Vikings 2008 Training Camp: Five Burning Questions

Today was the day every player in the NFL dreads - reporting to Training Camp. The actual fun for the Minnesota Vikings beings on Friday, and like every year at this time, there's several questions before our boys lace the cleats and put on the pads. So here's my top five questions for the Minnesota Vikings leading into the 2008 version of Training Camp.

5. How will the Packers allegations of Tampering affect the Vikings, especially Tarvaris Jackson? (Getting this one out of the way first. Even the NFL Commish wants this soap opera to come to a swift end)

Coach Childress stated a few weeks ago that Jackson is his QB and he's got his full vote of confidence. With phone records stating that Favre made several calls to Bevell and Childress, one might think that Jackson will start to question his coach's actual confidence in him. As late as today, the Star Tribune ran a story stating that Antoine Winfield thinks Favre would be a great fit for the Vikings. But Jackson does have plenty of support from other Pro-Bowl veterans to include Sharper, Pat Williams, and Kevin Williams. Jackson needs to do what the rest of the NFL should have done from the begining and just ignore this story. As it stands, he is the leader of the Vikings and he's got plenty to prove.

4. Does adding Jarred Allen truly improve the Vikings' secondary?

It's been no secret in the NFL the past couple of years on how to attack the Vikings defense. Pass, pass, and pass some more. But you have to mix in the run to open the passing game right? Not on the Vikings because....A) You CANNOT run against them due to the Williams Wall and B) The Vikings are innept when it comes to stopping any passing game in the NFL and they often provide mediocre at best QB's with career games. The Vikings have actually had good personnel in the secondary. Guys like Sharper and Winfield play a Pro Bowl calibur game every year, but when you have zero pass rush, there's no way you are going to cover receivers in the NFL when a QB has all day to survey the field. So, if Allen follows up in Purple with what he did last year in Kansas City, the Vikings' Secondary should be vastly improved.

3. Will Bryant McKinnie be suspended after his court date on September 24th?

Since McKinnie is a repeat offender of the League's Personal-Conduct Policy, he's all but guaranteed to suffer a four game suspension, but not until after his day in court. It will be interesting to see how the Vikings organization deals with this situation as well. He's a huge part of one of the better offensive lines in football, but the Vikings have cracked down on what types of characters they have on their team. Should he only get the four game suspension and be welcome back to the team, it will be an interesting month to see how the line holds up in pass protection and providing the holes for the dynamic duo - Peterson and Taylor. The Vikings must address this in camp and find out who will be able to step up in McKinnie's October absence.

2. Has Adrian Peterson fully recovered from last year's knee injury?

Before Peterson suffered his knee injury in hated Green Bay, he was on pace to beat Dickerson's rookie rushing record. When he came back, he didn't have the same explosive press though the line that propelled him during the first half of the season. According to team trainers and coaches, Peterson looks stronger than ever and has that explosive step back. But, can he sustain it through the course of an entire season? The Vikings are lucky enough to have a humble Chester Taylor behind Peterson, but let's face it, without Peterson, the Vikings offense is no where near the same level.

1. Can Tarvaris Jackson lead the Vikings to the Playoffs and beyond?

Ah yes, the million dollar question. Childress seems to think so and has put all of his faith in Jackson (should you truly ignore Favre's phone records). He's still raw, but I firmly believe he's got the arm to become a good QB in this league. This is the year he gets fairly judged. Gone is Troy Williamson and that alone will be a huge asset in Jackson's decision making. The Vikings also landed Bernard Berrian who started showing #1 receiver ability in this league with a rotating QB situation in Chicago that I feel is far worse than Jackson. Sidney Rice enters his second year and has all the makings of having a break-out season. Allison also showed promise last year as a rookie and Bobby Wade will fill the slot this year, a roll he's happy with and damn good at. Jackson has all the tools to show that he's for real this year, and having AD behind him for a little play action never hurts either. Should the Vikings show that they can establish a passing game early on, that will limit the eight and nine man fronts and make AD even more dangerous.

