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Vikings "Open" To More Overseas Games

2013-06-18T05:03:23Z

Over at the National Football League's site for the United Kingdom, one of their reporters spent the last week visiting three of the four teams that will be making the trip to Wembley Stadium this upcoming season. After the now-requisite "Holy crap, Adrian Peterson's handshake nearly broke my hand" bit (something that also, apparently, applies to rookie corner Xavier Rhodes), there was this revelation from Vikings' VP Lester Bagley:

I interviewed Vice-President of Public Affairs/Stadium Development Lester Bagley and my final question focused on the potential for more Vikings games in London. He did not rule out that possibility, especially as the Vikings do not move into their new stadium until the summer of 2016. That leaves the 2014 and 2015 seasons as further opportunities for us to watch AP and his teammates in action in the UK. Bagley indicated that the Vikings wanted to see how things went in and around the 2013 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers but it was definitely a possibility for the future.

This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. With the Vikings moving into TCF Bank Stadium for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, there's already the possibility that they're not going to have enough space for all the season ticket holders, never mind people that want to buy single-game tickets. That would be a serious loss for the team from a financial standpoint, particularly when they could put one of their games overseas and make up those losses.

So, it's not surprising that the Vikings would be open to the idea of playing more games overseas, be it in London or another location of the NFL's choosing. Frankly, at this point, I think I'd be more surprised if they didn't have at least one game outside of the United States in the next couple of seasons.

Greatest Viking Of All Time: Nominations

2013-06-17T13:00:10Z

Okay, folks, the big day has arrived. . .the day where we start accepting nominations for our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament. Yesterday, we put up some resources that might serve as a help to folks that are looking for current and former members of the Minnesota Vikings to nominate. Let's go over some of the things for the nominations once again.

To Nominate Someone:

-In the comments section, post a comment with a subject line of "Nominate - Name" (where, obviously, you'd put the name of the person you were nominating).

-You may make a case for the individual you're nominating, if you feel it to be necessary. Any other debating should fall under the main nomination for that individual. Basically, all the posts that are flush with the left-hand side should have the word "Nominate" in the subject line.

-Please adhere to the above format to make people easier to find during the process.

-And, even if there's a misspelling, I think we can generally figure out who you mean. (-:

To Support A Nomination:

-When you see the name of an individual that you support, hit "rec" for that particular comment. That will give your support to that particular person. At the end of the nomination period, the comments will be closed and we will go about tallying up the recs for each individual nominated.

Other Stuff:

-Please make an effort to not nominate a person more than one time. The first nomination for an individual will be considered the "official" nomination for that person, and any subsequent, duplicate nominations (as well as the recs that go with them and any debate that fell underneath the duplicate nomination) will eventually be deleted. The reason for this is two-fold:

1) It makes things easier on us when it comes time to tally things up.

2) It prevents "stuffing" of the ballot box. If someone is nominated three times, they can potentially rack up three times the recs of other individuals, for example.

We'll be deleting the duplicates in as expedient a manner as we possibly can. Obviously we can't monitor things 24 hours a day or anything.

-We'd like for the focus of this to remain, as much as possible, on someone's time with the Minnesota Vikings. The example that came up the other day was Brett Favre. Yes, he was with Minnesota for two seasons, and had one outstanding season during that time. If you feel that to be enough to put him among the 64 greatest Vikings of all time, throw out a nomination for him and see who agrees.

-Remember, this is not just limited to players. It can be anyone with a connection to the Minnesota Vikings that you feel is worthy of recognition.

I think that covers just about everything.

The comments on this post will remain open for 72 hours, meaning that at 8 AM Central time on Thursday, no further nominations will be accepted. At that point, we will go through and put together the seedings and the opening round match-ups, and we should be ready to start the full-blown tournament a week from today.

With that, nominations for The Daily Norseman's Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament are officially. . .OPEN!!

Minnesota Vikings News And Links, 6/17

2013-06-17T11:30:04Z

It's mandatory mini-camp week for the Minnesota Vikings, everybody! Woo-hoo! Hopefully we can get some stories out of Winter Park over the course of this week from the team's last get-together before Training Camp in late July. Between now and then, however, we've got some fish to fry right here.

Specifically, the nomination process for our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament will get underway at 8 AM Central time, which is about 90 minutes away. All of the rules and things of that nature will be in the post, and it will be easily accessible for you.

Since the last time we brought you an Open Thread. . .

-We asked you to tell us all about your game day ritual, if you've got one.

-We then asked which NFL team you would cheer for if, for whatever reason, you couldn't be a fan of the Minnesota Vikings.

-We gave a shout out to all of the fathers out there on their special day.

-We gave you some places to check out while you're considering who to nominate for our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament.

-And we asked you what other sports you might be interested in.

Lots of community building type stuff in there. Yes, it's the off-season.

From some other places around the internet. . .

-Apparently rookie cornerback Xavier Rhodes wanted to be a pro wrestler as a youth.

-Vikings VP Lester Bagley rates his top five NFL stadiums. . .well, at least until 2016, am I right?

-Antoine Winfield spoke a bit about leaving Minnesota.

