Last update: April 29, 2005 at 11:08 PM
Smoot is voice of Vikings' future
Kevin Seifert, Star Tribune
April 30, 2005 VIKE0430
The morning chill brought an eerie quiet to the Winter Park practice fields. Something was missing as Vikings players and coaches jogged out of the building for a 10:15 a.m. minicamp practice ... that voice, that presence.
Nothing short of a new era began Friday for the Vikings, a team that will spend the next few months developing chemistry off the field and finding a new personality on it. Life without Randy (Moss) commenced with tranquility, his West Virginia twang and unparalleled receiving skills replaced first by uncertainty and later by smooth-talking newcomer Fred Smoot.
"Chemistry will find itself as we progress here," said coach Mike Tice, leaning on crutches after recent ankle surgery. "There will be new chemistry, a new leadership on our football team, and all of that will work its way through as we progress through the offseason and the preseason. That new chemistry and personality will emerge as time goes on. It doesn't happen in the first day of minicamp."
Smoot watches the Vikings practice Friday at Winter Park.Richard SennottStar Tribune
Smoot, however, did his best to fill the verbal void. At Vikings headquarters, Moss was known as much for his raw trash talk as he was for his touchdown catches. Minicamp practices featured some of his top vocal performances, intimidating rookies and chiding veteran free agents.
Smoot, lured from Washington with a six-year contract worth $34 million, morphed into a similar character about midway through the first of two practices Friday. He had more than a few words for rookie receiver Troy Williamson -- "I just wanted to make him feel comfortable," Smoot said, "before I choke him"-- and made clear that his larynx will not give out anytime soon.
"That's my role," he said. "[But] I think I'm a little more 'teamier' than [Moss]. I like to mess with everybody, not just my side of the ball. ... I'm just trying to loosen everybody up. Let's have some fun, get the job done and get some work in."
So went the idea when the Vikings traded Moss to Oakland last month for linebacker Napoleon Harris and two draft picks. Believing Moss' act had worn thin among players in the locker room, the Vikings have recentered their team around quarterback Daunte Culpepper and a defense enhanced by the additions of Smoot and four other new starters.
"Randy is Randy," Culpepper said. "Randy gets a lot of attention. He's going to get a lot of attention wherever he goes. He's not here now, and it's definitely different in the meeting rooms and the locker room. He's always joking around with everbody, playing. So we've got to move on. I wish him the best."
If Friday was any indication, the entertainment level of Vikings practices will remain high, if nothing else. Smoot provided a stream-of-consciousness commentary, weaving pointed comments with jokes and occasional unintelligible phrases.
For a novice observer, Smoot sounded something like this as he waited his turn for drills:
"BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH ... IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD HERE NOW," apparently addressing predictions that the Vikings' defense will improve this season.
And ...
"BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH ... CHICKEN WINGS," possibly referring to his expected evening fare.
"Oh," said safety Darren Sharper, another newcomer, "Smoot is going to fill Moss' [verbal] role two times over. You heard him all day. I don't know if he's going to have the energy to talk that much all the way through camp. I'm going to make a bet with him to see if he can talk all the way through training camp. He's filling it up, though."
Smoot quieted down a bit when Williamson caught the first two long passes of his Vikings career, one over seventh-round pick Adrian Ward and one after running past veteran cornerback Brian Williams. Like Moss, however, the disappointment didn't keep Smoot down for long.
"People think I talk just to talk and talk back and forth," Smoot said. "But I'm hyping my teammates up. I'm getting the offense krunk, you know, just getting everybody in the mind frame to get the job done. ... I think it's going to carry over to the season."
Kevin Seifert is at kseifert@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/stories/510/5377865.html
Man, I really miss him. It just doesn't seem right to see him in another uniform.
