Notoriously upbeat Star-Tribune columnist and Minnesota sports institution Sid Hartman reported in yesterday’s column that Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, and safeties Mike Doss and Tank Williams, the latter of whom also sat out last year in its entirety, are all healthy. Given Sid’s stature, this amounts to an official proclamation: Greenway, Doss and Williams will be ready for the season, so say I.
Sid also says that DE Erasmus James is “making progress” in coming back from last year’s knee injury. This falls in line with what’s generally being said about Erasmus. This is good news, because the team really needs the guy. I don’t want to spend another season watching our alleged off-the-corner pass-rushers get swallowed up by even mediocre offensive tackles. And I could do without those furious blitzes that somehow never manage to result in sacks or even very much pressure. Too many quarterbacks ran around relatively free on this team last year. There are few things more frustrating than watching the other guy’s QB pick apart your defense from a pocket more impenetrable than a steel-reinforced concrete bunker buried inside a mountain.
Getting back to Sid Hartman’s column for a second – yesterday Sid reprinted some remarks former Raiders offensive coordinator Tom Walsh made to the Boston Globe about erstwhile Vikings receiver/menace to meter maids Randy Moss. Said Walsh:
"Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he’s in the denial of those eroding skills. … Randy was a great wide receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career. He told me last year, “I’m too old to practice on Wednesday and Thursday but I’m not too old to play on Sunday.” Did they start a senior league?"
Randy, however, seems to have changed his tune. The Boston Herald reports that Moss, to the shock of most, showed up for the Patriots’ off-season conditioning program. This is a break from long-standing Moss tradition, given that throughout his Viking and Raider careers he always trained by himself. So is this a new Randy Moss, who’s committed to silencing all the doubters like Tom Walsh? Or is this a silly PR move by a guy who wants to make a good impression on his teammates and coach, but underneath is still the same old selfish, indifferent putz?