Griffith Retires in Purple

Former Vikings safety Robert Griffith signed a one-day contract this week to retire as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

The art of the one-day contract is something that has made its rounds through the world of sports. After spending a short time with the Vikings, running back Roger Craig signed a one-day deal so he could retire as a San Francisco 49er – the team with which Craig will always be remembered. Emmitt Smith did it too. So did Jerry Rice.

You can add Robert Griffith to that list. Griffith played 13 years in the NFL – eight with the Vikings, three with Cleveland and two with Arizona. He was out of football in 2007 and it was apparent he wasn’t going to come back in 2008, so he asked the Vikings if he could end his career where it all began. The team obliged and signed him to a one-day contract that he served on Thursday, and he retired from the NFL as a member of the Vikings.

Saying he wanted to have a career that “ended where it started,” Griffith signed the one-day deal and made his retirement official. As a key member of the teams that came within a win of the reaching the Super Bowl in both 1998 and 2000 seasons, many Vikings fans have always remembered Griffith as a Viking, despite playing his final five seasons with the Browns and Cardinals. Thursday just made it official that Griffith is now and always will be a Viking.

FRIDAY NOTES

In a sign of the times, the New York Giants are selling seat license fees for fans who want to keep season tickets when the team moves out of the Meadowlands. The license fees range from $1,000 to $20,000 per seat and, if the Vikings are to get a stadium deal done, a similar promise might have to be made – not to line Zygi Wilf’s pocket, but to help pay for a new stadium.

Although he has bounced around the last few seasons, former Viking Toniu Fonoti is the frontrunner to win the starting right guard job with the Panthers.

Former Viking Jeff George is still active in the community. His foundation is hosting an event in Indianapolis to raise money for breast cancer research.

Can it only be a matter of time before Adrian Peterson becomes the highest paid endorser behind guys like Peyton Manning? The new hot property is Tony Romo of the Cowboys, who is expected to sign a $10 million deal with Starter to promote shoes and apparel. That doubles the deal signed two years ago by Reggie Bush – five years, $5 million with Adidas. How far behind can A.D. be?

Daunte Culpepper is in the news after setting a Guinness Book of World Records mark with 14,500 points in the Two-Minute Drill mini-game of Madden NFL ’02 – the edition of the video game that has Pepp on the cover. Hopefully for him, his next passes will involve a football instead of a thumb on a plastic button.