| Authored by Randolph Charlotin - 1st July, 2009 - 1:09 am
 It should be the best of times for the Minnesota Vikings, but a foolish head coach could not have mishandled the situation any worse.
Imagine you are incumbent quarterback Tavaris Jackson. You know your job is at stake. The Vikings traded for your possible replacement in Sage Rosenfels. This training camp, you’re playing for your job.
You’ll be entering this camp with a boost of confidence, though. After being benched after two games, you returned to action in week 14 and led a comeback win over the Detroit Lions by connecting on 8-of-10 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.
From that point on, you played football like you always believed you could. In your first start since week two, you threw four touchdown passes. In the final four games the Vikes were 3-1 as you connected on well over 60 percent of your attempts and eight TD passes against just one interception.
OK, so the playoff game didn’t go well. But how you closed out the regular season makes you believe you can beat out the challenger Rosenfels. Now that you’re no longer playing scared, you’ve given the coaches reason to believe in you.
But out of nowhere comes this talk about Brett Favre joining the team. “What, this fossil is gonna come here and coach is gonna just give him the job?” you think to yourself.
While you say the right things to the media, you’re offended. Favre is, like, 100 years old, you think. While you feel, at just 26 years of age, you give the Vikings a long term future instead of the one year Minnesota knows they will get from Favre.
For goodness sakes, you continue to wonder, Favre is coming off shoulder surgery too. He already fell apart last year as the season wore on. Could his old body take another pounding? You know you’ll bounce back from a clean hit from a blitzing linebacker. Favre might need a team of doctors and trainers just to get ready week to week, and you’ll quickly tire of the Icy Hot fumes emanating from a few lockers away.
“What if Favre retires again? Will the coaching staff come crawling back to me?” you ask yourself. You only hope they would.
Now imagine you’re Sage Rosenfels. After eight years in the league, you’re finally getting the fair chance to start in the league. Minnesota traded for you in the off-season and you believe they hope you win the starting job. This could be the end of your back-up days.
You sat behind the likes of Matt Schaub, Jay Fiedler, Ray Lucas, Brian Griese, A.J. Feeley, Gus Ferrotte, and David freakin’ Carr for goodness sakes! Your time is now, and you won’t let this opportunity slip through your hands.
First you have to beat out the incumbent, Tavaris Jackson. It’s gonna be called a quarterback competition, but you feel you have this in the bag. You have way more game experience than this youngster. You’ll just play your game, let the kid crack under the pressure and the starting job is all yours. Competition? “Heh,” you chuckle. You believe this will be no comp.
Besides, Minnesota wanted you since the end of the 2007 season. They waited this long to get you, and your arrival cost them a fourth round draft pick and a two-year $9 million contract extension. They wouldn’t pay this much if they didn’t envision you as the starter for the 2009 season.
So why is coach Brad Childress secretly communicating with Brett Favre? You find it hard to believe the organization that traded for you now has eyes for the tired and worn down Favre.
The rumors won’t go away, and you’re starting to simmer inside. You wonder why the hell did the Vikes bring you here if they weren’t committed to you starting. The thought of getting bumped down to second string by a past his prime gunslinger feels like the rug being pulled out from under you.
What stings even more is that you could lose the starting job to such an error-prone player. Favre led the league in interceptions with 22 last year and threw two touchdowns against nine picks down the stretch, preventing the New York Jets from reaching the playoffs.
And the coaching staff is gonna hand the job over to this guy without him throwing a pass? That’s probably because Favre’s next pass would get picked off too, you assume.
You feel like the victim of a barrel job. If you had control and knew this was going to happen, you never would had agreed to be traded to Minnesota.
Brad Childress is the head coach and the author of this needless drama. He has two quarterbacks, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to coach future Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
Which is understandable, but Childress went about it all wrong. Instead of being honest from the beginning, he played oblivious with the press but didn’t hide his interest when away from the microphone. Brad forgot the press has eyes and cameras.
Don’t say you don’t know what Favre is up to when you send Vikings staffers to watch him in person. Don’t act like you are unaware of Favre’s shoulder surgery when Minnesota’s doctors checked him out in person as well as reviewed the procedure.
And especially don’t think the team won’t see what’s going on. If they decide you’re two-faced and can’t be trusted, they won’t follow you to the parking lot, let alone onto the field. Childress is finally being honest with the press, but it could be too late by now.
Childress had two quarterbacks before the flirtation with Brett Favre. By the end of the season, if Favre retires for good this time, Childress could have none.
Read more by Randolph Charlotin at his New England Patriots blog at . He can be reached at talktome@randolphc.com. |
