Maybe Brett Favre and Brad Childress Aren't as Close as We Thought

A game most of us thought would be a relative breeze for the Vikings turned into a foul, eye-burning gust, leaving us once again questioning our team’s fortitude and, even worse, fearing for the state-of-mind of our quarterback.

Yes ladies and germs, the schism talk is back.  And it’s here to stay.

This time, though, the schism is not between Brett Favre and his teammates, it’s between Favre and coach Brad Childress.  And this time no one can deny its reality.  Brett Favre himself made sure of that.

In comments following last night’s debacle, Favre let us know that he’s not only not on the same page as Chilly, he’s not even in the same book.

It was inevitable that Favre would have to say something, after everyone in the stadium, and watching on TV, saw him get into a contentious exchange with Childress on the sideline.  Indeed, the question was raised during the post-game presser, and Favre, in typical fashion, was perhaps more forthcoming than he should’ve been.

“Yeah, there was a heated discussion, I guess you would call it,” Favre admitted. “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.”

There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth:  Brad Childress tried to bench Brett Favre in the 3rd quarter with the Vikings ahead.  An idea Favre was not exactly keen on.

“We were up 7-6,” Favre continued.  “Yeah, it’s not 70-6, but we’re up 7-6. 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. We didn’t have time, I didn’t have time to sit there and say why or what. 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.”

As things turned out, the Vikings offense never did turn it around, and the defense took a 4th quarter nosedive even worse than the one that almost let the Ravens steal a game earlier this year, resulting in a humiliating 26-7 Panthers victory.

Such a loss always leads to big questions, especially with the team supposedly gearing up for a playoff run.  But the questions are going to come faster and more furiously than usual, now that we’ve gotten a glimpse of the tumultuous dynamic between Favre and Childress.

No Jared Allen, a schism isn’t an STD.