Vikings Insider: Reading riot act no longer big part of coach's playbook

Four years later, Ryan Longwell still has a clear memory of that Saturday night team meeting in Detroit. The Green Bay Packers were coming off a 48-27 Monday night loss to Tennessee and were 1-4.

Packers coach Mike Sherman, not known for his fiery speeches, got up in front of his team and cut open a vein.

"We had kind of taken a tough road to get to where we were, and he just came up and was so vulnerable talking about the first time he saw a lot of guys on the team," said Longwell, now in his third season as the Vikings kicker. "He just kind of went through the whole room.

"It was such a vulnerability that you could tell it wasn't a cue-card type of speech. You just kind of left that room with a sense of, 'Man, we've got to do this.' And the only people that think it can happen are in this room. It turned the season around."

Green Bay routed Detroit 38-10 the following day and won nine of its final 11 games to capture the NFC North. Having Brett Favre at quarterback didn't hurt, but Sherman's words became a rallying point for the remainder of the season.

Vikings coach Brad Childress hopes to have a similar influence on his players this weekend in New Orleans. The 2008 Vikings are one loss from falling into the same hole as the '04 Packers.

Childress said Friday he hasn't decided exactly what he will say -- "I'm close, I'm close" -- or if he will address the team today or wait until Monday.

Childress is an avid reader who enjoys the challenge of trying to find different ways to motivate, and he hasn't been afraid to look to other sources to inspire.

Before the Vikings' victory over Carolina two weeks ago, Childress recounted Russell Conwell's story "Acres of Diamonds," telling his players they didn't need to look outside the locker room when everything the team needed to win was in place.

"Guys will do anything not to think, so my thing is to make them think," Childress said. "Something that maybe hits home in its own kind of way. It's usually short and sweet and to the point."

The way the Vikings have played this season, one might expect Childress would want to get to the point with his voiced raised and some words that aren't fit for a family newspaper. He admits there was a time when he would have gone this route, but tries to avoid it now.

"These guys aren't going to react to ranting and raving and crying and slinging snot and that type of thing," he said. "They are professionals. If you can promote thought, that's the best thing. But it's generally up to them to get their minds in the right frame to be able to play the game."

Childress admits he is capable of losing his temper and has done it at times during his two-plus seasons in Minnesota. "There is a time to go to that card," he said. "It's like going to the whip on a horse." Asked if that time might be after a 1-4 start, Childress said: "It's on your feel on what it needs to occur. I always talk about the train that goes by. If you scream all the time, it's like that train you get used to that goes by the window. You sleep right through it."

So what Childress must decide now is how he wants to approach his team before Monday's game. One of his most effective speeches didn't come from a story or something he had heard, but rather from emotion.

The Vikings were coming off a 34-0 loss at Green Bay and had fallen to 3-6 last season, when Childress spoke to his players the night before their next game against Oakland. He challenged his players and told them no one should want to be remembered for the Green Bay performance.

The Vikings beat the Raiders the next day, starting a five-game winning streak.

Would Childress consider going back to that well?

"You never do anything bad speaking from the heart and people can tell that it's from the heart," he said. "Whether it's our players talking from the heart, me talking from the heart or another coach talking from the heart. ... You can't ever go wrong there."

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com