Thread: Rivera may be on Vikings' list

[size=18px]Rivera may be on Vikings' list [/size]

January 2, 2006
BY MIKE MULLIGAN AND BRAD BIGGS Staff Reporters
Chicago-Sun Times

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf had vowed to make a decision on coach Mike Tice's future after the season ended. But nobody, Tice included, expected the hammer to come down so soon.

Tice was fired Sunday night, about 45 minutes after directing a 34-10 victory over the Bears. The coach met with his players in the locker room, held a news conference with the media and then was called into a room by Wilf, who told the coach the team would not renew his contract.

"Of course, I'm hurt,' Tice said. "I'm a man, not a machine. It's a shame I can't carry on, but that's the business and it's a tough business.'

Tice had yet to leave the Metrodome before word surfaced that Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera could be a name on Wilf's list. Rivera might be popular this week with as many as six other head coaches expected to be fired. The Houston Texans' Dom Capers joined Tice later Sunday.

Interested teams must interview Rivera this week, or they will be forbidden from speaking with him until the Bears' playoff run ends. That's a complication for teams such as the Vikings that first need to hire a general manager or personnel boss.

Bears coach Lovie Smith said he expects some calls to be placed to Halas Hall this week by interested teams.

"I would be disappointed if he didn't get some [interviews],' Smith said. "He has done an outstanding job. He deserves his shot at running his own team someday.'

Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher also took up Rivera's cause, although he admitted that selfishly he'd like to see Rivera remain with the Bears.

"I hope he gets a job somewhere, but I'd like to keep him here for a few years,' Urlacher said. "I'd be happy for him [if the Vikings hired him]. Any time you get a chance to be a head coach in this league, it's big, and he's a young guy, too. He'd be great as a coach. Anywhere he goes, I'd be happy for him.'

Rivera, 43, said he knows the fear is that the process could become a distraction for him as the Bears prepare for their second playoff appearance in 11 seasons.

"I really don't think it will be because we will most certainly try to handle it in a professional manner,' he said. "If the process does involve me and does take us in that direction, I will handle it as professionally as I can. I don't want it to be a distraction to the players because our main focus, our main goal has always been and will always be the playoffs for the 2005 season.'

Inevitable as Tice's departure had seemed since an offseason in which he was embarrassed by a Super Bowl ticket-scalping scandal and a tough start to the season that included the so-called "Love Boat' sex scandal with some high-profile players, Tice managed to bring the Vikings back from the 2-5 brink to win seven of their final nine games. Not bad for a team that traded away its best player, Randy Moss, in the offseason and lost its quarterback, Daunte Culpepper, to a career-threatening knee injury.

Only a handful of players were left in the locker room when word broke of Tice's firing, and a couple complained that it was wrong that teammates would hear about it on the news. Tice had to tell his wife via cell phone for fear someone would break the news to her while she waited for him in the parking lot.

"I would have rather told her face-to-face, but that's OK,' Tice said. "I was prepared for it all week. I didn't feel the vibes were good.'

The Vikings were eliminated from playoff contention last week, and Tice figured he had to get his team in the postseason and win a game or two if he wanted to stay around.

"I told Zygi, 'I wish I could have made it tough on you and won out and gone to the Super Bowl and stuck my tongue out at you,' Tice said. "But I wasn't able to do that.'

Rivera? OK, I feel a little better now.

yeah, lets get him!

I don't think so. Wilf has repeatedly said a "big name" coach will be hired. Rivera isn't a big name!
And think about this...
What coach, even one still working, wouldn't want to come here? Some darn good talent, better than $20 million in cap room. That's a coaches dream!

lets seriously take a look at him.

he seems like the type of guy that could really give the vikes a spark that we need.


with all this talent. this is a coahces dream. a place where you can win right away. and not go into a rebuilding stage.

hell yeah!!!!!!!!!!! TAMPA 2, here we come!!

What "big name" is out there for us to hire?

"COJOMAY" wrote:

I don't think so. Wilf has repeatedly said a "big name" coach will be hired. Rivera isn't a big name!
And think about this...
What coach, even one still working, wouldn't want to come here? Some darn good talent, better than $20 million in cap room. That's a coaches dream!

With that being said, how many "big name coaches" with a winning record this year are looking for work?

Singer: I'm just saying with the opportunity that exsists with the Vikes how could some big name coach NOT want to come here.

This is exactly what I am worried about for the Vikings is some unproven coach with no head coaching experience would be brought in and then for the next 3 years we going to hear "well he needs to learn, give him a few years"