Pelissero: Change casts Vikings further into organizational limbo
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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Leslie Frazier told players not to dwell in the past. Zygi Wilf refused to discuss the future.
That left the Minnesota Vikings in the present on Monday afternoon, and Brad Childress or no Brad Childress, the present isn't a good place to be when you're 3-7.
The Vikings are in limbo as a team and an organization. Their playoff chances hang on the thinnest of mathematical threads, their definition of success reset from Super Bowl to showing a pulse against the mediocre Washington Redskins next weekend.
"There will be a lot of things written about the past," Frazier said after Wilf introduced him as interim coach for the rest of the season, "but the one thing I'm hoping that all of our players recognize is that we can only do what we can do going forward, and that means our focus and our attention has to be on the Washington Redskins. Period."
Frazier went so far as to call it "in some ways, a day of celebration for our team," because they can refocus their energy on the task at hand.
If he can sell that idea to this sorry bunch for six weeks, Frazier will deserve a medal on top of an offer to take the full-time gig.
Wilf wasn't talking about that on Monday, though. The Vikings' owner wasn't talking about much of anything during an uncomfortable, almost extraterrestrial address that featured a thank you to Childress for "re-establishing ourselves as a force in the NFL," non-answers to nine questions and a garbled prepared statement.
"It's often difficult to articulate one reason why change is needed," Wilf said. "But obviously want to know is important to create a strong positive and successful rest of the season."
Questions about the reason for the move, changes to the organization's flawed power structure, who controls the 53-man roster and the impact of Randy Moss' controversial release were evaded.
The only matters clarified were that Wilf and brother Mark fired Childress on Monday morning, Frazier was pulled away from a defensive meeting shortly thereafter, everyone said their goodbyes and everything else will be reevaluated at season's end.
In other words, Frazier now has the keys to this three-wheeled, brakeless Ferrari and orders to make it drive straight, or else.
Asked how he's going to get the most from a talented, expensive roster that hasn't played to expectations all season, Frazier said, "In our league as a professional player, both in my case having been one and now in a coaching role, you understand that every game you're being judged on performance and from a coaching standpoint it's really no different. So, the challenge our players have is to understand that other people around the league are taking a look at that tape and you owe it to your teammates and to your family to go out and play hard every single snap.
"It's my job, along with our assistant coaches, to get those guys to play hard every single snap, irregardless of record. And the last time I looked, we're not mathematically eliminated from anything. We have a lot to play for, these guys have a lot of pride and they want to win. They want to be successful and we have self-motivated guys, so I don't foresee guys not performing up to their potential."
Frazier has more riding on that belief than anyone, including the assistant coaches who know they could be joining Childress in the unemployment line soon.
Succeed, and Frazier will have shown -- albeit in a small window against rock-bottom expectations -- his leadership can stand up to extraordinarily adverse conditions.
Fail, and it'll be just one more confirmation that a franchise with no quarterback of the future, no football-minded head of operations, an aging roster, a slew of pending free agents and a crucial winter ahead in its stadium push needs to make far more radical changes than a desperate switch at the coaching post.
Jettisoning Childress at this late stage can't fix the past and it may not matter for the future either. Not if Frazier and company can't remove some sting from the Vikings' stunningly futile present.
