There's no place like home

My 2014 season tickets are paid for and now it is just a matter of time and wondering just what will the experience of home football games be like.

On Tuesday February 11^th the NFL provided rankings for each team and how tough the schedule will be.

The Vikings will have the 12^th easier schedule in the league. The home schedule has the Vikings playing the 15^th easiest.

I see numbers and like the numbers but again I have to put this into my own personal perspective. TCF Bank stadium will seat less than 12,000 than Mall of America Field. I ask myself, can the outside stadium crowd make a difference? I feel whole heartedly, YES!!!!!  I think for at least the first year there will be a major difference just for one simple fact and that is, the newness of outdoor football back to the old Met days. Viking fans are die hard and will support the team loudly whether it is 52,000 0r 63,000. The fans will get the job done.

The league had already announced the opponents for each team just not the date. I cannot believe the teams we will see at home. It will be like a fantasy football feat live in front of us. I know free agency has not occurred yet. I am basing my fantasy football statement on the quarterbacks that will be facing the Vikes new defense.

Tom Brady (Patriots), RGIII (Redskins), Cam Newton (Panthers), Matt Ryan (Falcons) and then of course the NFC North quarterbacks: Rodgers, Stafford and Cutler all will perform at TCF Bank Stadium. The New York Jets are coming as well but not with the marquis name as mentioned with the others. We will see 7 of the top quarterbacks in the league.

If this does not excite football fans well than I don’t know what will. The fact free agency is coming just makes me even more eager to see the Purple play at home.

Mike Zimmer and his staff get a great test right out of the gate. 2014 is full of excitement at least from this fan writing the blog. It is an obsession in life I am proud of. The Vikings family is a great family to be a part of. Yes, we have had disappointments, but a true fan is one who stays at the team’s side through good and bad.

I know we are roughly 7 months until September but I can’t help but be excited when I see articles on line discussing such subjects as schedules.

Please join me in the countdown to 2014 regular season kickoff.

Thanks for reading and bleeding purple

Purplestick

A busy offseason off and running

I wanted to make this personal as that is what my blog is all about. I am a fan who lives and breathes Vikings. I am a big fan but never will make the mistake of saying I am the biggest. I just simply enjoy writing about my passion. I started the blog in April of 2011 and have had 24,000 page views in this time giving me a good feeling that fans take an interest in my vision of the team both as a season ticket holder and a huge fan of training camp and all that is involved.

The offseason has been so enjoyable up to this point and I expect nothing but bigger and bigger things as the season approaches.

This time spent so far has found me going to the dome on January 8^th and buying 4 seats and now will proudly display them in my Vikings room. It was the most breath taking sight driving into the dome and onto the floor. We parked and just walked around looking at the dismantling of the interior.
 

Wednesday January 15^th was the next big day as the team announced Mike Zimmer as the new head coach of the Vikings.  I was not surprised Leslie Frazier was fired. I felt terrible for him but knew it was time to move on. I believe Zimmer will bring disciplined football with the no non sense approach. I am extremely eager to meet Mike in Mankato.  

The announcement of new defensive coordinator, George Edwards came as a little surprise to me only because it was a name I have never heard of. I did listen to an interview with Edwards on the radio. The question was asked of George in regards to Zimmer trying to micro manage the defense. I loved Edwards’ response saying he will welcome any input Zimmer can offer.


  The hiring of Zimmer has me fired up and now add Norv Turner to the equation. What a staff to start. I am so psyched to see what Turner can do with the offense. Can you say deep pass? Can you say because of the passing game there goes  AP for 80 and a TD? Vikes fans we have a future to be excited about.

The free agency and draft have not even started and I am already for late July to early August to get here like it is tomorrow. Thanks to the Wilf family, for getting the ball rolling with the coaching staff coming into place I can feel a little less stressed.

I am also happy Zimmer retained Offensive line coach, Jeff Davidson along with Special Teams’ coach, Mike Priefer and Wide receiver coach, George Stewart from the Frazier staff.

Saturday January 18^th was a tough day for me as the dome was deflated for the last time in history. I went up later that day to take pictures. I have been up a couple times since. My plan is to make a photo album of the progress with both the taking down Mall of America Field and then off course the building of the new stadium. I am off to a good start and look forward to adding to my collection of pictures.

I went up the next Saturday and parked at Dome plus and stood there looking inside the dome and was able to see the roof flapping in the winds.

I have also now put in my favorites different YouTube videos including the 18^th deflation and then recently found a video with the small implosion of the roof that was left. I highly recommend for you to look these videos up and see the demise of the roof.

Sunday February 2^nd we saw the Seattle Seahawks destroy the Denver Broncos. I will tell you I was pulling for the Broncos.  I will also tell you that since the Seattle Seahawks I was very happy for 3 players in particular: Heath Farwell, Steven Hauschka and Derrick Coleman. Farwell was a favorite of mine when he played in Minnesota. He may go down as a top 5 nicest guy I ever met in Mankato. Coleman was in camp in 2012 with his story and how I wanted him to succeed. I met Hauschka in Mankato and he too came across as a down to earth just nice young man.

The next step in my offseason was the invoice we got for our seats at TCF Bank Stadium. My seats in the dome were in section 215 row 16. This section was above where the Vikes came out of the locker room. My new seats are on the opposite side in face opposite corner in which we will be in 217. I knew the price would go up but they really did. I went from roughly 400.00 for the two seats. My wife and I are dedicated fans and decided to renew in fact we just sent the check in for the balance last Saturday.

The PSL’s are concerning in the future. I looked at where my seats would transfer to and figured they would be one of two prices, 500.00 or 750.00. I will have to deal with that when it happens.

That’s all for now as I wait for free agency to start along with an occasional trip to Minneapolis to take pictures of progress.

As always, Thanks for reading

Purplestick