Minnesota Vikings News and Links, 1/10

Hey everyone! Apologies for the late start on the Open Thread. The natives were certainly getting restless. OK so two people sent me a tweet asking for an Open Thread, but you get the point. It's Friday, and how the heck are Vikings fans supposed to waste valuable time at work if Daily Norseman doesn't have an Open Thread?!

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

• Vikings cornerback Chris Cook did a big impromptu Q&A on Twitter yesterday and was surprisingly candid on a lot of topics. Arif provided the highlights.
• Speaking of Arif, if you haven't read his opus on the life stories of every possible Vikings head coaching candidate lately, I suggest you give it a read. He has made a bunch of updates in recent days and has comprehensive profiles of several candidates.
• Chris wondered whether Rick Spielman's apparent "leave no stone unturned" approach to finding the next Vikings head coach is the best strategy for landing the right guy.

From elsewhere on the internets...

• The Redskins hired the other Bengals coordinator, Jay Gruden. (Bullet dodged by Minnesota in my opinion.) Hogs Haven has the report here.
• The final 15 candidates for this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame have been announced. Check out the full list here.
• Star Tribune's Michael Rand shares Ted's belief that Mike Zimmer should be the next Vikings head coach. (Spoiler alert: I'm posting my Divisional picks later today and there's a very good chance that I agree as well.)

As always, here's your boilerplate text on how to play nice in the open thread: 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.

And since Chris isn't around to stop me, here's my selection for this week's "cold" theme. I dare you to click the play button and try to get it out of your head in the next 48 hours.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for this Friday, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy the rest of your bridge to the weekend, and stay tuned for much more!