Fighting the Jet lag – Thursday Roundup; New OT, Plan B and More Mockies

Despite sleeping a good 4-5 hours on the flight home and having a very pleasant 10 hours kip last night, the wonder of jet lag is preventing me from focussing on my screen properly. The Monster M-80 I’m nursing doesn’t seem to be helping either, so I’m fully expecting to fall asleep on my keyboard at some point today, which is why I’m going to try and bash out a quick post while I’m still conscious.

I suppose that most of the chatter for us Vikings at the moment is the new overtime rules which were voted in at the NFL Owners meeting. I’ll let the Daily Norseman explain it because when I try to process it in my head I feel like Karl Pilkington. It’s much fairer in my opinion, both teams should get a chance unless a TD is scored in the first possession, I’m not sure that it’s perfect, but it’s better. Of course though, it is a year too latel; just imagine if we’d got the ball back after Hartley’s field goal, and then a peg-legged Favre threw for the game winning interception again… yeah I know the overtime change is long overdue but what’s the point harping on about this, we all know that somehow, someway the Vikings would have found another way to break our hearts, but that’s why we love them!

Now that I can’t focus on the keyboard, I’ll move on to why in bloody hell we voted against the change to the OT rule. To be honest I don’t know, Zygi was happy with the way the rule was, despite the fact that it contributed to our downfall last year. I must say that stubbornness like this pisses me off especially when it comes to being reluctant to change archaic rules which are favour chance rather than competition. Still he was one of only 4 who were against it so it passed. Chilly’s also grumpy because he was on the golf course, silly bearded git!

Moving on though, because any more of that is likely to induce narcolepsy in anyone, let alone someone who should really be in bed, in California, rather than gloomy London, and we got a compensatory draft pick. Okay, that didn’t help my cause…. Okay let’s try another opinion on Tim Tebow….  *starting to nod off*… How about Judd Zulgad pulling a Wayne’s World by broadcasting from his basement hideout in Florida to talk about the owners meeting and an “update” on Favre (oh sweet mercy 5 pound 3 ounce baby Jesus give me strength) …

Something that i found more interesting is the proposal that the tail-end games of the season include more divisional matchups. I for one am happy with this idea, don’t get me wrong, I love spanking the Giants every year to finish off the season, but it’s getting a bit old and this would certainly make the end of the season more exciting. Just imagine going into Week 17 needing to beat the P*ckers at Lambeau to get into the playoffs on the final day of the season, and the looks on their faces when we do!

Okay, now I’m really tempting fate with my state of consciousness, but there’s another Mock Draft on Bleacher report, but at least it’s in the form of a slide show… and there’s someone called Scott Sicko!

There’s no FAVRE WATCH today, I’m sure you can understand why. I’m going to pass out now. Have a good one, hopefully I’ll be more alive tomorrow.

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Quickie Time – Scraps in the desert of the offseason, no LT, green green grass and Tebow can throw…

Well I’m back from a 1200 mile road trip and the good news is that my fiancée has a shortlist of 3 wedding dresses, and I have a shit-ton of stuff from the Oregon outlets!

It’s amazing how a week away from the Purple leaves a void in my life, but then at the same time when I do get back to find out what’s been going on, there really isn’t that much to catch up on. I”m not surprised that LT decided not to come to us, and I’m glad he didn’t, as good as he was, I’m sorry but the man is past it. I’m also glad that the Brian Westbrook brigade have quieted down, but it looks like the Tim Tebow circus keeps on making its way to town. I don’t get it, he’s not #1 pick material, in fact from the look of things he’s not even NFL material but for some reason he’s stealing all the press who seem to be wetting their pants over how he’s found a new way to throw the ball. I thought there was only one way to throw the ball, maybe he’s spent some time in Thailand and adapted that ping-pong ball trick for use in the Shotgun formation…

In other, equally dull news, it really is looking like a Vikes @ Saints opener, whilst the first team at the Metrodome will be welcomed with new turf….. ooohhhhhhhh!

Having recovered from a small case of Offseason Fever, Adam at Vikings Gab has been fielding your questions about such matters as Ray Edwards and the draft. It’s good to see other Purple bloggers finding ways to make ends meet during these troubling dry spells.

