The Vikings spent nearly $12 million in bonuses in signing their three first-round draft picks this year.

Sharrif Floyd, the team’s top draft pick and No. 23 overall, received a signing bonus of $4,254,600 with a first-year salary of $405,000.

As part of his four-year contract, the defensive tackle from Florida also will receive a $465,000 roster bonus in 2016. The roster bonus is to be paid if Floyd is on the 53-player roster coming out of training camp.

Floyd’s base salaries will be $772,100 in 2014, $1,139,200 (2015) and $941,300 (2016).

The Vikings’ second first-round draft pick (No. 25 overall), cornerback Xavier Rhodes of Florida State, received a signing bonus of $4,057,456, also with a first-year salary of $405,000.

Minnesota’s third pick (No. 29 overall), wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson of Tennessee, received a signing bonus of $3,631,672 and a first-year salary of $405,000.

Floyd, Rhodes and Patterson each will receive $100,000 bonuses in the fourth year of their contracts if they work out at the Vikings’ facility during the offseason.

Of note is that the Vikings were able to get the trio to agree to guaranteed contracts for three years, but not for four.

Tyus Jones, the Apple Valley senior point guard prodigy, said he’ll make his highly anticipated college commitment in November. It’ll be surprising if he doesn’t choose Duke.

People in the know expect Jones to play two seasons for coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, then declare himself eligible for the NBA draft.

Krzyzewski will coach the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 when, incidentally, Jones will have completed his sophomore season.

Ex-Gopher Trevor Mbakwe, who recently had a tryout with the Philadelphia 76ers’ summer league team, said he has offers to play in Germany, Italy and Turkey.

For decent money?

“A lot more than I was making at the U,” Mbakwe said with a laugh.

New St. Paul Saints pitcher Jon Plefka, 6 feet 8, 260 pounds, started in basketball for Bob Knight for two seasons at Texas Tech.

“He’s the fiercest competitor I’ve ever seen,” Plefka said of the coach. “It was a great experience playing for him.”

The 10-year anniversary of the fatal car accident of legendary hockey coach and St. Paul native Herb Brooks is Aug. 11.

Golf legend Arnold Palmer, 83, will fly to town this week for the 3M Championship at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine in his Cessna Citation X jet, but he no longer pilots it, as he did for years.

Fred Funk, 57, who finished second in the recent U.S. Senior Open and will play in the 3M Championship, said ex-Gopher Tom Lehman, 54, who also will play in Blaine, “still hits the ball a long way.”

John Harris, 61, a former Gopher and U.S. Amateur champion from Minneapolis, said of Lehman, “His passion is fantastic. He just puts so much effort and energy into it emotionally. He could go home, but he loves it. He loves competing and winning. I’m just amazed that every week he puts so much energy into playing.”

That was baseball hall of famer Dave Winfield and wife Tonya, brother Steve, and Joe and Judy Gallagher dining with Dave Cossetta at Cossetta’s St. Paul restaurant Friday evening.

Twins outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, who was dispatched to Class AAA Rochester after going 3 for 33, is hitting .478 (11 for 23) with three home runs and two doubles in eight games.

Jack Jablonski, 17, the Benilde- St. Margaret’s hockey player who was paralyzed with a broken neck after being checked in a game 1 1/2 years ago, said at a “We Believe” medical fundraiser Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center that he’s “doing great. Therapy’s going really well.”

Doctors told Jablonski after the neck injury that he probably wouldn’t be able to move from his neck and shoulders down.

“I’ve got pretty much full coordination of my arms,” Jablonski said. “I’m obviously restricted on some strength — tricep, wrist, fingers. Otherwise, the arms are pretty much full moving.”

Jablonski’s goal is to return to the ice to play hockey.

“It’ll happen. It takes time, but I understand that,” he said.

Augsburg College is getting new artificial football turf, and the University of St. Thomas is getting a new softball field surface.

Minneapolis’ Jeff Sorenson, Minnesota’s only representative in the PGA Championship on Aug. 8-11 at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y., won two recent tournaments: the Grand View Lodge Challenge ($1,400) in Nisswa, Minn., and the Edinburgh USA pro-am.

The Edinburgh USA men’s club contributed $4,000 to enable Sorenson’s brother-caddie, Matt, to accompany him to England in September for the PGA Cup series.

