With the Vikings’ season starting in a couple days, there is a new book to help fans celebrate their franchise. Star Tribune sportswriter Mark Craig educates and entertains fans with 100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (Triumph Books).
Craig has been a regular on the Vikings beat for years and is known for his comprehensive coverage. Craig’s thoroughness shows up in his paperback book that includes the prominent names from the franchise’s start in 1961 up through 2015. There is plenty of good storytelling in 100 short chapters, with surprises mixed in including the song Prince wrote for his favorite team.
Vikings fans will learn how the franchise got its name and why the first game was played in South Dakota. Howard Webb Field in Sioux Falls is where the Vikings got their start in August of 1961 before 4,954 fans. Craig suggests Vikings fans visit the field as one of the things that true Purple Heads will enjoy. Other recommended destinations include Kezar Stadium in San Francisco where Jim Marshall made his infamous wrong-way run for a touchdown.
Craig interviewed many sources for the book including former Vikings owner Red McCombs who talked about his trade of star receiver Randy Moss in 2005. McCombs dispatched Moss to the Raiders shortly before selling the team. Craig writes that McCombs didn’t make the trade out of revenge for not being able to secure funding for a new stadium. Moss, moody and unpredictable, had just worn out his welcome with McCombs and a lot of other people.
In the chapter about Moss’ trade to the Raiders, Craig recalls details about the closing seconds of the 2004 season finale against the Redskins when Moss left the field, and later in the locker room where he was confronted by livid teammate Matt Birk. That wouldn’t be the end, though, to Moss’ erratic behavior in the NFL.
Moss is a recurring figure in Craig’s book. Chapters include “Randy and Red Resurrect a Franchise,” “Visit Lambeau Field, the Site of Moss’ Moonshot,” and “Eat at Tinucci’s—Where Randy Moss Wouldn’t Take His Dog.”
Moss had a brief but second hook up with the Vikings, joining the team in 2010 after the season began and lasting less than a month. Craig writes that in a move that didn’t follow franchise protocol, Vikings coach Brad Childress unilaterally released Moss after the wide receiver had been “wildly insubordinate” the day before in a game against the Patriots. Within weeks team ownership fired Childress.
Craig acknowledges that the former Vikings coach annoyed players because he was too strict. Childress won no popularity contests with the fans, either, but Craig reports how without notice the coach once stopped what he was doing in his office and accompanied offensive lineman Anthony Herrera to his U.S. citizenship ceremony in St. Paul.
It was Childress who coached the Vikings in 2009 when almost 40-year-old Brett Favre arrived as the Vikings quarterback. Craig tells about Favre’s magical debut game when in the closing seconds he brought the Vikings from behind to win a game that almost blew the top off the Metrodome. Receiver Greg Lewis caught the winning touchdown pass with two seconds remaining. Favre was under such pressure he didn’t even know who he was throwing to and six years later Adrian Peterson still called it “the most amazing” play he’s ever seen.
Peterson receives his own attention in the book including a chapter about his startling and successful comeback from knee surgery. Peterson had torn up his left knee in a game on Christmas Eve in 2011 but soon was determined to return for the next season, and he did so rushing for over 2,000 yards.
There are a lot of feel-good stories in Craig’s book including the author’s suggestion fans visit Peterson’s hometown of Palestine, Texas. In June of each year Adrian Peterson Day celebrates the future hall of famer’s achievements on the field and gifts he has made to the community.
Readers will find some chuckles as they make their way through the book. There is, for example, a chapter on “prankster” Wally Hilgenberg, and another on the “dirty jobs” that some former Vikings experienced prior to their pro football careers. For “dirty” details you will have to buy the book.
Craig told Sports Headliners it took a year to write the book. “Learned to wake up early,” he said. “Getting up at 4:30 in the morning and putting things together—talking to people.”
Craig is pleased he can pass along his Vikings knowledge and the new tales he learned in a year’s worth of research. “I get to share them (all) in a book form,” he said. “It’s a pretty neat concept, I think, being able to present 100 things that people should know or do.”
Worth Noting
Former Gophers coach Jerry Kill is in Minneapolis tomorrow and Saturday signing copies of his new book Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time. Kill will be in the Dairy Queen Club at TCF Bank Stadium from 8 to 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. From 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow he will be at the University of Minnesota Bookstore at 300 Washington Ave. S.E. Saturday Kill will be available from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Buffalo Wild Wings location at 2001 University Ave. S.E.
A friend in Las Vegas reports the Vikings’ odds to win the Super Bowl are 10 to 1. He visited a sports book yesterday and learned that with the addition of quarterback Sam Bradford, the Vikings’ odds are superior to all but five other clubs. The five with shorter odds are New England 6 to 1; Arizona 6 to 1; Green Bay 8 to 1; Seattle 8 to 1; and Pittsburgh 9 to 1.
Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen after being asked this week about Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “I am focused on the Tennessee Titans. I don’t know who Aaron Rodgers is right now.”
The Vikings open their regular season Sunday against the lowly-regarded Titans before facing the Packers and Rodgers in their home opener September 18. The Packers have won the last three games in Minneapolis.
Eden Prairie native and offensive tackle Carter Bykowski, who was added to the Vikings’ practice squad this week, told Sports Headliners he was going to give his pro football ambitions at least another 30 days if no NFL team had signed him. Bykowski, 26, has a business degree from Iowa State and some day could end up working for a local company.
Former Gophers quarterback Philip Nelson completed 28 of 32 passes including five touchdown passes in his debut game for East Carolina last Saturday when the Pirates routed West Carolina 52-7.
Creative Charters is offering Gophers football fans travel packages to away games including November 12 at Nebraska—with no overnight stay. A charter plane will leave Minneapolis the morning of November 12 and fly to Lincoln for the 6:30 p.m. game between the Gophers and Cornhuskers. The charter returns to Minneapolis following the game.
Creative Charters is offering transportation and more to all five away Gophers games but the Illinois and Maryland games are already sold out. For more information, visit the company website, creativecharter.com.
Pioneer Press sports columnist Charley Walters comes from a golf family. He has an 11.2 handicap and brothers Dick and Steve Walters, who work part-time at Wayzata Country Club, have handicaps under five. Charley has played a lot of courses including in Ireland but Augusta National is his favorite. “As good as it gets,” he said.