As for me, my future sister-in-law in getting married today so I’m off to demand the finest wines available to humanity. I want them here and I want them now!

I’ll leave you with a brief FAVRE WATCH in which Joe Montana says Favre is coming back, and in doing so earned a box of Twinkies.

Thursday morning – Jared puts his ass on the line, Favre is a tough guy and Tebow sucks

It’s Thursday morning, I’ve necked a gigantor can of Monster Energy, and later on I’m going to be watching some skeleton bobsleigh! What a day lies ahead of me! Thankfully though, there is a healthy dose of Vikings goodness to keep me sane…

One of the names which keeps cropping up for the Vikings in the draft is Tim Tebow. The winner of the Heisman Trophy has seen his stock in the draft drop considerably in recent months, and he is set to take another drop following this post from Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive lineman Uche Nwaneri. It’s a brutal assessment, especially considering it’s coming from a player from Tebow’s home team. This could result in one of two things as far as I can see:

1) The Raiders sign him.

2) We sign him.

Either way, his future as a quality player is certainly in question. We’ve had a good track record recently when it comes to turning controversial players into stars (Harvin and Moss in particular), but if the kid has no ability then I’m sure Chilly and the rest of the coaches and scouts will avoid him.

Yesterday’s pics of Favre’s busted up leg and ankle have created quite the stir among the Vikings’ faithful. Some see it as a possible PR exercise to generate sympathy, and take the heat off Brett for his intercepted pass, though this isn’t washing with danzinski on The Viking Age. Whilst others have taken it as further proof of Favre being a super tough guy, and a possible sign that he is the Chuck Norris of the NFL.

Whilst on the subject of the battering Favre took against the Saints, former Viking and now Saints safety, Darren Sharper claims that the Saints aren’t a dirty team, they’re just a “bit grimy”.

“”[I]t is like taking a shower when you get up in the morning and are going to cut your grass.  You are nice and fresh when you cut the grass, but at the end you have a little griminess to you.”

Wow, I’d never thought of it like that, but when you use an analogy which sounds like it could have been written by brain dead troll, yeah, you know what Darren, you’re absolutely, bat-sh*t-crazy wrong! Obviously Sharper doesn’t want his team to be thought of as dirty, but when you beat the living hell out of a 40 year old future hall of famer, receive several penalties against you, then have the officials admit they even missed some roughing calls and then fine the team $30,000, it’s hard to argue otherwise, and no amount of gimptarded analogies will make people think otherwise.

But according to EA Sports, the Saints aren’t going to be on the receiving end of any comeuppance, after Madden NFL 10 predicted a Saints win in the Super Bowl, and as stupid as that may sound, it’s apparently been right five out of the last six times.

There’s some more news on the stadium situation today. The soup du jour is that we could use lottery money to help fund the stadium according to Gov. Tim Pawlenty. It’s hard to get too excited about this, but at least there are plenty of idea on the table.

Vikings Update has a table of our restricted and unrestricted free agents. Looking at it, our priorities should be to keep Chester Taylor and Ray Edwards. Both are integral parts of the team, and whilst Edwards is restricted, and should be easier to resign, we need to keep an eye on Taylor especially with an uncapped 2010 season. Big wages could lure him away, which would be a real blow, as he’s proven himself to be an excellent 3rd down back, and run blocker.

That’s your news for today, I’ll end as usual with another edition of…. FAVRE WATCH

The Vikings official website has the Maurice Jones-Drew interview with Jared Allen and Adrian Peterson from the Pro Bowl weekend. As expected he asks them about Favre, and then asks (or aks) the Mullett to make a personal plea for Favre to return:

“Silver Fox, we love you, everything but my backside loves you. But if you come back I will let you slap my rear end every single day in no gay way at all. But I will take that stinging pain and I will eat it [the pain I assume] every day.”

Wow! I mean wow! If that doesn’t work I don’t know what will… Well this might. The lovely folks at VikesFans4Favre have raised enough money to pay for this billboard in Favre’s hometown! Well done folks!

And that’s it… well almost. Just wanted to end with a tip of the hat to Bernard “Nard-Dawg” Berrian and Sidney Rice who were at a Charity gig last night for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. They posted a few pics of the night on their twitter pages, and it’s always great to see Purple Pride in the community.

Skol!