Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress and Brett Favre in Standoff

ESPN’s John Clayton suggests that free agent Brett Favre’s answer to the Vikings “may be no for now,” but says the door won’t be completely shut until training camp.

 

Clayton believes Yahoo!’s report that something happened within the last 24 hours to put talks “on hold.”  But he isn’t ruling anything out like Yahoo! does.

 

The standoff was likely caused by Childress’ requirement that the quarterback attend all training camps. 

 

The NFL has become more competitive as the revenue stakes have increased. The Vikings must lengthen the offseason to stay competitive with other teams.  It is becoming a year-round job for players.

 

Brett Favre never has, and probably never will, treat football as a full-time job.  Brett Favre has never had to be away from his family that long.

 

He wanted to work out at home in Mississippi. He hired a personal trainer and quarterback coach.  He also likes to throw footballs to high school kids.

 

Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian suggested on ESPN today that Favre has enough experience such that he shouldn’t have to attend all training camps.

 

But Vikings coaches may see it as a lack of commitment and move on. That would be unfortunate, since the team has only neophyte quarterbacks on the roster.

 

Stay tuned. The Favre drama goes on.

Favre Makes Peterson Greatest Rusher Ever & Vikings “Greatest Foe on Turf”

Huge news for Minnesota Vikings fans!  Head coach Brad Childress is meeting with retired quarterback Brett Favre. 

 

The team may no longer be considered a quarterback away from the Super Bowl.

 

This is especially good news for Adrian Peterson.  This may be the first time a great talented running back will be teamed with a great quarterback. 

 

All Day will be much more likely to break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record of 2,105 yards and become the greatest running back of all time. 

 

The other most talented running backs of all-time include O.J. Simpson, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, and Dickerson.  Like Peterson, they all ran the forty-yard dash in under 4.40 seconds. 

 

Jim Brown should also be included in the list of all-time greats, but he did it mostly with a combination of brute force with 4.5-forty speed. 

 

Perhaps, Walter Payton belongs on the list also by virtue of his toughness, even though he was relatively light and still ran only a 4.6 forty.

 

Peterson is currently tied with Brown at 5.2 yards per carry followed by Sanders and Sayers at 5.0, O.J. Simpson at 4.7, and Eric Dickerson and Walter Payton at 4.4.

 

Like Dickerson, Sanders and Simpson also had 2000 yard rushing seasons.  And like Sayers, all three never had the advantage of playing with a great quarterback. 

 

None have Super Bowl rings.  Almost all great quarterbacks have won Super Bowls.

 

Other less talented and great running backs with Super Bowl rings, like Emmitt Smith, Terrell Davis and Marshall Faulk, benefited from the great quarterbacking of Troy Aikman, John Elway, and Curt Warner, respectively.

 

A quarterback can free a great running back to run wild by drawing defenders out of the box.  Just like a great running back can make a quarterback great by drawing defenders into the box.  Defenses must pick their poison. 

 

The Vikings offense could be called the “Greatest Foe On Turf” like the 2000 St. Louis Rams offense was called the “Greatest Show on Turf.” 

 

The highest scoring offenses of all time were the 16-0 New England Patriots led by quarterback Tom Brady and Randy Moss at 36.8 points per game in 2007, followed by the 15-1 Vikings at 34.8 points in 1998 and the 10-6 Rams led by Warner and Faulk at 33.8 points in 2000.

 

The 2009 Vikings are likely to join that elite group.  After this year, the NFL will likely have to redesign defenses for Peterson like they did after Moss broke into the league at wide receiver with the Vikings in 1998.

 

Perhaps, the 2009 Patriots will also join that group and set up an explosive Vikings-Patriots Super Bowl in 2010.

 

Some question Favre’s age and health.  But at 39, he is only a year older than Kurt Warner, who just led Arizona into the Super Bowl.  Elway was the same age when he won the Super Bowl.  Favre is more durable than both Warner and Elway.

 

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports Favre’s problem with his bicep tendon last year was that he didn’t have time to go through training camps with the Jets.  This year, Childress wants him in camp early so he will have time to condition his body for the long season. 

 

Without question, this should be the most exciting year ever for Vikings fans!

