Archive for September, 2009

Bobby Wade has landed a new gig with the Chiefs.  On Wednesday he met the media, and worked in a couple of obvious digs at the Vikings. Wade first admitted that he was “caught off guard” by his sudden release, then went with the usual spiel about how it’s all a business and everyone understands that.  He then said that, from what he could see, there was no schism or any other kind of division in the Vikings locker room over Brett Favre. And then it was on to the shots. “I want to be part of a program that’s [...]

Things are coming up roses so far for the Vikings and Brett Favre, but that doesn’t mean that Favre has stopped causing difficulties. Just ask Eric Mangini, Mike Tannenbaum and the Jets, who have all been fined over 2008 injury report hijinks related to Brett Favre’s bad arm. Adam Schefter reports that Mangini and Tannenbaum have been fined $25,000 each and the Jets’ owners $75,000, all because they failed to add Favre’s injury to the report last season. And no one would’ve ever known about it, had Favre himself not opened his mouth in a press conference last week, and [...]

I’m sending today’s post out to Matthew Stafford, the unfortunate soul now burdened with the task of playing quarterback for the Detroit Lions. Matthew…what can I say?  You chose the wrong year to be the #1 overall pick in the draft.  There you were, all brimming with glorious dreams after your stellar college career, and before you knew it they were handing you the hat with the little gay lion on it. I wonder Matthew:  Did you consider dropping to your knees right there on the stage and begging Roger Goodell to make the nightmare stop? Of course not.  Because, [...]

A lot of Viking fans are still upset that the team cut training camp stud Hank Baskett, who went on to play for the Eagles and marry an ex-Playboy bunny. Well, those fans are probably jumping for joy right now, because the Eagles have cut Baskett in order to add Michael Vick to the active roster. Brad Childress knows what he has to do.  He has to cut Greg Lewis and sign Baskett.  Chances at redemption don’t come along every day.

I still think we’re a long way from declaring the Vikings Super Bowl contenders and Brett Favre the franchise’s unlikely savior.  But, I’m willing to admit that, after Sunday’s game, my enthusiasm for this wacky experiment has risen one or two notches. Favre did a few things Sunday to slightly inflate my hopes.  One:  He absorbed a fair amount of physical punishment, and in typical Favre fashion, kept popping up.  Two:  He showed that vaunted child-like sense of fun, leading me to believe he is sincere when he says he still loves playing.  Three:  Though he didn’t get many opportunities [...]

The Kansas City Chiefs, desperate for receiving help, have signed former Viking Bobby Wade. Wade joins a Chiefs receiving corps that drops off considerably after the #1 guy, Dwayne Bowe.  He gives them a decent little slot receiver with okay hands and a little shiftiness but not a whole lot of explosive downfield potential. He can also be used as a return man, if you don’t mind the occasional muff. Wade was of course dumped in somewhat controversial fashion by the Vikings.  He was originally slated to be cut, but agreed to restructure his contract, taking half his original $3 [...]

A season of high hopes has taken a sudden nose dive for the Bears and their fans. Last night, their shiny new quarterback Jay Cutler, instead of shredding the Packers secondary as expected, threw four picks in leading the team to a loss at Lambeau Field (prompting some Bears backers to slightly overreact).  But that wasn’t even the worst news.  That came this morning when fans learned that linebacker Brian Urlacher is out for the season after having surgery on a dislocated wrist. Just to put this in perspective for Vikings fans:  Imagine that, instead of Brett Favre playing a [...]

Coolest thing about this run?  Sidney Rice staying with AD the whole way, making blocks and not getting in his way.

There have been occasions in the past when fans have ripped Brad Childress for not seeming to make smart adjustments at halftime. They will not be able to level that criticism against Chilly today, however, after the Vikings recovered from a sluggish first half to torch the Browns, ultimately beating them 34-20. Of course, it’s impossible for any of us to say whether the awesome second half was the result of gameplan tweaking, or just better execution.  The Vikings did open the passing game up a little bit early in the third.  Brett Favre threw two jump balls up to [...]

I’m trying to be charitable in describing the first half performance of Brett Favre and the revamped Vikings offense against the Browns. Let’s just say, it remains a work-in-progress. This became glaringly obvious on one attempted pattern to Sidney Rice in the end zone.  Brett Favre thought Rice was going to go one way, Rice thought he was supposed to go another way, and the result was an incompletion leading to a made Ryan Longwell field goal. Favre showed more rust at the very end of the half.  He missed Percy Harvin on an attempted swing pass, then totally forgot [...]