Justin Jefferson has been one of the best wide receivers in the NFL since he entered the league in 2020.
He has been named to the All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams in four of his five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He has accumulated the most receiving yards of any active receiver from 2020 to 2024 (7,432), and his infectious personality helped popularize The Griddy, his signature dance. All of this allowed him to become one of the NFL’s most marketable superstars.
Justin Jefferson stunts on the Titans before scoring a 71-yard TD 😳
The rookie has 175 yards with a quarter to go
(Via @Vikings)pic.twitter.com/DHAstEEXvl
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 27, 2020
As bright of a superstar as Jefferson is, you can make a case that Anthony Edwards has shone even brighter in the past two years. Edwards has reached his second consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance at only 23 years old. Jefferson has been playing professionally for the same amount of time as Edwards and has yet to reach the NFC Championship once, let alone twice.
If team success determines the face of the league, then Anthony Edwards is the undisputed face of Minnesota sports.
THE TIMBERWOLVES ARE INTO THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON 🐺🔥 pic.twitter.com/mWPgf3XCFU
— NBA (@NBA) May 15, 2025
There’s a lot more than individual or team success that goes into becoming a Minnesota icon. So much of what makes Jefferson and Edwards so beloved is due to subjective qualities that you cannot find on a scoreboard or a statsheet. It’s about how the aura that surrounds a player.
Take Karl-Anthony Towns, for example. He’s one of the greatest Timberwolves of all-time, beloved by the fanbase for the player and person he is, but one thing is undeniably true: Some people thought he was a bit corny.
The overall personality of a player can be the difference between stardom and superstardom. It feels like the mainstream media never truly appreciated Towns’ historic offensive production as a big man until he joined the New York Knicks.
Meanwhile, Edwards’ charisma and unabashed confidence forced the national media to pay attention to his Big Ticket-esque personality in a cold, unglamorous market in the heart of the Upper Midwest.
We know that aura plays a big role in superstardom. Still, how do you determine who becomes the face of Minnesota sports, let alone an entire league, if aura isn’t something we can tangibly measure?
One way to do it would be an online poll, like the Twitter user VikesCentral posted on May 19. His question reads: “Who will go down as the better or most recognizable Minnesota athlete? Justin Jefferson or Anthony Edwards?”
Who will go down as the better or most recognizable Minnesota athlete?
— Vikings Central (@VikesCentral) May 19, 2025
A total of 833 people voted, and Jefferson came out on top with 58.8%. Of course, 58.8% isn’t an overwhelming majority, and 833 is a small sample size. Also, this was posted on a Vikings fan page, thus having a bias towards Jefferson. And Vikes Central rolled two different questions into one. “Who will go down as the better Minnesota athlete?” is a lot different from “Who will go down as the most recognizable Minnesota athlete?”
Jefferson has more individual accolades than Edwards, so does that make him the better Minnesota athlete? It makes Jefferson more accomplished, but at the same time, Edwards has been on a team that has accomplished more in the playoffs than the Vikings in the last five years.
The more playoff games Edwards plays in, the more national exposure he gets. So, does that make Anthony Edwards the more recognizable Minnesota athlete from a national perspective? Perhaps, but you also cannot discount The Griddy’s cultural impact.
All this is to say that reaching a consensus on this debate is difficult. The real blessing for the state of Minnesota sports is that Justin Jefferson and Anthony Edwards have both reached a level of superstardom where arguably each deserves to be the face of their respective leagues. Maybe the real answer lies within the iconic Randy Moss and Kevin Garnett photo that Jefferson and Edwards recreated for the cover of ESPN’s magazine.
Finally. Anthony Edwards and Justin Jefferson recreated the iconic Kevin Garnett and Randy Moss photo 📸
ESPN Cover Story from @JamalCollier: https://t.co/PHAAoVHx5D pic.twitter.com/zoDJaGOAMP
— ESPN (@espn) October 22, 2024
There is not one singular face of Minnesota sports. Instead, they are a pair of equally prominent superstars representing Minneapolis and St. Paul. It only feels right that two generational talents represent the Twin Cities instead of one. That’s just how the state of Minnesota likes it.