The Minnesota Vikings have just announced the dates for their 2012 Training Camp, and the team is going to be hanging around Mankato for a bit longer than they might have normally been accustomed to.
According to various sources, largely coming via the Twitter, the team will report to Training Camp on July 26. They will then stay at camp all the way through August 16. That means camp will end just prior to the Vikings' second pre-season game rather than before the pre-season opener. The Vikings have not done that since 2008.
Apparently the length of training camp last year was an issue with some folks:
There was frustration from some in organization that stay was so short last year. Clearly, they want to maximize time this time around.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 16, 2012
Guess it won't be an issue this year.
With a number of young players expected to play significant roles for the team this season, an extra week of Training Camp certainly won't hurt anybody. Considering the real lack of an off-season/pre-season in 2011, I would expect the Vikings to look much better coming out of the gate in 2012 than they did last season. You know. . .maybe not blowing so many huge leads in the second halves of games and such.