Eight years ago today...

[Funkytown]

It looks like you already knew, so did you really need to send mondry into therapy mode to get an answer to your Childress inquiry lol?

That was a nicely written response by mondry though. From a guy that sounds like he had a lot of Childress related weight sitting on his chest lol. I can't think of anything to add. His lack of clock management and stubbornness with TJack were my biggest gripes. That and trying to handcuff Favre during that epic run. But yeah, the fact that he was fired by Cleveland after just 1 year as OC and is now the Chiefs "spread game analyst" (geez Andy Reid didn't even want him back at OC) instead of getting another head coaching job should say a lot.

I more wonder why Childress was even hired to begin with. I was never excited about his hiring. The pickings must have been pretty slim at the time. Who else did we inteview? Al Saunders, Jim Caldwell, and Ted Cottrell? 3 offensive minded and 1 defensive minded. I assume we wanted to go in an offensive direction and the Childress offense sounded more kick #### than that of Saunders or Caldwell? Although as offensive coordinator in Philly he didn't even call the plays, so what made his offense so kick ####?

As far as Wilf goes, he hired Childress, haha kidding ... he also fired Childress (and Tice who I also wasn't very fond of) so he's growing on me. At first he seemed to be running the Vikings like a fan who had won some sweepstakes to run an NFL franchise for a year. But now that he seems more willing to allow football guys make more of the football decisions, I feel a little more comfortable. And I thought he handled the stadium issue about as well as an owner could.

Well, by that point, WAVF was really dying down. So there wasn't a whole lot of "discussing" going on, so it's not surprising I was one of the few sticking up for Childress...

But what DO I remember about that?!?! No one said CRAP about Childress being fired in '08 and '09. NO ONE. Not a peep. Then '10 happens and everyone loses their mind. How does that work? If he was truly worthless the entire time, then complain about him being fired (not that it proves anything lol) while the team is successful--don't wait until it fails to speak up. EVERYTHING went wrong in 2010 for the Vikings--everything. All of it wasn't his fault. He's only one man.

He's far from perfect; but again, he's not the worst coach ever. I don't think the team would have continued to improve (despite QB issues) and made it oh-so-close to the Super Bowl if he was. As a matter of fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say that if Childress and the Vikings would have won the Super Bowl in '09...there would be a WHOLE lot less haters. Wanna bet? And for those of you who would still hate him after helping you achieve something you have been trying to be a part of for decades and decades...I would just say that you're probably just extremely ungrateful and unnappreciative in general--which is actually something I've noticed about Vikings fans. They are in line to criticize...but run and hide when it's time to give credit. lol. Not so much on this site (there are just a few of you that I've noticed so far), but on the other sites I was a part of..holy cow. Negative Nancies and Debbie Downers at every turn.

Either way, it is what it is. You guys can dislike Childress all you want. It doesn't affect me any. I was just curious on the bitter feelings. I'm not bitter about his overall time in Minnesota. He did some shady things, no doubt. But, overall, I enjoyed a couple of his seasons...a lot.

I was curious on the bitter feelings towards Green, as well. But I'm not anymore. lol. Forget it. Whew!

[Mothman]

Responding to a few posts at once here....

I do remember a lot of this being discussed. Regardless, did he win games? I thought he won 6, then 8, then 10, then 12? That all happened in spite of him? I highly doubt that. So the team just kept getting better and better around him without his help?

No, he helped but he also hurt and his limitations as a coach placed a ceiling on the team's achievements. Childress wasn't wholly incompetent. As someone else said, he understood the Xs and Os of the game and the team was able to assemble a good roster and win while he was head coach but his shortcomings were substantial. His teams won primarily on talent and while I would never take all of the credit for a good win or a good season away from a head coach, some deserve more than others. Childress put together a lot of poor, often overly-conservative game plans and adopted a "win now" strategy that the Vikes paid for dearly after his departure. He had virtually no decent plan at QB and the mess he left the team in is indicative of his shortcomings. He alienated players, made ridiculous in-game decisions (like the late 4th quarter punt against tennessee that Mondry mentioned) and rarely out-coached an opposing team with a comparable talent level.