-John Carlson thinks he can still be an impact tight end for the Vikings. (Wouldn't that be nice?)

-And I include this link for the sole reason that I did not know that Rex Ryan used to be a ball boy for the Minnesota Vikings.

The rules of the Open Thread are the same as always, folks. . .no politics, no religion, no bad language, and no feeding of the trolls. (Oh, and if you post pictures, nothing too racy. . .remember, there are probably people reading this site at work.) Other than that, the world is your oyster.

With our tournament getting underway this week, I think a week of songs about being the best would be in order. Let's start with this one, because it comes with a montage!

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for Monday, ladies and gentlemen. Keep an eye out for the nominations thread for our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament, and we'll try to have more stuff for you throughout the day today.

What's Your Interest In Other Sports?

2013-06-17T10:45:03Z

The Minnesota Vikings are, for most of us, the most important part of our sports fandom. Sadly, when the season ends in December or January. . .or, hopefully this coming season, in February. . .it leaves quite a void. Luckily, there are lots of other sports to fill that void available. So, we're sort of curious as to what other sports teams that you use to fill the gap in the off-season.

Personally, I'm a Minnesota guy in pretty much every sport, which as made for a lot of ups and downs. . .sort of like the Vikings.

There's the Minnesota Twins, another team that I've followed since my youth. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at what I feel, to this day, is the greatest baseball game ever played anywhere, that being the Twins' 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series (along with the other 8 million people that claim they were there. . .but I have a ticket stub to prove it). Then, I got the other side of that, as part of my part-time job as a teenager working at the mighty KQLX in Lisbon, North Dakota, was running the board for Twins games from 1993 to 1995. Those teams were awful, but the team of Herb Carneal and John Gordon were interesting, at least.

The Twins have had a bit of a rough stretch after a really long run of success at the top of the American League Central. Hopefully they're on their way back up.

I don't follow hockey as closely as a guy from the Upper Midwest should, I don't think. I was a big North Stars fan until they skipped town. . .Norm Green still sucks, if you're scoring at home. . .but when they left, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention until the Minnesota Wild were established. I do love playoff hockey, though, because I think the intensity is unmatched in any sport. I'm trying to get more into the Wild and learn some more of the nuances of the game, but it hasn't taken thus far.

Then there's the NBA. How to put this. . .I want to care about the NBA. Really, I do. I was a huge fan of the NBA growing up, rooting largely for the Boston Celtics until the Minnesota Timberwolves came along. But the NBA has marketed their sport in such a manner that they clearly have teams that they want you to care about. . .and I don't want to care about any of the teams the NBA wants me to care about. I'm clearly supposed to care about the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Chicago Bulls, as well as a few others. . .and I just don't.

Over the last 30 years, only seven different franchises have won an NBA Championship, and that won't change regardless of who wins this year's NBA Finals. The NBA is largely becoming the way Major League Baseball used to be, with the haves and the have-nots and a lot of teams simply being out of the running before the first month of the year is up. Since Minnesota is, definitively, one of the "have-nots" of the NBA, my interest has waned quite a bit.

A few other things. . .

-I'm developing an affinity for Minnesota Golden Gophers football, even though I've never attended the University of Minnesota. Probably comes from having covered them for SB Nation's Minnesota regional site for a couple of years.
-I'm at the point in my life now where I'll watch golf on television. Yes, I'm getting old.
-Not terribly big into NASCAR or anything. Although I do join a friend's fantasy NASCAR thing on Yahoo! every year. . .and stop paying attention after about three weeks.
-I'm starting to get into the UFC a little bit, which I'm guessing is at least partially a function of AFN showing all of the pay-per-views for free over here. I'm not to the point of getting a t-shirt with a skull and some random jibberish on it, but maybe eventually.
-Yes, the WWE is "sports entertainment," not sports per se. But I'll watch the heck out of it anyway.
-I keep telling myself I'll get into the English Premier League for soccer. . .and I never do. Followed it a bit when I was stationed in England, but that was over a decade ago.

So, how about you folks? What are your other sporting interests?

Greatest Viking Of All Time: Helpful Resources

2013-06-16T14:00:08Z

So, as we've mentioned once or twice already, our tournament to crown the Greatest Viking Of All Time will be kicking off on Monday, when we start going through the nomination process. I expect the action to be fast and furious, so I want to put a couple of things out there (I'll remind everyone of these things in the actual nominations thread as well).

-Before you nominate someone, do a thorough search to make sure that they haven't already been nominated. (Even if you have to do a Ctrl-F on the page or something.) If they have already been nominated, simply rec the comment where the individual was nominated. Multiple nominations will just make it that much trickier to compile the results for the seedings.

-The comments for the nominations post will stay open for 72 hours. At that point, the comments will be closed, and I will tabulate the results. We'll then get the bracket set up, and the full-blown tournament should be set to get underway by Monday, June 24. We'll announce all of the seedings before that, though, complete with an updated version of the bracket.

In order to help folks get some ideas for who to nominate, we have a couple of places to look.

-The Vikings' encyclopedia on Pro Football Reference has pretty much everything as far as Vikings history is concerned, at least as far as statistical records.

