Rain Forces Practice Inside
Reported by: Joe Nelson
Updated August 7, 2009
Email: booth@kfan.com

Two hours of steady rain this morning forced the Vikings inside the Mankato State University field house for a bevy of boring drills. The offensive and defensive units were refined to basic formations and play-calling. Special Teams play couldn’t do anything other than15-minutes worth of pad-less punt protection drills.

Chris Kluwe and Ryan Longwell were the first to leave the field house. They did so after a solid half-hour of practice. Vikings big-name players were quick to leave as well… they got out after an hour of practice. Included on that list was: Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor, Steve Hutchinson, Bernard Berrian, Jared Allen, and Kevin and Pat Williams. Many more followed as the morning walkthrough didn’t require most of the veterans to stick around. Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice, John Sullivan, and Phil Loadholdt, and nearly all of the younger players were involved throughout the entire 90-minute session.

News and Notes:

Coach Childress didn’t address the media following practice but was again focused on the play of his quarterbacks.

Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels split reps with both the first and second team. Take it for what you will, but T-Jack did step on the rubber (field-house) surface before Rosenfels did today. Again, it means absolutely nothing, but it might provide you with some fodder for your next water cooler conversation.

After Jared Allen and Kevin and Pat Williams left practice, Ray Edwards was lined up with Letroy Guion, Antoine Holmes, and Martail Bennett on the first team defense.

Defensive Coordinator, Leslie Frazier was gone this morning. He is attending the funeral of former Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator, Jim Johnson. Johnson passed away last week after a tough battle with cancer. Frazier is not expected to be in attendance for tonight’s team scrimmage.

If you plan on attending tonight’s 7-9 p.m. scrimmage, keep an eye to the sky. The National Weather Service is predicting a 40-percent chance of thunderstorms developing sometime this evening into tonight – some of the storms could become severe with the possibility of isolated tornadoes. Quite a few fans were turned away this morning because the field-house was at full-capacity. However, hopes are that everything will go as planned.

Players will go through tonight’s scrimmage in full pads… it will be full-contact. These guys are ready to start hitting, so it should be a lot of fun to watch.

DL, Brian Robison and RB, Kahlil Bell were held out of practice with injuries.

We’ll post an NFL Rules update after a few real-life officials give us some of the adjustments to the laws of the NFL later today.

Stay tuned.