Viking Notes

It looks like Harvin will need surgery on his injured ankle. Those who were thinking Harvin was just "sick of the team" and no longer willing to play are probably wrong. His ankle is messed up and not getting better on its own. He MAY be sick of this team wasting his prime years, but that is not the reason he's not playing.

Adrian Peterson needs to average about 140 yards a game to get 2,000 yards for the season. He's been averaging nearly 160 the last 6 games. As bad as the Vikings are this year, Peterson will keep me watching as long as he's in the hunt for that milestone. I'm hoping he has a HUGE game against the Bears tomorrow just to make the 2,000 goal a better possibility.  Without Harvin, the Vikes will be relying on Peterson even more these next few weeks. If we don't get blown out early in any game, he will have his chance.

The NFL is thinking about getting rid of kickoffs. They know that kickoff returns are the most electric plays that the league has, but they are also the plays that get the most players seriously hurt.

"Full speed sprinter running head first into other full speed sprinters equals body parts flying everywhere."

The current proposal? After a touchdown, the team that scored would be given the ball on their own 30 yard line in a fourth and 15 situation. The standard play would be to simply punt the ball and the receiving team would end up getting the ball on their own 25-30 yard line after the punt return. Punt returns are more weaving than speeding and as a result they are much safer plays.

BUT the nice thing about this scenario will be that teams, late in the game, might want to go for it on fourth and 15 turning the whole play into more of an "onside kick" type situation. The drama will remain. The field position will be similar and kickoffs will not not be missed that much.

The biggest flaw in this system? Really good teams with really good systems and really good QB's (think New England) might decide to go for first downs all the time KNOWING their chance of picking up a first down are much greater than other teams going for first downs in this situation.

Imagine New England never giving up the ball because they will nearly always get the first down.

Personally, I like the plan. If New England is THAT good, then it's up to other teams to figure out how to stop them.

I'd change the rule for ONE year on a trial basis and see how it works out. It would certainly make that play more exciting than your average kickoff either way.