3 Minnesota Vikings

At two in the afternoon on Aug. 14, coach Dennis Green stood outside a dormitory on the Minnesota State-Mankato campus and said a few words about the oak sapling beside him. The Vikings hold their training camp at the university, and the tree had been planted as a memorial to Korey Stringer, the 27-year-old right tackle who had died of heatstroke after a practice two weeks before. The school was planning to decorate the tree with a plaque reading, in part, IN MEMORY OF BIG K, and Green, glancing at the handful of players who flanked him, said the oak was a fitting reminder "that Big K is here and always will be."

The sky was overcast as Green spoke, and during drills that morning several Vikings had noted appreciatively that it was the first cool day of what had been a notoriously hot training camp. It was also Minnesota's second day of practice since it had defeated the Saints 28-21 in its first exhibition game, an achievement that the Vikings hoped would begin to restore normality to their working lives. "We'll never get back to normal without Korey," said quarterback Daunte Culpepper shortly before the planting ceremony. "We just have to try to take baby steps toward that."

Even before Stringer's death enveloped training camp and the season (the Vikings are wearing patches with Stringer's number 77 on their uniform sleeves), the team had a feeling of loss-insignificant loss next to that of Stringer, but loss nonetheless. Minnesota will open the season without six of last season's starters, including Stringer, a Pro Bowler. Running back Robert Smith, whom teammates considered the Vikings' MVP last year after he accounted for 31.4% of the offense with 1,869 total yards, retired in February, concerned about the long-term effects of the game on his body. Defensive tackle John Randle, the team's best playmaker on the line; Dwayne Rudd, their fastest linebacker; Pro Bowl left tackle Todd Steussie, who had started 111 games; and defensive tackle Tony Williams, a strong run stopper, all signed with other clubs. "When you win, other teams want your players," says assistant head coach and offensive line coach Mike Tice. "You've got to be able to develop enough talent to make the transition."

Even with the voids left by Steussie and Stringer, the line should carry on effectively, as it always does under Tice. (Last year the Vikings pushed aside the losses of Pro Bowl center Jeff Christy and Pro Bowl guard Randall McDaniel, both of whom left after the 1999 season.) The line has the advantage of working with the league's most dynamic big-play trio in Culpepper and wide receivers Randy Moss and Cris Carter. With those three and with the addition of blazing running back Michael Bennett, the Vikings' first-round pick out of Wisconsin, who excelled in the first two preseason games, Minnesota could well match its 24.8-points-per-game output of last year.

Losing Randle (a six-time Pro Bowler) and Rudd (whom Green dubbed a cornerstone player a year ago) from an already vulnerable defense could be the Vikings' undoing. Green plans to make up for the losses by employing more stunts, using surprise and trickery to make up for a lack of talent. Green's chalkboard acumen is only one of many reasons why he has been able to guide Minnesota to the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons as coach and why he makes a nearly annual bid to be the NFL Coach of the Year. Green, who has reached the postseason with seven starting quarterbacks, has always made it his first mission to create a family atmosphere on the team and to have the Vikings play with what he calls "a high level of urgency and emotion."

After Stringer's death Green immediately insulated his players. For nearly a week he allowed only one or two of them to talk to the media each day, and when he canceled or shortened practices, he encouraged the players to stay close to their dorm rooms. "That was the right thing for us," says Culpepper. "It brought us together, just us, and that's going to help us pull each other through this season."

Green says, "There's no blueprint for how to handle this," and he acknowledges that the Vikings will face reminders of Stringer's death and field new questions about it at each season landmark—when they play their first game on Sept. 9, when they make their first Monday-night appearance eight days later and each time they travel to a new city.

In late July the Vikings arrived at training camp smarting from their shocking 41-0 loss to the Giants in January's NFC title game. That defeat had led Moss to publicly question whether the Vikings have Super Bowl potential, and until the morning of July 31, they were still looking inward to explain their collapse against New York. "That game was definitely still strong in the backs of our minds," says Culpepper. "I guess it still is, somewhere. But I sure wish that was the only loss we had to think about."

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