When the Vikings signed Brett Favre in August 2009, Adam Schefter of ESPN shoehorned into the football vernacular a new term.
Schism.
Fifteen months after the fact, the word has strong relevance to the Vikings, regarding the fate of its head coach.
But the situation is more complicated than some guys wanting Brad Childress to go and some guys wanting Childress to stay. As Ed Werder of ESPN explains it, some guys wanted Childress to be fired last week, some want him to be fired if the Vikings lose on Sunday, some want him to be fired if they win on Sunday.
Said one player, per Werder: “I think there was a great window of opportunity this week to make a change.”
Regardless of whether a poll of the purple people would result in enough votes to oust Childress, the situation has reached a crisis unlike anything the franchise has seen since the days of Les Steckel -- a situation that went so poorly Bud Grant came out of retirement for a year to stabilize the organization.
It remains to be seen what owner Zygi Wilf will do going forward. At this point, however, it will take a miracle akin to Childress walking on the waters of Lake Minnetonka for him to return in 2011.