Fire Brad Childress Of The Minnesota Vikings

We’re still here! Those of us at www.givechildresstheboot.com are working on giving the site a face lift in time for the 2010 NFL Draft. I’ll still try and post some thoughts from time to time regarding everything related to Minnesota sports, but in the mean time…getting this redesign done is our first goal. However, if you need some crazy/fun sports talking fixes, you can follow us on Twitter (@firechildress)and facebook.

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After reading Brett Favre’s statement on his website (www.officialbrettfavre.com), I have a message that I would like to pass along to him. Maybe it’s more of a suggestion for how to impress everyone that has ever cared about NFL Football. It’s simple…

MAKE A DECISION TO RETURN TO THE VIKINGS FOR 2010 AND DEDICATE THE OFF SEASON TO FOCUSING ON ACCOMPLISHING WHAT YOU/WE DIDN’T THIS YEAR…GETTING TO THE SUPER BOWL.

What I mean by that isn’t anything special. Favre comes out and tells everyone he’s returning to the Vikings because he feels we didn’t accomplish anything in 2009. He would then spend the entire off season working out and conditioning himself to be ready for a full 19 game season.

If you remember last year, he looked awful during his few preseason snaps and even looked a little rusty the first few games of the season. Not until the San Fransisco game did he really look like he had that zip back on the ball. Had he been ready to go (surgery obviously was an issue last off-season) week 1…who knows how much more beneficial that would have been.

On top of that, Favre would also be sending a statement to the Vikings players and coaches, the Vikings fans and the rest of the league, that he is coming to accomplish the ultimate goal…winning the Super Bowl. I realize this isn’t “typical” Favre practice, but it’d be a step in the right direction to help Vikings fans get over the abrupt ending to this season.

Next post being worked on: Why we should trade for McNabb NOW

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Let’s back track a minute. Brett Favre has a legendary career in Green Bay. Wins multiple MVPs, a Super Bowl…blah blah blah. He then decides to consider retirement, forcing the Packers to develop a back up plan (Aaron Rodgers). Favre then decides to retire, then not retire, then retire…then not to retire and force the Packers to trade him to the New York Jets, a move made to directly NOT let Favre become a Viking.

During the process of being traded to New York, Favre burns LOTS of bridges in Green Bay. Not just with the organization, but with the fans (both Packer fans and NFL fans). He plays his one year for the Jets while starting out hot…then gets injured and does what everyone was calling “a Favreism”…aka the wheels came off. He then retires…again.

And then he UN-retires…again. Where does he surface?? With the hated rival Minnesota Vikings. Every Packer fan is forced to face 8 versions of emotions. Hate, excitement, frustration, fear, anxious, regret…etc etc. Favre then goes out and produces one of his best statistical seasons of his career…all while leading the Vikings to the NFC North Division Championship (while beating the Packers both times), the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs, a huge win over Dallas in the divisional round and a gutless performance in a loss to the Saints in the NFC Championship Game. Where do we go from here?? I’ve got an idea…

How does THE Brett Favre rebuild his legacy in a town/state that he turned his back on? …………… HE GOES BACK!

That’s right, my 2010 Favre prediction is that FAVRE WILL AT SOME POINT BE A GREEN BAY PACKER IN 2010. How? Easy, he officially retires, but he stays in shape and puts a nugget out there that he’ll be ready if “some team” needs him to salvage their season. Sure, the Vikings will have the first crack at him if there are injuries to our 2010 QB experiment, but what if the Packer’s beat us to it?? Imagine the below situation:

Aaron Rodgers begins the season with the Packers as their starting QB in 2010.
Sage Rosenfels begins the season as the Vikings starting QB in 2010.
The Packers start out 3-0.
The Vikings start out 3-0.
Aaron Rodgers tears his ACL…

What choices do the Packers have at this point?? Their back ups are brutal! And imagine the beckon call of Packer fans across the Midwest…“BRING BRETT BACK!” will be shouted across the state of Wisconsin (as it is in Minnesota currently). This would be their chance to not only love Brett again (which we all know they still do), but they would also get the chance to “get us back” or “prove to us Favre belongs to them”.

