The last two teams that the Green Bay Packers have played (and beaten badly) have fired their coaches in the following week. First it was the Cowboys releasing Wade Phillips after the way they were embarrassed by the Packers on Sunday Night Football. And now the Minnesota Vikings have unloaded Brad Childress in the wake of their humiliation at the hands of the Packers on Sunday afternoon on their own home field.
At the same time, we also note that the last two coaches Brett Favre has played for (Eric Mangini with the Jets, and now Brad Childress with the Vikings) have been fired.
So who is the real coach killer?
The Childress story is the really remarkable one, of course. On the one hand, this week’s news was a surprise to no one. The hometown crowd was audibly calling for his firing on Sunday afternoon! (Can you imagine what it would feel like to stand there while tens of thousands of people are yelling for you to be fired?!)
But rewind the tape only a few months. The Vikings were a play or two away from the Super Bowl last January. Just last January! In the long history of the NFL, I suspect that few teams have fallen so far so fast as the Minnesota Vikings have during the calendar year 2010. It’s a remarkable story. And it’s hard to imagine a much more pathetic ending to Brett Favre’s career -- especially considering the several times in recent he could have gone out near the top.
If only he had retired at the end of the 2007 or 2009 seasons, he would have fulfilled the classic counsel: Leave ‘em wanting more! As it is now, however, I don’t think anyone will be knocking on his Mississippi door this offseason, and that may be the strangest change of all for him.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment