Brad Childress gets fined for his comments about officials
Isn’t it fun watching Brad Childress throw a fit? It’s a fundamental part of football. The players throw the ball and each other around, the coach screams at them, at the other team, the other coach and everything else that is under the sun. It’s what they are expected to do. A calm coach is just not doing it right.
Minnesota Vikings' head coach, Brad Childress is everything but calm. He shouts with passion and nothing is sacred enough to be spared his diatribes. That does not at all please the National Football League. They don’t believe in heresy or blasphemy when it’s directed at them. So, they sharpened their pitchforks, lit their torches and went about telling Childress to shut up.
It all started after the Minnesota Vikings were defeated by the Green Bay Packers. The Packers had played an unquestionably better game in comparison. They won and that should have been that, except Childress is the Vikings’ coach. After the game, Childress was all but foaming at the mouth. He came out with some strong words against the Vikings veteran quarterback, Brett Favre.
The quarterback and the coach have a history of conflict. They don’t get along well and their disputes have often become matter of media record. When the 41 year old Favre first announced that he would continue another year with the Vikings, questions about their relationship with each other were asked. Both men shrugged them off as irrelevant and something that won’t affect them professionally. In retrospect, those statements seem to be hastily made.
After Vikings lost to the Pakers, Childress exploded in a fury. “You can't throw it to them, you've got to play within the confines of our system,” Childress said referring to Favre’s three interceptions. Two of those interceptions led to the touchdowns, the second of the two cost the Vikings the game. Childress had good reason to be furious and in his rage, he lashed out against the officials too.
In the second quarter of the game, a touchdown pass to Visanthe Shiancoe was reversed following a challenge from the Packers’ coach. Shiancoe had caught the ball inside the end zone and retained control of it as he fell to the ground. It appeared to be a touchdown at first but after analysing the play again, referee Scott Green ruled that the pass was incomplete. The official said that Shiancoe had used the ground to aid the catch. That’s debatable. On the surface of it, the catch looked legitimate but the referee ruled in favour of Packers.
That did not at all rest well with Childress. He insisted that it was a fair catch because according to the rules it does not matter if the ball is controlled by the hand or the forearm, as long as it is secured by the player. “That’s wrong. ... They said he didn’t control it and he controlled it,” Childress said. “The litmus is 50 drunks in a bar, those 50 drunks say that’s a catch.”
That wasn’t the only ruling he was unhappy about. In his post game statements, he also criticized a face mask penalty against right tackle, Phil Loadholt. Referring to the face mask penalty, Childress was unable to find the right words and instead went with “I mean, come on now. Come on.”
Childress wasn’t himself. Actually no, out of control, spontaneous and passionate is what best describes Brad but the league would have none of it. For his statements against the officials, the league levied a $35,000 dollars fine on the coach. Greg Aiello explained that public criticism of officiating was against the league’s long standing policy. The fine was also placed in part because Childress disclosed portions of a confidential conversation between himself and a game official.
Brad Childress is unfazed by the fine. He is unapologetic even if a bit more calm now. “My thing is, 'Hey, get it right. Just get it right.’”
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