Archive for October, 2009

As part of hate-on-Brett Favre week, Green Bay rechristened the city’s Minnesota Ave. “Aaron Rodgers Drive,” and erected a sign to indicate the temporary change. On Saturday morning, an unnamed idiot was arrested by Green Bay police for stealing the sign.  And no, he isn’t a Vikings fan. The cops reportedly pulled this fool over after noticing a “strange green glow” coming from the front seat of his vehicle.  That turned out to be the sign.  Upon questioning, the man said he stole it as a joke. When the cops informed the moron that the object he’d stolen was going [...]

Last weekend we heard a report that Brad Childress, in an effort to loosen up the team heading into the Steelers game, had dressed as a female flight attendant complete with wig and make-up.  Now we have the pictures to prove it, courtesy of Visanthe Shiancoe‘s twitter account by way of SportsbyBrooks. In a word, “disturbing.” Of course this is not the first time Chilly has made news by donning a disguise.  During minicamp, he made us all almost snicker by putting on a spikey-wig visor that made him slightly resemble golfer Ian Poulter. Chilly certainly enjoys dressing up.  I’m [...]

It’s no secret that Packer fans harbor a ton of bitterness in their hearts over the way Brett Favre turned his back on them (after the Packers organization turned their backs on him in favor of the unproven Aaron Rodgers). It would be hard for them to insist otherwise, given the open demonstrations of scorn they have made in the weeks since Favre signed with the hated Vikings. Ah, the demonstrations.  Some of them have actually been amusing.  Others have been more-or-less pathetic. The latest – Green Bay’s Minnesota Ave. being renamed Aaron Rodgers Drive – hovers somewhere between goofy [...]

Last night, the Vikings‘ official site reported that former safety Orlando Thomas had died after battling ALS for several years. The story was immediately picked up by the Star-Trib and ESPN, and commented upon by luminaries like Dennis Green. Not long afterward, a man purporting to be Thomas’s former teammate Jake Reed posted on his Twitter page that the report was false and Thomas was very much alive. Soon after this, the original Vikings.com story disappeared, and the people who’d repeated said story began posting retractions. Vikings.com finally posted their own explanation:  “Late this afternoon, vikings.com reported information that was [...]

John David Booty had a pretty interesting career with the Vikings.  He got drafted, sat for a year on the bench behind Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte, watched Frerotte leave and probably thought he had a decent shot at being the #2 in 2009… Saw the team trade for Sage Rosenfels (ugh) then sign Brett Favre (UGH!). Ended up on the practice squad.  Was cut from the practice squad.  Was re-signed to the practice squad.  Was once again cut from the practice squad… And, today, was signed to the practice squad…of the Tennessee Titans. So, at last, J.D. Booty’s long [...]

Not long ago, Brett Favre remarked that, in his mind, the ’09 Vikings are the best team he’s ever played on, even better than the Packers team that won the Super Bowl after the ’96 season. Clearly, Brett was just trying to butter up his teammates and Vikings fans with that remark.  Unfortunately, certain members of the ’96 Packers took Brett’s words seriously, and now these washed-up nobodies are responding with the same sort of bitterness that bubbles up any time anyone associated with the Packers talks about their long-gone hero. One-time safety (and originator of the odious Lambeau Leap) [...]

Today’s 10 points: 1.  The defense played better than I ever anticipated it would given the circumstances.  Big ups to the defensive line, especially Pat Williams who got back to being Pat Williams after, I thought, a weak first few games.  And big ups to Karl Paymah who not only did not embarrass himself, but actually played pretty well.  Oh, and Asher Allen gets some love too for his drive-ending strip of Ben Roethlisberger (which the Vikings might have recovered had Ray Edwards just fallen on it). That being said, I think the Steelers did the Vikings a major favor [...]

A report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen earlier on Sunday said that Antoine Winfield was suffering from a fractured foot and might miss as many as six weeks. Antoine Winfield would like to kindly disagree with that report.  The cornerback says the foot is only sprained, and that his status is day-to-day, meaning he could conceivably play Sunday against the Packers. Given the way the Vikings tore up the Packers’ offensive line in their first meeting, knocking around Aaron Rodgers in the process, the defense should be able to survive if Antoine needs another week off. And it wasn’t like they [...]

This Percy Harvin kick-off return momentarily gave the Vikings hope (until they lost it again when Chester Taylor couldn’t haul in a screen pass from Brett Favre).  It is memorable not only for Percy, but for Jeff Dugan running over the back judge.  Amazingly, there are people who suggest Dugan ran the official over on purpose as payback for a costly tripping call made against him on the drive previous (right before the Brett Favre fumble that led to LaMarr Woodley‘s return TD, in fact). The people accusing Dugan are living in some kind of bizarre world I can’t comprehend.  [...]

It looked like the Favre magic was going to work again today in Pittsburgh, until a screen pass to Chester Taylor went awry, handing the Steelers a heartbreaking and game-ending pick-6. The play came just after one of the most impressive runs of Adrian Peterson‘s career, a third down reception and freight-train job on William Gay that seemed for a moment to have set the Vikings up for at least a game-tying field goal. Of course the Vikes would never have been in that position had it not been for Percy Harvin‘s kick-off return touchdown, which came in answer to [...]