Usually, owners don’t fire coaches who are under big money contracts, but Minnesota Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf had seen enough after the team’s 31-3 loss to rival Green Bay on Sunday. The Vikings fired Brad Childress today with defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier serving as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
The Vikings fell to 3-7 after yesterday beating, the final blow to Childress in his fifth season in charge of the team. Childress took over for the fired (and current Bears’ offensive line coach) Mike Tice in 2006 after spending seven years with the Eagles, including four as the offensive coordinator. He was chosen by owner to instill discipline and demand better off-the-field behavior from a team that was embarrassed the year before by a bye-week boat party gone bad and a number of other legal problems for players.
At first, the team improved, going from 6-10 to 8-8 to 10-6 to 12-4 in his first four seasons, losing in the NFC title game in overtime last January to the eventual champion New Orleans Saints. Last November, Wilf gave Childress a contract extension.
However, Childress’ hard ass head coach act wore thin quickly alienating players, the owner and eventually the fans: he infamously cut dissatisfied wide receiver Marcus Robinson on Christmas Eve; he persuaded Brett Favre to put off retirement a second time after last year’s success.
This past summer, Favre didn’t show up for camp until mid-August, and the next week wide receiver Sidney Rice had hip surgery. Wide receiver Percy Harvin missed big chunks of time, mostly because of migraine headaches, and center John Sullivan was out of action for several weeks with a nagging calf injury.
With all these injuries, the offense never clicked like last year’s squad. Childress even criticized Favre after he threw three ill-fated interceptions in the Oct. 24 game at Green Bay and the Vikings lost to Favre’s old team. Childress, who was just 3-9 against the rival Packers as Minnesota coach, was sharply critical of Favre’s decision-making afterward, and the coach drew his own criticism for failing to challenge a Packers touchdown catch that could’ve been overturned because the ball was being bobbled.
Then the situation really went south following a loss at New England. Wide receiver Randy Moss, acquired in a trade for a third-round draft pick just four weeks earlier, went out of his way to praise the Patriots and criticize Childress in a post-game rant. The next day, Childress told his players he had cut Moss and never fully explained the situation to them or the public.
Wilf was reportedly angry that Childress didn’t tell him first of his plan, and there were anonymous reports of growing dissatisfaction in the locker room about the boss. After that, Childress and Harvin got into a heated argument during one practice over an MRI test on his sprained ankle.
Fans made no secret about their frustration, with thousands of “Fire Chilly” signs distributed on Nov. 7 outside the stadium before the Vikings played Arizona and several chants breaking out from the seats during the game.
Frazier is reportedly a good guy and well deserving of a chance that was coming next season somewhere anyway. The Vikings will probably respond favorably. We won’t weep for Brad Childress and his million dollar payout. I don’t know is anyone would want to give him another head coaching spot though.

Speaking of last straws, it appears that Tennessee Titans’ quarterback Vince Young may be on the same road out of town that Brad Childress just met. Young heard scattered boos in the first half of the 19-16 overtime loss to Washington yesterday and appeared to wave to the fans to invite more derision.
In the third quarter, he injured his throwing hand on a Redskin helmet and injured his thumb; when he tried to throw a few balls on the sidelines to show he was able to return to the game, according to Peter King on SI.com, Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher said that the balls were off-target and sailed, so Fisher stayed with third-stringer Rusty Smith, because backup Kerry Collins was out with a calf injury.
Young thought he was ready to play and was angry. On his way off the field after the game, he threw his shoulder pads and shirt in the stands and then, according to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, muttered under his breath while Fisher was addressing the team. When Fisher saw him ready to bolt the locker room, he told him not to quit on his teammates, and Young reportedly said he wasn’t quitting on them — he was quitting on Fisher.
This latest outburst, if true, will be a big issue between the team and Young, and probably between the coaching staff and owner Bud Adams. The “line” on Young is that he doesn’t work at his craft enough, either in the classroom or in rehabbing injuries. According to King, Young’s leadership is poor because he doesn’t show the commitment of many of his teammates. Young has played better this year with 10 touchdowns, and only three interceptions, but the coaches may be tired of him. Smith played like a third-stringer, and with the Titans just one game out of first, they need to get Collins healthy quick, especially if they do cut the ties with Young.

