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By The Jazzy One on March 12th, 2010
Okay, so that title might have been a little bit of link-bait, but it’s actually true.
No, LaDainian Tomlinson has not signed a contract to play for the Minnesota Vikings. He did, however, spend Wednesday evening and Thursday morning with the Vikes, and he was seen leaving Winter Park with a purple jersey in his hands.
Of course that doesn’t mean he’s coming to Minnesota for sure. He left Minnesota because he had promised the New York Jets that he would at least visit before signing with anyone else, and his word means a lot to him.
That’s actually pretty cool in my book.
Reports around the web are saying that Tomlinson enjoyed his visit, and he likes what his role would be in Minnesota. Childress has said that he will be “running back 1A” behind Adrian Peterson, meaning that Peterson is the starter, but Tomlinson would have an active role. I really think that Tomlinson would fill the role well. The idea of having Adrian Peterson and LaDainian Tomlinson on the field at the same time could be interesting. It gets even more interesting when you start thinking about adding guys like Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice, Bernard Berrian, and Visanthe Shiancoe to that mix.
Childress told the Star Tribune that he put Tomlinson on the phone with Adrian Peterson, and that the two had a good conversation.
Tomlinson will be visiting with the New York Jets today. Most people think that we’ll have some information on which way he’s leaning by sometime this weekend.
I was (and perhaps still am… I don’t really know anymore) leaning more towards Brian Westbrook as our new third down back, but Tomlinson would be a great pickup. I’m hoping to have good news to report by next week.
By The Jazzy One on March 9th, 2010
Is LaDainian Tomlinson heading to Minnesota?
A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about Chester Taylor, Brian Westbrook, and LaDainian Tomlinson and the chances of each of them being a Minnesota Viking next year. Obviously I was right about Chester Taylor, who is now part of the Chicago Bears.
 Image via Wikipedia
But I was apparently wrong about LaDainian Tomlinson.
I wrote that I thought it was unlikely that Tomlinson would end up with the Vikings. I felt that Tomlinson would think he could still be a featured back somewhere in the league, and I felt that based on comments he made as recently as last September that he wouldn’t want to put himself in a spot where he had to back up Adrian Peterson.
ESPN seems to think I’m wrong about that. According to some talk on Mike and Mike this morning, the
Vikings are one of the contenders to land Tomlinson, and that Tomlinson would gladly fill the role that Taylor played last year because it would give him a chance
to play for a championship.
I know it’s not the same Tomlinson as two years ago, but I have to admit that I’d be a little excited at the prospect of a Peterson/Tomlinson one-two punch.
Of course, for it to be effective the Vikings would have to upgrade their blocking at center and/or right guard, but that’s a completely different topic.
By The Jazzy One on March 5th, 2010
 Chester Taylor is a Chicago Bear
According to ESPN.com, Chester Taylor has agreed to a 4 year deal with the Chicago Bears.
I really really like Chester Taylor, and I hope he does extremely well for 14 games next year (I h
ope he’s held to 0 yards against the Vikings… nothing personal). I hate to see Chester go, but I can’t say that I blame him.
He came to the Vikings in 2006 to prove that he could be a starting running back.
He succeeded.
Unfortunately for him, the Vikings drafted Adrian Peterson a year later.
Hmmm, I wonder if he went to the Bears just so that instead of backing up Adrian Peterson, he’d have Adrian Peterson backing him up. 
Good luck, Chester. I hope you get a ton of playing time. I’m sorry that the Vikings are going to have to keep you from winning any more divisional titles.
By The Jazzy One on March 4th, 2010
Here are some recent articles and blog posts from around the web that you are probably going to want to read.
By The Jazzy One on March 1st, 2010
Minnesota Vikings Trivia
The Vikings set a club record when they rushed for 2,634 yards in 2007. The previous best of 2,507 yards was set by the 2002 squad.
By The Jazzy One on February 10th, 2010
Daily Vikings Trivia
In 2007, running backs Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor became the first Vikings tandem to each have 3 rushing touchdown performances in a game in the same season.
By The Jazzy One on January 25th, 2010
The Vikings season is over.
I’m still feeling pretty upset over last night’s game. That was probably the hardest game for me to take out of any sporting event that I have ever watched. The Vikings had numerous chances, but they let every single one of them slip away.
Statistically, the Vikings were the better team
If the Vikings could have held onto the ball last night, they would’ve walked all over New Orleans. The statistics show that the Vikes were more dominant in many aspects of the game.
-Minnesota had 31 first downs to New Orleans’ 15.
-Minnesota had 58% third down efficiency compared to 25% by New Orleans.
-Minnesota had 475 total yards. New Orleans had 257.
