Souhan: Vikings need a crisis manager

This might shock those who have watched the team's decisionmakers walk face-first into the walls of a maze of their own construction this week, but it is nevertheless true:

The Vikings have good people working in public, media and community relations. Lots of them.

They have good people working in their front office, too.

That they have given the entire nation reason to think of them as insensate liars and child-abuse enablers speaks to a persistent problem in the organization.

The Vikings need to hire a team president with expertise in public relations and crisis management. Now. Before the next arrest or boat party leaves the Wilfs stammering through a news conference like robots with crossed wires.

There was a time when a visitor didn't feel comfortable around the team without a Kevlar vest. That's changed.

Even while facing the inevitable public embarrassments caused by the criminals who infest NFL rosters, the Vikings have made themselves a much more likable and professional organization in recent years.

On Monday, the Wilfs sent General Manager Rick Spielman to a podium in front of a purple banner bearing the Radisson logo.

Any cub reporter could have told them that reinstating Adrian Peterson days after news broke that he admitted to police to severely beating a 4-year-old child would scare off sponsors and offend fans. That it would bring political heat to an organization that begged for public funds for its stadium, and will want to receive maximum payment for stadium naming rights. That it would attract intense coverage from the national news media.

The Wilfs seemed oblivious to this. Who thought that Spielman saying that the organization considered the severe beating to be a case of a parent disciplining his child while standing in front of the word ''Radisson'' would be a good idea?

Spielman is a quality general manager, and he has given no indication that he's a bad guy. He just sounded like one on TV.

Spielman, like coach Mike Zimmer, is a nose-to-the-blocking-sled football guy. He has 40-yard-dash times cycling through his head. He is not trained to handle difficult questions about child abuse. He shouldn't be asked to.

Of the four, only Kevin Warren, the Vikings' vice president, sounded capable of speaking like an informed human untethered to a simplistic script.

Since 2000, the Vikings have had more players arrested than any other team in the NFL, and they are the only team ever to have to deal with a scandal named after a sitcom: ''The Love Boat.''

The Vikings should be experts in crisis management, yet they react as if they have never seen a cop or a minicam before.

It's time for the team to hire a team president who is an expert in crisis management. Who can gain the trust of the Wilfs, and of the local media. Who can gauge the reaction of sponsors and fans to proposed organizational decisions. Who can handle himself or herself on a stage, under pressure. Who can see past the next game.

That might be Warren, or someone like him. That might be executive director of communications Jeff Anderson, who has risen quickly through the organization and can speak honestly with the front office, players and reporters.

The Vikings need to hire that person before the next arrest.

So they'd better move fast.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays

at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. His Twitter name is

@SouhanStrib.