I somehow knew that putting the “best minds” of the Big Ten Conference, Northwestern, Illinois, and the Cubs/Wrigley Field, there would be a monumental screw-up and I was right.
Tomorrow, Northwestern plays Illinois in the “Allstate Wrigleyville Classic,” historic because this will be the first game played at Wrigley Field since the Bears left for Soldier Field in 1970. Good publicity, good location – Illini fans can get there; NU fans can come down from Evanston on the “L” (which is the way the Indignant Family and I will be making our way down). NU charged us more for four tickets to this game than the rest of my season tickets combined. Kirk Herbsteit and Lee Corso and the ESPN College Gameday crew are broadcasting from Addison Street – in other words a big deal. But something had to go wrong, right?
Ever since pictures were released showing the field, there were concerns about how close one end zone was to the right field bleacher wall. Advertisements for Allstate made the room between the end of the end zone and the brick wall even closer.
So, in response to the fact that the back-middle of the east end zone was just a foot from a thickly padded wall, the Big Ten has decided not to use that end zone for any offensive plays. Now, the big game turns into something silly; an arena football game played on a full size field. (And, our seats are on the 20-yard line of the end of the field that will never be defended. Will there be some type of rebate? Fat f#@$ing chance!)
The rules changes laid out by the Big Ten Friday morning less than 30 hours from kickoff are:
1. All offensive plays will head toward the West end zone, including all extra points and all overtime possessions.
2. All kickoffs will be kicked toward the East end zone.
3. After every change of possession, the ball will be repositioned for the offense to head toward the West end zone.
4. As a result of a coin toss held by the conference office Friday morning, Illinois will occupy the West team bench in the first half and Northwestern will occupy the West team bench in the second half and for all overtime periods.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes is of the utmost importance,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. “Both Illinois and Northwestern did significant due diligence over the past 18 months, but after seeing the actual layout of the field, all parties felt that it was appropriate to adjust the rules to further enhance the safety of our student-athletes.” (Of course Delany has no qualms about increasing the number of games played despite the physical health and academic rigors of being a “student-athlete,” but I guess money is more important.)
So, there’s going to be this bizarro football game played at one end of a field. The first thing that comes to mind for me is that these rules will have to be followed by Big Ten officials. “The Gang That Can’t Officiate Games Straight” are expected to keep this together? As I’ve said ad nauseum, Big Ten football officials are the worst in the nation, and now Delany is asking them to keep moving the ball around? These are the same guys who, at least once per season, march off yards on penalties against the wrong school! That is, they march in the wrong direction. This is going to be like asking Stevie Wonder to drive a car down the Dan Ryan Expressway at rush hour. It’s going to be the Keystone Kops out there.
In talking with my old friend Tony Swanagan (who first alerted me to this story), I wondered what happened to make this unmanageable, and it is obviously the new rows of seats the Cubs have built in over the past few years that make the field too small for football. After all, the Bears played there for decades, but I did find it unusual that the field went from the third base dugout to the right field wall. When the Bears played there, the field went from the first base bullpen to left field.
As I said earlier, this game is going to be historic: the first game in Wrigley Field in 40 years; a strange game played on half of the field, making all involved look like a laughing stock; and probably the final football game played at the venerable old stadium. Wait – perhaps the Ricketts family will ask the state for another $100 million on the bond issue to expand the stadium so that they can play football there. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

The writers for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Riley, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and their slimy ilk don’t need much (especially not facts or truth) to be frothing at the mouth over something the U.S. Government is doing since Barack Obama took over the White House, but tonight may be a classic.
CNN.com is reporting that the Senate is expected to approve $1.15 billion Friday to fund a settlement initially reached between the Agriculture Department and minority farmers more than a decade ago. The 1997 Pigford v. Glickman case against the U.S. Agriculture Department was settled out of court 11 years ago. Under a federal judge’s terms dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias.