One of the reasons both Childress and Dennis Green are remebered less-than-fondlyby many Vikes fans because both coaches ended up with too much authority within the organization and ultimately steered the team into a mess. Green squandered a Super Bowl caliber roster in '98 when the Vikes became the first 15-1 team to reach the Super Bowl and many fans think Childress did the same in '09. When both were dismissed, they left a huge mess and a big rebuilding project behind them, indications of their mismanagement.

Green started off okay but became power-crazed and paranoid by the end of his tenure.

Then they just decided to give up on him, THEMSELVES, the owners, the fans, and the state of Minnesota in '10? So...the players are to blame for the mess of '10 and '11? Which is it? Because if the players get most of the credit for the improvements and success of '08 and '09 then they would get most of the blame to follow, right? Or does that only work for negativity concerning the coach?

It's not that simple. What happened in '10 wasn't simply a team giving up on it's head coach. It was a team getting too old and banged up and struggling mightily without good leadership. Key players grew old or got injured and Childress' short term, " win now" approach caught up with him and the Vikings because they didn't have the depth or leadership to deal with the problems they faced.

[Funkytown]

No, he helped but he also hurt and his limitations as a coach placed a ceiling on the team's achievements. Childress wasn't wholly incompetent. As someone else said, he understood the Xs and Os of the game and the team was able to assemble a good roster and win while he was head coach but his shortcomings were substantial. His teams won primarily on talent and while I would never take all of the credit for a good win or a good season away from a head coach, some deserve more than others. Childress put together a lot of poor, often overly-conservative game plans and adopted a "win now" strategy that the Vikes paid for dearly after his departure. He had virtually no decent plan at QB and the mess he left the team in is indicative of his shortcomings. He alienated players, made ridiculous in-game decisions (like the late 4th quarter punt against tennessee that Mondry mentioned) and rarely out-coached an opposing team with a comparable talent level.

One of the reasons both Childress and Dennis Green are remebered less-than-fondlyby many Vikes fans because both coaches ended up with too much authority within the organization and ultimately steered the team into a mess. Green squandered a Super Bowl caliber roster in '98 when the Vikes became the first 15-1 team to reach the Super Bowl and many fans think Childress did the same in '09. When both were dismissed, they left a huge mess and a big rebuilding project behind them, indications of their mismanagement.

Green started off okay but became power-crazed and paranoid by the end of his tenure.
It's not that simple. What happened in '10 wasn't simply a team giving up on it's head coach. It was a team getting too old and banged up and struggling mightily without good leadership. Key players grew old or got injured and Childress' short term, " win now" approach caught up with him and the Vikings because they didn't have the depth or leadership to deal with the problems they faced.

I really do have homework to do. This is why I try to stay away from Vikings talk. It's severely distracting.

I still feel like the bitter feelings towards Childress are overboard, especially when all of the good is ignored. It's like a regretful, failed relationship. You love them at the time, but when it's over they are garbage, horrible, worthless, and you don't even know why you were with them in the first place. LOL. I get it, but that doesn't mean it's right. For those of you who wanted him gone from the get-go...that's cool...for those of you who wanted him fired while we made it to the playoffs back to back..cool...but for those of you who waited until '10 to want him gone, I just can't get down with that. That's taking the easy way out. That's all.

And in case y'all are wondering...I still like Childress just fine.

[Funkytown]

It's not that simple. What happened in '10 wasn't simply a team giving up on it's head coach. It was a team getting too old and banged up and struggling mightily without good leadership. Key players grew old or got injured and Childress' short term, " win now" approach caught up with him and the Vikings because they didn't have the depth or leadership to deal with the problems they faced.

Just as I don't believe it's that simple to blame so much on the coach, when there are dozens of players, coaches, and coordinators who play a role, too.

And don't pretend all the guys aged SO MUCH in that ONE TINY offseason. Come on. lol. They got their hearts broken and it was hard to get their passion back. Didn't something similar happen with Green and Stringer? Yeah. Sometimes you just lose your juice--and it takes a while to get it back. Things happen, but it doesn't mean the coaches didn't do some great things while in charge just because it ended badly.

