The Vikings want to make a big splash.

Other than over-spend for Visanthe Shiancoe, the Vikings didn't do much of anything in free agency last year. This year, things will be different.

Zygi Wilf’s plane left for Northern California yesterday, where Chicago Bears wide receiver Bernard Berrian is waiting for a flight to Minnesota and hopefully a very large, long-term contract. Cincinnati defensive end Justin Smith has also agreed to visit this weekend along with his Bengals teammate safety Madieu Williams.

Fullback Tony Richardson isn't going to be back with the team, so Eagles fullback and former Gopher running back Thomas Tapeh will be in town sometime this weekend too.

The Vikings need to upgrade a lot of spots, with WR, DE, and S the most urgent of all. But, the quarterback spot is in trouble and they need some help. So far, the names being thrown around are not going to make anyone optimistic. They’ve talked to Houston about Sage Rosenfels -- the Texans would get a 3rd round pick for him, which makes no sense. And Buffalo wants to move J.P. Losman -- the Vikings apparently like him and would also consider sending a mid-round pick to the Bills for him.

There will be lots happening over the next few days. Hopefully Berrian and Smith end up signing with the team soon. As far as the QB spot goes...maybe the Vikings can still figure out a deal for Don McNabb.

I know, I know -- it isn't going to happen. But we can hope!

Somewhere John Madden sighs in relief.

Today was a great day in Cold Omaha. We got some work meetings out of the way, we played with young Maxwell, we got on the treadmill, and we listened to a little KFAN. And while we listened to KFAN on the way to our monthly haircut with the Number 2 clipper… they reported that Bret Favre is all set to retire.

Wait. What?

Turns out that he isn’t retiring – we think. But, there was a pretty convincing web site out there today that said Bret was hanging them up.

Really strange situation -- let’s hope Brett decides to quit. We are guessing this site is a hoax, but we don’t like him here at Cold Omaha and we want him to go away. We know some of you respect him…. Not sure why since he plays for Green Bay but…whatever.

This jersey is of no use to us now.

The Vikings are going to cut ties with all of their free-agents and that means Mewelde Moore is on his way out of Minnesota. The worst part about this is the fact that we are the proud owners of a Mewelde Moore Vikings jersey and now...well...the jersey is pretty much useless.

Some would argue that the jersey wasn't worth much when Moore was on the team, but we beg to differ. Moore was a kick returning genius and could have been used as a great 3rd down and change-of-pace back, but he somehow found his way into the doghouse of the Vikings coaching staff and now he's just another former Vikings running back who never lived up to what he could have been.

This Moore jersey, by the way, is the first football jersey we have owned since the Vikings road Joe Senser jersey back in the 1980's. We have a feeling another Vikings jersey won't be purchased until they find a real quarterback or a tight end who can actually catch 85-100 balls in a season. If Bryant McKinnie is finally put in jail, we might get a jersey of his too, just to say we own one.

The rumor of the day is that the Vikings plan to talk to Cleo Lemon about being their back-up quarterback. The team cut ties with Kelly Holcomb today, which isn't a bad thing -- but why in the world would the Vikings want Cleo Lemon? Ugh...the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thank God the Twins are in spring training.

Also, Dwight Smith signed with the Lions and of course Troy Williamson was traded to the Jags. Mike Tice must feel like he owes him something since he selected him 7th overall. Putz.

Number one for a day.

Hey Bruce Pearl -- How many days do you plan on being number 1 in the country?

Troy Williamson won't be here much longer.

Troy Williamson won't be dropping anymore passes while wearing a Vikings uniform. And while the Vikes will no doubt cut the fast run/no catch receiver if they can't get something for him, it appears that they might actually be able to move him for something resembling a real NFL quality player.

The folks at Pro Football talk are reporting that the Dolphins, Jaguars, Raiders, 49ers, Seahawks, and Titans all could be interested in Williamson, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Wow. If you can get anything for Troy Williamson at this point, I think you make a deal. Any deal.

Mauer proving durability, hasn't been hurt for days.

With Spring Training heating up, the "when will Joe Mauer go down with a knee injury" pool is officially underway at Cold Omaha headquarters.

Formal workouts really haven't begun, so playing catch and shagging fly balls shouldn't put him in harm's way and so far...it hasn't. Mauer has shown some durability this year and the last few days of pain-free participation in drills should quiet the critics for now.

Here's hoping Mauer doesn't miss too much time this year and he threatens the team record for singles to left field.

Vikings defense is so good, they don't need a free safety.

