Peterson touts Ponder’s accuracy

Adrian Peterson gave his seal of approval to the Vikings’ pick of Christian Ponder and talked about other hot topics surrounding the team in a chat Tuesday.

Adrian Peterson was a guest on ESPN’s SportsNation Tuesday and had plenty to say when thrown thorny questions about the topics of the day.

Asked about rookie QB Christian Ponder, Peterson said he is impressed with the youngster, claiming he has all the intangibles to be a star and has a leg up despite the team not being together.

“He’s already had the playbook, he should be ready to go,” Peterson said. “The one thing about his game is he’s very accurate. His accuracy is there.”

The topic of the Vikings-to-Los Angeles rumors came up and Peterson said he hopes L.A. gets a team, but said he doesn’t want it to be the Vikings.

“If you think about it, L.A. stole the Lakers from Minnesota,” Peterson said. “I don’t think the fans are going to let the Vikings get away.”

He was even asked to weigh in on Plaxico Burress. Even though the Vikings are believed to be firmly against bringing the wide receiver into the fold once free agency opens up, Peterson he would welcome the chance to get a weapon (pardon the pun) of Burress’ caliber (again, pardon) on the Vikings.

“I would love him to be a part of my team,” Peterson said. “He’s a guy – before he left the game for two years – he was one of the top receivers in the league. You look at [Eagles quarterback Michael] Vick, when he came out [of federal prison], how explosive he was. I’m sure he [Burress] is going to be on fire and he’ll be ready to contribute to whatever team picks him up.”

With Brett Favre out of the picture, Peterson has re-emerged as the face of the franchise. Don’t be surprised to see him making more appearances as we inch closer to a resolution of the current labor stoppage.

WEDNESDAY NOTES

There is a lot of positive buzz coming out of the secret meetings between the NFL owners and players. One of the signs of the new upbeat view is that the owners are scheduled to meet next week in Chicago in what was once expected to be a half-day type of fly-in, fly-out operation. Instead, owners have been told to prepare to spend more than one day at the meetings – presumably to make sure that all the owners are on board (or a least a strong majority) with a proposal that they are expected to bring for approval. The current buzz is that a deal could be struck in the neighborhood of July 4, which would be a fitting end to a work stoppage that has most of America ticked off at the lack of progress. An agreement around July 4 would allow for four weeks of signing undrafted free agents and letting a veteran free-agent market get picked clean before training camps open in late July (the Vikings will report to camp on July 31 if the lockout ends earlier). After all the gloom and doom of the last few months, a potentially quick resolution to prevent a work stoppage would be welcome news.

While one approaching deadline is being viewed as good news, there may be a deadline of this Friday for the Arden Hills stadium proposal. Some top legislators met to discuss the stadium proposal, which still remains a back-burner issue to the pending state shutdown over a budget stalemate.

Brett Favre is up to his old tricks. It is mid-June and he’s throwing a football. But, for now anyway, it isn’t a precursor to coming back to the NFL. Favre is hosting his inaugural Brett Favre 7-on-7 Passing Camp at Southern Miss. in Hattiesburg, Miss., and told reporters he is done playing.

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John Holler has been writing about the Vikings for more than a decade for Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

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