Childress Has Earned Chance to Finish Job With Vikings

"We made a lot of cultural changes. You don't come in with everything already firm. I thought this would be one of those rare chances. I didn't think I would be like (Bill) Parcells or (Dick) Vermeil where I was going to get multiple chances and shots.''


When Brad Childress said that last Thursday at the Minnesota Vikings complex, he was already inching toward securing multiple chances with the Vikings. Now that Childress and the Vikings have connected -- his contract, scheduled to end after the 2010 season, has been extended through the 2013 season -- Childress can breathe.

That is a good spot for him.

He is "chilly'' when he can breathe.

Childress arrived in Minnesota in 2006 as part of a 10-coach hiring binge across the NFL. Six of those coaches have been fired. Childress, Gary Kubiak (Houston Texans), Sean Payton (New Orleans Saints) and Mike McCarthy (Green Bay Packers) remain.

Contract extension talks between the Vikings and representatives of Childress intensified over the past two weeks. Here is, in essence, what the exchange consisted of:

CHILDRESS: "The franchise had not won a division title since 2000. We won it last year.''

MANAGEMENT: "Well, with the talent we have given you, you should have won more.''

CHILDRESS: "Our victories have gone in four seasons here from 6 to 8 to 10 and now an 8-1 record. Any way you slice it, that is ascending.''

MANAGEMENT: "Well, you inherited a team that had finished 9-7 the season before. So, it took you three seasons to surpass that victory total.''

CHILDRESS: "Of the four coaches remaining from my class of '06, my record is better than Kubiak's (22-26) and compares with the other two (Payton is 34-23 with a 1-1 playoff record and McCarthy is 32-25 with a 1-1 playoff record). I have brought in quality coaches -- a coach from my staff (Mike Tomlin/Pittsburgh Steelers) has gone on elsewhere to win a Super Bowl.''

MANAGEMENT: "With the talent we have given you, you should have won more.''

CHILDRESS: "This franchise is on pace to win consecutive division titles for the first time in 31 years. I brought in Brett Favre.''

MANAGEMENT: "That's a good one.''


Landing Favre has, thus far, helped the Vikings become one of the NFL's elite.

He can breathe now.

He did that last summer when he nabbed his new quarterback.

"We broke training camp and I took a breather,'' Childress recalled. "Who are we? What are we? I took that breath to answer those questions. And I realized you can't get a hit unless you swing the bat. So, I picked up the phone and called Brett. And pretty soon he was asking if he could play on that Friday. He came in, ate lunch, signed a contract, took his physical and went to practice. No meetings. How many guys and how many instances can you come up with where it would be like that?

"He knew our system and we knew him. All I did was give him an opportunity to one more time tell me no.''

Childress also tilted his Vikings future his way in the process.

"We broke training camp and I took a breather. 'Who are we? What are we?' I took that breath to answer those questions. And I realized you can't get a hit unless you swing the bat. So, I picked up the phone and called Brett. ... All I did was give him an opportunity to one more time tell me no."
-- Brad Childress Favre has become a spark for the 8-1 Vikings, a team that ranks second in points scored per game (30.1) and first in sacks (34). The Vikings, who host Seattle on Sunday, know they are of championship caliber.

But Vikings management asked a question that they needed to ask: Does Minnesota have a championship-caliber coach?

One way to answer that was to let the man breathe -- give him a jolt in security and see if he can create more magic.

What also worked in Childress's favor in extending his deal is the fact that starting over with a new coach meant starting from scratch with new schemes and dead money on the books -- with a possible strike looming in 2011. The Vikings wanted no part of that.

So, the Vikings viewed the direction Childress has taken them. They examined his shelf life in message and teaching. They measured his zenith.

They are giving him a shot to better answer all of that.

Childress, 53, is in his 32nd year of coaching and 12th in the NFL. He traveled from his hometown of Aurora, Ill., to play quarterback and wide receiver at the University of Illinois. He later graduated from Eastern Illinois and returned to Illinois in 1974 to begin his coaching career.

That career includes four colleges and three NFL teams -- among them, a stop coaching for Barry Alvarez at the University of Wisconsin (1991-1998), and one working for Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles (1999-2005).

"I'm a Midwestern guy,'' Childress said. "I understand Midwestern values. I grew up around the Big Ten. I used to coach in the Metrodome when it was considered an eighth wonder of the world; now they want to dynamite it. People want instant gratification. They had their version of the greatest show on turf here with Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper and the most points in the league and people got stuck on that.

"When you make a coaching change, it is because where you are is not where you want to be. Every one of our players, I have sat and talked to eye-to-eye. They are good people as well as good football players. There is a strong fiber that runs through them and this team.''

Childress' extension nearly doubles the coach's $2 million salary. This is a good time for Childress and for the Vikings. Both are ascending.

"I grew up in the barber shop,'' Childress said. "My dad was a barber. When I acted up, my mom would send me down there for some leather. That was discipline you remembered. I have a healthy respect for change.''

And for trust.

Childress was the first coach hired in that wave of 10 NFL coaching hires in 2006. He is still standing with the Vikings. And he may do so longer than them all.