-Minnesota had 165 yards rushing compared to 68 by New Orleans.
-Minnesota had 310 yards passing compared to 189 by New Orleans.
-Minnesota had 32 penalty yards compared to 88 from New Orleans.
-Minnesota held the ball for 36 minutes and 49 seconds, and New Orleans had it for 27 minutes and 56 seconds.
The Turnovers were just too much
Of course, statistics don’t mean much if you can’t hold onto the ball. The Vikings hadn’t turned the ball over more than twice in a single game all season. Last night they turned it over 5 times. Inexcusable.
Adrian Peterson was credited for 2 fumbles (1 lost). In my opinion, he was more at fault for the botched hand-off that led to Favre being credited for a lost fumble, so really it should’ve been 3 drops and 2 lost. Inexcusable.
Unfortunately, the turnovers were contagious.
Bernard Berrian, who before last night had fumbled 5 times in a 6 year career, and only 1 time in a Vikings uniform, put the ball on the turf, ending a Vikings drive.
Percy Harvin, who has been such a clutch player, and only fumbled 1 time all season despite touching the ball enough times to gain over 2,000 all-purpose yards also dropped the ball, again, ending a Vikings drive.
The Vikings were still in the game, though
Despite turning the ball over 5 times, the Vikings took the NFC’s best team into overtime. The Vikings lost the coin toss, though, and were unable to overcome the odds.
The calls in overtime were a little suspect
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not blaming the refs for the Vikings loss here. If the Vikings had held onto the ball, there would not have been an overtime for the bad calls to take place in.
But the 4th down call, where the Saints guy dove over the pile? He fumbled the ball before crossing the marker, and he came down with the ball tucked in his gut. The guy’s head was at the marker, his gut (and the ball) was about two feet short. The booth reviewed it, but somehow didn’t catch it?
The call on Ben Leber for the pass interference was ridiculous as well.
The plays that are really to blame
Brett Favre’s interception at the end of regulation was bad. Lots of people around the web today are blaming Brett for the loss, saying that it’s “Brett being Brett”. While I do agree that it killed any chance that the Vikings had, I put more of the blame on two other things that happened earlier in the game.
First of all, after we forced a Reggie Bush fumble on a punt, the Vikings had incredible field position. It should’ve been AT LEAST 3 points, probably 7. Brett hands off to Adrian Peterson, who can not hold onto the ball. The Saints recover, and take away any possible momentum that the Vikings could’ve had going into the half. I completely feel that the game would’ve been totally different if the Vikings had scored there.
But even more so than that, the mistake that really cost the Vikings the game was the penalty directly before Brett’s last interception. The Vikings were already at the edge of Longwell’s field goal range, but a very stupid mistake that should never happen in an NFC championship game moved the ball back, and made Brett feel like he had to force a play to win the game. If it wasn’t for that penalty, the Vikings probably would’ve handed off to Taylor and given Longwell the chance to win the game.
Of course, that field goal would’ve been about 50 yards, which isn’t a guarantee, but I would’ve felt pretty confident putting the game in the hands of a kicker like Longwell.
So now what?
Well, now we spend the next few months debating whether or not Brett will come back (no matter what he says himself), we debate the value of Adrian Peterson, and we once again wonder what could have been.
As for the first two things, I’ll be discussing them in depth in the coming days and weeks.
As for the wondering… Vikings fans will be discussing that until we get another shot… whenever that may be.
By The Jazzy One on January 19th, 2010
Antoine Winfield was named to his 2nd consecutive Pro Bowl
Today the NFL announced that Antoine Winfield was selected to the Pro Bowl after an injury to a player in front of him. This is the second straight year that Winfield was selected to the NFL’s all star game, and after the late addition of Percy Harvin, it makes Winfield the 10th Viking selected.
The Vikings that were selected to this year’s Pro Bowl are:
Brett Favre
Adrian Peterson
Sidney Rice
Steve Hutchinson
Bryant McKinnie
Jared Allen
Kevin Williams
Heath Farwell
Percy Harvin
Antoine Winfield
The Vikings lead the NFL in the number of Pro Bowlers, but the big problem with all of this is that the NFL has moved the game to the week before the Super Bowl this year. I’m sure the NFL is thinking football interest is at an all time high right before the big game, so they’re hoping that the ratings for the game go up, but the Vikings are still in the running to play for the championship this year. If they beat the Saints this coming Sunday, the NFL will lose 10 players from a 46-man team. That’s almost 25% of the players that are supposed to be playing on a Pro Bowl team that won’t be able to play.
In my opinion, that really takes away from the impact of the game.