[HardcoreVikesFan]

I am completely speechless, there is someone who would consider childress a good coach on this board? I'm hesitant because I don't want to fall for the bait if this is just a troll but I simply can't help myself.

Where does one even begin when describing the ineptitude of Brad childress?! I'll need a moment... I never thought this day would actually come...

First, let me start off by saying that sure, while he was here, the organization which included him, the Wilfs, Spielman, and Rob Brzezinski as the Triangle of Authority managed to acquire talent for what was already a very talented team. When Childress was hired, he himself stated this was a "plum" job. The team had a stable of solid veteran players in Antoine Winfield, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams, Darren Sharper, Chris Kluwe, Brad Johnson, Matt Birk, Jimmy Kliensausser, Bryant Mckinnie, and Mewelde Moore.

Now, Red Mcombs had the team so far under the salary cap, the first thing the organization (yes childress was a part of it, but let's thank the wilfs for not being tight wads to make it all possible!) could do was make a massive splash in free agency. We signed Chester Taylor, Visante Shiancoe, Ryan Longwell, E.J. Henderson, Ben Leber, Steve Hutchinson, Tony Richardson, Dwight Smith, Nafahu Tahi, Artis Hicks, and Brooks balls out Bollinger. There are more but I doubt anyone would even recognize the names so I'm stopping there. My point is, there was a lot of talent on this team before he got here, and the organization improved it further. He was part of it so he'll get some credit for that but he himself did not develop any of these players.

With all that in mind, Mike Tice went 9-7 with the team in 2005 and was fired by Wilf. After all that spending and bringing in what we now know are quality players, Childress went 6-10 which was 3 games worse than Mike Tice's shoe string budget team.

The 2006 draft starts the beginning of the end for what is arguable the worst job of handling the QB position we've probably ever seen as Vikings fans. Childress needs his QB and so we trade up into the second round to take Tarvaris Jackson, at the time you might have said WHO? Jackson wasn't even expected to be drafted IIRC, he went to a small ball school in Alabama State but this was Childress' Mcnabb clone.

In 2007, we had a minor miracle happen in that Adrian Peterson fell to us at the #7 spot. This pick would redefine our franchise and as we know now, Peterson is on path to become one of the greatest of all time. The problem in 2007 is that Peterson alone was enough to improve the win loss record in which the team finished 8-8, still one game worse than Mike Tice's squad 2 years ago, I wonder how he would have done with an Adrian Peterson on the team and that kind of budget?

In 2008 we needed even more to push us over the top. The organization traded a bunch of picks to get Jared Allen and of course with hindsight now we know what a tremendous player he has been. The team also signs a notable name back to the team for another stint in Gus Frerrote (foreshadowing!) After an unacceptable 0-2 start Childress does something ballzy, he benches his pet project Tjackson to go with the Vet Frerrote. That's all fine and dandy but in week 14 after getting the Vikes back to 8-5 frerrote get's hurt and Jackson has to take over. That's obviously not the issue, after Frerrote get's healthy and the Vikings make the playoffs, Childress sticks with Jackson only for the Vikings to lose 26-14 to the Eagles in which the offense struggles and Jackson throws a pick 6 to Asante Samuel. Most would argue that after going 8-3 Frerrote had earned the right to be the starter, a dick move demoting the guy during an injury. Finally after all of this, 1 game better than Tice.

In 2009 of course there is a lot of controversy. We let Gus go and bring in Sage Rosenfels. He's told he'll be able to compete with Jackson for the starting job. However, Childress comes up with a new idea, we'll pursue Brett Favre and in the end, sage AND Jackson get dicked over. As fans we'll take Brett Favre but it's an awful way to manage your team when you're telling guys one thing and end up doing another. Of course he didn't care, his master plan was all that mattered.

