So while I was looking around last night, I managed to find this laughable video from the folks at Pro Football Weekly. They're doing a "Most Overrated Players" bracket of eight NFL players, and apparently one of the eight players that they've decided is overrated is the guy that came up half a sack short of the NFL single-season record and was runner-up for the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year Award, Jared Allen.

Think I'm joking? I most assuredly am not.

There's the video. They matched Allen up with Detroit Lions defensive tackle/cheap shot artist Ndamukong Suh in the first round of their bracket.

Now, ignoring the stupidity of having Jared Allen placed in a tournament to determine the most overrated player in the NFL, the guy that is actually advocating that position can't keep his facts straight. During the video, he points out that Allen had more sacks in the first half of the season than he did in the second half. That's correct, actually. . .in the first half of the season, Allen had 12.5 sacks and 34 tackles, and in the second half of the year he had 9.5 sacks and 32 tackles (according to his stats page on NFL.com). Well, according to the video, Allen had 16 sacks in the first half of the season to go with 39 tackles, and just 6 sacks and 27 tackles in the second half of the season. Nice research department you've got there.

Amazingly, they managed to go with Suh in this "match-up." In any case, this entire thing is stupid with a capital dumb. Just goes to show that, no matter how successful a season a member of the Minnesota Vikings might have, stupid haters are just going to continue to stupidly hate. For a national rag like PFW, one would generally expect better.

Well, that certainly didn't take long.

Ramsey County’s third Minnesota Vikings stadium proposal doesn’t work for the team, Vice President Lester Bagley said Friday.

The latest plan delivered to Gov. Mark Dayton shifted from using county sales taxes to user fees at the proposed stadium site in Arden Hills. Bagley was direct about the third effort, saying, "Our view is the earlier proposals were more viable."

I get that the legislature lacks the testicular fortitude to present any kind of a solution and, instead, offers nothing but criticism. I get that there are a lot of anti-stadium crybabies out there that think Zygi should "build it himself" (even though they'd find a way to whine about that, too, what with Zygi being able to keep all the profits in that case). I get that the team wants to maximize their profit potential after years of getting screwed over by the Minneapolis Sports Facilities Commission.

What I don't get, however, is that people fail to realize that something needs to get done. I don't give a damn what the anti-stadium crybabies say about the Metrodome. . .it's no longer a viable National Football League facility, and it hasn't been for a very long time. Talk all you want about a "new roof" and a "new playing surface." That's garbage and everybody knows it.

In this case, all of these parties involved could learn a valuable lesson from Professors Woods, Watts, Richards, and Jagger.

Get something done. Stop screwing around and get something done.

Has any other team in any other sport ever had this much trouble getting something done concerning a stadium?

The Minnesota Vikings fielded one of the worst secondaries in the National Football League in 2011, a group that set an NFL record by going nine games without intercepting a pass despite playing behind a front seven that tied for the NFL lead in sacks. The group will undoubtedly be a part of the focus for the team during this off-season.

To that end, according to Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Vikings have reached out to former Oakland Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt, who was released by the Silver and Black yesterday.

As Fowler points out, Routt's statistics from last season show both reasons to consider him and reasons he should be avoided. On the upside, he allowed only 47.4% of the passes thrown his direction to be completed, and he had four interceptions and 15 passes defended in 2011. . .on the downside, he also allowed eight touchdown passes last year and was the most penalized DB in the league, getting flagged 17 times.

Routt has decent size (6'1", 195 according to the numbers from NFL.com), but isn't really considered a "Cover 2" sort of player. Then again, new defensive coordinator Alan Williams, while a Tampa-2 disciple of sorts, might be more interested in something more aggressive. . .man, I hope so. . .that Routt could do well in.

The cornerback market is going to be pretty loaded in free agency, however. Some of the names that will be available are Cortland Finnegan, Brandon Carr (my personal choice), Brent Grimes, Tracy Porter, and Carlos Rogers, among others. But at least we know that the Vikings are at least attempting to do something at a spot we know they need to do something at.

So it appears the San Diego Chargers won't be re-signing WR Vincent Jackson. Per the article:

A few big-name wide receivers are scheduled to be free agents this offseason, including Wes Welker, DeSean Jackson, and Reggie Wayne. And because of that, another fella will likely be hitting the market when the free-agent window opens on March 13: San Diego Chargers vet Vincent Jackson.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that even though "there is expected to be a line of teams" who want to sign Jackson, the team "will almost certainly allow Jackson to hit the free agent market next month."

The Chargers will be sure to let Jackson's agent know that they want to be bidders, of course, but the team won't be trying to sign him to a deal before then. He was asking for $10 million annually more than a year ago, the paper notes, and his price hasn't likely gone down.

The 29-year-old Jackson has been with the Chargers since the team drafted him in 2005 out in the second round out of Northern Colorado. He had 1,106 receiving yards and nine touchdowns this past season.