The same piece of legislation is expected to include $3.4 billion in a separate settlement reached with the Department of Interior for mishandling of a trust fund managed for Native Americans. In July, the House approved a war supplemental bill that included money to pay for the settlements. At the time, however, the Senate failed to approve the measure.
The legislation moved forward when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, dropped an objection to the package this week after Senate leaders agreed not to finance it through additional deficit spending.
I can hear it now – “almost $5 billion to MINORITIES!!! Oh my God, Obama is showing his obvious hatred of white people by actually making them pay in cases in which the government has performed discrimination, been sued, and the government has lost.
It doesn’t matter that the Agriculture Department settled under the Clinton Administration. It doesn’t matter that the Interior Department settled with the Native Americans during GW Bush’s tenure. All that we will hear tonight is “Obama is pushing more money for the n___ers and Indians.”
Glenn Beck will be crying. Palin will say something stupid. O’Reilly will spout even more offensive, racist tripe. The Tea Party will be up in arms, making more signs comparing President Obama to Hitler. It’s sickening, and it’s going to happen (if it hasn’t already).

I used to ask whether sports team owners in Chicago had a contest – who could be the most hated individual in town? For many years, it was quite a horse race: we had the late “Dollar” Bill Wirtz who almost singlehandedly killed hockey in an original six city with cheapness, shortsightedness and mismanagement; Jerry Reinsdorf managing owner of both the Bulls and White Sox, who is still remembered for civic blackmail over the U.S. Cellular Field and disliked despite six Bull championships and a White Sox World Series title. We have the Bears, owned by the McCaskey Family who have done little to endear themselves to most fans, and, until recently, the corporate blunders of the Tribune Company for the Cubs.
On many fronts, owners aren’t as despised anymore. Rocky Wirtz, Bill’s oldest son, took over the ailing Blackhawk franchise and won a title. He actually gets cheers. The vehemence of the Reinsdorf haters has subsided. But now, the Ricketts family who bought the Cubs last winter have entered into the fray.
The family has asked Illinois lawmakers to finance a $200 million stadium renovation with a state bond sale that would be repaid with the anticipated growth in the 12 percent amusement tax levied on tickets sold at Wrigley. In other words, they want the state to come up with $200 million to be repaid over 25-30 years.
Under ordinary circumstances such a proposal might get wide public support, but with the economic recession putting people out of work; home values declining, both of which meaning less revenue for all of the states and municipalities in Illinois and the country, the timing frankly stinks.
Illinois faces a multi-billion (yes Billion) dollar deficit; huge debt; and severely underfunded pensions, and the Ricketts want to add more debt to the state. Although not running for reelection, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley didn’t endorse the plan and neither did Governor Pat Quinn, who narrowly won reelection despite calling for increased taxes.
Many local politicians remember the political boost Daley got for not building the Bears a new stadium when they wanted one. Michael McCaskey, at the time, one of the most hated men in town, couldn’t sell the deal to the taxpayers, and Daley got votes for telling the effete McCaskey where to go. It is not out of the realm of possibility that other politicians gain support as a result of telling the Ricketts the same thing.
Some people, including Chicago Tribune baseball writer Phil Rogers believes they should get the money (although there was a story in today’s Tribune asking if perhaps Wrigley Field should be demlished). After all, we have financed a stadium for the White Sox, and a rehab/overhaul for Soldier Field. Wrigley Field brings people to the city, this argument goes, so how can we fund for some and not the other? The difference is that U.S. Cellular Field and Soldier Field are publicly owned: the Bears and White Sox lease the stadium from the Illinois Stadium Authority. They are sweetheart leases, certainly, but it is probably a whole lot more palatable than giving money to a privately owned venture. After all, multibillionaire Bill Wirtz financed the United Center on his own land and with his own money (although there were tax breaks and other amenities that the city and state ponied up to Wirtz for the new building).
