It’s not your normal rookie hazing activity, but this is no normal offseason.
Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder spent a lot of time with his playbook in Kinkos recently, making copies for all the teammates that were set to join him at informal workouts in Florida this week. NFL Network’s Scott Hansen writes that Ponder was careful not to let the pages out of his sight.
(He better hope there weren’t any Bears or Packers employees working there.)
Ponder, Joe Webb, and rookie tight end Kyle Rudolph were practicing together Tuesday. Visanthe Shiancoe, Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice, and Bernard Berrian were expected to join Wednesday. It sounds like Ponder has taken a leadership role early.
“Somebody had to get the ball rolling,” Ponder told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “I thought as a quarterback, it was up to me to do it. A lot of the veteran guys I reached out to were all gung-ho and excited about it.”
UPDATE: Rice, Berrian, Harvin, and Shiancoe wound up not going. So much for gung-ho.