We're not entirely sure how a team that came within a whisper (or at least an extra man) from going to the Super Bowl has managed to fly underneath our radar -- though we suspect Target Field has quite a bit to do with it -- but it has come to our attention that the Vikings will hold their first public training camp session one week from tomorrow. As such, August and September (and hopefully October) will be an interesting test. We wrote for the paper a while back about how this was increasingly becoming a Twins town thanks to the new ballpark. But there hasn't been real head-to-head competition yet between the teams since Target Field opened. While we think that in past years the Brett Favre story, the Williams Wall, Adrian Peterson's possible contract issues, etc., would have been more front-brain than they have been this offseason, the real questions will start getting answered when players actually take the field. Is the shift from a clear No. 1 and No. 2 to at least co-top dogs in this town as real as we thought it was a couple months ago, or was that just part of the natural bounce up for the Twins and come down for the Vikings brought on by a new stadium and an offseason that followed a gut-wrenching finish? Will the Vikings resume their place as the dominant "talker" in this market even when seasons overlap?
Your thoughts welcome in the comments.
