Archive for July, 2009

Brett Favre was among the NFL luminaries who filed into the Reed Green Coliseum on the campus of Southern Miss to pay their final respects to slain former quarterback Steve McNair.  Of course the Southern Miss campus is in Hattiesburg, so Favre didn’t have far to drive.  I’m not sure why the Pro Football Hall of Fame is in Canton, Ohio, since Hattiesburg, Mississippi seems to be the actual center of the NFL universe. In a convergence of potential future NFL North combatants, Favre mingled in the crowd with one Jay Cutler, newly-minted Chicago Bears quarterback and savior.  Remember that, [...]

Judge Larson has ruled that Pat and Kevin Williams can play while their lawsuit against the NFL over the StarCaps mess wends its way through the legal maze.  The NFL has already responded, rather strongly: Today’s decision, which effectively exempts two players from the NFL-NFLPA collectively bargained program, further illustrates the critical importance of a uniform policy for all teams in the league and why this matter should be governed exclusively by federal law. The Court’s interim decision regarding the suspensions has no immediate practical impact since the suspensions will not take effect until the beginning of the regular season [...]

The venerable and occasionally-coherent Sid Hartman reports that Vikings head trainer Eric Sugarman visited the Object of Our Eternal Fascination on Wednesday to see how his arm is progressing seven weeks out from his surgery.  No official report from the Vikings but a source told Hartman that Favre‘s surgery has been deemed a complete success, which would tend to indicate that Brett is a go for the start of training camp on July 31. Another report from the other day said the Vikings have begun tweaking their playbook for Favre.  Also, a whole corner of the locker room is being [...]

Dairy state-native Tony Romo was on-hand for his football camp in Burlington, Wisconsin Tuesday, so naturally the media sent their stooges out to ask him a lot of fool questions like, “Hey Tony, what do you think of the Vikings signing Brett Favre?” Tony, polite guy that he is, answered the fool question, saying, “For him, he loves the game of football. He enjoys playing it. If you’re good enough to do it, and obviously he is, otherwise there wouldn’t be teams going after him.”Romo added, “[The Vikings] have tapes so they’re going to watch. They obviously think he did [...]

Charley Walters has dipped his (probably really disgusting and fishy) foot into the Brett Favre pool again.  Shooter first claims that Favre has put down a $30,000 deposit on a condo in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, then says the team plans to announce his signing in time for the beginning of single-game ticket sales on June 20.  That second bit would seem to jibe with the general impression that the Favre move is mostly being motivated by Zygi Wilf‘s desire to sell out the stadium without having to practically beg people. I am only reporting this because, after a [...]

While everyone else has been immersed in waiting for Brett Favre to bestow his savior-like presence upon Purple Nation, Antoine Winfield has been sitting around wondering why he still doesn’t have a contract.  And getting more and more pissed about it.  Winfield finally decided to talk about the affair, telling the Pioneer-Press: I didn’t expect to be in July without a deal.  Personally, I’m a little disappointed. They consider me a core player, but they’re not showing me that. The Vikings had been negotiating an extension with Winfield, whose contract expires after the 2009 season, but those talks broke down [...]

The Vikings seldom fare well in rankings of best sports franchises, and such is the case again with this ESPN the Magazine survey (via Access Vikings) that places the Vikes 89th out of the 122 major sports organizations (hockey is considered a “major sport” for the purposes of this piece). The rankings are based on numerous factors including “Affordability,” “Coaching,” “Fan Relations,” “Players” and “Stadium Experience.”  Predictably, the Purple do not fare well in stadium experience, ranking 117th; nor does ESPN think much of the coaching staff, ranking it 111th.  The Vikes are seen as having plenty of talent though, [...]