Why the Names?

There's not a whole lot to say about Sunday's game against the Lion that hasn't already been said. Brad Johnson should not be starting. Jon Kitna (and the Lions) suck and because of that, the Vikings really should win this game, even if Chester Taylor is unable to play. If they lose, odds are the two Brads should be blamed. As bad as Brad Johnson has been playing, however, I think the Lions will somehow find a way to lose, just like they always do. The Vikings will win 24-13, and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Instead of discussing in depth the Vikings' chances against the Lions, I'm going to write about something that's been bothering me all season--Patrick Reusse and Jim Souhan's treatment of Brad Childress in their columns (and, I assume, in their radio and TV appearances). Now, it's one thing to be critical of a head coach's decisions and performance. It's a whole 'nother thing to constantly call him stupid nicknames and push for him to be fired because he doesn't pandor to the media. Think I'm joking? Did you read Patrick Reusse's latest "Beyond the Quotes" column?

It starts out with this quote from "Kevin K.":

"It's time to run the Little Major out of town. However, I'm thinking he deserves to be busted down to private -- as in the beloved Beetle Bailey character Private Zero."

And somehow, it goes down hill from there. He spends the rest of the column railing on the "arrogance" of the Vikings' approach to the media, placing the blame on Team Vice President Rob Brzezinski, whom he belittling refers to as "Big Brain Brez". And why does Reusse go after Brzezinski? Because he wanted to change the way the Vikings' dealt with the media. How dare he!

"Because Brzezinski had been frustrated for four years because of Tice's openness with the media and the public.

Big Brain Brez figured if the Vikings made a CIA-like commitment to secrecy it would be worth what ... two, three victories a season?"

As I mentioned, Reusse isn't the only one attempting to undermine Brad Childress with silly nicknames and poorly written columns. Jim "Shecky" Souhan has been in on it from the start. Of course, Souhan doesn't even have Reusse's creativity--his demeaning nickname for Childress is the mind blowingly original "Chili". He seems to have gotten in on the action prior to Reusse as well (maybe because he didn't waste time coming up with a better nickname), first refering to Childress as "Chili" in his Sept. 17 column. Reusse, it seems, didn't get in on the action until after the Packers' game (another reason why Reusse is a "better" columnist than Souhan). And now they're both committed to running Childress out of town, despite the improvements from the Tice era in the Vikings' accountability off the field, defense, staff (everyone seems to forget who hired Mike Tomlin) and general professionalism, all because they're fed up with Childress' treatment of the media. And they're doing it in the most juvenile, anonymous hack on an internet message board kind of way--with stupid nicknames and awful analysis.

And they wonder why intelligent Vikings' fans have turned to other sources to get their Vikings' fix.

[Make sure you stop by tomorrow morning for my guide to which teams to back this weekend]