RB Tomlinson continues with free agency trip to Jets

The free agent running back LaDainian Tomlinson just finished his visit to the Minnesota Vikings without any deal done, so he has to continue with his trip and the next stop is the New York Jets.

The former San Diego Chargers star running back reportedly enjoyed his meeting with the Vikings, and the team seemed like to have Tomlinson put on the Vikings jersey
to be a replacement for Chester Taylor, who was signed away by the Chicago Bears. However, it seemed that they did not make an offer that satisfied Tomlinson.

Well, I guess Tomlinson will still have to make another visit to another team after the Jets. The Jets released free agent veteran running back Thomas Jones despite objection from fans other players. Besides, they are still hopeful that starting runningback Leon Washington could return from his broken leg for the 2010 season. In that case, signing Tomlinson would not be a necessary move and even if they may decide to make an offer, that offer could not be a great one expected by Tomlinson.

Vikings added kickoff specialist Lloyd to roster

Already with one of the top return threats in the league in Percy Harvin, the Minnesota Vikings now added one of the top kickoff threats in the league to their team. With the determination to be a better team in 2010 season, the Vikings singed kickoff specialist Rhys Lloyd on Monday.

Lloyd, who played in college at the University of Minnesota, was happy to put on Vikings jersey with the feeling of returning home. He will be banging kickoffs into the end zone for them. It’s a smart move by the Vikings. They just made their special teams unit much better.

Before announcing his decision to join the Vikings, Lloyd planned to get on plane and travel to New York on Tuesday to meet with the Giants, the second stop of trip since he became an unrestricted free agent after he did not receive any qualifying offer from his former team the Carolina Panthers as a restricted free agent.

Vikings CB Griffin will probably not return in time for next season

The Minnesota Vikings cornerback Cedric Griffin might not be seen in his No. 23 Vikings jersey for quite a long time while he is to rehabilitate after the surgery he will undergo to repair an injured left knee next week.

Griffin was hurt while covering the overtime kickoff in Vikings’ loss to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game. Coach Brad Childress said Tuesday that the cornerback needs to have a surgery and the recovery may take long enough to keep Griffin out for the beginning of the next season, six to nine months.

With starting cornerback Antoine Winfield missing two months with a broken right foot, Griffin led the Vikings with four interceptions this season and helped stabilize the secondary team.

Middle linebacker E.J. Henderson may also miss some part of next season because of badly broken left thigh bone. So it seems that the Vikings need some plan B with defensive starters for next season.

Vikings WR Harvin will play Pro Bowl as a kick returner

In his first year since putting on NFL jersey, the Minnesota Vikings rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin made it to his first Pro Bowl game, and he himself becomes the Vikings’ second kick returner to make the Pro Bowl NFC team, joining Koren Robinson, who played as kick returner in NFC in 2005.

Harvin was added to the NFC roster on Monday by the NFL, and his joining made the Vikings stretch a league-high total of Pro Bowl players to nine. Harvin was added later than other Pro Bowl players because the position was taken previously by the Philadelphia Eagles DeSean Jackson, who occupied bother wide receiver and kick returner in the NFC team before the league made a decision on who could fill the spot.

Jackson received the least voting points for the kick returner spot, and the league used his team at the spot and planned to find a best player to fill the void. The player turned out to be Harvin, who returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and finished fourth in the NFL with an average of 27.5 yards per return as well as set Minnesota’s single-season franchise record for all-purpose yardage.

Now Peterson began to surpass Favre in catching attention

Since he decided to get out of retirement and accept Brad Childress’ invitation to put on Vikings jersey, Brett Favre has been mentioned too much when people were talking about every Vikings’ game. We know running back Adrian did as great job, but we were just so busy talking about Favre that we forgot to mention that.

Peterson just ran. He helped take pressure off the quarterback in the second half and eventually put away Cincinnati. He provided some tough, effective running that worked the clock and got him into the end zone twice.

So it is time believe that the Vikings would be even better if they make their offense more about Peterson and less about Favre, to trust Peterson to be the man who can take advantage of what has become a vulnerable Saints run defense if the teams meet in the NFC title game.

Vikings WR Harvin missed third straight practice

Although not willing to rule the rookie receiver out for this Sunday’s game, the Minnesota Vikings Coach Brad Childress is just 100 percent confident that Percy Harvin could appear in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals, wearing his Vikings jersey and playing as good as before.

Harvin, dangerous as a receiver and kick returner, missed practice time before the San Francisco and Green Bay games earlier this season and responded well in both. Besides four catches for 51 yards, he returned a kickoff for a touchdown against the 49ers, and had five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown against the Packers.

The Vikings have 14 players listed on injury report, with 13 of them starters. Injuries are bothering running back Adrian Peterson, right tackle Phil Loadholt and left guard Steve Hutchinson. Even starting quarterback Brett Favre was limited in Friday’s practice, not because of injury but a coach’s decision.

8-3 Cardinals became the second team to beat Vikings

Neither the Pittsburgh Steelers nor the Arizona Cardinals has given a performance that could be called perfect for this season, but both teams managed to achieve other teams have not achieved by so far of this season: they beat the Vikings.

With a 6-0 start, the Vikings lost their first regular-season game to the Steelers, but they soon cleared doubt about their future by winning four consecutive games, but (but again) the Cardinals did not allow them to continue with the winning streak. Kurt Warner made it to 22 of 32 with no interceptions and no sacks, while the guy wearing his No. 4 Brett Favre jersey was picked off twice and sacked three times.

Hard to say which team surprised us more. The Vikings has kept their power rank at No. 3 following the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints for weeks, but they failed. The Cardinals lost last week’s game to 3-6 Tennessee Titans when they were still 7-3 and caused many to think that they would begin a loss streak when encountering the Vikings, but the team won.

The Vikings may win again in next game, and the Cardinals may lose again, but for now, Cardinals fans should cheer loudly for their beloved team for they really have done a good job.

Brett Favre: the Older, the Better?

Brett Favre has started ten consecutive games in his purple Minnesota Vikings jerseys, somewhat incredible for a 40-year-old player. Doubters can shut up now as they have had no reason to chastise the star quarterback for ending a second retirement.

Favre proved what he believed in himself by completing a career-high 88 percent of his passes for 213 yards and four touchdown passes while playing with the Vikings against the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday. It seemed that he is becoming even better as he is getting older. Favre has only completed at least 80 percent two other times in his previous 18 seasons. And for this season only he has did that twice: he completed 85.2 percent while playing against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 20.

He surpassed Dan Marino by finishing Sunday’s game as his 22nd career game with at least four touchdown passes, earning himself an extreme honor from fans, including those who booed him during his 16 years with the Green Bay Packers. When the record was announced to the sellout crowd in the fourth quarter, fans gave him a standing ovation and chants of “MVP! MVP!”

Brett Favre is a great player, now more and more people have been convinced.

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.

Vikings QB Jackson returned to practice, saying injury not serious

After Brett Favre decided to remain retired, it became Vikings fans habit to keep eyes close on any changes to Tarvaris Jackson, who is competing for the starting QB job with Sage Rosenfels. His recent injury has been reported since he was hurt on Saturday. By so for, according to reports, nothing serious. Jackson appeared on Vikings morning workout on Wednesday.

Last year Jackson missed a lot of practicing time in August because of a knee injury, but it seemed that this time the injury was not as serious. During the Wednesday workout, Jackson had no problems moving around with the sprained left knee. He took part in most of the training activities, except for a full-team, 2-minute drill at the end.

It probably will not take long for him to be full recovered. Just hope that he will be more careful and not injured again before the season.