Childress Discusses Jackson-Houshmandzadeh Conversation

Brad Childress is down boring everyone to tears at the NFL owners’ meetings.  ESPN’s NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert is down there too, and it’s his unfortunate duty to report on the stuff Chilly and the rest of the blow-hards say.  Actually, this morning at least one semi-interesting topic was addressed by the otherwise tedious Chilly:  the infamous Tarvaris Jackson–T.J. Houshmandzadeh conversation.  According to reports, Housh spoke briefly to Jackson over the phone when he visited Winter Park last month, and came away from the brief chat with the impression that Jackson was the Vikings‘ starter.  And his next move was to get the hell out of town…clearly, not a ringing endorsement of Jackson’s skills.

A few questions cropped up in the wake of the first reports of this incident:  1) Did Jackson say something that made Housh choose Seattle over the Vikings or was it just the idea of Jackson being the starter; 2) Why did Housh not also speak to Sage Rosenfels over the phone, and; 3) What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?  Chilly addressed the first two questions as part of an hour-long (I’d rather die) Wednesday morning session.  Sadly, his answers don’t exactly clarify things:  according to Seifert, Childress admitted that Jackson may have been “groggy” during the conversation with Houshmandzadeh, because it was early in the morning.  What?  Childress also said that efforts were made to connect Housh with Sage Rosenfels but Sage was at a wedding in Florida and was only able to send a text.  Huh?

Can you say “Mickey Mouse operation?”

Childress went on to maintain that, in fact, Tarvaris has not been handed the starter’s job, no matter what T.J. Houshmandzadeh says:

"We are legitimately having a competition. Someone has to take the first step, the first snap. Tarvaris will probably do that. It doesn’t mean Sage won’t step up and earn it. I have to create a situation where both guys can be protected by the offensive line, get the benefit of play-calling with Adrian Peterson. I have to get them both in all situations. Is there a certain time for a decision to be made? In a perfect world, earlier than later, but then the question could be asked, “Did you really have a competition.” Typically it will be decided deep in training camp."

So Tarvaris isn’t the starter but he’s clearly the front-runner.  Well, that makes sense to the extent that he obviously knows the offense better than Sage.  He’s the incumbent, so I guess it’s only fair to give him first crack.  As for the rest of that stuff about the phones and the text…it’s just more Chillyspeak.  Who knows what actually happened.  There may have been naked mud-wrestling involved, for all we know.