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Barkley, Strahan Crash Minnesota Wild Rookie Dinner

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The envelope, please.

puts envelope to forehead

Michael Strahan. . .Charles Barkley. . .and the Minnesota Wild.

opens envelope

What is the most unlikely sports combination you're likely to hear any time soon?

But that's exactly what happened last weekend in Minneapolis. . .two guys best known for analyzing the NFL and the NBA found themselves speaking to a bunch of Minnesota Wild rookies at the restaurant where the rookies were having dinner.

It turns out that Wild center "Not That" John Madden lived in the same neighborhood as Strahan when Madden played for the Devils and Strahan for the Giants. So, a couple of strings were pulled, and Barkley and Strahan found themselves at the Chicago Cut Steakhouse in Minneapolis.

As you'd probably expect with those two in the house, there were some shenanigans to be had.

"We gave a speech, told a joke, did three skits and sang a song," Almond said, laughing. "All the boys were howling pretty good and [Barkley and Strahan] were loving it, too," Almond said.

Spurgeon, who made his NHL debut on his 21st birthday Nov. 29, sang Travis McCoy's "Billionaire," where Spurgeon wants to be "on the cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah and the Queen."

Guess the teammates' reaction on that one. "It was the first song that popped in my head, and the lyrics are pretty easy," Spurgeon said.

Almond, 21, did a scene from "Step Brothers" where Will Ferrell sings Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About" -- the scene where John C. Reilly tells him, "You've got to know, that's a voice of an angel ... a combination of Fergie and Jesus."

"I got a positive reaction from it," Almond said.

Sounds like a good time was had by all. Oh, and Spurgeon's share of the check? Right around $5,000.

Being a rookie is hard sometimes, I guess.

Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.