I'm in New Orleans, staying in the Warehouse District, an arts-and-industrial area a bit away from the French Quarter.

I spent much of this week traveling back and forth between New Orleans and Kiln, Ms., home of Brett Favre. In today's paper, I wrote about New Orleans, the Saints, and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of local legend Angus Lind, the longtime columnist for the Times-Picayune.

In the Sunday paper, I have a long piece on the characters who populate Kiln - most notably, Bonita Favre, Brett's mother. At one point on Friday, as her friends were erecting a sign honoring Brett, she was juggling two MIller Lites and a Marlboro. Skills run in the family.

The Kiln story will be on 1A, and I'll have a lengthy story in the sports section based on a candid conversation I had with Vikings coach Brad Childress earlier this week.

New Orleans is one of my favorite towns to visit - friendly people, great food, great atmosphere, warm weather. Everywhere I go I hear people saying ``Who dat?'', short for the Saints rallying cry, ``Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?'' I went to dinner at Emeril's on Thursday night, and the entire Saints defense was dining there at a long table, with Darren Sharper at the head.

I'm picking the Vikings on Sunday, but I'm not very confident. I think Percy Harvin's status could be the key factor in the game. Either way, I expect a big game from Adrian Peterson. He's due, he's motivated, and the Saints' defense is not strong against the run.

Of course, all this prediction stuff is just fun nonsense. None of us know how the games will play out. If we did, we wouldn't need to watch.

I think I'm more interested in this game than any game I've ever covered. When I cover the Twins in the playoffs, I really don't expect them to go on and win a World Series. When I've covered the Vikings in the playoffs, I either haven't expected them to win a Super Bowl, or I've found them to be an uninteresting bunch.

This team, with Favre playing his best season and a group of professional people in the lockerroom, is much more fun to watch, and to talk to.

-I still can't believe Tim Brewster would keep the offensive scheme that caused his offense to bottom-out in the Big Ten, even as he hires a coach who has no track record as a coordinator. Jeff Horton? Really? You're going to keep a scheme that failed and hire someone without a track record to fix it?

I have nothing new to add about the morass that is the Gophers' athletic department.

-I plan to have Brad Childress on Sunday Morning Sports talk, 10-noon on KSTP, am-1500. I also plan to have a national guest and a New Orleans writer on to talk about the big weekend. We'll also do picks with Reusse and The Biltz.

-I contributed an essay to the FSN North Hockey Day program. I know the people at FSN have been working like crazy putting the show together.

-Scrimmages at the Gophers basketball practices are simple these days: Active players vs. suspended players, make it-take it.

You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib. I'll post another blog tomorrow from the Superdome.

If the Colts get to play the Jets in the AFC title game, will they rest their starters?

I take back anything nice I ever said about Wade Phillips. He and his staff were outcoached to a ridiculous extent today in the Dome.

Every Viking player I talked to said they knew what the Cowboys were going to do all day. I thought the Cowboys actually dominated the game physically in the first quarter and got nothing out of it.

They missed two field goals. They asked an iffy kicker to try a 48-yard field goal on fourth-and-inches when they were driving almost at will. They went to the Wildcat formation when Tony Romo was picking apart the Vikings' secondary, short-circuiting another drive. They didn't attempt to make any plays down the field. And Romo caved in under the Vikings' pressure, looking like Old Brett Favre on Favre's worst days.

Watching the games on Sunday, if you're a Vikings fan, should make you appreciate Ryan Longwell. He's not just accurate - he inspires confidence. As great as Gary Anderson was, you would feel a lot more confidence in Longwell lining up for a game-winning field goal. (My apologies to the Longwell family for jinxing him.)

As I wrote the other day, Vikings' defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier should land a head coaching job after this. He held the hottest offense in football to three points.

That's 25 touchdowns and two interceptions for Favre in the Dome this season. Yes, I think he's coming back.

I think the Vikings will be able to score on the Saints. What I'm not sure is whether the Vikings' secondary will be able to hold up when the Vikings' pass rush doesn't have the advantage of crowd noise on its side.

I don't know who I'm going to pick yet, but I see a high-scoring game.

I dominated in the KSTP Sunday Morning Sports Talk picks. I think I'm beating Reusse by five games at this point, with three left. Unless, as Reusse suggested, we decide to pick the Senior Bowl. (I'm going to take the Northeast.)

Sorry I don't use Twitter or blog more during Vikings games at the Dome. The wireless never works well enough to do so.

Upcoming: I'll be on with Reusse on am-1500 at 6:40, then WJON in St. Cloud at 7:14. I'll be writing Vikings all week. My Monday column focuses on Favre, of course. The Vikings' defense was probably the story of the game, but Favre is the story of the season. The entire NFL season.

You can follow me on Twitter at Souhanstrib.

Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe grabbed a reporter's mic and told us he likes one Shania Twain song today. Along with 50-cent, Maroon 5 and some of his own compositions.

So I asked the logical question: Shania Twain?

Shiancoe laughed and hit me on the shoulder. I don't know what that means.

Shianc also revealed his game-day breakfast: Egg whites (``It's like pulling teeth to eat that stuff; not very tasty''), oatmeal (``With nothing on it'') and a protein shake (``Best one you've ever tasted.'')

He did not exactly seem tight. He promised to get 10 hours of sleep on Friday, because rest takes two days to register with your body. Or so he tells me.

The guy is a beauty. We spend so much time overanalyzing pro football that it was refreshing to end the week with an interview with a guy this lighthearted.

It was a loose lockerroom all around. Ryan Longwell told me he believes Brett Favre is primed for a big game (his quotes will appear in my Sunday column), and Antoine Winfield said ``These kinds of games are the reason you play the game.''

