nebraska. I include myself in that one.”

At that point, it would have seemed likely the Giants would face the Vikings again. Coming off a win against Washington, New York had all but sealed its wild-card spot, and was likely to be the No. 6 seed with the Cowboys and Eagles going down to the wire for the NFC East title and the first wild card. When the Vikings lost to the Packers in Week 17, wins by the 49ers and Eagles were all that was needed to make sure Gates got a chance to revisit that Minnesota crowd.

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Not all the Giants agreed with his assessment. Guard Jon Feliciano said that the crowd noise was enough to mess up several protections, noting, “unlike what Nick Gates said, they definitely were loud.”

The comments had clearly resonated with the Vikings, with Kevin O’Connell referencing his remarks during a TV interview and during one of his press conferences.

It is no surprise that those comments wound up being revisited, particularly in a playoff matchup between the two teams. Think they would get the Minnesota crowd fired up? You betcha.

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