Opinion: Barack Blunders with Bears Comments

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was probably joking when he made comments about the Vikings, but he likely didn’t garner any extra votes among Vikings faithful with his comments in North Dakota.

Apparently Barack Obama either knows that Minnesota has voted Democrat in every presidential election since World War II or he needs to learn that you don’t bring your football allegiance to the campaign trail.

Obama, appearing Thursday at a brief campaign stop in Fargo, N.D., told the spectators that they should be Bears fans. Obama, a senator from Illinois and longtime Bears fans, was taking a question-and-answer session and the subject of the NFL came up. The typically savvy Obama may have lost a few votes from the face-painting crowd, even if he was joking. He made a case that Vikings fans, like fans of Sen. Clinton, should switch their allegiance.

“You guys need to be re-educated,” Obama said. “Go Bears!”

Perhaps it is the presidential nominee who needs re-education. He has espoused letting go of the past and moving forward with a fresh start and a new direction. The Bears are clearly a team whose best days, at least for now, are in the past, while the Vikings are a team on the rise. Besides, the last time the Vikings won a division title was the last time a Democrat was sitting in the White House, so the time for change is now and Obama should be part of the Vikings bandwagon. His Chicago allegiance only goes so far. Cheer for the Cubs. Vikings fans don’t care about them. But to step on the toes of Minnesota football fans may not be the best P.R. move for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

FOURTH OF JULY NOTES

The league had scheduled a supplemental draft for next week, an annual opportunity for players who were not part of the April draft, but, due to circumstances such as hardship or release from their college teams, are subject to teams submitting draft bids. But the supplemental draft was cancelled Thursday. Why? Nobody applied before the deadline.

In his four years in the league, only Jason Taylor has more sacks than Jared Allen’s 43.

We’ll find out what, if any, ill feelings there are between Allen and the Chiefs July 31 when the Chiefs and Vikings have a shared practice at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

With a lot of non-first-round draft picks being signed, the Vikings have yet to start any meaningful contract talks with top pick Tyrell Johnson. But that shouldn’t be cause for panic. The Vikings typically don’t sign draftees until the final couple of weeks before the start of training camp and, with rookie money essentially slotted after the first round, the contract terms should be pretty simple to meet with Johnson and the other Vikings draft picks.