Rosenfels Not Introduced as the Vikings Starter?

[Keith]

From the ESPN.com NFC North blog:

Tom of Los Angeles, home of new Seahawks receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh and a few million other people, writes:

I'm a HUGE Vikings fan living in Los Angeles. One of my employees and his brother know T.J. Houshmandzadeh. When asked why he passed on Minnesota, he told them that it was all good until they brought Tarvaris Jackson into talk to him (and basically signal to him that he is their starter). ..."

We have to be careful about passing along news tips, but in this case Tom's information is verified. ESPN's John Clayton reported the same sequence of events last Saturday on ESPN radio. ...

To me, the larger point is that the Vikings portrayed Jackson as their 2009 starter rather than as a competitor for the job along with Sage Rosenfels. Or, at the very least, that's the way Houshmandzadeh perceived the situation when the Vikings offered to put him and Jackson in a meeting room. It's very possible that Rosenfels wasn't in the building that day. But for Houshmandzadeh, the message was clear. High-profile free-agent visits are planned and choreographed, and the Jackson meeting probably wasn't a last-minute arrangement. ...