2009 was, no doubt, the worst year in the history of the Green Bay Packers. Besides making the playoffs, could the season have gone ANY worse for them?? Lose to Favre TWICE, let the Vikings win the division, get worked in the playoffs, Favre has a better year in MN than he ever did in Green Bay…oh my word.

So there you have it, Brett Favre will return to the Packers in 2010 to help salvage their season after a catastrophic injury to Aaron Rodgers.

And due to that…we all will hate Brett Favre once again…(ok, maybe not, but we’d still hate the Packers)

**this post was written with extreme sarcasm**

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I know, the whole “it could be worse” cliche is over used. But, when you think about it, as much as the loss to the Saints hurts, it really could be worse. How? Here’s a list of “it could be worse if:”

- We had lost to the Packers in the NFC Championship game
- We had played like crap and got crushed by the Saints (though it would have been easier to deal with…)
- Had this game been the 1st round or divisional series of the playoffs
- Heck, it would have been harder to deal with had it been the SUPER BOWL! Yes, I said it…think of how bad it would have hurt then…losing to Peyton Manning in a game where we played well enough to win.
- Brett Favre threw 4 INTs and fumbled twice…

As you can see, it could have been worse. Before I get in to my recap of this season and how it played out almost exactly as I said it would, we need to look at the bright side (which is not normally what I do on this site).

The Vikings lost to a good football team…there is no denying that. It’s no secret that the Vikings were a team that could beat anyone in the NFL this year. I made my prediction of that game based on the Saints being similar to the 1998 Vikings…and boy oh boy was my prediction of a 30-27 Vikings win looking pretty good until the end of regulation. The Vikings did exactly what they should have. They exploited weaknesses in the Saints secondary (especially Sharper, whom I said was over rated when it comes to tight coverage). They ran the ball effectively and they passed the ball effectively (mostly). So in the big picture, yes, we were good enough to beat the Saints…but the Saints were good enough to beat the Vikings.

As confident as us Minnesota fans were going in both the Dallas and New Orleans games, I’m not so sure everyone would have been that confident going in to Miami vs Indianapolis. You give Peyton Manning two weeks to study your defense, and you can bet your bottom dollar that you better come prepared to outscore them. With that said, obviously it’d be nice to GET to the Super Bowl, but losing another one would be horrifying for this state.

Now, for a team that clearly has some things they need to figure out going in to the 2010 season…this Vikings team is STILL built to win NOW. The Adrian Peterson fumbling issue needs to be resolved. I don’t care what it takes, make him figure it out. My idea? It goes a little something like this:

Peterson walks in to the locker room for OTAs
AP: “Hey Hutch, whats happening?”
Steve Hutchinson then punches AP square in the face
Hutch: “The next time you fumble, I’ll be holding a brick in my hand.”
Hutch turns around and walks away

Now, I’m no psychologist…but something tells me that AP would get the hint. And the worst part?! ONLY ONE OF ADRIAN PETERSON’S FUMBLES THIS YEAR WAS OUTSIDE/ON GRASS! All other AP fumbles were indoors/on turf. And besides the two fumbles against the Saints, ALL of his fumbles came against teams in the NFC North. There is no excuse for “slippery conditions” or “bad weather”. HOLD ON TO THE DAMN BALL! I’m sorry, but I’m never going to back down on my stance that BALL CONTROL CAN BE TAUGHT. Tiki Barber is always used as an example because he had fumbling issues throughout his carrier, but solved them for the last 3 or so years of his productive career.

