Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to the
Views and Personal Photos on the Vikes from the Inaugural Hall of Fame fan.
Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to theI'm sorry but I could not find the time to put together a Playoff Podcast for this weekend. I know I'll have something for Super Bowl weekend, however. To that regard, I'm going to take a long weekend. I will not have anything substantial up until Monday.....Tuesday at the latest. The Genius Picks will be posted on Saturday morning.
But in going back to my blog entry from Thursday in which I alerted you that the Vikes are rumored to be shopping the services of The Poutin' Quarterback (PQ the First) comes another twist. And an acidic twist at that.
Sean Jensen of The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that agent Mason Ashe plans to reopen talks aimed at finagling more money for PQ the First:
"I am poised and ready to begin the scheduled restructuring of his long-term contract with the Vikings, as we discussed last summer with [owner Zygi] Wilf, so Daunte can assume the position on the NFL pay scale that he so deserves," Ashe said on Wednesday.
I bounced this off my game-day buddy, The Commish, who correctly assessed the situation thusly:
If all this media talk is true, Pep & his agent are pulling out all the tricks to get him traded.
Talk about the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back. If Brad "I Shot Down T.O." Childress wasn't going to put up with the best WR receiver in the game; he sure as hell is NOT going to put up with a QB who ain't proved one damn thing.
And after sleeping on it, I have implemented the pope-esque smoke signal used when a new pope is chosen. I have adapted it to PQ the First which you can now see in the upper left of this blog. Now when you pop in each day you will be able to instantaneously reveal if PQ the First is still with the team or has been traded. White smoke signals "we are keeping him" and black for "PQ the First has been traded.
Influence Kiper?
If you have been checking out ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. this off-season you already know that Helmet Hair predicts the Vikings will draft Southern California running back LenDale White in the first round of the draft. He also says Indianapolis will take Gophers running back Laurence Maroney with the 30th pick in the first round.
I found this interesting because earlier this week I had responded to a draft inquiry from one of this blog's loyal readers who had written:
In the cover-two you need fast LB's. When I did some reviews of LB's yesterday Howard jumped out at me with his speed. If he is a play-maker and we do not move up, I expect him to be the pick or Maroney, who could be an excellent WCO RB. Although, I think Maroney is gone by then.
Philly-Vike
Posted by Rob Blake at January 16, 2006 09:19 AM
I responded with:
ACK! No Rob, Maroney is not that good. I do not want the Vikes near him! The other RB at the U of M (Gary Russell) is the better of the two backs and is more built for the NFL. Just like LenDale White is better suited for the NFL than Reggie Bush. The Vikes need a bruising RB, not another Michael Bennett speedster.
Add Kiper as one of the millions that read this blog on a daily basis.
Bad Boys Bad Boys.....
One of the cool things about this blog is the people I meet. Earlier in the 2005 season Jay from NYC contacted me about getting him some cups from the Metrodome with the Vikes logo on them.
So over the last few games of the year I was able to collect some more for Jay's growing collection and shipped them off. I got a cool shirt in return from Jay who works for the NYPD in the Computer Crimes section. I wear this shirt to work now and walk around peering over people's shoulder while they work on their computers.
Thanks again Jay!!!!
http://www.startribune.com/510/story/194196.html
Seifert says. . .
"Earlier this month, the phone rang on the second floor of Winter Park. Mason Ashe -- who might no longer be Daunte Culpepper's agent when you read this -- was looking for Rob Brzezinski, the Vikings vice president of football operations."
and
"Wilf and other Vikings officials declined comment Thursday, while Ashe and Culpepper did not return calls. People with knowledge of the situation, however, said Culpepper was livid with Ashe's comments and said he might fire him. Those people also said Culpepper has given no direct indication that he wants to leave the Vikings, but that he remains irked that the team turned down his invitations to the bargaining table."
Sounds to me like Mason Ashe needs to lay off whatever drug he's consuming that's making him think he's Drew Rosenhaus.
Posted by: Gonzo at January 20, 2006 03:45 AMIt is I that Thank YOU... Thanks for the cups, the blog, the podcasts and your dedication to bring information about the Vikings to all of us around the country that would never have access to this "insider" information....keep up the good work.... Jay
Posted by: JayViking at January 20, 2006 05:23 AMI read that article on a different board and wondered how PQ#1 could be so mad, I mean how were the Vikings supposed to get to the bargining table unless they new they were supposed to be there. Out of that paragraph it states two comments 1)he might fire his agent for bringing up the fact he wants more money 2) PQ#1 is mad at the Vikes for not being at the bargining table... huh?
But in a different article from a Twin-Cities paper supposedly PQ#1 sent a letter to everyone involved from Zygi to Childress for a meeting to start the process. The only one that showed was Brez.
IMHO PQ#1 is gone and will not be a Viking in the future.
Posted by: Lonnie at January 20, 2006 08:42 AMAgreed about Maroney . . . I'm sick of the Vikings attempting to use Fason (and his sub-50% success rate) at the goal line. LenDale White will bring exactly the sort of play that's lacking in their current RB corps. He would make a fantastic change-of-pace tandem with MeMo.
The goal-line vulture back issue begs the question: When was the last time the Vikes had an actual dedicated FB on their roster? Charles Stackhouse? Childress' Eagles offense seemed to use a FB quite a bit -- I wonder if he'd be inclined to stick Kleinsasser or Owens back in the I (as his predecessor did) or draft an actual FB, especially if they miss out on White?
Has anyone seen enough of this year's top FB prospects (Vickers, Bernstein, Kirtman et al) to surmise if they'd look good in purple?
Hey Brian,
Good to read your blog as always but I think many of you Minnesotans need to put things into perspective. The same journalist that wrote Wednesday's article posted in his Thursday article that Culpepper's agent was not speaking on his client's behalf and pretty much shot down his own article from the previous day. I find it amazing that you haven't mentioned that little tidbit of info as of yet. Lastly, anyone who thinks for a minute that the Vikings are seriously considering a trade of "their" franchise QB, really needs a TIME OUT! All these so called rumors being spread by the media should be seen for what they really are, "HYPERBOLE" my man! Nothing more! You got Kevin Seifert spouting his jargon that "People in the know" somehow have passed this story to him about Daunte handing out flyers and demanding a meeting so he can re-negotiate his current contract is garbage! Seifert, Tom Powers, and formerly Dan Barreiro make a living by writing and printing "THEIR" opinions. Like anyone should take what the press has to print LITERALLY FOR GRANTED!
On a last note, we can all hope that LenDale White is sitting there at the 17th position of this upcoming draft, but don't hold your breath! As you probably know the Packers and Ravens are enamored with White and I really doubt he goes undrafted by the time the Vikings get to pick! JM2CW!!!
I agree with BigMo. I'm tired of reading columns by writers quoting their "insiders". The majority of it is full blown crap to get you drop a couple quarters for the story. It makes for interesting reading and it gets everyones panties in a bunch, but I'm not buying it.
Now, if Mr Culpepper is a no show for the team workouts in March, I'll start to worry. That will be the story I'll read.
Posted by: pa viking at January 23, 2006 11:51 AM