Minnesota Vikings News And Links, 5/28

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We sincerely hope that you all enjoyed your long weekend, and we're happy that you're back here with us for this Tuesday with your fellow Minnesota Vikings fans.

We haven't put a lot of stories out there over the past few days. I'll be honest. . .it's just been a bit on the slow side for most of this month. Real life has hit everyone at pretty much the same time (as it always seems to do), but hopefully going forward we'll have more for you. The team starts OTAs today, and we're getting closer to Training Camp, so there should be some news coming out of Winter Park over the upcoming weeks.

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

-We asked everyone to share the story behind their screen names, and a lot of you came through in a big way.

-Our friends at Outsports put together an article about Adrian Peterson's views on same-sex marriage. (Better them than us.)

-ESPN.com named Vikings' safety Harrison Smith as one of their breakout players for the 2013 NFL season.

-A nasty fire scorched 400 acres of land belonging to legendary coach Bud Grant.

-And we took a pause to remember those that made our freedoms possible.

From other outposts around the internet. . .

-Blah blah Brett Favre yadda yadda text messages whoop-de-doo settled.

-We talked the other day about a potential relationship between WWE and the NFL. As it turns out, a guy that the Vikings signed as an undrafted free agent back in 2007 is now one of WWE's hottest new stars.

-Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune tells us that former starting linebacker E.J. Henderson is doing just fine outside of football.

-Tom Pelissero gives us two members of last year's practice squad to keep an eye on as OTAs move forward.

-Judd Zulgad has some other storylines to watch for over the next few weeks.

The rules of the Open Thread are the same as always, folks. . .no politics, no religion, no bad language, and no feeding of the trolls.

Don't have a real theme for the music for this week. . .it's just going to be sort of random. Today's selection is kind of the metal equivalent of the Three Tenors.

For the unintiated, the three singers are Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), and Geoff Tate (former lead singer of Queensryche). Halford and Dickinson are, in my opinion, 2/3 of the holy trinity of metal voices, along with the late Ronnie James Dio.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for Tuesday, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy your day, and we'll be bringing you more good stuff as the day goes on.