In fact, why don’t we compare AP to other “upright” runners (regular season + postseason):
-AP currently has 1,072 touches on offense with 22 fumbles.
-Brandon Jacobs has 924 carrier touches and 14 fumbles!
-Tiki Barber had 2,878 offensive touches and 47 fumbles, but only 9 in his last 3 years. And only 4 in his final 2 years.
-Chris Johnson has 714 offensive touches and only 4 fumbles!

I realize this isn’t the biggest case study ever done, but it’s pretty damn obvious that Adrian Peterson doesn’t have any reason NOT to hold on to the football. If Jacobs, Barber and Johnson can figure it out (whether they had a problem or not), AP has no excuses. That fumble between AP and Favre just before the half in New Orleans was 100% Peterson’s fault, and not only does he not get credited for that fumble…IT WAS EASILY THE BIGGEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY IN THE GAME! I don’t need to explain that to anyone, it just flat out proves AP needs to quit thinking he is unstoppable and work on his fumbling issues…and nothing else.

Back to the loss to the Saints: It just further proves my whole point of this website…and that is that Brad Childress can NOT get this team over the hump. Whether it’s a 12th man in the huddle, not fixing AP’s fumbles etc…his coaching is the reason we’re still failing. Favre was the reason for success, not Childress. And it was Bevel who got him here, not Chilly.

If we don’t get Brett Favre back for 2010, we are screwed. Not because I don’t have faith in Sage or Tjack (who will be back if Favre retires, because he is “Childress’ guy) or that I don’t think this team can win the division…it is because Childress has proved nothing.

Yes, the offense looked WAY better this year. Yes, Favre had one of his best seasons of his career (and that drives the Packer’s crazy). Yes, we won games we WERE supposed to win and we won games we WEREN’T supposed to win (something we haven’t done in a long time). But when you have a team that is sound on BOTH sides of the ball, you MUST take advantage of the situation when you have a chance to beat the #1 seed, on the road, TO GO TO THE SUPER BOWL! I know…easier said that done, but this was OUR YEAR…it was. It was all in place; Favre, Sidney Rice, Jared Allen, Division Champions, destroyed Dallas in the playoffs……….man, we were RIGHT there.

I can’t say that I’m neither surprised nor pissed off…it was a really fun season and only two teams get to the Super Bowl. Fact of the matter is, as bad as it hurts to lose a game like that…we are in a position to get back there again next year. There are lots of teams moving past their window of opportunity (Patriots, Eagles, Giants, etc) but the Vikings have the tools to do it in 2010. The biggest questions are: Can Childress actually lead a team to a division championship WITHOUT Favre (if he decides to retire for good)? Can Adrian Peterson learn to hold on to the football? Can Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin continue to be effective with a quarterback not wearing the number 4? Can our defense stay productive if Pat Williams retires? We’ll have to wait and see…

Overall, the Vikings lost a game they could have won. We had a team that was good enough to go to the Super Bowl and it was obvious to everyone (even Packer fans), but we fell short…again. But there are always positives in something, and there are plenty of positives to take away from this season.

And until then, we’ll just have to use the next 11 months to criticize Brad Childress and how he STILL hasn’t accomplished the goal he was brought in to do…WIN THE VIKINGS A SUPER BOWL!

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(Photo courtesy of www.givechildresstheboot.com)

Check out a photo I made up showing where the words “The Minnesota Vikings are the 2009 NFC Champions” became “The New Orleans Saints are the 2009 NFC Champions”.

I know…it sucks

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(AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)

I figured I’d wait to post something recapping the Vikings big win over Dallas until the dust settled and I can tie it in to the NFC Championship Game showdown with the Who ‘Dat Saints. Funny thing is, I really don’t have a ton to say (I know, miracle right?) because I expected us to be in this situation when Favre came on board. Yes, I will absolutely admit that I was wrong with how Favre played this year…I think anyone in their right football mind never expected THIS type of success. But at the same time, no one should be shocked that this team made it this far…Childress related or not. I said last week (as others did too) that the Vikings SHOULD beat the Cowboys with no problems. Sure, the Cowboys were the hottest team coming in to the game, but so was Green Bay when they headed to Arizona. In my opinion, and I’ve stated this a few times already, this Vikings team is different. They can beat anyone…they SHOULD beat everyone. They are built for success. And that very reason may be why I feel the way I do about them.