So with yet another super star player acquired surely this is the year. The Vikings look incredible and at 9-1 look like a sure thing to lock up the #1 seed. However, we go 1-3 in our next 4 games and this is when the reports of Favre and Childress clashing start to surface. Childress hell bent on controlling Favre seemingly demanded the offense be run exactly how he wanted it with no audibles and standard run, run, short pass sequences. The Vikings lost to a bad Panthers team QB'd by Matt Moore 26 to 7. The following week against the bears we didn't score a single point before half time. The once unstoppable Vikings offense could only manage 7 points in 1.5 games, Childress had successfully neutered Favre and we were back to chili ball. (see my Avatar)

I still remember the near come back attempt in the second half against the bears where Favre finally says "screw this" and audibles out of a running play, throws a touch down pass and the look on Childress face was just pure disgust, he had been defied and this was after the team scored a freaking touch down! Only Brett Favre's Ego was an equal match for Childress and while we still lost that game, the vikings scored THIRTY POINTS in the second half. It was literally like flipping a light switch from Hand Cuffed Favre to shackles off blowing up the defense Favre. Brad Childress' stubbornness and ego had cost the Vikings home field advantage throughout the playoffs and imo, a superbowl appearance, we murder the saints at home.

2010 is when the wheels pretty much fell off the wagon. Childress hatches a plan to get rid of Sage Rosenfels, a guy spielman wanted and brought to the team. He notices that Joe Webb guy looks an awful lot like Mcnabb out there, why don't we make him a QB? The team continues to persuade Favre to come back for one more go at it and he reluctantly returns. This gives Childress the green light in his mind and he trades the only other resemblance of a QB on the roster in Sage as well as Darius Reynaud to the Giants for a 5th and 7th round pick.

The Bye week comes early this year in week 4 and we're sadly 1-2. We simply need MOAR!1!1 and the team sends a 3rd round pick to New England for Randy Moss. However it doesn't help at all and within a few weeks Childress act's alone and cuts Randy Moss making the franchise look like a total joke. This is ultimately the straw that breaks the camels back for the Wilfs, Childress had already lost a good portion of the team and when that happens there is no other solution but to fire him. Frazier takes over as interim head coach to finish out the year. After the year finishes out, the Triangle of authority is laid to rest and Spielman is promoted to GM to avoid situations like this where the coach can make roster based decisions on his own.


Sorry about this massive review of the past few years, I just felt like it needed to be done.

The top reasons Childress was an awful coach.

1. He sucked on game day. Seriously, he was dreadfully bad, the guy never made adjustments because his system never changed. If it didn't work he would say "the players just need to execute it better." The guy couldn't manage a clock to save his life and I still think to this day, he's the only coach I've ever seen with 1:20 left in the game, with NO TIME OUTS LEFT, punt the ball away on 4th down when we were LOSING THE GAME. Big surprise the other team kneeled down 3 times and the game was over. Just mind bogglingly bad clock management.

2. He was just too god damn stubborn with a gigantic ego. Refering back to #1 his system and schemes were perfect in his eyes, if they weren't working the players just weren't doing it right. The "kick #### offense" will forever be a complete joke. Who cuts a guy the team had just traded for a few weeks ago? That's absolutely unheard of, unless of course you're Brad Childress, rule with an iron fist!

3. The way he handled players and the "delicate" side of things made him look like a complete inhuman ####. He docked Troy Williamson a week's worth of pay for going to his grand mothers funeral. He cut Marcus Robinson on Christmas eve and of course cutting Randy Moss the way he did. The way he screwed over Sage Rosenfels, screwed Gus Frerrote, and even screwed Tjackson to some extent.

4. Matt Birk takes less money to play for the Ravens and Sharper leaves for NO. If you believe in your coach, your team, you don't do what birk did. He's from minnesota, he went to harvard so he's obviously pretty damn smart but he wasn't gonna play for Childress. In Sharper's case he was fed up with the way he was being utilized in the conventional cover 2 scheme childress wanted run. The phrase Square peg round hole was practically an every day occurrence though.

5. Telegraphed offense - The guy would literally bring in Jeff Dugan, Tahi and Jim Kliensauser for running plays and sub Shiancoe back in on passes, before Favre got here and told Chilly to F off you could literally predict the plays with 90% accuracy.

