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MINNEAPOLIS -- Sam Bradford had a Minnesota debut almost as dazzling as the new $1.1 billion building itself, completing 22 of 31 passes for 286 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers to lead the Vikings to a 17-14 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night just 15 days after he arrived in a trade.He can throw the ball, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. Hes got some toughness about him, and this isnt his first rodeo.The defense did the rest, harassing Aaron Rodgers for five sacks and two fourth-quarter turnovers that quashed the comeback and sent the crowd of 66,813 into a deafening frenzy in celebration of the first regular season game at U.S. Bank Stadium.I dont think this is anything to get super crazy about, Rodgers said. Its a tough opponent, a division opponent. Theyre a good football team. Theyve still got to come to our place later in the season. Hopefully were in a position to play for something then.Adrian Peterson limped off in the third quarter with a right knee injury, and only 19 yards on 12 carries, but the Vikings (2-0) proved they still have a lot of options. Stefon Diggs caught nine passes for 182 yards and a touchdown. They held the Packers (1-1) to 65 total yards in the first half, withstanding an early touchdown pass by Rodgers to Jordy Nelson on a drive aided by two penalties by cornerback Terence Newman.They didnt win the division last year by accident. You do have to give them their credit, said Mike Daniels, who had one of Green Bays four sacks.Trae Waynes, who had two penalties himself, intercepted Rodgers pass in Vikings territory with 1:50 left to seal the victory. The previous drive was killed with a strip sack by Brian Robison, when Shamar Stephen recovered at the Minnesota 44 with 6:53 remaining.Rodgers, who ran for 29 yards and a touchdown, began to find a groove throwing the ball down the stretch. He finished 12 for 21 for 154 yards in the second half, but Bradford was the better quarterback on this night.The Vikings, who aggressively traded two premium draft picks including next years first-rounder to Philadelphia to fetch Bradford after Teddy Bridgewater went down with a massive left knee injury, boldly eschewed a field goal try early in the second quarter.Bradford found Diggs for a 4-yard completion on fourth-and-1 from the 18. Then he hit Kyle Rudolph for an 8-yard touchdown pass three plays later.When quarterbacks and receivers are on time, theyre very tough to stop, said Packers cornerback Damarious Randall, who was matched up with Diggs for most of the game.Bradford was hit hard on his non-throwing hand by Packers outside linebacker Clay Matthews while following through on a pass at one point during the drive. He visited the locker room briefly for further examination but never missed a snap, despite significant swelling beneath his left pinky.There were only a couple of instances that even hinted of newness for Bradford and the offense, when one throw on the first drive sailed well past where Rudolphs route ended and another later in the first quarter was in the air too quickly for Rudolph to turn around.These guys have had my back from day one, Bradford said.PETERSON UPDATEPeterson, who was on crutches after the game and wearing a brace on his right leg, will have an MRI exam on Monday. Zimmer said he was told the injury had already calmed down afterward.He might miss a week. I dont know if he will or not, Zimmer said.TURNOVER TRADEDavante Adams fumbled at his own 13 on Green Bays first play, a short completed pass, when Eric Kendricks punched the ball out and Andrew Sendejo picked it up with an eye toward the end zone. Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb wrestled him down and stripped the ball in the process, recovering it himself. Each team was charged with a turnover because of the change of possession.ROAD TRIPPINGThe Packers played their first two regular season games on the road for the first time since -- wait for it -- 1924. They played at the Duluth Kelleys and Chicago Cardinals that year before returning home.INJURY UPDATEPackers: DT Letroy Guion hurt his knee in the second quarter and didnt return.Vikings: DE Danielle Hunter hurt his knee in the fourth quarter and didnt return.---Online:AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL coverage on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP Adidas Ultra Boost China Wholesale . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Brand Shoes Factory Outlet . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. http://www.brandshoescheaponline.com/wholesale-nike-air-vapormax-china.html . Miller reached right to deflect Mikhail Grabovskis attempt with just over 2 minutes remaining in regulation, and then made two more saves in the shootout Sunday to give the Sabres a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals. Air Max 270 React Cheap . U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in Manhattan agreed that lawyers on both sides could make their formal requests by Nov. 8. A hearing is scheduled for a day earlier. Jordan Siev, a lawyer for Rodriguez, wrote in a joint letter to the judge from lawyers on both sides that MLB lawyers planned to ask that the lawsuit be dismissed. Discount Shoes China .