Tough times seemingly agree with Childress

It is a rare warm day in Eden Prairie. Vikings coach Brad Childress emerges from his office and escorts a visitor to the steps outside that oversee the practice fields, where players are working on passing drills.

The previous week, Childress had hosted his second annual "Coaching 101" clinic for local media, had sent out an e-mail filled with silly jokes and had agreed to chat about his changing persona.

One of the best lines in sportswriting history concerns a grumpy veteran ballplayer who turned gregarious just before retirement, being described as learning to say hello when he should have been learning to say goodbye.

Childress, conversely, is finding his voice just when you would have expected him to turn mute.

The Chiller is thawing.

Most high-profile coaches arrive eager and depart embittered. Childress seems to be moving in the opposite direction. He alienated just about everyone in Minnesota in his first year on the job; in his second season, even as much of the fan base seemed to turn on him, he became more human, more like the guy known to be popular in Philadelphia and among his peers.

"I think if you don't ever step back and self-assess, whether it's with your team or yourself, you're being delusional," Childress said. "I think you have to go through how you relate with players, coaches, administrators, the media. It's conscious, but at the same time, it's not uncomfortable.

Increasingly, the public is seeing that side. Childress has become more forthcoming, even at the risk of seeming almost too earnest.

During the clinic, he displayed a couple of motivational tapes. One, titled "Hunter to Hunted," showed a bunch of lion hunters being attacked by their prey. Before another, Childress asked whether it would be better to be a water buffalo, a crocodile or a lion. Then he showed a tape in which lions and then a crocodile attacked a small water buffalo, and finally an entire herd of water buffaloes returned to chase away the lions.

The apparent message: There is strength in teamwork. Although NFL rules prohibit outnumbering your opponents 200-to-5.

Do such aphorisms work on many professional athletes?

"I'd let you judge that," Childress said. "But it's interesting to me -- and you were sitting there -- that when [new receiver] Bernard Berrian came in and somebody referenced water buffaloes, he said, 'Oh, yeah. I've heard about that.' And he's never been in a team meeting with me.

Childress' three predecessors -- Jerry Burns, Denny Green and Mike Tice -- were distinctly different personalities who shared one trait: sensitivity to criticism.

Burns was an endearing personality when he wasn't profanely parrying with reporters. Green cloaked himself in nonsensical sayings and sometimes seemed to be operating from a subterranean bunker. Tice cut down on his accessibility as he progressed, and by the end of his tenure, the perception of him as a PR man lacking coaching credentials was backward.

Childress, strangely, has become more likable as the pressure on him has increased.

"You know, the first year here was really all about law and order," he said.

"When things change, change is uncomfortable -- for everybody."

Sitting outside his office, watching players work on passing drills, taking in the sun, Childress said: "I don't know if, after that first year, I could have said I was having fun. And it's true. You have to try to enjoy the experience, to stop and smell the roses and enjoy a day like this."