Adrian Peterson, un sacrifice pour les Coach Gods?

Un excellent article publié ce matin sur le profootballtalk concernant la gestion de la récente blessure d'Adrian Peterson que pourrait faire Brad Childress pour sauver ses fesses... Je vous cutandpaste ledit article, pour les plus paresseux d'entre vous:

" COULD COACH'S DESIRE TO SAVE HIS JOB PUT A.P. AT RISK?

With Vikings rookie phenom Adrian Peterson shelved for the coming weekend due to a torn LCL in his right knee, the coaching staff now faces a difficult decision.

At 3-6 and fading, do they bring Peterson back after a couple of weeks off, or do they shut him down for the rest of the year?

One orthopedic specialist told Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Peterson's long-term interests are best served by taking the rest of the year off.

"It's not realistic," Dr. Johnny Benjamin, the chief of orthopedics at Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach, Fla, told Jensen. "Saying it's a Grade 2-plus [tear] is the doctors trying to give coach [Brad] Childress and all the Viking faithful some hope.

"But it's a torn ligament, and a torn ligament is going to take six weeks to heal. And that's for someone like a doctor or news writer, who doesn't go out there and make cuts like Adrian Peterson obviously does."

Though the fact that Dr. Benjamin allows himself to be called "Johnny" dilutes the message a bit in our eyes, the team with the horns on their helmets is indeed residing on the horns of a major dilemma.

With one of the most exciting young players that the NFL has ever seen, do they put him at risk in a string of meaningless games, or do they save him for an assault on the record books in 2008?

The only problem is that the guy who likely will be making the final decision in this regard has a clear conflict of interest.

For coach Brad Childress, a 4-12 or 5-11 finish might mean that he won't be in the picture come 2008. So why, then, would he care about the long-term consequences of putting Peterson at risk?

Dr. Johnny realizes this, as should anyone else with an ounce of common sense.

"If you're looking out for that young man's career, you'd shut him down," Benjamin said. "But if coach Childress is looking for his job security, then you're trying to figure out a way to get him back on the field."

Based on what we've seen of Childress, we think that he'll deem it appropriate to go to owner Zygi Wilf and try to use the situation as leverage to gain an assurance that the second-year coach will get a third year if Peterson is kept on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

If that happens, we think that Wilf should fire Childress on the spot.

The long-term interests of a professional football team and its brightest young star should not be chips in a game of poker aimed at extending the employment of one man. So while it's a reality that the potential absence of Peterson increases the possibility that Childress will be dumped, Childress needs to still make decisions not based on what's good for Brad Childress, but on what's good for the team and for Peterson. Even if Peterson is pleading with the coach to play.

Meanwhile, several readers who have voiced to us a desire to see Childress go fear that the three-year buyout requirement will keep Wilf from pulling the trigger. But if we're going to evaluate the impact of the termination from a financial standpoint, the buyout needs to be balanced against a projection of the decreased revenue that could come from keeping Childress beyond 2008 -- and the intangible consequences of potentially having multiple home games not available for local viewing.

As some Internet hack recently explained on SportingNews.com, there's already enough evidence to support a reasonable opinion that Childress is unfit for the job he now holds. Whether Peterson does or doesn't play another snap this year shouldn't matter. And that's why it will be important for Wilf to get personally involved in the question of whether the future of the franchise will unnecessarily be put at risk by its present (and potentially short-term) steward."

Intéressante polémique qui pourrait naître. Rappelons que des critiques à cet effet avaient été promulguéees à Herm Edwards dans son utilisation de LJ l'an dernier. Si nous étions démagogique, nous vous dirions "Wouia bin t'as vu quessé que ça donne cette année", mais nous ne le ferons pas.