I am 100% on board with this team.

Like anyone else, I was a bit sceptical of the early season success because of how we were winning games. We were squeaking by bad teams…but I have always stated that it is how you finish, not how you start. This Vikings team has proved at times something that NO Vikings team has proved in the past…that they can beat anyone, anytime, using multiple ways of doing so. Not even the 1998 Vikings showed that. All they did was outscore everyone…which is great…until you match up against someone who can stop you from doing that. The 2009 Vikings have solid defense AND a solid offense. If either of them show up, we have a chance. If both of them show up…we win 90% of the time. That is why I am not nervous for Sunday.

The Saints are a good football team…you can’t take that away from them. They earned the #1 seed with solid play…mostly on offense. But what is interesting and VERY ironic to me is:

I SEE THE 2009 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS AS I DID THE 1998 MINNESOTA VIKINGS!

That’s right, I said it, they are a modern day verision of Randal, Randy and Denny…they even have a safety comparison (I’ll get to that in a minute). This Saints team can put points on the board faster than Lane Kiffin can switch coaching jobs (I know, that was a terrible joke). However, their defense is capable of completely falling apart. Here are my comparisons of the 2009 Saints and the 1998 Vikings (please feel free to add to the list below):

- High scoring/powered offense…weak defense (though not as weak as ‘98 Vikings D)
- QB most thought was done (Brees w/ shoulder injury, Randall because he was old)
- Home games played in a Dome
- #1 NFC seed in playoffs
- Playing #2 seed in NFC Championship Game
- WRs who can make plays
- RBs who can run the ball
- Similar safties (Griffith vs Sharper…both of whom get way too much credit at this point in their careers)
- Both lost to Tamp Bay during the regular season
- Neither scored less than 24 points during their regular season wins (Vikings didnt the entire season)
- Both crushed the Arizona Cardinals in the Divisional round (’98 Vikes won 41-21, ‘09 Saints won 45-14)
- Both scored 500+ points in the regular season

That’s all I can come up with off the top of my head. But that is how I see the Saints heading in to this weekend…the team that SHOULD win vs the team that just hangs in the weeds (to a certain extent)…as the Falcons did in 1998 (not many people remember they were 14-2). That is why I am going to shy away from any negative Childress comments until after Sunday…I’m letting him off the hook this week.

The above information leads me to my prediction of Sunday’s outcome: The Vikings will go in to New Orleans and BEAT the Saints in a classic battle…30-27 (same score as ‘98 NFC Championship Game). Yes, it would be great to see it come down to a missed field goal or overtime, but I’m not going that far. I will, however, make this prediction/comparison: Darren Sharper will drop one or two CRUCIAL interceptions that will cost New Orleans the game, just as Robert Griffith did in ‘98 vs the Falcons (yet NO ONE mentions that…they all blame Gary Anderson and Denny).

And with that, my friends, I will see you on the flip side…on our way to MIAMI (vs the Colts…who will beat the Jets 31-16)

See, I told you I didn’t have much to say this time…………

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Now that the Cutler middle finger controversy is behind us (that was fun by the way), I wanted to quickly post about Sunday’s game vs the Giants and put my predictions for the playoffs on paper (or web paper I guess). Not only did the Vikings secure a 1st round bye when they locked down the #2 seed in the NFC, they more importantly did two things: 1) kept Vikings fans believers. 2) gave themselves 0% chance of being upset in the 1st round. I don’t give a rip what people say…having a bye is NEVER a bad thing. A GOOD TEAM SHOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT GOOD TEAMS AFTER HAVING A WEEK OFF. I don’t buy in to this momentum” thing. Yes, it is great to have “momentum” as a team going in to their first playoff game after how they have been playing lately, but not having a bye gives you a chance of choking…and the Vikings are known to do that from time to time.

