Jim Souhan: Vikings are having butt-slappin' good time

Want to coin an oxymoron? Try this: the Happy Football Player.

NFL players in particular often tend toward grumpiness, and for good reason. Their careers are short. Few of them get rich before the league looks for their replacement.

Many of them suffer injuries that plague them the rest of their lives. Only now is medical science discovering how common and debilitating concussions are among football players.

They spend each week studying films and slamming into their teammates, and on Sundays they become the fodder in the most violent mainstream sport since the Christians scrimmaged the lions.

Considering NFL locker rooms are filled with bruised and paranoid humans, it was never a surprise over the last couple of decades when reporters were greeted with unpleasantries, whether the team was winning or not. The atmosphere, most years, has ranged from edgy to intimidating.

That has changed this year. After games, the first face we see is Brett Favre's, and he's usually joking with teammates. During the week, the atmosphere is jocular, even silly, and it's not just winning that has caused the change. The 1998 Vikings went 15-1 and set a scoring record, but with Cris Carter, Randy Moss, John Randle and Jake Reed in the locker room, there weren't many lighthearted conversations.

"It's changed a lot in here since I got here in '06," said kicker Ryan Longwell. "This is a group that gets along and enjoys practicing and hanging out with each other, which is huge. Over the years, the good feeling in here has grown and grown, and now you've added some key personalities.

The arrival of the mullet-wearing, joke-cracking Jared Allen, and the increased credibility and flexibility of coach Brad Childress, also have created a loose, productive atmosphere. The biggest difference on the practice field and in the locker room, though, might be what players call "The Brett Favre Butt-Slap."

"You don't want to be known as a butt-slapper," offensive lineman Artis Hicks said. "But I think Brett is the biggest butt-slapper in the NFL And he's 40, so that hand has touched a lot of butts.

"He's a jokester, and it's needed. It's a long season and the day-in and day-out process of things gets boring at times. It's great to have a guy who can lighten things up."

Tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said Favre has been known to dump clods of dirt into his teammates' helmets when they're not looking. Favre usually shoots lower, though.

"Oh, he'll get you," defensive end Ray Edwards said. "You've got to watch yourself around him. He got me once, but I got him back. He got Pat Williams once, and Pat said it stung for two days.

When Childress arrived, the atmosphere was tense, at best. He was weeding out players he didn't like, running brutal practices, and taking a dictatorial tone while trying to establish himself as the man in charge. When you mentioned Childress in the locker room in '06, lots of eyes rolled.

Childress has become much more accessible to and reasonable with his players, and he's a part of the front-office group that brought in two oversized personalities who could have backfired -- Allen and Favre. That both have thrived while actually improving team chemistry has made the locker room a surprisingly cheerful place.

"He's been able to take guys like Jared who may have had some question marks elsewhere and look him in the eye and bring him in, and Jared's one of the best guys you'll ever meet," Longwell said. "Brad's confident in his ability to judge character, and that's huge in this business.

"Winning cures a lot of things, no doubt, but you need good guys to win and go down the stretch together. I've been on teams that have been supremely talented and haven't won, but when you have a good group of guys like this that can go on a winning streak and still want to work, that's a unique group. I think that's what we have here now. It's a lot of fun to come to work with these guys."