Happy Friday, everyone!
So, funny story for you from last night. It was my birthday yesterday. I got home from work & kiddo was all excited “Daddy, cake! Daddy, ice cream!”. I looked at him like “huh?”, he ran over to the fridge & pointed at the freezer “In there!”. Ah, so the wife bought an ice cream cake as a surprise. Thanks kiddo! Then we go to open presents, & he loves opening presents so I picked him up & took him over to the table to open them. Gave him the first one, he says “socks”. Sure enough, he opens it & it’s a couple pair of socks (I love wool socks, by the way). Grab the second one & hand it to him, he says “pants”. Opens it up, & it’s a pair of gym shorts (close enough). I gave him the third one, he says “book”. Sure enough, he opens it up and it’s a new cover for my Kindle. Crazy kid, no secrets anymore in our house.
Around the DN since our last open thread:
Wludford wants us to get Bill Callahan.
CCNorseman asks if right tackle is our biggest need.
Eric shared the 2016 Minnesota Vikings word cloud, and it’s as expected. There are some NSFW words in there, as you could imagine.
Vikings news from other sources:
ESPN does their third Future of the Vikings segment, this time looking at wide receivers.
Matt Vensel at the Strib looks at the future of some of the Vikings’ vets. Kalil, Newman, and Robison are the toughest to project.
From Vikings.com:
Craig Peters posted the 2017 strength of schedule for the Vikings and the rest of the NFL.
Eric Smith shared the report from ESPN naming Sam Bradford the Vikings MVP.
Here are the sounds of the game from the Vikings win over the Bears.
Vikings.com is doing some videos of top 10 Vikings rookie seasons. Here is number 10, Adrian Peterson, and here is number 1, Randy Moss.
Around the rest of the league:
Chris Berman is out as the face of ESPN’s NFL coverage after this year, per The Sporting News.
From CBS Sports, Steve Smith made his retirement official with a perfect letter to the NFL.
J.J. Watt delivered a new jersey to an 8-year-old fan who was cut out of his after an accident, per Yahoo Sports. Cool stuff.
Also from Yahoo Sports, Norv Turner is still interested in a coaching job if it’s the right fit.
Other sports news of note:
The Wild are back to their winning ways with a 5-4 overtime wind against the Sharks.
We come to today’s media selection.
Here’s the Possum, along with some friends, to kick off our Friday.
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 headcheese.