Minnesota Vikings News And Links, 7/24

Down to 48 hours remaining before the start of Minnesota Vikings Training Camp 2013, ladies and gentlemen! Can you feel the excitement? Is it not going to be awesome? You're damn right it is.

I would expect to see the Vikings' three first round draft picks, defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, cornerback Xavier Rhodes, and receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, signing their contracts just about any time now. If you're worried, only one of the picks from #22 to #29 has signed (DeAndre Hopkins, who was selected at #27 by the Houston Texans), and that's the range the Vikings' picks all fall into. I'm guessing the rest will get their deals done rather quickly. I haven't seen anything to indicate the Vikings won't have their full complement of players in Mankato come Friday.

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

-Eric let everyone know that the Vikings have signed a three-year deal to keep their Training Camp in Mankato.

-We had two more match-ups in our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament, with Paul Krause taking on Matt Birk and Robert Smith going head-to-head with Chuck Foreman. (Both of them are pretty well decided, but you still have an hour or so to get your votes in.) The last two second round match-ups will be up at 8 AM Central time.

The rules of the Open Thread are the same as always, folks. . .no politics, no religion, no feeding the trolls, and keep the bad language to a minimum and/or use the spoiler tags if you're going to curse.

Speaking of cursing, today's musical selection for Dog Week has a naughty word in it. My apologies in advance. Also, it has cowbell. That's something I don't need to apologize for.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for this Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen! If there's any sort of breaking news, we will have it here for you. Other than that, enjoy the Open Thread!