If this show was still on, Percy would totally win this week.

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It has officially become "Percy Harvin Week" here at the Daily Norseman. It's his world and we're all just living in it.

Our quick-draw Fan Posters informed us hours ago, but I just wanted to bring it to the front page. After being named as a late entry to the Pro Bowl Monday night, Harvin has another accolade to add to his first-year resume: 2009 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Percy is the sixth Vikings player to win the award. You may have heard of the other five before: Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, Sammy White, Chuck Foreman, and Paul Flatley. Pretty decent company, no?

Say what you will about Brad Childress' coaching aptitude, but one thing is pretty indisputable at this point: since Mr. Noodle has been here, the Vikings have owned the draft. Case in point: two Offensive ROY's in three years. I'll admit that I was a bit wary of Minnesota taking him with the 22nd pick in the draft--I really wanted us to draft Hakeem Nicks since I thought he'd be a better fit in our offense. While Nicks had a solid year in New York, there's little doubt thus far that the Vikings front office made a better choice. Harvin racked up 60 receptions, 790 yards receiving, 135 yards rushing, 2,081 total yards, and eight touchdowns in 15 games this year.

If the VH1 show/less-funny "The Soup" ripoff known as "Best Week Ever" was still around (it has been off the air since June), I'm fairly certain that Harvin would win it going away this week. So in the show's absence, allow me to say it:

Congratulations Percy Harvin, you're having the Best Week Ever!

Now go out and add the Lombardi Trophy to your awards and I'll be more than happy to award you the Best Year Ever!

More photos » Matt York - AP

Percy Harvin has both endured and doled out migraines throughout his rookie campaign.

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When the Pro Bowl rosters were first released a week ago, one of the odd things people noticed was that DeSean Jackson made the NFC team as both a wide receiver and a kick returner. Jackson is no doubt deserving at both positions--when you lead the league in yards per catch, score eight touchdowns of 50 or more yards, and lead the league in punt return yardage that will happen. But many people wondered if the NFC would add another player rather than have Jackson take up two roster spots.

We have our answer, and it's wonderful news for Percy Harvin.

As the Star Tribune reported, Harvin became the ninth Viking named to this year's Pro Bowl roster. Jackson will play wide receiver and Harvin will take the kick returner spot.

Our rookie phenom has been a headache for opposing teams all year. (Yes, that pun was intended. You may groan now.) He was 4th in the NFL in kickoff return average and set a new Vikings record for total yards, beating Herschel Walker's old record set in 1990. (No, knowing that Herschel held a Vikings record does not make me feel any better about the trade that helped make Dallas a dynasty in the 90's.)

Again, hopefully Percy will have to miss the Pro Bowl this year because he'll be busy preparing for the Vikings' fifth Super Bowl appearance. For the first time, the Pro Bowl will be held the week before the Super Bowl at the same site as the big game. Either way, congratulations to Percy, and hopefully he'll have a Rookie of the Year Award to add to his Pro Bowl selection soon!

More photos » Tom Olmscheid - AP

"We made it!"

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Time for some good news about our boys in Purple for a change.

The Vikings lead all NFL teams this year by getting eight--yes eight--players named to this year's NFC Pro Bowl roster. The next closest were the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles with six nods.

First, there are the usual suspects: Adrian Peterson and Steve Hutchinson got the starting nod at running back and guard respectively, which shouldn't shock too many people. Kevin Williams and Jared Allen will once again start along the defensive line. Even Señor Schism himself, Brett Favre, made the team for the eleventh time. He'll back up starter Drew Brees at QB.

Then there are a couple pleasant surprises. Wide receiver Sidney Rice made his first Pro Bowl, a very worthy selection in my slightly biased opinion. Heath Farwell was the NFC selection for Special Teamer. Besides last night's debacle, Farwell has been the main reason for the vastly improved special teams unit this year.

Finally, there was a slightly puzzling inclusion for the Vikings. Bryant McKinnie will start at left tackle, proving once again that offensive linemen still get in mostly based on reputation over performance. Also, they should probably hold off until after the entire season until voting for the Pro Bowl. As ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook (a.k.a. TMQ) always says, it shouldn't be the three-quarters of a season all-stars!

Of course, we're hoping that all eight of our guys will need to find replacements, because if all goes well the Vikings will be busy during the Pro Bowl this season. For the first time, the Pro Bowl will be held at the site of the Super Bowl the week before the big game in an effort to gain back some viewers (other than super-duper football diehards and degenerate gamblers).

You can find the full breakdown of both the AFC and NFC rosters here.

How about a few bullet points this evening?

• A short injury report is always a good thing, and this week's injury report released by the Vikings is pretty darn short. Fat Pat is questionable but expected to play, while Steve Hutchinson, Antoine Winfield and Brian Robison are all probable. Chicago's injury report is lengthier.
• Interesting stat mentioned on Kevin Seifert's blog: The Vikings are 15-2 during the past two years when they send Adrian Peterson up the middle at least eight times, and 6-7 when they don't.
• Chester Taylor is your latest Viking on Twitter (here's the link), joining Big Mac, Bernard Berrian, Sidney Rice, and Shank as the team's Twitter-holics. Oh yeah, check out Jake Reed on Twitter too.
• Percy Harvin is frustrated that he has only returned five kickoffs in the last three games -- because with an average of 28.3 yards per kickoff return (good enough for third in the NFL) and two touchdowns on kick returns, teams just aren't kicking his way. But don't worry: Special teams coordinator Brian Murphy is on the case. He told Sean Jensen, "Yeah, we're crafting up returns for Jimmy Kennedy."
• Zygi Wilf thinks this whole Childress vs. Favre thing has been blown way out of proportion and will do what he can to persuade Brett to return for another season, reports Grandpa Sports.
• Windy City Gridiron would like to apologize to the football-viewing public for the Chicago Bears once again being on primetime television. Burning questions of the week for the Bears: Can Jay Cutler top his 7.9 quarterback rating from last week's game in Baltimore? Will Lovie Smith get fired at halftime? Place your bets now.

