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Brad Childress and Staff Bring Coaching Experience to 2009 Vikings
Published: May 30, 2009
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If ever there were a time to get a job with the Minnesota Vikings, 2006 was that time.
Although head coach Brad Childress did make a few minor adjustments this year, the core of his group had been with him since he took over the team after the departure of Mike Tice.
Childress himself has had a long and storied football career playing at Illinois and Eastern Illinois, coaching on the college level for 20 years from 1978-1998.
He did spend one season, though, as a quarterbacks coach with the Indianapolis Colts in 1985.
He spent time coaching at Illinois, Northern Arizona, Utah, and Wisconsin, before joining the Philadelphia Eagles staff in 1999, and helped lead his team to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Childress was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia for four seasons before taking the head role in Minnesota.
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell played college football briefly at Northern Arizona where he played under Childress, before taking some time off to do missionary work.
When he returned, he again played for Childress at the University of Wisconsin, and then began his coaching career in 1996 at Westmar.
He spent a season with Iowa State, and two with Connecticut, before joining the Green Bay Packers from 2000-2005.
Bevell joined Childress again when he made his move to the Vikings in 2006.
Special teams coordinator Brian Murphy played at Lehigh from 1988-1991, before spending much of the next seven seasons coaching at Benedictine, Wisconsin, Baylor, San Diego, and Lehigh.
Murphy would return to Wisconsin from 2002-2005, before joining Childress in 2006.
Defensive line coach Karl Dunbar played at LSU from 1986-1989, before breaking into the NFL as a defensive lineman with Pittsburgh in 1990.
Dunbar then spent parts of the next five seasons with New Orleans and Arizona, before signing on as a coach for Nicholls State in 1998. He would also spend time at LSU and Oklahoma state before coaching for the Chicago Bears in 2004.
Like the others, he joined the staff in 2006.
Interview Question Set for Minnesota Vikings Kicker Ryan Longwell
Published: May 29, 2009
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Interview Questions with Minnesota Vikings Kicker Ryan Longwell:
1. Often in the life of a kicker your play makes you a hero or a zero; how do you respond to the “zero” moments?
2. For most players, the scenario is different with every snap, but for you the only thing that really changes is how far you are from the goal posts. Does that change how you approach a kick, or is every kick the same?
3. You were 6-of-6 in kicks greater than 50 yards last season. Is kicking something you get better at the longer you’re in the league?
4. Most kids want to be a star running back or QB when they’re young; how did you get to be a kicker.
5. Do you feel more pressure on you when you’re playing in lousy field conditions? Or even good field conditions?
6. Your career long is 55 yards… have you kicked anything better in practice? Do you even keep track?
7. What is your best/favorite moment in football? Your worst?
An Era of NFL Greatness, Drugs, Sex Scandals, and Why I Love It All
Published: May 29, 2009
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Never in my life had I been to a NFL game; not a preseason, not a regular season, and certainly not a playoff game, but on January 5, 2003, I awoke to the sound of a ringing phone.
A neighbor who I barely knew had tickets to the Giants vs. 49ers game, and at the last minute couldn’t use them. So, looking at the clock beside my bed, I thought if I get in the car and drive to San Francisco right now, I can make it in time for kickoff.
Up until that point I really didn’t follow football that much, although the opportunity certainly presented itself daily with the likes of the 49ers, Raiders, Chargers and even the Rams if fans were willing to travel back in time a bit talked about in my town.
But fan or not, I drove to the storied Candlestick in San Francisco to witness one of the greatest playoff comebacks in NFL history.
Being fairly late in the game and with the 49ers being down by 24, the only reason I decided to stay was because I had never been to a game and I wanted the full effect. After each play I saw more and more people get up and leave, by the hundreds, maybe even the thousands, and then something incredible happened…the 49ers offense came to life.
A young Terrell Owens began playing with the spark he’s still known for today, and Jeff Garcia started completing passes like his career depended on it.
When San Francisco blocked New York’s last-second field goal attempt as time expired, even I was screaming, and I wasn’t even sure what happened.
Head coach Steve Mariucci said in an interview after that game, “as long as you live you might never see a game better than that… It’s kind of hard to remember everything right now but I remember how it ended.”
Although he wasn’t speaking to me, it sure felt like it after what I had just seen.
While I had witnessed greatness in person, it still hadn’t made me a NFL fan, at least not in the sense that I wanted to turn on the television and watch football all day every Sunday.
With that being said, fast forward a couple of years and a few life changes later and I find myself living in North Dakota, a state that has zero professional sports teams and no real prospects of gaining any.
After a time, I succumbed to the peer pressure and became a Minnesota Vikings fan, because that’s what most people in North Dakota did.
Maybe I grew fond of them because they were good…no, that wasn’t it.
Maybe I liked them because they were bad…they had their moments, but they weren’t terrible.
Or maybe, just maybe, I liked them because they were a little bit like me…painfully average.
In 2004, they made it to the divisional playoffs despite only finishing 8-8, they then went on to finish 9-7, 6-10, 8-8 (again), and then 10-6 last year only to fall to Philadelphia in the Wild Card game.
There was only one losing season in that mix, but not a whole lot to write home about beyond that.
A record alone can’t always generate a fan…or drive them away though, I needed something else…some kind of “X-Factor.” And finally, I got it, but it was a bad one.
In 2005, the Vikings were wrapped up in a sex scandal on a boat with several prostitutes; this was just the kind of Jerry Springer-esque moment I needed. It was like a rite-of-passage, so that my loyalty could be the butt of every joke, and yet I wouldn’t have to feel too bad, because how could it get any worse?
I had found my free pass to being a fan without consequence right?
Wrong.
Fast forward a few seasons and now Kevin and Pat Williams find themselves in a controversy over allegedly taking a banned diuretic.
I realize that the frequency in which these two go to the bathroom really is none of my business, but something just doesn’t add up here.
In all honesty though, I don’t like the Vikings because they fail, and it certainly isn’t because they hire prostitutes, or allegedly take steroid-masking agents, but I like them because it shows that football players, like all people, are human.
They make mistakes, they break the law, they partake in questionable activities…does that make them bad people?
As a matter of fact, sometimes it does, but it’s about how the players respond, it’s about how the Vikings front office takes action, and it’s about how the fans react.
The Vikings are waiting for their day to shine, whether or not that will come this season is anyone’s guess, but if the Vikings have one more average season ahead of them to put in the record books, that’s OK with me…I’ll just react accordingly.
