Conner's Blog

I’m certain 95% of my readers are planning on watching the Vikings game this Sunday. It starts at 5, and since the winner of the game goes to the Superbowl, it’s kind of a big deal. I don’t know if I’ll watch the whole thing, but I plan on keeping my eye on the score regardless of what I’m doing.

I can’t say I’ve watched much of the Saints this year, but I know they have a killer offense, and what some call a good defense. I expect all the experts are predicting a Saints win, especially since it’s in the Superdome. I disagree, I think the Vikings will pull off a victory, and not a small one either. I think the final score will be somewhere in the 14-31 point range in favor of the Vikings. Why? Well first off the Vikings defense is playing well again, especially their front four. And no matter now good Drew Brees may be, he can’t do anything when he’s lying on his back. Also Brett Favre won a Superbowl in that dome, and regardless of what I said about him in the past, he’s playing at an unseemly level for a 40 year-old and somehow I think he’ll repeat history this weekend. I still don’t like him, but I begrudging have to say I was wrong about how he would impact the Vikings.

But that’s not the only Minnesota related competition happening Sunday. It turns out that the chefs at Saffron were picked to compete on the Food Network’s the Iron Chef. Guess when the show airs? Sunday! It starts at 8 so there might be some overlap with the game, but since the Vikings are going to crush the Saints there will not be much.

So here is the deal, Azia is generously hosting a viewing party for us. The party kicks off at 7 and the show will be on at 8. Along with that, Azia is purchasing a case of Rogue Brewery’s signature Morimoto Soba Ale. So not only do you get to watch some creative cooking you get to drink some creative beer.

So how about it, can you handle cheering for two Minnesota teams in one day? If you can, make your way to Azia and enjoy some good beer, good food, and have a chance to see Minnesota pull off two victories in one day.

RSVP here.

Well maybe bonus isn’t the right word, maybe it’s a teaser post. Anyway, in honor of the Vikings last pre-season game I present my favorite sighting from the state fair.

Who wants to bet the $80 he saved on a new jersey went toward fair food?

Apologies to those who fervently follow me over on Twitter and saw this on Friday.

Well it’s looking more and more like it will be official.  I’m once again going to be a nomadic NFL fan.  For my regular readers you may know that during the past year I became a Vikings fan.  This may not seem like much to most people but it was for me.  I grew up in Montana; a state that not only doesn’t have a major professional team but doesn’t have one in a neighboring state, choosing a team to be a fan of was not easy.  Most people from my hometown were Viking, Packer, or Bronco fans.  I personally never latched onto any one pro football team, and until I moved to Minneapolis, I planned to keep it that way.  That changed last year.  I started listening to KFAN, reading more local sports writers, and slowly came around to the Vikings.  They had rid themselves of the players I disliked while I was a neutral fan, and drafted one of my favorite rising stars, Adrian Peterson.

So I gave them my support last year and had a great time watching them even though they had too many warts to make a legitimate run as a Super bowl.  Then I followed them throughout the off-season and watched as they took our newfound relationship and drove it to the edge of a cliff repeatedly.

It started with the first headline I saw about Favre and the Vikings talking.  Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the NFL is a business and by signing Favre they are no longer going to have trouble selling tickets.  He is also potentially a major upgrade at quarterback and anyone who watched the Vikings last year knows that this is a major selling point.  I can see where management is drooling at the prospect of putting him in uniform.  However, as a fan of the game of football I can’t stand seeing Brett Favre allowed to play this game of chicken.  He strung the Vikings along for months while he “decided” whether he could play, then announced that he was done, claiming it was the hardest decision he had made.  Well he made another decision apparently, because today it looks as though Brett Favre is going to change his mind yet again and sign with the Vikings.

I have no problem with Brett Favre coming out of retirement.  I can’t imagine having to quit doing something that I love at such a young age.  What I can’t forgive Brett Favre for is stringing along both the franchise and the fans for an entire off-season.

If they sign Favre, the Vikings should be ashamed of themselves.  They are allowing a look-at-me player choose the course for their franchise.  This isn’t what I thought this organization was about anymore. They seemed intent on putting players in uniform who were team players.  They have the two incredible players in their backfield who happily share snaps, they had a quarterback dual that seemed nearly resolved but didn’t appear to create any undue tension, and they have an deep wide receiver corps that looked poised to willingly share catches.  It was a franchise I wanted to support.  But, if they sign Brett Favre after everything he’s done this off-season, I won’t be able to support them.

So I’ll spend next season watching the Vikings of course but I won’t be a true fan, and I’ll admit I probably never will be.  If I was a true fan this would not an end to our fan ship, I would just shake if off and continue supporting the team.  Maybe this turn of events is as much an indictment of my poor support as it is of a team willing to ignore their culture for a chance at a Super bowl.

