“Somebody with a down-the-road philosophy or vision for him will take him, and take him earlier than some people expect,” predicted the noted quarterback guru.

Gruden reserved special praise for Tebow’s attitude, saying, “Tim’s transition to more of a conventional NFL style has drawn a lot of questions from people, whether he can make the modifications in his passing delivery and adapt to playing under center…What I’m really impressed with is the way he sits on the edge of his chair and his work ethic and relentlessness to become great is really second to nobody.”

Added Gruden, “I think his commitment to what he believes in is real. It doesn’t waver.”

Unfortunately for Tebow, Gruden works at ESPN, not in the front office of some NFL team with a pick in the latter part of the first round.

The conventional wisdom is that Tebow, if he is taken, will go some place in the second round, and may never make it on the field as a quarterback (that’s what Jerry Jones thinks, at least).

However, in recent weeks, at least one man in a position to actually draft Tebow has praised him in terms nearly as glowing as Gruden’s.

“I just think he’s the ultimate competitor,” said this NFL head coach.

On another occasion, the same coach expressed confidence that Tebow will indeed be able to improve his oft-discussed slow delivery.

“Aaron Rodgers was a complete re-do in his throwing motion from Cal, where people didn’t like his stroke and how the ball came out,” he said. “And he’s doing fine. Can it be done? It can be done. It’s just a matter of if you as a coach and you as a coaching staff feel like you can fix it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It only takes one person to like him, and they’re going to do everything in their power to make it right.”

Whether this coach, known for his unorthodox headset and occasional cross-dressing tendencies, loves Tebow enough to actually pull the trigger come draft day…we’ll just have to wait and see.

1.  The disparity between the Vikings‘ offensive performance in the first half vs. the second half was stark and, I think, incredibly revealing.  Here’s the best way I can sum it up:  In the first half when we ran our little bunched-up running plays trying to establish our physical presence and all the rest of that Chilly stuff, we looked inept, and ended up falling behind 16-0.  In the second half when Chilly realized he was about to lose again and had no choice but to open up the offense and let Brett Favre operate, we scored 30 points and nearly wrested victory from the jaws of defeat.  Again, it seemed that Brad Childress‘ need to vindicate his own philosophy was more important to him than making the practical, game-dictated decisions necessary to win.  Yes, the adjustment was finally made in the second half, but the adjustment should’ve been made at the start of the game, coming off that debacle last week in Carolina.  Everything works better for this offense when Favre is made the focus.  The rhythm improves, which helps the blocking, and keeps the other guy’s defense off-balance, and even allows the running game to get rolling.  With any luck, Chilly will have learned from this game that he needs to come out in the first quarter in more 3- and 4-receiver sets and throw it to set up the run.  Unfortunately, I doubt he will make use of this new knowledge.  We will probably come out next week with our usual dumb-ass I-formation, two tight end, running-into-a-brick-wall approach, because Childress thinks he has the offensive line for a power running game when, clearly, he doesn’t.

2.  Childress’ need to put his stamp on the offense at all costs led to a somewhat amusing moment.  After Favre marched the team down the field in wide-open, defense-spreading, coverage-dissecting fashion, getting into a goal-to-go situation, Childress predictably ran the goal line package in, and Favre could be seen waving his arms at the sideline because he wanted to stay in the 3-receiver formation and keep the momentum rolling.  Clearly, Favre believes in the idea of continuing to do stuff that works, while Chilly the control-freak always wants to revert back to his pre-determined plan.  Favre feels the game and goes with what is effective; Chilly has no feel for the game and always sticks with his little maddening idea of the right way to do things, even if it’s actually the wrong way.

3.  The second half was like a game of whack-a-mole.  We get our offense to work…and now the defense can’t stop anyone!  We get our defense shored up a little bit…and now the kick coverage goes away and we keep giving them short fields to work on!  We finally learn how to tackle someone on a kick-off…and now our running back can’t hold onto the ball!  How frightening would this team be if every part worked at the same time?

4.  The worst part about those kick-off returns was, if you cover them and force Jay Cutler to work it all the way down the field and score, you increase the likelihood that he will make a bad throw, or one of his receivers will run a wrong route, or something will go wrong that leads to a turnover.  When you give him short fields and no pass rush, he plays like the Pro Bowler everyone thought he was.

5.  As bad as it was at halftime, it could’ve been worse.  The Bears didn’t fully capitalize on all the chances they had and that was part of why the Vikings were able to mount their second half rally.  The Bears also left a couple of relatively easy picks on the field.  I shudder to think what will happen if we end up going to Philadelphia to play a real team that won’t let us off the hook.  We’ll probably lose by 40.

6.  Adrian Peterson is a fumbler.  We have to live with it.  We wouldn’t be better off with Chester Taylor, who only gets holes to run through because when he comes in, the defense thinks it might be a pass and hesitates a half-second.  By the way, Adrian was facemasked on that fumble, but whatever.  He has to hold onto it.  There’s no other way to say it.  Thinking about it and talking about it have become incredibly old.

7.  Antoine Winfield should sit out the Giants game.  He’s not right.  Everyone knows it.  Benny Sapp is good enough out there, let him play instead.  Back on the turf, we’ll get our pass rush cranked up again, and Eli Manning will spend most of the game on his ass.  And we will need this game to get a first round bye.  Maybe if we get that bye, Winfield can rest the bad foot and be closer to 100% for whoever we play.

