Monday I
woke up to quite a surprise as the temp was 48 degrees and I actually turned my
heat on in the car to get the chill out of the air.
I got to
Mankato and it had already started to warm up in fact I found myself actually
sweating by second practice. One of training camp’s headline thus far has to be
the weather.
I went to
check out the entrance to Vikings Village and by 8:30 there were probably already
a hundred people or so in line and the gate did not even open until 10.
One of my
thrills at camp is meeting and talking to fans. Today I met a man who flew in
from Phoenix. He actually went to the airport in Phoenix with his wife but she
went to Cincinnati to visit family and he flew to Minneapolis to do something
he has always wanted to do and that was visit Vikings training camp.
He is a
Cardinals season ticket holder but loves the Vikes more. He is a huge football
fan so much that he has a mini helmet of every NFL team and a McFarlane NFL
action player for each team. He places the action figure on top of the mini
helmet. He showed me a picture. He also added that Packers, Cowboys and
Steelers are buried so people cannot see them as easy because of his dislike
for those teams.
The weather
like I said was a bit warmer for the afternoon and fitting the team was in pads
for the first time this camp.
I was able
to see for the first time the leg of new punter, Jeff Locke. All I can say is
wow. He was kicking between 60-70 yard bombs out of the end zone. A strange
thing is both Blair Walsh and Jeff Locke are not big guys but they both have
legs that will amaze you. I cannot wait for the preseason home opener to see
Locke in action.
I really
liked the pace of the afternoon practice, which went from about 2:45-4:45. It
really seems to be an organized practice. The players thus far seem to know
what drill to go to next.
I wrote
about Saturday’s practice with the quarterbacks struggling. I really thought
Monday went much better for both Ponder and Cassel.
One receiver
I have not mentioned as of yet is 3rd year wide out, Stephen Burton.
He was my offensive MVP of the session. He made a great deep catch for a TD, a
seam down the middle and a front corner of the end zone touchdowns.
Matt Cassel
continues to make me feel better about our back up. He really does throw nice
seam passes.
I thought
Ponder held his own and looked better connecting on the last play of practice a
touchdown to Burton.
It was just
on Saturday when Bobby Felder returned an INT for a touchdown and now on Monday
practice ends on a good note.
I do like
watching the sidelines and see what different players are doing. Cordarrelle
Patterson dropped a slant pass and went to the sidelines to do pushups. I then see
Jerome Simpson lay his helmet on Patterson’s back as he was doing pushups. You
know it did not fall off the back either.
Players are
in pads and you get the feeling they want to hit. It seems like they have
trouble pulling up. They do, except for one play today. Running Back, Bradley
Randle caught a ball out of the backfield and defensive back Greg McCoy was
coming up on Bradley. The next thing you could hear the pop all the way across
the field. I saw McCoy laying on his butt while Randle was looking down at him.
I do need to
mention there are two Minnesota State University players trying out for the
Vikings and both are wide receivers. One is Adam Thielen and LaMark Brown.
Thielen looks extremely strong thus far and has a good set of hand.
I had
written in a blog a while back to keep your eyes open because you never know
who you will see around. Today Darren Sharper was in town for NFL Network to do
an interview with Adrian Peterson after the afternoon practice.
It was neat
as they did it in front of the locker rooms so fans including myself could
watch. Darren came over after he was done, signed autograph with fans, and took
pictures with them as well.
It was a
neat way to end my day in Mankato.
Tuesday July
30th is defensive back day for people that want to meet that group.
Practice is 10:30-11:30 and 2:45-4:45 or so.
Thanks for
reading
Purplestick
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