6. He lost the team, as I said earlier that's the ultimate sign of a bad coach in my book. Players are smart, they know football, if you ask them to bang thier heads against the wall over and over eventually they're going to realize you don't know what you're talking about. If you want to remember 2009 then remember the players busting their butts and overcoming such a poor leader. Childress was such a negative influence on the team that he cost them games. Before he was fired, Childress went 3-7, when the team wasn't completely stacked around him that's the guy's true coaching level, 3 and 7. Of course it might have been worse but Wilf stopped the bleeding there, thank goodness for such a good owner! (HAHAHA ON TOPIC WOOT!)

P.S. The one yard dump off's to Tahi in the kick #### offense are probably going to give me nightmares again. I had locked them away into a deep dark place they were never suppose to resurface again...

Sorry for this post, seriously, I think Childress is the only person I've never met that I absolutely hate with a passion. I would poop in his cheerios if given the chance. I might need therapy... then again we're all vikings fans, we probably all could use some therapy LOL!

Excellent post Mondry.


If I may nitpick Mondry: We traded for Brooks Bollinger (gave up a promising young defensive tackle named C.J. Mosely for him) and we drafted E.J. Henderson in the 2nd round out of Maryland in 2003.

[HornedMessiah]

Excellent post Mondry.

Agreed, I don't know what else you could add because mondry pretty much hit all the points. I guess personality-wise he wasn't a peach either: he came across as very wooden and arrogant most of the time. Not the best public speaker either, which resulted in many memorable quotes which I think are collected in a thread from a few years back after he was fired.

[Rus]

I think they've "become" arguably the best owners in the NFL. Their first 4 years were a learning curve (they made their share of mistakes).

Their handling of Mike Tice was weird, to say the least. The whole poll of season ticket holders made it seem like they just didn't know what they were doing. Especially after they had lavished consistent praise on him most of that season. Then hiring Childress mostly based on a couple recommendations (when there were better coaching candidates looking for work). Attempting to implement their "triangle of authority" because it worked for their real estate business was pretty silly in retrospect.

They've gotten a whole lot better, though. They learned that impulsive, knee jerk fans should be ignored. It takes more than just a few free agent signings to build a solid team. They're definitely pretty smart guys, or they (like many NFL owners) wouldn't have learned this much. They found a smart guy in Spielman to take care of all the little details, and just sat back and enjoyed the development of the team as fans (who cut big checks, of course). They managed something that two other owners failed to accomplish...namely, getting the state to go in on a new stadium. And they accomplished that feat with patience and respect for citizens that had to foot the bill (there's no easy way to ask people to give you a bunch of money to help your business...but they could have been quite a bit more active with relocation threats like many other teams are).

Kinda amazing what giving a couple of billionaires a new stadium (and an instant, dramatic increase in their organization's value) does for their attitude, approach, and likeability though.

[Funkytown]

Agreed, I don't know what else you could add because mondry pretty much hit all the points. I guess personality-wise he wasn't a peach either: he came across as very wooden and arrogant most of the time. Not the best public speaker either, which resulted in many memorable quotes which I think are collected in a thread from a few years back after he was fired.

His sarcastic personality is actually why I kinda liked him. There is plenty of sarcasm that goes on on this message board, so for that to be one of his "faults" sort of makes me laugh. The sarcasm tends to come out when someone gets a little defensive or irritated. He didn't take any crap. I like it.

As far as not being a great public speaker, have you heard half of these guys? Especially the athletes...holy cow. I'd like to see that thread of quotes actually. It's probably pretty funny. People need to learn to laugh a little, even about Childress. Life is too short.

[Funkytown]

They've gotten a whole lot better, though. They learned that impulsive, knee jerk fans should be ignored. It takes more than just a few free agent signings to build a solid team. They're definitely pretty smart guys, or they (like many NFL owners) wouldn't have learned this much. They found a smart guy in Spielman to take care of all the little details, and just sat back and enjoyed the development of the team as fans (who cut big checks, of course). They managed something that two other owners failed to accomplish...namely, getting the state to go in on a new stadium. And they accomplished that feat with patience and respect for citizens that had to foot the bill (there's no easy way to ask people to give you a bunch of money to help your business...but they could have been quite a bit more active with relocation threats like many other teams are).

