Culpepper done

Great…brad Johnson will have his best game in a few years this Sunday. Always happens when we play a backup qb.

 

I'm kinda surprised nobody is clammoring "cheap shot" on Gamble, though maybe they are on the Vikings board.

 

Some have but even the Viking players are saying it's clean. Can't make that argument if they are saying they'd do the same thing?

 

If he ain't sliding, he's fair game.

 

Anybody have a link to a Love Boat message board? It might be kinda interesting to see what they have to say over there.

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper's season likely ended Sunday when Carolina cornerback Chris Gamble threw his left shoulder directly into Culpepper's right knee on the final play of the first quarter. The blow caused the knee to buckle, but no one was willing to call the hit dirty or otherwise uncalled for after the Vikings' 38-13 loss.

"Football is a contact sport," Vikings receiver Marcus Robinson said. "The guy came in from the side, yes. He could have hit Daunte up high, but he came down low. That's part of the game. That's part of football. Unfortunately, you hate to see an injury come because of it."

In the Panthers' locker room, Gamble said: "I just hope he's not hurt that bad.

"He just fell and never got back up. I prayed that he wasn't hurt. I thought he'd get back up, but eventually I thought he'd hurt himself real bad."

One Vikings player suggested it would have been unwise for Gamble, listed at 200 pounds, to tackle the 265-pound Culpepper up high. Tight end Jermaine Wiggins noted that Culpepper always pushes for extra yardage and rarely slides, another reason to tackle him low.

"This is a violent game the way we play," Wiggins said. "Daunte's got such a competitive attitude and the way he plays, he plays with such a high motor and he's trying to get every little bit he can to help the team."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/510/5698321.html

also...

Wide receiver Koren Robinson, who lives in Charlotte and had gotten about 40 tickets for family members and friends, sat out the second half after taking a wicked hit from Carolina's Ricky Manning Jr. on a kickoff return late in the second quarter.

Robinson popped up right after taking the hit, but teammates had to assist him off the field. He suffered a mild concussion. Robinson admitted he never saw the hit coming and probably would have avoided the collision if he had.

"I usually get down, and I didn't see that at all," he said.

Manning played briefly in the Twins' minor league system.

"We were hyped on special teams, and I got a nice big hit on the kickoff just before the end of the first half," he said. "I'm the safety guy, and the other guys busted up the middle and I got him from the blind side. I got him by surprise, and I just laid into him."

 

Vikings try to pull together after their leader goes down


[size=-1]BY DON SEEHOLZER[/size]

[size=-1]Pioneer Press[/size]


CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Adam Goldberg knew right away the injury was serious.

Pulling downfield from his right guard spot, Goldberg was one of the closest Vikings to Daunte Culpepper when Carolina Panthers cornerback Chris Gamble threw himself into the quarterback's right knee on the final play of the first quarter Sunday.

"Daunte's the type of guy, he doesn't stay down, literally or metaphorically speaking," Goldberg said. "So when he, rather than just popping up, rolled over and grabbed his knee, that's when I knew. … Being that he's our leader and we all know him and what kind of resolve he has, I'm guessing that most of the guys knew pretty quickly because Number 11 doesn't stay down."

Culpepper had to be helped off the field and missed the rest of the Vikings' 38-13 loss with what the team is calling a sprained right knee, pending the results of today's magnetic resonance imaging test.

The fear in the locker room was that the injury could be far more serious, perhaps even season-ending, but none of Culpepper's teammates took issue with Gamble's hit.

"This is football," Goldberg said. "It's tragic, but unfortunately things like this happen. It's part of the game. There's no malicious intent. You hear those old war stories about these guys that tried to hurt people, but there's a leaguewide respect that says that guy's putting food on the table for his family and so am I.

"We didn't think it was malicious, with intent to injure him."

Wide receiver Marcus Robinson, who had a good view of the tackle, said he saw it the same way.

"Football is a contact sport," he said. "Guys do go low on guys. Unfortunately that happened, but you've still got to go out there and regroup and try to win the game."

Cornerback Antoine Winfield was on the sideline at the time and didn't even see the play, but he said there was no talk of a cheap shot on the Vikings' bench.

"Nah, that's football," Winfield said. "Daunte's a big guy. I would hit him low, too."

To a man, the Vikings said the primary emotion they were feeling was sadness for Culpepper, who was injured at the end of an 18-yard scramble to the Carolina 15-yard line.

"It hurts," Robinson said. "It hurts to see any player go down in a game. To see Daunte, how hard he practices and how hard he works, to see him go down... To see him come in at halftime, and you could see on his face how he wants to be out there fighting with us... It is hard to see that happen to a guy like that."

Added running back Mewelde Moore: "He's definitely a man of steel. He's a tough competitor. He's a guy who, through thick and thin, is always going to support us. It's tough when a guy goes down like that."

The Vikings trailed 7-0 at the time of the injury, and offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie said: "We tried to use it as some kind of momentum, to bring us together, actually. To fight even harder for him because we knew how bad he wanted to be out there."

Instead, the Vikings fell apart, which doesn't bode well for their season, especially if Culpepper isn't a part of it.

"We've got to try to pull together for him," McKinnie said. "Not just for him, but some people just have to pull together for themselves, too."

 

http://www.purplepride.org/vikes/

 

I believe that was the message Minter was trying to send.

 

I hate it for my fantasy team. I just traded for the dumb bastard with the expectation that he would get back on track.