HarveyWallbangers
09-30-2007, 09:53 AM
It sounds like he wasn't Ted Thompson's first choice as coach--even if Minnesota hadn't signed him right away.
Once-hot coaching candidate Childress may not live up to pedigree
By Pete Dougherty
In the first few days after the Minnesota Vikings hired then-Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress on Jan. 6, 2006, and especially after Ted Thompson hired little-known Mike McCarthy six days later, the e-mails rolled in to the Press-Gazette.
They characterized Thompson as too conservative, too deliberate or too stupid to be the Green Bay Packers' general manager. In an offseason in which there was no "must-have" coaching prospect available, Childress was the most publicized candidate for an NFL head-coaching job, had connections to the Packers' Ron Wolf-Mike Holmgren era and was scheduled to interview with Thompson after talking with Vikings ownership.
But Minnesota put on a full-court press to hire him, and he never made it for his visit to Green Bay.
Funny thing, haven't had any e-mails from angry Packers fans about that lately.
Maybe Childress will end up being a good head coach in the long run, but his tenure looks shaky after 1À years riddled with errors big and small.
More to the point, how many NFL general managers do you think would take him over Mike McCarthy now, let alone the armchair GMs who considered Thompson a buffoon for letting Childress get away?
What some considered a bold, decisive move by Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was a rash decision by a neophyte NFL owner. Thompson's willingness to let Childress go without interviewing him was yet another demonstration of his distinguishing quality as a GM: an even-keeled temperament.
That doesn't mean Wilf's choice will be wrong and Thompson's right in the long run, but it's looking that way nearly two years later.
Perhaps most telling, and unknown publicly at the time, was Childress didn't go into the interview process as Thompson's top candidate despite looking like the most obvious one on the surface. Thompson worked with and is friends with Childress' then-boss, Andy Reid, the eminently successful protégé of Thompson's boss in Seattle, Mike Holmgren.
However, interviews with several Packers and NFL sources revealed that McCarthy, Wade Phillips and Jim Bates came with stronger connections to Thompson, and another Thompson interviewee, Sean Payton, had the most impressive recommendations. Thompson never tried to convince Childress to come to Green Bay for his interview when Wilf was pressing to hire Childress before he could leave the Twin Cities.
There were nine head-coaching vacancies when the Packers and Vikings hit the market in January 2006. The others were Buffalo, the New York Jets, Houston, Detroit, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland.
The Vikings had just fired Mike Tice, whose tenure as coach included his Super Bowl ticket-scalping scandal, Onterrio Smith's Whizzinator suspension and the infamous Lake Minnetonka Love Boat scandal that led to four players' arrests on misdemeanor charges.
The Wilfs — Zygi and his brother Mark — are the Vikings' primary owners, and made it their priority to improve the discipline and image of the team with their coaching hire. From the start, they were fixated on the straight-laced Childress as the squeaky clean, law-and-order man for the job, and they let the division-rival Packers' plans to interview Childress heighten their interest.
The Wilfs contacted Childress the afternoon after firing Tice a few minutes after the regular-season finale, and when Childress talked about interviewing with them later in the week, they insisted he fly in on their private plane that night. After the meeting, they convinced him to remain in the Twin Cities while they hastily interviewed three other candidates in two days: Ted Cottrell, their defensive coordinator at the time; Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis' assistant head coach-quarterbacks; and Al Saunders, assistant head coach-offensive coordinator with Kansas City.
Childress was scheduled to interview with the Packers on Wednesday of that week, and a source said with the Wilfs pushing to hire him, he called Thompson to gauge the GM's interest. Thompson said he wanted to interview Childress but also was going to talk to six or seven other candidates on his short list before making a hire. He could make Childress no promises.
So Childress stayed with the Wilfs — the Wilfs had no way of knowing the degree of the Packers' interest and no doubt saw the connections between Childress and their archrival — and signed a five-year, $11 million guaranteed contract before the end of the week. The Wilfs gave him extensive authority in the organization, including a strong say over personnel, even though he'd never been a head coach at any level of football.
