Scott Schmeltzer, Thanks for Listening

Brad Childress should be let go as coach of the Minnesota Vikings immediately and replaced by Leslie Frazier.

Coaches need to be the leader of their team. As a leader you are supposed to protect and deflect. You protect your players from any outsider who is trying to sway or throw your player off his or her game. You need to step up and make sure that no one on your team is either emotionally or mentally not ready to play their best game. The people you are protecting your players from range anywhere from the media to the other teams’ smack talking loudmouths. Deflecting is a bit different than protecting in that as a coach you need to make sure you are always keeping your players sharp by deflecting any questions or incidents that may shake them up and taking that on yourself. It may not be the coach’s fault, but it is one of the tools that a coach must have because it helps build confidence with your team that you, as their leader, will always have their backs and put the team ahead of anything else.

Where did Brad Childress fail this week you may ask? Coach Childress started with his downgrading of the on-field referees and stated to the media, “That’s the worst-officiated game I’ve seen,” and then stated, “That referee came over and apologized to me for not calling a hold on the scramble by (Packers quarterback Aaron) Rodgers. And I’ll tell you what, that’s his job. Protect the quarterback and look at the left tackle. Look at the left tackle hold his tail off.”

Coach Childress then attacked his own quarterback stating, “It still goes back to taking care of the football,” and “You can’t throw it to them. You’ve got to play within the confines of our system. Sometimes it’s OK to punt the football and you can’t give seven points going the other way. Not in a game like this. Not with a high-powered team.”

Coach Childress continued on about Brett Favre and one of his three interceptions with, “I’d have to look at that one to know where we’re going with the football because I believe the play was designed to go to the other side, and I think Percy’s standing there in big air.”

Now as we all know Sunday night was a matchup of two good football teams that have struggled with injuries and team cohesiveness. The Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers just have not lived up to the pre-season hype that had each team either going to the Super Bowl or at least on a deep playoff run.

What coach Childress did was not only throw his quarterback under the bus, and place the blame on Favre’s shoulders, but he also blamed the referees for the loss. That is not good deflecting or protecting.

Childress, if he were a good coach, should have shouldered the blame for the loss, stating something along the lines of, “Hey, guys, this loss can be put directly on my shoulders.” And follow it with, “I just did not have my team as prepared as I should have for a tough NFC battle.”

These two statements would both deflect and protect his team from further speculation of who we should blame. Good leaders know that deflection is a good tool, and that behind closed doors, you can work with your teams on the real breakdowns in either communication or strategy.

As far as blaming the referees, it is always good to just state that they are doing as good of a job as they can. The reason for this is you never want your players thinking that the game came down to one or two plays and decided by one or two calls. Not concentrating on the referees instead of what they can do better the next time they play is the direction you want your team to be focusing. Overall you want your team to be working hard at overcoming adversity and not settling for quick fix blame. Now do not get me wrong, there are ways to complain about unfair calls, but in the media is not one of them. Call the NFL office after the game and ask for a review. In all likelihood, it will be done anyway and you can avoid a large fine from the NFL as well as looking stupid in front of your team.

What does all of this mean? In a nutshell, it means that what Chilly did Sunday was to make sure that the Minnesota Vikings have a quarterback who is now at odds with its coach. It also means that the team can openly yell about the refs all year and not do what they are supposed to do, which is win games and compete for a title. Shame on you coach for doing this to your team.

I say right after the loss to the Patriots this weekend, the Vikings start to mend fences and name Leslie Frazier as the new coach and go into a new direction with a powerful offense leading the way. Do you agree?

Now you may not like this column, as I am an outsider in the Vikings world and a longtime Packer fan, but as someone who has many Vikings fans for friends, they know that I do speak the truth. Good luck with your new coach. I hope.

Tribune Publisher Scott Schmeltzer is a former high school football coach. His column appears weekly.