There wasn't a heated discussion, Brad Childress? While Chilly denies that he got into a heated argument with Favre during the third quarter of Sunday's game, Sean Jensen reports that he wasn't pleased with Favre yapping to the media about the dispute. And so this happened after the media had left the locker room:

Interviews with six members of the organization revealed that Childress ripped his offense during halftime Sunday and that he privately unleashed an expletive-laden outburst toward Favre long after the game in the visitors' locker room.

By the way, that halftime rant didn't seem to be too effective:

Childress lashed out at his offense at halftime, after the unit had mustered just 66 net yards and struggled to run or pass the ball.

He cursed, and he called it "laughable" that they consider themselves a Super Bowl team.

One player described the tirade as "entertaining." Another likened it to a parent chastising a teenager.

And then the offense came out for the second half and stunk it up again. But as I alluded to after the game, something that's slipped through the cracks this week is the performance of the defense. Despite the problems between Childress and Favre, and despite the problems with Favre's protection (which ought to be the real story this week, in my opinion), Kevin Williams notes the sloppiness of the defensive effort this week:

We missed some tackles. I think we might have missed 15 tackles in the game.

I don't have the exact missed tackle count, but it captures the problem for this defense. In a game where the Vikings failed to compete, the issue with the defense was simply its inability to do fundamental things.

Brett Favre got his say, and now Brad Childress got his. According to a variety of Tweets from Zulgad, Jensen and Viking Update coming out of the Childress presser this afternoon, here's what we know: Childress wouldn't say that Brett Favre was "dissenting" when there was talk of benching him in the second half on Saturday, and instead described the sideline chatter as more "stream of consciousness" than anything. From Zulgad:

Childress also said his discussion with Favre about making a change was a "stream of consciousness" move on his part.

And Jensen:

Childress did not yank Favre. He said it was more "of a stream of consciousness," because Favre was getting his "rear end killed."

Jensen and others have noted reports that this was the third time Childress thought about benching Favre this season. Chilly wanted to take Favre out of games against the Lions and Packers, a revelation that definitely added fuel to this fire. Yep, as the top story on ESPN, this seemed on its way to becoming schism-gate all over again. Chilly obviously tried to settle things down in the presser, and we'll see if this story goes away.

I tend to believe this is being blown out of proportion, even if Chilly has apparently considered benching Favre before. The two big issues here are 1) How serious Childress was about replacing Favre in the third quarter of yesterday's game with the Vikings ahead, and 2) If it was because Favre was getting knocked around or if it was because Childress thought Tarvaris Jackson could provide a needed change of pace. Two interesting questions that welcome speculation, but ultimately, this is a chapter that needs to be put in the rear view mirror.

Update: Kevin Seifert, as usual, offers a solid take.

1. There have been occasions this season when Childress has considered pulling quarterback Brett Favre from a game for performance reasons.

2. Sunday night at Carolina was not one of those times.

3. Childress’ relationship with Favre is too close to "colleague" and too far from "coach-player."

That seems about right to me. I'm not convinced Chilly was serious about benching Favre on Sunday, so I just don't buy any talk of Favre dissenting from a decision by the coaching staff. It's also little surprise that Favre and Chilly seem more like colleagues than player and coach -- everyone knows that Brett is "his own man."

With the Dallas Cowboys waking up in December for the first time in. . .well, a long time. . .and ending the undefeated dreams of the New Orleans Saints, the #1 seed in the NFC playoffs is again a possibility for the Minnesota Vikings if they beat the Carolina Panthers this evening in Charlotte.

The Saints are now 13-1, and the Vikings are 11-2 (12-2 if they win this evening).  A victory this evening would also give the Saints and Vikings identical 9-1 records against the conference.  This is huge, as conference record is the first tie-breaker in determining playoff seedings.  New Orleans' last two games are both against NFC opponents (home against Tampa Bay, at Carolina).  So, if they were to lose either of those two games and the Vikings were to win out the rest of the way, the Saints would, by default, have more conference losses than Minnesota, ensuring that the road to Super Bowl XLIV would run through Minneapolis.

I'm not sure what the odds of the Saints losing either of those last two games is. . .but, hey, it makes things more interesting for Minnesota over the next two weeks.  Of course, if they lose tonight, then it really doesn't matter.

But that won't happen. . .will it?

Picture via Mr. Cheer or Die's Viking Underground

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Foge Fazio, perhaps most well-known for being the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings during the 1998 season where the team went 15-1, lost his battle with leukemia on Wednesday night at the age of 71.

Fazio was Minnesota's defensive coordinator from 1996 to 1998, and was also the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns in 2001 and 2002.  Prior to that, he held numerous other coaching jobs, including the head coaching position at the University of Pittsburgh from 1982 to 1984.  He also served as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Lou Holtz, and was also an assistant coach for the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, and New York Jets.

Fazio had officially retired from the league after the 2002 season, but was brought back by the Vikings as a defensive consultant in 2005, the last year of the Mike Tice era.

We offer our condolences to the Fazio family.