Brad Childress, 51, is one of those adventurous guys who doesn’t want to reach the end of his life and lament a lot of things he wanted to do. The Vikings’ coach told Sports Headliners yesterday he will fly with the Navy’s Blue Angels in Duluth in July and thereby check off another item on his “bucket list.”
Childress said he started with about 50 items on his want-to-do list and has completed “32 or 33” including parachuting out of an airplane. Also on the list is a visit to the moon, if the trip is available and not too costly.
For now, however, Childress has most of his focus on the Vikings. “I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing,” he said.
The Vikings gave him his first NFL head coaching opportunity two years ago and he’s produced records of 6-10 and 8-8. While saying it’s always a “tough discussion” to define what fans’ expectations should be for the next season, he’s anticipating having “the best” of his three teams this fall.
That optimism is based on such factors, Childress said, of how the offensive and defensive lines have improved, plus added experience for younger players and the anticipation of upgrading the talent pool through off-season free agent acquisitions. The Vikings, of course, have the 17th pick in the first round of the April college draft and figure to improve even more.
Childress said he would “take darn near any position” with the 17th pick including a running pick. That was a way of stating he believes it’s a “mistake” to blindly draft for need, instead of using a value philosophy that says choose the best player available.