What Do Brad Childress and Frankenstein Have In Common?
All eyes have been on the Minnesota Vikings since the 2009 season ended on a Brett Favre interception in the NFC Championship Game.
How would Favre follow up the best statistical season of his career? Would he?
Favre has experienced several tough-luck plays that factor into the final stat lines. I’m certainly not going to claim that he’s been even close to his 2009 form, but we’ve seen numerous tipped balls, near-misses and dubious official reviews (Shiancoe, anyone?) that conspire to make things perhaps appear worse than they necessarily are (at least in terms of his play). Add to this the weekly injury update that now includes every muscle and bone in his body and you’ve got a quagmire.
Ever since Childress dispatched the veterans to Mississippi on a plane to snag Favre “B.A. Baracus”-style, there’s been a shadow hanging over the team. Favre’s play in 2009 earned Childress a sizable contract extension with last year’s play, so I understand that he felt obligated to reach out to No. 4. What’s occurred since then has been the fodder of a parody film.
It’s been a tumultuous season, to say the least. Top receiver Sidney Rice was sidelined with a hip injury and was originally thought to be a go for the third game of the preseason (his assessment). We enter Week 9, and Rice has just now returned to practice. The Vikings have three weeks to activate him, or Rice will be shut down for the season.
The defense has been toothless. One year after terrorizing defenders, Jared Allen has been all but invisible. Allen has registered one sack through seven weeks. He’d recorded 14.5, 14.5 and 15.5 in the past three seasons.
Then came Randy Moss. He didn’t light up the scoreboard himself and issues about efforts and caterers eventually led to his unceremonious release. Whatever you say about his time in Minnesota, Moss certainly opened up more “quality” opportunities for Percy Harvin.
Speaking of Harvin, he’s now in a spat with Childress. Harvin didn’t practice Wednesday or Thursday, and by the end of Friday, there were reports that Childress questioned his effort and extent of his ankle injury (Childress cited Harvin’s productivity in Week 8 after tweaking his ankle. Harvin is listed as “questionable” for Sunday’s game against Arizona.
As we reached the weekend, more reports surfaced about how Randy Moss advised ownership to fire Childress and how upset ownership was at the move.
I know they’re on the hook for an awful lot of cash ($13 million), but unless there’s a dramatic turnaround in the offing (coming out and blasting Arizona at home would be a good start), Childress’ tenure in Minnesota might just end in the same fashion as Frankenstein — Fire.
