Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Childress raids Reid's staff (sort of)

Eagles head coach Andy Reid told ex-offensive coordinator Brad Childress that the Eagles coaching staff was off-limits when Childress took the head coaching job with the Vikings last month, but that restriction apparently didn't extend to the Eagles' support staff.

Two Eagles assistants got promotions for joing Childress in Minnesota, where Childress has wiped out all vestiges of the Mike Tice era.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Today, Childress named Tom Kanavy as the strength and conditioning coach. Kanavy worked with Childress in Philadelphia, where he was the Eagles' assistant strength and conditioning coach.

But the real shocker to a lot of people who have been employed by the Vikings for many years was when Childress decided to replace trainer Chuck Barta, a very popular employee for 21 years. His replacement is Eagles' assistant trainer Eric Sugarman.

The Vikings have had only two trainers in their history: Fred Zamberletti, who is still on the payroll, and Barta. These two trainers have survived all past coaching changes.

But Childress, like a lot of other coaches who take over a football team, wanted his own people in key jobs.

"The trainer probably is involved more with the players than the coaches or anybody else," Childress said. "I wanted to hire my own person."