Brad Childress Axed By The Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings fired their head coach, Brad Childress.  With the team’s performance and win-loss record this 2010 NFL season, you can’t say you didn’t see it coming.

Team owner Zygi Wilf announced the news after he and team president Mark Wilf met with Childress early Monday.

“It’s often difficult to articulate one reason why change is needed,” Wilf said.

The Wilf brothers have named Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Frazier immediately squashed any question about the quarterback situation.  He immediately named Brett Favre the starting quarterback this weekend.

“There’s no hesitation from me in that regard,” Frazier said.

During a team news conference, Frazier spelled out what he expected of Favre and the rest of the Minnesota Vikings players – fewer turnovers from Favre and a 100% effort from the rest of the Purple People Eaters.

“The challenge our players have is to understand that other people around the league are taking a look at that tape, and you owe it to your teammates and your family to go out there and play hard every single snap,” Frazier said.

What can you say about the accomplishments of Childress in his 5 seasons in Minnesota?  Better than most NFL coaches. The Vikings won back-to-back NFC North titles (2008 and ‘09) with a record of 39-35.  However, the Vikes record of 1-2 in the playoffs was disappointing. Childress summed up his thoughts about his time there:

“I am proud of our accomplishments and believe the foundation of this football team is stronger today than when I became head coach,” Childress said in a statement released by the team.

At the beginning of the 2010 NFL Football season, Childress, the Vikings and the Minnesota fans had big expectations.  Brett Favre was coming off one of his finest seasons and the Vikings finished with an impressive 12-4 regular season record.

But expectations were quickly met with 3 losses in the first four games, led by the inconsistency and poor play by Favre.

Then there was the Randy Moss fiasco. The Vikings gave up a 3rd round draft pick to the New England Patriots for the future hall-of-fame wide receiver Randy Moss.  But within weeks, Childress released Moss without consulting the Vikings owner or front office.

It came after a loss at New England, the newly acquired Moss praised his former teammates and was critical of Childress, who had given up a third-round pick to acquire him four weeks earier.

Childress told his team the next day he had released  Moss, though the coach failed to offer complete details about what had transpired. Wilf was said to be upset because his coach failed to discuss his actions beforehand. There also were anonymous reports of increasing unrest among Vikings players.

It was at this time that many NFL experts and analysts expected that Brad Childress’ days were numbered, especially as the team fell further and further out of NFL playoff contention.

And then it happened! The Vikings fired Brad Childress one day after the Vikings were embarrassed by the Green Bay Packers 31-3, their second loss in a row.

And the players, for all their frustration with Childress and his style, put the blame on themselves after getting beat up by the Packers.

”We’re grown men. He’s not out there playing with us,” tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said when asked on Sunday about Childress’s status. ”You’ve got to look in the mirror sometimes. We’re 3-7. You go 3-7, you always want to blame somebody else. Sometimes you can’t blame somebody else. Sometimes you have to focus on yourself and what you’re doing wrong.”

There were other mitigating circumstances that led to the firing, including Childress’ increasingly combative relationship with quarterback Brett Favre and Vikings fans finally got involved with thousands of “Fire Chilly” signs being handed out before their hosted Nov 7 game against Arizona.

What’s next for Brad Childress? Probably nothing short term – the same fate that awaits the awaits the Minnesota Vikings in February.

sources: foxsports.com, associated press