Childress getting little credit for Vikes' success

MINNEAPOLIS – It says something about a man that while staring at a balding dome, he chooses to grow a beard. It's like flipping off the follicle gods. Genetics may doom hair growth on top of his head, but nothing can stop him from covering the face.

Perhaps that's the reason Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress sports the look he does, a bolder version of his long-time mustache. Or it could be that he just doesn't care about what image he presents to the world. It's not like he appears to spend anytime at all on any facet of grooming or fashion.

In a profession where disheveled is the most popular look, Childress kind of takes it to the next level. Once the beard grew in, he looked like a guy who just returned from a two-week hunting trip.

Brad Childress is 1-1 coaching the Vikings in the playoffs.
(Elsa/Getty Images)

Childress' record

The Vikings have won the NFC North the past two seasons.

Source: NFL, Pro-football-reference.com

And people have noticed. There's a Brad's Beard website. His tendency to wear a hoodie has left some to claim he's gone Unabomber chic. Various Internet wise guys have suggested the Vikings mascot lose its handlebar mustache and go with the Brillo Pad salt and pepper look.

"He's a heck of a coach, and he's got a nice beard. I want to have a beard like that," Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh joked this season.

Harbaugh then added, "I'm not striving for the hair."

Childress is one of the final four coaches in the NFL playoffs. Yet as he takes his Vikings to New Orleans for Sunday's NFC championship game, perhaps no one takes him seriously.

His own players tease him. Outsiders say he doesn't even run the team. Other coaches crack about his appearance. Not only didn't he win NFL coach of the year this season, he didn't merit a single vote on a single ballot.

Has there ever been such a successful NFL coach who appears to command less respect than Childress?

He led a 12-4 team that won its second consecutive divisional championship and blew out the Dallas Cowboys 34-3. Yet he's been catcalled as the "chauffeur" for driving Brett Favre(notes) from the airport to the team's Eden Prairie compound himself. He had his authority picked apart in December when he was vetoed by Favre after trying to pull the quarterback during the loss to the Carolina Panthers. Worse was Childress' attempt to bench Favre in that game, leaving fans befuddled since the Vikings were actually leading at the time. And even worse, reports emerged that Favre had overruled Childress a couple other times during the season.

And if you think it can't get worse than that, don't forget this:

"Everybody in Minnesota knows that Brett Favre is running that organization," former Green Bay Packers safety LeRoy Butler told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "If I'm Percy Harvin(notes), and I have a question on a route or a play, I'm going right to Brett Favre. If I'm Adrian Peterson and I'm not getting the carries I want, I don't go to Childress or [offensive coordinator Darrell] Bevell, I go to Brett Favre. He's running the team."

Perhaps Butler didn't know what he was talking about but you didn't see a rush of Vikings coming to shoot the idea down. They too probably think Favre has outsized influence in the organization. Besides, what other coach would anyone even say that about?

Peyton Manning(notes) is the four-time MVP and an icon of all icons in Indianapolis. He plays for a first-year coach in Jim Caldwell. When he and other starters were ordered to the bench during two end-of-the-season games – finishing the Colts' chances at a perfect season – Manning dutifully did as he was ordered. The personalities of Favre and Manning are different, yet if no one ever suggests Peyton runs the Colts, then what does it say about Childress?

Maybe it all goes back to the bald and the beard. Or the slight build in this era of linebacker-sized coaches. Childress, for his part, doesn't seem to covet a reputation as an iron-fisted leader. The mere fact he gambled the season on Favre says he was all about winning. He was willing to risk, quite possibly, his job on the health of a 40-year-old question mark whose play had just helped get Eric Mangini run out of New York. If he sticks with Tarvaris Jackson(notes) and loses in the playoffs again, it isn't his fault; it's management's.

There's something endearing in all of this about Childress. Every coach says it's just about winning; that image and credit and legacy mean nothing. You don't wind up an NFL head coach without some measure of ego and ambition (you stay a college assistant). But perhaps as much as anyone in recent years, Childress is living the mantra.

He's clearly overmatched when it comes to public relations. His dust-ups with Favre this season were mismatches. The quarterback is effortless in winning news conferences. The coach never appears sure of anything. When the Vikings were briefly struggling, somehow much of the public sentiment was against Childress. Not for bringing Favre in, but not using him properly.

The thing is, the offense Favre is running has proven perfect for his current skill set. The quarterback has thrived in it, putting together one of the best statistical seasons of his career even as the expected running game has fallen apart around him. Does the coach get any credit for that?

Childress, 53, is a coaches' coach, his peers say. He's a strong football mind who toiled for 21 seasons as a college assistant. He then did eight more in the NFL, the final four as OC of the Philadelphia Eagles, before getting a chance. He paid his dues. He's the anti-Lane Kiffin.

"He's a fundamental football coach," said Harbaugh, who worked with Childress on the Eagles' staff. "He believes in good, sound fundamental football. You watch his team play, that's what he's all about."

He's all substance. A guy focused on philosophy and watching tape and creating strategies. The rest of the stuff, well … he lets his balding head and scraggy beard do the talking on that.