I’ve been thinking about clever signs to make for tonight’s Vikings-Packers game.  Stuff that will surely stick with and bother the Wisconsin fans.  Try these out:

Our cheese is better than yours.

Your cheese stinks.

Our stadium has backs on the seats, yours doesn’t.

You guys got Favred.

To be fair, I need to report on those T-shirts Wisconsinites are wearing like “We’ll never forget you, Brent.”

Speaking of Brett Favre, a column reader and friend emailed to complain a bit about the new Vikings quarterback who is receiving a heavy dose of reverence.  He referred to those that think Favre sits at the right hand of God.

Right hand?  Left Hand?  What’s the diff?  The guy is there.

Just to clear up any confusion, I didn’t run in yesterday’s Twin Cities Marathon.

Not sure what the news media reports were on the number of marathon spectators yesterday, but in another year awhile back at least one news organization reported a half million or so people watching.  Now let’s see.  The population of the metro area back then was maybe 2.5 million.  So one of every five residents was watching?  Hmmm.

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The result of tomorrow’s Minnesota-Wisconsin football game isn’t “life or death” for either program but the outcome carries significance beyond a typical Big Ten game.

Tim Brewster refers to the Gophers as an “ascending program.”  The 3-1 Gophers were 7-6 last season after an awful 1-11 beginning in Brewster’s first year as head coach.  A win over the Badgers would further substantiate the “ascending” description.

Bret Bielema’s Badgers are 4-0 after a disappointing 7-6 record last year.  The season before Wisconsin was 9-4 after Bielema had started his career as Wisconsin head coach with a 12-1 record.  “The what have you done for me lately” crowd in Madison has been critical of Bielema.  A win over the Gophers, his fourth straight, would dial down criticism while placing the undefeated Badgers at 2-0 in the Big Ten.

Tomorrow’s winner impacts perception of not only fans and media, but probably recruits.  The Gophers haven’t defeated the Badgers in Minneapolis since 2003.  A Minnesota team last won in Madison in 1994.  In the previous 20 years Wisconsin has defeated the Gophers 14 times but Minnesota leads the series 59-51-8.

Bielema said on regional TV a few years ago that the Badgers consider “Minneapolis” part of their recruiting territory.  Tomorrow the Badgers take the field here with eight Minnesota natives on the roster including significant contributors in wide receiver Isaac Anderson, kick returner and wide receiver David Gilreath (both from Minneapolis) and linebacker Blake Sorensen (Eden Prairie).  While the Gophers have several Wisconsin natives on their roster, those players aren’t as productive as the Badger trio.

The Gophers have verbal commitments for their 2010 recruiting class from three Wisconsin players, according to Rivals.com.  All are rated three star players. https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?SID=880&Year=2010&School=46

For the Gophers to recruit Wisconsin successfully they obviously have to produce better on the field than in the past.  Minnesota hasn’t been to a New Year’s Day bowl game since 1962.  Wisconsin has won three Rose Bowls and been to other New Year’s Day games in the last 20 years including two under Bielema.

A win by the Gophers figures to further improve player confidence.  All but one of the starters was on last year’s team that collapsed after a 7-1 start, losing five straight games.  Among the losses was a 55-0 defeat at home to Iowa.

The Gophers say they are better and more resilient than last year.  A win or loss will test that opinion.  A victory keeps momentum going toward the following week’s game, Homecoming with Purdue.  The Boilermakers look like a lower level conference team and the Gophers could be 3-0 in the Big Ten after the next two Saturdays.

A Wisconsin loss tomorrow might set the Badgers up for three consecutive conference defeats. The Badgers play at Ohio State a week from Saturday, and then come home to face another favorite for the conference championship, Iowa.

And then, too, the Gopher-Badger game is always significant for its storied rivalry and bragging rights.  This is major college football’s most played rivalry with 118 games in the record book.  The two schools have been playing for possession of the Paul Bunyan axe trophy since 1948 and none of the Gophers on the 2009 team has ever won it.

Minnesota hasn’t won a trophy game against Wisconsin, Iowa or Michigan since 2006 when the Gophers beat Iowa. The Badgers have been winning the axe a lot during the last two decades but that doesn’t mean tomorrow’s game doesn’t have plenty of significance for them, too.

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This month will long be remembered for Brett Favre’s first game as a Viking against the Packers, but these are also the days that he nears the “Big Four-Oh!”  Favre’s 40^th birthday is October 10 and it’s remarkable he can still perform at a high level after 18-plus seasons in the NFL.

How long will he play pro football and be outstanding doing it?  At a news conference yesterday the Viking quarterback didn’t address those issues directly but said his season two years ago (at age 38) was “probably” his best.

While talking about last year and then the off-season Favre said:  “If people say I can’t, that really doesn’t matter.  What matters is what I feel.  But believe me I don’t want to go out and not play well.  I would never attempt to play if I didn’t think that I could play at a high-enough level.”

Favre’s arm problems last season with the Jets and then during this off-season are well documented but he’s been impressive in three starts with the 3-0 Vikings as they head into Monday night’s game (circus?) at the Metrodome against his old team, Green Bay.  Favre has a sore right foot but is expected to play.

In last Sunday’s game against the 49ers Favre took a lot of hits, partially because he attempted 46 passes.  “I was pretty sore,” he said.  “Some of it was self-inflicted though.  I still bounce back quickly, not as quickly as I used to. This past week I was hit a little bit more, not to mention there was 80 plays, and not 80 plays with 10 being kneel-downs and killing the clock.  It was a fight to the finish. I’ve never been as beat after a game as I was the other day.  I had nothing left.”

Vikings’ coach Brad Childress knows Favre has been extraordinarily durable, starting 272 consecutive NFL games.  While answering a question about whether Favre can make it through 16 games Childress said:  “He does a good job taking care of his body. He does a great job of studying the game.  When you take care of your body that way you know you got a chance. It is a violent game and you can’t get around that. All you have to do is take a look at the injury report every week.”

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