{"id":736734,"date":"2026-06-14T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736734\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:08:11","slug":"former-vikings-cornerback-comes-up-clutch-in-ufl-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736734\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Vikings Cornerback Comes Up Clutch in UFL Championship Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">Former Vikings third-round pick and starting cornerback Cameron Dantzler made perhaps the play of the day in the Louisville Kings&#8217; 27-20 win over the D.C. Defenders in the United Football League championship game on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">Early in the fourth quarter, with Louisville up 20-16, D.C.&#8217;s E.J. Perry lofted a deep ball down the middle of the field. Dantzler caught up to the underthrown ball and picked it off, then proceeded to run it back 49 yards in the other direction to give his team great field position.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">PICKED by Cameron Dantzler!!!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: ABC <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M7HkAYSZSg\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/M7HkAYSZSg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Louisville Kings (@UFLKings) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UFLKings\/status\/2065917682432585784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">Two plays later, Louisville tacked on a key touchdown to increase its lead to 11 points. The Defenders cut it back to seven on a 60-yard four-point field goal (yes, that is a thing in the UFL) and eventually got the ball back with a chance to tie the score or take the lead, but the Kings came up with a defensive stop deep in their own end to seal their title.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">Dantzler, in addition to his interception, also recovered a fumble in the first quarter after a long run by Defenders running back Xzavian Valladay, who spent a month with the Vikings last offseason.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WHAT IN THE PUNCH?!?!<\/p>\n<p>Keaton Ellis punches out the ball; the Kings take over. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TPtAX4iPQr\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/TPtAX4iPQr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Louisville Kings (@UFLKings) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UFLKings\/status\/2065883324694880278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">Dantzler tied for the Louisville team lead with seven pass breakups during the regular season, adding an interception and two tackles for loss. He had a pick-six with the Memphis Showboats in the 2025 regular season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">Other former Vikings on Louisville&#8217;s title-winning roster include wide receiver Lucky Jackson, defensive tackle Travis Bell, and tight end Zach Davidson, as well as a couple other players who were briefly on the Vikings&#8217; 90-man roster at one point. Jackson caught two passes in the title game and led the team with 32 receptions in the regular season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">It&#8217;ll be interesting to see if Dantzler makes it back onto an NFL roster at some point, or if he&#8217;s simply found a good fit in the UFL. He was on the Dolphins&#8217; roster for a week last year. Dantzler, who turns 28 this fall, last appeared in an NFL game with the Saints in 2023.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Woke up a Champion ! Kings Nation I appreciate yall forever. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QkDFzvBAmC\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/QkDFzvBAmC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cam Dantzler (@camdantzler3) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/camdantzler3\/status\/2066167651060039740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">Originally a third-round pick out of Mississippi State in 2020 \u2014 the same draft class that brought the Vikings Justin Jefferson, Josh Metellus, and Blake Brandel \u2014 Dantzler got off to a very promising start to his career in Minnesota. He earned strong PFF grades in each of his first two seasons and combined for three interceptions, 12 passes defended, and two forced fumbles in that span. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">Dantzler continued to play a role for the Vikings in 2022, but his production slipped a bit, he missed a chunk of the season due to injury, and he was released the following spring after Brian Flores was hired as Minnesota&#8217;s defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Vikings third-round pick and starting cornerback Cameron Dantzler made perhaps the play of the day in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-736734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}