Brad Childress Commits Coaching Suicide By Cutting Randy Moss

[MuleShack]

Go ahead and blame Chili for everything, just seems to me like the easy thing to do. The fact is if a handfull of players were playing the way they were last year we would easily have a winning record and you would still be on the Brad Childress bandwagon....

Sorry man, even if we were 8-0, I still wouldn't like chilly. He's got no game, much less a game plan.

I hate to root for a team to loose, but if it gets him out of town...and it has nothing to do with moss either.

[zepman]

I think this is Chilly's last year with th Vikes regardless of how the season turns out. He's not a players coach in a players league...his players simply don't like or respect him and visa versa. Chilly just seems to rub EVERYBODY the wrong way.

He's a liability in the media...in a time when this team needs all the positive PR it can get....(see new stadium)

I'm on the "Chucky" band-wagon. He's had similiar issues in the past but he was young and I'd bet he's learned the tough lessons he needed through his own firing a couple of years ago. He's a fire-cracker...a motivator...and a proven winner. Just what this market needs.

[MuleShack]

I could live with Gruden.

The guys on the team might get a big ego after being told that they are the greatest player on the field every day though.

[fishersofmen]

I could care less if they decide to replace Chili, but Gruden....man I can't stand that guy. Bill Cowher would be the guy for me.

You just wonder if they eat Chili's contract are they then going to want to pay for a big name coach. Although to this point the Wilf's haven't held back.

[FISHINGURU]

The play calling and the penalties is what puts Favre and the other players in bad situations to begin with. When we get in the red zone I don't think we should barely ever throw the ball, why risk throwing a pic? How about instead of calling the same stupid run play to the right we try to run the ball to the left?

We always march right down the field with AP, then when we get in the red zone or close to it all of a sudden we get penalties and abandon the run. This coaching staff doesn't know how to use the talent the players have. They get paranoid and abandon the run way to early and often IMO.

[fishersofmen]

Randy Moss at the press conference in Tennesee today "I'm just coming here to work everyday" LMAO

Harvin missed practice with another migraine today....I say its Chili's fault.

[FISHINGURU]

I wouldn't doubt that any, anyone that plays for the coach probably has a headache. I know fans get headaches from the coach all the time.

[JBMasterAngler]

ESPN reports that several vikings' players stated to ziggy that "childress must be fired!". I can understand why ziggy didn't fire him after the arizona game...he wants frazier's 1st game as a coach to be at home. Makes sense to me.

[DTro]

He won't be here much longer....

"We know that Childress doesn't have our backs, so why should we have his?" one player said. "We're playing for us, and we're winning despite him."

Childress' most egregious errors have been criticizing players after games and questioning effort during practices.

"He has absolutely no people skills," one team source said.

Recently, Childress unwisely picked two targets.

After a 28-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 24, Childress was critical of quarterback Brett Favre, who threw three interceptions.

"You can't throw it to them; you've got to play within the confines of our system," Childress said. "Sometimes it's OK to punt the football."

Favre wasn't the only one irked by that comment.

"For a lot of guys, that was a turning point," one player said.

Although Childress didn't help himself with ownership, three players said this week they supported his decision to dump Moss, one insisting that, despite his potential, the veteran receiver's production didn't justify enduring the antics.

Another Childress mistake: He questioned the effort of Percy Harvin, who was hobbled with an ankle injury, on Friday and threatened to make him inactive for the Cardinals game.

Harvin was animated in defending himself, but Childress responded by saying, "I can say whatever I want," according to one source.

The two had to be separated, but players said Harvin later was applauded by several teammates and even coaches for standing up to Childress.

Six Vikings players said they want Childress fired but that they refuse to give up on their teammates.

"We got too many good football players, and we won't lay down like Dallas," one player said.

"As much as I hate Childress," another player said, "I will keep playing."

[bucketmouth64]

Chicago Sun Times reporter, Sean Jensen, apparently spoke to several Vikings players because of his past ties as a beat reporter for Pioneer Press and reports that there are many players want Chilly out. Ziggy should note this because I am sure he knows who Jensen is and probably is reporting a lot of validity with that.

[FISHINGURU]

Vikings on Childress: ‘We're winning despite him'

It's worth remembering that Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf hired Brad Childress in January of 2006 after the embarrassment of the "Love Boat" scandal; the biggest black eye in the history of a franchise dating back to 1961. The former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator increased the team's win totals by two every year from 2006 through 2009, and came very close to a Super Bowl near the end of the 2009 season. The team's current 3-5 record is a disappointment, but under normal circumstances, a coach with a short-term downturn would not be embroiled in controversy, or reportedly very near to the termination of his contract - especially when that contract was extended through the 2013 season just last November.