Thompson, meantime, interviewed seven candidates over six days. In order, they were: Payton, who was Dallas' assistant head coach-quarterbacks; Maurice Carthon, Cleveland's offensive coordinator; Ron Rivera, Chicago's defensive coordinator; McCarthy; Phillips, San Diego's defensive coordinator; Tim Lewis, the New York Giants' defensive coordinator; and Bates, the Packers' defensive coordinator.
Thompson also was scheduled to interview Russ Grimm, who was Pittsburgh's offensive line coach, but canceled after he decided to hire McCarthy.
Sources point to Thompson's past as a guide behind his decision on McCarthy. Thompson had worked under former Packers GM Ron Wolf, who talked about bringing toughness to his team after each of his three head-coaching hires with the Packers. Thompson also worked in Green Bay and Seattle with Holmgren, who was both tough and expert at working with the most important position in football, quarterbacks. That was Thompson's model.
McCarthy also came with crucial recommendations from people Thompson trusted: Scot McCloughan, who was Thompson's right-hand man as director of college scouting in Seattle, and John Schneider, the Packers' personnel adviser to the general manager who worked with Thompson in Green Bay (1993-96, 2005-present) and Seattle (2000). McCloughan is San Francisco's vice president of player personnel and worked with McCarthy in the coach's one season as the 49ers' offensive coordinator, 2005. Schneider was Kansas City's director of pro personnel for two years when McCarthy was the Chiefs' quarterbacks coach (1997-98).
Gut feelings also can play a big role in these hires, and in the interview, Thompson sensed McCarthy was someone he could work well with.
Opinions among sources diverge on which candidate Thompson would have selected if McCarthy were hired by another team.
One source guessed Payton — New Orleans hired him shortly after the Packers chose McCarthy. Payton wanted the job badly, is regarded as highly intelligent and has a successful background working with quarterbacks. He also came with strong recommendations from two of the NFL's heaviest hitters, Bill Parcells and Mike Shanahan. He's more articulate than McCarthy in public settings, but lost out in part because he didn't exude McCarthy's toughness.
One source said Bates had a strong interview and might have been the second choice. But being a known quantity probably worked against Bates in the end, because Thompson wanted to make sure he wasn't hiring someone just because he had in-house support among some players and staff, as well as fans, as Bates did. Bates also was a defensive coach, so he lacked expertise with quarterbacks.
Phillips appeared to be a courtesy interview — he speculated so himself at the NFL scouting combine last February — but several sources said Thompson has great respect for his abilities and might have ranked him among the top two or three candidates. Phillips had been Thompson's position coach with the Houston Oilers in 1976, and Thompson is especially close to Phillips' father, Bum, who was Thompson's head coach for most of his career with the Oilers. Wade Phillips had a solid record as a head coach — he was 45-35 in stints at Denver (1993-94) and Buffalo (1998-2000) and went to the playoffs three times in five years, though he never won a playoff game.
However, he runs a 3-4 defensive scheme that didn't match the Packers' personnel, and his more laid-back, player-friendly approach to coaching wasn't right for the NFL's youngest team.
So here we are, 20 months later, and the hot but unproven candidate at the time, Childress, is struggling with a 1-2 record after going 6-10 last year. He's had a difficult time connecting with the Vikings' fan base because of his reticent communication style, and far more importantly, has major problems at quarterback. He traded franchise quarterback Daunte Culpepper last year, a move that may or may not prove to be good over the long run because of Culpepper's knee injury. But he also took a huge risk by trading two third-round picks to move into the second round last year to draft quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. He's put his team in the hands of a talented but extremely raw player who played Division I-AA in college.
The Wilfs erred in giving a first-time head coach such a strong hand in the organization — Childress has control over free agency and a strong influence in the draft, though Rick Spielman has final say on draft picks after being hired last offseason as vice president of personnel. Regardless, a rookie coach needs to be in a system with a GM who can provide checks and balances in decision making.
The Wilfs also took a small risk by hiring an assistant coach who'd never run his own offense — the Eagles' system was Reid's, and Reid called the plays. But the Eagles took the same risk when they hired Reid, who was the Packers' quarterbacks coach before becoming their head coach, and that's worked out well.
Perhaps most interestingly, consider this: after Childress left Philadelphia, Reid promoted Marty Mornhinweg to assistant head coach-offensive coordinator and immediately handed him the play-calling duties.
