FanHouse Minnesota Vikings

Antoine Winfield played it safe last week sitting out a fourth straight game with his foot injury. He wasn't needed as a nearly perfect Brett Favre led the Vikings to an easy win over the Seahawks.'

Well it's more accurate to say that the Vikings decided for Winfield that he was going to sit that one out, something that Winfield told the Star-Tribune that in hindsight was a wise choice. But with the division rival Bears on the schedule this week, Winfield is ready to promise he'll be back in action this Sunday.

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As the clock struck zero in the Lions-Browns game, there was a pass interference penalty called on Cleveland in the end zone. In the aftermath of the play, Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford laid on the field injured. The officials called an injury timeout for Stafford. Also, Cleveland head coach Eric Mangini took a timeout to seemingly do nothing more than lambast the officials for what appeared a pretty obvious interference call.

"We made a lot of cultural changes. You don't come in with everything already firm. I thought this would be one of those rare chances. I didn't think I would be like (Bill) Parcells or (Dick) Vermeil where I was going to get multiple chances and shots.''

When you're 8-1, you can afford to be picky.

Antoine Winfield is starting to return to practice after missing three games with a foot injury. But since the Vikings right now have a three-game lead in the NFC North, Winfield can head into the weekend knowing that he doesn't have to rush back before he's ready.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The strength and tenderness of Adrian Peterson is always within reach for the Minnesota Vikings. It serves as comfort. It inspires.

Like one of his stop-and-go, juke-and-twirl, stiff-arming runs, Peterson's life has been full of taxing push-and-pull. He rattles off nuggets of the three numbing events of his life -- holding his eight-year-old dying brother in his arms at age seven, coping for eight years beginning at age 12 while his father was in prison, and enduring the murder of his half-brother before the 2007 NFL combine -- with vigor. He treats those troubles as if they were an anointing.

His teammates, coaches and Vikings ownership call this running back, at age 24 and in his third NFL season, an icon, an ambassador. Humble. Ears open. That big smile.

Most Vikings know to expect anything from Adrian Peterson in their quest to be champions. Others expect everything.

I'll admit, I was wrong. During the offseason, I wrote here at FanHouse that the Vikings' pursuit of Brett Favre was foolhardy. Between his age and the poor finish to his 2008 season in New York, it seemed too risky to put the Vikings' season in the hands of a 40-year-old quarterback.

Brad Childress' gamble has paid off big-time. Favre is one of the key reasons that Minnesota is battling New Orleans for home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs, and he is the reason Childress is talking contract extension instead of worrying about his job security.

Obviously, Brett Favre isn't the average 40-year-old quarterback. He's having the best season a 40-year-old QB has ever had in the NFL and it's not even close.

Though most had the Minnesota Vikings as the favorites to win the NFC North heading into the season, nearly everyone agreed that either the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers -- or both -- would at least pose a challenge to the Vikes' second straight division crown. Instead, we're taking this division race off life support and putting it to rest after Week 9. The 2009 NFC North champions will be the Vikings. They can now focus on securing home-field advantage in the playoffs.

The reason for the above sentiment is that both the Bears and Packers were abysmal, in different circumstances, Sunday afternoon. The Pack went into Tampa Bay and lost to the formerly winless Buccaneers, while the Bears were absolutely manhandled for the majority of the afternoon by a fickle Arizona squad.

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell testified before a congressional subcommittee Tuesday, asking U.S. lawmakers for legislative help in the league's ongoing effort to suspend Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams for a positive drug test. But at the end of a three-hour hearing, the chairman of the subcommittee made it clear that Congress has no interest in getting involved in the StarCaps case. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois urged Goodell and players' union head DeMaurice Smith, who also testified, to work out their differences over the case and the league's drug policy through collective bargaining.

"Ask Rodney King for some advice," Rush said in his closing statement. "Can't we all get along?"

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- How can a person that's so fast be so slow? But there was Percy Harvin in the Minnesota Vikings locker room on Sunday night, methodically prepping himself before addressing the media.

Slacks and shoes on. Check. Lotion applied from head to toe. Check. A rubdown of the close-cropped hair atop his head. Check. Repeat. Make sure all in his locker is in order. Check. More lotion applied. Check.

Turn. Breathe. Cameras roll. Recorders shoved his way.

Big smile.

Harvin can light it up without the ball in his hands in a fashion that's nearly as entertaining as he does with it.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It was mesmerizing, tantalizing for the fans, the 71,213 of them who filled Lambeau Field -- the most ever in this 52-year-old building. Maybe that was why, late in the fourth quarter, camera bulbs were flashing high and low as if it were the kickoff. Or why Packers fans were still on edge at that point, even though their team was cooked.

Yes, Brett Favre rolled them twice -- once in his new dome in Minnesota, and now here on Sunday on hallowed football ground. The Packers half expected him to show up and play the game in flip-flops to match his mental trickery. You know, this Packers legend, this turncoat in purple -- he had punched them in the gut before.

And after Minnesota's 38-26 win, after Favre had thrown four touchdown passes to Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers' three, and after the Vikings swept the season series between these long-time rivals, Favre had earned the bragging rights.