8.  Madieu Williams‘ missed tackle on Jay Cutler was perhaps the emblematic defensive play of the season for the Vikings.  What could sum up our flashes of ineptitude better than an allegedly hard-hitting safety failing to bring down a candy-ass quarterback in the open field?  Stuff like that can’t be excused.  It’s just bad football.  It’s just not knowing how to do what you’re supposed to do.  It’s just feeble.

9. Jasper Brinkley had kind of a bad game.  I’m still not convinced losing E.J. Henderson was the end of the world – it’s not like he was killing it every week before the injury – but the lack of a veteran to step in has hurt.  Maybe we should’ve called Napoleon Harris after all.

10.  I’m not as angry after this loss as I thought I would be, and I know why:  it’s because I think the game exposed Childress for the stooge he is, and I see the experience as revealing and perhaps even cathartic.  Brett Favre is certainly not going to submit himself to another year of this nonsense, which means he will be gone after our last game of this season.  That will leave Chilly to try and run his offense with Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels or some other loser who will just do whatever he says.  And it will fail miserably and the locker room will lose even more respect for him, and Zygi Wilf will be left with no choice but to buy out his contract prematurely and find a new coach.  Maybe Jon Gruden will be ready to come back out from the booth by then.  Or maybe Bill Belichick will desire a change of scenery.

Ah, the demonstrations.  Some of them have actually been amusing.  Others have been more-or-less pathetic.

The latest – Green Bay’s Minnesota Ave. being renamed Aaron Rodgers Drive – hovers somewhere between goofy and vaguely pitiful.

All have had one thing in common:  they make Packer fans look like a bunch of buffoons who don’t know how to move on from the past.

Of course most of this buffoonery is harmless, because the people perpetrating it are mere clueless hicks.  But then there’s the buffoonery perpetrated by the mayor of Green Bay, who ought to know better.

Now don’t get me wrong:  I have nothing against a government official having a good time with a sporting event.  Silly wagers between governors of states whose teams are squaring off in the Super Bowl?  Fine.

Barack Obama doing a goofy pick-the-NCAA-brackets segment for SportsCenter?  No prob.

But when the mayor of Green Bay goes so far as to ask Packer fans for suggestions on “clever” ways to make Brett Favre feel less-than-welcome when he returns to the village, and settles on encouraging residents to wear flip-flops in honor of Favre’s legendary indecisiveness?  That goes beyond good-natured fun and into the realm of genuine civic irresponsibility.

A sane community would denounce a mayor who behaved like that, and look for ways of removing him from office.  Legal ways at first, and then, barring that, illegal ways involving pitchforks and torches.

The community of Green Bay, being both insane and inebriated, is of course perfectly fine with its leader’s lameness.  They think the crap is hilarious.  The more cans of Miller they slam, the funnier it gets.

The rest of the world, however, sees through these allegedly harmless shenanigans to the all-too-harmful anger that lies behind them.  The sad thing for the Packer faithful is that this anger, in the end, hurts only them and the ones who are unfortunate enough to love them.

But there is hope.  There is a way to end the cycle of bitterness once-and-for all.  There is a means by which Packer fans can take back control of their lives, and rejoin the human race:

Just f***ing get over it already.

Yes, it’s that easy.  Just forget about Brett Favre and all he once meant to you.  Leave the past where it belongs – in the past.

After all, he is only a football player.  He is not a god.  He is not a demigod.  He is not even a Demi Moore.  He’s a guy who has thrown a bunch of touchdowns, won one Super Bowl, and made fans snicker with his tales of farting in the huddle.

He is only an obsession if you are Jon Gruden, John Madden, SportsCenter or a Packer fan with a hopeless case of nostalgic yearning for the late 1990s.  For the rest of us, he is just a guy who plays football, sometimes well, sometimes badly, sometimes only after agonizing for months over whether to retire.

You, crazed Favre-hating Packer fan, could be one of the fortunate many who have kept their sense of perspective throughout the Favre drama, and not allowed themselves to sink into alcohol-fueled crankiness.  And it doesn’t take a miracle to make it happen.  It just takes opening the door, walking outside, breathing the fresh air, puking out the poison and realizing that there’s a whole world out there, a whole great big beautiful planet that doesn’t give a rip about Favre, or the Packers, or football or sports or anything except flying around and eating and screwing.

Just think of yourself as the caterpillar creeping along the tree branch, waiting to weave its cocoon so it can begin its transformation into the beautiful butterfly.  Don’t you want to be a beautiful butterfly?  Wouldn’t you rather float across the world on delicate, multicolored wings than drag yourself across the dirt leaving a disgusting slime trail?

Of course you would.  We all would.  And some of us do, every day.  We let the wind carry us where it may.  And sometimes we give our purple wings a flap and fly to a higher plane, from which we may gaze down upon all the poor caterpillars with their slime trails and their six-packs of Bud and their Aaron Rodgers jerseys and their misspelled “Go to hell Brett” signs.

We feel for you.  We want you to be among us.  Not all of the time, because you’re really annoying and you smell like urine, but some of the time.  For a few minutes anyway.  As long as you don’t drink all our liquor and try to have sex with our dog.

What I’m trying to say, Packer fan, is that I care about you.  I don’t want you to spend your life wallowing in bitterness.  I don’t want you to remain trapped in the past forever.

I want you to take my hand and walk with me into the future.  The beautiful future, where Brett Favre leads the Vikings to the Super Bowl while the Packers sit at home with their 8-8 record wondering what the heck went wrong.

Don’t be afraid.  He’s only Brett Favre.  There’s no reason to reach for that bottle of cheap whiskey or start loading that shotgun.  He can’t hurt you.  Unless you break onto his property and he runs you over with his Toro.