Let's face it - when the Cowboys come to town for a big game, the game has a different feel. I covered the Cowboys in 1989 before moving to Minneapolis, and even when they were 1-15, they were fascinating. In fact, I think the most fascinating year I've ever had on a beat occured in 1989, when I covered Jimmy Johnson in his first year in the NFL, Jerry Jones in his first year as an owner, Dave Wannstedt as the defensive coordinator, and Troy Aikman as a frustrated young player who did not trust Johnson at that point.

I remember Johnson pulling a few of us aside to explain the Herschel Walker trade, and you could tell how shrewd, cutthroat and driven he was. Jerry was always entertaining. Aikman was driven to be great. I remember one day after the '89 season, I was walking through the Cowboys lockerroom, and they didn't have a great weight room at the time, and Aikman was doing lunges with a huge weight across his back all the way across the lockerroom and back.

He's turned into a fine analyst for the same reason - he does his homework, and he's a sharp guy.

I remember having a conversation with Wannstedt during that 1-15 season, and he made football sound awful simple. I was asking him how he could be confident when his defense was so horrid. He told me something like, ``If you can get off the field on third down, all those stats change. If you can get off the field on third down, it changes field position, time of possession, and if you have a good offense, it can mean a lot more points on the board. You can go from 1-15 to 8-8 very quickly, and then you see how good you are.''

Jimmy's staff won three Super Bowls, even though Barry Switzer got to be the figurehead for one of them.

My picks for the weekend: All home teams. I think the Chargers will win by 10 or more over the Jets. I think what people are forgetting about the Cardinals is that they would have lost that game to the Packers if Aaron Rodgers had thrown his last pass anywhere near a wide-open Greg Jennings. I'm taking the Saints in a close one.

I'm taking Peyton Manning over the Ravens, because I never bet against Peyton Manning. And I'm taking the Vikings, 31-27, over the Cowboys. All of the analysis of the Vikings' weaknesses is right on. I just think we're forgetting that the Cowboys have similar weaknesses (particularly in their secondary) and the Vikings' pass rush will benefit from the noise in the Dome.

I see Favre, Harvin and Jared Allen having big games, with Adrian Peterson making big plays in the passing game and...to go out on a limb...Benny Sapp making a pivotal play at some point.

In an even matchup, I favor the home team, for lack of a better reason.

Upcoming: I'll be at the FSN studios tonight to conduct my weekly debate with Jim Petersen. The show starts at 6:30; I'll be on about 6:35-6:40. You can vote for me by texting 234234 then Souhan.

I'm hosting Sunday Sports Talk, 10-noon on Sunday on am-1500, and I have a few of my Dallas buddies and a national guest or two lined up to talk about the Cowboys and the NFL.

You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib.

Let's get right to it:

-My take on Mark McGwire: If you're going to confess, you might as well go all the way. Yes, you took steroids to improve your performance. Just admit it already. The more honest your confession, the faster the story recedes into history.

I will vote for McGwire as a Hall of Famer for the same reasons I've always stated I would vote for Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez: They are the players who excelled in the context of the era in which they played. To ban them, in my mind, would be the same as banning white players who didn't have to compete against black players, or pitchers who had the advantage of a tall mound and lifeless baseball, or home-run hitters who excelled in smaller parks.

I am not defending them. I am not condoning their actions. I just think public humiliation is its own punishment, and I think they belong in the Hall not as a reward to them but as an example of players who excelled in their era. They are the best of the steroid era.

If you want to keep them out, then I believe you should keep out everyone from this era, because I believe a high percentage of players from this era used steroids or some other performance-enhancing drug. I believe McGwire and his ilk go into the Hall, and their plaques include mention of their steroid use as well as their accomplishments.

I know this is an unpopular stance, but this is what I believe has to happen, unless we're all willing to blackball an entire generation of players.

-Lane Kiffin is getting bashed all over the country. Dislike him if you want, but I believe that if the contract you signed is not binding, then you are entitled to seek the best deal for you and your family.

USC is a better job, at least for Kiffin, than Tennessee. It's a better football program in a better location with less competition and a better recruiting base. He doesn't have to face Urban Meyer and Nick Saban. And the fan base won't threaten bodily harm if he decides to leave.

These are two-way relationships: Coaches get fired all the time, even when they're ethical. So they are entitled to cut the best deal possible, and for Kiffin, USC is a much better deal.

The only part of these stories that bothers me is that recruits are the only people who can't cut their own deal. I believe scholarship athletes should be as free as everyone else in America. They should be able to leave without penalty at any time, just like an employee.

Why should a commitment made by an 18-year-old be binding if commitments made by adults and professionals are not?

-I believe Pete Carroll will win big in Seattle. All he needs is a franchise quarterback. He's in a lousy division that could become even worse if Kurt Warner retires. I think Carroll is smart and adaptable and will be a better NFL coach this time around - and he wasn't bad last time around.

-The farther we get into the week, the more I think the Cowboys are overrated and the Vikings will win on Sunday.

It wasn't that long ago that the Cowboys lost to a Giants team that quit against Carolina at home and didn't show up at the Metrodome. I sense a big game from Favre.

-Upcoming: Working on a historical column for the Friday paper on the Vikings-Cowboys rivalry. I'm writing for Saturday and Sunday, too. I'll be on with Reusse at 6:40 a.m. Thursday and Friday on am-1500, and on WJON at 7:14 a.m. every weekday in St. Cloud. My FSN debate is Friday night in the Timberwolves' pregame show.

You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib.

I'll be posting daily this week. Seems there's a big game in town.