It took only five seconds more for Viking fans to call for the team to pick up Sapp who as we remember was traded to Miami last off-season in exchange for Greg Camarillo. Viking fans hold a special place for Sapp in their hearts after the way he hung in as Antoine Winfield‘s replacement when Winfield got hurt late in 2009, and counted Brad Childress‘ decision to trade Sapp high on the list of his crimes against Viking Nation.

At least one Viking player, Winfield, went on record saying he would love to have the scrappy but sometimes not very heady Sapp return to Minnesota. When asked about Sapp himself, Leslie Frazier said he loves Benny but also said the Vikings “have a good situation at cornerback.”

On Thursday morning things developed a little further in the Sapp saga. Jeremy Fowler tweeted that the Vikings have “inquired” about Sapp but cautioned that “nothing is imminent” and suggested if Sapp is brought in it won’t be until after the Tampa Bay game.

The Vikings currently have a solid three-man corner line-up with Antoine Winfield, Cedric Griffin and the improving (but still penalty-prone) Chris Cook. The fourth spot is held by Asher Allen who was inactive week 1 due to a bad toe. Fifth is Marcus Sherels who is also the punt return man, meaning his job is safe no matter what. Sixth is rookie Brandon Burton who was also inactive against the Chargers.

If the Vikes did sign Sapp he would clearly not be playing in nickel defense, meaning he would not actually see the field much, if ever. At best he would represent an insurance policy in case one of the top three guys got hurt. Or perhaps with Sapp in the fold instead of the utterly worthless Asher Allen the Vikings would elect to go to their dime defense more often, or maybe go with four corners, two linebackers and one safety (since they only have one safety who’s worth a damn anyway).

The point here being, whatever role Sapp filled on the defense would be a limited one at best, unless someone got hurt. Would it be nice to have the entertaining Mr. Sapp back? Sure. Would he make much impact if he did return? Almost certainly not.

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The Minnesota Vikings carry their 1-3 record into Soldier Field tomorrow afternoon to face the 2-3 Bears. The Vikes are coming off a bye week that turned out to be busier than most game weeks, what with all the Mewelde Moore trade rumors. Then of course there was this week’s unpleasantness between Erasmus James and Chester Taylor, which saw Chester getting a shiner, Erasmus messing up his shoulder and Bryant McKinnie getting beaned by a wayward chair. Hopefully the game will be as exciting.

Speaking of excitement…it will be the Vikings’ great privilege tomorrow to face one of the most dynamic game-breaking players in all of football. I’m talking of course about Devin Hester, the Bears’ scintillating return man. Devin probably causes as many sleepless nights as any player in the league right now, and with good reason. His sick tackle-evading skills have turned many a game in the Bears’ favor in recent years, and no matter how much effort teams put into accounting for him, he always seems to make something happen. The Vikings’ kick coverage has actually been one of the more solid aspects of the team this year, reversing a recent trend – but it will need something a little extra tomorrow in Soldier Field if it expects to stop the elusive Mr. Hester.

In hopes of helping the Vikes stuff Mr. Excitement, I now offer:

10 Ways To Stop Devin Hester

1. The most obvious way…don’t kick the ball to him. Tell Ryan Longwell to just boot it out-of-bounds and let the Bears have it on the 40 each time. Granted, this strategy would be more appealing with Rex Grossman in at QB, given the high odds that he would soon make a stupid mistake and give you the ball back. With Griese in there, it becomes slightly less attractive.

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