Thread: Childress shows he's serious about putting team first

Posted on Wed, Mar. 22, 2006

[size=18px]Culpepper trade makes a statement
Childress shows he's serious about putting team first[/size]

BY DON SEEHOLZER
Pioneer Press

Vikings coach Brad Childress said he wasn't trying to send a message to his team last week when he traded disgruntled quarterback Daunte Culpepper to Miami.

But if that's the way some players took it, it's fine with Childress.

"I guess everybody processes that probably in their own way," he said Tuesday. "I wasn't trying to send a message. I was trying to (deal with) an individual case and what I felt like needed to be done."

Intended or not, Childress made a clear statement by trading Culpepper, who the coach has claimed was putting his personal dissatisfaction with his contract ahead of the team.

If that move cost Childress points with anyone in the locker room or local community, he said coaching isn't a popularity contest.

"Like I tell my kids when I discipline them," he said, " 'I'm not your friend; I'm your dad.' There's a certain protocol that a dad has to pay attention to.

If a byproduct of being your dad is a friendship … then so be it. But first and foremost, (after) 30 years of coaching, there are certain things that have to happen. Sometimes they're not all pleasant for everybody, but they have to happen. It's part of the job."

A week after the trade, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about what happened between Culpepper and the Vikings, but Childress said there was no ulterior motive behind the team denying the quarterback's recent request for a playbook.

"Brad Johnson was asking me for one as well," Childress said. "He got one yesterday. Plenty of time."

As for the infamous March 6 e-mail that Culpepper said prompted his trade-or-release-me response, Childress declined to provide any details.

"I got a lot of e-mails from him, too, that I'm not going to publish," he said. "I just, from this point on, would kind of try to like to go forward here."

Culpepper did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Trading the franchise quarterback might have been the furthest thing from Childress' mind on Jan. 6, when he was hired by the Vikings, but he said he knew when he took the job that it wouldn't be all smooth sailing.

"I think to assume would be wrong because you can't assume anything," he said. "Things are not always as they appear. … When you're standing away from it, you judge one thing. When you're sitting on top of it, you judge another thing. I don't mean specifically Daunte. I'm talking about the whole organization and all the people that are involved. You have a perception of somebody from afar — whether it be your offensive linemen, your defensive linemen, your secondary. There's perception and there's reality."

Childress said the Vikings wouldn't have been looking for a coach unless something was wrong — "or at least, obviously in the perception of the ownership, something needed to be changed" — but he had no complaints about his first 2½ months on the job.

"It's gone fast," he said. "The days go fast. The statement that there's not enough hours in the day probably rings true for me. But it's been fun. It has an energy kind of all itself. I've got a good group of guys I'm here working through it with. I think all of us are single-minded of purpose. We're doing whatever we need to do to get things going in the right direction."

Don Seeholzer can be reached at [email protected]

Culpepper trade makes a statement

Childress said there was no ulterior motive behind the team denying the quarterback's recent request for a playbook.

This should squash the rumor that the Vikings sent Daunte a playbook on a laptop & he never opened it, as several here believed.

"singersp" wrote:

Childress said there was no ulterior motive behind the team denying the quarterback's recent request for a playbook.

This should squash the rumor that the Vikings sent Daunte a playbook on a laptop & he never opened it, as several here believed.

There is another thread that has a similar article, and I addressed this in that thread as well! Mark Rosen had to have been wrong, I am not the one that said it on the radio, I am the one that reported it! But when something like that comes up again, I will report it again next time as well. I trust Mark Rosen and do not think he would make up a story, it is not the kind of guy he is. So if he reports something I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt!

I am glad that Childress didn't send Culpepper a playbook. With being uncertain about a player, I think the worse thing possible would have given him a playbook.. Good move by Childress, and one I believe that no matter what happens, he will stick by it.

it is good that he didn't give DC a playbook, if he did, the Dolphins would probably know more about our new offense than most of our players. I would have held off too, until everything was settled and everyone was happy.

I like Childress's attitude...we are moving forward and everyone there is single-minded of purpose...to do the things that get things going in the right direction!!!

Super Bowl, here we come! Maybe not this year or next, but here we come nonetheless!!!

I think it's pretty obvious Childress made his mind up early on about Daunte. I imagine when Daunte wouldn't meet with him, and was trying to re-work his deal it had a huge impact on Childress.

He probably figured at that point he didn't want him on the team.

I can't say I blame him.

"cajunvike" wrote:

I like Childress's attitude...we are moving forward and everyone there is single-minded of purpose...to do the things that get things going in the right direction!!!

Super Bowl, here we come! Maybe not this year or next, but here we come nonetheless!!!

You are personally responsible for drying my tears if that doesn't happen

I posted this elsewhere but thought it belonged again here...

I think this quote from Childres is very telling:

Childress said the Vikings wouldn't have been looking for a coach unless something was wrong — "or at least, obviously in the perception of the ownership, something needed to be changed"

This has a couple of "hidden" meanings in it I believe. One is that Tice was fired not because of a losing season so much as that Wilf didn't like the image Tice presented by selling Super Bowl tickets. Wilf wants the image of this team to be squeeky clean and so the same went for Culpepper. Secondly, The "Love Boat" thing hurt him a lot and Tice did nothing about it. Then after that he has the gall to ask for more money. I'm sure Wilf and Childress had a talk about this. When Wilf sent the e-mails to Pep concerning this and other things, Daunte took it as he wasn't wanted (which he probably wasn't) and that's why the playbook was never sent. (A smart move on Childress' part.)

So it wasn't Childress at the bottom of Pep's firing at all. It was Wilf's decision all the way.

The more i read about Childress the more i like him, I really believe he has his head on straight and his priorites in order. good job Vike front office.