Minnesota Vikings News And Notes, 10/7

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, the Minnesota Vikings' bye week is officially over! Did everyone survive alright? I hope so. . .would be awful to have lost anybody over this whole thing. The Vikings will get back to action this Sunday when they host the Carolina Panthers at the Metrodome, and we'll have plenty of coverage of that leading up to kickoff.

Since the last time we brought you an Open Thread. . .

-Obviously the big news in Viking land from this week came down late last night, with the team inking quarterback Josh Freeman to a one-year contract. We'll certainly have more on this over the course of the next few days.

-Vikings' safety Harrison Smith wound up not getting fined for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Pittsburgh Steelers' tight end Heath Miller in the Vikings' victory in London.

-Mark had his look at which college players you should have been watching this weekend. Of course, if you didn't see it before now, you're a bit late to the party, so shame on you.

-One of our readers shared his experience from London with us, and we very much appreciate that.

From some other sources around the internet. . .

-Patrick Reusse says that the signing of Josh Freeman shows that Rick Spielman has acknowledged the error of his ways.

-Jim Souhan thinks that the signing is a "smart, aggressive move" for the Vikings.

-Ben Goessling says that the Freeman signing officially puts quarterback Christian Ponder "on notice."

The rules of the Open Thread are the same as they've always been, ladies and gentlemen. . .no politics, no religion, no feeding of the trolls, and keep the bad language to a minimum/use the spoiler tags if you feel that you absolutely must curse.

Per one of the requests from last week's Open Threads, our ambient music selections for this week will again feature a prominent British act. . .the guys from Monty Python. And we'll start with a selection that folks who aren't particularly happy with last night's news might need to hear.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for this Monday, ladies and gentlemen! Enjoy the rest of your day, and keep an eye out for more as the day goes on.