September 09, 2008 11:56 pm
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July 23 seems like oh so long ago, doesn’t it?
By now, you might not remember it at all.
That was the day most of the Minnesota Vikings arrived in Mankato for training camp and about three weeks of intense preparation for the upcoming National Football League season.
The players arrived at Minnesota State University for one of the team’s most intriguing camps in nearly a decade.
“We’re not going to fly under the radar this year,” receiver Bobby Wade said that afternoon outside Gage Center.
Running back Adrian Peterson was coming off a record-breaking rookie season and already on the fast track for superstardom. Sack specialist Jared Allen was acquired from the Kansas City Chiefs and promptly became the richest defensive player in the league. Speculation about interest in Brett Favre led many to wonder if the Vikings just weren’t a good quarterback away from becoming a Super Bowl team for the first time in more than 30 years.
We — media members, fans and other observers — spent those days in Blakeslee Stadium and on its adjoining practice fields watching Peterson burst between blocks and Allen fly off the right end. Peterson talked about gaining 2,000 yards this season, and Allen’s addition to tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams prompted comparisons to the Purple People Eaters.
The Packers kept Favre far away from the Vikings, shipping the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback to the New York Jets for a draft pick. But watching another free-agent pickup, receiver Bernard Berrian, actually catch bombs in practice — something Troy Williamson was unable to do a year ago — made folks wonder if coach Brad Childress was wise to stick with his quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson.
“(Jackson’s) making better reads and handling the pressure,” Childress said during his first training-camp press conference. “You have to be mentally tough as well as physically tough to play that position, and we’ve definitely seen some improvement.”
The next day, outspoken safety Darren Sharper said, “(Jackson) is our guy. I firmly believe he’s our leader this year.”
Three weeks later, the Vikings were signing autographs and leaving town with many of the same thoughts, hopes and expectations.
But it took just one game — Monday’s regular-season opening loss to the Green Bay Packers — to erase every thing we thought during training camp from our minds.
It’s not that one game defines a season or a player, but it certainly sheds more light on who a team is than those three weeks of practice can ever do, even with the great number of column inches devoted to training-camp coverage.
Peterson was good but not dominant Monday. Allen wasn’t the second coming of Carl Eller. And Jackson certainly didn’t look like Brett Favre.
Fans will remember training camp for the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Vikings, for the chance to get autographs and pose for pictures with the players.
But gauging how the season’s going to go? In that department, training camp is already forgotten.
The real speculation started Monday night.
Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Access his college hockey blog through mankatofreepresshockey.blogspot.com/
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