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. August 12, 1976. Mike Selvey runs in and delivers a full ball on off stump. Viv Richards moves his front foot across and flicks the ball to the right of square leg. By the time fine leg runs around to cut it off, Richards is already turning for his third run, which will take him to 51. Applause from the England fielders, Jim Laker says. Richards again in really cracking form here at The Oval, his fifty coming in just 87 minutes, five boundaries included.Richards will bat another 385 minutes, score a further 240 runs, and hit a further 33 fours. But when you ask him which shot he remembers most clearly, it isnt a boundary.Yeah, the one I got out to [Tony] Greig, he says. The ball I got out to, I can remember, I went to drive and maybe a little tiredness would have maybe set in, and I wasnt quite to the pitch. Got a little inside edge and got bowled. Tony behaved like he had got me out for nought, you know?Then he laughs his deep, rich, unfettered laugh. Forty years have passed and Richards is looking onto a lush St Lucian outfield that is growing more sodden with every second, as rain slowly washes out day three of the third Test between West Indies and India.The weather at The Oval 40 years ago couldnt have been more different.When you watch the highlights, the first thing that jumps out is how the ground looks. The square just about manages to look green, but the ground staff seem to have ignored the rest of the outfield. It is bare, parched, pockmarked, a consequence of one of the hottest, driest summers the UK has experienced. Temperatures have crossed 35°C in some parts, and the National Water Council has placed ads in newspapers urging readers to think before you turn the tap on.What a nice sight, says Richie Benaud, when the broadcast cuts to a wide-angle shot. The ground itself is on the brown side, which we cant complain about, lack of rain, but the outfield is very fast, and is in good condition, considering all the circumstances.Richards remembers arriving, looking at the ground, and thinking to himself, Wow, this cant be England.Greig, infamously, had turned the temperature up a couple more degrees before the series even began. Richards remembers exactly when the West Indies team first heard what Greig planned to make West Indies do.We were just about to go into our team meeting to discuss our strategies, and then all of a sudden it was ITN… or ITV, which was the other station which was rival to BBC and all that, and here was the news, bang! Breaking news, Tony Greig said all these things.So we walked into the meeting room, kept the television on, obviously wanted to hear what he said. We had all assembled, we had big Wayne Daniel, Vanburn Holder, Michael Holding, the whole lot, Gordon Greenidge, Roy Fredericks, everyone. I think Bernard Julien was part of that team as well.So everyone was basically on their seats, waiting to hear what was said, and there, up on the TV, was Tony Greig, - and here Richards does a remarkably accurate impression of Greigs South African accent, his jaw masticating each word like a stick of gum - Were going to make, with the help of Closey and a few of my mates, were going to make the Windies grovel.Wow. And Ill tell you, that was the team meeting. I think someone said to the skipper at the time, Clive, are we gonna have the meeting? He said, No, the meetings over. You could see the looks on everyones face, and I knew we were going to have a good summer.By the time the tour reached The Oval, West Indies had already wrapped up the series, and Richards had scored 232, 63, 4, 135, 66 and 38 in the first four Tests, and had already broken Bob Simpsons 1964 record of 1381 runs in a calendar year. Having averaged 31.40 at the start of the year, Richards now averaged over 57, and had made the leap to becoming one of the worlds best batsmen. This innings was a celebration of all that.Soon after Richards has reached his half-century, the highlights video cuts to another leg-side flick, this time off Bob Woolmer. You cant allow anything round about leg stump at this man Richards, Jim Laker says. Nonchalantly flicked that away through midwicket for four more.You wonder if Laker might have seen it differently had Richards played the same shot at the start of the summer rather than in the last Test of a triumphant series. The ball isnt round about leg stump; its on off stump, and, unlike Selveys half-volley, is pitched on a good length. You wonder if Laker, not yet convinced of Richards methods, might have cautioned him against hitting across the line and around his front pad.Its the shot that defined Richards, of course. He even called his autobiography Hitting Across the Line. He keeps playing it through this innings, and it looks like the safest, most appropriate shot each time he plays it. You only realise its pitfalls when Lawrence Rowe, batting on 70, tries it against Derek Underwood and misses an arm ball. Did Richards ever get in trouble playing that shot?Yeah, you do, he says. Sometimes you live by the sword, you die by the sword, you know? Ive always felt Ian Chappell - he is a guy I have an enormous amount of respect for, as a cricketer, and the things that hed bring, in terms of advice - hes one of the individuals wholl tell you that he would hook a lot, and because of his hooking theres a few times he got out, and for the few times that he got out, people would say things like, Oh, he should stop hooking, so he said, Naah, how am I going to stop hooking when my percentage is much greater for success than failure? So Im going to continue.So he said, you may look to flick one every now and again, and one seams, and swings, and you look a little ugly, but its all part of the sport. You know, maybe next time you get a little closer [to the pitch of the ball].Decades before Kevin Pietersen explained why he played his flamingo shot from outside off stump, Richards was thinking along the same lines, that there were fewer fielders on the leg side, and more runs to be had.Batsmanship, Ive always felt, it isnt about hitting the fieldsman, he says. One of the guys who I felt would find the gaps as good as anyone else would be BC, Brian Lara, and thats what batsmanship is aabout.dddddddddddd You find the gaps. If you hit a fieldsman two or three times in that over, you cant afford to do that, you find a way of avoiding that fieldsman, thats what batsmanship is about.Batsmanship. Light