C.J.: Punter scores big with marriage amendment

"I don't know if I'm ready to be immortalized in glass," Vikings punter Chris Kluwe said Wednesday when asked about being immortalized in glass.

Kerry Dikken, owner of Blasted Art Inc., sandblasted Kluwe's handsome visage on a 10-foot piece of glass being displayed until 2 p.m. Thursday at a booth in the American Institute of Architects gathering convened at the Minneapolis Convention Center. "I did it just because of how outspoken he is about the marriage amendment," Dikken, a friend of mine, told me Tuesday. "I was just reading a bunch of his blogs. He is amazingly articulate."

That word came up in the locker room Wednesday as media gathered 'round to ask the married punter and father of two about his high-profile political role in asking Minnesota to vote no on the proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"Ultimately, it's more a testament to the people of Minnesota that this was the right thing to do. If I did help out, I'm glad I was able to make a difference," he said.

"Any football questions?" asked Kluwe. "We play Detroit this week."

Kluwe said that campaigning for the amendment "took away a lot of my video-game playing time. That kind of sucked. But I suppose human rights are a little more important than playing Xbox or PlayStation. You've all seen me, I just say what's on my mind and a lot of people listened. It was kind of weird. It will be nice not to have a lot of people around my locker. Hopefully, I'll play well and everyone will go back to ignoring the punter."

Kluwe said he has no political aspirations. "I'd rather run my gaming and miniatures hobby store. Seems to me a much better use of time," said the owner of Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Vikings family growsNow the QB and his media handler both have girls named Samantha in their lives.

Tom West and his wife, Shari, welcomed Samantha Grace on Sept. 29, weighing in at "almost 7 pounds."

Baby Samantha is a permanent member of the roster. The long-term status of Christian Ponder's Samantha Steele, the ESPN sideline reporter, has yet to be decided -- although the QB sounds fairly smitten.

When I joked to West that Christian had his Samantha first, the PR guy said nope -- they had that name picked out for the baby before Steele arrived on the scene.

Can you prove that? "You can't prove I didn't," West bit back. West loves to bust chops. Of course, it's more fun when he's busting Ponder's and vice versa.

Talking pointsWho knows what George Stephanopoulos was thinking, but he didn't look like someone who knew he was working with an exhausted colleague as Diane Sawyer slurred and giggled her unsteady way through election night.

One of Sawyer's pronunciation problems occurred when she was projecting "President Barack Ohrama Obama" winner of Minnesota.

While a pal of Sawyer's reportedly told a website Diane was exhausted, fans came to different conclusions on Twitter, such as: "And Diane Sawyer declares tonight's winner is ... chardonnay!" and "Diane Sawyer is one drink away from taking her top off."

If Sawyer doesn't genuinely need to visit Center City, she might want to see a neurologist to make sure she wasn't having a light stroke. She might also suggest that ABC News analyst Matt Dowd see an ophthalmologist for this strange statement: "This may be the last election we see two white men run against each other for president."

And speaking of saying things, is it OK for President Obama to refer to Vice President Joe Biden as the "Happy Warrior"?