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.''

The indictment from one team source that Childress "has absolutely no people skills" became clear in the opinion of another unnamed player, who said that "as much as I hate Childress, I will keep playing.''

That's an important distinction - coaches like Vince Lombardi, Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin have been able to balance a no-nonsense approach with the kind of schematic and motivational brilliance which always made it very clear that the object of that attitude was to produce winning teams with absolutely no compromise. In Childress' case, it seems that his players believe the act is purely for the coach's benefit.

Perhaps most darning to Childress' future was the comment made by one player about Vikings' defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier: 'Guys trust him. He's going to treat you a certain way. He doesn't single people out.''

In the week before the Cardinals game, when Wilf was already furious about Childress' decision to release receiver Randy Moss(notes) without the owner's knowledge or consent, Wilf performed an informal audit of his

team by talking to many people in the inner circle, including coaches and players.

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.

If the picture is as bad as Jensen's story paints it - and Jensen covered the Vikings for years before moving his beat to the Windy City - it's a weird miracle that Childress has managed to hold on this long.

[snoozebutton]

Quote:

After a 28-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 24, Childress was critical of quarterback Brett Favre, who threw three interceptions.

"You can't throw it to them; you've got to play within the confines of our system," Childress said. "Sometimes it's OK to punt the football."

Favre wasn't the only one irked by that comment.

That's why I'm glad Favre's no longer a Packer. You throw 3 int.s in a game you should be called out, especially when it leads directly to a loss.

[FISHINGURU]

I don't think a coach should call out any player. It's a team game, they only lost by 4 points. If the coach would of challenged the td pass that the guy didn't catch you can minus 7 points, and everyone knows Shanks catch was a TD so add 7 to the Vikes.

31-21 Vikes, and Favre could of still thrown his 3 pics. Or just say the coach could of challenged the play and won the game for the team reguardless. 24-21 Vikes.

The coaching staff has lost more close games then any one player, bad challenges and wasting timeouts has costed us a few games.

[Antero]

I wonder which player said "we are winning despite him'? Has he seen their record? Since they are not really winning that much would it have been better to say "we are losing because of him'?

[fishersofmen]

That's why I'm glad Favre's no longer a Packer. You throw 3 int.s in a game you should be called out, especially when it leads directly to a loss.

I agree. It is quite funny how things have gone down this season. Favre's interceptions alone have lead to over 50 points for our opponents. Every game we have lost has been a fairly close game. Now I haven't gone over every single game but common sense tells me if Favre was even having a decent year this club would easily have a winning record.

Everyone knows how Chili can manipulate and we also know Favre is the king of it. Its comical how all this fire Childress talk has played directly into Favre's hands by diverting all the attention away from what has been a terrible season from him. Its more than obvious Favre's reckless play is the single biggest reason to this point we have a loosing record. Hopefully his 4th quarter play from the end of last weeks game continues and he can turn his season around. I believe he can.

As far as Sean Jensen opening his big mouth I think Pat Williams summed it up best today and apparently he was right....people will believe any rumor that is put out there no matter how irresponsible it is. (P.S 6 unnamed sources told me Jesus will return tomorrow at 5:00PM to judge the world) No doubt most people aren't aware that before Sean Jensen left town Brad Childress barred him from the Vikings media room and he was not allowed in!! Leave it to Jensen to play the role of the angry and bitter ex-girlfriend. Classic.....

It's safe to say after today's locker room access period that outspoken Vikings nose tackle Pat Williams isn't a big fan of unnamed sources.

Asked about the Chicago Sun-Times story in which reporter Sean Jensen, a former Vikings' beat writer, cited six unnamed Vikings as saying the players don't like coach Brad Childress and believe he should be fired, Williams went off, saying:

"I don't know. That's just all reports. Ain't no names. That's Sean Jensen. So that's what Sean Jensen do. He ain't going to give nobody no names. So I really don't pay no attention to that. That's all he-say, she-say stuff. He ain't going to put no names put out there, so I don't know if it' true or not. That's like somebody say I'm gay, but they don't have to tell me who said it. I don't know. But they're going to believe it. They going to believe it. If somebody starts that rumor, they're going to believe it. So that's how it is. That's all rumor. They not going to tell me who said it, so I don't know."

Thats coming directly from a veteran players mouth. Not some doormat who works for the Chicago Sun-Times.

[greebs]

He's had a few opps for comeback wins this season. He had to eventually bring them back to a win at some point. Of course had moss felt like trying for that one pass at end it might have been number two.