feet, the stillest head of them all, shots all around the wicket. Richards hits Bob Willis over his head, improvising a topspin whip after realising he isnt quite to the pitch of the ball. Then he cuts Underwood behind point, bat meeting ball inches wide of off stump. A swept two off Geoff Miller brings up his hundred. Richards moves like a boxer when he skips back and makes room to hammer a slightly short ball, no width on it, to the cover-point boundary. Each time, his bat sounds like… it simply sounds like a Viv Richards bat.To be fair, Im not lying to you, I always had good bats, he says. Because I always made sure I went to the factory, and picked my personal bats, and to be fair, Duncan Fearnley, even the Jumbo we had then, the Jumbos - huge. A huge bat. You know, it had a huge hump at the back.My bats were always very thick, similar to, well, people were saying, wow, they were illegal then, but its the same sort of bats that youre getting now, which may be a little bigger as well too, but all around. My bats were basically two-ten. I started at 2.7 ounces, then two-ten. They were making them with good balance. You wouldnt feel the two-ten.With the first day nearing its close, Richards reaches 200 with an ambled single through square leg, off Greigs medium pace, playing another flick around his front pad. The crowd pours onto the field.There were a lot of West Indian supporters, Richards says. One man wanted to take my bat and run, that kind of thing, you know? One guy was holding on to my bat, and Im holding on, trying to [tell him], You cant take this bat, Ive just got 200 with it, you know? So just, people were looking for souvenirs, I guess. I had to hold on to my cap and all that.Weather apart, the sheer numbers of West Indian fans at the grounds added to how at home Richards felt on that England tour.Yeah, its… because the West Indies team, I guess, what we had was such an attraction that it brought folks from all departments, he says. People would take their vacations when West Indies were touring, make sure that they didnt want to miss it.Youd pass, the [team] coach would pass coaches of West Indians going to the ground, and when theyd see the name of the West Indies team on it, you could see everybody was so pleased. And I guess it was sort of enlightening for them, being in that part of the world, to have a successful unit, [from the] country they were from, and it was a sense of proudness, they felt rather proud to be part of that, and you yourself, in terms of contribution, it was pleasing to you, seeing the satisfaction that they got. When Richards resumed his innings, he was chewing the same piece of gum he had been chomping at all through the first day.Well, I stuck it, I wanted to have it for the next day, so I made sure I put it under the little seat [in the dressing room], so I could come back to it. Even though it was tasteless, you know? It didnt have any taste in the mouth.Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, latterly Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, perhaps the most famous chewer of gum there has ever been, reveals now that he never had a chewing-gum sponsor.You wouldnt believe, Im pissed with that, you know? Over the years, right? Over the years, man, I used to give the chewing gum, and no one ever knew, I used to give the chewing gum a serious workout, man. It never had to be any special Wrigleys spearmint or whatever, but, wow, my agent must have been rubbish then, you know? My agent? He wasnt any good.On the second day, Richards races away, jumping out to Underwood at every chance, hitting him over extra cover, and then straight at him, offering what isnt a half-chance but probably one-eighth of a chance. The ball hits the palm of his right hand and still blazes away to the boundary. Thats the sort of catch you dont really want to see coming back at you, Benaud says, spin bowler empathising with spin bowler.Another flicked four, off Willis, prompts this observation from Laker. So a hundred and twenty of his runs now coming in fours, as he moves on to 239. This means 32 of Richards next 52 will come in fours. Landmarks await him - there is 300, there is Garfield Sobers 365 - but he says he wasnt thinking of them.You wont believe, but maybe I wasnt too smart then to think about that. You know, because my game was all about, maybe, playing, and landmarks never quite played a role, and whether or not [I got them]. It was just about if you need to go out and score some quick runs and whether its a Test match or not, to have a declaration, and Im prepared to do all that, you know. Its about what contribution you can make for the team, and that has always been high on my list.The shot that gets Richards out doesnt look like the shot of a man thinking hes nine runs from 300. He reaches for an offbreak, hes nowhere near the pitch of the ball, and he overbalances as he tries to drive against the turn.Greigs celebration is rather more muted than Richards remembers. He jumps, arms aloft, but drops them as soon as he lands, as if the effort is too much, and walks slowly down the pitch towards Alan Knott, the wicketkeeper. It is the last we will see of Greig in this video, which cuts to Richards walking off, looking tired himself, eyes looking down rather than straight ahead as he raises his bat to the crowd.With the passing of time, Richards assessment of Greig has mellowed.I remember that when he was finally beaten, I think he was man enough, he went on his knees, and Tony, to be fair to him, regardless of what you may have thought at the time, he was a competitive person. And anyone in sport would know that and understand that.He was just trying to gee his team up as best as he can, you know, and obviously, maybe like Donald Trump today, words sometimes get used in a way where you may have to come and say Im sorry, you know? Thats how it is. ' ' '