Vikings DE Edwards received first-round tender from team

In the hope of getting a long-term deal, the Minnesota Vikings defensive end Ray Edwards received a first-round tender from the team instead. It’s far from what he has been expecting, but it’s better than nothing.

With the first-round tender placed on him as a restricted free agent, Edwards will be in line to earn $2.521 million this season. That offer was not a big one for a player who made 8 1/2 sacks in the regular season and then led the team with four in two postseason games.

It’s just also hard for the Vikings to evaluate Edwards’ value. He indeed has done great job but the there are still greater pass rushers in Vikings jerseys. Comparing to Edwards, opponents always pay more attention to stop Jared Allen, and the Vikings can move tackle Kevin Williams to defensive end position if necessary. So, a first-round tender is by so far the best offer Edwards can get for 2010 season.

Vikings retained WR Lewis with one-year contract

The Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Greg Lewis signed a one-year contract with the team before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Ant it could be the Vikings’ first step of brining back their potential agents.


Lewis caught the winning touchdown pass in Vikings’ comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The 30-year-old appeared in 13 games in Vikings jerseys, catching totally eight passes for 96 yards with a touchdown. His first six seasons were spent with the Philadelphia Eagles and he joined the Vikings just before the 2009 regular-season began after Bobby Wade was released.

Signing Lewis left the Vikings four unrestricted free agents to retain: running back Chester Taylor, cornerback Benny Sapp, defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy and guard Artis Hicks. The next to be signed is most likely to be Taylor, who is also represented by Lewis’ agent Ken Sarnoff and is already in negotiation with the Vikings for a deal.

Favre leaves or stay depending more than on wins and losses

Brett Favre has not made his decision on whether to retire of continue wearing NFL jerseys as one of the oldest player of the league. Well, what people are concerning most about is that whether he will stay with the Minnesota Vikings. Those who wants him to stay believes that Favre’s staying means more than just wins and losses.



Favre not only led the Vikings to their most successful season on the field in more than a decade, his presence was a boost to everything from the team's box office and merchandise sales to sponsorship deals and its pursuit of a new stadium. His first year with the Vikings has been a marking year as he led the Vikings to 12 victories in regular season and NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints.

It’s more than that. Favre’s existence also help the franchise earn much more money than ever. Favre's Vikings jersey was the No. 1 seller throughout the league, the ticket office was deluged with requests in the days following his signing in August and the team locked down some lucrative sponsorship deals that were sorely needed to offset the lack of revenue generated by the Metrodome.

Well, all are true, but I doubt whether he will be able to give as big influence in 2010 season. He turns 41 in 2010 and there are many potential star quarterbacks. And his trick of retiring and getting out of retirement could hardly work again.

Vikings quarterbacks coach is looking for job elsewhere

After working with Brett Favre for one season in Minnesota, the Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers is now busy with interviews for new job. He had an interview with the Chicago Bears yesterday, and there have been rumors that he will also have interviews at Virginia and Syracuse for offensive coordinator jobs.

According to Rogers himself, he would like to have the job in Virginia, where his home is. And Syracuse is not a bad place to go, too. He used to work there and worked with a current star quarterback in No. 5 Philadelphia Eagles jersey- Donovan McNabb. But Virginia remains the No. 1 choice.


"There’s no place I’d rather live than back (in Virginia)," Rogers told reporters Monday. "I’m home there. I went to college there. I coached at William & Mary. I coached in Virginia Beach (Bayside High). I coached at Tech. The largest portion of my football career was spent in that state. As you get older, things you might have jumped at when you were a younger coach, you have to evaluate a little more now."

I guess his wish will come to true. Favre had one of the best seasons of his career at the age of 40 and the achievements should partly be attributed to Rogers’ work.

Favre argued with coach during 26-7 loss to Panthers

After Sunday’s 26-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers, the Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback Brett Favre acknowledged he had a “heated discussion” with Coach Brad Childress, who worked so hard to have the legendary quarterback put on No.4 Vikings jersey.

Favre claimed the coach wanted to take him out of the game to avoid taking any more hits from Julius Peppers and the Carolina defensive line.


“Brad wanted to go in a different direction. And I wanted to stay in the game,” Favre said. “It’s not 70-6, but we were up 7-6. I said I’m staying in the game. I’m playing.”

It didn’t work out well, with the Panthers outscoring Minnesota 20-0 in the fourth quarter. It seemed that Childress wanted to protect his QB as the Panthers harassed Favre all night, sacking him four times. But Favre would have nothing of it. He finished the game with 17 of 27 for 224 yards and no touchdowns.

Vikings WR Harvin is questionable for Sunday game

Missing last Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin remains questionable for this weekend’s game against the Carolina Panthers. Although fans are expecting the receiver to appear soon in his Vikings jersey, Coach Brad Childress just remains silent about whether he will have Harvin play.


Harvin missed all three practices last week and was eventually absent from Sunday’s game because of migraines, which had been bothering him for years. It seemed that this time the problem was a bit more serious than before as it caused Harvin to be unable to study the game plan and trying to focus enough to study caused pains. He had to miss the game, for the first time during his NFL career.

Greg Lewis and Darius Reynaud shared the starting job in replacement to Harvin. Lewis had just two catches for 19 yards, and Reynaud had two kick returns for 54 yards. Thanks to the defense including running backs Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, the Vikings still managed to win the game by beating the Bengals 30-10.

Vikings RB Peterson may lose driver’s license for speed

As one of the top running backs in NFL, the Minnesota Vikings Adrian Peterson sometimes needs to control his speed as it is not always good to be fast. A recent report said that the star running back could lose his driver’s license for speeding driving.


