Leslie Frazier is expected to soon have the “interim” removed from his title, according to multiple media reports today.  The announcement that Frazier will become the Vikings 2011 head coach is speculated to come tomorrow or later this week, and it’s expected to receive applause from the players.

Wide receiver Greg Camarillo was asked late last week by Sports Headliners how a secret locker room ballot about Frazier would turn out.  “Everybody likes him,” Camarillo answered.  “Obviously personnel decisions, coaching decisions are made from up top.  But I don’t know a person in this locker room that wouldn’t want to play for coach Frazier. He’s definitely got the future as a head coach.”

Frazier was the Vikings defensive coordinator before taking over as the interim boss when head coach Brad Childress was fired following an embarrassing home game loss to the Packers, leaving the team with a 3-7 record, reports of a divisive locker room, and a long way from looking like a Super Bowl contender.  In the past Frazier was considered for head coaching jobs in the NFL but had always been rejected so the interim tag moved him closer to his career ambition.

“I think we all want him to get the job,” Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell said last week.  “Bigger than that we all want him to get a job.  We feel that he deserves to be a head coach in this league.  You hope it’s here but it’s not our decision to make.  We just know that he deserves to be a head coach.”

The Vikings were 3-3 under Frazier, including a 20-13 loss to the Lions today that left the Vikings with a 6-10 record and a last place finish in the NFC North.  The previous six games were impacted by difficult challenges including too many injuries to key personnel and weather driven decisions that impacted where and when games would be played.

“He’s had more curve balls thrown at him and he’s kept everybody going in the right direction…and going the same way,” Longwell said. “And not enough has been said about what an amazing job that has been, just keeping guys going in the right direction.  You name it.  We’ve seen it and then some this last month.  I think a lot of the credit of the direction of the team goes to him.”

Camarillo said Frazier respects the players and they’ve returned that respect to him.  Frazier’s calm, steady and positive approach has been well received by a veteran group that Camarillo said wouldn’t react favorably to a yelling and screaming leader.

“He sets a level of expectations and then puts it on the veterans to achieve those expectations,” Camarillo said.  “In the NFL you can yell and scream all you want, but we’re all professionals.”

What has Frazier meant to the team the last six weeks?  “A lot,” Camarillo said.  “He brought a new energy.  Kind of a new start to a season.  A new mentality.  After that rough first part of the season, we needed that to refocus and play the rest of the season as hard as we have, as dedicated as we have.”

In 2011 we may see what Frazier can do with 16 weeks.

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Heroes are remarkable and tragic. Brett Favre reminded us of that during his two-year stop with the Vikings.

Favre’s NFL career presumably ended today as he watched the Vikings and Lions from the sidelines.  At 41, with a body of hurts and a head vulnerable to concussions, it’s time to permanently camp out on the ranch in Mississippi.

Favre’s life has been filled with demons but those won’t be recounted here.  Years ago Mickey Mantle captured the nation’s adulation, and if not for his injuries and alcoholism he might have been the greatest baseball player of all-time.  In the new millennium Tiger Woods’ ride to golf immortality has been slowed by his own undoing.

The greatest of heroes are human, too, and flawed like everyone else.  But oh how their performances on the playing fields can leave us awestruck and inspired.

For a long time no one in this town had reason to believe Favre would play for the Vikings.  But he showed up here in 2009 and at age 40 had one of his greatest seasons ever.  His passer rating was a very impressive 107.2, his best since entering the NFL in 1991.  He threw 33 touchdown passes and a career low seven interceptions.  No. 4 had the best season ever by a Vikings quarterback.

Favre, playing the most important position on the field, transformed the Vikings into an elite NFL team.  He resolved a quarterback mess where the always available Tarvaris Jackson and newcomer Sage Rosenfels weren’t good enough to make the Vikings special.  The truth is Favre was not only better during the magical 2009 season than any Vikings quarterback past or present, he was superior to his All-Pro teammates including running back Adrian Peterson and defensive end Jared Allen.

It was more than having a great arm and someone who could locate his receiver options, from first to last.  It was like having a coach on the field.  Favre didn’t just out pass the opposition, he dissected them with his football IQ and his arm.

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It was not Favre’s fault the Vikings didn’t beat the Saints and go to the Super Bowl.  An almost unforgiveable sideline coaching snafu resulted in 12 players on the field and the Vikings lost the opportunity to set up a winning Ryan Longwell field goal.  Yup, Favre threw a careless interception after that but how many plays and how many games did the guy have to carry his offense and be perfect?

This season was flawed in so many ways.  Favre decided to play one more year but the season collapsed even before the Metrodome roof went down.  But give the guy credit for trying to make something special happen again for the Vikings by returning to the team and going about the task with a passion all of us could apply to our lives.

Favre loves to play football and his boyish enthusiasm can’t be lessened by gray hairs on his head and what seems like a million savage hits to his body.  Even this year Favre was ready to sprint half the length of the field to hug a teammate after a long pass completion.  And he was willing to throw that beat up old body at a tackler to block for Peterson, Percy Harvin or someone else.

Favre played behind a substandard pass blocking offensive line this season and except for Harvin his big play pass receiving options were limited.  Without injured prize wide receiver Sidney Rice, he might have mumbled more than once, “Can anyone here get open and then make a tough catch?”

Favre wasn’t the same player this season as in 2009 but he could have litigated for lack of support.  It wasn’t just the player personnel around him.  The coaching situation became a mess leading to a troubled locker room.

Favre put up with it all.  He took a physical beating and kept playing through injuries until the danger of a severe concussion finally sidelined him.  Favre didn’t want to go to the sidelines.  He never did but finally had to, ending his 297 consecutive starts streak.

Favre never wanted his career to end, but now it must.  In this town we’re fortunate he played long enough to take a curtain call here.

Thanks, Brett, for putting excitement back into watching Vikings football.

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