So I went to the Vikings Training camp today, rocking my Iowa Hawkeye attire, because honestly, I was only there to see and maybe get an autograph or two from the former Hawkeyes, mainly Greenway.
I went with a few of my friends who are big Vikings fans and from what I understood, Reisner and Olsen are not on the majority of the Viking fan's radars.
MN did draft a TE out of ND and Reisner went undrafted. The TE's were working on some drill that involved route running, turning, finding the ball, and then catching it on the move(Like a cross field pattern that many TE's run).
I can say this with confidence that my bias had nothing to do with who looked the best. Reisner is up in the drill... He runs his route, turns to run across field and the ball is thrown WELL behind him. Reisner somehow manages to reach one hand back while all of his momentum is going the other way in the air and snag the ball with one hand. It was an incredible catch.
My friend, who was trying to tell me Reisner would get cut because of the current TE's the Vikings have, turns to the rest of us and says:
(Him)"Did you guys see that catch?!"
(Me)"Did you see who caught it? Yeah, thats right, it was Reisner.. The Iowa boy. I will put money down that Reisner is better than the ND guy"
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here... but his catch was incredible, and he looked better in the drills than the other TE's all day from what I saw. (Granted Vicente Shianko[Spelling?] was not practicing due to injury)
Anyway, Reisner was looking really impressive.
As for Olsen--He looked to be bigger and stronger than nearly all of the other young O-linemen. Although they didn't really run too many drills that allowed me to see how good he actually was compared to the rest.
The defense practiced on the field further away so I didn't get to see Ballard all that much, but Head Coach Leslie Frazier had some really good things to say about him in a quote they printed on the program.
(He also autographed my hat, which was nice.)
Now for Greenway... I didn't see him do much on the field, since he too was on the further field away from the parts I watched.
The thing that shocked me most however, was his attitude off the field... his interaction with the fans was really quite awful.
I'm not sure if I caught him on a bad day, but from what some of the fans were saying.. he had an attitude yesterday as well.
On 4 separate occasions throughout the day Greenway looked at me and my friends(whom I borrowed some Iowa Jersey's to) and then walked away without a wave/smile/anything.
I waited 3 hours with my friends outside of the locker room facility until practice was over along with other fans who showed up after practice had ended, but we wanted to make sure we got their first... and we were.
A couple big name players come out and they go to the fans side of the barricade to sign autographs and all but one fan rushed them... Me, because while they were rushing over to the other players, I saw Greenway walk out of the facility and I yelled to him "Greenway! Hawkeye Nation representing!" and I waved my Iowa hat and pointed at the tigerhawk logo.
I am still a little baffled by this... but Greenway(about 10 yards away) looks up at me.. cocks his head a little and gives me a blank stare for about 2 or 3 seconds... and then gets on his bike and rides away.
No wave, no smile, nothing but a cold shoulder.
I was the only person there decked out in all Iowa gear that I saw and he was the main reason I went. I really hoped he would walk over and give me an autograph or say hi, since all the other fans were distracted and he wouldn't have to feel obligated to sign 50 autographs... but I would have taken even a wave or a thumbs up and it would have made the 8 hour day well worth it.
I'm not trying to complain, but I was always under the impression that Greenway has been really good and appreciative of his Hawkeye supporters... Has he forgotten where he came from now that he is one of the big men on campus for the Vikings? I mean.. the punter stood out there signing autographs for ANYONE and EVERYONE who wanted them no matter how long it took him... I just felt like Greenway would be a little more friendly to a Hawkeye fan who went for almost the sole reason of seeing him.
I'm just curious if anyone has any insight as to why this might be? Because I have always been a huge fan of him and the way he acted sort of made me lose some respect.