The Vikings can beat anyone if they play like they did against the Giants…however, lets face it, that Giants team has some issues. They are not the same team they were the past two years. They aren’t even the same team that started out 5-0 this year. So we can’t expect Philly, Green Bay, Arizona, Dallas or New Orleans’s defenses to be that bad. What I do like…is that there are absolutely no HUGE advantages or disadvantages for any NFC team vs any other NFC team.

Here is how I think it’ll play out:

ARIZONA beats Green Bay - Yes, I said it. EVERYONE and their Bingo playing Grandma is picking the Packers in this game as if the Cardinals have NO chance. Well, I think differently. Arizona doesn’t want to lose at home again (especially when it matters, and last week really didn’t matter). They will come ready to play and that stadium will be rockin’. Boldin or no Boldin, I’m hoping the Cardinal team that put an ass whoopin’ on the Vikings shows up to play the Packers…and SEND THE PACKERS HOME EARLY!

PHILADELPHIA beats Dallas - I don’t know why I feel this way…I just do. Maybe it’s because there is NO WAY Philly wants to get embarrassed again like they did last week. Maybe it’s because I feel Philly played better for the whole year than Dallas did. I get the fact that Dallas is on a roll right now…but I still feel McNabb plays “McNabbish” and finds a way to squeak by.

AFC Wild Card games:

BENGALS over the Jets - Simply a home team beating a road team (with a rookie quarterback). Won’t be close either…Sanchez is going to look like a rookie. Bengals will some how stop the Jets’ running game.

RAVENS over Patriots - UPSET PICK! I hate the Patriots…so that has something to do with it. And I am Ray Rice/Joe Flacco/John Harbaugh/Ray Lewis/Derrick Mason guy. How can’t you be? Still, I can see the Ravens playing an outstanding game vs a beat up Patriots team. Then again, New England could beat Baltimore 50-10…but I’m still going with the Ravens.

**I’ll make round by round predictions since I already have my preseason predictions on this site some where**

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Here are my core guys from 2009.

I drafted 9th overall.
Non keeper league.
Draft position decided by a deck of cards 5 minutes prior to the start of the draft.
Snake style draft.

Started the season 0-2…and finished 13-2 as LEAGUE CHAMPION.

Most points scored in the regular season? Check.
Most points scored in the playoffs? Check.

It really doesn’t get much better than this…does it?

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Wow…it has been a while since I last made a post…and I apologize for that. A lot has happened since my last post. The Vikings have looked really good (vs the Bengals) and have looked terrible (vs Carolina). The interesting things: I really don’t feel like much has changed in the minds of TRUE Vikings fans since I last updated the site.

The question is: What have we “learned” from the Vikings the past few weeks?

We learned that the Vikings and Favre are human. By that, I mean that the Cardinals and Panthers proved that that Vikings can still look like a typical Childress lead team. The interesting part? The Vikings beat themselves…not the other way around. For example, is it me? or did the Vikings NOT put big blitz packages together vs Carolina? I understand the hesitation in doing that vs the Cardinals, but what could you possibly be scared about with the Panthers and something called Matt Moore playing quarterback? Forgetting the DL not being a factor, our LB’s didn’t seem to be getting to Moore either. And that makes absolutely NO sense to me.

We learned that Adrian Peterson needs to touch the ball a minimum of 25 games a game. I think Bevell and Favre (who call the shots for this team…more about that later) fell in love with the honeymoon that WAS Brett Favre. I would bet that in games that AP has touched the ball 25+ times, the Vikings have won 75% of those games. Is the decline of AP’s yardage per game a factor of Sullivan vs Birk and not running the ball up the gut as much? I don’t know…but Childress and co. better figure it out pretty damn quick.

