Things From Across The Interwebz

There have been a few minor developments across the Vikings world that we haven't fully covered here yet, so allow me to kind of gather the pieces here and offer you a potpourri of Viking info. See, what had happened was, the internet is actually a system of tubes, and recently those tubes got a little backed up. It happens.

Alright, let's get right to it, after the... oh, now I know how Ted feels about not having a jump anymore.

First up is Jerome Simpson. Chris did inform us about Simpson's unhappiness at being benched, but there have been two additional developments since then. Again, nothing particularly earth-shattering, but noteworthy nonetheless. First, Simspon confirmed the logical conclusion many of us made: much of his unhappiness stemmed from losing out on nearly $60,000 because of the decision. His quote regarding this nailed it on the head:

"You lose $60,000 you'd be mad, too."

Yeah... I probably would be. I think every sane human being would be. Er, well, except for Charles Barkley. A little more interesting is the fact that Simpson claims that, while the leg issues originated in the back, the only treatment he's received has been on his leg. But whatever the treatment, he's been practicing, and appears by all accounts not only read to play on Sunday, but not destined for the bench (and another big payday loss) this time.

Secondly, and this is something that caught me a little off guard, it turns out that former Viking DT Jimmy Kennedy was not the Saints* bounty-gate snitch. When I say it caught me off guard, I mean that I wasn't even aware he'd been fingered as such. The story goes that Anthony Hargrove told Kennedy at some point that there was a bounty on Favre, and that Kennedy relayed this to then-head coach Benito Mussolini Brad Childress. From there word reached the league and the rest is history. Well, now, Jonathan Vilma's lawyer Peter Ginsberg has read a statement from Kennedy in court that none of the above is true. I have no clue what the actual reality behind it is; likely, I nor anyone else outside of a select handful involved ever will. But while that doesn't really matter, I did find the whole thing somewhat noteworthy overall, not just because of course the schadenfreude that fills me involving the bounty case, but because an actual, factual Viking (former anyways) was directly involved. Or not.

Next up is a two-parter revolving around The Terminator, who goes by the human alias Adrian Peterson. Apparently the gears and wiring that make up his cybernetic ankle continue to malfunction slightly, causing him to have sat a few practices this week. However, Leslie Frazier has said that his status for Sunday isn't in any jeopardy, and I have no reason not to believe him. Someone like Peterson really doesn't need practice per se each and every week; sitting him and resting his sore ankle is probably just a simple precaution. The second part is the drama surrounding his and Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall's face-to-face moment during the last game. Peterson claims Hall slapped him in the face after making a tackle, which he didn't appreciate; Hall denies this and has a totally different take. While I must admit my first thought was "it would be pretty hard to slap someone who's wearing a facemask, no?", Hall's story does seem a bit odd- according to him, Peterson told him "that's a good play" when they were face-to-face. I don't know about you, and I'm not body language expert, but it sure didn't seem like Peterson was complimenting him at the time. But whatevz, as the kids say (they do still say that, right?)- Peterson wasn't hurt, Hall wasn't trying to, say, twist his ankle or anything (now who and what team would do that?!), and unless there's a playoff rematch, we're not seeing the Redskins and/or Hall again for a while.

Got all that? That's it for me for a while. Hopefully the next you hear from me will be a compliment sandwich piece following a victory against the Arizona Cardinals. Follow me on Twitter to throw in your pick for what the title of the piece will be; I'm leaving it to you, the people, to do that for me. (Which keeps me from having to think of one.) Also, fellow Floridian Viking fans, I haven't forgotten my months old promise to host a viewing here in sunny Clearwater or Orlando; I just, uh, haven't figured that out yet. But I will!