Very well said.

[Mothman]

I really do have homework to do. This is why I try to stay away from Vikings talk. It's severely distracting.

I still feel like the bitter feelings towards Childress are overboard, especially when all of the good is ignored. It's like a regretful, failed relationship. You love them at the time, but when it's over they are garbage, horrible, worthless, and you don't even know why you were with them in the first place. LOL. I get it, but that doesn't mean it's right. For those of you who wanted him gone from the get-go...that's cool...for those of you who wanted him fired while we made it to the playoffs back to back..cool...but for those of you who waited until '10 to want him gone, I just can't get down with that. That's taking the easy way out. That's all.

And in case y'all are wondering...I still like Childress just fine.

To each his own.

I wanted Chili gone in 2006. His mishandling of the Culpepper situation was an early warning sign that he might not have the leadership/management skills to be a successful head coach and by the end of that season, I thought it was clear that he lacked "the right stuff". It wasn't just the win/loss record (because a good coach can finish with a bad record in a season) but ... well, all of the issues I mentioned above.

Just as I don't believe it's that simple to blame so much on the coach, when there are dozens of players, coaches, and coordinators who play a role, too.

Well, it's certainly unfair to place ALL the blame at the coach's feet but Childress deserves a substantial share of it because he was more than just a head coach. He was heavily involved in personnel decisions, which yielded a pair of winning seasons in the short term but left the team in a horrible situation when his desperate run at the Super bowl didn't pay off.

And don't pretend all the guys aged SO MUCH in that ONE TINY offseason.

I'm not pretending anything and I didn't say the entire roster aged so much in one offseason, nor did I suggest age was the only factor in the team's collapse. However, it was a factor, particularly at DT and QB, where Pat Williams and Brett Favre were pretty much done. They weren't the only players whose NFL careers were nearing the finish line either. Ben Leber was just about done and Hutchinson's age was catching up to him too. E.J. henderson was coming off a terrible injury and he was never the same again. Kleinsasser still had a little gas in the tank but his game was diminishing as well. Most of the players above were out of football within a year or two. Age had been catching up to them for a while.

As I said, injuries played a big role too. Rice and Griffin missed most of the season. The team's miserable 2010 was much more than just broken hearts and lack of passion.

Come on. lol. They got their hearts broken and it was hard to get their passion back. Didn't something similar happen with Green and Stringer? Yeah. Sometimes you just lose your juice--and it takes a while to get it back. Things happen, but it doesn't mean the coaches didn't do some great things while in charge just because it ended badly.

What "great things" did Childress do? He inherited a team with a winning record and managed two winning seasons and one playoff win in 5 years. I doubt he'd even have that one win if it he hadn't coaxed Favre into playing for him. Again, he's not the worst coach of all time or anything (there have certainly been worse) but the guy had a knack for doing less with more and I think that's a big, big strike against him. The really big strike against him is that his short-sighted approach led the team directly to a 3-13 season and make no mistake, the kind of bottoming out the Vikes did in 2010 and 2011 was a direct consequence of his mismanagement.

[mondry]

Responding to a few posts at once here....

I do remember a lot of this being discussed. Regardless, did he win games? I thought he won 6, then 8, then 10, then 12? That all happened in spite of him? I highly doubt that. So the team just kept getting better and better around him without his help? Then they just decided to give up on him, THEMSELVES, the owners, the fans, and the state of Minnesota in '10? So...the players are to blame for the mess of '10 and '11? Which is it? Because if the players get most of the credit for the improvements and success of '08 and '09 then they would get most of the blame to follow, right? Or does that only work for negativity concerning the coach?

That's a common mistake Childress supporters make, in actuality he took an up and coming 9-7 team that had some decent pieces in place and regressed to 6-10. It wasn't until significantly more funding was invested into the team in guys like Jared Allen, Steve Hutchinson, Bernard Berrian, Madieu Williams, Visante Shiancoe, Ben Leber, etc and the drafting of Adrian Peterson, Sydney Rice, Percy Harvin occurred and only then was Childress able to surpass that 9-7 team. For simplicity's sake, let's give Childress 100% of the credit for those picks and signings. (even though without him Spielman seems to be doing just fine) Great, childress brought in a lot of talent, that's a plus in my book. It still doesn't change ANYTHING about his coaching ability, he wasn't hired to be a draft expert or talent evaluator. I simply feel the correlation between acquiring talented players and the teams win / loss record simply cannot be denied.

