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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 1, 2002
MANKATO, Minn. -- The Vikings went through practice Wednesday in high heat and humidity -- conditions eerily similar to those in which Korey Stringer collapsed exactly a year ago.
He died the next day.
It's impossible for members of the team to forget what happened and how much they miss the man everyone called "Big K."
"We've got a couple weeks here," wide receiver Randy Moss said, "so it is going to be very hard to say we're going to move on. We still have flashes and still reminisce on the good times and also the bad times.
"But of course we're going to move on and try to win."
Back at the team's practice facility in the Twin Cities, a black-and-purple banner bearing Stringer's No. 77 is draped across the facade in front of the building.
"It's going to take awhile to get over it," Moss said.
And there are reminders all over the campus where the team holds training camp:
A Stringer jersey worn by a fan watching practice.
Outside Gage Hall, where players stay, there's a tree planted last summer in Stringer's honor.
Yellow practice jerseys instead of the hotter purple ones worn in the past, canopies providing shade on the sidelines, and an abundance of water.
"We'll be sitting in meetings and someone will remember something that Korey said," said center Matt Birk, who wears No. 78. "It's unavoidable. Here, the lockers are numerical, so 77 and 78 were right next to each other. This year, (No. 76) Chris Liwienski is next to me."
Stringer's widow, Kelci, has filed a $100-million wrongful death suit against the team, alleging negligence. It is scheduled to go to trial in June 2003.
Because of that, many in the Vikings organization, including coach Mike Tice, won't talk about the subject. A year ago, Tice was offensive line coach and was as close to Stringer as anyone.
With a mostly new coaching staff and an overhauled roster, it's probably healthy for the Vikings to forget the painful 5-11 season that began with Stringer's death.
There isn't a player on the team who will talk about Stringer's death without saying that he thinks about Stringer every day.
"I think by that happening," Moss said, "some of the guys who've been through that tragedy are closer as a family, and now we feel we can help one another."
Lineman Everett Lindsay, like the rest of his teammates, always enjoyed Stringer's imitations. There was one in particular Lindsay recalled, where Stringer mimicked a commercial Tice once did for a campus restaurant-and-bar called Boomtown.
"He did that to a T," Lindsay said.
COWBOYS MULL EMMITT'S FUTURE: Owner Jerry Jones isn't ready to talk about what happens to Emmitt Smith after this season, when the running back should be the NFL's career rushing leader.
Jones, who before last season cut three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Troy Aikman, talks somewhat evasively on Smith's future.
"What we're interested in is what happens this year, and Emmitt's under contract for next year," Jones said. "We don't need to get into what's going to happen next year at this time. I'm not going to do it."
Jones knows it's a sticky subject.
Smith is 539 yards shy of Walter Payton's record of 16,726 career rushing yards. He also has an NFL-record 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and played with Aikman in those three Super Bowls in the first half of the 1990s.
Going into his 13th season, the 33-year-old Smith remains one of the most popular players ever to wear the silver and blue.
"It doesn't just start and end with the record," Smith said. "My love for football is still there. My desire to go to the Super Bowl is still there.
"It would be hard for them to say cut him if he's doing his job and doing it effectively. That would be hard to do," he said. "That's my focus. My focus is about performance."