Posts tagged: adrian peterson

[NOTE: I know, I know, it isn't Monday.  But it is the day after a game and I didn't want to wait to post this.]

I design power lines for a living.

If a major storm was taking place and lines were on the ground and poles were falling over, it would be my job to do what I can to get as many lights back on as soon as possible.  That’s my job, no matter how bad things get.  That’s my job… unless my boss told me otherwise.

If you managed a pizza joint that was getting a reputation for having the worst pizza in town, you wouldn’t rectify the situation by using even worse ingredients and skimping on the portions.  Unless your boss tells you otherwise, it is your job to provide customers with the best pizza and the best service that you can.

I’ll be honest.  I consider a bad season a bad season, with no real difference between “kind of bad” and “really bad” and “really, really bad.”

This season has been bad, a term that you can weight as you want, and I can honestly say I was not happy to hear Adrian Peterson was going to be returning to the field after his high ankle sprain.  After all, he is the centerpiece of our offense and recently signed a $100 million contract, and the risk of a major injury clearly outweighed any potential reward for seeing him play out the lost 2011 season.

Yesterday Peterson reportedly tore is ACL and MCL and I am angry about it.  I am sad about it.  I am damned mad about it.

However, I don’t see how this is Leslie Frazier’s fault.

Frazier was hired to do one thing: coach a team that wins football games.

Unless his boss told him otherwise, Frazier’s duty as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings was and is to win as many games as possible.  That duty would normally entail putting his best team on the field every week and coaching them up to the best of his abilities.

I can’t blame anyone who was cheering for a Vikings victory on Saturday, and I can’t blame those that are mad about the fact that Peterson suffered such a serious injury in a meaningless game.

With all of that being said, I also cannot blame Frazier for doing his job to the best of his abilities and putting his star running back on the field.

For those of you that want to direct blame, I would suggest taking it up not with Frazier, but instead with his boss for not changing the job description of the head coaching position mid-season.