McNabb's Here, His Thoughts on Minnesota

Well Vikings fans, he's here. Donovan McNabb is in Minnesota, has passed his physical, and, according to Coach Leslie Frazier, is the Vikings starting quarterback. Yes, it's time to get excited about football, we have a quarterback who can turn his head and cough--put that man in the starting line-up. At least that is the word flying around on Twitter.

I've been checking on what Tom Pelissero and Judd Zulgad have to say throughout the afternoon. Both Pelissero and Zulgad have been posting to Twitter throughout the conference call with McNabb this evening.

For his part, McNabb is saying lots of complimentary things about Minnesota and the Vikings. Zulgad posted this quote from McNabb, "You always want to be a part of a winning organization. ... We have talent here." And Pelissero posted McNabb's thoughts on Vikings ownership, "Zygi's a great guy. ... When you're under an owner like that, you want to do whatever it takes to win."

Perhaps most interestingly, Pelissero posted this fascinating tidbit, "I want to be here, would to love to end my career here, but the most important thing is to win."

The offense that Bill Musgrave is planning to run in Minnesota is different in both language and concept from what McNabb ran in Philadelphia so the veteran is going to have some serious study time with the playbook in the near future. Since McNabb is reportedly okay with teaching Joe Webb and Christian Ponder, let's hope the young quarterbacks reciprocate and give McNabb a hand learning Musgrave's playbook in such a short amount of time.

For as quickly as things have been happening since the NFL lockout was lifted on Monday, the negotiations to bring Donovan McNabb to the Minnesota Vikings reportedly began in March before the lockout was in place.

Fans of Vikings punter, Chris Kluwe and his band Tripping Icarus, will be amused to know that during McNabb's conference call he mentioned Tripping Icarus six times. But, ChrisWarcraft in response to gratuitous mention of his band said of McNabb, "He's still got one more obligation, you'll see when you see the Vikings video :)" I love that it is Kluwe who McNabb has to bargain with in order to keep wearing number 5--can't wait for the video.

With the quarterback situation settled, now the question is whether the Vikings will be successful in their bid to acquire a deep-threat receiver to stretch the field and give the running game some breathing room. Maybe the Vikings will have one by August 4, the first day McNabb can participate in practice.

Note:  The video in which Chris Kluwe makes an agreement with Donovan McNabb for the #5 jersey is up at www.vikings.com As a fan from the St. Paul side of the river, I hope that McNabb gets Kluwe his ice cream cone from Izzy.