When Terence Newman takes the field in 2017, he will be the second-oldest active defensive player in the NFL, behind only Steelers linebacker James Harrison, four months Newman's elder.  

Newman, who will turn 39 on Sept. 4, recently spoke with another individual who's in the top age percentile for his career: Star Tribune *columnist Sid Hartman. *

Newman is entering his third season in Purple under Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer, but he also played for Zimmer in Dallas and in Cincinnati. The **defensive back told Hartman** that Zimmer is "pretty much the same guy."

"He's kind of from the tree of Coach [Bill] Parcells," Newman said. "Both of them are tough-nosed, and demand a lot, but they care about their players."

Hartman wrote:

*Newman finished last season with 38 tackles in 15 games. He had eight pass deflections and one interception, keeping up his streak of having at least one pick in each of his NFL seasons. *

Still, he thinks that this season will bring about some changes for him.

"We have a lot of young guys and now I'm at the very end of my career, so I can be more of a mentor," Newman said. "A lot of other teams have had some guys that have played six-plus years and now it's a really young team, especially in the secondary. I can help out the corners a lot more."

Newman has experienced a lot in more than a decade of playing football professionally, but he told Hartman that he's still waiting for that ultimate highlight to add to his reel.

"My highlight won't be until I win a Super Bowl," Newman said. "[Having] a chance to play in this league has been my one highlight for sure. Everything else, to me, my ultimate highlight would be sharing a Super Bowl with my teammates. That's the only other highlight I can fathom."

Kyle Rudolph teams up with NASCAR driver Kyle Larson

Kyle Rudolph has been hard at work with offseason training over the past several weeks.

Before kicking off organized team activities in Minnesota this week, however, Rudolph spent the weekend getting a **closer look at NASCAR racing**.

According to Mike Hembree of *USA TODAY, *Rudolph was a guest of Chip Ganassi Racing and spent time with Ganassi driver Kyle Larson at the track in Charlotte, North Carolina. Larson won the pole for Saturday night's All-Star Race, and Rudolph joined the driver in victory lane.

Hembree wrote:

Rudolph visited the Ganassi racing shop Friday and toured the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte Saturday morning before returning to the track for Saturday night's race.

Rudolph "drove" a racing simulator at the Hall of Fame and quickly determined that as a race car driver he makes a pretty good tight end.