Vikings rookie RB Gerhart sets high standard for siblings

Since his birth in 1987, the Minnesota Vikings rookie running back Toby Gerhart has always been a local star, at first for being the first son of two former star athletes but few years later for his own excellence in almost everything.

Gerhart was an excellent student in school, a kind boy with good looks in daily life, a strong contender for the Heisman Trophy during college and a high round draft pick in 2010 NFL draft. And now he is a promising rookie running back with an elite NFL team, the Vikings. With such an outstanding elder brother like Gerhart, the other five kids of the family surely have to bear great pressure with their own respective futures.

Putting on the Minnesota Vikings jersey does not necessarily mean a brilliant NFL career, but for Gerhart, that’s almost for sure as he has never failed to be excellent in any field. As the oldest child of his family, Gerhart always thinks that he should do the right thing to set right example for his brothers and sisters. He was able to attract tens of MLB teams when he was playing baseball and successfully became one of the best running backs after converting to football in college. If a man is determined to be the best and always succeeds in makings, it’s just reasonable to believe that he would make more achievements no matter where he goes.

With the high standards set by Toby, second son of the family, Garth has become the starting center on Arizona State’s football team, his three sisters, Kelsey, Teagan and Whitley all have been softball star players in their respective schools, and the youngest boy Coltin is now an eighth-grader with straight A's and is expected to get starting job as quarterback for Norco High.

Terry Bradshaw should be liked by Packers fans

Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw dislikes Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, and he used to say that he would be glad if Favre really decided to return. Such comments irritated a lot of Vikings fans but also received strong supports from Green Bay Packers fans.

A lot of Packers fans take Favre’s joining the Vikings as betrayal to his former team Packers, and they hated him even more after Favre led the Vikings to beat the Packers twice in 2009 season. However, they may forget that it was the Packers who first traded Favre away to the Jets after a disappointing 2007 season. At that time, Favre was 38 years old and the Packers did not see much remaining value on the quarterback. Indeed, Favre had a terrible season with the Jets in 2008, but he had one of his best seasons after joining Vikings. Bradshaw was disgusted with Favre’s decision changes on retirement, probably because he feared that 40-year-old Favre could break his own legend of winning four Super Bowl rings with the Steelers to be the first 40-year-old champion leader. With Favre being the new legend, Bradshaw could attract even less attention from the public.

The Packers fans hated Favre probably for similar reason. They feared that Favre would prove Packers made wrong decision to trade him away and the Vikings would have been a better team for their beloved player. While Favre really proved that, their fear turned to hatred. Therefore, Packers fans and Bradshaw found supports from each other to their critical attitude toward Favre. With that understanding in mind, we may stay calm if we see Packers fans wearing Bradshaw jerseys to watch Steelers games.

Vikings quarterbacks try not to focus on Favre issues

Following the Minnesota Vikings Wednesday practice, the team’s quarterbacks were surrounded with reporters. While some of the questions were about their own situations, many others were about their starter in 2009 season, Brett Favre. The quarterbacks must have been told what to say about the 40-year-old Favre and they tried to give reporters impression that they are currently only focusing on workouts in preparation for new season.

"I'm just trying to get better and not worrying about who's not out here," quarterback Tarvaris Jackson told reporters. "I've been going through this the last three to four years now. I'm kind of used to this approach, just worrying about myself, trying to get better. That's all I can do."

Other quarterbacks like Sage Rosenfels and rookies Joe Webb and R.J. Archer said even less than Jackson, insisting that they were just there to work out and improve their own performance, no matter who was going to be the leading role in what number of Vikings jersey. However, what they said obviously was not enough to end discussion and speculation on Favre’s decision, as reports came out the next day still focused on Favre and related the Vikings other quarterbacks’ confidence in new season to the possible return of Favre.

Former Vikings DT Randle chose John Teerlinck as HOF presenter

Former Minnesota Vikings legendary defensive tackle John Randle is entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year and will be inducted on Aug. 7 in Canton, Ohio, the one to present him at the ceremonies will be his former defensive linemen coach, John Teerlinck, who is currently working for the Indianapolis Colts.

