The Minnesota Vikings have fired head coach Brad Childress just 11 weeks into the season. Just one season after falling short of the Super Bowl by a few plays, the honeymoon ended in Minnesota
Childress and the Vikings have owned the Seahawks recently, even if the two teams aren't on each other's 2010 schedules. Just one year ago, the Vikings blew out the Seahawks in Minnesota, 35-9. It was a loss that helped send former head coach Jim Mora Jr. to the unemployment line, allowing the Seahawks to hire former USC head man Pete Carroll. At the time, it seemed like we were looking at two teams heading in different directions. Just a year later, the Seahawks top an admittedly weak NFC West and the Vikings are in a complete tail-spin.
Childress, if you'll remember, was head coach of the Vikings when Seattle lost prized left guard Steve Hutchinson. It was the work done by Childress, Minnesota's newly hired head coach, and the Minnesota front office that led to the infamous "poison pill" in Hutchinson's contract, a relative unknown loophole at the time. Since then, the Seahawks front office has seen a turnover of massive proportions, from the CEO all the way down to the head coach. It was a necessary ground-up rebuild for Seattle, as painful as it may be to admit.
Which would you rather have? An aging franchise quarterback and a team in turmoil, or a middling NFC West team -- that still tops the weak division -- with a young core of players in a rebuilding process? The Seahawks just may be in better shape than the Vikings, a franchise in serious turmoil.