Author: David Shama

Tarvaris Jackson must make productive plays starting with preseason game No. 1 on Friday night in the Metrodome against Seattle.  The third year Vikings’ quarterback needs to be intent on building momentum and confidence during the team’s four preseason games leading up to the Game of the Century (sort of) on September 8 in Green Bay against the Packers, the regular season opener.

Not that Jackson, 25, doesn’t need to see his progress chart escalate beyond September 8.  Let’s be honest, to inspire himself, the coaches, teammates, fans, media and anyone else, he’s going to have to play in the first four preseason games and early regular season games like never before.

With the franchise having NFC North Division and playoff intent, much is expected of the young quarterback who is one of the most discussed athletes to ever play in this town.  The problem so far is that the discussion comes down to this: He hasn’t accomplished much.

A Jacksonologist might recite his numbers like a grade schooler can spit out the alphabet.  In two seasons, 14 games started, 218 completions, 318 attempts, 16 interceptions and 11 touchdowns.

As the team’s only viable big-time play maker at quarterback, Jackson has to start performing with consistency and delivering the deliverables.  Anything less, will be, well, not confidence or momentum developing.

The Jackson support team will defend its man with numerous arguments, the most convincing of which is that it takes time and experience to be a productive No. 1 NFL quarterback.  Look, supporters argue, he played better last season than the year before.  He has athletic gifts including a quick release, strong arm and ability to elude tacklers.  He’s worked hard to understand the offense and himself in the quarterback role.  He wants the challenge he finds himself in starting Friday night.

It sounds good but it all sounds like potential to perform, too.  I guess that might be what Sports Illustrated sees.  In last week’s issue the magazine rated Jackson No. 31 among 32 NFL quarterbacks listed in its fantasy football preview.

Memo to S.I. and the rest of us: Check back after the Game of the Century.

That S.I. preview rated Adrian Peterson of the Vikings No. 2 among NFL running backs, second to LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego.  Bernard Berrian was 48^th and Sidney Rice 60^th among wide receivers.  Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald Jr. of Arizona was rated fourth in the wide receivers ranking.

The Vikings used a Post-It-Note advertisement on the front page of the Sunday Star Tribune promoting $10 off on a single game ticket for the team’s two preseason home games.  Meanwhile, Time magazine in a story about Michigan’s struggling economy reported that the Detroit Lions are using billboards to advertise $230 season tickets.  The magazine also said there’s no waiting list for Detroit Red Wings season tickets despite the team being Stanley Cup champions.

Gopher coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners that his defensive line is more advanced than the offensive line because of experience.  Among young Gophers to watch develop on the offensive line are two red shirt freshmen, center Trey Davis from Farmington High School and tackle Ryan Wynn from Maple Grove High School.

Brewster expects sophomore Adam Weber “to be one of the most outstanding quarterbacks in the Big Ten” Conference.  He believes junior wide receiver Eric Decker is going to be “one of the better wide receivers in the country.”

Lou Holtz’s recruiting axiom when he coached here in the 1980s was the “body” came from Minnesota but the “arms and legs” had to come from elsewhere.  With more high level skilled players coming out of the state than ever before, Brewster isn’t so sure that axiom is as accurate now.

Pam Borton’s Gopher basketball team plays four exhibition games in Italy later this month.  The team leaves August 18 and returns August 28.  Gopher athletic director Joel Maturi and wife Lois will be on the trip, too.  NCAA rules allow a team to make an international trip every four years.

Former Gopher and NCAA wrestling champion Brock Lesnar has a new sponsorship agreement with a consumer food company, according to a source who requested anonymity.  There’s talk the company will launch a Lesnar flavor.  He will be a featured participant in the Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Saturday at Target Center.  Lesnar, 1-1, will fight Heath Herring, 28-13-1, in a heavyweight match-up.

Dave Mona’s new book, “Beyond the Sports Huddle,” is written with efficiency, clarity, charm and wit.  That’s pretty much the way Mona, a 1964 graduate of the University of Minnesota, has lived his life.

He has done enough during his six-plus decades to pretty much fill two or three lifetimes. So why not author a book, too?  He’s done just that with a 286 page publication that is pure Mona, with tales about people he’s known ranging from Kirby Puckett to Hubert Humphrey, from Muhammad Ali to Molly Ivins, with a mass murderer included for intrigue.  With points for efficiency, Mona even includes stories he’s written in the past including a piece on baseball card collecting he authored long ago for the Minneapolis Tribune.

Who is Dave Mona?  Well, unless you just flew in from across the Pond, you probably know him as a radio personality on WCCO.  For 27 years he’s been heard on WCCO Radio’s Sunday Sports Huddle and since 1998 he’s provided color commentary on Gopher football.  In 2006 he won Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow writing awards for his pregame vignettes.

Writing and creativity come easy to Mona, who grew up in Minneapolis, the son of South High School basketball coach Lute Mona.  Mona was sports editor of the Minnesota Daily where he had a talent for encouraging young (and not so gifted) writers on his staff.  In typical multi-tasking fashion, he worked at WCCO TV while a student at the University, serving as a news room dispatcher and assisting with a hilarious late night Saturday show called the Bedtime Nooz starring Dave Moore.

Although most journalists aspire to work at a big city newspaper out of college, few are talented enough and prepared for the assignment.  Mona went straight to the Tribune where he worked for five years with two seasons devoted to covering the Minnesota Twins.

Along the way he decided that 100 days or so away from home was too much.  He made his way into the public relations profession and later became the founder and current chairman of Weber Shandwick, the region’s largest PR firm.

In addition to Weber Shandwick, all he’s done over the years is raise a nice family with wife Linda, own and operate the Field of Dreams sports memorabilia stores, personally collect over a million baseball cards, assist many community organizations with his leadership and marketing savvy including the Minneapolis chamber and the University of Minnesota athletic department, emcee and speak at many events, and provide enough sports insights on WCCO Radio to keep your average Minnesotan sounding sports savvy around the office water cooler.

He’s done it all with energy, intelligence and a high likeability factor, making it look so easy.  Dave Mona is Minnesota nice.

And always the quick wit with willingness to tell stories, anecdotes from long ago and today.  The book is full of them including a number of paragraphs devoted to Molly Ivins, the tall and outspoken Texan who worked with Mona at the Tribune before going on to a famed writing career where she bashed a lot of people including Bill Clinton whose character was described as “weaker than bus station chili.”

Mona remembers in the book, too, that Ivins came to Minneapolis without an overcoat.  A few weeks later she corrected that and paraded into the newsroom wearing a floor-length reddish-orange coat that matched her reddish hair.  Mona writes that assistant managing editor Frank Premack shouted, “My God, it looks like a bad paint job on the Foshay Tower.”

Mona has a series of book signings including on Thursday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Galleria, 3225 W. 69^th Street, Edina.