Monday morning Vikings Roundup – Jared tells Favre “Do the right thing”

Good morning all you happy Vikings! The Pro Bowl has come and gone, it’s the Super Bowl on Sunday, and given everything that has happened this season, it’s hard to give a crap about either.

As a result, I’m not going to sum up anything that happened last night, and it’s just too painful to look ahead to the Colts v Saints, because we should have been the ones who lined up to kick Manning’s ass!

The bittersweet nature of this years Pro Bowl for Vikings’ players is commented on by the Star Tribune today. And there isn’t much to add to that really. It looks like the guys enjoyed themselves which is what mattered, but it is a kick in the goolies to play in the same stadium as the SB, knowing you could have been there.

And that’s it, no more Pro Bowl talk for another year. Unless there’s any more stories around Bryant McKinnie, which there probably will be…

Vikings Update has an interesting insight into the sort of abuse that was thrown at Brett Favre during the NFC Championship game, if you need another reason to feel bitter about the game, and to hate the Saints then read on. Personally, I can’t wait for us to return to the Superdome next season and exact some revenge. Screw a cover 2 formation, let’s just sick every man, woman and child in Purple on Drew Brees. I’ll literally* shell out the $20000** for every late hit we unleash upon his midget ass!

*metaphorically

**the NFL accept monopoly money for fines don’t they?

And after what’s been a very quiet Monday, it’s time again for…. FAVRE WATCH

Today’s headline is a quote from HRH Jared Allen:

“Whatever Brett decides. We obviously respect him and want him back as a teammate. He was a great teammate. A guy in his position has every right to retire and if he wants to come back we’ll welcome him. Take your time. Make the right decision. Do the right thing, Brett. Do the right thing.”

You heard the man Brett, do the right thing! You know it makes sense.

Bleacher Report has an article on the Legacy of Brett Favre

We are left to wonder whether signing Donovan McNabb would be such a good idea after he “pulled a Favre” in the Pro Bowl last night… Still, it’s better than pulling a T-Jack.

And finally, Serena Williams said last week that she has drawn inspiration from the Silver Fox. Talking last week she said “He went out a champ[…]  Hopefully, he’ll come back.”

And that’s it for today, I’ve now got to watch some snowboarding, whilst simultaneously trying to ignore the replay of the NFC Championship which is playing on the other TV in the room… it burns!

Advertisement

Vikings Pro Bowl Preview, McKinnie-Gate dominates headlines

A very good morning to all you Vikings fans on this beautifully crisp Sunday morning. Apologies for no entry yesterday, damn did I miss a lot of gossip!

Well one story anyway, involving our “Pro Bowl’ offensive tackle, Bryant McKinnie. Following his earlier tweets that he wants to get in the best shape of his life, it seems that old Big Mac has spent most of his time in South Beach living it up in the club, rather than training with the rest of the NFC ahead of the Pro Bowl today.

Consequently he’s been kicked off the team. Now McKinnie has gone into damage control, posting all sorts of explanations onto his twitter page, mostly along the lines that he’s wasn’t feeling strong enough to play in the game and had been in touch with his trainer about this and was looking to pull out anyway.

There has been plenty of opinion on this from all over the web, but from where I’m sitting (In bed with a hot chocolate, watching Federer destroy Murray), the issue of what McKinnie was actually doing in Florida is irrelevant, though he could have been a little less obvious about what he was doing on his twitter. It’s more the fact that he should have just not turned up for the Pro Bowl in the first place. If he was injured, then pull out and let someone else take your place. McKinnie’s actions could well damage the reputation an event which was already struggling for recognition within the grander scheme of the NFL, and it’s certainly rattled a few cages within the game.

In contrast to McKinnie’s Pro Bowl attitude, our All-Pro, and 7th consecutive Pro Bowl selected guard, Steve Hutchinson is raring to go tonight, despite having shoulder surgery lined up in two weeks time. His “old school” view on the game centres mostly around the game just being plain old fun, and an opportunity to see a lot of players who you might not see on a given season. The Star Tribune also reports in the same article that Jared Allen is also looking to pick up a few sacks in this game. I think it would really be a hoot though if he lined up on both the AFC and NFC D-Lines just so he’d have another shot at killing Aaron Rodgers, who starts for the NFC team.

In that same article there’s some info on the 2010 season with regards free agency. It reports that if the new Collective Bargaining Agreement isn’t in place by March 5th, then the Vikings will not be able to acquire any Unrestricted Free Agents unless we offload some of ours first because we made it to the NFC Championship game. This could prove both interesting and potentially damaging, as free agency is something we’ve come to use to our advantage in recent years. There are more details on this story here too…

There’s a very good interview with Fran Tarkenton by Ryan Michael. There isn’t any real Favre-bashing in there, it’s more of a good interview with one of the greatest players ever to wear purple so check it out.

The Star Tribune have a good interview with Jon Gruden, who coached the Bucks to Super Bowl glory in 2002, and is now on Monday Night Football duty. Obviously Favre is the subject of the day, but he also addresses the age old question of what we have to do to get over the hump and finally win a championship.

The Saints have been fined a total of $30,000 for 4 late hits last week, 3 of which were on Favre. How about fining the referees for missing those calls too? Just sayin’…

And finally it’s time for a very muted FAVRE WATCH

And pretty much all there is today is comparisons to a “Classy” Kurt Warner who retired yesterday. I must say that Warner has earned the right to retire, but to call him classier than a 40 year old legend of the game who got beat to crap last Sunday and came back for more is a bit of a cheap shot in my opinion.

And that’s it, it’s b-fast time now!