Archive for August, 2009

Wholesalekeychain.com has hooked me up with an assortment of terrific, officially licensed Vikings keychains.  So I was finally able to toss out that old rubber monstrosity I had dangling from my key ring and replace it with a snappy leather keychain featuring a brightly-colored Vikings logo.  I also got a bottle opener keychain and a rectangular keychain, both with “Fansided.com” engraved on the back. How awesome would it be to have a brand new shiny Vikings keychain with the name or number of your favorite player engraved on it, or your own name, or perhaps something witty like “Favre Sucks” [...]

It was funny when Bobby Wade sold out Brian Urlacher on his less-than-flattering comments about Jay Cutler.  But it was not funny when Wade opened that big mouth of his and let spill his remarks about the quarterback competition in Minnesota. Or should I call that, “lack of quarterback competition.” Wade certainly made it seem like that particular vital camp battle was already over.  “Obviously, [Jackson] missed a couple of days so that always plays a toll,” Wade said when asked about T-Jack’s situation.  “You know the timing’s really important for every single one of our receivers, the timing with Tarvaris, [...]

No embed code at NFL.com, but here’s a link to Randall McDaniel‘s Hall of Fame acceptance speech.  Not too many shout-outs, but he does at least mention Jerry Burns, and says he knows Jerry wasn’t thrilled about taking an undersized guard in the first round of the draft.  Once again, congrats to Randall on being the newest Viking in the Hall.  Now let’s get John Randle in there damn it!

Randall McDaniel will be among those enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Saturday night.  The ceremony begins at 6 CT and will be televised on NFL Network and ESPN. Congrats to Randall and the other 2009 honorees.

Brad Childress is giving reporters the usual Chilly-style runaround when it comes to the on-going quarterback competition. “I’m not slapping a grade on it,” Childress said of the Rosenfels/Jackson/Booty camp battle. “Obviously, [Tarvaris] had missed time so it wouldn’t be fair to sit there and say, ‘This guy is ahead by virtue of the fact he had five more practices.’ It’s a good competition and it’s all headed toward a cumulative work here during practice and then I want watch them compete with the lights on.” I don’t know why Chilly is playing it so coy, when everyone knows Sage [...]

A wacky day of training camp – including a morning session that was forced indoors by bad weather, and an evening session attended by 4,000 fans who need to get a life – ended with yet another health scare for Tarvaris Jackson. According to Access Vikings, Jackson had just thrown a near interception to Benny Sapp during drills when he heard a pop in his knee and began to limp.  The situation was downplayed by everyone involved including T-Jack who said afterward, “It’s fine,” and speculated that the pop was just scar tissue breaking. Jackson did return to practice after [...]

For some reason, ESPN has decided to stick Chris Mortensen in a bus and ship him around the country doing interviews and bits at various training camps.  I don’t know about you, but when I think entertainment, the first name that comes to mind is “Chris Mortensen.” Or not. Anyway, Mort rolled into Mankato on Wednesday, and sat down with Brad Childress – on the bus, providing Brad with a bottle of water in case his throat got dry.  The pasty white men of course discussed the Vikings quarterback situation (the only worthwhile storyline at Mankato right now).  Chilly indicated [...]

Days after Ted Thompson refused to close the door on the possibility of the Packers pursuing Michael Vick, more stories are coming out that indicate the Pack is indeed at least taking a close look at the former Falcons Pro Bowler and latter-day poster-boy for how to ruin a perfectly good NFL career via bad off-field habits. The Wisconsin State Journal says the Packers have had “legitimate discussions” concerning Vick, and are “doing thorough due diligence” on the player who once walked into Lambeau Field in the playoffs and thumped Brett Favre and the boys  (just like Daunte Culpepper). Packers [...]

Tarvaris Jackson slapped a brace on his sprained knee and returned to the practice field on Wednesday, participating in most of the drills and saying afterward that he felt “fine.”  Clearly, T-Jack didn’t want to miss any more time, and let Sage Rosenfels pull even farther away in the starting quarterback competition, so he got his butt back out there. I give T-Jack points for sucking it up and returning to the field as fast as possible.  Of course, such displays of grit and toughness wouldn’t be necessary if the guy weren’t so injury-prone to begin with. Another reason to [...]

Judd Zulgad of the Star-Trib provides us with today’s useless training camp tweet: In late game situation, Edwards just put nice move on Loadholt. Wow.  Ray Edwards found someone he can burn.  Unfortunately, it’s a guy on his own team, and it happened in a training camp drill. Too bad Ray couldn’t go up against Phil Loadholt every game.  Cause then it really would be Look Out Michael Strahan Sack Record.