It was just before 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the night before he ran for 85 yards and a touchdown in a 36-10 victory over Chicago Bears, and Peterson was pulled over while driving his BMW, not wearing his No. 28 Andrian Peterson jersey, at 109 mph in a 55-mph zone on state highway 62. Thus he got a speeding ticket and was allowed to drive away.

As one of provisions approved by Minnesota lawmakers in 2005 requires evocation for at least six months for driving faster than 100 mph, Peterson will have to walk for a long time. If he does not want to walk, he can challenge the citation within 21 days from the date of receiving it.

Infected tooth caused Lions safety to miss game

Sometimes infected tooth can cause enough discomfort to prevent you from doing important thing, like missing a game. The Detroit Lions starting free safety Louis Delmas was just held out of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings by such discomfort.


Delmas felt increasing discomfort during warmups before Sunday’s game, and the team had to replace him with Marquand Manuel, who did not finish the game and left in the third quarter with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Kalvin Pearson. And it was the first game Delmas missed since he put on Lions jersey after being drafted by the team in the second round out of Western Michigan. He had been the starter at free safety for all the first eight games of the season.

The Lions right guard Stephen Peterman and cornerback Jack Williams also left the game in the third quarter with injuries, and the injuries just made it even easier to the Vikings to beat the 1-7 Lions. The game ended with Vikings’ 27-10 victory.

Roger Goodell wants legislation to protect collectively bargained steroid policies

Obviously unhappy with Minnesota Vikings’ Williamses’ suspension being blocked, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell found the way solve the conflict between state laws and NFL policies- to persuade Congress to publish new legislation that would protect collective bargaining agreements from state law challenges.


“We believe that a specific and tailored amendment to the Labor Management Relations Act is appropriate and necessary to protect collectively bargained steroid policies from attack under state law,” Goodell said in prepared testimony for a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

As Minnesota state law ruled that Vikings’ Pat Williams and Kevin Williams should not be suspended for steroid use, the NFL players union filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of the Williamses and New Orleans Saints players who were also suspended. If the NFL just let it go, it will definitely cause more similar cases to players in other teams' NFL jerseys.

Goodell will not let that happen. He wants legal help from the Congress, not only for NFL, but also for other national sports organizations.

Vikings starters are fighting injuries

Wide receiver Bernard Berrian, middle linebacker E.J. Henderson and cornerback Antoine Winfield, all three are the Minnesota Vikings starters, and all three are fighting injuries.


Berrian hurt his left hamstring last week while playing against the Steelers at Pittsburgh; Winfield missed that game because of an injury to his right foot and Henderson’s knee is on the mend. They were all held out of Wednesday’s practice.

Another two starters in Vikings jerseys were limited in Wednesday practice with injury. Linebacker Ben Leber had a calf injury, and quarterback Brett Favre appeared on the injury report with a hip problem. As the Vikings will visit Green Bay this weekend to play against Favre’s old team Packers, I guess Favre will be able to play; at least he will be present for the game to see how Green Bay fans welcome him back.

Favre will not play in Vikings preseason finale against Cowboys

As most NFL teams rest their starters in the final preseason game, the Minnesota Vikings took the same action on their starting quarterback Brett Favre, who arrived in Minnesota just 16 days ago.

It was in purpose of avoiding the risk of injury with the regular season a week away, especially necessary for the 39-year-old quarterback. Three days after his arrival, Favre put on the No. 4 vikings jersey and played his first game for the Vikings, looking every bit as rusty as could be expected with 1 for 4 for 4 yards in two series against the Kansas City Chiefs. But his performance became better and better afterwards, completing 13 of 18 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown while playing into the third quarter of a 17-10 win at Houston.


“I thought he made a nice jump from Week 1 to Week 2 and showed he’s got a good understanding of what we’re doing,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said.

Before the Vikings open the regular season on Sept. 13 at Cleveland, Favre and the rest of his offensive starters spend the entire week on practicing to fine-tune things.

Favre gave no impressive performance in debut for Vikings

On Friday night’s preseason game the Minnesota Vikings playing against the Kansas City Chiefs, predictably, a lot of fans and reporters were there mainly watching Brett Favre’s debut for the Vikings. However, what they saw was just only one completed pass in Favre’s eight plays.


The same fans who used to hate Favre when he was playing for Vikings’ rival the Green Bay Packers, welcomed Favre heartily with loud cheer. However, he did not play the important role in leading the Vikings to the 17-13 victory over the Chiefs. Favre played two series and went 1 for 4 for a whopping 4 yards. Then he ended the night with a jarring hit by Chiefs linebacker Corey Mays. The No. 4 brett favre jersey was pulled down and exposing his left shoulder pad.

It was Tarvaris Jackson who performed as a polished quarterback with 12 for 15 for 202 yards and two touchdowns. The guy who was supposed to take the job of starting quarterback before Favre came to the Vikings surely did not lose confidence and is still making effort to become the leading quarterback in the Vikings.

Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson skipped practice for knee injury

On Vikings Sunday practice, quarterback Tarvaris Jackson did not appear because of a sprained MCL in his left knee, which he got on Saturday when defensive lineman LeTroy Guion accidentally rolled up on his leg during an 11-on-11 drill.


“He stayed inside for treatment today,” coach Brad Childress said. “The first 24 hours are a big time to treat those things. He spent some time with all the modalities they do in the swimming pool. There are several things they can do for him.” He did not expect to see Tarvaris wearing back practice nfl jerseys soon.

Jackson is competing with Sage Rosenfels for the starting job, so it is very likely that he could return to practice on Monday.