After watching his team collapse against division rival Green Bay at home yesterday, Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress has been dismissed from that position according to FOX Sports’ NFL Insider and MMA Trainer To The Stars Jay Glazer. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will take the reins for the last six games of the season.

After watching Brett Favre struggle under center for most of the season, the team’s acquisition of (and quasi-surreptitious dismissal of) Randy Moss from New England, and the team’s dismal 3-7 record (0-5 on the road), the writing was on the wall for Childress, who seemed to be on the hot seat since his very arrival to Minneapolis in 2006. Despite having won the NFC North for two consecutive seasons, Childress was never popular with the city or even his team.

This begs the question of whether or not Brett Favre will make his 295th consecutive regular-season start in DC against the Redskins on Sunday. Considering the change in coaching to Frazier and the possible future of the franchise in Tarvaris Jackson waiting in the wings, one would be advised to take Wesley Snipes’
advice and bet on black. But Snipes is in jail now. So there’s that.

ESPN is reporting Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress is leaning towards starting Tavaris Jackson on Sunday against the Patriots, thus ending Brett Favre’s streak of 291 consecutive games played. Favre has gone on record as saying he can go and has told friends that he doesn’t think Childress will let him play.

Asked if he thought he could play at New England, Favre said, “I wouldn’t put anything past me, to be honest with you.”

As everyone knows, Favre’s very public ankle problems started in last year’s NFC Championship game against the Saints. He even released photos of the bruises. Now he’s limping down city streets telling everyone who will listen about his new stress fractures.

“He’s been a little better every day,” Childress said Thursday. “Whether it’s good enough to play in an NFL football game remains to be seen. Just have to take it a day at a time.”

I’d classify him as a game time decision. I can’t imagine Favre sits and breaks the streak. Besides his records, what does he have left?

*He probably will.

Brett Favre told team officials last night that he will not play for the Minnesota Vikings in 2010, marking the first time since July 8 that LeBron James has not been the most hated man in sports. Various media outlets are reporting that Favre claims that his 40-year old body is the reason for his decision and I’m reporting that he’s going to change his mind 67 times before the season begins, the media will blow him, and then once the season starts the media will call him a drama queen. Call it a hunch.

ESPN is also reporting that Favre has been texting his Vikings teammates for the past week, and tomorrow they’ll report that he had Cheerios for breakfast and on Thursday that he pleasured himself to a Roxette CD. Favre’s agent had no comment on the announcement news, presumably because he’s had himself lobotomized to save himself from the pain of being Brett Favre’s agent.

Start the next month of aggravation, USA Today:

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Aaron Kyle Childress, 24, son of Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress, was booked for driving while intoxicated in St. Paul last week. It was his second DWI in eleven months.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI after a Feb. 8 arrest last year.

Second-degree DWI is a gross misdemeanor in Minnesota, punishable by up to one year of jail and a $3,000 fine. –ESPN

Add Childress to the pile of above-average head coaches whose children seem to find trouble with the law. Suck it up, Kyle. Your dad picked up Brett Favre at the airport! It’s time you finally learned your natural place in the world.

Brett Favre was almost benched yesterday after Vikings coach Brad Childress showed concerns about his throwing ability. Favre famously buckled down the stretch last season with the Jets, and so it seems that Childress saw enough evidence of a redux to reach for the hook on his 40-year-old quarterback.

“We were up 7-6 at the time. No secret, I was getting hit a little bit. I felt the pressure on a lot of plays. We had seven points. So I think everyone in the building was like, ‘They’re not moving the ball, they’re not getting points.’ Brad wanted to go in a different direction and I wanted to stay in the game.

“So I said, ‘I’m staying in the game, I’m playing.’ I don’t know if it was exactly to protect me, or we had seven points, I’m not sure. That’s his call. But we talked it out…My response was, we’ve got to win this ballgame and I want to stay in and do whatever I can. Now, unfortunately, I didn’t do that, but that was my intention.” –Star-Tribune, via Shutdown Corner.

Apparently, Favre also talked himself out of getting benched five weeks ago during a home win against Detroit. And really, Favre should play whenever he wants. Does Favre want to play strong safety? Ride Ragnar’s Harley? Sell game programs on the concourse? You can’t hold Brett Favre back. You just show him the field and set him free. Like those greyhound races. Now there’s an animal that can’t make up its mind.

Despite his refuted and often embarrassing recruiting efforts to bring Brett Favre into camp, Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress seems to be a rather discriminate dude in terms of his personnel. In Peter King’s report filed from Vikings training camp, Childress discusses the intensive character testing to which recent draft pick and noted pothead Percy Harvin was subjected [emphasis added]:

The troubled Harvin, obviously, got investigated thoroughly before he was drafted out of the University of Florida in April. When Brad Childress went to Gainesville the week before the draft to meet Harvin and spend a day with him, he said he wanted Harvin to pick him up and drive him around. “I wanted to be in his car, and I wanted to smell the car,” Childress said. You know, for the pot smell. via.

I just love that story: I’m sure Percy Harvin picking up Major Dad at the airport didn’t hurt his game with the Gainesville ladies at all. And what’s to stop Harvin from using somebody else’s car? Childress seems like one of those parents that would just barge into your room while you’re getting high. “Are you smoking pot? No? Okay, son, carry on. Boy, it sure it foggy in here.” Yes it is, coach. Yes, it is.