I know you're newer here but you can ask mothman or a number of other posters but I was very anti childress, not from the get go mind you, I need time to make an accurate analysis but probably some where in his second year there were just way too many bad signs from him as a leader / game day coach. By 2008 I wanted him gone and in 2009 along with Mothman I thought it was a HUGE mistake leaning on Favre and going all in on it. Admittedly, the team got a lot closer to the super bowl then I thought it would and that was a heck of a season, Brett Favre was with the Jets and tore his bicep / shoulder I think, or rotator cuff, I thought it would be a bigger concern but instead he played out of his mind! Even so, I was "right" in that it would hurt the future outside of the 2009 season, although I wish I had been wrong.

However the same short comings I saw that had plagued the 6-10, 8-8 teams where still there in the coaching department, the players we had playing were simply better. The all in mentality blew up in our face and we were left with the 4th oldest team in the league and one that was mightily over paid. On the back end of so many players career's, they simply couldn't over come the coaching deficiency's any more and went 3-7. Ultimately I think you're right, I would blame the players for how they played on the field in that 3-7 time period because they ultimately did do exactly what you said, they gave up, period. On the surface it's that simple, but it's easy enough to look deeper and see the root of the problem.

I understand where you're coming from, you're use to making a stand against negativity and having to defend against it, I applaud you for that. Again you're "newer" here but when Frazier's team went 3-13 a LOT of people wanted him fired, but not me. I didn't see him making the same mistakes childress did, on game day the team always played hard and seemed prepared under him, he made good use of time outs and challenges and despite the team being awful you could see the adjustments he was trying to make. I didn't know if he'd be a great coach but I knew he wasn't a bad one so I hoped he would get more time. My point is, I think you're taking a stand based on a set way of guidelines (everyone deserves their share of credit / blame) and 9 times out of 10 that's fine. When it comes to Childress, this is that 1 time that really stands out and defies normal logic in that he deserves a big portion of the blame, and not so much of the credit (though was a part of one of the greatest Vikings seasons ever!) If you've followed the NFL for a while, there was a coach for the Chargers named Marty Shotenhiemer (sp?) who would take those super talented teams (every year they were predicted to win the superbowl) and they'd bounce out of the playoffs year after year. Childress was our Marty.

I apologize about the troll comment and putting words in your mouth, I didn't honestly believe you had waited all this time posting here just to troll us about Childress hehe. As a viking fan I'm sure you know their are buttons that can be pushed and sore subjects!

[Funkytown]

I understand where you're coming from, you're use to making a stand against negativity and having to defend against it, I applaud you for that.

There is a lot of truth to this, and thank you.

[mondry]

Fair enough.

8D

Thanks for letting me vent!

I think they've "become" arguably the best owners in the NFL. Their first 4 years were a learning curve (they made their share of mistakes).

Their handling of Mike Tice was weird, to say the least. The whole poll of season ticket holders made it seem like they just didn't know what they were doing. Especially after they had lavished consistent praise on him most of that season. Then hiring Childress mostly based on a couple recommendations (when there were better coaching candidates looking for work). Attempting to implement their "triangle of authority" because it worked for their real estate business was pretty silly in retrospect.

They've gotten a whole lot better, though. They learned that impulsive, knee jerk fans should be ignored. It takes more than just a few free agent signings to build a solid team. They're definitely pretty smart guys, or they (like many NFL owners) wouldn't have learned this much. They found a smart guy in Spielman to take care of all the little details, and just sat back and enjoyed the development of the team as fans (who cut big checks, of course). They managed something that two other owners failed to accomplish...namely, getting the state to go in on a new stadium. And they accomplished that feat with patience and respect for citizens that had to foot the bill (there's no easy way to ask people to give you a bunch of money to help your business...but they could have been quite a bit more active with relocation threats like many other teams are).