Can you imagine watching a Pro Bowl this year that doesn’t include Adrian Peterson, Brett Favre, Sidney Rice, Jared Allen, or Percy Harvin?
What if the Colts make it to the Super Bowl, too. No Payton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, or Dwight Freeney?
In my opinion the NFL dropped the ball when they planned this one.
By The Jazzy One on January 4th, 2010
The Minnesota Vikings finished the regular season at 12-4.
The Minnesota Vikings came home and took care of some of the nagging problems they’ve faced in recent weeks while they easily handled the New York Giants, winning by a score of 44-7.
The offense was still firing.
Brett Favre threw for 316 yards and 4 TD in less than 3 quarters of play. The team as a whole rushed for 129 yards. 9 different players caught passes. Adrian Peterson rushed for a TD. The Vikings only punted twice. 487 net yards by the team.
That’s the offense that the Vikings need to have working going into the playoffs.
The defense could tackle again.
It was nice to see solid tackling, something that we haven’t really seen since Week 12 (there were flashes of it in the second half of last week).
The Vikings defense played solidly from top to bottom. They gave up only 181 total yards to the Giants, including only 35 yards rushing. Much much better than they were in recent games. That allowed them to solidify themselves as the #2 rush defense in the league… not #1 like they have been the last three years, but #2 certainly isn’t something to complain about.
Best of all, they earned the #2 seed.
After watching the team squander away playoff opportunities in the last couple of weeks, I was honestly expecting Minnesota to end up the #4 seed in the playoffs. That would mean 1 game at home, then the rest on the road.
Instead, because of solid play by them, and because of a loss by Philly, Minnesota gets a 2 seed, and a first round bye.
This actually means that if a team can upset the slumping Saints in round two, Minnesota could actually be playing in the NFC championship game at home!
You know… the dome… where the team is 8-0 this year… where they are beating teams by an average of 33-16.
Very good news.
Enjoy the break Vikings and Vikings fans. The REAL season starts in two weeks.
By The Jazzy One on December 29th, 2009
The Minnesota Vikings are now 11-4
The Vikings found a way to irritate and frustrate fans, give them hope and excitement, and tear out their heart all in one night as they lost in overtime to the Bears 36-30
Wow.
I don’t know if I’ve ever sat through a game that caused so many different emotions in a team.
First came the disgust.
In the first half, the Vikings were awful. The defense didn’t realize they were allowed to play in the game, and the offense thought that it would be nice of them to let the Bears keep the ball. Over 200 yards in the first half by the Bears completely overshadowed the 80-something that the Vikings had. The Vikings couldn’t run or pass or block, but other than that their offense was clicking (that was sarcasm, for those who might not have caught it).
At half time the Vikings were down 16-0
Then, when all seemed lost, Brett Favre seemed to forget it was December.
All the talk about Brett not getting along with Chilly, along with talk of him not being able to play well in the month of December vanished in the second half. The Vikings came out of the locker room and seemed to score at will, moving the ball up and down the field. Brett ended the game with over 300 yards passing and 2 TD, including the game tying throw to Sidney Rice with 9 seconds left on the clock. Things were looking good for Minnesota. They were heading into overtime with momentum on their side.
Uh oh, the Bears win the coin toss.
Not good. They also got themselves into field goal position rather quickly. They set up for the game winning 48 yard kick. Vikings fans were sure that it was all over.
HE MISSED!
THE VIKINGS GET THE BALL! Maybe miracles do happen!
Then comes the heartbreak.
The Vikings come out firing, and they’re moving the ball. Players are making big plays, and all is good.
Here comes a pass to Adrian Peterson who runs for the first down and then some.
Then it happened.
Then Adrian Peterson happened… and not in a good way.
He fumbled the ball in Vikings territory. The Bears went on to score an easy TD and win the game.
So who gets the blame?
Well, the defense played poorly.
Again.
That’s inexcusable.
The special teams had a few bad plays, which did not help at all.
Then we have to remember that the always-reliable Ryan Longwell had an extra point blocked… we obviously wouldn’t have been in the position to go into overtime without that.
The Vikings were playing without EJ Henderson or Pat Williams, which both had to take a toll.
But, and I apoligize for this… I have to put the blame on Adrian Peterson. I’m a huge Adrian Peterson fan. HUGE. I wish people “Happy Adrian Peterson Day” on game day.
But good players have to make clutch plays, and fumbling the ball in overtime is not a clutch play.
It’s a shame to say this, but as dangerous as Adrian Peterson is to other teams, he can also be that dangerous to the Vikings. I think on do-or-die situations like this passing plays have to go to Chester Taylor… maybe even the running plays.
I hope Peterson can figure out his fumbling issues quickly. The Playoffs are almost upon us.
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