We learned that the Vikings offense can still look like a “kick ass offense”. Last night’s game vs Carolina was brutal. How many times did we a) go 3 and out? b) punt? c) run a play on 3rd down that wasn’t even close to the 1st down marker? Not acceptable.

We learned that Julius Peppers is still really good. And Bryant McKinney is NOT as good as people think. And NOW Childress is saying “yeah, we should have had more help on Peppers…” YOU THINK??!!

We learned that the Cardinals are as streaky as the Vikings…which I THINK is a good thing come playoff time…………….I think.

We learned that, on a positive note, that the Vikings can be a really good football team…as shown at home vs Cincinnati. This is the one difference between THIS year’s Vikings and teams that Childress has coached in the past. Yes, we can beat just about anyone (especially at home)….but we can also lose to anyone (especially on the road). Point being: Regardless of who/when/where the Vikings play in the playoffs…they are going to have to play GOOD football. Because, unlike most GREAT teams, when we come out playing flat…we lose. What I mean by that is the Colts, Saints, Eagles, Chargers (to a point) can play below average and they’ll still have a chance at winning the game. For some odd reason…the Vikings seem a little more likely to lose than those teams. I don’t have a reason for that…it’s just a feeling.

We learned that the Packers are good…but not nearly as good as their fans think they are. Do I want to play them in the playoffs? No…because I hope they’ve lost by the time the 2nd round happens (assuming the Vikings get a 1st round bye). But how great was that finish vs the Steelers?? I’m STILL smiling…

We learned that the Childress extension was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY premature. Yes, I’ve been saying this since that unforgettable event happened (as have many people…not just people from MN either)…but seriously Ziggy, do you know how to please your fans in ways OTHER than writing very large checks to players and coaches?? How EPIC (2009’s most over used word) of a fail would it be if the Vikings don’t win the Super Bowl this year? Or worse…lose their 1st playoff game? How bad will that extension look then? What if Favre retires for good after this season and we are back to being a 9 team win AT BEST next year? It’s almost as if Ziggy and co. didn’t ask themselves these questions before signing Childress to that extension. Does he seriously think he pleased any Vikings fans by signing Chilly to the extension during the season? Does he think that TRUE Vikings fans read the headlines and said “Whew…I’m glad we got that distraction out of the way”???? The pure thought of the extension has decreased my brain function by 2.3% due to the mere confusion my brain must sift through to let common sense thoughts flow freely.

We learned that Brad Childress is Brett Favre’s biotch. I’m not buying in to this crap about Childress has wanted to pull Favre out of the game 2 or 3 times this year so far. C’mon! Are you freakin’ serious??? Is Childress trying to be a tough guy? Is he that arrogant that he thinks we’ll automatically get a 1st round bye and wants to save Favre for the playoffs? Does he think our offense is that good that Tjack (who should not be our #2 guy) can manage the game vs ANYONE whether we are winning or losing? It makes absolutely ZERO sense to pull Favre from ANY game unless we are up or down by 21 points in the middle of the 4th quarter. I agree 100% with Favre…I wouldn’t want to come out either. And if Favre is starting to realize how big of an dumbass Childress can be…you can kiss him good bye next year. Lets face it, the honeymoon is over for Childress. The fans are sold on the idea of Favre…yes. The fans are on board and ready for a run to the Super Bowl…yes. But it is time to start WINNING MEANINGFUL GAMES. I’ve been posting that Favre runs this team since the day he signed…this is NOT news to me.

I’ve also been saying since Favre Day #1 that IF WE DON’T WIN THE SUPER BOWL, THIS EXPERIMENT WILL BE A COMPLETE FAILURE. Remember, I was OK with bringing in Favre for two reasons: national media attention and the fact that this team is primed for a Super Bowl run. It would be a completely different situation if this were 4 years ago and our expectations were to win the division and see what happens…that has changed, and we expect more.

And with that, I say good luck Childress…the pressure (that you brought upon yourself) is on.

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