With the not-so-shocking news today that the Minnesota Vikings fired head coach Brad Childress, we can only think back on that game just two short weeks ago when Childress was on the verge of losing his job before the Arizona Cardinals came to town.
The Vikings were picked by many preseason pundit prognosticators to dominate the NFC this year once news broke that Brett Favre was making yet another reluctant comeback to the sport that turns him on so much.
But when the team struggled to a 2-5 start, the foam fingers of blame started pointing at Childress, instead of that old guy under center who couldn't be bothered to show up in time for training camp, didn't have the sense to pull himself from games he had no business playing in, and got busted for allegedly sharing a bit too much of himself with Jenn Sterger.
In comes the Arizona Cardinals. A team who, at 3-4 in the worst division in football, was still very much in the hunt for the division title. A title which should, but doesn't, come with a picture of the winning team's helmet mounted on top of a trash heap.
Two bad teams facing off in a game that was rumored to hold the fate of embattled Vikings head coach, Brad Childress, in its disgusting and pitiful paws. Surely, if Minnesota lost to Arizona at home, Childresss would have been pillaged and sacked by the hordes of mad Vikings fans.
But in the kind of irony that only sports can provide, it was Brett Favre, with the last dying gasp of a once-great quarterback, who saved Childress with an improbable (against any other team) comeback victory. Favre led the Vikings on a 17-0 run that spanned the final four minutes of regulation plus one possession in overtime.
Childress was saved and the hardy Minnesotans snuggled soundly in their beds, secure in the fact that their season was on the rebound. It was to be a short-lived reprieve, but hopefully one that Childress used to get his affairs in order as they like to say when discussing those who have a lame duck hold on life.
Then came the next two games, losses against division rivals Chicago and those bastards from Green Bay. The masses could not be held back. The owner's anger over the bungled Randy Moss business was unleashed. Favre cried (or surely will at some point cry) on TV. The war axe of Viking rage has fallen and it is Childress who must now watch his bloody head roll across the gridiron of battle.
Even mild-mannered former Phoenix Suns bench player and native Minnesotan Matt Janning got in the mix with a tweet (since deleted) in which he called for Childress' head. Well, Matt, wherever you are back in Minnesota right now, you got your wish. Childress is gone and the once-hero coach of the Vikings has been hurled upon the huge scrap heap of NFL misery. Good luck, Vikings fans.