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Minnesota Vikings rookie Jordan Addison caught doing 140 in a 55 for a 'dog emergency'

At the end of April, NFL teams spent three days picking new players from the 2023 draft class. With the 23rd pick in the first of three rounds, the Minnesota Vikings chose a 21-year-old wide receiver named Jordan Addison, who came out of the University of Southern California. The season hasn't started yet — training camp began two days ago — and Addison has already had to publicly apologize to his new city. Two days before camp began, ESPN reported a Minnesota State Patrol officer caught Addison doing 140 miles per hour in a Lamborghini Urus at 3:07 in the morning. The speed limit on that stretch of I-94 in St. Paul, a mile from downtown, is 55 mph.  The way a different ESPN report is written, it sounds like there were two troopers involved. Allegedly, "Addison first slowed down when he saw police lights from another trooper who was pulled over on the right shoulder of the road," and the second trooper made the stop, pulling the footballer over without incident. According to the misdemeanor citation issued for speeding and reckless driving, Addison "stated his dog was having an emergency at his residence and that was the reason for his speed." The ticket didn't go into details about the dog or the emergency. Addison has posed with his Urus before on Instagram, while the only dog in his feed at the moment is the little guy in the last photo, which appears to be, best guess, a French bulldog. No one else was involved. We hope the dog's OK. The next day, the rookie Viking issued the statement, "Yesterday morning I made a mistake and used poor judgment. I recognize and own that ... I am going to learn from this and not repeat the behavior. I am truly sorry." The Minnesota Vikings are aware of the incident and "gathering additional information." Drivers in the Minnesota caught doing more than 100 mph can have their licenses revoked, but It's not clear if the matter will go any further with the organization or the police.  

2022 Ford Maverick gets a surprising amount of attention

People notice the 2022 Ford Maverick. You could chalk it up to metro Detroit being a company town, but that’s too easy. The Maverick, despite its modest size, has presence. I expected the truck to draw curiosity. Aesthetically, the MaverickÂ’s closest rival, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz, is far more eye-catching with a flashy grille and curves and creases front to back. The MaverickÂ’s squared-off truck demeanor makes it an understated attention-getter, and it does have some design flourishes, especially up front with the blocky headlights that Tetris with the grille. ItÂ’s not just the looks. The sub-$20K MSRP offers real value and is an articulation of FordÂ’s strategy to pivot from cars to similarly sized offerings. This is better than a Ford Focus, and it makes sense why Ford took such a big risk revamping its lineup. And the hybrid version gets up to 42 mpg. Ford sold 4,140 Mavericks in October, outpacing the Santa CruzÂ’s still-healthy tally of 1,848 units. Ford says the trucks were moving off dealer lots in an average of five days, which is a brisk pace. The Maverick is also bringing in young buyers, with a quarter of its sales to people 18 to 35 years old.  While the sales figures are interesting, the Maverick starts about $4,000 less than the Santa Cruz, and Ford sells more vehicles than Hyundai in the United States, so thatÂ’s just part of the equation. Ford and Hyundai will define success for their small trucks in different ways. TheyÂ’re both attention-getters, but the Maverick surprised me with its star power. It will be interesting to see if this segment has staying power for Ford, Hyundai and perhaps others. Other news and notes The North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year Award finalists were announced this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and the Maverick and Santa Cruz both made the cut in the truck category, where they were joined by the Rivian R1T. The Honda Civic, Lucid Air and Volkswagen Golf GTI/R  will vie for top honors in the car segment. The Ford Bronco, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Genesis GV70 make up the SUV field. Winners will be announced in early January. The finalists were culled from a field of 23 semifinalists. Full disclosure: IÂ’m a NACTOY juror.  HereÂ’s an odd one: Famed designer Marcello Gandini is disavowing the rebirth of the Lamborghini Countach. Lambo essentially restyled the Sian with a modern interpretation of the CountachÂ’s design cues.

Lamborghini loans an Aventador S to father and son building 3D-printed replica

In October we shared the story of Sterling Backus, the physicist in Erie, Colo., who was building a Lamborghini Aventador replica with his 11-year-old son Xander. In progress for nearly two years, Backus — who designs lasers as his day job — fabricated a steel chassis, sourced an LS1 V8 from a Chevrolet Corvette for power, bought lights on eBay and 3D-printed the body panels that were then encapsulated in carbon fiber. Backus and son call the coupe the Interceptor, and Sterling said he subtly changed every exterior panel to avoid legal issues with Lamborghini. The Sant'Agata automaker was paying attention to the Interceptor, though, as an exec phoned Sterling about it before Christmas. The subject of the call: Lamborghini's marketing chief wanted to know if he and Xander would like to borrow an Aventador S for a couple of weeks and shoot a video. The Italian automaker has been known to go on hunts for deep-down Lamborghini fans. Last year Lamborghini had a surprise for one lucky kid going Christmas shopping at a store in Italy; kids that said they wanted a model Lamborghini were told the store was out, and almost all the kids accepted a different model instead. One child made it clear he didn't want a substitute if he couldn't have the Lamborghini, so he not only got a the model he wanted, he got it delivered in a Lamborghini driven by factory driver Marco Mapelli. Xander's devotion to the Aventador in "Forza Horizon 3" is what compelled him to ask his father if they could build a real-life version. For that, Xander and Sterling earned Lamborghini's #RealLover distinction this year. Katia Bassi, Lamborghini's CMO, said, "Automobili Lamborghini is against any attempt at counterfeiting. However, a true story of such authentic passion deserves to be featured, which is why we chose to tell of SterlingÂ’s and XanderÂ’s project in our 2019 Christmas video." Lamborghini Real Lover Campaign View 21 Photos The Interceptor build continues, documented on Facebook. The senior Backus aims to turn his work it into an educational tool. "Ultimately, I want kids to get interested in STEM, and this is a great platform for it because of all the disciplines involved in a project like this." But after 20 months of effort, he and Xander will probably enjoy taking a holiday break in the car that started it all. Related Video: