Vikings News Roundup

July 12, 2012, by 6 comments

Let’s do a little synopsis, if you will, of what’s been going in Vikings world. There hasn’t been tons happening that doesn’t involve the Houston Police Department, but I thought it would be a good idea to cover some of the smaller stories that we haven’t really touched on yet here at Vikings Territory.

So, here we go:

New Stadium Retractable Roof

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the stadium here. There hasn’t been tons happening since the stadium bill was passed a couple months ago, but there is some news regarding the roof. Yesterday, Lester Bagley, Vikings VP, told Bob Sansevere of the Pioneer Press that while, as of right now, the design is for a fixed-roof facility, if they can cut costs their goal is to have a retractable roof feature. Now, while that sounds great, I probably wouldn’t get your hopes up. If the retractable roof is not currently in the (almost) 1 billion dollar budget, it probably won’t find its way in unless it gets funded some other way. These things almost always come in over budget and stuff ends up getting value engineered out (not in). While it would be nice to have a “portion of the roof that can be opened to view downtown,” I just don’t know how likely it is since it wasn’t in the original scope.

McKinnie Says Vikings Exaggerated About His Weight

Bryant McKinnie is trying to melt off his extra weight before training camp… again. It seems like this is a yearly story with this guy. Anyway, when speaking with a reporter from the Baltimore Sun about being released by the Vikings because he “weighed 400 pounds at the time,” McKinnie said, “I never was… That was exaggerated by the Vikings.” Instead, McKinnie claims he was only 386 pounds when he was at his highest. That is a huge difference!

Josh Gordon Via Supplemental Draft

The Supplemental Draft takes place this afternoon and it is unknown how involved the Vikings will be. What is known, though, is that the organization has shown interest in a receiver named Josh Gordon who will likely cost a third round pick to obtain. The Vikings attended the wide out’s “pro day” earlier this week and, despite having made multiple moves during the offseason at the position, still have a need for a sure deep threat receiver who can stretch the field. Gordon, the former Baylor receiver, is 6’4”, 200 pounds and has been said to have 4.3 speed. Those are the type of intangibles that are sure to catch any teams’ eye. Gordon does not come without some concerns, though. While at Baylor, he was arrested for marijuana possession. That infraction got him transferred to Utah where he sat out the entire 2011 season.

We’ll know later this afternoon whether or not the Vikings obtain Gordon’s services. I’m going to predict the Vikings will pass on this one, though. While the Vikings took a similar risk on, future Hall of Famer, Cris Carter, I’m not sure the organization will be willing to give up a third round pick for an unproven receiver with character concerns after just spending two fourth round picks on young receivers as well as signing Jerome Simpson over the offseason. Stay tuned on this one, though.

Everson Griffen At Linebacker

Tom Pelissero from ESPN 1500 is reporting that when Everson Griffen reports to training camp in a few weeks, it will be as a linebacker.

AP & HPD: More Details

There are some new details in the Adrian Peterson case involving high-profile attorneys, black eyes, denials, etc… If you’re interested, this article by Dan Wiederer at the Star Tribune does a good job of outlining everything that’s happened so far.

Roll Call

Not really Vikings related but, one of our readers had a good idea to host a little “roll call” at the VT Forums. You should head over and let everyone know where you’re from. It would be cool to know a little bit more about our great readers.

That’s it for now. We’ll keep you updated if anything happens this afternoon in the Supplemental Draft.

Adam’s Take On Peterson Situation

July 11, 2012, by 12 comments

Brett is busy compiling an extensive “Links of the Week” feature and I have finally gotten a brief moment amongst the chaos that is life to write a quick blurb.  Everybody in the world seems to have weighed in on the Adrian Peterson arrest, so this is probably a little redundant.  Still, it is a topic worthy of discussion, obviously.

I’m not going to rehash all of the TMZ “reports” and supposed eyewitness accounts, and I’m not going to copy and paste all of Peterson’s lawyer’s recent comments.  Instead, I just want to make a few simple points.

1.  Ever since hearing of the news on Saturday I have wracked my brain in an effort to imagine a situation in which it took three police officers and a pair of handcuffs to subdue me.  I couldn’t.  First of all, I’m not Adrian Peterson so one police officer (male or female) could surely take me down easily enough.  Second, I couldn’t imagine a situation in which this would be necessary if I were doing nothing wrong as Peterson asserts was the case in his scenario.  If one cop doesn’t do the trick… I have a hard time believing the guy in handcuffs wasn’t resisting arrest in some fashion.  I’ve never been to Houston, however, so maybe they really do have cops that jump people and rough them up for no apparent reason.

2.  What is the deal with Peterson only being arrested for resisting arrest?  In order to resist arrest you must have been doing something illegal to warrant the initial attempt at an arrest in the first place.  So… what were they arresting him for?

3.  I’m not one to defend criminal actions, but this is probably being blown out of proportion because of Peterson’s celebrity status.  To me, this isn’t the same as a DUI or beating up your girlfriend.  No lives were put in danger and you will be hard pressed to find many guys that didn’t have some late nights that they regret while in their twenties.

4.  I’m guessing this whole thing gets dropped because of the mess Peterson and his lawyer intend to turn this into.  This type of thing will gain extra attention during the slowest part of the NFL year, but I’m guessing it ends up living on as an obscure punch line reference, perhaps a Jeopardy question, but dies a quick death from a legal standpoint.

So, yeah, I’m not calling for his release or trade.  I’m not prepared to get on a soapbox and cry foul on Houston’s finest.  In general, I guess this thing is just kind of a yawner.

And for that I am grateful.

Bad Things Come In Threes, But So Do Silver Linings

July 9, 2012, by 24 comments

As you may have read at the onset of the weekend, I packed up the family and headed to the famous Tangle Lakes for a weekend fishing trip with long-time Vikings Territory (and Vikings Gab) reader Fran the Man.

So, after getting approval to take off of work a few hours early on Friday, I headed to the house to get the family ready to go.  These days, the family consists of Mrs. Warwas who is about a month away from having our second child and Gates, my almost-two-year-old son.  Additionally, my two brother-in-laws (ages 8 & 13) are staying with us this summer, wanting to get their fill of a true Alaskan adventure.

We were all looking forward to a peaceful fishing trip up north and I was also looking forward to yet another weekend of uneventful Vikings news.  I’m guessing you can tell from this lead in that things didn’t go quite as planned, but go ahead and continue reading if you are interested in the full story from this weekend (and some pictures, too).  This is more of a journal entry than a football post… but that’s okay, I make the rules around here!

  Continue Reading →

More Details On Peterson’s Arrest

July 8, 2012, by 15 comments

More details have been released regarding Adrian Peterson’s arrest late Friday night at a Houston Nightclub. The original reports of the event left some questions regarding what Peterson had done to be “tackled” by a police officer. The official report though from Kese Smith, a spokesman for the Houston police department, gives much more detail about what caused the scuffle between AP and HPD.

Below is Smith’s account of the events:

“This happened at a club in downtown Houston called the Bayou Live Nightclub. It began just after 2 a.m. this morning when a Houston police officer working an approved extra job as security began the process of clearing the bar of patrons. The bar had just closed. While doing so he approached Adrian Peterson, who was with a group of people next to the bar. Peterson was talking with that group of people next to the bar and the officer informed Peterson and the group that the bar was closed and asked them to walk toward the nearest exit. The officer left the group to continue advising other patrons the bar was closed. A short time later, the officer returned and found Peterson and the group still talking at the bar. The officer again asked everyone to leave the bar, reminding them that it was closed. As the officer turned away to remind other patrons of this, Peterson told the officer that the group had heard him the first time and pushed the officer in the shoulder causing him to stumble. The officer then informed Peterson he was under arrest and asked him to turn around and place his hands behind his back. Peterson instead began yelling at the officer who again told him to place his hands behind his back. As the officer attempted to place Peterson in handcuffs, Peterson pulled away from the officer and assumed a violent stance. At this time an HPD sergeant, who was also working an approved extra job, saw what was happening and attempted to assist in arresting Peterson. Peterson began struggling with both officers. During this entire time, that initial officer was giving verbal commands to Peterson to stop resisting and place his hands behind his back. Peterson ignored those verbal commands and continued to struggle with the officers and ultimately a third officer had to assist in detaining Peterson. Once placed in handcuffs, Peterson was transported to the Houston Police city jail where he complained of shortness of breath. He was examined by Houston fire department medical personnel who pronounced him to be medically fine. He was then booked into the jail and is charged with resisting arrest, which is a misdemeanor.”

I think there are a couple things worth noting here:

After Adrian Peterson was arrested, he complained of “shortness of breath.” I don’t mean to crack jokes regarding an incident like this, but hopefully this is not a sign that Peterson’s conditioning is severely behind…

This is very out of character for AP who, other than a couple traffic violations, has been a model player on how to carry yourself off-the-field. TMZ reported (Man, do I hate saying that…) that the club manager said Peterson was “heavily intoxicated” and that “He looked really scary… I thought he was gonna attack the cops.” I’m going to go ahead and assume that Peterson’s behavior can primarily be attributed to his mental state at the time. (Not to, in any way, validate that kind of behavior.) From the sound of things, it seems like Peterson was immediately aware that he had screwed up. The same club manager noted that as soon as Peterson was subdued, he apologized and explained that he doesn’t normally drink.

I’m still a little confused regarding the charges, though. I guess it’s a good thing though that Peterson was only charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor charge, as opposed to assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. (The officer was ‘off-duty’ though, don’t know if that changes anything…)

Anyway, this whole thing has me very disappointed with Adrian Peterson. I don’t imagine that it will have a huge impact on the Vikings. I don’t even really see Peterson getting much of a punishment from the NFL. But, nonetheless, Vikings fans expect better from him.

Adrian Peterson Arrested

July 7, 2012, by 9 comments

Just a couple days ago, Adam and I were discussing the lack of any substantial Vikings news lately. I reminded him that sometimes, during this slow part of the offseason, “no news is good news.” He agreed and we pretty much dropped the subject.

Well, folks, unfortunately I have some major offseason news this morning: Adrian Peterson has been arrested.

Jerome Solomon, a columnist for the Houston Chronicle broke the news via Twitter earlier this morning.

According to Mike Florio, of Pro Football Talk, Adrian Peterson was with his girlfriend and some family members at a Houston nightclub late last night/this morning. Police, for unknown reasons at this point, entered the club at its closing hours and began instructing people to leave. Adrian Peterson attempted to get some water before he left the club and Peterson was again instructed that he needed to leave. He then supposedly walked to the exit with a couple of the club’s bouncers. Then, according to Florio and a ‘source’, “It’s believed that one of the officers then jumped on Peterson’s back from behind and tried to take him down. (Key word: “tried.”) Other officers then joined the fray and completed the arrest.”

At this point, there really aren’t any other details of the incident but it is believed that is was captured on video by multiple subjects. (When these videos become public you can be sure we’ll share them here.)

As of right now, it is believed that Adrian Peterson is still in jail with bail set at $1,000.

While this isn’t the first time AP has had  a run-in with the law (with other various traffic violations), in my opinion, something seems a little fishy here. While I’m sure more details will become available soon, I’m not sure why an officer “jumped on Peterson’s back.” Either way, probably wasn’t a very good idea for the cop to try and tackle a football player who is known for not being tackled…

Well, I guess we got our big piece of offseason drama. Wouldn’t be a Vikings offseason without some, now would it?

Adam Gives His Opinion On Leslie Frazier

July 6, 2012, by 10 comments

I am heading out for the weekend, off to meet long-time internet friend and fellow Vikings fan “Fran the Man” to do some fishing on the famous Tangle Lakes (pictured  above). 

Before trekking off into the wild, however, I wanted to get one last post up as sort of a response to a comment received under my recent post on Leslie Frazier’s USO Tour.

B. Grant wrote:  “Nice piece here, Adam. Shows some real class on Leslie’s part (and on your part for pointing it out to us). Gonna put you on the spot, now…  What’s your true gut feeling about Leslie Frazier as an NFL head coach? Is he gonna have a long term and eventually successful run here in Minnesota, or will we be looking at a different head coach in the not-too-distant future? Can Leslie be a Super Bowl champion head coach? Go ahead, give us your honest take on this.”

Okay, it has been a while since I have taken a real hard stance on something and made foolish predictions, so now seems like a fitting time to rekindle my old love for hack bloggering.

Yes!  I think Leslie Frazier can be a Super Bowl winning head coach.

Now, there is a long laundry list of reasons to doubt Frazier.  He mistakenly hung his hat on washed up veterans like Donovan McNabb and Bernard Berrian last season.  Chris Cook’s disasterous arrest prior to a Packers game and Adrian Peterson’s horrible injury during a garbage game, both happened under his watch.  Bill Musgrave, under Frazier’s authority, seemed to greatly underutilize players like Percy Harvin, Kyle Rudolph, and even Adrian Peterson at various points last season.  There was even some unexpected wishy-washy decision making at the end of the season when a hobbled Christian Ponder, who perhaps shouldn’t have been playing to start with, was replaced a number of times by Joe Webb.  Familiarity led to jobs being handed to Fred Pagac and Mike Singletary but the results were not at all favorable.  Botched challenges and too many penalties were just more signs of a dismal season.

More aggravating to me than anything listed above, and also more worrisome, were some very questionable play calls that ended up deciding games… and not to the Vikings benefit.  Who can forget Toby Gerhart’s fourth down carries against Detroit and Atlanta, both of which screamed “desperation” and signaled to the fans that the 2011 was forever lost.

Still, despite all of the negatives, I think that this is not only a new season but also a very different season and Frazier will make improvements that show exactly why he is an asset to the team.

First, there is no lockout.  Taking over a roster with a shortened offseason and two new quarterbacks as a first year head coach is not an enviable position to be in.  The negative consequences of the craziness that was the 2011 offseason were evident throughout the season, but I think we have already started to see (outside of Percy Harvin) a cohesiveness this year that just simply wasn’t there last year.

Secondly, Frazier gets to be a coach.  He put his name on enough poor personnel decisions last offseason that the Vikings ended up essentially demoting him and giving sole authority over the roster to General Manager Rick Spielman.  I think this will take a lot of pressure off of Frazier and allow him to sit back and do the two things he does best:  coach football and mentor young men.  What we saw this offseason, in the way Frazier and Spielman handled the sudden eruption from Percy Harvin, was a refreshing change from the days of Brad Childress and, while we don’t know all the details, this is the first true evidence we have to suggest the new power structure is an improvement over the old Triangle of Authority.

Cutting down on off-the-field problems, instilling a sense of discipline on this young roster, and seeing progressive improvement and development in all phases of the game are essential to Frazier’s future with the team.  No single factor will have more weight, however, than the progression of Christian Ponder.

If Ponder excels, Frazier has a future.  If he stumbles, Frazier likely doesn’t.  Fair or unfair, right or wrong, I think that will be the case regardless of how Frazier does in all the other aspects of coaching this season.  Ponder and Frazier (and possibly Spielman) are tied together with a knot that is too tight to undo.  Ponder’s improvement and success are paramount to the future of this young team, and the employment status of Leslie Frazier and his staff.

So far, all signs are pointing towards an improved quarterback situation, so right now I have no reason to doubt Frazier or his ability to turn this mess around and get started down the right track.

Okay, have a good weekend everyone!

I’m off to catch some fish.

Leber Back With Vikings… Kind Of

July 6, 2012, by 3 comments

Last offseason, the Vikings decided to let linebacker Ben Leber leave via free agency despite showing very little signs of slowing down following what had been a quietly efficient run with the team.  It seems that they made the right decision, however, as Leber ended up sharing in the misery that plagued the St. Louis Rams.

Now the veteran is returning to the Vikings in a different role.

He has been hired by Vikings Entertainment Network which will see him conducting sideline interviews and appearing in official team videos throughout the offseason.

“It kind of presented itself,” Leber said of the new gig. “I got brought in by the Vikings and asked if I wanted to put my name in the hat for their new project. I said ‘sure.’ It sounded like a great opportunity.”

I have seen Leber’s media appearances, seen him do some stuff for NFL Network, and have always had a lot of respect for him as a player and as a charitable individual.  I for one am excited to see him connected to the team once again, and will look forward to seeing how he does next month.