Kinda amazing what giving a couple of billionaires a new stadium (and an instant, dramatic increase in their organization's value) does for their attitude, approach, and likeability though.

I am definitely super pleased with them, agree with your take on the first four years. For the first time in long while I feel like the team is absolutely on the up and I'm super excited for this upcoming season and eventually the new stadium.

In the next 5 years I think the Vikings will have at least one super bowl win!

[Funkytown]

The really big strike against him is that his short-sighted approach led the team directly to a 3-13 season and make no mistake, the kind of bottoming out the Vikes did in 2010 and 2011 was a direct consequence of his mismanagement.

This short-sighted approach you mentioned almost got us to the Super Bowl. Isn't that the goal? He did the best he could, and it was the best team of recent years. One of the best teams in the last what...3 or 4 decades? Dude. I'm not crying about it. I disagree with NOTHING about 2009 except for coming up short...but everyone should be used to that by now. Don't blame Childress. Blame the Vikings curse. Yeah, the following years were hard to watch, because everyone had unreal expectations. Favre was a great gamble. If we would have won the Super Bowl, no one would have cared about 2010 and 2011. Coulda, shoulda, woulda...the story of the Vikings. I prefer the way things are handled now, as far as building a competitive team for years and years to come through the draft and whatnot, but when you have guys available in free agency that might put your team over the edge, you just have to pull the trigger--short-sighted or not. Childress almost made it happen for us. He deserves some credit.

And I still don't completely understand what happened from '09 to '10, but again, I don't blame it all on Childress. And I don't think ONE year should have made such a huge, huge difference. Something else was in the works. EVERYTHING went wrong that year. It was just a bad, bad, bad year. I'm telling you, people down in New Orleans put a curse on us before that game...add that to our other curse, we were doomed. Geez. Even our Dome died. Come on. But seriously, '10 was hard to watch... '11 was ugly, too. Without Peterson, I think '12 would have been pretty ugly, too. Getting rid of Childress was far from a quick-fix solution.

[Mothman]

This short-sighted approach you mentioned almost got us to the Super Bowl. Isn't that the goal?

No, almost getting to the Super Bowl isn't the goal. Winning the Super Bowl is the goal and building a team that can not only do that but sustain success over a substantial period of time is the biggest goal. I'm having a little fun with you in those two sentences but seriously,"almost" is the best Childress accomplished and I'd argue (as I did at the time) that getting that close was the best that Vikings team could achieve. Favre was not the missing ingredient to a Super Bowl win and the cost of that failed "all in" run was substantial.

Dude. I'm not crying about it. I disagree with NOTHING about 2009 except for coming up short...but everyone should be used to that by now. Don't blame Childress. Blame the Vikings curse. Yeah, the following years were hard to watch, because everyone had unreal expectations. Favre was a great gamble. If we would have won the Super Bowl, no one would have cared about 2010 and 2011.

I don't believe in curses and I've always argued that Favre wasn't a great gamble. He was an old QB who had repeatedly done just what he did in that championship game. In playoff game after playoff game he made crucial mistakes that cost his team the chance to win and he did it again.

Personally, I don't think the following years were hard to watch because of unreal expectations. Quite the opposite... they were hard to watch because I saw them coming (as did others) and they were a direct consequence of Childress' approach.

And I still don't completely understand what happened from '09 to '10, but again, I don't blame it all on Childress. And I don't think ONE year should have made such a huge, huge difference.

Clearly, it did. Remember, we're talking about players that were near the end of their careers and that, combined with injuries, Childress' ineffective leadership and probably some other factors all combined to yield a disaster.

Something else was in the works. EVERYTHING went wrong that year. It was just a bad, bad, bad year. I'm telling you, people down in New Orleans put a curse on us before that game...add that to our other curse, we were doomed. Geez. Even our Dome died. Come on. But seriously, '10 was hard to watch... '11 was ugly, too. Without Peterson, I think '12 would have been pretty ugly, too. Getting rid of Childress was far from a quick-fix solution.

Exactly... because he created a problem that can't be fixed quickly.