During the 11 years spent with the Vikings, Randle had two seasons work with Teerlinck, who helped develop Randle into a All-Pro defensive lineman. Remaining undrafted after the 1990 NFL draft, Randle put on Vikings jersey in late that offseason after receiving a contract from the team as undrafted college free agent. He spent his last three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks before retirement. During his career, he was selected to Pro Bowl teams for seven times and was also on the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team.

Teerlinck is indeed a great defensive linemen coach with an experience being an assistant coach for 22 years. He was working for the Vikings from 1992 to 1994 and has been Colts defensive linemen coach for many years. As a former NFL player himself with the Seattle Seahawks, Teerlinck had a more successful career as assistant coach with 31 playoff games, six championships and four Super Bowls.

Vikings rookie RB Gerhart will enjoy his backup role

Putting on the Minnesota Vikings jersey after being picked by the team in the second round of 2010 NFL draft, rookie running back Toby Gerhart has adjusted himself to NFL career with a elite team full with big-name players. With Adrian Peterson being the No.1 running back of the team, Gerhart has a clear definition of his own role.

"Adrian is the guy," Gerhart said. "I'm going to embrace whatever role the Vikings have for me. Competition is always good. I'll push him and make him get better every day in practice, and I'll push myself. Hopefully, I can give him a break during games. Maybe we'll be in the backfield together. We could be a dangerous tandem."

By so far, it has been expected that Gerhart will replace Chester Taylor, who was signed away by the Chicago Bears during free agency, to be the No.2 running back behind Peterson. Compared to Taylor, who had an average of six carries per game in 2009 but 44 catches for 389 yards, Gerhart was originally believed to be able to catch, but he still managed to have 24 catches for 271 yards in his last two college seasons. As also a baseball player, Gerhart himself believes that he can catch the ball much better if he is given opportunities. Well, that is very likely to be proven during the preseason.

Vikings new DE Griffen needs to improve his consistency

The Minnesota Vikings knew well that the inconsistency with former USC defensive end Everson Griffen would secure his availability in the fourth round when the team with the 100th overall pick was to draft an impressive DE. The Vikings figured it right and Griffen finally put on the purple and gold Vikings jersey to be the team’s rookie.

Actually, the 6-3, 273-pound defensive end had been considered to be drafted in the first or second round, however, he stayed on the board until the fourth round and available to the Vikings majorly because of his inconsistency in his college football career. When he was great, he was able to earn a starting job as a freshman and sophomore, but he also sometimes disappeared from our view with unimpressive performance. Then again he returned with amazing statistics in his last college season by having 45 tackles and 8 sacks. He is surely with great talents, and that’s why the Vikings still would like to add him to defensive line.

Griffen’s future with the Vikings seems bright. He will be able to work with and learn from talented veterans like Jared Allen and Ray Edwards as well as 2007 fourth-round pick Brian Robison. There will be good motivation for him to improve consistency and try to get more playing time.

Vikings quit first-round draft by trading 30th pick to Lions

While we are reading news of most NFL teams drafting new players, there is no move made by the Minnesota Vikings. I first got to know that the New Orleans Saints used their 32nd pick to draft cornerback Patrick Robinson, and then was surprised to know that the Detroit Lions had the No. 30th pick to pick running back Ndamukong Suh.

Later reports told us that the Vikings had traded the 30th overall draft pick to the Lions for second-round draft picks. It seemed that they are still waiting for Brett Favre’s decision before they make final decision on what to draft. As the second-round pick is to be held on Friday night, we will not know what the team’s plan is until then.

The first-round pick traded to Lions paid the Vikings back with 34th overall pick and a seventh rounder. The team also traded their 128th overall pick to the Lions for a No. 100 pick. Such moves caused a lot to doubt the Vikings just have no intention to pick quarterback that could fill in the spot if Favre decides not to wear back the No. 4 Vikings jersey. Considering that they have already re-signed with backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, it is unlikely that the team quit the first-round draft because of pending decision on quarterback. Perhaps they just want to make things appear more intriguing so that more people pay attention to them. Who knows!