The "Unofficial" Chris Walsh Fan Club

As before, youngsters provided the pre-game entertainment, with tackling and receiving drills, along with the always-adorable little kid 40-yard dash.

Tony and I headed to my car about 40 minutes before the scrimmage started to grab my hat (the sun came out) and to locate Nate and Stacie, who had to leave the cities late. Apparently Heather and Robin feared for their lives as the stadium became full and seat-lookers threw menacing glances their way after explaining the empty seats were being saved. I took the time to check the silent auction real quick since Robin told me Walsh was auctioning off a jersey. I noticed fellow southern end zone resident Matt had the top bid, only to lose to a woman who bid $190 to bring home the autographed prize.

The purple and white took the field for pre-game warm-ups, identical to what they do before each regular season game. After running some passing drills, Walsh and a defender started headbutting repeatedly, almost in a less-than friendly way, but parted ways patting each other on the head. During the stretching portion of the pre-game schedule, David Dixon and Todd Stussie got a big laugh after Dixon lofted a football across the field at an unsuspecting Moss, who flinched big time after noticing the football fly by his head. Later, he repaid the favor towards Stussie and Dixon, but overthrew them.

Of course all eyes were on Culpepper, who in my opinion, looked decent. He did throw one interception, to which Nate remarked "at least he threw it to the right team." Always the optimist.

The humidity became pretty bad, although a brief but welcome rain during the "second half" cooled things down a bit. After the scrimmage, most fans did stay off the field, but we did sneak onto the field to grab a few snapshots.

It's not training camp unless I scare the hell out of a few fellow Walsh fans. I printed up little cards with this web site's address on it to hand out. Interestingly, the only new fans I ran into this year were women. As expected a woman and later a teenager I offered cards to gave me that "what the hell is wrong with this guy" look, but they accepted the cards. The third woman took a card and as I was walking away asked if I had any more. I stopped, dumbfounded. Tony yelled "Wow, that's never happened before!" and commented that most people run in fear. A big laugh was shared by all.

Angie (I think that's her name) then showed off a large poster that Walsh autographed for her. The poster is of a picture of Walsh signing autographs after last year's scrimmage she got Mitch Berger take for. This year she found Berger again and asked him to take the poster down to Walsh to have him autograph it. As he walked from his position down to Walsh, he kept asking the crowd "Look at this face. You guys think this is cute? Sheesh." When Berger presented the poster to be autographed, Walsh mentioned it looked like dartboard material. I showed her the shot I got of Walsh signing the poster as Mitch Berger held it for him off the little screen on the digital camera I use. Hopefully she'll swing by the site and check it the image on a larger screen.

The autographing session was a tad grumpier this year, possibly due to the scrimmage lasting much longer than last year. The autograph session was cut rather short, but the players still managed to sign an enormous amount of items. Players whizzed by on bikes after showering to avoid having to interact with the fans.

After catching City Mouse at some bar in the boonies, we prepared for the following day.

Saturday, during the warm-ups before the mock game, Walsh and Morrow seemed to share quite a few laughs. Morrow led the team in special teams tackles last year, though Walsh is the all-time leader among current Vikings.

Judging by early in the game, when starters play their normal positions, Walsh will be in on kickoffs and punt coverage. During a punt, Walsh yells "hut, hut" a bunch of times trying to throw off the defense. The actual snap appears to be on a silent count. During one punt, Walsh started yelling, "they have 12 men! They have 12!" and then yelled hut a few times. Apparently one of his duties is to count not only his own players on the field, but the other team's as well. A flag was thrown and the offense came back out.

Speaking of punting and snaps, let's just say Berger must be missing the Superstar.

Morrow screams during kick offs. It's quite amusing to be able to hear him.

After a Robert Tate interception in which he was tagged before running into the end zone, Walsh and company came running out onto the field. Walsh yelled "Nooo! C'mon! Aaargh!" and flailed his arms in mock disgust when Denny Green ruled the interception was a touchdown giving the white team the ball.

After a receiver trying to make the team dropped a ball, Walsh yelled over to him to get his attention and then demonstrated with his hands the proper technique to use when trying for a low thrown ball.

During the game, a woman two rows behind me had the person in front of her get my attention. She asked where I got my jersey and I gave her the little card with this web site's address. The woman behind me commented, "wow, you come prepared, don't you?" with a smile.

To end the game, Bubby Brister faked taking a knee, pitched the ball behind him to Walsh who looked like he was gonna try to run, but immediately took knee instead, as he was about to run into a large lineman.

After a quick visit at the Sport's 'n You tent, where they had replica and authentic Walsh jerseys on hand, (oops, too bad I didn't know that during the mock game) we headed home. We were pretty worn out, but I think all of us, even Stacie, had a good time.

Most of these photos were taken by me with a digital camera, though a few of the shots are from Heather's camera, which was used by myself, Tony and Heather. Click on a thumbnail to see the larger image. There are navigation buttons on each page, feel free to start with the first image and work your way to the last image.