Vikings Coaching History
Wow, we extended Chilly thru 2013 or something like that. Sure, he's 8 and 1 this year, but I feel like he's 6 and 3 and Favre's 10 and 0 and that somehow equals out to 8 and 1 (I can't do the math but you get the idea.) Anyway, got me thinking about all the Vikings coaches and where they all rank. The Vikes have had 7 coaches in their history (including Brad Childress.) Aside from Norm Van Brocklin who coached in the 1960's, we've been fans long enough to see the other 6 pace the sidelines. Scale of 1 to 10 with a "10" being the "Shula/Halas/Landry" variety and a "1" being of the "I want to say Matt Millen but he wasn't a coach so I'll go with Rick Venturi" variety, I'd say the balance of coaches fall somewhere in the middle, like a lot of their teams. You can throw out the outliers: Grant get's a '9' - you go to 4 Superbowls, you go to the HOF; Les Steckle gets a "1" - just what you get when you go 3 and 13.
That leaves:
Jerry Burns (1986 to 1991) .547 Wpct and 3 years of playoffs with an NFC title game (crushing loss at RFK.) I'd give him a 5.0 on coaching and half a point for profanity laced tirades. Total = 5.5.
Dennis Green (1992 - 2001) .610 Wpct with 7 playoff appearances and 2 NFC title games (both crushing losses for completely different reasons.) I'd throw Dirty Denny a 6.5 for coaching success (I can't believe he took the "knee") but I'm taking 1 point for the "Sheriff" declaring he was going to sue Vikings ownership; I'll add that point back because of his love of fishing but negative 1 point for playing the drums on his own coaches show. Total = 5.5
Mike Tice (2001 - 2005) .492 Wpct with 1 playoff appearance when beat the Packers but lost to the E-A-G-L-E-S. I mean, c'mon. Yes, that win at Lambeau in the playoffs was memorable but not because of Tice's 8 and 8 squad. Give him 3.5 on coaching, I'll take points for the ticket scalping and the Love Boat but I'm adding points because he had his own parking spot at "Bunny's." Total score = 3.5.
Brad Childress (2006 - ) .561 Wpct with 1 playoff appearance when we hosted the Eagles and faded away in the second half. He gets a 5.5, right? I mean, he is rolling in his 4th year as coach with a team he assembled. He helped clean up the locker room. We know all the moves he made, he was right about getting Favre, he just needs to guide this ship to the Promised Land and he's an 8 or 9.
With weighting and proper calibration, I feel a little over .500 with our sample group and turns out that if you do the fancy math, combined these coaches have a .556 Wpct. Here's hoping Chilly turns out to be more like Bud Grant and less like Denny.
4 Comments:
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November 20, 2009 at 10:59 AM
This is an excellent breakdown. I largely agree, but I have a few concerns. Bud - no question. 9 is fair. I would vote for him for President, Governor or whatever just because there has never been a figure on the sideline of ANY sport that LOOKED more like a man is supposed to look like as a leader. He exuded raw, emotionless focus. The four losses are just so sad and crushing because even if he had won one, or two, he would go down as an indisputable coaching legend. Fran Tarkenton once said of Bud, "He is the greatest leader of men that I have ever known." Of course, fran lost three of those superbowls, and said the favre deal was awful, so take that for what its worth.
I give Burnsie an extra point for having to deal with Mike Lynn and he invented the West Coast offense and never got credit for it. And while Jan eluded to it, I would rather watch his incoherent vulgarity than almost any movie released in the last ten years that didn't include Denise Richards' tits.
I wanted to like tice. I really did. But he was just a boob. I mean, he actually threw that game against Baltimore to help Brian Billick, The pencil thing was just too much for me. You're not a carpenter and nobody is going to come up to you on the sideline and ask you to fill out a God Damn scantron. Dont use a pencil. Use a pen.
Denny Green was just a total asshole. He defined everything wrong with Minnesota sports. He defined its just good enough to get there. No. No it isn't, you fat disgusting poor man's art shell. Your team takes on the mindset of the coach when things get tight. And taking a knee leads to running out of bounds. I hate you Robert SMith. Some people might have forgotten. I have not. Die.
As for Chilly, I have been a longtime critic. I have said I hate him. I have said he's the biggest idiot in football. I have said I would plow my pathfinder into his family. But I am prepared to eat my words, If we win the superbowl he will deserve huge credit and I will give it to him. He got favre here when everyone said no. I am happy they signed chilly just beacuse it was a foregone conclusion and right now I am willing to risk keeping him around if it helps remove any distractions from this team. So here's to Chilly. May he prove me to be an idiotic rube who knows nothing. And if not, you all better keep your yappers shut when he gets hit and dragged by a black Nissan.
November 20, 2009 at 5:28 PM
I have absolutely nothing to add. That was brilliant...the rankings are Bud Grant...empty spot, empty spot, everyone else.
Like you said, if Chilly gets us to the promised land, he will be #2 all-time. How scary is that?!?
November 23, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Some additional credit should, I think, be given to Chilly for drafting AP and Percy, as well. Peterson seemed obvious, but if it was so obvious, why did 6 other teams not have the guts to pick him?
Also, at this point, I'm certainly willing to say that Favre has been working out so far. I still think we looked desperate, and I still have a hard time wanting to win a Super Bowl with him interloping around, but it's got to be about the best any Vikings team has looked in over 30 years right now, in large part because of his play. And the more games he plays for the team, the easier it is to swallow seeing him in purple. I guess. Sort of. Before the season, the visual of Favre leading the Vikings to the Super Bowl seemed too much like just a gut-wrenching, difficult to reconcile destination, and not a journey. Watching the journey makes the possible destination a little more tolerable. Anyway, he's winning so Childress deserves credit for now.
November 23, 2009 at 4:15 PM
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