Madden Curse Strikes Again

Last night I was checking out some of the video previews Shacknews put up straight from the E3 floors. One of the titles I was anxious to checkout was EA Sports’ Madden 2009. The game is looking great and for the first time in years, actually looks worthy of a purchase. I say that only because there really haven’t been many graphical updates or noteworthy game play elements to justify paying $60+ for roster updates.

With all the Favre talk over the last week and a half, it finally dawned on me that the Madden Curse has struck again, and nobody’s talking about it. Sure it normally means that the cover athlete is doomed to suffer a year ending injury at some point. But this time it’s worse, yet beautiful for those of us that continually drink the Purple Kool-Aid. This time the curse affects an entire organization and their fan base.

Aside from the effects on the Packers, what about EA? With the game shipping in less than a month, the production part of it is finished. What happens if Favre gets re-instated and the Packers agree to trade him? All of a sudden you have Favre on the cover of the largest sports game in video game history, in the wrong jersey. The only reason he was chosen as the cover boy to begin with was as a tribute to his Ironman legacy in the NFL.

So not only has Favre’s desire to be the center of attention yet another year disrupted the Packers, Vikings (thanks to the Packers asinine allegations), and fans – it will also impact the video game industry and cause the Marketing team at EA Sports to question their decision making.

So do us all a favor Favre and stay retired. It’s one thing (good thing) to send the Green Bay Packers into a state of disarray, but the Vikings and Madden……..that’s going too far.

As for the game itself - from what I’ve seen while watching the E3 2008 footage, it’s looking very nice. I’ll be picking up this year’s addition for sure and can’t wait to run AD all over everybody on Xbox Live!

Packers passing poor handling of Favre situation onto Vikings

Or at least in a very poor attempt, they are trying to push the attention away. It's no secret that the Packers have handled Favre's change of heart in a piss poor manner, but to try and place blame on the Vikings now, well, I guess that's to be expected from the Cheese Heads. Earlier today Fox Sports' Jay Glazer busted the story on how the Packers claim the Vikings tampered with Favre.

Their big claim is that Favre had some inappropriate dialogue with Darell Bevell, the Vikings current Offensive Coodinator. Of course before Favre came out saying he wanted to play again and would like to be granted a release, it didn't matter that he spoke with Bevell on a regular basis. Bevell and Favre became good friends while the two spent time together in Green Bay. Bevell was an assistant for the Pack from 2000-2005 and spent three of those years as the quarterbacks coach.

As to be expected, and reported on by the Star Tribune, the Vikings have denied all claims of tampering passed down to the league by the bewildered Packers.

Enough is enough Thompson, you've put your own team and fans into a box. Since you are confident enough in Rodgers to place a Hall of Fame QB as a second stringer, let him go. Man up and prove that your team is better without Favre regardless of where he goes.

No Straight Hats in MLB Please!

So I'm watching the 2008 MLB All-Star game when the Reds' Edinson Volquez comes in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning with the National League leading 2-0. Being a fan of the American League, I've not seen much of him, though I do remember him from the Rangers......when he actually curved the bill of his hat and wore it straight!

Seriously, it's bad enough to see today's kids walking around with flat billed hats cocked to the side, do we really need this in Major League Baseball!!?? No! Get some kind of MLB hat code in the game and stop this nonsense now. Thank God C.C. Sabathia went to the Brewers so I only need to see him once a year now (can the Twins please play a different team during Interleague play already!). He's the goof that really started this in MLB, and someone needs to end it now.

Now I know what some will say. Change is good, look what the Fab 5 did for basketball shorts. Well that was a change for the better all around. The last thing we need to see is more hairy leg on the court. Watch a NBA game from the early 90's and before, it's a fightening site to behold. But, even with the longer shorts, at least it's consistent in the entire game and it's not like they are wearing them with six inches of fricking boxer shorts showing!

So please, save our historic past-time and bend the damn bill of the hat......and wear it STRAIGHT!

As for my buddy Volquez. He and his flat, tilted hat left the mound with a tie game, 2-2. JD Drew's first All-Star at bat was a homer as he drove Justin Mornaeu in as well. Twins small ball followed by Boston bang. That's what you get for pissing me off with your rediculous hat Volquez!