Reports last year when Brad Childress signed his contract extension put his annual salary now at between $4-5 million. Let's say it's $4 million, for the sake of argument. He was just fined $35,000 for criticizing officials after Sunday's loss to the Packers (he called it "the worst officiated game" he'd ever seen, and frankly we thought he'd get hit a little harder in the wallet at around $50K). In relative terms, what is $35,000 to a man who reportedly makes about $4 million? It's a little less than one percent. Not quite a drop in the bucket -- if you made $50,000 a year and had to shell out $450 for something unexpected, you wouldn't be happy -- but he can afford it.
Now the question: What was behind it the tongue-lashing?
The simple answer is that it was a heat-of-the-moment response to a big loss with several calls that needed to be reviewed and one that was overturned incorrectly and cost the Vikings four points (the Shiancoe TD, in case you forgot).
Childress also could have been trying to rally the troops in an Us vs. the World posture -- firing them up to feel as though they deserve to be in a better position than the one they are in.
The more complex answer we were considering is that the critique of the officials, plus Childress' venture into Spygate territory yesterday, are attempts to deflect media attention away from Brett Favre and Randy Moss -- the former for obvious reasons, the latter because he's returning to face New England -- and onto himself. It would be strange for Childress to have taken direct shots at Favre's play in his post-game press conference, however, if this was the case.
When everything is taken into account, our strongest suspicion is that his $35K fine is a product of heat. But not just the heat of the moment -- the heat of everything going wrong. Aren't most of us prone to lashing out more when the walls are caving in? That's not to say we think Childress is on any kind of coaching hot seat. That would be very surprising based on what he's built up over the past few years.
But right now he sounds a little like a desperate man. It could be strategy. It could be raw emotion. Either way, we'll see where it gets him and the Vikings going forward.
