Don’t be surprised if the NFL and representatives of Kevin and Pat Williams settle their dispute with a two-game suspension rather than four.

Jerry Burns, who was both an assistant and head coach with the Vikings, admired Brett Favre’s extraordinary performance last season but told Sports Headliners he won’t describe it as the best season ever by a Vikings quarterback.  Burns was an assistant coach on three teams that Fran Tarkenton quarterbacked to Super Bowls.

Vikings head coach Brad Childress will be the keynote speaker at the Bolder Options annual Training for Life Dinner tomorrow at International Market Square.  The evening will include news about Bolder Options being on public television.  The National Medical Report will be publicizing Bolder Options because of its comprehensive approach to mentoring, addressing not only truancy and juvenile delinquency but also obesity, nutrition, physical activity and overall well-being of youth.  Former Gophers football player Darrell Thompson is executive director of the Minneapolis headquartered organization.

The Vikings, who will be working with most of their players this week at Organized Training Activity at Winter Park, have signed one of their eight draft choices so far.  Seventh round pick Ryan D’Imperio, who was the 237^th overall selection, has signed with the Vikings and will switch from college linebacker at Rutgers to fullback with the Vikings.

Former Gophers All-American Bobby Bell, who played professionally for Kansas City, is taking Chiefs sponsors to Cancun, Mexico.  Joining him are 31 Chiefs cheerleaders who will have a photo shoot there.

This school year Minnesota retained the “Border Battle” Cup with the most lopsided margin in the brief history of its annual all-sports rivalry with Wisconsin. The Gophers earned 550 points to Wisconsin’s 330 points to even the all-time series with their third victory in the six years of competition.  The two schools compete in 22 different sports.

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced earlier this month that 30 MIAC football student-athletes have been named to the NFF Hampshire Honor Society.  The honor society is comprised of college football players from all divisions who maintained a 3.2 GPA or better and were a starter or significant substitute in their last year of eligibility.  MIAC honorees are: Augsburg College’s Andrew Bergeson, Adam Ebert, Tyler Judkins, and Andy Roff; Gustavus Adolphus College’s Jordan Becker, Kevin Geurink, Blake Noennig, Tony Palma, David Randall, T.J. Ridley, and Joe Welch; Saint John’s University’s Blaine Anderson, Ben Dimond, Ethan Eid, Dan Franta, Russell Gliadon, Nick Gunderson, Dominic Haik, Drew Percival, Greg Sowden, and Ryan Wimmer; and the University of St. Thomas’ Jake Friederichs, Joe Herrera, Jeffery Hilliard, Kris Kopp, Reed Mainquist, Tony Margarit, Ryan McCarthy, Sam Moen and Joe Sunnarborg.

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Family and friends said goodbye to Carol Warmath Dillow on Friday.  The funeral service at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Edina was near the family home where she grew up as the daughter of former Gophers football coach Murray Warmath.

Those who attended the service and later the reception at Edina Country Club remembered Carol for her love of family that includes husband Dick and their children.  They also recalled her passion for football and knowledge of the game.

Family friend Peter Franzen has heard stories of a young Carol seeing light flickering from a movie projector late at night in the Warmath home on Bruce Avenue in Edina.  Her father was analyzing football film while most people were sleeping.  “She would crawl up on his lap,” Franzen said.

Warmath had a high football IQ and some of that was passed on to Carol who was a Gophers fan for six decades.  Franzen said she understood the technical side of the game and could see a big play coming before it developed.

“She should have been a football coach,” Warmath said. “She knew more about football than most anyone I’ve ever met.”

Carol even made her wedding come after football.  She and Dick were married on a Gophers football Saturday in October of 1967, FOLLOWING the game.

Carol, who died from ovarian cancer last month, wasn’t hesitant to express herself and was protective of her dad.  If someone was bashing her father’s coaching, the critic might receive an earful from Carol.

That loyalty was at least partly forged during her teenage years when she and the family endured intense criticism of their father.  In the late 1950s the Gophers were losing Saturday after Saturday.  There was a movement to fire Warmath, and the lunatic fringe dumped garbage on the coach’s lawn in Edina while on campus he was hung in effigy.

The story turned from garbage to roses, though, when Warmath followed a 2-7 season in 1959 with a national championship in 1960 and a trip to the Rose Bowl.  He coached the Gophers to another Rose Bowl in 1962 and a Big Ten championship in 1967, the school’s last title.

Warmath coached his 18^th and final season at Minnesota in 1971.  Although Carol had moved away by then, she returned for each of her father’s final home games.

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Warmath’s last team finished with a 4-7 record.  Recruiting success and fan support had slipped since the 1960s and a nervous administration decided to change head football coaches, but no one since has been able to duplicate Warmath’s achievements at Minnesota.

In recent years Carol travelled frequently from her home in Kansas City to see her dad, now 97. He’s often in a wheelchair and living in a suburban Minneapolis retirement facility.  She was here in March, despite her fight with cancer.

Carol, 65, had won a battle with melanoma a few years ago.  Like her dad, she was a fighter and survivor.

Warmath saw his youngest child, Billy, pass away years ago at age 30.  He lost his wife Mary Louise in 2002 and now Carol.  Warmath’s oldest child, Murray Jr., attended the funeral on Friday.

Franzen said Warmath frets about the fates of his children and wife while being grateful for his own longevity and blessings.  “He feels it’s unfair that they went so early,” Franzen said.  “That they didn’t have a long life like him.”

Warmath is often reminded of Billy’s passing by the four seasons of the year.  “He will say Billy would be fishing, or we’ll drive by someplace where he and Billy played golf,” said Franzen who was a good friend of the younger Warmath.

Warmath loved the outdoors, including hunting and fishing.  These days most of his time is spent at his residence where he often has visitors including players from all his years coaching the Gophers.

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