It seems like it happened three years ago, but it was actually less than three months ago when the Vikings went into New Jersey and destroyed the Super Bowl Champs 41-17. Vikings free safety Dwight Smith had two picks that day and brought one of those back for a touchdown. That day was the highlight of Smith's career as a Viking.

The lowlight could have been getting arrested for having sex in a stairwell at a Minneapolis night club. Or getting busted for weed. Or fighting with his coaches.

Either way, the Vikings now have one credible safety on the roster in Darren Sharper. They could use at least one more I would think, particularly since they run a Cover 2 defense and the safety position is sort of important.

Things to think about on a Cold Monday.

I don’t know what they put in Dunkin Donuts coffee but wow…I couldn’t be more addicted at this point.

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This whole fatherhood thing has turned me into such an optimist that last week I actually said the words, "If he’s in shape, I think Livan Hernandez can help the Twins."

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How did video of that pool party at Jose Canseco’s house not end up on youtube yet?

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Slowly making a move to number one fantasy baseball pick on my draft boards: Jimmy Rollins.

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I hope Max’s Mama and I can negotiate our new HDTV purchase in time for March Madness. I can’t wait to see Duke lose in the Sweet 16 in high definition.

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I am guessing that I am probably the only person who spent an hour last weekend trying to find a website where I could download the “Skol Vikings” song to my cell phone.

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You would have thought that I would have at least had a moderate interest in seeing Kevin Garnett’s return to Minnesota, but I didn’t care at all.

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Isn’t that new show, “My dad is better than your dad” a perfect name for the NBA All-Star game MVP voting?

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I will get a blood transfusion from Andy Dick before I take UCLA and Stanford in the same parlay again.

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What do Buddy the Pug and Max’s Mama have in common? You can give Buddy a Greenie Treat and you can give the gal the newest copy of USWeekly and they will both stay quiet and busy for the next half hour.

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So far everything feels right about this Francisco Liriano comeback doesn’t it? Oh wait…he can’t get into the country because of visa issues related to his DUI? Oh…never mind then.

**Really happy the writer’s strike is over – even I’m embarrassed to admit that my week revolves around Big Brother 9, American Idol, and Celebrity Rehab.

Cold Omaha believes McNamee

With so many people calling and emailing us asking where we stand on the Clemens issue, we thought we needed to take a stand. We weren’t going to get into this because its depressing and we think there are a few things our politicians should be paying attention to other than juiced up athletes. But you wanted it, so here it goes.

Someone lied yesterday at the congressional hearings and we don’t think it was Brian McNamee.

Forget all the testimony, the evidence that may or may not be there, and just consider for a moment that Clemens pretty much bottomed-out in Boston back in 1996.

A year later, his career all of a sudden had an enormous resurgence at a time when he was beyond his pitching prime. For the next ten years, people speculated that Clemens might have been using something… steroids, HGH… something to get himself in the best shape of his life and to stay so powerful so far beyond the normal “prime years” for a pitcher.

A few years later, Clemens’ wife and his teammate/good friend Andy Pettitte admit to using HGH, but Clemens wasn’t doing it. Somehow his wife and his friend took HGH during that same time frame that Clemens looked and acted like he was doing it, yet he had no knowledge of his wife or friends use? Clemens didn’t take HGH, but he somehow got all the benefits of taking it -- resurrecting his career, building a hall of fame resume… all the while staying clean?

It’s either a miracle, an unbelievable coincidence, or he’s lying.

We think he’s lying.

The Twins keep spending; sign Livan Hernandez. We want a centerfielder.

The Twins signed Livan Hernandez today and we are actually pretty excited about the pick-up. He is coming relatively cheap ($5 million per year) and when you figure that’s about half of what Carlos Silva will be making next year, that’s a pretty good deal. Livan can eat up innings – no that’s not a fat joke – and he will help some of the young kids learn how to pitch.

We are still trying to figure out if the Twins think they can compete this year. When you look at what they have spent so far this off-season it seems like they could have gotten a pretty good bat or arm for $16+ million:

Hernandez $5M+
Craig Monroe $3.82M
Adam Everett $2.8M
Mike Lamb $2.7M this year
Nick Punto $2.4M

I think they think they can compete by filling holes. If so, the Twins still need a centerfielder. Jason Pridie and Carlos Gomez aren’t going to be ready for 500+ at-bats. Corey Patterson and Kenny Lofton are still out there waiting for a team and we think either of those two guys would fit in pretty nicely at the top of the order. Fitting into the "we can win now" way of things, the Twins are reportedly close to signing closer Joe Nathan to an extension. We will believe it when we see it.