Once-hot coaching candidate Childress may not live up to pedigree
By Pete Dougherty
In the first few days after the Minnesota Vikings hired then-Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress on Jan. 6, 2006, and especially after Ted Thompson hired little-known Mike McCarthy six days later, the e-mails rolled in to the Press-Gazette.
They characterized Thompson as too conservative, too deliberate or too stupid to be the Green Bay Packers' general manager. In an offseason in which there was no "must-have" coaching prospect available, Childress was the most publicized candidate for an NFL head-coaching job, had connections to the Packers' Ron Wolf-Mike Holmgren era and was scheduled to interview with Thompson after talking with Vikings ownership.
But Minnesota put on a full-court press to hire him, and he never made it for his visit to Green Bay.
Funny thing, haven't had any e-mails from angry Packers fans about that lately.
Maybe Childress will end up being a good head coach in the long run, but his tenure looks shaky after 1À years riddled with errors big and small.
More to the point, how many NFL general managers do you think would take him over Mike McCarthy now, let alone the armchair GMs who considered Thompson a buffoon for letting Childress get away?
What some considered a bold, decisive move by Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was a rash decision by a neophyte NFL owner. Thompson's willingness to let Childress go without interviewing him was yet another demonstration of his distinguishing quality as a GM: an even-keeled temperament.
That doesn't mean Wilf's choice will be wrong and Thompson's right in the long run, but it's looking that way nearly two years later.
Perhaps most telling, and unknown publicly at the time, was Childress didn't go into the interview process as Thompson's top candidate despite looking like the most obvious one on the surface. Thompson worked with and is friends with Childress' then-boss, Andy Reid, the eminently successful protégé of Thompson's boss in Seattle, Mike Holmgren.
However, interviews with several Packers and NFL sources revealed that McCarthy, Wade Phillips and Jim Bates came with stronger connections to Thompson, and another Thompson interviewee, Sean Payton, had the most impressive recommendations. Thompson never tried to convince Childress to come to Green Bay for his interview when Wilf was pressing to hire Childress before he could leave the Twin Cities.
There were nine head-coaching vacancies when the Packers and Vikings hit the market in January 2006. The others were Buffalo, the New York Jets, Houston, Detroit, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland.
The Vikings had just fired Mike Tice, whose tenure as coach included his Super Bowl ticket-scalping scandal, Onterrio Smith's Whizzinator suspension and the infamous Lake Minnetonka Love Boat scandal that led to four players' arrests on misdemeanor charges.
The Wilfs — Zygi and his brother Mark — are the Vikings' primary owners, and made it their priority to improve the discipline and image of the team with their coaching hire. From the start, they were fixated on the straight-laced Childress as the squeaky clean, law-and-order man for the job, and they let the division-rival Packers' plans to interview Childress heighten their interest.
The Wilfs contacted Childress the afternoon after firing Tice a few minutes after the regular-season finale, and when Childress talked about interviewing with them later in the week, they insisted he fly in on their private plane that night. After the meeting, they convinced him to remain in the Twin Cities while they hastily interviewed three other candidates in two days: Ted Cottrell, their defensive coordinator at the time; Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis' assistant head coach-quarterbacks; and Al Saunders, assistant head coach-offensive coordinator with Kansas City.
Childress was scheduled to interview with the Packers on Wednesday of that week, and a source said with the Wilfs pushing to hire him, he called Thompson to gauge the GM's interest. Thompson said he wanted to interview Childress but also was going to talk to six or seven other candidates on his short list before making a hire. He could make Childress no promises.
So Childress stayed with the Wilfs — the Wilfs had no way of knowing the degree of the Packers' interest and no doubt saw the connections between Childress and their archrival — and signed a five-year, $11 million guaranteed contract before the end of the week. The Wilfs gave him extensive authority in the organization, including a strong say over personnel, even though he'd never been a head coach at any level of football.
Thompson, meantime, interviewed seven candidates over six days. In order, they were: Payton, who was Dallas' assistant head coach-quarterbacks; Maurice Carthon, Cleveland's offensive coordinator; Ron Rivera, Chicago's defensive coordinator; McCarthy; Phillips, San Diego's defensive coordinator; Tim Lewis, the New York Giants' defensive coordinator; and Bates, the Packers' defensive coordinator.