So... do we make a play for him? It seems he was all set and ready to come to Minnesota during the 2010-11 season, but the Chargers didn't want to let him jump ship (and we ended up with Randy Moss). Might he have that same desire to come to Minnesota, and will the Vikings still be willing to pony up the cash?

Personally, I think he's the real deal and absolutely good for a 5-year contract. Of the other high profile receivers hitting the market, the only two I see actually leaving their teams are Marques Colston and Desean Jackson. Jackson is a sick athlete, but a malcontent. Colston is absolutely worth going after if New Orleans can't pay him. But I think Vincent Jackson is the best of the lot.

Yippee, more stadium drama stuff!

Today on As the Stadium Turns, the folks from Ramsey County have finally come up with their third different stab at a financing plan for a stadium at the Vikings' preferred site in Arden Hills. This one, like some of the other ones, makes entirely too much sense. That means that it probably stands no chance at passing or gaining any real traction, either.

Man, I'm starting to think that this whole thing is making me even more cynical than normal.

So, what is Ramsey County proposing this time?

Ramsey County's third stab at a financing plan for a Minnesota Vikings stadium in Arden Hills relies on revenue from parking lot naming rights, parking fees, an admissions surcharge, stadium sales taxes and taxes collected on ancillary developments.

The proposal, projected to raise $20.6 million per year from the assortment of user fees, comes as stadium supporters rush to cobble together a workable plan for the legislative session and as funding concepts proposed by Minneapolis and state officials appear to be faltering.

So, let's see here. . .all of the stuff to pay for the stadium will come as a direct result of things relating to the stadium. . .no new taxes. . .doesn't involve gambling in any way.

Yeah, the whole thing makes too damn much sense. And it's not located in Minneapolis. It has no shot.

Speaking of Minneapolis, as the snippet quoted above mentions, the Minneapolis funding plan appears to be falling short financially. . .according to the Star-Tribune, it's falling short to the tune of $55 million, and the gap could eventually rise to as much as $100 million. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Minneapolis didn't totally think their stadium proposals all the way through and pulled something out of their collective asses at the last minute in a last-ditch, desperate effort to keep the stadium in Minneapolis somehow.

But now we have a new financing plan at the Vikings' preferred location. Hopefully something. . .anything. . .will get accomplished in the near future here. The Vikings need to declare where they're going to play by this Wednesday, and have said that they're not signing a new lease or extended lease with the Metrodome unless they have assurances that something is going to be in place for a new stadium.

The clock is ticking, folks. . .but if history has taught us anything on this subject, we should probably just assume that the Minnesota legislature will once again find a way to roll over and hit the "snooze" button rather than actually getting up and doing anything.

This evening, while engaging in some work-related nerdery. . .and I'm not sure that's even a real word, but work with me here. . .I came across one of the first signs that 2012 will be a much better year for the Vikings than this past season was. Granted, that's not a high hurdle to clear, but still.

No, it turns out that a couple from Pennsylvania went out to empty some of the traps they have in their yard to keep rodents away from their numerous bird feeders, and found a purple squirrel. Yes, the squirrel was purple. That's the squirrel up there in the corner.

Nobody knows how it was that the squirrel came to be purple, although numerous theories have been advanced. The couple in the story, Percy and Connie Emert, make their home in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, so it's probably just a matter of time before the squirrel starts fist-pumping, walking around with a fauxhawk, and getting involved in a relationship with Snooki.

And, if you're interested, the purple squirrel has its own FaceBook page and its own Twitter account. . .because really, why wouldn't it?

But, if you believe in omens. . .well, this has to have some meaning for our favorite football team, doesn't it? Unless you think the squirrel is connected to the Baltimore Ravens somehow, which is clearly not the case.

Hi gang, sorry I've been incognito over the last week or so--just having a heckuva time trying to find some stuff to write about.

And the saga that is the Vikings quest for a new stadium seems to be just the slump buster I need to get out of this funk. So I go back to you, stadium saga, like a fat chick at last call. I'm desperate to write, you're desperate to have your story told, let's get out of here.

So, where do we stand today, with the Legislature in session and time running out?

Well, if we are to believe The Godfather, the only site that is now under serious consideration is the site adjacent to the Metrodome. Not the Metrodome site, not the Basilica, not Arden Hills, but the site adjacent to the Metrodome.

The advantage to that is that most, or at least a good part of, the new stadium could be built around the Metrodome, and it would only require the VIkings to play one season, 2015, at TCF Bank Stadium. It's also good that they are focusing solely on one site, because really, it's long past time to settle on a site and get to the brass tacks and get something done.

And if you want an idea of how they would build a stadium adjacent to an existing one, click on this link here. It's a pretty cool time-lapse of Busch stadium in St. Louis being built adjacent to the old one, and how they partially built the new one to a point, and then demolished the old one while finishing the new stadium.

But wait, THERE'S MORE!! After the jump.

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