With the advantage of playing one game per week and football’s great popularity, the NFL is likely to be the first American pro sports team with a franchise in Europe. On Sunday, October 28 Wembley Stadium in London will be the first site of a regular season NFL game played outside North America. The New York Giants, a natural favorite for English fans, will play the Miami Dolphins. The NFL has committed to playing up to two regular season games outside the United States for the next five years, according to the NFL Report publication.
Brad Childress and the other Vikings’ coaches start vacations late next week and will resume work in mid- July. The first date the public can watch the team practice in Mankato will be Friday, July 27.
Former Gopher and Viking football player Pete Najarian, now a stock trader, became a regular panelist earlier this spring on CNBC’s financial investment show Fast Money. Najarian “is ranked one of the top 100 traders by Trader Monthly magazine, is co-founder of optionMONSTER.com, a news and information site for options traders,” according to cnbc.com. Fast Money airs Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. Minneapolis time.
Don’t be surprised if Hopkins recruit Blake Hoffarber, a shooting guard, is given an opportunity to fill the Gophers’ need at point guard next fall. His basketball decision making is exceptional and the Gophers played all last season without identifying a permanent point guard.
The Twins’ Justin Morneau (second) Joe Mauer (fourth) and Torii Hunter (fifth) all rank within the top five vote getters at their positions for next month’s All-Star game in San Francisco, according to a news release from major league baseball. Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriquez is the leading vote getter at over 1.4 million so far.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said on his KSTP weekly radio show earlier this week that he doesn’t know when to expect left fielder Rondell White’s return to the team. White has been disabled with a right calf muscle injury since early April.
Scott Baker talking about inexperienced fellow pitchers Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey, and Pat Neshek all of whom are either in their first or second seasons with the Twins, and how they offer support to one another: “Maybe not so much mechanically or pitching wise, but more so… a word of encouragement, or something (like) …’you know what, I’ve seen you do this and I know you can do it.’”