Archive for May, 2011

Tuesday is the beginning of the informal Vikings “minicamp” at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Quarterbacks Christian Ponder, Joe Webb and Rhett Bomar are reportedly already present, and over the next few days a number of their offensive teammates will also roll in to get some work done, and maybe score photocopies of Ponder’s playbook. NFL Network’s Scott Hanson tweeted the identities of several 2010 Vikings expected to show for the work outs. Unsurprisingly, Percy Harvin, Visanthe Shiancoe and Sidney Rice are on that list. Somewhat surprisingly, Bernard Berrian is too. I call Berrian’s inclusion “somewhat surprising” only because, a [...]

A couple excerpts from Zygi Wilf‘s interview with Dave Orrick of the Pioneer-Press. On whether Wilf believes the legislature will take up the stadium issue during its planned special session, and how confident he is something can get done: We believe we will be part of a special session discussion. We’ve done our part of everything the legislators have asked of us. We’ve come here with a local partner in Ramsey County and a site in Arden Hills. Now, we’re all working together to come up with a financing plan. We’ve been here once before, five or six years ago. We [...]

Viking fans are nervous enough about the stadium situation without stories like this emerging: Yesterday, team officials were spotted at a Minneapolis hotel meeting with representatives of AEG, a group that is trying to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles. The Vikings have been connected with AEG in the past, though the sources in that case were a tad questionable. This time, the team is confirming that a meeting did indeed take place. But the meeting, assures stadium front man Lester Bagley, was not about moving the Vikings to Los Angeles. So the AEG people were in Minneapolis enjoying [...]

Newsflash: Bill Musgrave is not Darrell Bevell. That’s the message Joe Webb apparently wanted to get across when he talked about Musgrave’s offense in a phone interview. “The verbiage is a lot shorter,” Webb said of the new system. “With Coach Musgrave’s, it allows you to play fast. You just call at the most three, four words and you have a whole play. It just allows you to not worry about calling the play but worry about executing the play. Last year I was more worried about getting the play called right in the huddle so everyone knew what to do. [...]

Arden Hills seems like a good site for a Vikings Stadium. I can’t deny that. The Dome and Arden Hills are minutes from my work, and for Arden Hills to be 10 minutes further from the current site of the Metrodome (retracted: Metrodump) [http://thevikingage.com/2011/05/24/build-me-a-stadium-please/]

At least one well-known mainstream journalist is incredibly impressed with new Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder. Jay Glazer met young Mr. Ponder at an event and tweeted this about him: It’s good that Ponder has a sense of humor, cause he’s going to need it, with that offensive line in front of him. All kidding aside…it’s very heartening to hear so many good things being said about our quarterback. It seems Ponder has many of the mental tools necessary to be a successful QB in the NFL. But of course this alone doesn’t guarantee success. For Ponder to live up to [...]

Kyle Rudolph may have just given us a glimpse of the Vikings‘ future, via Twitter. But shouldn’t that be Kyle Orton instead of Christian Ponder? Someday we might even get to see this kind of action in a real game. If the lockout ever ends, that is. Follow FanSided on Facebook. Follow The Viking Age on Twitter.

The Williams Wall may have one more year in it after all. Per Tom Pelissero on Twitter, Pat Williams now puts his odds at 50-50 towards returning to the Vikings next season. We’d also put the odds at more likely he returns saying things like “He better win, because if he don’t, he’ll get beat up after the fight, too — by all of us” with a handful of Vikings ringside at Ray Edwards debut fight. What’s ironic about Phat Pat is less than 3 months ago he ran his mouth about the purple saying he “Just don’t trust everybody [...]

I need to pay closer attention to Chris Mortensen‘s Twitter feed. There’s some pretty juicy stuff on there, like this tweet from six hours ago, in response to a follower: Where does Joe Webb stand with the Vikings? No big expectations. They’ll get a vet w/Ponder. Orton on radar. I sort of always assumed that the Vikings would pick up some kind of vet to back up Christian Ponder, just because it’s a good idea to have a veteran QB backing up a rookie. But Kyle Orton? Seems to me Orton is the kind of guy who would not just [...]

As we know Ray Edwards is not the happiest camper. He ran his mouth last year when being hit with a restricted tender on how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell makes more money than him “pushing a pen”, he’s referred to himself as a Former Minnesota Viking and now he’s at it again. While Ray is set to square off this weekend against former kickboxer TJ Gibson at Grand Casino Hinckley, he said the following about how he feels about his NFL future with the purple… “I’ve openly said I won’t play for the Vikings, because of the simple fact of [...]