Sid Hartman: Keeping Taylor is of utmost importance

Memo to Zygi and Mark Wilf, owners of the Minnesota Vikings:

Since you bought the team, you have done a fantastic job of signing free agents and bringing in talent, spending big money for great players such as Jared Allen, Bernard Berrian, Steve Hutchinson, Madieu Williams, Brett Favre and others.

You have spent millions of dollars in making it possible for Brad Childress and his staff to coach a team that came within one official's bad call from going to the Super Bowl -- a game I have no doubt in my mind the Vikings would have won to bring the championship to Minnesota.

Well, because this is the final year of the NFL's current collective bargaining agreement, a new set of rules is in place, one with no salary cap and one where the Vikings -- because they played in their conference championship game -- can't sign an unrestricted free agent from another team without losing one that makes about the same amount of money.

While I named a number of important free agents that the Vikings have signed in the past, I believe that free-agent running back Chester Taylor might be as important as any of the players you have signed -- other than Favre, who made this team click like it hasn't in recent years.

Without Taylor, this team will be in trouble. Adrian Peterson is a great running back. But one of the things that makes him so good is the fact that he has a great backup in Taylor, who can catch the ball as well as any running back in the league, can protect the quarterback as well as any running back in the league and certainly has a better record of not fumbling.

There are some free-agent running backs out in the market, such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Brian Westbrook. But both of those players are on the downside of their careers, and neither of them can do what Taylor has done for the Vikings during the four years he has worn the Purple.

Taylor is not only a good football player, but being a eight-year veteran in the NFL, the young players look up to him, and he is a great contributor to the fine chemistry in the locker room.

Don't write any big checks for anybody else this year, but spend your money on this great running back, one big reason this team has gotten better every year under Childress.

Jottings Tubby Smith believes Bryant Allen, the two-sport athlete from Maplewood, Mo., has the potential to help the Gophers men's basketball team as well as the football team. "He's got a lot of potential. He's as quick and as athletic as anybody we have in our program, and he can really shoot the ball," the coach said of Allen, who has seen brief action on the hardwood this season, playing in four games after reporting late because of football. "This is a kid that was the state of Missouri's leading scorer, won back-to-back state championships, the leading steals guy in the history of Missouri basketball, so he's got a lot of talent. I know he has a lot of talent in football as well, I know Tim Brewster and his staff are excited about the future of him in football as well. We like the way he plays. It's taken a while for me to get him in some playing time because Justin Cobbs has been playing extremely well, and he's a point guard. I think he can be very, very helpful to us." On the football field, Allen saw most of his action as a punt and kick returner last season.

Gophers athletes spend a lot of time out in the community, and one event coming up is the appearance of Brewster and a number of football players reading to second- and third-graders at the Nativity of our Lord Elementary School in St. Paul on March 11.

The Gophers and Wisconsin football teams are in a real battle in the recruiting of Derek Farniok, a 6-8, 300-plus pound tackle from Sioux Falls (S.D.) Washington High School.

NHL's scouting gurus report there is a talented, deep class of Minnesota prospects for this summer's NHL draft, headlined by Duluth's Derek Forbort, a North Dakota recruit, and Blaine's Nick Bjugstad, a Gophers recruit. In the International Scouting Services' top 30, Forbort is rated No. 13 and Bjugstad is No. 15. Two other local players -- South St. Paul's Justin Faulk, a Minnesota Duluth recruit, and Warroad's Brock Nelson, a North Dakota recruit -- are No. 27 and No. 28, respectively. In the Central Scouting Services' North American rankings, Forbert is No. 11, Bjugstad 12 and Nelson 17, followed by MSU Mankato freshman Tyler Pitlick at 21 and then two Gophers recruits, Minnetonka's Max Gardiner (36) and Cretin-Derham Hall's Mark Alt (37), though Alt is still considering some college football options. Rounding out the locals ranked by Central Scouting Services are Minnesota Duluth recruit Joe Basaraba of Shattuck-St. Mary's (39), Faulk (40) and Minnetonka's Justin Holl (54), another Gophers recruit.

While some WNBA franchises have folded, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor doesn't want to give up on the Lynx even though they have lost money from the start. "We are building the WNBA; it has not been a profitable venture, as you know," Taylor said. "But I just think that one of the responsibilities that I have in Minnesota is to provide leadership, and one of the things we can do in women's sports is to stick with it, stay with it and give the young women of this state a chance to look at some great athletes, and we have some on our team."