The Vikings trailed the Chicago Bears on the scoreboard Sunday, in the standings this morning and for the foreseeable future in their respective quarterback projects.

Today's exercise for you loyal Minnesota Vikings fans is a fill-in-the-blanks. I pulled this passage off a website critical of a head coach. You pencil in the names where appropriate. Eyes on your own paper, please:

As silly Sid Hartman items go, today's was a doozy. And, privately, University of Minnesota officials and Vikings executives are shaking their heads and mumbling about the origins of Hartman's notion today that the NFL team can — maybe even will — move permanently into an expanded TCF Bank Stadium on campus rather than a new made-for-the-Vikes facility in downtown Minneapolis.

Now that everyone has had a couple weeks to get over how the Twins' season ended, it seems like a good time to examine who the most valuable (and least valuable) players on the team were this year. There are certainly lots of different ways to approach such a task, but my preferred method is to use several different player-evaluation metrics and attempt to synthesize the information from them to form what should be one well-rounded opinion.

Hopping on Vikings bandwagon can help drive economy, profs say — that is, if they win

REUTERS/Eric MillerHappy Vikings fans

There was time, Chris Kluwe admitted, during the frantic sideline maneuvers of a typical NFL game for a brief, warm and fuzzy moment Sunday afternoon between the coach known as "Chilly" and the Vikings punter who has been treated that way by his boss, Brad Childress.

NORTHFIELD – The orange, yellow and burgundy colors of autumn leaves around the Carleton College campus dazzle a lot more than the prized object in head football coach Kurt Ramler's office.

Losing 1-0 on the road in a one-game playoff is an awfully tough way for things to end and leaves me sort of shell-shocked when it comes to looking back at the Twins' season. For the most part, fans seem to fall into two categories regarding the Twins this year, either viewing their 88-win, second-place finish as gravy because of low expectations or seeing their late-season collapse as a disappointing failure to take advantage of an unexpectedly weak division. For me, their season falls somewhere in between.

Two flawed teams played a nearly perfect game Tuesday night. The Chicago White Sox were still celebrating their 1-0 victory over the Twins when I ducked out of their clubhouse — miraculously, without getting collaterally doused with champagne — and headed for an interview room where various White Sox were supposed to speak.

Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson and all those other former Boston Celtics saw what their old team did, in large part by getting rid of them. Boston swapped them out en masse last summer for Kevin Garnett — in bubble-gum card terms, trading a bunch of Gus Zernials and Bob Buhls for one Mickey Mantle — then parlayed Garnett and several other shrewd roster moves into an NBA championship 10 months later.

The topic was simple enough: Which architect and which construction company would be crowned by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission — with an A-OK from the Vikings — to begin to plan a new pro football stadium, price-tag unknown?

Lack of power and shoddy bullpen work have been two of the Twins' weaknesses. They rank dead last among AL teams in homers, and since Pat Neshek suffered a season-ending arm injury the non-Joe Nathan members of the bullpen have combined for a 4.54 ERA. So naturally in the season's biggest series they hit three homers Tuesday night and got four shutout innings of relief last night. Baseball can be a funny game, but with the Twins now a half-game back in the AL Central, you knew that already.

They're still talking, anyway. So far at least, Ron Salcer, Marian Gaborik's agent, hasn't told Minnesota Wild general manager Doug Risebrough or Risebrough's associates to take a hike as he tries to negotiate a long-term deal for his client.

Giving new meaning to "battleground" states, Saturday's football game between the University of Minnesota and Ohio State on the Big Ten Network will also be a scrum between John McCain and Barack Obama.

There's a reason why Gus Frerotte, the 37-year-old quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, can't keep a starting job in the NFL. He lacks the big-time arm, the consistency and the end-of-the-game panache that separates the serviceable, like him, from the great, like Peyton Manning, who dismantled the Vikings' defense in the final minutes last week.

The X is back. Back in shape, that is, for hockey and other events after a temporary assignment as home to the Republican National Convention. Built as the home of the Minnesota Wild NHL team eight years ago, the Xcel Energy Center and accompanying RiverCentre complex, the X also has proved an excellent venue for concerts and other big events.

Al Jefferson missed the Timberwolves' ceremonial tipoff Thursday with what apparently is a ceremonial knee sprain. Or so it is hoped. Jefferson, the Wolves' forward/center and lone prime-time, popcorn, All-Star worthy player, went down in a heap Tuesday on the team's practice court at Target Center. He was grabbing at his right knee, which took the brunt of a collision with a teammate in an informal scrimmage.

I'm not sure what's left to say at this point. Being swept by the Indians leaves the Twins at 8-16 since moving into first place on Aug. 22. Despite the White Sox trying their best to gift-wrap the division by going 11-13 during that same stretch, the Twins are now 2.5 games back in the AL Central with just 10 games remaining. And beginning tonight, the first four of those games come against the playoff-bound Rays, in Tampa Bay.

When a new stadium comes on line, people tend to complain about prices. And as the economy continues to dip into the dirt like a wild pitch, discretionary income becomes oh-so-unavailable.

A major decision by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission on the future of a new Vikings stadium was delayed this morning until next week.

She's now a household phrase, but what is a hockey mom?