Are you ready for some football! Yes – the excitement is back and there has been so much activity that’s it’s tough to stay on top of it all. In fact by the time you read this – more news will have happened. Here’s a quick list of some of the changes and progress the team has made:
Added Players: Donavan McNabb Remi Ayodele Michael Jenkins
Released or Traded Players: Sidney Rice Ray Edwards Madieu Williams Tarvaris Jackson Jimmy Kennedy
Adding Donavan takes very little thought – he’s the veteran that buy’s us time to get Christian Ponder and Joe Webb up to speed with the NFL style of game (with regards to Christian) and the new offensive system (with regards to Joe). We all know Donavan and what he brings. Remi looks like the long term replacement for big Pat Williams in the middle of the D-Line and a legitimate starter during an anticipated Starcap suspension of the Williams Wall. (I haven’t heard if Pat is coming back to football this year – I believe he wants another year and the Vikes wouldn’t mind having him.) Make no doubt about it – Remi is the real deal, this was a great pick-up for our team. Michael Jenkins adds the big receiver to our team – a real must in the Red Zone.
The loss of Sidney Rice (and more likely – the possible loss of Sidney which turned out to be true) is what got the team looking at Michael Jenkins. Michael brings one really valuable asset along with his size – he knows offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s offense, he’s ahead of everyone else on the team in that regard at the moment. I personally liked Sidney and think he can be a great wide receiver in this league – I hope the best for him (I also hope he doesn’t get any more injuries). (I also think the Vikings are twice the team the Seahawks are – I’m not sure this was the best stop for him at this time.) The loss of Ray Edwards has to balance against the retention of Brian Robison. Brian should be a starter in this league and the Vikings had to find a way to get him on the field. The reduction of the salary cap to 120 million (this is lower than the last salary cap year) made decisions harder on retaining all the great players this year.
We’ve signed Kyle Rudolph and a couple of others – expect Christian to sign today.
Club News:
The Chargers game: We still have available seating on the bus to the game – please contact me if you want to leave the driving to us. Everyone signing up will get confirmation information prior to the game. The cost is $30.00 a seat. The pick-up and drop off location will be at the shopping center where Lamppost Pizza is located in Irvine (Culver and Walnut / Culver and the 5 Freeway). Look for the bus closer to Lamppost’s end of the parking lot. The meeting time is 7:30 am with a scheduled departure of 8:00 am (let the tailgating begin). Rudolph and a couple of others – expect Christian to sign today.
With football being back in business and training camp on in Mankato – we have everything set for this year’s visit. We’ll be at training camp Tuesday and Wednesday (August 9th and 10th). These days have full pads practices in the morning and light practices (walk-thru) in the afternoon. (Part of the new agreement – this is the most full pads workouts permitted in one day.) I expect the morning practices to be fantastic, fast paced and a lot happening all at once. This will be the last few days of camp and we should be able to see how far along the team is with the new offensive system. I’m also very interested in watching Coach Singletary with the linebackers and defense; talk about a high-energy person, this will be fun.
The dinner is set with the possible addition of a late confirming guest. As of today we have Stu Voigt, Bill Brown, Dave Osborn, Mick Tingelhoff, Leo Lewis, Walker Lee Ashley and Rickey Young attending as our guests. This is happening on Saturday August 6th at Poor Richard’s Commonhouse (formerly Major’s Sports Café). The location is in Bloomington and if anyone wants to attend either of these events you have to decide now – I travel on Friday to Minnesota.
I’m in the final stages of securing a new club location for the upcoming season – more information will follow as I get everything finalized.
The above logo represents a new addition to the newsletter I will be implementing this season. As a club we are supporting getting Mick Tingelhoff (53) and Jim Marshall (70) into the Hall of Fame. I will either be making a separate letter or a sub-section of this newsletter or both and sending it to all the Hall of Fame voters we have email addresses for; approximately 85% of them. Our plan is to get in-front of the voters 6 to 10 times this year explaining our position on why these two gentlemen deserve being inducted into the hall of fame. As a club we are trying to “Catch a Wave of Support” in our quest. Expect to hear more on this topic as we get into the season.
Skol, Wm. R. Martin President
Southern California Viking Club
2011 - Our 25th Anniversary • SCVC.com
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