Blizzard: Sunday, May 23

The Vikings are having trouble getting public funding for their stadium because of democracy: in a recent poll, 64% of Minnesotans oppose it (MPR). That's a frustrating thing about the rising rhetoric of the Vikings: the Vikings are trying to get legislators to do something that a large majority of Minnesotans oppose, but they seem to be getting angrier and angrier about legislators' reluctance to do such a thing. It's certainly not the case that the majority of people are always right about policy issues (the majority can be in the wrong, factually, morally, or pragmatically), but it still matters that the Vikings are trying to get our money for their stadium, and most of us don't want them to. In St. Paul, schools are closing, consolidating, and restructuring due to funding issues. A serious, not rhetorical question: why should tax revenue be created to build a Viking stadium, rather than to provide better funding for Minnesota public schools? But I also know that at some point, there will need to be some public money for a Viking stadium, or the Vikings will leave Minnesota: that's the Realpolitik.

Brett Favre's surgery means Brett Favre is probably coming back (Kevin Seifert).

And Kevin Williams and Pat Williams are probably not getting suspended in 2010 (Kevin Seifert).

Roger Goodell's dad (New York Times).

Why do you care about what a writer predicts or ranks (Ta-Nehisi Coates)?

Fantasy Heavy

Fantasy relevant questions for beat writers (Rotoworld).

The Cardinals' running game (SI).

Ryan Mathews (USA Today). Because I had a sports nervous breakdown that lasted four months, I read no draft previews, and so before very recently, I had never heard of most 2010 NFL rookies. And yet players like Mathews are of legitimate fantasy concern, and I have a long history of drafting rookie RBs (and with a pretty good success rate), so I need to look for stories like this to read up on. For me the key to drafting rookies isn't the player but the situation: as Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment suggests situation and role dictates behavior more than character or personality, so too does the situation dictate the effectiveness and productivity of rookie RBs.

I'm interested in recommendations for other quality fantasy football websites: I've really streamlined my football reading, but I'm interested in adding more useful sites to my regular reading (and to Blizzard links).