Give me a wink if you heard this before. The Vikings are an okay team but will try for a Super Bowl push by adding a high profile gray beard quarterback.

We’ve devoted this spring and summer waiting for confirmation on Brett Favre’s future with the Vikings. This franchise used a similar strategy in the 1990s.  Not once but twice.

It seems all but certain that Favre, 39, who won a Super Bowl quarterbacking the Packers, will soon be in training camp with the Vikings trying to win another world championship.  If Favre and the Vikings even reach the Super Bowl the team will have accomplished more than when Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham were quarterbacking in purple.

Moon was 37 when he arrived here to play for coach Dennis Green in 1994.  The Vikings had been 9-7 the year before and lost in the first round of the playoffs.  With Moon, the team went 10-6 and made the playoffs again. The Vikings qualified in 1996, too, Moon’s last season here but both years the team was one and done, losing wild card games.

Moon, who is in Canadian and American pro football halls of fame, was a well traveled player when he reached Minneapolis having played for two other pro teams in North America dating back to 1978.  His skills were still effective, though, and he made the Pro Bowl in 1994 and 1995.

While Moon’s teammates weren’t good enough to qualify for the Super Bowl, Cunningham’s were.  At least in 1998 when the 15-1 Vikings produced the best record in franchise history and lost in the painful to this day NFC title game to Atlanta, 30-27.

Surrounded by some of the best offensive players in the league, Cunningham, 34, had come out of retirement to join the Vikings the year before.  He was brilliant during the 1998 season, throwing 34 touchdown passes and being named All-Pro.  He and players like wide receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss, and running back Robert Smith, helped the Vikings go from a 9-7 playoff team to one that could have been Super Bowl champions.

The next year, though, Cunningham was throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and was replaced by another veteran whom the Vikings had acquired, Jeff George, then 31 years old.  The team finished 10-6 and lost in the second round of the playoffs.  For Cunningham, who some believe should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it was his last year with the Vikings.

What will happen with Favre?  The Moon and Cunningham experiments show it’s dicey to expect much in high performance and longevity from an older quarterback, even a great one.  Favre is older than either Moon and Cunningham were when they came to town but he’s been the better player, too, statistically one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Favre’s football I.Q. and gun slinging (if healthy) arm are a welcome addition to a team that has some issues (see other quarterbacks and parts of the offensive line) but also boasts the NFL’s best running back in Adrian Peterson and a top defense led by linemen Jared Allen and Kevin Williams.  Will it be enough to make the Super Bowl?  All Favre has to do is lift his team to overachievement, beat “Father Time” and overcome the will of 31 other teams in the National Football League.  Oh, and also go beyond the performances of the Moon and Cunningham teams.

Comments Welcome

The Vikings open their training camp practice schedule on Friday, July 31 and fan information is available at www.vikings.com.

It’s likely that Favre has talked with Vikings’ kicker Ryan Longwell about the personnel here and the city.  The two are good friends from Packers days.  Favre enjoys golf, and rumors that he will live in Eden Prairie’s Bearpath make sense.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Tiger Woods rents a home in Bearpath when he’s here for the 91^st PGA Championship next month at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Stub & Herb’s will have a beer garden that can accommodate over 800 patrons on Gophers football Saturdays. The well-known campus bar and restaurant is hoping to  have the beer garden open for all seven home games, plus the Saturday, August 22 scrimmage at TCF Bank Stadium open to season ticket holders only.

Glen Mason, the former Gophers football coach, will be on the Big Ten Network again this fall providing color commentary on games.  This year he will also be appearing on a Thursday night Big Ten Network show with Gerry DiNardo.

Five MIAC players from the conference have been named The Sporting News or Lindy’s preseason All-Americans.  St. Thomas senior center Josh Ostrue is recognized by both publications. Saint John’s senior defensive lineman Nick Gunderson made The Sporting News selections.  Gustavus senior safety Joe Welch, Carleton junior offensive tackle Brad Eckelmann and Saint John’s senior linebacker Ryan Wimmer were honored by Lindy’s.

Bill Fitch, the former Gophers basketball coach is 77, and his mother is 98.  Until a few years ago she still hid Easter eggs for him to find.  “He loved it,” John Bell Wilson said.  The former Gophers basketball manager remains a close friend of Fitch.

While Portland’s Monty Williams is only 37, and an obscure assistant coach, he’s known as a teacher.  The Wolves, who will be counting on young players who need instruction, reportedly have interest in Williams as their next coach.

Comments Welcome

Former Gopher Travis Busch will be eligible next season to play for Colorado State. He won’t have to sit out a season because of an NCAA rule allowing players who have an undergraduate degree to play for their new school if enrolled in grad school. After the first semester Busch is expected to request an extra season of eligibility at Colorado State because as a freshman at Cal Poly he broke his foot in the fourth game of the season.  Otherwise, 2009-10 will be the former Mounds View High player’s final season of college basketball.

Busch said the Gophers, who made the NCAA tournament last year, will need to be mentally ready in the Big Ten Conference race, a league that could be among the best in college basketball.  “Other teams can break your spirit,” he said. “If you don’t bring it every night, you’re going to get your butt handed to you.”

Busch also said former teammate Jamal Abu Shamala is playing in Europe with the Jordanian national team.

Wheelock Whitney, a longtime civic leader and admired businessman, is friends with Brock Lesnar who defended his UFC championship on Saturday in Las Vegas. Whitney, 83, and Lesnar, 32, became friends as neighbors in suburban Minneapolis.

Nick Blackburn, 8-4 with a 3.06 ERA in his second full season with the Twins, has become the ace of the starting staff.  He is now 5-0 in eight home starts this season. His ERA is 2.19 since May 21.

Twins third baseman Joe Crede has hit four of his 14 home runs against his former team, the White Sox.

Comments Welcome