Welcome to that glorious time that happens every few months where I catch something and it knocks me clean on my butt for the better part of an entire day. I've spent the better part of the day unable to breathe through my nose, despite the usual battle plan of pounding Dayquil and Tropicana until the damn thing goes away. But for you, the people, I press onward.
There have been a couple of news stories that have come out over the past day or so that I'm just going to briefly touch on here. We'll start with the positive, move on to the negative, and end with the somewhat absurd.
Kluwe's punting brings +1 to Vikings' 2010 awards haul - As we've documented, one of the Vikings' most consistent performers this season has been punter Chris Kluwe, who we've come to refer to (in most cases) simply as "Warcraft." (Hey, it's the guy's Twitter handle, so why not?) With as consistent as he's been this year, this past Sunday was possibly his best effort, and as such he was recognized by the National Football League as the NFC's Special Teams Player of the Week for Week Nine of the NFL season.
Kluwe punted four times against the Cardinals, and dropped all four of those punts inside the 20-yard line, including one that got killed at the 1-yard line thanks to an outstanding combined effort by Heath Farwell and Kenny Onatolu. He averaged 46 yards/punt for the afternoon, and now ranks second overall in the NFL in net punting average with 42.2 yards/attempt. That puts him only .2 yards/attempt behind Oakland's Shane Lechler for the NFL lead in that category.
Congratulations to Chris Kluwe on his award.
Sidney Ready To Go Sunday? - The more I've seen about it, the more it seems like a possibility. Now, many of the stories read that he's been "cleared to play," but that's a bit misleading because, technically, he was cleared last week as far as being able to play. The Vikings are still just using their three-week exemption before they have to put him on the active roster. But it sounds like El Sid might be on the field against the Bears. Brad Childress has said that Rice obviously isn't going to go out there for 65 or 70 snaps, but I'm sure that there could be certain situations where we'll see him worked back into the offense, even if it's just in red zone packages and things of that nature.
However many plays it might be, as we head into the second half of the season, it sure is going to be good to see #18 back out there in a Vikings' uniform, doing what he does.
Percy Has Another Migraine - Well, it's Wednesday, which means we're just about on schedule for this week's Percy Harvin crisis. Reports from the Twin Cities say that Percy wasn't at practice today because of another bout with migraine headaches. Hopefully this bout will subside just like the other ones he's had, because Percy was huge on Sunday, despite his fumble that gave the Cardinals a touchdown. From having his effort questioned in practice on Friday when it looked like he could barely walk to going out against Arizona and setting career highs in catches (nine) and yards (126), there's nothing about this kid that surprises me any more, and it shouldn't surprise you either. Until his name is on the pre-game inactive list, I will continue to believe that Percy is going to be out there on Sunday afternoon against the Bears, and that he will be a huge factor.
Money? It's Gotta Be For The Shoes - A lot of talk on Sunday was focused on Bernard Berrian's shoes, as he went out there sporting a pair of bright yellow cleats that could be seen from the top of Section 227 at the Metrodome, and probably from points beyond as well. Sadly, we're not going to have to worry about seeing them again, as Berrian was fined $5,000 by the National Football League for a violation of the uniform policy for wearing the yellow cleats, and has told everyone via Twitter that we won't be seeing them again.
Originally, I thought the fine was $50,000, which is the same amount people are getting fined for helmet-to-helmet hits these days. I'm certainly happy that wasn't the case, because in all likelihood the absurdity of such a thing would have caused my head to explode.
And that's all for tonight, ladies and gentlemen. . .back to my Dayquil (well, Nyquil now) and orange juice regimen in hopes of blasting this away. Have a good rest of your evening, folks!