MVN - Most Valuable Network

Vikings Notes

Ah, the first of presumably many Chilly rumors:

A source close to Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf has indicated that Wilf is contemplating buying out the remainder of current head coach Brad Childress’ contract. The buyout would elevate current defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to head coach for the remainder of this season. Wilf is said to be displeased not only with Childress’ on-field results but also with the second-year coach’s lack of appeal among the fan base. The move could come as early as this week.

If true, the move to Frazier likely would provide the rookie defensive coordinator an opportunity to audition for the full-time position of head coach. Though the performance of the Vikings’ defense has been mixed in 2007, Frazier has proven much more comfortable speaking to the media than has Childress, providing straight answers to clear questions and offering insight where Childress has refused to do so.

Don’t get too excited…there doesn’t appear to be too much validity to this rumor. As the old cliché goes, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Although I certainly don’t doubt that a buyout has crossed Wilf’s mind, I’d expect him to let Chilly stay on for the rest of the season before potentially firing The ‘Stache.

However, it would be very interesting to see Frazier step into the head coaching role. Of the coordinators in this league, he might not be a guy that immediately strikes you as being ready to become an NFL head coach, but his audition for the 2008 head coaching spot would at least make for a compelling remainder of the season.

Personally, though, I don’t care whether Chilly is let go tomorrow or sometime after week 17. He just needs to go soon. Period.

*Latest ticket update I could find was that there were 3,500 tickets remaining as of yesterday afternoon. In the end, I’d guess that WCCO (probably along with another corporation) will end up buying the tickets- but still, I almost can’t help but hope that this game gets blacked out.

This organization deserves the embarrassment of a blackout….they need to face some humiliation for being inept season after season. Something Jeff Dubay said during a postgame show was 100% spot-on…in the NFL, there is no excuse for a 6-10 team to get worse in the following year. There is ample opportunity to improve quickly in this league, making this season an inexcusable step backwards for the Vikings.

*Gonzo at the Daily Norseman has an interesting column about Adrian…he thinks the Vikes should shut down AD for the rest of the season. And as much as it pains me to say this, I’d tend to agree with him. It’s tough because Adrian’s always such a joy to watch, but I’m not sure it makes sense to play him as the Childress era (hopefully) comes to a close. Here’s what it comes down to: I don’t want him to get injured in a meaningless game. We’re banking the future of the franchise on him…it just doesn’t seem to be worth the risk to play him in games that don’t matter.

There’s little chance that they’d be able to get away with sitting Adrian from a PR standpoint, though, so it’s a safe bet that we’ll see plenty more of Peterson this season. Shutting him down would likely only give the Vikings even more bad publicity.

But that brings me to another concern: Does the Peterson injury hurt the chances of Chilly getting the pink slip at the end of the season? I certainly hope not, but I could see a possibility of Wilf giving Chilly a pass for the games that Adrian sits out.

Now, whether or not Wilf will actually have that attitude towards these final games is another issue entirely. I’d like to have some faith in Zygi…after all, remember how he fired Tice literally an hour after the final game of the 2005 season? He’s shown that he doesn’t mess around when it comes to giving coaches the boot…so ultimately, unless the Vikings have a remarkable finish to this season, I expect Zygi to do the right thing and let Chilly go.

Again, though, I don’t think we can ignore the possibility that the Peterson injury may help Chilly’s cause.

*Finally, tonight, after reading Mark Craig’s article about Childress being Steckelesque, I decided to throw “Les Steckel” in a search engine to see what Mr. Steckel has been up to lately. I ended up finding this gem…if you’re interested in having Steckel give a motivational speech at your next event, click that link!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 12:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.