What is the deal Minnesota, our sports teams have been taken over by aliens.  At least that’s the only explanation I can come up with for the moves that have happened in 3 of the big 4 sports franchises.  I’ve lived here for 2 years and nothing close to this has happened in that time. Maybe the front offices forgot to pay their heating bills, froze, and are just now thawing out.

The Timberwolves

The Wolves might not have made big headlines, but they made a move I wanted them to make before the season began.  They traded away Rashad McCants and another dead weight contract.  They didn’t get much back, though I think Sheldon Williams could turn into a solid contributer.  McCants will always put up numbers if he gets minutes, but his teams will never be winners.  I liked this move and consider it addition by subtraction.

The Vikings

Ok, this deal hasn’t officially been completed yet, but it looks like the Vikings are going to get Sage Rosenfels for a 4th round pick.  This is a move that I really like.  Not that the team is perfect, but a big part of the issues last year was because of inferior QB play.  Gus Ferotte won some games, but he lost just as many.  Tarvaris has occasional shown flashes of brilliance, but he definitely isn’t the answer for the leader of the football team.  Getting a solid young quarterback who can grow alongside A.P. is huge.  They don’t need to pay him top money for his position, which means they may be able to upgrade one of the offensive line positions.

The Twins

This is the move that I liked the most.  Signing a player like Crede to a good contract is exciting.  I was ok with them giving him a guaranteed 7 million for the year, but the Twins stuck to their guns and came back with a much better deal that won’t hurt them nearly as much if his isn’t healthy.  Having a solid power hitter in both corners of the infield will be great, and his defense fits right in with the Twins program.  Really the best thing about this deal is seeing the Twins front office defrost itself and actually make a move that might pay off.  It’s been too many years since they did anything more than sign aging stars and trade away our best talent.  Hopefully this move works and they continue to try and improve my favorite team.

The Wild

I’m just appalled by this team.  Something has to happen, and hopefully seeing the other three teams make a move will force them to take action.  They need a new head coach and probably a new GM.  It doesn’t require a high hockey IQ to see something needs to change.  For a team that hasn’t had to worry about selling out a game since they came into existence, they haven’t done much to repay the loyalty of their fans.

Circuit City is filing for bankrupcy shortly after announcing they would be closing numerous stores.  From what I’ve read it sounds like Minnesota stores are safe which is good.  I’m not a big fan of Circuit City, but I hope they survive, Best Buy needs some competition keeping them honest. 

I’ve added a few new Minnesota Blogs to my reading list:

• Fresh.mn – Started by swirlspice.  I wrote about Erica’s blog in my previous Minnesota Blogs post.
• Via Fresh.mn I found Because Emily Says So. I read the last 5-6 posts and clicked subscribe.  Well written and funny.
• Aaron Landry – Interesting so far, if for no other reason than the photos from local pizza places.  If you are hungry and trying to eat healthy I don’t recommend visiting.
• We Got Served – Well written restauraunt reviews from around the Metro.

So far the Obama’s search for a puppy seems to have caught the nation’s attention more than anything else.  Bob Collins at MPR’s News Cut takes the press to task for their lack of reporting on real issues.

Am I allowed to rescind my opinion on the Timberwolves?  I’m considering starting a fire Randy Whitman site shortly.  The Timberwolves better start playing defense or they won’t win 10 games this year.

The Vikings defense played a solid game against the Packers.  Lucky for the offense the insane number of mistakes they made didn’t cost the Vikings the game.

For the record the Vikings MVP’s halfway through the season are Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen.  If you didn’t see Sunday’s game and how Peterson willed his team to victory after fumbling on fourth down you need to.  Talk about heart.  Allen played hurt all game and was very effective.  He may not deserve his contract, but at least he’s trying to live up to expectations.

The Franken-Coleman race will never end.  This is what Minnesota gets for voting for either of those imbeciles.  There was another choice.

FiveThirtyEight.com had a front page article on the NYT’s web site today.  I started introducing my offline friends to this site.  I’m usually very hesitant to introduce them to websites but Nate Silver’s site was just too good.

I had a horrid experience at the Applebee’s in the Burnsville Mall this weekend.  I’ve never had bartenders be quite so angry at their customers.  On the other hand Chili’s in Burnsville was, as always, a good experience.  Of course I would prefer a non chain bar, but I live in Burnsville so my options are limited.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  This means Christmas music will start shortly.  I hate this, I like Christmas music, just not for a month straight.