Disrespected Brett Favre Trains Like Rocky for Minnesota Vikings

In the movie Rocky, the boxer is told by his trainer: “You’re a bum, Rock. You’re a bum.”  Rocky responds “I ain’t no bum, Mick. I ain’t no bum.” 

 

Rocky trains hard.  Against all odds, he takes the heavily-favored champion to a spilt decision.  In the rematch, he wins the heavyweight championship of the world.

 

Since Packers GM Ted Thompson railroaded Brett Favre out of Green Bay to the New York Jets, the all-time great quarterback has been unjustly trashed by managements, players, media and the public.

 

He is a bum.  He is a hick.  He’s old.  He’s done.  He’s washed up.  He should stay retired.

 

Cheese heads and others should know if you don’t want a competitive and talented person to do something, you don’t challenge him by saying he can’t do it anymore.  Or maybe they really want him to come back to Wisconsin and take revenge.

 

Because across the border in Minnesota is the rival Vikings team only a quarterback away from league domination.  Former Vikings great Cris Carter said the Green Bay Packers must keep Favre from teaming up with that little monster Adrian Peterson.

 

Yo, Adrian, I did it!  Farve has now escaped from New York and Ted Thompson’s poison pill.  Now, Zigi Wilf and Brad Childress-willing, little stands in his way to the Vikings, but dealing with a torn bicep.

 

Late last season, Favre had pain in his right shoulder and suffered diminished arm strength while quarterback of the Jets.  On December 29, he had an MRI.  Doctors diagnosed it as a partial tear of the biceps tendon located near the AC joint and some calcification.

 

ESPN’s Ed Werder reported major surgery was not necessary.  He needs nothing more than arthroscopic surgery to repair the injury and that only if he wanted immediate relief from pain.  He could have avoided arthroscopic surgery altogether.

 

The Jets suspect Favre’s torn right biceps injury is old and was simply aggravated last season.  Favre had a similar injury to his left shoulder three years ago while playing for the Packers and avoided surgery.  He experienced relief from the pain when the tendon finally released.  He was told to expect the same this time.

 

Brett Favre has been in rehab.  But it is unknown how well the bicep has healed and there has been some mystery surrounding the injury.  Favre has been in seclusion for months and no one knows what kind of shape his arm is in.

 

After Brett Favre was released by the Jets last week, he immediately hired a personal trainer in Mississippi.  ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports Favre’s biggest problem with the Jets was that he didn’t have time to go through training, after Ted Thompson held him up.

 

Favre will now have time to condition his body for the long season.  He also has motivation to train hard.  He wants the chance to win another super bowl (that has eluded him since 1997), go out on top like John Elway and embarrass the Packers twice a year, and not necessarily in that order.

 

Moreover, unlike New York, Favre wants to play in Minnesota.  The country boy won’t be dislocated to the big city.  The Vikings run his West Coast Offense and are a playoff-caliber team. 

 

The Minnesota Vikings are also a perfect fit since they are also seeking to gain respect after 47 years of futility, including four super bowl losses.

Bratarvaris Could Cost Minnesota Vikings the Super Bowl, Again

“Bratarvaris” is the man-crush between Vikings head coach Brad Childress and his quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.  Just like “Brangelina” is the love shared by movie stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. 

 

Childress and Pitt have more in common than just their name.  Both play in a senseless tragedy.  A tragedy is defined as a drama in which the main character is brought to ruin as a consequence of a tragic flaw.

 

In the movie Troy, Brad Pitt plays Achilles, a Greek hero who slaughters countless warriors in defense of King Menelaus’ love for his Queen Helen (“Melen”).

 

Achilles was semi-immortal.  Only his heel was vulnerable.  His pride allowed Paris to kill him with a poisoned arrow into his heel.  The term “Achilles’ heel” has come to mean a person’s principal weakness.

 

Perhaps, pride is the principal weakness of Vikings head coach Brad Childress.  Most can’t understand why a successful NFL coach would allow himself to go down with an undeveloped quarterback.

 

In 1999, the Philadelphia Eagles hired Andy Reid as head coach.  Reid selected Donavan McNabb as his franchise quarterback with the second overall pick in the draft.  Reid hired Childress as quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator. 

 

Childress helped develop McNabb into a star NFL quarterback.  McNabb led the Eagles to four straight NFC championship games from 2001 to 2005. 

