Purple Pride Ponderings - 4/27/06

Purple Pride Ponderings
4/27/06

Calling this year’s off-season interesting would be like calling Britney Spears white trash. Never before can I remember an off-season filled with so much speculation and change. Let’s look back at just a few topics that have engrossed our purple-laced minds since Mike Tice called his last play:

New Coaching Staff
The hiring of Brad Childress has indeed churned up some talk all around Viking Country. While some are concerned with some of the moves he continues to make, others welcome his “no nonsense” approach and liken it to that of the great Bud Grant. With not even a Pre-Season game under his belt yet, only time will tell, but at least we didn’t get hit with a “There’s a new sheriff in town” speech. Instead, we were given a short history about Viking lore, one of Vikings taking over new lands, burning their ships and killing everyone in their path!

Sweet.

Snow Bird for Good
It was a good run.

Well that debate could be split right down the middle when it comes to Vikings fans. Daunte did have a love/hate relationship in the eyes of the fans. Personally, I hated to see him go, but I understand why he had to go. Something there between Daunte and Childress just did not vibe from day one, and for Childress, it’s understood when it comes to the type of knee injury Daunte has.

He’s a Dolphin now and it’s still up in the air as to when he will be ready to play. He may never be the same again; then again, he might come back and have several more MVP contending seasons.

As for the Vikings, he gave us some exciting years, mostly with the love we lost Randy Moss at the receiving end. It’s just too bad the love boat incident had to mar his departure, and I’m sure that weighed in heavily with the Vikings brass’ decision to trade him. I suppose Daunte’s “Trade me now” approach had something to do with it as well though.

That’s one expensive Hutch!
Odds are you never heard the term “poison pill” until this little diddy took place. Thanks to our beloved Vikings, the NFL is working on ways to restructure the way future poison pills are implemented.

Did the Vikes over pay for Steve Hutchinson? You betcha. But hey, they had the money so why not get the best player available for a much needed position?

To our lovely Seahawk fans that flooded the Viking boards boasting about how they stole Burleson from us. Um, guys stop watching Fraiser re-runs while sipping on Starbuck’s flavor of the month and realize that the Seahawks came no where near getting back at the Vikings. I hated to see Burleson (He was so Anthony Carter-ish) go, but I’ll take Hutch and a third round pick for him any day of the week.

Wizzinator Flushed
As embarrassing as Onterrio Smith was, releasing him is the one I think will come back to haunt us. He’s not hurt, just a year removed from the league. He runs with power and great vision, two things that just cannot be taught. Should he find a way to stay out of trouble, there is one team our there that will benefit heavily from his pick up.

The New Look
We’ve all seen them by now, the lovely new cheerleaders. Heh, of course I meant the new uniforms that were unveiled Thursday night at the Mall of America (imagine that – “Look everyone, here’s the new jerseys on your favorite Vikings, now head on up to Sportsmart and buy one for yourself”).

Of course, thanks to the internet, most of us had seen these in one form or another for the past week or so.

This is another topic that seems to have Vikings fans split down the middle in the love/hate department. At first I was not too impressed, but the more I look at them and see them on actual players, the more I like them. While I’m against the omission of the Viking logo on the jersey sleeves, I am happy about the inclusion of said logon on the side of the new pants.

So to all the haters out there, give them a chance, I think they will grow on you. To those that are not Vikings fans, we could care less about your negativity, let us enjoy our moment.

Now if we could just get that new Stadium…………


Time to look ahead
The NFL Draft.

No draft in any other sport garners the hype that the NFL Draft does. Everyone from Mel Kiper to Joe Q. Rube in his office cubicle has broken down and dissected the draft and cranked out more mock drafts than Stephen Kings does novels.

I love all the draft speculation like the next rube, but come this time of the year – just a couple of days before the real deal, I’m just ready for the draft to start and the plethora of mocks to end.

So this year the Vikings have the 17th pick. ESPN’s latest live mock has the Vikings getting Jay Cutler. I suppose I could live with that as we do need our quarterback of the future, but……I want a top tier linebacker. Obviously the Vikings will never see A.J Hawk, not unless they pay in blood to move up in the draft. So that leaves Simms and Greenway. Either will do, just get one here. I’m tired of the Vikings not having that much needed anchor in the defense and this appears to be the year to get that done.

All the Schaub for our 17th pick drives me nuts and I’ve already expressed my feelings on that deal.

No matter how many times people breakdown the NFL draft based off of team needs and what not, or no matter how comfortable everyone feels with how the first round will go, the first day of the draft ALWAYS has some big surprises. I just hope the football gods are with the new Vikings staff and we get the players we need.

Well that’s it for now; hopefully I find time to break down the events from draft weekend and rate the Vikings’ draft in the next edition of PPP. I look forward to a positive new season under the watch of Childress, the new uniforms, a full season of Purple Pride Ponderings, and constructive talks with all the rubes.

SKOL Vikings!


Later,
Keith Michaels
venomlace@yahoo.com