Minnesota’s man

MANKATO, Minn. – Nearly 40 years after he coached his first game for the Minnesota Vikings, Bud Grant remains largely unchanged.

He still has that piercing steely gaze that was hardened during 17 years of coaching the “Purple People Eaters.”

He still avoids the public eye nearly at all costs, preferring the anonymity of his beloved hunting and fishing trips to reliving his past glories on the gridiron.

And he still is revered in Viking land as the man who presided over the franchise’s finest hours.

Grant is a consultant these days, and new coach Brad Childress is trying to instill some of Grant’s old school attitude into a team that has been in turmoil seemingly since Grant left coaching 21 years ago.

The conversations are almost always brief.

“Bud likes it that way,” said Childress, who has an office just down the hall from Grant at the team’s headquarters and appreciates the Hall of Famer’s humility and low-key demeanor.

“I’ve met him I don’t know how many times, seen him how many times,” Childress said. “He’s not there often. I say, ‘Hey Bud, how are you doing?’ I extend my hand and he says, ‘This is the last time I’m shaking your hand in this building – I’m not going to shake your hand every time I see you.’ He has a very dry sense of humor.”

When asked about his impressions of Childress, who is in his first season as a head coach at any level, Grant tenses up. He is the very antithesis of the modern ex-coach, who often winds up as an analyst on television firing pot shots at former colleagues.

Grant refuses to share his opinions publicly, always shying away from the limelight that so many ego-driven coaches crave.

“Coaches are confident in themselves and what they’re doing,” Grant huffs. “They don’t need my help.”

He describes his role with the team succinctly.

“I’m a consultant,” he said Saturday, on the 39th anniversary of his first game as Vikings coach, a 34-0 preseason victory over Philadelphia. “You don’t consult unless you’re consulted with.”

The only reason he was on the field on Saturday was to make a public appearance to help the Vikings’ effort to get a new stadium built.

“I’m a better coach than a PR guy,” he said.

Grant’s 168 wins are 67 more than the next best mark – Dennis Green. During a remarkable eight-year stretch from 1969-76, Grant’s Vikings went 87-24-1 with four Super Bowl appearances.

Those teams were known for a ferocious defense – headlined by Hall of Famers Alan Page and Carl Eller on that famed “Purple People Eater” defensive line – and a single-minded focus that was Grant’s calling card.

The team seemed to lose that discipline when Grant retired for good after the 1985 season. Suddenly Vikings were in the news for driving drunk, domestic abuse and drug use.

It all came to a head last year, when former coach Mike Tice was fined for scalping his Super Bowl tickets, Onterrio “the Whizzinator” Smith was suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and four Vikings were charged in a lurid boat party scandal.

Owner Zygi Wilf hired Childress to right the ship. The new coach has come in and restored order to a team that desperately needed it.

Where Tice was a players’ coach, Childress is definitely a graduate of Grant’s old school.

“It’s kind of like what your dad is,” tight end Jim Kleinsasser said. “Do it right, or suffer the consequences. That’s the way it is. Guys are going to take it upon themselves to get the job done for him.”