Vikings Blitz

Last Sunday, Andrew and I attended the First Annual Vikings Blitz Charity Dinner along with my cousin Cindy and her husband Shawn. Our 7th anniversary was August 18th and their 8th anniversary was on August 26th so we decided to make it an anniversary outing. In fact, Cindy didn't even tell Shawn where he was going for several days. Just told him that he had to get dressed up and that they were going out for their anniversary. And then they showed up at our house. He was very perplexed and had no idea what was going on. So then we showed him the tickets for the dinner and he got VERY excited!

We all headed over to Wildfire Steakhouse by Eden Prairie mall and were greeted by Vikings cheerleaders and the mascot at the door. We weren't quite sure what to expect in terms of seating, if we would have to sit with other people or what. But we ended up at a table all to ourselves, which was great! We also had a great view of the whole restaurant and could see what was going on in other areas as well. Cindy and Shawn have been Vikings season ticket holders for 11 years so they were just so excited to be there. Many of the players and the head coach Brad Childress were split into 3 groups and each had a section of the restaurant. We thought at first that we would be with the same group all night. But there were several courses to the meal and the player groups switched between each course so we were able to meet them ALL! They sold footballs when we walked into the restaurant, and the players all carried pens with them. You could have them all autograph your ball. It was great fun to talk to all of them.

When they introduced the players, the emcee told us we should ask them for anything and really make them work hard. They mostly poured wine for people. But I had Darren Sharper get me a new knife because mine was not so clean. It was awesome putting them to work! ;-) Andrew and I really enjoyed ourselves, but we agreed that it was even more fun to go with Cindy and Shawn. They were so into it all and so excited about everything. It was so great to watch them enjoy themselves so much!

Here are a few pictures to tide you over. I am getting a CD of the photos from Cindy and will upload them to an album when I get it.

I made them take a picture in front of the house "school dance" style
because it is very rare that Andrew and I ever get dressed up for anything. :-)


Us with Adrian Peterson

Darren Sharper with my yucky knife.

Bobby Wade bringing us beers.

Us with Tarvaris Jackson and an anchor from Channel 5 news (no idea what her name is). This was the photo that originally appeared on the Vikings Blitz news article found here. But our photo was removed after a few hours. I have a feeling its because Jackson was holding the bottles of wine. The event was for the Vikings Children's Fund. I'm sure they didn't want it to seem like Jackson was promoting drinking at a children's charity event.

Shawn in a Willams sandwich. Pat Williams and Kevin Williams are defensive players for the Vikings and they are huge guys! Look how little Shawn is between them. Isn't he cute?

Shawn with Brad Childress the head coach.

I believe Shawn was the only person all night to offer up some offensive advice to Childress. Childress followed up Shawn's advice with this story. He said, "I haven't had to tell this story yet tonight. But I'll tell it now. I was out shopping one time and I had a guy come up and tell me what he thought I should do with the team. And I asked him what he did for a living. He said, I'm an undertaker. I said to him, Well sir, would I tell you how to embalm someone, or try to sell you a casket?...." Anyway, he said it all in good fun and we all laughed. I'm sure he hears stuff from people all the time. Shawn is totally going to take credit though if the Vikings first play is ever "Go deep!" Shawn told Childress,"Just go deep, that works every time when I play Madden." :-)

The way the event worked is that the tickets cost so much money. The money from the footballs they sold for autographs went to the charity and then you could tip the players all night. They also had an auction at the end. All in all they raised $43,000 for the Vikings Children's Fund. So it was a pretty successful event. Our friend C.J. used to be the Knox men's golf coach and he is now interning at the Vikings. He was there and we chatted with him for a few minutes. I'll get Cindy to email the photo of him and Andrew.

Other than that, I think that's it!