It's April 27, a day before the tackle football players are due to report for the Minnesota Vikings minicamp. Except there won't be any tackling, it's just minicamp.

	Randall Cunningham says he's "honoring his contract" by not taking a pay cut.

And there won't be any Randall Cunningham. He was disinvited. Nothing is required of him this weekend. Not one thing in exchange for that $1 million bonus paid in March. That's how good the economy is. In reverse of the "penny wise, pound foolish" adage, the Vikings paid Cunningham a ton of money to save even more against the evil salary cap.

Cunningham says he has been working out harder than ever, but right now he's laboring on an aisle of a Las Vegas music supply store trying to find a digital recorder/player for his gospel music company. He swears there's no salary cap at work that will cost musicians their jobs. "I love live sound," he says. He contends he already took a pay cut of sorts in Minnesota when he signed short on the deal he got following the Vikes' 15-1 season in 1998. Now he's just "honoring his contract." And setting a new standard for minimalism he adds, "I'm happy being a Viking. But if they let me go, I can't be happy being a Viking."

Well, they certainly wouldn't want any malcontents.

A Vikings PR guy says Jeff George was more or less a Cub Scout during his short stay. Now he's with Washington, moving on like Brad Johnson before him. At this point Johnson wouldn't be floored if he found Sean Salisbury sleeping on his couch. George says of the Vikings, "They aren't my problem anymore." Those words sounded to be cleansing, having been said so many times with the subject reversed. And while he's as happy as the next guy who is signed with a powerhouse for four years at $24 million, he feels like the kid whose parents filled out the paperwork incorrectly on Day One at Little League tryouts ("Mom, I'm supposed to be on LakeCrest 7-11, not Brak's Parker Paints."). It's a tough spot to be in. For moms and NFL coaches.

You see, John Clayton and maybe 29 other mammals understand the salary cap. Vikings coach Dennis Green says he's with it. "We don't normally follow the parade. We're out in front," he said. Parade? With the departure of George to the Redskins via free agency and the assumed release of Cunningham on or about June 1, Daunte Culpepper would be the eighth quarterback in nine years in Minnesota.

Culpepper would be the 23rd starter in nine seasons. That includes various guys several times but this is the 23rd change at starting QB that Dennis Green has decided on or injury has forced since Green took over.

Year	Quarterback (consecutive starts)
1992	Gannon (11), Salisbury (2), Gannon (1), Salisbury (2)
1993	McMahon (7), Salisbury (4), McMahon (5)
1994	Moon (15), Salisbury (1)
1995	Moon (16)
1996	Moon (1), Johnson (1), Moon (6), Johnson (1), Moon (1), Johnson (6)
1997	Johnson (13), Cunningham (3)
1998	Johnson (2), Cunningham (14)
1999	Cunningham (6), George (10)

In 1998, Brad Johnson lost his job to Cunningham because of injury, then couldn't get it back when ... well, because Cunningham wouldn't get injured severely enough to lose it back. Cunningham got his new deal. So did Johnson, but with Washington. Then came George who took Cunningham's job when Green saw too many drives in which it appeared the chains were cemented into the sidelines. And in the same way Cunningham had supplanted Johnson, George figured he had won the right to return and wing it on the first string.

And maybe that was the plan. But George figured, besides the swell varsity letter coat, he'd get a raise. "To offer me the minimum," he said. "That wasn't fair." And he says this took place even after the courting of Dan Marino. "After the Marino thing, Denny said, 'You're the guy. Let's get it (a deal) done.' But I don't know if they were real serious because it was the same offer I had last year."

Green isn't interested in George's take on things. "I never respond to what other people say," Green said. "We make decisions. That's what we do. And we don't respond to opinions. Our decisions have ramifications." Probably no argument there from anyone.

Certainly not Culpepper. "Coach Green called me in and asked me if I thought I was ready. And I said, 'I'm ready.' "

The new backup, Bubby Brister, figures the holdovers are pretty used to it by now. "They just accept the next guy and say 'Let's go.' "

The Ravens' head coach, Brian Billick seems like the most logical outsider to have an insider's take on all this. Except he says, "I don't want to be like a physician criticizing another physician. And I wouldn't do that because of my respect for Denny." Billick was Green's offensive coordinator before taking the Ravens job last season. "Right or wrong, Denny doesn't do anything that isn't thought out and only after exploring all the options available," he added.

And looking back over all the years with Green, Billick says, "We'd all love to settle on one guy and end up with an Elway or Marino or Aikman for eight or 10 years. But we got into a dilemma, and you have to survive with what you have."

When he kept saying "we" it was almost as though he forgot he wasn't a Viking any longer. He obviously hadn't heard Cunningham's notion on not being a Viking when you're not a Viking.