We’ve said it time and again -- pro football coaches lie when lying suits their interests. Every once in a while, a football coach gets caught in a lie.
On Wednesday, Vikings coach Brad Childress met with the media for the first time since cutting receiver Randy Moss, and Childress essentially admitted that he lied to them on Monday about Moss’ status with the team.
Specifically, Childress met with the media on Monday at 12:30 p.m. CT, and he said nothing to suggest that Moss may be in trouble. Then, immediately after the press conference, Childress went to tell the team that Moss was out.
“As long as the right people are contacted in the right order, I think that’s important,” Childress said after being lectured (and we liked it) by one member of the media regarding the fact that he essentially lied to the fans. “Obviously it wouldn’t have served a purpose to come out here and tell you guys and have you go run with it before the dominoes start to go down,” Childress said.
Though it obviously was deceptive, Childress said, “It’s not an attempt to deceive.”
And it all easily could have been avoided. Move the meeting to before the press conference, or the press conference to after the meeting. But Childress, in our view, didn’t want to face the music when the news was fresh. So he gladly lied to the media on Monday, and how he’s hiding behind a chain-of-command-style excuse for not being honest.
Childress refused to get into any of the details regarding the decision to dump Moss, other than to say, “It didn’t work out.” The assembled reporters tried their best to get Childress to elaborate, with Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune at one point asking Childress how he was “duped, fooled, whatever” regarding Moss.
Childress was careful to point out the names of personnel decisions that have worked, explaining, “Some work out and some don’t work out. And some end up being short term and some end up being long term.
So what didn’t work out?
“I’m not gonna get into a lot of the particulars,” Childress said. “I’m not gonna do that. It’s done, it’s other with. . . . It’s a decision I had to make.”
Childress said he didn’t speak to Moss about the move, but that Childress made multiple phone calls and sent text messages in an effort to reach him. Eventually, V.P. of player personnel Rick Spielman spoke with Moss.
At one point, Childress called it “a programmatic non-fit.”
Plenty of fans likely believe that same term applies to Childress himself. And more and more fans in Minnesota soon could decide that the term also applies to the entire franchise.