I didn’t expect this, at least not until the end of the season, but the Vikings have fired head coach Brad Childress:
The Vikings fired their head coach late Monday morning, less than 24 hours after an embarrassing 31-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers eliminated whatever remained of the team’s playoff hopes and cast Childress’ job into obvious and imminent jeopardy.
Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season, the team announced in a three-sentence statement that included no quotes from management.
The Vikings sent a media release a little before 9 a.m. Monday saying Childress would hold his regularly scheduled press conference at 12:30 p.m. So, owner Zygi Wilf presumably informed Childress and team staffers sometime between then and the time Fox’s Jay Glazer broke the story on Twitter around 11 a.m.
A 3 p.m. media conference with Wilf and Frazier was scheduled to discuss the move. It’ll be the first time Wilf — who appeared angry as he hastily left the locker room following Sunday’s loss — has talked directly about the coaching situation in spite of rampant and growing speculation in recent weeks.
Here’s a brief introduction to the interim head coach from Judd Zulgad of the Star Tribune:
Frazier joined the Vikings as defensive coordinator in 2007 after Mike Tomlin left to become head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Frazier, who had been an assistant on Tony Dungy’s staff with the Colts for two seasons before being hired by the Vikings, was given the added title of assistant head coach by Childress in March 2008.
Frazier, 51, played for the Chicago Bears from 1981 to ’86 and was a starter at cornerback for the 1985 team that won the Super Bowl. He led Chicago in interceptions in 1983, ’84, ’85 but his career was cut short by a severe knee injury suffered in the Super Bowl.
Frazier began his coaching career at what is now known as Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill., in 1988 and remained at the school before moving to the University of Illinois in 1997. Frazier began coaching defensive backs for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999 and served as defensive coordinator for Cincinnati in 2003-04.
Frazier has interviewed for seven head coaching jobs in the past three offseasons, including Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis, Denver, Detroit, Buffalo and Seattle.
Update: Bob Sansevere has some advice for Frazier:
To succeed, Frazier needs to change a few things. The worst thing he could do is keep things status quo. Interim or not, it’s his team now. It’s his call how to run the joint.
The first thing he needs to do is decide what to do with Brett Favre. Here’s a thought: Pull Favre aside and tell him, “Thanks for trying, but we’re 3-7 with you and we both know you’re not coming back in 2011. We need to find out if this franchise has a quarterback for next season, so tell everyone your shoulder is about to fall off and retire for good this time.”
Frazier already should have seen enough of Tarvaris Jackson to know he’s not the future. So like he’s auditioning to be head coach, he should let rookie Joe Webb audition for the quarterback job. Fans would love it and, when you’re 3-7 and your owner wants a new stadium, fans aren’t a bad bunch to have on your side.
It’s be an amazing thing if Frazier put Favre on injured reserve, wouldn’t it? There goes the ironman’s record right there . . .
I’d like to see Joe Webb be given some game time, but I’d be more than astonished if he’s ready to start this soon. Most rookie quarterbacks need at least a full year before they’d have much hope of success. Still, as Sansevere points out, it would engage the fans and isn’t likely to make the final record for this season any worse.
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