Ever since the waiving of Randy Moss(notes) revealed a deep schism in the Minnesota Vikings locker room, it became a matter of when, not if, Brad Childress would follow Moss out the door. "When" came on Monday morning.The Vikings fired Childress one day after the team's uninspired 31-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The loss dropped Minnesota to 3-7 and effectively ended any chance the team had at a miracle run to the playoffs.
Childress paid the price.
It was a long time coming for the 54-year-old coach, who was in his fifth season with the team. Despite making it to the NFC Championship game last season and coming within a Brett Favre(notes) interception of advancing to the Super Bowl, Childress fell out of favor in Minnesota with his handling of the Moss situation. In reality, though, he had lost the team long before.
His desperate attempts to lure Favre out of retirement this summer had rubbed many on the team the wrong way. When Favre played like the beat-up, 41-year-old he is, it only increased the level of scrutiny on Childress. Then the Moss incident happened, in which Childress reportedly cut the receiver after trading for him and didn't tell anyone in the front office about it. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was reportedly displeased and considered firing Childress on the spot, but ended up giving his coach a chance to right the sinking ship.
A comeback win in the week following the Moss waiving gave Childress a stay of execution, but two division losses to the Chicago Bears and Packers sealed his fate. The Vikings looked bad against the Bears. In Sunday's game against Green Bay, the team looked like it quit on its coach.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Long-time-coming-Vikings-fire-Childress-Frazie?urn=nfl-288111&post_comment=1&success=1
Monday, November 22, 2010
Long time coming: Vikings fire Childress; Frazier named coach
Vikings fire Childress after falling to 3-7
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota (AP)—The Minnesota Vikings fired Brad Childress on Monday, cutting ties with a head coach who had come under increasing fire from quarterback Brett Favre(notes) and other players after a terrible start to the season.
A fan has his Christmas wish a…
AP - Nov 21, 5:08 pm ESTDefensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
The Vikings fell to 3-7 after a 31-3 loss to rival Green Bay on Sunday, the final blow to Childress in his fifth season in charge of the team. It was his most-lopsided home defeat as head coach, dropping his overall record to 40-37.
Childress took over for the fired Mike Tice in 2006 after spending seven years with the Eagles, including four as the offensive coordinator. He was chosen by owner Zygi Wilf to instill discipline and demand better off-the-field behavior from a team that had been embarrassed by misbehaving players.
However, Childress stumbled in his first year and never fully gained the faith of the fans—or some of his players.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-vikings-childressfired
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Vikings on Childress: We're winning despite him"
As we're already well aware, Brad Childress does not live under normal circumstances. He and Brett Favre(notes), his Hall of Fame quarterback, have been squabbling back and forth for the better part of two seasons. The coach's dictatorial and contradictory nature has driven many of his players to distraction, and most in the know believe that if the Vikings hadn't pulled out a huge comeback win against the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday, Childress would already be gone; riding out on the Wade Phillips Express.
The real source and level of that invective from players to coach was laid bare by Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times in a Wednesday story. After the win over Arizona, several Vikings players made their feelings very clear on the condition of anonymity. Childress' penchant for publicly rebuking his own players and openly questioning the efforts of those players in various practices (which recently led to a near-dustup between Childress and receiver Percy Harvin(notes)) has led to a situation in which, as one player told Jensen, "'We know that Childress doesn't have our backs, so why should we have his? We're playing for us, and we're winning despite him.''
If this was how the players felt after a win, one wonders what they said to Wilf when the team was 2-5. Perhaps the players have been put in the torturous position of knowing that if they continue winning, the coach they appear to hate will stay in his position, and the one they respect will be denied the opportunity they want him to have. And if the Vikings' players are torn between trying and not trying under those circumstances, Childress should be fired immediately.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Vikings-on-Childress-We-re-winning-despite-him;_ylt=AqEHqz5CuayvNHsx4FTiaFdDubYF?urn=nfl-284371