Vikings Fans are raising money to help gulf residents

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has attracted a lot of attention from the world, and a lot of people and groups are making their effort to help recover the communities there. Following the New Orleans Saints who visited the communities, the Minnesota Vikings fans are also raising money for the recovery.

According to reports, an online community of Vikings fans is selling members’ precious collection of Vikings products to raise money to help gulf residents recover from the oil spill. The autographed Brett Favre jerseys are most popular among the thousands of items related to Vikings. One such jersey on auction was bought by a long-time fan at a high price of $1,000. Some other jerseys of other Vikings players were bought at different prices. By doing so, the community hopes to raise as much as $50,000 to donate to the gulf recovery groups.

There are also other NFL teams doing what they can do to help these unfortunate residents. Even President Obama made statement on his attitude toward the incident and BP, the company who caused the oil spill. By so far, there has not been confirmative or apologetic claim from UK government and anger of Americans is increasing.

Archie Manning and Brett Favre are fans to each other

When Archie Manning was playing for the New Orleans Saints as a quarterback, Brett Favre was still a young boy living n southern Mississippi. Although Manning never managed to have a winning season, Favre still took the former Mississippi star college player as his favorite quarterback.

With Manning being his idol, Favre also attended the Ole Miss to be a college football player there. Years later, Favre became a professional NFL player and also developed into a star quarterback. Then he was finally recognized by his former idol, Archie Manning, who made public statement that Favre was as great quarterback his own sons, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning. Knowing that Favre was formerly his fan, Manning said it was now his turn to support his alumnus.

While Favre never played for the Saints and always met his favorite team as opponents with each other, he at least has managed to join the Minnesota Vikings and get the number four, the number on Archie Manning jersey when the ex-NFL quarterback was playing his last career season with the Vikings.

Saints wrapped up rookie camp with good impressions on rookies

On Monday afternoon, in a conclusion of the rookie minicamp, the New Orleans Saints coaching staff described the past weekend a “productive” one. Actually it would hardly have been an unproductive one as the camp was filled with 65 men including six rookies, 14 undrafted free agents, five members of last year’s practice squad and 40 try out players.

Among the heavily focused rookies, tight end Jimmy Graham was one of the most impressive guys. He was compared to many other all pros at his position, and the young man seemed to be a bit annoyed with the endless comparison.

"I've enjoyed every minute, it's special to be at Rookie Minicamp with the defending Super Bowl champions," Graham said. "Those are great players, hall of fame players, people that have opened the door and made it easier for me, but I'm just trying to be Jimmy Graham and take it one day at a time."

First-round pick Patrick Robinson expectedly received high praise from coach Payton, who said Robins had excellent ball skills and great speed. In one word, Payton tried to make people believe that their choice was right. As for other less impressive players in Saints jerseys, they are altogether described by Payton as in good shape and ready for opportunities, which are always enough in the Saints no matter where the players are picked.

Saints safety Sharper may leave for higher pay

Leaving the Jacksonville Jaguars without a contract offer, free agent safety Darren Sharper, however, is planning to visit a few teams to see opportunities of signing a better contract than what was offered by the New Orleans Saints, and his next stop is scheduled to be the Dallas Cowboys. No matter which team is on his route, the problem is who would like to sign a safety at Sharper’s age with the money he asked for?

Indeed, Shaper’s performance in last season was above the pay he received from the Saints. At age 34, he still managed to be selected in to Pro Bowl and help the Saints to win the Super Bowl XLIV game against the Indianapolis Colts while he was under a one-year contract worth only $1.7 million. Insisting that he is worth a better contract worth at least $5 million, Sharper was refused by the Saints and was let go to test the free agent market. Actually, if without the contract issued, both sides would like to retain the relationship. But now, Sharper won’t give up before he was refused by all other teams.

The Jaguars and Cowboys both have shown great interests in Sharper as they are really in need of a safety like him. However, they still have to rethink about the contract if Sharper insists the salary level. Besides the age, Sharper is still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery and may not return for offseason workout until June. So there is still a big chance for him to wear back Saints jersey to play in 2010 season.

Saints TE Shockey will return for workouts

Appearing in his No. 88 New Orleans Saints jersey, tight end Jeremy Shockey gave Drew Brees a big hug after the quarterback won a charity softball game on Wednesday at Zephyr Field. Actually he offered more than supports to his quarterback- the tight end made commitment that he would take part in team’s offseason workouts as frequently as he can.

Actually what Shockey promised was that he would do what he did during last offseason, that was spending most of his offseason with the team. What’s interesting, Shockey seems to enjoy working out with the Saints than practicing with the New York Giants in his first six career years with the latter team. While being a Giant, he spent most of his offseason saying in his college town of Miami, but after joining the Saints, he surprised quite a lot of people by working hard with quarterback Brees and other teammates in New Orleans. Well, Shockey explained that he simply like the weather in New Orleans much more than that in New York.

"You know, it's hard working out in New York when it's cold outside and you have to work indoors. It's great weather here, and I have no excuse not to be here," Shockey said. "We work all the time. Today we worked on routes with Drew and everything. So I'm here a lot of the time. And if I'm not here it's for a good reason."

NO Saints keep moving on in post-draft

The New Orleans Saints seem still far from satisfied when the 2010 NFL draft ended on Saturday afternoon, as there are still a few positions in need of help. Therefore, the defending champion team of this season made quick move to the post-draft market and picked as many as 14 more new players from the undrafted free agents.

As we have expected, the Saints feel urgent need of good linebackers and running backs, so the post-draft signing featured the addition of two linebackers, Harry Coleman from LSU and Jason Beauchamp from UNLV, and three running backs, Christian Ducre from Mississippi, Carlos Brown and Chris Ivory from Michigan. The other nine newly signed free agents include Vanderbilt safety Ryan Hamilton, Jackson State cornerback Marcell Young, East Carolina defensive tackle Jay Ross, Stillman defensive end Junior Galette, Texas Tech defensive end Brandon Sharpe, Norfolk State wide receiver Chris Bell, Texas Tech guard Brandon Carter, Indiana guard Joe Tonga and TCU long snapper Clint Gresham.

All these undrafted free agents will put on Saints jerseys next week to join the other rookies who were picked from the draft at a rookie camp. There will also a number of other free agents from last year’s draft or being cut by other teams to participate in the camp with efforts to impress Saints coaches for a possible job with the team.

Saints made first choice in second round with OT Charles Brown

Being this season’s defending Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints are trying to make the best choices with their late draft picks. With the 32nd pick of the first round, they drafted cornerback Patrick Robinson, and then on Friday night, with still the last pick of the second round, they got offensive tackle Charles Brown from USC.

“This was a case of best available player, and the best available player for us on our board by far,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. “There’s nothing wrong with stockpiling offensive linemen—and tackles in particular—and that’s part of our thinking here.”

The Saints have already had as many as four left tackles and they still added a new one because they believe tackles are usually versatile and can be moved to most other positions on offensive line and can still give good performance. Plus, the addition of rookie tackle like Charles Brown gives the Saints more advantages in contract negotiation with restricted free agent Jammal Brown, who threatens not to return for offseason workouts without a new long-team contract.

With height of 6-foot-5 and weight of 303 pounds, Charles Brown started his college football career as a tight end. He later converted to be a tackle and started two of his college seasons. He was first team All-Pac 10 in 2009 and was the 10th offensive tackle taken in the draft. He does have the strength and skills to play for the Super Bowl champions team, but at the beginning of his professional football career, the young rookie still has a lot to learn and needs to get stronger and work more on his technique before being given some playing time in his first season of wearing New Orleans Saints jersey.