The worst kept secret outside of Texas has finally come to pass.
In what is probably the least surprising firing of a head coach outside of Wade Phillips this year, Brad Childress has finally, mercifully been given his walking papers by the Vikings brass today. This coming roughly a year after getting to within one poorly timed interception of making the Super Bowl and earning a three year contract extension shows just how far this team has fallen from expectations. So is Childress to blame for the Vikings slide into mediocrity, or is his firing just the usual fallback move that losing clubs due to placate the fans?
In a way it could be a little bit of both.
Childress has already proved that he can coach a team to consistent winning seasons; his first four years on the job prove that very well. But this year, when the ball of yarn that was this years Viking squad started unraveling, he seemed be completely lost as to what to do to fix it. Granted some things were beyond his control, such as wide receiver Sidney Rice being out for half the year, but that was before pre-season even started. With their star wide receiver out for half the season, you’d think adapting the game plan to have less emphasis on the passing game and getting the ball more to Adrian Peterson would have made sense. Or when Favre looked a bit shaky (which seems to be more and more this season), give some time to Travis Jackson. He was able to improve McNabb to be a starter once upon a time in Philadelphia, and 2007 was a long time ago.
And then there was the Moss fiasco.
In the end, the whole thing had potential circus written all over it. With being the club with the most experience in what Moss could bring on and off the field, letting him go after one month and a now decent draft pick later was a arbitrary over reaction to what the club should have expected. After all, the Patriots almost helped him pack his bags soon after he started giving hints of becoming the old Moss, so that he was going to have the persona that he exhibited in his first time around with Minnesota. And while getting rid of a bad apple that was looking to add a lot of un-needed drama, axing the guy that only a month ago he was welcoming with open arms either says that Childress’s ability to assess personas brutally failed him, or that he was desperate to contain a clusterfuck in the making.
Needless to say he failed horribly.
Now I’m not going to dance on the guy’s grave here, as Leslie Frazier seems to be doing that for us,
“This is a day, in some ways, of celebration for our team,”
, but really Childress started out with an average hand, misplayed it, and the cards fell apart on him afterwards. His inability to not control the locker room and adapt his strategies to what has really become a rebuilding team has found him in this predicament, with the Moss thing being the rancid cherry on top. Now the players aren’t guiltless in this, as if they had played to what they were expected too, they would most likely be closer to a 5-5 record then standing at 3-7 and a nice Green Bay pasting across their backsides, but its a lot easier to release one coach then a whole starting lineup. Even if they’re both guilty of stinking up the joint. With things played out a bit differently, he might have survived to the end of the season, if not longer. Giving Travis Jackson a start or two. letting Moss diminished play fail to cash the cheque his mouth couldn’t cash. Have Sidney Rice and Adrian Peterson help to step up the anaemic offence some. In short, some patience would have been just what the doctor ordered. Any chance for the playoffs was pretty much gone, it couldn’t hurt to have shaken things up a little bit regardless of if it had worked.
So in the end, where does Childress go from here? In my opinion he shouldn’t be out of a job for long. His track record points ot being able to take clubs that are reaching the .500 mark, and with a decent general manager, being able to make them into perennial contenders. Teams that don’t have a circus type atmosphere surrounding them would probably be a bonus. With the Vikings looking almost in rebuild mode (or at least, playing like it), maybe it was better for Childress to move on sooner rather then later. After all, it didn’t seem like being the third most successful coach for their franchise amounted to much with the amount of knives in his back.
Whose knows, maybe he’ll end up in Green Bay next year? It would bring things full circle
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The owner of the Sports Blog Network, Chris tells it exactly as he sees it, be it in the stands, in front of the tv, or on his semi-trusty laptop. And always with a can of trusty Dr. Pepper by his side, and spell-check working overtime. 