Little swamped today, but I thought I'd pass along a piece of what Mike Tice had to say for a story I'm doing on him for tomorrow's kill-a-tree.
I caught up with the former Vikings head coach and current Bears offensive line coach by phone this week. I jokingly asked Tice if he was grinning ear to ear now that his successor, Brad Childress, has been firmly planted on the proverbial coaching hot seat while a fertilizer storm swirls about him.
Tice didn't laugh or take the opportunity to slam the guy who got Tice's job five days after Tice was fired on Jan. 1, 2006. In one of my favorite lines, Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press wrote that Tice was sacked by a "pack of Wilves" in the locker room, moments after beating the Bears 34-10 to finish the season at 9-7.
Here's what Tice had to say about the embattled Childress:
"I don't know Brad very well, but I do know head coaches work their butts off trying to put together the right plan, the right group and the right mix. So I know how hard Brad's worked, and it's a shame that you have to have all the other distractions when you're trying to win a football game.
"But it happens to good people. You can't ask for a better guy than Wade Phillips, and he gets fired. You feel for those guys because you've been in that seat before. And, quite frankly, if you haven't been in that seat, you really don't know how they're feeling."
It sounded sincere, which I thought was a classy gesture on Tice's part.
I wonder how Tice would have fared if he had worked longer for Zygi Wilf. While Wilf has given his team everything it could possibly need to reach a Super Bowl, Tice spent most of his head coaching career here working for an owner (Red McCombs) that checked out when he discovered he couldn't get a new stadium.
