The Vikings will play the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 9 in a rematch of the NFC title game.

Considering that is only three-plus months away, I guess this is a perfect time for Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe and Saints safety Darren Sharper to engage in Twitter trash talk.

You might recall that shortly after the news broke last Friday that Brett Favre had undergone surgery on his left ankle, Sharper tweeted that the Saints would be going after the quarterback's ankle on opening night. Sharper's way of saying this was that "X marks the spot."

So, of course, reporters attending the Vikings practice as part of Organized Team Activities on Thursday went to Shiancoe to ask him his thoughts. Shiancoe and Sharper had lockers close to each other at Winter Park for a few years and both are essentially quote (and Twitter) machines. (And my guess is they are still pretty good friends.)

Shiancoe mentioned that Sharper had undergone knee surgery this offseason himself and that, in turn, meant X marked the spot on the Saints safety. Evidently, Sharper was bored tonight because he has now responded to Shiancoe's response.

Here is Sharper's first tweet: "So visanthe stankoe X marks the spot on me, how bout X marks the spot for how many catches and TDs you'll have come Thursday night. X = zero."

Here is Sharper's second tweet: "If you feeling yourself put your game check on it. No TDs and less than 3 catches you give me your game check. Now whose talking."

But you know what was missing from all of this (in addition to good grammer?) A tweet from noted Twitter machine Bryant McKinnie, whose day job is to play left tackle for the Vikings. McKinnie, evidently, could not help himself.

"Oh so I heard u [Sharper] was on twitter going in, but I missed it! Man u don't want these problems."

And with that we await a response from either Sharper or Shiancoe. I can't decide if this exchange is more along the lines of high school kids or professional wrestling but I'm thinking it's the latter at this point.

In fact, my guess is that Sharper is calling Shiancoe before these tweets just to tell him what's coming. And anxiously awaiting a response.