 

In January 2006, Childress was hired as head coach by the Vikings.  The team has improved each year from 6-10 in 2006 to 8-8 in 2007 and 10-6 with a division championship in 2008.  

 

But the team was “one and done” in the playoffs this year, largely due to a flat performance by Tarvaris Jackson against the Eagles.

 

In April 2006, Childress drafted Jackson as his franchise quarterback.  They traded up to get him in round two even though he was projected to go in round three.  He was the fifth quarterback taken, even though most publications didn’t even rate him in the top 10.  

 

Childress took great pride in secretly discovering this “diamond in the rough” out of nowhere Alabama State.  He called Jackson a “flatline guy.”  Perhaps, this was a Freudian slip since flatline means clinically dead.

 

Childress also takes great pride in developing quarterbacks.  Before the draft, he said he was interested in finding a “developmental guy” and a raw talent he could teach a system.

 

Childress claimed “What I see with Tarvaris Jackson is a guy that’s a piece of clay….You’re talking about a guy that never had a coach there as a quarterback coach.  So what can he do with coaching?” 

 

Is the win-now NFL really the place to start trying to coach a quarterback?

 

In April 2007, Childress was fortunate to have running back Adrian Peterson fall to him in the draft.  But “All Day” was actually a double-edged sword.  While he improved the team, he has also enabled Childress to continue playing Jackson.

 

Childress proudly calls his version of the West Coast Offense the kick-ass offense (KAO).  But the offense is mediocre;  rated 23rd in 2006, 13th in 2007 and 17th in 2008 out of 32 teams.  His players are getting their asses kicked. 

 

Jackson often hangs his receivers out to dry with his erratic passing.  Sidney Rice injured his knee last year when he went up for a jump ball.  With little passing game, Childress smashes poor Peterson into defenses loading the box.

 

Childress clearly only has eyes for Jackson and his old flame McNabb.  Kurt Warner and Jeff Garcia are too old, Jay Cutler is too immature, Matt Hasselbeck is damaged goods and Matt Cassel is too expensive. 

 

After Brett Favre was released yesterday by the Jets , ESPN’s Chris Mortenson reported the Vikings had not shown any interest.

 

Childress only wants to drag home straw men to compete with his beloved Jackson; Brooks Bollinger, Kelly Holcomb, Gus Frerotte, and Sage Rosenfels.  Childress brags about journeymen Rosenfels as a “young Gus Frerotte” like the Bears brag about pro bowler Jay Cutler as a young Brett Favre.

 

Rosenfels is a career backup.  He was a backup at Houston.  He was brought in by Childress as a backup.  They gave Houston backup type compensation in the form of a fourth round draft pick.  He received back up pay.  And he is rated as only solid backup potential. 

 

The Vikings West Coast Offense needs a quarterback that can hit receivers in stride with quick lasers in tight coverage so they can run for yards after the catch.  Jackson is too inaccurate, while Sage Rosenfels and John David Booty lack the arm strength. 

 

Moreover, former Vikings wide receiver Chris Carter explains the team also needs a developed quarterback who can read defenses, handle the blitz, and lead the team in the clutch at the end of a crucial playoff games.

 

Like Steve Young says, the NFL is a quarterback-driven league.  The Vikings are too good to waste another year carrying only neophyte quarterbacks.  Brett Favre is probably the only hope left.

 

Most Vikings fans want Favre, but to those that don’t, Paul Allen and Mark Rosen made a good point on KFAN radio.  They claimed if the Vikings get Favre they become the Super Bowl favorites in Vegas.  These people put their money where their mouth is.

 

Childress has said that he reads what the fans say but only his opinion is important.  However, Childress obviously came under great pressure after Jackson lost the first two games last year because he replaced Jackson with Frerotte.

 

Quarterbacks like Brett Favre are too proud to risk rejection by begging for a job.  It is just amazing that Childress, as well as Packers GM Ted Thompson and Jets coach Rex Ryan before him, never bother to aggressively pursue Favre.

 

This senseless tragedy will continue until Vikings fans complain about the lack of a developed quarterback, threaten to stop buying season tickets, and pull support for the stadium. 

Here is the Vikings web site, where you can leave comments; http://www.vikings.com/Index.aspx

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