Vikings Hoping for a Fresh Start

The Minnesota Vikings still wear purple. At least that hasn’t changed.

With an entirely new coaching staff, redesigned uniforms, a renovated roster and new sod on the practice fields, the Vikings have undergone a striking overhaul during the last year.

“It is kind of like a fresh start,” said center Matt Birk, a four-time Pro Bowl pick who is back from a season-long absence caused by a series of injuries to his midsection.

It apparently wasn’t possible, though, to completely escape the stench left behind from last season. Twice since training camp began, new Coach Brad Childress has been forced to answer questions about off-the-field trouble involving his players, most notably receiver Koren Robinson’s charges of fleeing police and drunk driving.

Then, starting safety Dwight Smith was accused of indecent conduct with a woman last weekend in a stairwell outside a downtown Minneapolis nightclub.

“Just because you are here for six months or eight months, that culture does not change immediately,” Childress said. “But that is certainly the goal, and we are not going to stop trying to get that right.”

One of the reasons owner Zygi Wilf and his partners decided to fire Mike Tice was the litany of non-football problems that plagued the Vikings during his four-year tenure as coach. Arrests for assault. Scalped Super Bowl tickets. The Original Whizzinator. The “Love Boat” party.

Tice’s teams were just as unreliable on the field, and ultimately a 33-34 record with only one playoff win prompted his departure.

So while Childress has been charged with cleaning up Minnesota’s public image, one that was tarnished by lawbreaking and boorish behavior long before Tice was hired, he also is responsible for reestablishing the Vikings as a perennial postseason team -- let alone leading them to that elusive Super Bowl trophy.

Childress has not arrived quietly either. He let all of Tice’s assistants go, even getting rid of popular trainer Chuck Barta after 21 years in the organization. Eric Sugarman, the trainer when Childress was offensive coordinator in Philadelphia, was the replacement.

He let 15 free agents go, retaining only Robinson and backup safety Willie Offord. And Robinson, facing a possible season-long suspension for a third violation of the league’s substance abuse policy, was cut.

“Change is tough. It’s hard. There’s nothing easy about it. You don’t change for change’s sake, but you don’t stand pat because change is hard either,” said Childress, who has never been a head coach before.

“When there’s change, there’s people that are uncomfortable. This is not a comfortable business. It’s not all squishy. You just want people that kind of know what to expect.”

Much of Childress’ coaching philosophy was forged during his days with the Eagles, where he learned the version of the West Coast offense he has installed in Minnesota and also gained useful experience dealing with conflicts during the Terrell Owens saga.

In addition to stressing personal accountability on and off the field, Childress is a firm believer in a single voice and a flat line.

He’s wary of entrusting people to important positions who are prone to emotional highs and lows, part of the reason why Daunte Culpepper was traded during the offseason. He also wants everyone underneath him to speak the same language, whether it’s the offensive coordinator describing a pass coverage scenario to the quarterback or a linebacker discussing defensive strategy in a newspaper article.

“You can get mixed messages,” said Childress, who has followed the trend of many other NFL teams by cutting back on information provided to the media and reducing availability to reporters.

The Vikings went 9-7 last year, but there were several deficiencies that needed to be addressed -- resulting in a spree of spending on new players.

“I think we have the talent. I think we have the coaching staff that can put us in the right direction,” tight end Jermaine Wiggins said.

All-Pro guard Steve Hutchinson, running back Chester Taylor, kicker Ryan Longwell, fullback Tony Richardson, linebacker Ben Leber and most recently Smith were the notable additions.

Whether they’ll turn out to be the pieces Minnesota needs to make the playoffs again is anybody’s guess, but this much is clear: The Vikings are a totally different team than they were just two years ago.

A quick-strike offense that led the league in total yards in 2003 and excelled again in 2004 was led by Culpepper, receivers Randy Moss and Nate Burleson and running backs Michael Bennett and Onterrio Smith. All five of them are gone.

Brad Johnson, the steady, soon-to-be-38-year-old, is the quarterback of a low-risk, spread-it-around offense. On the other side, 34-year-old defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin has brought the Cover 2 zone scheme with him from Tampa Bay.

He’ll be banking on a frenzied pass rush by a defensive line that features three first-round draft picks and a defensive tackle, Pat Williams, coming off a career season. Smith and Pro Bowl safety Darren Sharper will be lurking behind cornerbacks Antoine Winfield and Fred Smoot, an experienced secondary that should help relieve pressure on a linebacking corps that has been a weakness for years in Minnesota.

“I think we could really catch a lot of people by surprise,” Smoot said. “They really don’t know what to expect from us.”