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Total Rushing Yards in 2010 Regular Season: 0

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Thursday, October 1, 2009
Week 4 NFL picks: Longtime Vikes' fan gets a shot
Youngman column: 'Favre Week' draws a lot of attention, especially from the So-Called Expert.
By RANDY YOUNGMAN
The Orange County Register
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This is the week Brett Favre has been looking forward to for two years, the reason he came out of retirement twice andndash; to lead the Minnesota Vikings against the Green Bay Packers, his former team, on Monday night at the Minneapolis Metrodome.

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That's why this week's guest prognosticator had to be a rabid Vikings fan.

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Randy Wold of Cypress, also known as the andquot;Minnesota Maniac,andquot; more than fits that description. He was born in Moorhead, Minn. (andquot;It's right across the river from Fargo, N.D.,andquot; he said) and moved with his family to Anaheim in 1958.

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But Wold, 58, has never stopped rooting for his beloved Vikings, his allegiance not even wavering during the four Super Bowl losses or the heavily favored Vikings' crushing overtime loss to Atlanta in the 1999 NFC title game that kept his team out of the Super Bowl.

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He's a longtime member of the Southern California Viking Club (see scvc.com), which convenes at Northwood Pizza in Irvine to watch all Vikings games. And it's obvious he bleeds purple. He also likes to reminisce about the time he picked up former Vikings coach Bud Grant at the airport and about playing in a charity golf tournament with former Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer.

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andquot;Everybody in our family is a big Viking fan,andquot; Wold said, saying he and wife Janice have four children and nine grandchildren, all of whom have been properly trained to root for the Vikings.

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Randy and his brothers have owned and operated an auto repair business in Cypress for nearly four decades, though he had to sell his share when he was afflicted with debilitating fibromyalgia in 2001.

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The Wold brothers also have a drag-racing team called andquot;Purple Reign Racing (see purplereignracing.net) andndash; it was named in honor of the Vikings defense, of courseandndash; and all of their race cars are purple. At one time, Randy even wore a Vikings helmet while racing his prized 1979 Camaro Z-28.

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As you can imagine, Wold is still basking in the glow of Favre's last-second touchdown pass to beat the 49ers last week, which kept the Vikings undefeated.

andquot;It was amazing!andquot; he said. andquot;I've seen him do that to the Vikings so many times.andquot;

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And now he's hoping Favre can do the same thing to the Packers.

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Click on MORE PHOTOS on the webpage (link below) to see my picks, noting the three games on which Wold and I disagree:

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