George Costanza and the Vikings

Remember when George's new religion became "The Opposite," and he acted against every instinct he had? Good times for everybody. And an important parallel to the sports world.

When a coach is fired and another coach is hired to replace him, often the new coach is hired because he displays the exact opposite characteristics of his predecessor. So far, Brad Childress is looking to be the precice opposite of Mike Tice: serious, professional, detail-oriented, experienced, expecting a hard-working, business-line attitude from the players--but also lacking clear personality, wit, or charisma. The Vikings underachieved under Tice--with Daunte and Randy, Tice could never win more than 9 games. Now Daunte and Randy are gone, and Childress will have to (and be expected to) overachieve. Some players will appreciate this change (Antoine Winfield in particular, I think); others won't. Most fans are going to appreciate this change: all we care about is winning. Most members of the local media are probably going to be tougher on Childress than they were on Tice. Tice gave them personality, access, quotes, insight, and stories. Childress doesn't seem likely to give them any of that. If Tice hadn't been such a likeable guy, the local media would have been crushing him for years (the evidence is that some people were claiming Tice deserved another year with the team after 4 years, no division titles, and one off-the-field debacle after another).

We'll see how this goes. The players who can't handle taking football seriously will be weeded out and replaced by guys who buy into Childress's system. Still, it all depends on Brad Johnson staying healthy and the team getting success out of the linebackers.