T.J. Houshmandazdeh, according to Access Vikings, left the Twin Cities today at approximately 9:35 PM Central time last night on a flight to Los Angeles. Houshmandzadeh lives in the Los Angeles area, so this isn't necessarily an indication that he's rejected the Vikings offer or that he's accepted an offer from the Seahawks or the Bengals. Houshmandzadeh originally said that he was going to have his decision made by Sunday night. . .and then pushed it back to Monday morning. . .and now hasn't mentioned any sort of updated timeline.
To sanitize a frequently used phrase, Houshmandzadeh needs to either defecate or remove himself from the toilet. The longer this goes on and the further things drag out, the more I'm under the impression that Houshmandzadeh really never wanted to leave Cincinnati in the first place. He obviously overestimated his value going into the free agency period, and now he's trying to play the Vikings, Seahawks, and Bengals against each other to get the best possible deal.
As nice as it would be to have Houshmandzadeh in purple next season, I'm starting to become less intrigued. He knows that he's not going to play forever, and he also knows that of the three teams he's considering, the Vikings are the best and most competitive. If that's what he wants, then he'll sign here. If he's all about the money, he'll sign with a team that's not as good as Minnesota.
As always, if anything further develops on this one, we'll pass it along as soon as we have it.