St. Patrick’s Day Open Thread: March 17, 2021

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

You suppose the Coronavirus is going to get credit for preventing many would-be headaches from occuring tomorrow? Kinda’ one of those good side effects from a bad thing, I suppose. Speaking of contradictions, isn’t it odd that one of the drunkest days of the year (according to most things I’ve read, St. Patty’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday, and the day before Thanksgiving are all up at the top spot for drunkest day of the year) is on the day of a holiday celebrating Saint Patrick, the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, and who brought Christianity to Ireland? I thought so, too.

The Vikings cut Shamar Stephen yesterday, and added $3.75 million in cap space, but adding another $1.33 million of dead cap to the Vikings 2021 cap total, which now stands at a hair above $11.5 million (which aggravates me daily). After all is said and done, with the $182.5 million salary cap plus the 2020 rollover cap, minus contracts and dead cap, the team is sitting with just over $4.9 million in cap space with which to work, according to Spotrac. The team has also decided not to tender Ifeadi Odenigbo (Good grief, did I ever butcher that spelling on the first try). I hate to say it, and if this happens, I will be firmly aboard the ‘fire Rick yesterday’ train, but I could see Harrison Smith being released. I’ll be unhappy. Nobody in the Vikings front office will care, but I’ll be happy nonetheless. SKOL!

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Chris has more details about Shamar Stephens being released.

Arif is back with Norse Code Podcast Episode 368: Into The Void (Year).

BJ Reidell and Drew Mahowald discuss the latest Vikings buzz in Unbelievable! - Hunter Dictates the Future.

Other Vikings/NFL news:

Keep up with the latest signings around the league at NFL.com’s transaction tracker.

CBS Sports has grades on each team’s free agency moves thus far.

The Bears signed Andy Dalton to a one-year deal for a reported $10 million, according to SI. I would laugh, but Dalton beat the Vikings the last time he played them, so I’ll shut up.

We come to today’s media selection:

Chris Knight and Robert Earl Keen are my favorite current singers, but this kid is moving up that list. Here’s Koe Wetzel with Tacos and Tornados. I love this song. 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 forget to tip the cows and settle in, this part of the season gets long and boring.