Baseball hall of famer Paul Molitor of St. Paul has been to each of nine induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y., since his election in 2004 but is missing this weekend’s festivities because of a family wedding reception.

Among former big-leaguers playing in Molitor’s amateur baseball fundraiser golf tournament Monday at Brackett’s Crossing are Juan Berenguer, Roy Smalley, Tom Quinlan, Julio Becquer and Dick Stigman.

Nita Killebrew, widow of Harmon Killebrew, is to represent the former Twin at Baseball Hall of Fame inductions this weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y. Nita will join Hall of Fame widows Anne (Bob) Feller, Luisa (Bowie) Kuhn, Rachel (Jackie) Robinson and Vicki (Ron) Santo at the ceremonies.

Hall of Fame ex-Twin Bert Blyleven will publicly read the plaque of hall of famer Fred Clarke.

Mindy Saunders, daughter of Timberwolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders, gets married Aug. 10 to Ryan Vint, a former Mr. Soccer Minnesota from Wayzata and University of Wisconsin standout.

Ex-Gophers golfer Bronson La’Cassie, who shot 66-63 in the first two rounds of the Boise Open last week, has won $71,329 on the Web.com Tour this year.

Erick Wright, a professional poker player from Shoreview and Minnesota Poker Magazine’s 2012 player of the year, is the new Card Club pro at Running Aces in Columbus.

Gophers pitching coach Todd Oakes, 52, is in complete remission 10 months after being hospitalized for acute myeloid leukemia and is doing well.

Jack Kelly, who was executive director of the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival in the Twin Cities, died last week of bladder cancer. He was 68.

Ex-Vikings QB Donovan McNabb, who has a degree in communications from Syracuse, is headed to Fox Sports Live as an analyst.

Dan Levitt of Minneapolis will be honored this week by the Society for American Baseball Research at its national convention in Philadelphia for his work on baseball’s Federal League.

Motocross champion Ryan Dungey of Belle Plaine, Minn., hosts a 100-kilometer (62-mile) cancer fundraiser cycling tour Sunday, July 28, along the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers.

DON’T PRINT THAT

U.S. Bank remains the clear front-runner for corporate naming rights to the Vikings’ new stadium. That deal could be worth at least $10 million annually for the Vikings.

A little birdie says the Wild lost $30 million during their abbreviated 2012-13 season, and a cash call was made to team investors in February. The Wild paid bonuses totaling $20 million to sign free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

After this season, as a 10-year major league veteran including five with the same team, the Twins’ Joe Mauer, 30, can veto any trade.

New Gophers men’s basketball assistant Kimani Young has Minnesota in the recruiting hunt for 6-4 guard Isaiah Whitehead of Lincoln High in Brooklyn, N.Y. Whitehead is among the elite guards in New York.

New Gophers basketball wing Malik Smith clearly is an upgrade over Joe Coleman, who left for St. Mary’s in California.

Ex-Timberwolves assistant Eric Musselman of Arizona State played a big role in Penn State guard Jermaine Marshall‘s recent transfer to the Sun Devils. Marshall averaged 15.3 points last season.

Look for Jack Ramsey, son of former Gophers and NHL standout Mike Ramsey, to bypass his senior season at Minnetonka High this year to play Junior A hockey for the Penticton Vees in British Columbia. Ramsey, a forward, has committed to the Gophers.

Mike Ramsey is spending the weekend fishing on Rainy Lake with 1980 USA Olympic gold medal-winning hockey teammates Bill Baker and Phil Verchota. Ramsey is retired, Baker is a dentist in Brainerd, Minn., and Verchota is a banker in Bemidji.

South St. Paul native Phil Housley, a first-year assistant with the Nashville Predators, won’t be a coach with the 2014 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team in Sochi, Russia, but don’t be surprised if he is with the 2018 Olympic team that will compete in South Korea.

Cretin-Derham Hall baseball coach Jim O’Neill will be named winner of the 2013 Dick Siebert Award by the Minnesota High School Coaches Association on Oct. 26 at the Ramada Plaza hotel in Minneapolis.

OVERHEARD

Former Gopher Mike Ramsey on 1980 Olympic gold medal hockey teammate Mike Eruzione selling his Olympic keepsakes for more than $1 million: “They say there’s a price for everything.”

Follow Charley Walters at twitter.com/Charley–Walters. He can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com.