On Saturday, the final rounds of the 2017 NFL draft continued in Philadelphia. Unlike the past rounds, the picks were announced from the host cities of all 32 teams. With the Minnesota Vikings pick in the fourth round, The Mountain from HBO’s Game of Thrones announced their pick all the way from Iceland, instead of Minnesota.
The Vikings selected linebacker Ben Gedeon out of Michigan. When the group said “SKOL VIKINGS” with the pick, it’s actually an old Vikings battle cry. Here’s SB Nation’s Daily Norseman on the significance of the phrase:
In battle, Vikings would urge each other forward by yelling "SKOLL" to one another. By doing so, they were telling each other to keep it up so they could drink from the skull (and the top of a lopped off skull looks roughly like a..wait for it...BOWL!!) of the Vanquished that night.
I won’t spoil any GOT episodes as far as what significance the Mountain actually has in the show, so I’ll just describe him using the Game of Thrones Wikipedia which, yes, is a real thing that exists.
Gregor is the head of House Clegane, the older brother of Sandor Clegane, and a notoriously fearsome warrior, with a tendency toward extreme and at times excessive violence. Due to his freakishly huge size, he is called "The Mountain That Rides" or more often simply "The Mountain".
Shoutout to the Vikings for using some creativity here with their pick.