NFL Free Picks - MINNEAPOLIS -Contrary to what some Vikings fans have

MINNEAPOLIS -Contrary to what some Vikings fans have contended, Brad Childress does indeed have a brain, and he uses it quite a bit.

Minnesota’s 46-year-old professional football franchise has long been this frozen region’s most popular sports team, and passionate opinions from the public about the coach have flowed freely from that.

So by losing 16 of his first 27 games, while overseeing an offense that was largely boring at best and inept at its worst, Childress has not exactly won over the purple-clad crowd.

His self-described flat-line personality, plus media portrayals of a front office and coaching staff that had become much-less open than the previous regimes, contributed to a wide perception that he was too rigid and aloof.

Well, the message boards are still stocked with ‘Fire Childress now!’ manifestos, but this 51-year-old former psychology major has stuck to his beliefs and found himself in much better standing as Monday night’s game against Chicago approached.

The Vikings (7-6) are in control of the NFC’s final playoff spot after four straight well-rounded victories, quite a contrast from one month ago when they were whipped by rival Green Bay and it looked like Childress could lose control of his team.

‘There’s always more buy-in when you’re winning,’ Childress said. ‘I think they all understand that there’s a method to the madness. It’s not oppressive. They understand where we’re trying to go.

‘We’re not coaching to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to run through a wall four times a day.’ How come? So you always explain it and say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’ I rely on the leadership to be able to be strong enough to say, ‘Hey Coach, what about this?”

Childress often has remarked this season, even while the Vikings were 2-5 and 3-6, that the makeup and chemistry of the team is good. Though he’s unlikely to have a buddy-buddy relationship with anyone in the locker room, the two sides have gotten to know each other more and now have a stronger trust. Why, might the players have warmed up to the boss?

‘Warm might be a little strong,’ Childress said, smiling.

Not to hear some of them talk about it.

‘It’s really getting better,’ wide receiver Bobby Wade said. ‘That’s probably one of the hardest things as a head coach to do, is to still find yourself in position where everybody’s going to respect you if you’ve got to discipline somebody or something like that.’

When wide receiver Troy Williamson spent extra time with family in South Carolina following his grandmother’s death, the team cited policy and withheld his paycheck from the Nov. 4 game against San Diego. That didn’t sit well in the locker room, and the eight-player veteran leadership committee chided the decision in their regular meeting with Childress.

Though they lost to the Packers 34-0 that Sunday, it was during that week, by most accounts, when the players got closer and the coach won points with his willingness to change his mind.

‘It’s not important to be right, but to get it right,’ Childress said then.

After playing briefly at Illinois, where he later coached, Childress graduated from Eastern Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Though he chose football over further study, he has always been fascinated by the human mind and has used his knowledge of personality traits and types to try to lead his team and work with players in effective ways. For the record, Childress himself is an I-S-T-J on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test as an introverted sensor, thinker and judger.

‘I always thought about shaving my head, growing a beard and having somebody lay on the couch, and saying, ‘Tell me about your mother,” Childress said in an interview in his office last week.

Positive self-talk is one of his pet concepts, something he preached often earlier in the season while the Vikings were bottoming out.

‘You’ve got certain things that you believe in, and the biggest thing is that you get the other guys to believe in that,’ Childress said. ‘Then you’re going to have to minister to them when they’re up and down, and you’re dealing with 53 completely different personalities that you’re trying to shape all into one.

‘Believe me, I wish I was more in-depth with those guys.’

Bears coach Lovie Smith is in a different spot in his fourth season. After compiling a 24-8 record over the last two years and taking his team to the Super Bowl last season, Smith is trying to squeeze a solid finish out of an injury-depleted squad that has fallen to 5-8 and is an ultra-long shot for the playoffs.

‘It’s been tough … but that’s how life is,’ he said. ‘Sometimes you have a great play call and a team blitzes and throws you out of it a little bit. You just have to deal with things as they come.’

FREE Pick:

I’m on the Vikings laying the -10.5

Good Luck,

Tommy Mac -

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