Minnesota Vikings

In another step toward a dystopian future, Ramsey County wants to sell parking lot naming rights.

​First we had the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Then, in order to capitalize on revenue from naming rights, we had Mall of America Field at the Metrodome.

Soon, if Ramsey County officials have their way, we'll have the honor of ditching our cars in the Best Buy Parking Lot at Ameriprise Stadium in Arden Hills.

Sounds like a plot line from Idiocracy, doesn't it?

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Cris Carter is a top-five all-time receiver. There are more than 20 receivers in the Hall. Therefore, CC is getting snubbed.

​On Saturday, football media selected six players as the 2012 inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Conspicuously absent from the list, as he has been for the past five years, was Cris Carter, unarguably the greatest receiver in Vikings history and possibly the second best receiver in NFL history behind Jerry Rice.

Considering that there are more than 20 receivers in the Hall, including relatively unheralded players like former Buffalo Bills WR James Lofton, it makes absolutely no sense for CC to be on the outside looking in.

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It now appears there will be no Los Angeles NFL team until 2013 at the earliest.

​We've been hearing for months about how the Vikings' expiring Metrodome lease means it's urgent for lawmakers to get a stadium deal done early this legislative session.

Los Angeles is ready and willing, so goes this logic, to have the team play in the Rose Bowl for a couple years while a new stadium is constructed in the country's second largest media market. Without a new Minneapolis or Arden Hills stadium in place, nothing would stop our beloved-but-cursed NFL team from bolting to sunny SoCal in time for the 2012 season.

But now, the NFL itself has gone on the record saying it's "quite unlikely" Los Angeles can be ready to host a team by the time next season rolls around. It appears there will be no LA Vikings in 2012 regardless of what happens in the Minnesota legislature this session.

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Tomorrow's meeting between Zygi and Dayton could make clear whether the Vikes are serious about an LA relocation in time for next season.

​The train wreck that is the Vikings stadium drive went a little more off the rails Monday afternoon.

Governor Dayton told Zygi Wilf that the only workable site this session for a new stadium is the Metrodome, which happens to be the site least favored by Vikings ownership.

With the team's Metrodome lease expiring in just over a week and Vikings ownership "extremely frustrated with the situation" following yesterday's developments, we may soon have the opportunity to see if the team has indeed been bluffing about a rumored Los Angeles relocation.

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We now know how Minneapolis plans to help pay for something like this.

​As far as the Vikings stadium controversy is concerned, the time for talk is nearing an end.

Today, Minneapolis and Ramsey County -- the two leading contenders to serve as the site of a new public-private NFL stadium -- submitted their final stadium funding proposals, less than two weeks before the start of this year's legislative session.

Which proposal has the inside track?

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Minnesota Vikings

Zygi Wilf stays up late dreaming about building something like this in suburbia, but he never had Shakopee in mind.

​Maybe the the mayor of Shakopee simply misread his calendar by a year.

That's because today -- one day before the Governor Dayton-imposed deadline for final stadium proposals -- Shakopee Mayor Brad Tabke plans to hold a news conference at the State Capitol to announce the suburb is "going after the Vikings."

What does it mean? With little time on the clock, the Vikings stadium drive has a long way to go before reaching the end zone.

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Minneapolis leaders are mounting a last-minute drive to keep the Vikings in town.

​Governor Dayton wants Minneapolis and Ramsey County to deploy hurry-up offenses in hopes of bringing closure to the Vikings' stadium drive.

Today, he sent the Ramsey County board and Mayor R.T. Rybak letters setting a January 12 deadline for final stadium proposals, a deadline that Minneapolis city leaders said they intend to meet.

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Recent developments make it more likely the Arden Hills stadium won't advance beyond renderings.

​After months of insisting that Arden Hills is the team's preferred site for a new Vikings stadium, it appears ownership is warming to the idea of staying in downtown Minneapolis.

During meetings with state political leaders yesterday, owner Zygi Wilf reportedly displayed maps showing how a new stadium would fit at a site near the Basilica of St. Mary or at the so-called Farmers Market site near Target Field.

Wilf's decision to flash those maps comes less than a month after Lester Bagley, Vikings vice president and spokesman for the team's stadium drive, told reporters that "Arden Hills remains our preferred site." Apparently over the holidays the team's political calculus changed.

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​Following a disastrous 3-13 season that prompted calls for a power shake-up, Rick Spielman is now the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings.

The move essentially represents a promotion of Spielman from Vice President of Player Personnel -- a position he has held since May 2006 -- to the undisputed top personnel management spot in the organization.

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Brett Favre takes a dive for his buddy, Michael Strahan.

​Jared Allen finished just short of beating Michael Strahen's single season sack record this weekend, and ties the real record for sacks unassisted by quarterbacks.

If Vikings fans are looking for another reason to hate Brett Favre, consider this: He took a dive for his friend Michael Strahan in order to give him the sack record that eluded Jared Allen's grasp. With the phantom sack, Strahan reached 22.5 sacks, beating the record of 22 set in 1984 by Mike Gastineau with the New York Jets.

This year, Jared Allen had 22 sacks, setting a Vikings team record but falling 1/2 sack short of Strahan's bogus record.
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