-Remember, the Vikings did their own 50 Greatest list a few seasons back. I'd expect that most, if not all, of those guys will make our field of 64.

-In addition, there's always the Vikings Ring of Honor for players that have made their mark in Vikings' history.

If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to throw them out there.

Remember, though, it isn't just players. . .it can be coaches, trainers, general managers, owners, whoever. . .if you think they're one of the greatest in the history of the Minnesota Vikings, throw their name out there and see how many folks agree.

We'll be underway with this in about 24 hours or so, folks. Hopefully this is something that everyone is going to be able to enjoy a lot.

Happy Father's Day!

2013-06-16T12:53:41Z

Fellow fans of the Minnesota Vikings, today is the day where we have to recognize the men who played a role in bringing us into the world. Yes, today is Father's Day, and whether you're celebrating it for the first time as a father (like Eric), for the first time as a grandfather (like Ted), if you've been doing the Father's Day thing for a while (like Kyle and Mark), or even if you don't have any kids and are just celebrating your own fathers, today is a pretty big day.

Personally, my dad (who is a registered member of the site, even. . .you've probably seen him here before) played a big role in pointing me in the direction of Vikings fandom. I was even born on a Vikings game day (September 26, 1976, when the Vikings defeated the Detroit Lions by a score of 10-9 at the Silverdome). The story I've always been told is that I was polite enough to wait until halftime to show up. I can't verify that one way or another. I really don't remember much about that day.

My dad would watch the games every Sunday, and when I was old enough to actually understand and/or care about what was going on, I'd sit and watch and ask lots of questions. The first season I actually remember was probably the worst in Vikings' history, the 1984 season when the team went 3-13 and spent the second half of the year just getting slaughtered week in and week out. But, through all that time, we stayed the course, and without him I likely wouldn't be a fan on the level that I am today.

Did you father play a big role in your becoming a Vikings fan? If you're a father, are you attempting to point your children in that direction or letting them chart their own course of becoming a fan?

Regardless, to all of the fathers out there, here's hoping that all of you have an outstanding Father's Day this year!

If You Couldn't Be A Viking Fan. . .

2013-06-16T01:26:13Z

Hello and happy Saturday to all of you out there. With the weekend plodding on with no real news of any significance, I thought I'd pose another in what could become a series of hypothetical questions.

We know that we're all here because we're fans of the Minnesota Vikings, the team that we've been fans of for as long as we have been for whatever reasons we might have. However, this question involves the other thirty-one teams in the National Football League. Specifically, the question is this:

If you couldn't be a fan of the Minnesota Vikings (for whatever reason), what NFL team would you pick up as your team?

Personally, I think my interest in the National Football League would drop considerably if I couldn't cheer for the purple and gold on Sundays. I'm not sure how big a fan I could be of any other team. However, if I had to pick one, I think the choice would be pretty easy.

If there were no Vikings, or I couldn't cheer for them, and I had to pick a new team. . .I think that team would be the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers, to me, represent one of the most stable franchises in the National Football League. Since 1969, exactly three men have coached the Pittsburgh Steelers (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin). They rarely have the drama that a lot of teams have (though they're not completely immune from it), and it's rare for them to have long stretches where they're languishing at the bottom of the league.

Also, from watching games on television and my interactions with other fans both before and since I began running this website, Steeler fans are the best fans in the NFL. (Well, the best non-Viking fans, obviously.) They're always well-represented at road games, and I expect them to be quite well-represented when the Vikings and Steelers clash in London this September.

So, if for some reason I could no longer be a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, I think the Steelers would be my choice.

I'm not sure if this is something anyone else has thought about. I've never really been big on the concept of having a "second favorite" team or anything, and I wouldn't call the Steelers that. It's more about the level of respect I have for their franchise and how they conduct business.

What are your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?

What's Your Game Day Ritual?

2013-06-15T09:28:09Z

Happy Saturday, everybody. . .my apologies for not having anything up following the Open Thread yesterday. Lot of things going on in the real world, in addition to getting geared up for our Greatest Vikings Of All Time Tournament. (Don't forget, the nomination process starts on Monday.) So, I thought I'd throw out more of an open community question for everyone to debate to start the weekend off.

We know that the truly hardcore fans of any sports team are a different breed compared to your more casual fan. One of those things is that a lot of folks have superstitions or rituals that they follow leading up to the games every week.

Now, to quote latter-day American philosopher Michael Scott, I'm not superstitious. . .but I am a bit stitious. I'm one of those sorts of people who figures that if something worked last week, there's a good chance that it will work this week, too. For example, our Minnesota Vikings won their season opener in 2012, so the next week I attempted to do all the same things I had done the week before. . .same jersey, same beverages, all that sort of thing. In Week 2, they lost. After that, I changed things up. . .different jersey, different beverages, that sort of thing.

Yes, I understand that it's ridiculous to believe that my choice of clothing and/or refreshments has any impact on the outcome of a football game that's being played a couple thousand miles away. But I also know damn well that I'm not the only one that does it.

So, I ask all of you folks out there. . .what's your ritual on game day? If you attend the games live, do you go to the same spots before and after? If you're watching on TV, do you change anything from one week to the next? Let us know, everybody!