Unfortunately, several politicians are going to try to find a way to give the Ricketts family some money, if not the $200 million they are asking for.
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) is open to negotiation and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), who has said he would sponsor legislation for the bond deal, said he is open to different ways to fund the Wrigley renovations, after Mayor Richard Daley shot down the family’s financing plan because it would deprive the city of future revenue.
So, it appears that, eventually, taxpayers are going to pay for something. But with municipalities laying off teachers and police, and all of the economic problems, it appears that Tom Ricketts has the same problem with public relations as the other sports owners in this town have. He may get the money, but he may have to be whisked into and out of Wrigley Field to avoid the aggrieved taxpayers.

I don’t watch very much television, and certainly no network nighttime programming. (My television viewing consists of sports when I can wrestle the remote away from the kids. I have seen more of Dora The Explorer and Pixar movies than anyone my age should.)
As such, I avoided the “Desperate Housewives” phenomenon from a couple of years ago. I know who Eva Longoria is – I think she is moderately attractive, but I have never hung on her every word and action. By the same token, I have detailed many times here how I have been disillusioned from basketball over the past 10-12 years or so, but I do know that Tony Parker is an All Star guard for the San Antonio Spurs. I also knew that they dated, and I know they got married. I also can recite ? to 10 decimal places too, but this is a bit of memory that doesn’t come into common usage very often. (The Indignant Wife often comments on the sheer volume of useless _ that is, unprofitable – knowledge stored in the cranium of yours truly.)
It has made big news that Ms. Longoria has filed for divorce as a result of infidelity. Apparently, Eva is leaving her marriage after discovering Tony has been exchanging hundreds of text messages with a mutual female friend for almost a year. People Magazine reports that the woman Tony exchanged texts with is the wife of one of his San Antonio Spurs teammates.
So, we have another high profile African-American athlete caught cheating, and his wife is going to divorce him and take lots of money. In my opinion, women attracted to star athletes must know that there are plenty of women who want to get next to those men: for money; for notoriety; for the chance of “catching” them in marriage or children. It doesn’t make it right; just know what you’re in for. Long road trips make temptation a constant. Just because you are famous yourself, doesn’t make you immune.
And I’ve also said that I pity star athletes as well. Is that woman coming on to you because you’re rich and famous, or because she’s genuinely interested? (Although if Mr. Parker is playing around with one of his teammates’ wives, he may have bigger problems than just a divorce settlement – a can of whup-ass may be about to be opened on the guard.) Many of these young men don’t care, which explains the lawsuits, and unwed babies out there.
It is a sad story, and in some ways newsworthy, but I don’t care and I wish the mainstream media would cover something, anything, of more importance. (But I guess “Dancing With The Stars” is headline news today, so it’s probably a hopeless wish.)

As you may know, I have Northwestern football season tickets and have since 1996, and it never fails to get me fired up than the fans from the other school. I don’t know what it is that makes me so angry – arrogance, acting as bad visitors. That’s the reason for my passionate hatred for Michigan State, and my dislike for most of the other Big Ten schools. I don’t mind rooting for your team, but when you come into our stadium like it belongs to you, and you expect victory, especially with the success that the program has enjoyed over the past 15 years or so, NU is no patsy anymore.
Which brings us to last week’s game against Iowa. I took the Indignant Younger Daughter, and we stayed until it started raining hard, but the season ticket holders and I were surrounded by some very obnoxious Iowa fans (also known as Idiots Out Wandering Around). I tend to give Iowa fans a pass because, let’s face it, they live in Iowa and there’s little to do there unless we start talking about animal husbandry.
Anyway, soaking wet and not wanting to have a sick 2-year-old, we left before halftime. As you know, NU came from 10 points behind in the last 6:22 to beat Iowa 21-17 (of course, we also lost our quarterback Dan Persa for the season with a ruptured Achilles).
Since I left early (but I was watching at home), I never got the chance to tell some of those obnoxious bastards what I would have said if I had been out there: get your rube, country, bumblebee color wearing, asses out of our stadium!