Monday Open Thread: June 29, 2020

Happy Monday, everyone!

Alright! It’s time to kick off another glorious work week, we float in to work this morning, eager and ready for the fun and exciting challenges that we get to conquer over the next few days. Mondays are so awesome, and this week’s Monday is even better knowing that Friday will arrive a bit early this week (well, for most of us, anyway).

I bought a LOT of fireworks yesterday. Since becoming a dad, I’ve noticed a couple little habits/enjoyments have crept into my life. One is Christmas lights, I’m quickly approaching Griswold status. The other is fireworks. I liked them as a kid, but never got too crazy about them. Kiddo REALLY started enjoying them last year, so that made me start enjoying them more, and we went a little bonkers yesterday. Oh well, I look back to my younger days, and look at how much cash I dropped at the bar on any given night, and it puts it all into perspective, fireworks and quality dad/kiddo time is worth the price of admission. Anyone have anything fun and exciting planned for the holiday weekend? Whatever you do, I pray that everyone will be safe, have a good time, and eat far too much food off of the grill or smoker, if that’s possible.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

With training camp drawing near, the hype around Hercules Mata’afa is growing, from Chris.

Captain Obvious PFF ranked Smith and Harris as the NFL’s best safety duo.

All NFL teams plan to cover the seating closest to the field level in 2020, per Chris. The smart a** in me immediately wants to ask the NFL if they plan to allow reporters and such into an already cramped locker room after the game. You know, so they can squish between players and stick that microphone up to their face and ask them questions. I can’t imagine how many diseases and infestations are on the average microphone. If they looked, they could probably find the cure to Covid-19 on one of those things.

Other Vikings/NFL news, and random oddities and annoyances:

From FoxSports, the Patriots have signed Cam Newton. I would assume that Newton will be the assumed starter over what’s-his-name. This is a good signing by the Patriots, and you have to think that it is the best possible landing spot for Newton.

Speaking of the Patriots, they were fined $1.1 million and will lose a 2021 third-round pick as punishment for (another) illegal filming incident, also from FoxSports. I did some quick math, and a $1.1 million fine for the Patriots affects them the same as a penny fine would affect you or I. I might not be exact on that, as I didn’t actually do any math to arrive at the figure, but I’ll bet I’m fairly close.

ESPN looks into some of the details in the Patriots-Newton deal.

From SBNation, the NFL has decided to cancel the Hall-of-Fame game.

We come to today’s media selection:

Here’s a great tune from one of the better musical decades, here’s some Cinderella. Enjoy!

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

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Take the gender hatred elsewhere, it won’t be tolerated
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-If discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tags
-No pictures that could get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employer
-If you can’t disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it’s sarcasm.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on. Don’t wash your hands, touch each other’s faces often, and try the finger food.