Thompson also was scheduled to interview Russ Grimm, who was Pittsburgh's offensive line coach, but canceled after he decided to hire McCarthy.
Sources point to Thompson's past as a guide behind his decision on McCarthy. Thompson had worked under former Packers GM Ron Wolf, who talked about bringing toughness to his team after each of his three head-coaching hires with the Packers. Thompson also worked in Green Bay and Seattle with Holmgren, who was both tough and expert at working with the most important position in football, quarterbacks. That was Thompson's model.
McCarthy also came with crucial recommendations from people Thompson trusted: Scot McCloughan, who was Thompson's right-hand man as director of college scouting in Seattle, and John Schneider, the Packers' personnel adviser to the general manager who worked with Thompson in Green Bay (1993-96, 2005-present) and Seattle (2000). McCloughan is San Francisco's vice president of player personnel and worked with McCarthy in the coach's one season as the 49ers' offensive coordinator, 2005. Schneider was Kansas City's director of pro personnel for two years when McCarthy was the Chiefs' quarterbacks coach (1997-98).
Gut feelings also can play a big role in these hires, and in the interview, Thompson sensed McCarthy was someone he could work well with.
Opinions among sources diverge on which candidate Thompson would have selected if McCarthy were hired by another team.
One source guessed Payton — New Orleans hired him shortly after the Packers chose McCarthy. Payton wanted the job badly, is regarded as highly intelligent and has a successful background working with quarterbacks. He also came with strong recommendations from two of the NFL's heaviest hitters, Bill Parcells and Mike Shanahan. He's more articulate than McCarthy in public settings, but lost out in part because he didn't exude McCarthy's toughness.
One source said Bates had a strong interview and might have been the second choice. But being a known quantity probably worked against Bates in the end, because Thompson wanted to make sure he wasn't hiring someone just because he had in-house support among some players and staff, as well as fans, as Bates did. Bates also was a defensive coach, so he lacked expertise with quarterbacks.
Phillips appeared to be a courtesy interview — he speculated so himself at the NFL scouting combine last February — but several sources said Thompson has great respect for his abilities and might have ranked him among the top two or three candidates. Phillips had been Thompson's position coach with the Houston Oilers in 1976, and Thompson is especially close to Phillips' father, Bum, who was Thompson's head coach for most of his career with the Oilers. Wade Phillips had a solid record as a head coach — he was 45-35 in stints at Denver (1993-94) and Buffalo (1998-2000) and went to the playoffs three times in five years, though he never won a playoff game.
However, he runs a 3-4 defensive scheme that didn't match the Packers' personnel, and his more laid-back, player-friendly approach to coaching wasn't right for the NFL's youngest team.
So here we are, 20 months later, and the hot but unproven candidate at the time, Childress, is struggling with a 1-2 record after going 6-10 last year. He's had a difficult time connecting with the Vikings' fan base because of his reticent communication style, and far more importantly, has major problems at quarterback. He traded franchise quarterback Daunte Culpepper last year, a move that may or may not prove to be good over the long run because of Culpepper's knee injury. But he also took a huge risk by trading two third-round picks to move into the second round last year to draft quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. He's put his team in the hands of a talented but extremely raw player who played Division I-AA in college.
The Wilfs erred in giving a first-time head coach such a strong hand in the organization — Childress has control over free agency and a strong influence in the draft, though Rick Spielman has final say on draft picks after being hired last offseason as vice president of personnel. Regardless, a rookie coach needs to be in a system with a GM who can provide checks and balances in decision making.
The Wilfs also took a small risk by hiring an assistant coach who'd never run his own offense — the Eagles' system was Reid's, and Reid called the plays. But the Eagles took the same risk when they hired Reid, who was the Packers' quarterbacks coach before becoming their head coach, and that's worked out well.
Perhaps most interestingly, consider this: after Childress left Philadelphia, Reid promoted Marty Mornhinweg to assistant head coach-offensive coordinator and immediately handed him the play-calling duties.