Last year, the Broncos, Lions and Rams all interviewed Frazier before electing to go with other candidates.  Among those teams, the Rams reportedly came closest to hiring Frazier.

Since the end of the regular season on Sunday, Frazier has already been contacted by at least two teams, the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks.

On Thursday, the Bills sent representatives to Minneapolis to interview Frazier, who otherwise is spending his time preparing for the Vikings’ playoff game a week from Sunday.  There’s been no word yet on how that interview went, but the Bills are believed to have Bill Cowher at the top of their wishlist, and may only be covering themselves by interviewing other candidates.

The Seahawks’ opening was created on Friday when they fired head coach Jim Mora.  The team’s interest in Frazier was announced within seconds of Mora’s dismissal, but Frazier just as quickly declined an invitation to be interviewed.

It has since come out that the Seahawks are hot for USC head coach Pete Carroll, a circumstance that likely signaled to Frazier that the Seahawks were not really interested in him, but only requested an interview in order to comply with minority hiring rules.  Hence his decision not to speak to them.

Given all the interest Frazier has garnered in recent years, legitimate or Rooney Rule-related, it seems inevitable that someone will snap him up as a head coach.  He is highly respected among his players and folks around the league, and is seen as a guy whose leadership skills make him an ideal candidate to move from coordinator to head man.

The Vikings, as we know, have a history of sending defensive coordinators on to successful head coaching careers.  Tony Dungy moved from the Dennis Green staff to ultimate Super Bowl glory with the Colts (after a little stint in Tampa), and in more recent years, Mike Tomlin went from running Brad Childress‘ defense to leading the Steelers to the promised land.

There are plenty of Viking fans who still haven’t forgiven the organization for keeping Green and letting Dungy go.  Almost as many are bitter that Tomlin was not elevated to head coach and Childress put out to pasture.

If Frazier leaves, a few will probably grumble that we allowed another top coaching talent to defect while holding on to a turd.

And, even worse, we will have to find another defensive coordinator.  We got lucky twice in a row with Tomlin and Frazier.  It seems it would be stretching that luck to ask for a third brilliant defensive mind to cross Chilly’s radar.

Well, there’s always Ted Cottrell.

Update: Someone must’ve convinced Leslie Frazier that Carroll-to-Seattle isn’t a done deal, because he has decided to interview with them after all.

Actually, that is an understatement.  The Jay Cutler the Bears thought they were getting was a Pro Bowl-level quarterback with some possible mental issues; the guy they’ve actually gotten is an interception machine who pouts during the game, makes idiot comments after the game and generally has Bears fans pining for the glory days of Rex Grossman.

To Cutler’s credit, he seems aware of how bad he’s stunk up the place.

“I haven’t played up to my expectations,” the quarterback admitted. “I think that’s the most important part. I can play better. I know that. It’s a process, though. I think everyone in the offense knows what we’re trying to get done. We’re dressing young guys. We’ve got some new guys and we’re still trying to gel a little bit. It’s going to come though.”

Note that, after pointing the finger at himself for not playing well, Cutler whips out a few convenient excuses, like “we’re dressing young guys” and “we’ve got some new guys.”  Cause great leaders always hang the blame on the rookies.

Clearly, the Cutler trade has been a fiasco for the Bears.  Instead of taking the next step by finally getting a “real quarterback”, the team has lost its identity and gone way backward.  Now Lovie Smith has to deal with rumors of Bill Cowher wanting to take his job.  I’m sure that will help him concentrate on getting fixed what needs to be fixed.

All I can say for disgruntled Bears fans is, just hope Detroit doesn’t beat the Packers on Turkey Day, and your team lose to the Vikings on Sunday.  Cause then you’ll only be one game ahead of the Lions.

As has always been our standard here, I can’t comment on any of those league mandated things so I really can’t shed any light.

And then he bitched about the story being leaked and took a shot at reporters, saying, “We’re not going to allow it to be a distraction. Any of it. It’s just unfortunate that, as [attorney] David Cornwell said, that somebody is able to put their thumbs on the scale of, you guys have to write about it, and just the fact you write about it, puts it in the court of public opinion. Whether it’s wrong or right, you’re writing about it.”

I don’t know what that remark about the thumb meant.  I do know that Childress is probably steamed at the Williams boys the same way he was steamed at Chris Kluwe and steamed at Tarvaris Jackson and steamed at everyone else who ever conspired to ruin his plans for proving his genius to everyone in the world.  Unfortunately, all that being steamed never seems to get through the thick skulls of the players, who continue doing everything they can to scuttle the season.  Pat and Kevin’s irresponsibility (I’ll assume they didn’t use the banned stuff on purpose) is just another example of what we’ve been seeing all throughout Childress’s tenure both on and off the field.  Guys not taking care of their stuff.  Guys not seeming to get it.  And Childress was supposed to be the guy to lay down the law after the laissez-faire Tice years.  No more dumb penalties, bad turnovers, horrible game management or other acts of wanton self-destruction.

The fact is that Childress has failed to change the culture – it’s still a loser team the same as it was under Tice.  The performance remains inconsistent and the off-field behavior sometimes unaccountable.  No, Childress shouldn’t be held directly responsible for the foolishness of these two players who are grown-ups and need to take care of their own stuff.  But this isn’t an isolated incident – we see the same crap all the time, stuff that makes you want to rip your hair out.  And when something seems such a general part of the team’s character…then yes, you can blame the coach – you should blame the coach.  And the owner and the front office.  They’re all guilty of gaffes (the Tapeh signing, the Foley hiring, the Troy Williamson Grandmagate fiasco, and on and on and on).  I don’t know what you do about it except clean house and bring in someone with a proven track-record who can command respect (Cowher, Billick).  I do know that, if the Vikes lose the Williamses for four games each, they can kiss any hope of a playoff run goodbye.  And Childress can probably kiss his job goodbye.  There won’t be a lot of people crying when he leaves.