More photos » by Nam Y Huh - AP

Pictured: Chicago Bears' quarterback Jeff George. Not pictured: Jay Cutler (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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Step 1 - Watch Jeff George v2.0 and the Bears get completely undressed at home by Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and company.

Step 2 - Watch the Green Bay Packers ensure that there will be NO winless teams in the National Football League in 2009.

And. . .well, that's all you need, really.

So, if the Vikings play .500 ball the rest of the way. . .the Bears would have to go 7-1 to catch them (and, presumably, hope that that one loss isn't to the Vikings), and the Packers would have to go 8-0 in order to catch them for the NFC North division title.

I don't want to say it's over. . .but there's a rather large woman off-stage there getting her vocal chords warmed up.

More photos » by Jerry Holt - AP

18 days ago: Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre reacts after throwing for the Vikings' final touchdown in a 38-26 win over the Green Bay Packers in an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Star Tribune, Jerry Holt)

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Not necessarily Viking fans that hate Favre, mind you. . .but more the fans of other teams that hate Favre, if they're out there and reading this.

Cliff Christl of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote an article entitled "No Expense Spared by Team in Favre PR War."  I can't link to the article here, as it's from a pay website. . .I don't pay for the site myself, mind you, but someone on a message board I frequent pointed it out. . .but I do want to point out this one little sentence from the article:

Don Hutson considered retirement and reported to camp late in 1939, and he then announced his retirement before the 1943, '44 and '45 seasons, only to play again. Forrest Gregg retired and unretired four times during his career.

Hmmmmmm. . .one has to wonder if the level of poutrage was as great from the other side of the river back in those days as it is today with #4.  Hell, Favre still has one more retirement to go before he catches Hutson, and two more to go before he catches Forrest Gregg.  (Although Gregg did sort of make it up to us by going to the Packers and being a really, really crappy head coach.)

Before people whine about the Brett Favre "will he or won't he" thing or whether or not he "betrayed" the Packers or whatever other WHARRGARBL the Wisconsin media wants to shovel our way this week, they should take a minute or two to educate themselves on the past.  Just saying is all.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has spent a good amount of time in Washington, D.C. over the past couple of days, and I can't say that he appears to have enjoyed himself too much.  He got ripped by Congress for the disgusting way the league treats its former players, and now, according to Pro Football Talk, he's asking the nation's legislative body to close a loophole that he and everyone else in the league offices didn't quite bother to catch until it came back to bite them.

And, as he has since the beginning, Goodell continues to lie his ass off about the circumstances surrounding the StarCaps case:

As the league would have Congress -- and anyone else who cares -- believe it, the NFLPA betrayed the league by assisting the efforts of the members who faced suspension based on the consumption of StarCaps, an over-the-counter supplement that had been secretly spiked with a banned substance.  But the evidence in this case supports a finding that the league knew that StarCaps had been spiked with a prescription drug, that the league knew players had been taken StarCaps, and that the league issued no specific warning to the players that taking StarCaps could be hazardous to their careers -- and more importantly to their health.

See, this is what anybody with a clue has been saying all along.  The question in this case, in my opinion, has always been "What did the NFL know, and when did they know it?"  And damn near all of the evidence in this case suggests that the league knew that StarCaps contained the substance bumetanide way, WAY in advance of the positive tests of Pat Williams, Kevin Williams, Charles Grant and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints, and Grady Jackson of the Detroit Lions.

Quite frankly, Goodell's pathetic begging in front of Congress to get this rule changed as a result of these events taking place tells me one simple thing.

He's conceding a loss.

I think he's under the impression that there's no way that he wins this case against the Williams Wall, and is now trying to get the rule changed so that he and the liars in the NFL front office don't have to potentially face such a problem again in the future.

Sorry, Roger. . .maybe you and yours should have been more honest in the first place rather than fooling around with the lives of your players in a pathetic attempt to yell "GOTCHA" at some of the guys that line your pockets.

As I always say. . .get up, get get, get down. . .Roger Goodell is a joke in your town.

Picture of Paul Krause via ThePurplePeopleEatiers.com

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In connection with the JcPenney/Van Heusen fan debate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. . .which you can still vote on over on the right-hand side of the page or by going to their website. . .we here at The Daily Norseman got the opportunity to interview a true Minnesota Vikings' legend, Hall of Fame safety Paul Krause.  Krause is still the National Football League's all-time leader in interceptions with 81, and might be the best safety to ever strap on a helmet at the NFL level.  Unfortunately, neither Anthony, Eric, or I could interview him, but MilCardFan from The Purple Buckeye volunteered to step up and conduct the interview for us.  (We were hoping to get an interview with former kicker Jan Stenerud as well, but that, unfortunately, fell through.)

So, here is the interview with Paul Krause.  It's a long one, so sit back, grab a beverage, and take it all in.  And another huge thanks to MilCardFan for filling the void here and ensuring that we didn't lose this opportunity.

Daily Norseman:  Okay, let’s get the important stuff out of the way.  Your alma mater, the University of Iowa, is 8-0 and in the hunt for the Big 10 championship and the BCS National Championship game.  Are they gonna win it all?

