The man who saved Brad Childress' job -- who at least temporarily swayed public opinion, helped the head coach reach his highest professional point and aided him in earning a rich contract extension -- is also the man who helped lead to Childress' ultimate downfall. That man, of course, is Brett Favre -- owner of a career-best passer rating last season when the Vikings came within a whisper (or an INT, or an extra man) of the Super Bowl and (so far) a career-worst rating this season, which has the Vikings at 3-7 and with an interim head coach after everything fell apart on the field and in the locker room. There's some irony in the person saving you ultimately being one of the people responsible for your demise. But it's seemingly nothing new for Favre -- a strong-willed gunslinger who prefers asking for forgiveness instead of permission.

See if this passage on Favre's old coach in Green Bay, Mike Sherman, sounds familiar: In 2000, Sherman became the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. He led the Packers to five consecutive winning seasons from 2000–04. From 2002–2004, he led the Packers to three consecutive NFC North Division titles. Despite receiving a contract extension earlier in the 2005 season, Sherman was fired by the Packers on January 2, 2006, after compiling a 4–12 record — Green Bay's first losing record since the 1991 season.

Eric Mangini went down with the Jets after the 2008 season -- Favre's one and only year there. Now Childress. All three of these coaches were flawed. All three were buoyed at a time by Favre's success (Sherman with all those division titles, Mangini with an 8-3 start in 2008 after a 4-12 year in 2007, Childress with the magic of 2009). In the stretches that played a major role in getting them fired (the entire 2005 season for Sherman, the final five games of 2008 for Mangini and the first 10 games of 2010 for Childress), Favre threw a total of 55 interceptions.

With the situation here being what it was, Childress had to go. Just know that No. 4 -- whether you consider it his last act of heroism because you disliked Childress just that much -- played a major role.