Adrian is the MVP – Max is a physical receiver.

Too bad we didn’t watch more than 10 minutes of the Pro Bowl yesterday. Up until this morning, we didn’t know who won, much less the fact that Adrian Peterson was named the MVP of the game.

The Pro Bowl has officially run out of gas. It’s not a good sign that football fans would rather watch Orange County and Joe Dirt on cable instead of watching the game. Little Max played a more physical game of football yesterday and he was being guarded by Elmo. Sure, the kid is only 2-months-old and he can’t run routes yet. But, he’s already got better hands than Troy Williamson and he was willing to use his body to fend off Elmo’s size. Once this kid gets the hang of holding up his head longer and controlling his limbs, he is going to be a pass-catching machine.

None of those skills were on display yesterday during the Pro Bowl. It would be better to have all of the players compete in an “American Gladiators” contest instead of playing in a meaningless football game. In fact, why hasn’t this happened? It’s a guarantee that within the next 12 months, the American Gladiators people figure out a way to either have a “pro athletes” version or a “celebrity” version of Gladiators. It makes too much sense not to do it.

We are happy for AP and even happier that he didn’t get hurt during the contest. Now we have to figure out a way for Max to start working on throwing the ball back once he “catches” it between his arm and the couch/floor. He will get there.

Not sports related, but not from The Onion either.

That guy likes feet.

Sure, there might be evidence that Roger Clemens did steroids, or at the very least, that Brian McNamee saves some interesting things.

The Gophers beat Northwestern last night; Tim Brewster signed a pretty decent class. But the most interesting news of the last couple days is the fact that the "toe licker" has been sentenced.

Happy Thursday.

Happy Birthday Cold Omaha!

Yep, Cold Omaha is a year old today. It seems like it was just yesterday when we decided to shut down thesplog.com and remake this thing into something other than a post once-per-week site that had no photos, no archiving features, and no real rhyme or reason for anything other than to get some things out of our head.

Happy Birthday to us.

That was fun.

Not to completely cheat on the Vikings or anything, but watching the Giants win the Super Bowl last night was pretty incredible and I don’t remember ever cheering for a non-Minnesota team like that.

Just a few thoughts from last night:

*We need to come up with a name for the play where Eli escaped the sack and Tyree made the incredible catch off his helmet. That catch will symbolize the start of the end of the Patriots Dynasty

*What was in those bananas the Giants were eating during the game? Something worked.

*Why would you switch to a red sweatshirt if that gray sweatshirt worked all year and it got you to 18-0?

*I can’t wait to hear how Tiki Barber feels about this win.

*Tom Brady is still better than you. Just ask him.

*Not to state the obvious too much here, but the Vikings would have never won a game like that.

*I didn't want Randy Moss to win a Super Bowl.

*Now we have about three weeks of sports abyss and then we can focus on baseball. Well…some of us can try to figure out parlays and teasers for NCAA basketball, but gambling ruins families so do it for entertainment purposes only.

Cris Carter isn't a first ballot Hall of Famer

Cris Carter finished his 15-year career second on the career list in receptions and TD catches. That wasn't good enough to get elected into the pro football hall of fame on his first try.

Just like his career (Carter never played in a Super Bowl) Carter has to wait until next year for his chance at football immortality. We would have voted for him if we had the chance.

The guys who did make it in included the Washington Redskins Art Monk and Darrell Green, New England linebacker Andre Tippett, San Diego/San Francisco defensive end Fred Dean, Minnesota/Denver tackle Gary Zimmerman and senior committee choice, Kansas City cornerback Emmitt Thomas.

Zimmerman was with the Vikings from 1986 to 1992 and won the Super Bowl in 1997 with Denver. He will go in as a Bronco, so we don't really care about him anymore.

400 wins is a decent milestone

We don’t know what to think about this Minnesota Golden Gopher hoops team. They won last night at Michigan and while we do get the Big Ten Network at Cold Omaha headquarters, we had a really tough time watching the Gophers play at Crisler Arena.

Tubby reached career win number 400 last night as the Gophers went on the road and did something that most Minnesota teams haven’t done over the last 4-5 years – beat Michigan in a road game. Still, we can’t figure out if they are going to make a run in the NIT tournament at the end of the year or be on the bubble for an NCAA bid.

Congrats to Tubby – we hope you are here to get yourself number 500 sometime in 2013.