Paul Krause:  I don’t know if they’re going to win it or not, but I’m rooting for them to.  I think it would be great for the Hawkeyes.  They’ve had some tough luck lately, and it would be great if they could jump up in the BCS standings and win the BCS championship. 

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In the FanPosts earlier today, ArizonaVikingsFan passed along the news that former Vikings safety Orlando Thomas had lost his battle with ALS.  The story has been reported on the Vikings' official website, ESPN.com, and various other news outlets.

Well. . .about an hour ago, former Vikings receiver Jake Reed, who was a teammate of Thomas' in Minnesota, posted the following on his Twitter page:

Attention All............Orlando Thomas is NOT dead!! Thanks for your concern! Please continue to pray for him and his family!

Sufficient to say, things with this story have officially gotten weird.  We'll continue to keep an eye on it and pass along any updates as they become available to the media.

UPDATE:  ESPN's Adam Schefter is now reporting that the story is false, and the story of Thomas' death has been pulled from the Vikings' official website.

Hung up with one of Thomas' friends, who insisted that people who initially reported the death were off base. How, I don't know. But were.

Holy journalistic irresponsibility, Batman.

UPDATE to the UPDATE:  The Star-Tribune is also now reporting that Thomas has not passed away.

Kevin Seifert posts a feature each week that's always worth checking out: A tally of the amount of plays challenged by each head coach in the NFC North, and the amount of those challenges that have ultimately been overturned. Congratulations, Brad Childress: After seven weeks, you're the pace-setter in the division.

Indeed, Chilly has challenged five plays this season, with two being overturned. Two of those challenges came last week, with Chilly getting that sideline Sidney Rice catch overturned. The other successful challenge came in week one of the season, with a Braylon Edwards touchdown wiped off the scoreboard and the Vikings defense proceeding to hold Cleveland to a field goal on that possession. Here's that Rice play:

Chilly still wasted a challenge last week, which was a disappointment. And indeed, that's something he still needs to improve -- his decisions on challenges tend to come quite quickly, seemingly without much consultation.

Nevertheless, his record this year on challenges is 2-3. Compare that to this article from almost exactly two years ago:

Two questionable replay decisions last Sunday left Vikings coach Brad Childress with a 2-6 record in 2007 challenges. The mark ranks him No. 30 among NFL coaches, according to independent statistics compiled by ESPN.com.

Chilly gets a tough time from fans -- and whether or not that's justified is another can of worms. But he isn't wasting quite as many challenges as he once did. On the list of things Chilly has needed to improve to become a better gameday coach, he doesn't seem to be as inept of a "challenger" as he used to be. Still more room for improvement, though. What say you? Is Childress generally becoming a better gameday coach?

Love it:

Tight end Mark Chmura was more specific. "[I]t all starts with Brett -- Brett's not as good as he was. . . . They have Adrian Peterson, but I think Chester Taylor is a guy. . . . Our quarterback was 10 times better, our receivers were better, our special teams were much better.

"I mean, you're talking about the No. 1 defense in the league at that time, maybe one of the best defenses ever to play the game. . . . When we played back then, teams feared us. I don't know if teams fear the Minnesota Vikings today."

Chmura's talking about the 1996 Packers, and he's obviously comparing that team to the 2009 Vikings. I couldn't have any less interest in the argument about which team is better, but I would nevertheless like to thank Mr. Chmura for his "I don't know if teams fear the Minnesota Vikings today" quote. He just did Brad Childress a great service.

There's your bulletin board material, Chilly. Put that one all over the locker room this week.

Of course, one would expect that Chmura to speak highly of the 1996 Packers -- I mean, c'mon, playing on that team might have even been more exciting than spending time with teenagers at a post-prom party. But if the Vikings take exception to these comments, they'd have every right to do so. Brett's not the quarterback he once was, but he's having a lot of fun and there's still plenty of life left in that arm. To say that the 1996 Favre is 10 times better than the 2009 Favre is a ridiculous exaggeration. He's slowed down, but not nearly that much.

Teams don't fear the Vikings? Gimme a break. Tell that to #28.

There's been a lot of teeth-gnashing here, and rightfully so -- it was a tough loss that wasn't lacking in controversy and wasn't lacking in moments that, had things gone another way, could have changed the result. The fact that NFL officials favor the Steelers hardly reduces the disappointment after the loss (kidding...KIDDING).

But there's no time for despair. According to FOX, the "Game of the Year" is coming up this weekend. Sources close to the network tell me that they're not, in fact, referring to the 12:00p contest between the Lions and Rams. Rather, the "Game of the Year" apparently involves some guy returning to some place where he used to play.

So try picturing the following image in your mind. Doing so will make you immediately forget about the Steelers game due to the terrifying nature of this image. With that warning, here goes nothing:

Vikings coach Brad Childress dressed up as a female flight attendant during the team's flight to Pittsburgh on Saturday, ESPN reported. The coach donned a wig, blue nylons and lipstick (framed around his beard).

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that Childress had warned the team earlier that they're to give the utmost respect to flight attendants.