With the change in seasons I’m suddenly craving soups and chili.  This is fairly unusual for me so I’m on a recipe collecting spree.  I’m planning on trying this recipe at some point this week.  Any other soup or chili recipies I should try?

It snowed all day on Saturday.  I had to scrape my windshield for the first time all year.  I am not happy I had to pull out the hat and gloves from storage.

If you are a blogger, please read this article from Lazy Lighting.  There are people out their trying to alter the contents of local blogs.  Let’s keep them from succeeding.

After watching the game last night, I’ am starting to reconsider my position on the Vikings.  Very little about the game was reassuring.  For a variety of reasons, their defense was not impressive.  They didn’t pressure Rodgers nearly enough, they let Ryan Grant go off for a 50+ yard run, and Rodgers was running all over the place looking like vintage Duante Culpepper.

The offense looked the same as last year.  A.P. was running well, but once the Packers were reassured the pass game was still  atrocious, they started stacking the box.  I will not even discuss the end of the game.  I am not writing them off yet, but if Childress doesn’t figure out a system that allows Jackson to complete more than 50% of his passes, the Vikings will not win eight games this year.

As for my Fantasy results, I won my first week.  I started Willie Parker, Reggie Wayne, Joey Galloway, Marshawn Lynch, Chris Cooley and Hasslebeck.  I also had Shayne Graham and Pit D.  This netted me a total of 67 points, 24 coming from Willie Parker alone.  The only roster change I should have made was starting Dwayne Bowe over Galloway, but I let the experts convince me that Kansas Cities offense was inept.  I picked up Eddie Royal, Matt Cassell, and Jamarcus Russel.  Cassell may not be a great pickup, but I cannot believe he will not perform well with that much talent around him.  Royal will supplement Brandon Marshall well, and Russel was a pickup based on last night’s performance and the fact that Oakland is going up against a poor Kansas City Defense next week.

I Hope everyone enjoyed the first week of the season, looking forward to living and dying by my players for the next 15 Sundays.

Growing up in northeastern Montana, choosing a sports team wasn’t easy.  Since no professional sports teams play in Montana or the bordering states, geographic location wasn’t a factor.  Choosing a team was just a matter of taste,, so everyone followed a different team.  Most people followed the closer teams such as the Bears, Broncos, and Vikings.  And of course the Steelers, the Cowboys, and the 49er’s had many fans.

My family was full of Packers fans.  My dad and my brothers are fans.  My uncle is a huge fan, even naming his sandwich shop after the team.  I never really came to be a fan of a specific team, I tended to cheer for the underdog in most situations.  When I moved to North Dakota, most of my friends were from Minnesota, and Vikings fans.  At the time the Vikings had a team I couldn’t cheer for.  Randy Moss, Daunte Culpepper, and Chris Carter  were not the type of players I liked.  Because of this and my nature to go against the pack, I decided that I was going to be the Anti-Viking fan, cheering against them whenever I could.  I still wasn’t a fan of a specific team though, which made the football season much less enjoyable than following the Twins and Timberwolves.

About a year and a half ago I moved to Minneapolis.  This was the first time I had lived in a place with major sports teams, and it was an experience.  All the radio stations talked about the teams frequently, the paper had numerous articles.  It was a dramatic change from following teams by AP article and ESPN.  I became a bigger fan of the Twins and Timberwolves, but I still couldn’t get over my aversion to the Vikings.

Things started to change last year.  The Vikings turned a page and dumped the players I disliked.  Moss left, then Culpepper, they hired a coach that may not be the best NFL head coach, but unlike Tice I don’t think Childress is a crook.  To cap it all of, they drafted a player I really liked in Adrian Peterson.  I liked him when he was in college, and I thought the Vikings made a great selection.  Again, due to the fact that I live in Minneapolis, I watched the majority of the Vikings games and realized all my reasons for disliking the Vikings were no longer there.  They have one of my favorite players, they have become a defense first team, and have changed their culture to try and prevent incidents like the “Love Boat”.

At the start of the pre-season, I decided I was willing to admit it, I am officially announcing my Vikings allegiance.  I’m not jumping on the bandwagon, I’m not changing teams, I’ve just decided that the Vikings are going to be my team.  I doubt I will start buying Viking’s apparel, but I will cheer for them on Sunday no matter who they are playing.

I’m looking forward to this NFL season more than any other for this reason.  I actually have a team to follow were before I followed the season and didn’t care either way who won or lost.  I think the Vikings are going to have a great season, and expect them to make the playoffs, if for no other reason then they play in a very weak division.  I also get to follow the best young running back in the game right now, and see possibly the best defense in the league.  It will be odd to be an admitted Vikings fan, but I’m looking forward to joining the ranks of the tormented.