Tuesday Open Thread: December 20, 2016

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I’m going to share a little story with you:

This is a little on the personal side, but still sports related, and maybe a little reminder that there are more important things in life than a team losing a game.

After our daughter’s ordeal, my wife & I have gotten to know a lot of families of children with heart defects. Little Henry is one of those children we’ve followed. He was born premature, and with two heart defects. He was on a transplant list, and thankfully received a new heart about 6 weeks ago. He went through a tough stretch after the transplant, but he is doing better and is recovering at a hospital here in the Cities. He even gave his mom & dad a little smile yesterday. A couple of the Wild players, Eric Staal and Jason Zucker, stopped by the hospital to visit, and Henry’s parents were kind enough to allow me to share a couple pictures.

I don’t think athletes get enough attention for the good things they do, and here are a couple of hockey players that are taking time out of their lives to go visit families of sick children in the hospital. There are many more athletes like these guys, but sadly, you won’t see a lot of their actions being covered, & I thought it was a nice story to share.

Please keep Henry and his family in your prayers (or good thoughts, or whatever you believe in) as he continues to recover. It’s heartbreaking to watch these kids go through all of this, I’m having a tough time even writing this. Their families are going through more than you can imagine as well, so hopefully we can all take a minute to send some prayers their way today.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Hammy1724 shares The Minnesota Vikings Story....Only It Isn’t.

Tom Johnson is out for the season with a torn hamstring, per Chris.

Vikings news from other sources:

From ESPN, Adrian Peterson was hit within a yard of the line of scrimmage on 4 of 6 carries on Sunday.

From Vikings.com:

A fan attended Sunday’s Vikings game to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Coach Zimmer addressed the media yesterday.

Around the rest of the NFL:

From Yahoo Sports, the Jaguars fired head coach Gus Bradley after their loss to the Texans.

This is coming from Yardbarker, and they’re saying that Trent Baalke will not return as the 49ers GM.

We come to today’s media selection.

Many thanks to rkjohns1 for this most appropriate selection for today. This sums it up perfectly for we Vikings fans right now (let’s not forget though, that it’s going to get much better, 2017 is going to be wonderful).

Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tags
-No pictures that could potentially get someone fired or in serious trouble at their place of employment
-If you can't disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it's sarcasm
-This isn't a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the door

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on. Don't forget to tip your waitress, & try the hog maws.