This is a great read that focuses on Les Frazier's approach and how the Vikings went from 3-13 to the strong start they've had this season. Right before I read it, I was listening to the Mike Ditka show on WMVP radio here in Chicago and they were talking about Frazier. Ditka speaks very highly of him and they were saying that even as a young player, Frazier was a very reserved, focused individual with genuine leadership qualities and the ability to inspire. One of the reasons I've had such an open mind about him is because I remember what he was like as a player and how throughly respected he is but those who played with him when he was a Bear. If this article is any indication, he's bringing some qualities to the Vikings that could eventually make them special.
If you want the best understanding of how misunderstood the Minnesota Vikings were entering the 2012 season, you don't have to look any further than one of their brightest stars.
In June, the buzz coming out of Winter Park centered around the possibility Percy Harvin would hold out. Inside the building, coach Leslie Frazier was leaning on him as a leader.
Imagine that.
"Our star players, they were walking with me," Frazier said this week, recounting the tumultuous rebuild of the post-Brett Favre Vikings. "Our key guys stood by me, and that gave me the confidence to keep bringing the message. And they carried the message to the locker room."
Reserve safety Andrew Sendejo was signed in late November, and told the coach after the season that he had expected a toxic atmosphere and was shocked by how focused the team was, long after it had been eliminated from contention. Special teams coach Mike Priefer told Frazier that the fight the team showed in December -- four of the team's final five games were decided by a touchdown or less -- reflected as good a job by a staff as he'd ever been a part of.
That's what I thought I saw last year: a team that played through to the end of each game, and to the end of the season. It was the deciding factor in my thinking that Frasier was going to be a good coach. Obviously, the jury isn't out, but these types of things are great to hear.
Good teams LONG-TERM are able to play through adversity like the Vikings have thus far. Though I have no idea how the rest of the regular season will play out, the Vikings are most definitely going in the right direction and have been going that way even through part of an awful last season.
SKOL
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." ~Thucydides
